Today in Politics, Bulletin 248. 11/11/25

… Trump is now saying the govt doesn’t have the funds to pay back tariff money that has been collected if SCOTUS rules against him: “The ‘unwind’ in the event of a negative decision on Tariffs, would be, including investments made, in excess of 3 Trillion Dollars. It would not be possible to ever made up for that kind of ‘drubbing’. That would truly become an insurmountable National Security Event, and devastating to the future of our Country - Possibly even non-sustainable!”

… “Those opposed to us in the Supreme Court are giving low Numbers so that the Court will think it is easy to get out of this terrible situation that these Anarchists and Thugs have put us into!”

… The reason why Trump is panicking is because the deficit is exploding because of the tax cuts in his bill passed last summer. He was banking on tariff revenue taking a decent chunk out of that. Plus, Treasury reportedly tapped into that money to fund several of their priorities during the shutdown. The bottom line is if they had to refund all that money it would be an economic disaster - but one entirely of his own making.

… The Trump admin knew very well he could lose this case. They lost twice in lower courts. They are seeking to seize the tariff power vested in Congress in an unprecedented way. But it appears that they have made no fiscal preparations for the possibly that they could lose. If they do lose, Trump is right - it will be a complete financial mess.

… Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was on MSNBC today. Q - “Do you think tariffs help or hurt prices for consumers in this country? Bessent: I think tariffs help consumers. Q - Do you believe tariffs are a tax on consumers? Bessent: I do not believe tariffs are a tax on consumers.”

… Trump did an interview with Fox host Laura Ingraham, who actually pressed him on several issues that MAGA is upset about where they feel he is not hearing them. It went badly for Trump:

• Q - You said as many as 600,000 Chinese students could come to the US. Why is that a pro-MAGA position when so many American kids want to go to school and there are places not for them and these universities are getting rich off Chinese money? Trump: If we were to cut that in half, you would have half the colleges in the US go out of business. Ingraham: So what. Trump: MAGA was my idea. It was nobody else’s idea. I know better than anybody else what MAGA wants.

• Q - You say that the economy is hot. Then why are people saying they are anxious about the economy? Trump: I don’t know that they are saying that. I think the polls are fake. More than anything else, it’s a con job. Costs are way down. Ingraham: So you are saying voters are misperceiving how they feel?

• Q - Is a 50 year mortgage really a good idea? Trump: It’s not even a big deal. You go from 40 years to 50. Ingraham: It’s 30 years. Trump: It’s not even a big deal! You go from 40 to 50 years. And what it means is you pay something less. From 30, some people had a 40, and now they have a 50. You pay it over a long period of time. It’s not like a big factor!”

• Q - Does it make sense to fire Air Traffic Controllers right now like you threatened in your Truth Social post: The one’s that stayed, I’m sending them a $10,000 bonus. Ingraham: Where is that money coming from? Trump: I don’t know, I’ll get it from someplace. I always get the money from someplace.

• Trump was asked about his mystery health care plan: “What I want is instead of going to the insurance companies, I want the money to go into an account for people where the people buy their own health insurance. It’s so good. The insurance will be better. It’ll cost less. Everybody is gonna be happy. They’re gonna feel like entrepreneurs. They’re actually able to go out and negotiate their own health insurance. Call it Trumpcare.”

• Trump on SNAP: “It really puts the country in jeopardy. People who are able bodied who can do their job leave their job because they figure they can pick this up because it’s easier—that’s not the purpose of it.”

… The average SNAP benefit is $177 a person. I don’t think many people are quitting good-paying jobs to sit home and collect it. And 86% of households receiving SNAP benefits have at least one person working. Many on SNAP are also either elderly or disabled.

… Right-wing pollster and Trump supporter Rich Baris: “The interview with Laura Ingraham is one of the worst appearances for Donald Trump that I have ever seen.
If you have a friend who is OG MAGA, please check on them to make sure they’re not suicidal at this point.”

… Conservative commentator and Trump supporter Dominic Michael Tripi: “Trump’s interview with Laura Ingraham was an embarrassing disgrace, easily his worst ever. MAGA is dead. Trump is out of touch, dismissive of struggling Americans, and has no solutions. America Last.”

… Dr. Oz was asked on Fox for a few more details on this new ‘Trumpcare’ plan: Q - “What would Trumpcare look like? Oz: These are ideas that we are still working on in part because until the government shutdown ends, we don’t have all the people in the room.”

… A preliminary discussion to have a meeting to seek a consensus to begin forming the concepts of a plan. Got it.

… Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) was on CNN unveiling his healthcare plan: “I think we’ve had enough hearings. I think we need to just start bringing stuff to the table and start voting on it. It seems kinda crazy, but in the future maybe we oughta bring the patients and the doctors to the table and tell the insurance companies they can go take a flying leap.”

