Today in Politics, Bulletin 230. 10/16/25

… Republicans continue to melt down over No Kings. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Fox: “Follow the money. Cut off the money. You look at this No Kings rally—there’s considerable evidence that George Soros and his network is behind funding these rallies which may well turn into riots. I’ve introduced legislation that would allow DOJ to use RICO to prosecute the money that is funding these No Kings protests.”

… Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent worked for Soros for 24 years. Soros literally funded Bessent.

… Fox host Sean Hannity: “I want to give some unsolicited advice. They are going to have these No Kings rallies. To me, it has all the feel of the environment of 2020 – the mostly peaceful BLM riots. I would advise people to find out if there is a rally near you and stay away.”

… Mike Johnson on CNBC: “I think it has a lot to do with the ‘Hate America Rally’ that’s gonna be on the Mall on Saturday. You’re gonna have all the Antifa and BLM and pro-Hamas people, all the Marxists will be on the Mall.”

… Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI): “They’re gearing up for their ‘I Hate America Rally’ this weekend - a rally where they will cheer for chaos instead of country.”

… Karoline Leavitt: “The Democrat Party’s main constituency is made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals.”

… Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT): “This is grossly dark. These are broken people. But it’s also so politically dumb. How do they think Americans will react to being told that anyone who doesn’t support Trump is a terrorist?”

… MN Gov. Tim Walz: “Most Republicans are good people. Most Democrats are good people. The WH says outrageous things to make you hate your neighbor. Your neighbor isn’t the problem. The White House is.”

… Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) to Meidas: “These guys are trying to create a pretext for the deployment of the military against American citizens. And part of how they’re trying to do that is by labeling them terrorists—by labeling them as committing crimes and using words that they know would give them some sort of pretext to deploy troops against Americans. It’s really important that as people step out and exercise their free speech and their rights to assemble and march this week. Do not be scared—these people are trying to scare you.”

… MSNBC Kyle Griffin: “Hillary Clinton was lambasted for years for the phrase ‘basket of deplorables.’”

… Jemele Hill: “At least she didn’t call Democrats deplorables because it would lead to endless news stories about it for months and used as evidence that she is unfit to do her job.”

… Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY): “The notion that the No Kings rallies are anything but a patriotic act consistent with the 1st Amendment right to express yourself and petition the government for change in policy continues to reveal that Republicans are clueless as it relates to the Constitution, or they continue to lie for political reasons.”

… AOC on House Republican leadership referring to No Kings as ‘Hate America’ rallies: “If I, as a Democrat, disagree with you as a Republican, I’m not going to question your allegiance to this country. And I believe that when we devolve into that, that is when we are actually stoking division—when we call those who disagree with us un-American—that is what is un-American.”

… No Kings organizer Ezra Levin was asked by HuffPost why rhetoric from Republicans has gotten so hysterical about the rallies: “I don’t think it’s that complicated. The one thing an unpopular authoritarian regime is scared of is mass, organized, peaceful people-power. That is it. I have to laugh at how ridiculous this is. But I appreciate the speaker for giving the ‘No Kings’ rallies free publicity.”

… Professor Stanislav Vysotsky, an expert on fascism: “Yes, this is classic authoritarianism. It’s an intentional framing of the opposition as violent and dangerous in order to dehumanize them, which then justifies a violent crackdown. Authoritarians routinely paint their opposition as a menacing existential threat to peace and safety for just that reason.”

… “Levin recalled that he and other organizers closed out their flagship No Kings event in Philadelphia in June by leading 100,000 people in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance while waving American flags: ‘It’s funny how much Johnson is scared of this imagery.’”

… After claiming he negotiated everlasting peace in the Middle East last week, Trump posted this today: “If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them.”

… After saying last week that he was leaning towards giving Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, Trump changed his mind today after a two-hour call with Putin: “I did actually say would you mind if I gave a couple thousand tomahawks to your opposition? He did not like the idea.”

… “We need tomahawks for the US, too. We need them. We can’t deplete for our country. So they are very vital, very accurate and very good. But we need them, too. So, I don’t know what we can do about that.”

… WSJ: “The Trump admin is preparing sweeping changes at the IRS that would allow the agency to pursue criminal inquiries of left-leaning groups more easily. A senior IRS official involved in the effort has drawn up a list of potential targets that includes major Democratic donors. The undertaking aims to install allies of Trump at the IRS criminal-investigative division to exert firmer control over the unit and weaken the involvement of IRS lawyers in criminal investigations.”

… “The proposed changes could open the door to politically motivated probes and are being driven by Gary Shapley, an adviser to Scott Bessent. Shapley has told people that he is going to replace Guy Ficco, the chief of the investigative unit, who has been at the agency for decades, and that Shapley has been putting together a list of donors and groups he believes IRS investigators should look at.”

