Today in Politics, Bulletin 220. 10/2/25

… Albanian PM Edi Rama had a good laugh with Azerbaijan President Aliyev and French President Macron about Trump repeatedly claiming that he ended the war between their two countries when were never at war with each other. Rama walked up to Macron as he was talking to Aliyev and said: “You should make an apology to us because you didn’t congratulate us on the peace deal that President Trump made between our countries.”

… They started laughing and Macron replied: “Yeah, I am sorry for that.”

… Rep. Madeline Dean (D-PA) confronted Speaker Mike Johnson in the hallway of Congress. Dean: “The president is unhinged. He is unwell. Johnson: A lot of folks on your side are too. Dean: Oh my god, please! That performance in front of the generals? Johnson: I didn’t see it. Dean: It’s so dangerous! Our allies are looking elsewhere. Our enemies are laughing. You have a president who is unwell.”

… Trump basically admitted today that Project 2025 was the blueprint for his admin all along: “I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent. I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity.”

… Trump’s post on July 24, 2024, when Project 2025 was wildly unpopular in the polls and hurting his campaign: “I have nothing to do with, and know nothing about, Project 2025. The fact that I do is merely disinformation put out by Radical Left Democrat Thugs. Don’t believe them!”

… Trump and Vought are seizing on the govt shutdown as an opportunity to launch an even more draconian version of DOGE 2.0. He posted this morning: “Republicans must use this opportunity of Democrat forced closure to clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud. Billions of Dollars can be saved.”

… Trump on OAN: “There could be firings, and that’s their fault, and there could also be other things. We could cut projects that they wanted, favorite projects, and they’d be permanently cut. A lot of people are saying I wanted this. And I didn’t want it. But a lot of people are saying it because I’m allowed to cut things that should have never been approved in the first place and I will probably do that.”

… Trump: “A lot of good can come from shutdowns. We get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want. And they’d be Democrat things.”

… Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA): “‘Democrat things’ — universal healthcare, affordable childcare, accessible education, clean energy, and economic opportunity. ‘Republican things’ — tax cuts for billionaires, handouts for big business, subsidies for dirty drillers, and a free pass for corporate abuse and corruption. Which do you prefer?”

… Vought posted: “Nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled. More info to come from ENERGY . The projects are in the following states: CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA.”

… CNN’s Aaron Blake: “These are, of course, blue states. But I just did a check: Of 39 House districts rated ‘toss-up’ or ‘lean’ by Cook Political, 41% are located in these blue states.”

… Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA): “Many of the vulnerable Republican Congress Members are not in red states. The voters in these swing districts will know their Republican representative is afraid to oppose the illegal infrastructure cuts by the Trump Admin. We will have a blue tsunami in the midterms.”

… Gavin Newsom: “Reminder, 20% of all investment from the IRA and CHIPS Act went to Texas … yet, not on the list. We’re sure it was just an oversight and not politically motivated retribution.”

… Vought: “Roughly $18 billion in NYC infrastructure projects have been put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles. Specifically, the Hudson Tunnel Project and the Second Ave Subway.”

… Mikie Sherrill seized on the move by Vought just a month out from her election for NJ governor: “Here we have the president saying he’s going to freeze the money to construct the gateway tunnel. This means almost 100,000 jobs to the region. It’s $12 billion that we got denoted to this and Jack Ciattarelli literally has once again sat by and said nothing to Trump about attacking the economy of NJ.”

… NYT: “Hours after Russ Vought pledged to revoke some climate-related funding, the Energy Department offered scant details about its cuts. The agency said it had terminated 321 awards for more than 223 projects, claiming the investments did not ‘advance the nation’s energy needs’ and were not ‘economically viable.’”

… “Soon after govt funding lapsed, the Trump admin suspended all news broadcasts from Voice of America and furloughed all of its journalists, a break with past practice in funding lapses. The closure came two days after a judge reinstated about 500 of the broadcaster’s employees.”

… Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA): “Trump and Vought are gleefully using the shutdown they have caused as a pretext to inflict even more pain. The American people deserve so much better than a president and an admin that treat their families and their livelihoods like pawns in some sort of sick political game.”

… Mike Johnson: “Russ does this reluctantly. He takes no pleasure in this. Because Russ has to sit down and decide which policies, personnel, and which programs are essential and which are not. That’s not a fun task and he’s not enjoying that responsibility.”

… Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) seemed to disagree with Johnson’s assessment of the situation: “Russ Vought has been dreaming about this moment since puberty.”

… Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) is concerned that Vought is going to hurt Republicans politically the way he is handling the shutdown. To Semafor: “Russ is less politically in tune than the president. We, as Republicans, have never had so much moral high ground on a govt funding bill in our lives. I just don’t see why we would squander it, which I think is the risk of being aggressive with executive power in this moment”

… Sen. Tom Tillis (R-NC) warned that targeting projects in blue states “can create a toxic environment here.”

… Sen. Jim Justice (R-WV): “I wouldn’t just go off the deep end thinking OMB’s just going to slash, slash, slash. If this thing corrects itself in a very reasonable short of time, we’ll step back and make a more moderate approach.”

… MD Gov Wes Moore on MSNBC: “Trump has been shutting down the federal govt since he’s been in office. Trump has now fired over 15,000 federal workers in the state of Maryland. I don’t think he has an interest in ending the govt shutdown.”

… Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) on CNN: “Things are already really expensive. Everyday Americans are paying more for cars, housing, and food, and now Republicans—led by Donald Trump—are increasing insurance premiums on 24 million Americans by over 50%.”

… Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA) on CNN: “ Insurance companies are sending out letters to people literally today saying premiums are gonna go up because of what the Trump admin and Republicans in Congress have done. We’re going to see irreversible damage to healthcare in this country.”

… House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries: “In that Oval Office meeting, which lasted over an hour, the amount of time spent talking about health insurance for undocumented immigrants was less than 10 seconds. You know why? Because they know it’s a lie. They didn’t even bother to bring it up—because the cameras weren’t rolling. But then they go out to their press conferences, where we can’t fact-check them in real time, and keep trying to spout that lie. The American people aren’t buying it.”

… WaPo shutdown poll: 71% want ACA tax credits extended. 47% blame Trump and Republicans for shutdown, 30% blame Democrats, 23% aren’t sure.

… SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler on Fox: “This admin is unbelievable, my fellow cabinet members are doing a great job, and that’s exactly why the Democrats want to shut it down. They don’t like the success that the American dream is delivering for all Americans.”

… NBC: “Dept of Education employees furloughed this week discovered their email accounts had been manipulated while they were out of office to include partisan talking points that blamed a govt shutdown on Democrats. Five employees who spoke with NBC News and provided copies of their out-of-office messages said the wording was altered from how they originally had composed them. All of them are civil servants, not political appointees.”

… One employee: “None of us consented to this. And it’s written in the first-person, as if I’m the one conveying this message, and I’m not. I don’t agree with it. I don’t think it’s ethical or legal. I think it violates the Hatch Act.”

… Another employee: “I took the statement that they sent us earlier in the week to use. And I pasted it on top of that — basically has a standard out-of-office. They went in and manipulated my out-of-office reply. I guess they’re now making us all guilty of violating the Hatch Act.”

… WSJ: “The US shed 32,000 private-sector jobs in Sept, payroll-processing giant ADP said. That is down from a revised loss of 3,000 in Aug. Economists polled by WSJ had expected an increase of 45,000. ADP’s report doesn’t include govt workers, but economists are giving it a closer look this month. That is because the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly jobs report, which was scheduled to come out this Friday, will be delayed if the govt is still shut down.”

… Former Jeffrey Epstein acquaintance Howard Lutnick said a lot of the quiet parts out loud in an appearance on NY Post reporter Miranda Devine’s podcast. He said Epstein showed him his “massage room” while giving Lutnick a tour of his NYC townhouse in 2005: “I say to him, ‘Massage table in the middle of your house? How often do you have a massage?’ And he says, ‘Every day.’ And then he gets, like weirdly close to me, and he says, ‘And the right kind of massage.’”

… “They get a massage, that’s what his MO was. ‘Get a massage, get a massage,’ and what happened in that massage room, I assume, was on video. This guy was the greatest blackmailer ever, blackmailed people. That’s how he had money.”

… “I assume way back when they traded those videos in exchange for him getting that 18-month sentence, which allowed him to have visits and be out of jail. I mean, he’s a serial sex offender. How could he get 18 months and be able to go to his office during the day and have visitors and stuff? There must have been a trade. So, my assumption, I have no knowledge, but my assumption is there was a trade for the videos, because there were people on those videos.”

… WSJ’s Josh Dawsey: “A lot of people around the president shaking their heads about this Howard Lutnick interview. They are amazed he said all of it after months of the admin saying … not that.”

… Oversight ranking member Robert Garcia on CNN: “The Oversight Committee must hear from Secretary Lutnick. His claims are explosive. Oversight Democrats won’t stop this investigation until we get to the bottom of what members of the Trump admin know about Epstein and his crimes.”

… Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) on MSNBC: “It is not lost on anyone that shutting the govt down allows them not to swear in our new colleague Adelita Grijalva who would be the 218th signature to discharge the Epstein files. So it’s convenient for them to shut the govt down.”

… “The surprise job loss in Sept is the latest sign that the labor market is weakening. Job growth has slowed to a trickle this year even as the unemployment rate has held mostly steady. The Federal Reserve last month lowered short-term interest rates by a quarter percentage point and signaled more cuts are likely, citing weak hiring. The leisure and hospitality sector shed 19,000 jobs last month, the largest decline among major sectors.”

… MarketWatch: “The hiring rate among private-sector businesses fell again in Aug to 3.5%, matching a 5-year low. The slowdown in hiring is glaring in the most recent US employment reports. The economy added an average of just 25,000 new jobs a month from May through Aug, marking the weakest 4-month stretch since 2010, ignoring the COVID-19 era. Not only that, but employment actually fell in June for the first time since 2020.”

… “As a result, the number of people collecting unemployment benefits has climbed to almost 2 million. They are higher now than they were just before the pandemic started in early 2020. Just a few years ago, record numbers of Americans were job hopping for better work and better pay. Now that work is harder to find, the number of job quitters has fallen to a post-pandemic low.”

… Trump to farmers he put out of business: “The Soybean Farmers of our Country are being hurt because China is, for ‘negotiating’ reasons only, not buying. We’ve made so much money on Tariffs, that we are going to take a small portion of that money, and help our Farmers. I WILL NEVER LET OUR FARMERS DOWN! It’s all going to work out very well. I LOVE OUR PATRIOTS, AND EVERY FARMER IS EXACTLY THAT! I’ll be meeting with President Xi, of China, in 4 weeks, and Soybeans will be a major topic of discussion.”

… Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on CNBC: “It’s unfortunate that Chinese leadership has decided to use American soybean farmers as a hostage or pawn in the trade negotiations. American farmers overwhelmingly voted for President Trump. You should expect news on Tues on substantial support for our farmers.”

… Economist Justin Wolfers: “It is also unfortunate that WH leadership has decided to use American consumers as a hostage or pawn in the trade negotiations. American consumers also voted for Trump (not sure why that’s relevant). When are we getting substantial support for our consumers?”

… So the only people who get govt welfare because they lost money from Trump’s tariffs are people who used to sell soybeans to the Chinese because they overwhelmingly voted for Trump, but no other businesses or people get any relief.

… Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins: “The president has been extremely forward leaning and aggressive in casting this new vision for America, getting our great American products out across the world. A piece of that includes this bridge to ensure that those who make the food and the fuel and clothe America will be supported while we’re in this time of moving to the next round of the America economy, which will be a golden age for America.”

… Christian Broadcasting Network host David Brody weighed in on Trump’s deal with Qatar: “Sorry if I don’t understand ‘Ten dimensional geopolitical chess’ (sarcasm) but shedding AMERICAN BLOOD in defense of Qatar is a HARD NO. This ain’t America First. Not by a long shot. Establishing a working relationship with Qatar is one thing. I get that (to a degree) but this is a whole other level. This makes the gifted Qatari plane look like small potatoes. MAGA should be infuriated by this move.”

… Fox host Mark Levin responded to Brody: “Amen.”

… MAGA activist and Trump advisor Laura Loomer: “The GOP is in a lot of trouble ahead of 2026. The party has really crumbled into a dozen factions and the people with the largest platforms aren’t even focused on races in key states. I believe this is all by design to sabotage President Trump. Distract the right while the Left takes over. Such a coordinated pysop.”

Probably a lot of shutdown news in the Bulletin until it is over unfortunately. I will, of course, keep track of everything else that is going on but that will likely be the dominant story. It looks like Russ Vought is about to launch his Reign of Terror on the federal bureaucracy while Stephen Miller continues with his on American cities and Venezuelan fishing boats.

… Kristi Noem’s special friend Corey Lewandowski on Russian asset Benny Johnson’s podcast: “ICE will have enforcement at the Super Bowl. There is nowhere you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally. Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else. We will find you and apprehend you and put you in a detention facility and deport you. Know that is a very real situation under this admin, which is contrary to how it used to be.”

… On halftime performer Bad Bunny: “It’s so shameful they’ve decided to pick somebody who seems to hate America so much to represent them at the Halftime Show. We should be trying to be inclusive, not exclusive. There are plenty of great bands and entertainment people who could be playing at that show that would be