… Sen Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) on Fox: “President Trump is a business guy. He’s got a good plan on how to fix healthcare rather than to have a community organizer like Obama try to fix it. We have Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who was a RN, trying to get healthcare to be a better fit.”

… I had to do a little fact-check on this one with Google’s AI: “No, Senator Marsha Blackburn was not a Registered Nurse (RN); her background is in business, law, and politics, holding a B.S. from Mississippi State University, with no mention of nursing education in official biographies.”

… Politico: “WH officials are furious with Bill Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency director, who talked the president into suggesting a 50-year mortgage plan. The WH was blindsided by the idea, and is now dealing with a furious backlash from conservative allies, business leaders and lawmakers.”

… On Sat evening, Pulte arrived at Trump’s Palm Beach Golf Club with a roughly 3-by-5 posterboard in hand. A graphic of former President Franklin Roosevelt appeared below ‘30-year mortgage’ and one of Trump below ‘50-year mortgage.’ The headline was ‘Great American Presidents.’ Roughly 10 minutes later, Trump posted the image to Truth Social, according to a person who was with the president at the time.”

… “Almost immediately, aides were fielding angry phone calls from those who thought the idea – which would endorse a 50 year payback period for a mortgage – was both bad politics and bad policy, a move that could raise housing costs in the long run. The episode underscores the haphazard ways consequential policies are sometimes brought before the president, and how Trump’s govern-by-whim nature can backfire.”

… Trump insider fuming about Pulte: “He just sold POTUS a bill of goods that wasn’t necessarily accurate. He said ‘FDR did it, you can do it, it’s gonna be a big thing.’ But he didn’t tell him about all the unintended consequences.”

… HuffPost WH correspondent S.V. Date: “Absolutely hilarious. It’s Pulte’s fault for bringing Trump a moronic idea rather than Trump’s fault for accepting it. Note the underlying premise shared by both WH and the reporters that Trump is an ignorant fool who can be talked into anything.”

… WSJ: “Fannie Mae watchdogs who were removed from their jobs had been probing if Trump appointee Bill Pulte had improperly obtained mortgage records of key Democratic officials, including New York Attorney General Letitia James. Fannie Mae’s ethics and investigations group received internal complaints alleging senior officials had improperly directed staff to access the mortgage documents of James and others.”

… “That group elevated the probe about the James documents to the more senior Office of Inspector General for the FHFA, which oversees Fannie. The FHFA’s acting inspector general, Joe Allen, who sent the internal investigation to the prosecutors, was asked to step down from his role shortly after. About a dozen members of the ethics and internal investigations unit of Fannie were recently fired.”

… Unlike Trump, Mike Johnson conceded that prices are up but, naturally, blames it on Biden: “That’s the reason the inflation is up, the cost of living is up so high, is because of the policies of the previous admin. Now, we’re working to root those policies out and implement our own, but it takes a little time.”

… Economist Justin Wolfers responded to Johnson: “Who imposed tariffs? Who cut immigration, destroying the Agricultural workforce? Who undermined the Fed? Who halted renewable energy? Who’s running deficits?”

… Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo on Trump’s ridiculous proposal to give $2,000 checks to everyone out of tariff money: “I would rather see the money go toward paying down the debt, but then again, who doesn’t want an extra $2K in your bank account before Christmas?”

… Fox Business’ Charles Payne on the 50-year mortgage scheme: “I do not like this idea. If you just took a 4% interest rate for a 30-year, it would be $2,300. For a 50-year, it would be $1,900, so you’re saving almost $500 a month in terms of affordability. But the 30-year you pay $359K vs. a 50-year almost $700K. It is a grandstanding difference just to make people feel better. That’s not the way to do this.”

… Forbes: “Private-sector employers shed an average of 11,250 jobs per week in the 4 weeks ending Oct. 25, suggesting the labor market struggled to produce jobs consistently during the second half of the month. The decline is the first recorded by ADP since August, when an average of nearly 20,000 jobs were lost in 4 weeks ending Aug. 30.”

… WH Economic Advisor Kevin Hassett was asked on CNBC about finally getting a comprehensive jobs report from BLS since they shuttered it during the shutdown: Q - “When do you we get the economic data releases? We’re craving data, especially on jobs. Hassett: We’re gonna be staring a little bit in cloudy weather for a while until we get the data agencies back up.”

… Fox reported that projected Christmas spending will be $890.49 per person in 2025, down 1.3% from last year. Trump’s Golden Age.