… “Among those on the list are George Soros and his affiliated groups. The effort within the IRS coincides with a larger admin effort to probe left-leaning groups for helping to finance organizations that the president says are creating anarchy in Democratic-led cities. Trump has directed Bessent, who is also acting IRS commissioner, to identify financial networks that the president says are fomenting political violence.”

… Bessent: “We have started to compile lists of the other networks, and there’s a long record here. This is mission-critical for us now. We are operationalizing this here at Treasury. We are going to track down who is responsible for this.”

… Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “Reminder that it’s a full-blown federal felony crime for anyone in the WH (and all Secretaries but the AG) to order the IRS to target people. It’s not just a crime to DO it, it’s a federal crime for an employee not to REPORT such order to the Treasury Inspector General.”

… Trump’s former NSA John Bolton was indicted today. MSNBC: “The indictment says Bolton kept more than 1000 pages of diaries containing highly classified information, and shared them with two relatives. His email account was hacked by Iran, exposing some of the secrets.”

… Trump also called for Andrew Weissmann, Lisa Monaco, Adam Schiff to be prosecuted: “I hope they will look at all of these people. And I am allowed to find out I’m allowed, you know, I’m in theory chief law enforcement officer.”

… Rep. Marge Greene (R-GA) on the now $40 billion Argentina bailout: “Americans are getting decimated with high cost of living and skyrocketing insurance costs. Many of them have zero savings and some are maxing out credit cards to survive. Tell me how it’s America First to bailout a foreign country with $20 or even $40 BILLION taxpayer dollars.”

… Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR): I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the Trump admin is using American tax dollars to fund infrastructure in Argentina because that’s where they’re all going to flee when we kick them out of office.”

… NYT: “The Trump admin has secretly authorized the CIA to conduct covert action in Venezuela, stepping up a campaign against Nicolás Maduro. For weeks, the US military has been targeting boats off the Venezuelan coast it says are transporting drugs, killing 27 people. American officials have been clear, privately, that the end goal is to drive Maduro from power.”

… “Trump acknowledged that he had authorized the covert action and said the US was considering strikes on Venezuelan territory: ‘We are certainly looking at land now, because we’ve got the sea very well under control.’ The new authority would allow the CIA to carry out lethal operations in Venezuela and conduct a range of operations in the Caribbean.”

… “The scale of the military buildup in the region is substantial: There are currently 10,000 US troops there, most of them at bases in Puerto Rico, but also a contingent of Marines on amphibious assault ships. In all, the Navy has 8 surface warships and a submarine in the Caribbean.”

… AP: “Dozens of reporters turned in access badges and exited the Pentagon on Wed rather than agree to govt-imposed restrictions on their work, pushing journalists who cover the American military further from the seat of its power. News outlets were nearly unanimous in rejecting new rules imposed by Pete Hegseth that would leave journalists vulnerable to expulsion if they sought to report on info - classified or otherwise - that had not been approved by Hegseth for release.”

… “Many of the reporters waited to leave together at a 4 PM deadline set by DOD to get out of the building. As the hour approached, boxes of documents lined a Pentagon corridor and reporters carried chairs, a copying machine, books and old photos to the parking lot from suddenly abandoned workspaces. Shortly after 4, about 40 to 50 journalists left together after handing in badges.”

… NPR reporter Tom Bowman talked about his sources inside the Pentagon over the years: “They knew the American public deserved to know what’s going on. With no reporters able to ask questions, it seems the Pentagon leadership will continue to rely on slick social media posts, carefully orchestrated short videos and interviews with partisan commentators and podcasters. No one should think that’s good enough.”

… WSJ: “More than three dozen organizations and individuals, including companies with business before the govt, attended a dinner with Trump on Wed evening after opening their checkbooks to support the new $250 million ballroom under construction at the WH. Companies that sent reps included Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet’s Google, Amazon, and Palantir. The guest list also featured wealthy individuals and families, such as oil billionaire Harold Hamm, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.”

… “Trump is discussing other construction projects. He is planning to build a large white arch in a traffic circle across from Arlington National Cemetery. He expects that project will also be funded by corporate donations. It is unclear how much the project would cost. The president has his own model replica of the arch and a map of the National Mall in the Oval Office, and has been showing guests the design.”

… Trump at the dinner on the ballroom: “All the glass on the sides is bulletproof. It can hold 999 people. So many of you have been really, really generous. A couple of you, here saying, ‘Sir, would $25 million be appropriate?’ I said, I will take it.”

… Trump showing them more of his plans for DC: “That’s Arlington Memorial Bridge - at the end of it you have circle. In 1902, they were going to put a statue of Robert E. Lee up, would have been ok with me—would’ve been on with a lot of the people in this room.”

… Trump: “Somebody said, ‘would we think about taking the World Cup away from Boston if they don’t straighten it out?’ The answer is yes. We have the right to do that with FIFA. If we think that LA is gonna be bad, that applies to the Olympics too.”

… Trump announced at the dinner he was cancelling funding for the largest infrastructure project in the US: “The project in New York—it is billions and billions of dollars of that Schumer has worked 20 years to get. It is terminated.”

… Trump makes this announcement less than 3 weeks before the hotly-contested NJ governor’s election, which kneecaps Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli, who immediately went into damage control: “NJ needs a Governor who has the standing to work with, and when necessary disagree with, the President and advocate for NJ’s fair share of fed tax dollars - including the Gateway Tunnel. This is a critical infrastructure project and I will fight to get it done.”

… Former Rep. Tom Malinowski: “The Gateway Tunnel isn’t something we need to ‘advocate’ for. Congress appropriated the money. There is a legally binding funding agreement. No president can lawfully ‘terminate’ it. And we shouldn’t have to elect a governor the president politically owns to get it.”

… Democratic nominee Mikie Sherrill: “Trump is terminating the country’s largest and most important infrastructure project, the Gateway Tunnel, ripping away tens of thousands of jobs and stealing billions of dollars from our state. I’ll fight tooth and nail to get this funding back and complete this essential infrastructure project for our state, commuters, and economy. Ciattarelli refuses to stand up to Trump, no matter the cost to NJ.”

… Rep. Rob Menendez (D-NJ): “Terminating funding for the largest investment in public transit infrastructure in our nation’s history is a direct assault on working-class New Jerseyans and New Yorkers.”

… Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ): “Hey Ciattarelli, still can’t think of anything you disagree with Trump on? You support him ‘terminating’ the Gateway Tunnel Project?”

… Kim: “This is mob boss politics. It’s a direct attack on NJ and on our entire nation’s economy. This isn’t Trump’s money. This is YOUR money. Stupid games of political retribution cannot stand.”

… Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ): “The wannabe king is at it again stealing money from Blue States. Do any Republicans in NY or NJ have anything to say about this theft? This is the most important mass transit project in our state, and I won’t rest until funding is restored.”

… Rep-elect Adelita Grijalva responded to Mike Johnson’s “bless her heart” answer when told she is demanding to be sworn in: “Spare us the patronizing ‘bless her heart’ comments. It took Johnson less than 24 hours to swear in his Republican colleagues. He’s stalling because he’s scared of his puppet master Trump. This delay isn’t about process. It’s about obstruction. Release the files.”

… Grijalva on MSNBC: “The excuses depending on the day keep changing. The timing is the fact that I am the 218th signer to the discharge petition for the Epstein files.”

… Former IG Mark Greenblatt: “I can confirm that another Inspector General has been fired by Trump, this time at the Export-Import Bank. Another dismissal of an IG is deeply alarming, weakens independent oversight, and erodes a vital safeguard for taxpayers.”

… Punchbowl: “Speaker Johnson says he met with Sen. Maj Leader John Thune yesterday. He says Thune offered Schumer a vote on Obamacare subsidies but Senate Dems said no. Johnson adds it’s ‘not possible’ for Thune to guarantee an outcome to Schumer on the subsidies because it’s a member driven process and deliberations ongoing.”

… Thune was asked about Russ Vought refusing to spend funds appropriated by Congress after they are passed with bipartisan agreement: “We need to fund the govt the old fashioned way - I don’t think you need rescissions. Q - Have you said that to the WH, maybe don’t do another rescissions package? Because it feels like that’s poisoned the well. Thune: It’s in everybody’s best interest, including the WH, to do a normal appropriations process.”

… Bobby Kogan, director of budget policy for American Progressives: “Trump and Vought are now breaking both sides of spending law. They’re illegally not spending where the law requires them to spend, and they’re illegally spending where they don’t have money to spend. What we have is an appropriations king. Spending ‘deals’ are meaningless under that.”

… Thune on ACA subsidies: “These premiums are going up a little bit because of the expiration of the enhanced tax credits. MSNBC: I think people hearing their premiums are doubling don’t feel that it’s a little bit.”

Sorry this one is out a big late - it is because I had to have a root canal and that wiped out most of my afternoon. It also didn’t help that this was a day with a ton of news. I did my best to keep up!

If you missed the last Bulletin, you can find it here.

… Hakeem Jeffries responded to Thune on MSNBC: Q - “What I’m hearing from you is it might be be enough that Thune is now saying he could do a vote on ACA subsidies. Jeffries: Republicans have tried to repeal the ACA more than 70 different times. They can’t be trusted on a wing and a prayer. We need a real path forward.”

… Cami Mondeaux with Deseret News: “Speaker Johnson says he met with Thune yesterday about giving Dems a vote on ACA subsidies - said that Thune offered this