… The govt should be reopened already, but Mike Johnson is having a hard time getting all his members back after he gave them 3 months off. A House GOP member told reporter Juliegrace Brufke about their recent conference call: “It was a bunch of self entitled divas basically asking the speaker to personally book their flights, guarantee flight departure and arrival times, and oversee airport staffing levels. No one wants to cancel events but get over it and get to Washington to do our job.”

… The last part probably refers to Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) who was refusing to come back today because he had a big campaign event scheduled. The problem for Johnson is that every single Democrat is voting against this, and with his razor-thin majority he can’t proceed without 100% attendance.

… Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) to Meidas: “I’ll break some news - we’re talking with Thomas Massie now about getting another major press conference with the Epstein survivors early next week at the Capitol. There’s going to be so much momentum, left and right, to say: out with the Epstein files. And I believe we will get this vote - probably 60 Republicans will line up and vote for it.”

… NBC: “A Utah judge late Monday night rejected new congressional district lines drawn by Republican state lawmakers, instead approving a map with a solidly Democratic seat ahead of next year’s midterm elections. The ruling is a major blow for Republicans, who had designed a map to protect the state’s all-GOP congressional delegation. And it gives Dems a boost as they attempt to respond to Republicans’ mid-decade redistricting efforts around the country and win control of the House in 2026.”

… House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries: “An enlightened Utah judge made clear last night that the people of UT, not MAGA politicians, should decide who represents them in Congress. The court correctly enacted a fair map that reflects the geographical composition of Salt Lake County, instead of the current map that deliberately cracks communities of interest to artificially hand Republicans complete control of the congressional delegation.”

… Utah Republican State Rep. Matt MacPherson responded to the decision: “I have opened a bill to file articles of impeachment against Judge Gibson for gross abuse of power, violating the separation of powers and failing to uphold her oath of office to the Utah Constitution.”

… Cook Political Editor Dave Wasserman: “Between OH, KS, CA, VA and now this huge win in UT, Democrats have quietly strung together an impressive streak of victories over the past few weeks that have, surprisingly, pushed the mid-decade redistricting war closer to a draw. If you score remap shifts between safe/competitive seats as +/-0.5, here’s how the count looks today, to my eye:

CA: Dem +4.5
MO: GOP +1
NC: GOP +0.5
OH: GOP +0.5
TX: GOP +4
UT: Dem +1

… That leaves Republicans ahead by half a seat, w/ FL, IN & VA the biggest remaining variables.”

… Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) responded to Wasserman’s post: “I warned the Speaker for months that a redistricting war was (1) bad for the country, (2) unpopular with Members on both sides, and (3) likely to end as a wash. Yet he cheered it on rather than try to stop it.”

… House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington made a surprise announcement that he will not seek re-election in 2026. “It was a very unique, generational impact opportunity, to be almost ten years into this and to have the budget chairmanship, and to lead the charge to successfully pass that and to help this president fulfill his mandate from the people. It just seems like a good and right place to leave it.”

… Arrington is now the 28th House Republican to announce he is not running in 2026. They know what’s coming.

… CNN: “The UK is no longer sharing intelligence with the US about suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean because it does not want to be complicit in US military strikes and believes the attacks are illegal. The UK’s decision marks a significant break from its closest ally and intelligence sharing partner and underscores the growing skepticism over the legality of the US military’s campaign around Latin America.”

… “For years, the UK, which controls a number of territories in the Caribbean where it bases intelligence assets, has helped the US locate vessels suspected of carrying drugs so that the Coast Guard could interdict them. That meant the ships would be stopped, boarded, its crew detained, and drugs seized. But shortly after the US began launching lethal strikes against the boats in Sept, the UK grew concerned that the US might use intelligence provided by the British to select targets. British officials believe the US military strikes, which have killed 76 people, violate international law.”

… NYT on the latest disgusting pardon: “Trump quietly pardoned the husband of Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-TN) last week amid a string of clemency grants to allies. In 2013, Robert Harshbarger Jr., a licensed pharmacist at the time, pleaded guilty to health care fraud and distributing a misbranded drug, in this case kidney medications, some of which came from China, that were not approved for the purpose by the FDA.”

… In a 2012 indictment of Harshbarger, prosecutors claimed that, as a result of his misrepresentations, which occurred between 2004 and 2009, Medicare, Medicaid and other health benefit programs paid more than $845,000 for Chinese drugs that he falsely passed off as an FDA-approved American drug used to replenish iron in patients with chronic kidney disease.”

… Quite a headline in today’s NY Post on the story I wrote about yesterday:

… LAW AND ORDER!!!

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… Trump attempted to sing with everyone else in attendance at the Veteran’s Day event at Arlington National Cemetery when ‘God Bless America’ was played. But he doesn’t know the words. So he just sang the first three words, then started doing his