Today in Politics, Bulletin 85. 3/6/25

… The theme of the day was Trump backpedaling on several of his major announcements, executive orders, campaign promises, and policies after intense backlash. He walked back a plan to deport Ukrainian asylum seekers, tariffs on Canada and Mexico, DOGE cuts and firings, and his plan to dismantle the Dept of Education.

… For today. Tomorrow he could reinstate some or all of them. Trump loves creating chaos, but it isn’t just that. Most of these things he campaigned on, they were on his website, they were in Project 2025, they are ideas from his closest advisors, and supported by his MAGA base. He is only walking them back after learning that many of these ideas are wildly unpopular.

… If only independent voters and moderate Republicans paid closer attention during the campaign to what he said he was going to do, because it turns out he wasn’t bluffing on any of it.

… Trump posted on Truth Social that members of his Cabinet met with Elon Musk today and he heard their concerns about him firing their employees and canceling contracts and agreements: “We just had a meeting with most of the Secretaries, Elon, and others, and it was a very positive one. It’s very important that we cut levels down to where they should be, but it’s also important to keep the best and most productive people. We said use the scalpel rather than the hatchet.”

… But then he later said this in the Oval Office: "We're gonna be watching the Cabinet members. And Elon and the group are gonna be watching them. And if they can cut, it's better. And if they don't cut, then Elon will do the cutting."

… AP reported that the CDC announced they are reversing the DOGE firings of 180 employees and want them to come back to work. They sent this email: “Read this e-mail immediately. After further review and consideration … You should return to duty under your previous work schedule. We apologize for any disruption that this may have caused.”

… Then Trump reversed his tariffs on Mexico: “After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement. This Agreement is until April 2nd. I did this as an accommodation, and out of respect for, President Sheinbaum. Our relationship has been a very good one. Thank you to President Sheinbaum for your hard work and cooperation!”

… He also reversed the tariffs on Canada, and blamed the victim again by claiming that Trudeau secretly wanted him to impose tariffs: “Believe it or not, despite the terrible job he’s done for Canada, I think that Justin Trudeau is using the Tariff problem, which he has largely caused, in order to run again for Prime Minister. So much fun to watch!”

… In other words, dipshit Trump just found out that what he has done with Canada has rejuvenated Trudeau’s approval ratings, which were pretty bad until Trump picked a fight with Canada for no reason.

… Right before Trump announced he was reversing his tariffs, his Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was on Fox saying that the tariffs were great because eventually we won’t have to pay income taxes because of them: “Tariffs are going to drive America better. Wouldn't it be amazing to stop paying taxes to the IRS and have the External Revenue Service of make America great again replace our taxes? That is the goal of Trump.”

… If that is the case, why does he keep “pausing” them?

… Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA): "I'm worried about the tariffs. If this starts causing inflation, we're gonna have to recalibrate. The single most important thing, and the thing people expect the president to fix, is high prices."

… Reuters reported from multiple inside sources that Trump was planning to revoke the temporary legal status of 240,000 Ukrainians who were allowed to come to the US after Russia invaded their country, and fast-track their deportations in April. Backlash ensued, then Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed the story was “fake news” and said that “nothing has been decided yet” on their asylum status.

… WSJ obtained a draft executive order that Trump was expected to issue today which would essentially abolish the Dept of Education. It includes language that directed Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Education Department to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law. The experiment of controlling American education through Fed programs and dollars, and the unaccountable bureaucrats those programs and dollars support, has failed our children, our teachers, and our families.”

… That is classic Stephen Miller language.

… Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) was asked on CNN about Trump trying to dismantle DOE by executive order: "Just the fact that this is what he's doing shows his disdain for the American people, shows his disdain for public education, shows his disdain for special programs that are essential for so many Americans to use and learn."

… After that story broke and backlash ensued, Trump has reportedly also changed his mind on that. This was a campaign promise and something his supporters have been calling for vociferously. But that is also not happening. For now.

… Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), who co-authored the bipartisan CHIPS Act advanced by the Biden Admin, was stunned when Trump said he wanted Congress to repeal it: “Trump’s comments seemed in tension with the reassurances which I had received privately and publicly from his now-Cabinet nominees, reassurances which I sought in order to be supportive of certain nominees.”

… Another one who took Trump at his word, despite thousands of reasons not to.

… Honda issued a statement that Trump lied in his speech to Congress about their company building a new plant in Indiana. Trump: "In fact, already, numerous car companies have announced that they will be building massive automobile plants in America, with Honda just announcing a new plant in IN, one of the largest anywhere in the world."

… Honda said that plant has been in IN since 2008 and they have no immediately plans to build another one: “Honda has made no such announcement and will not comment on this report. While Honda did not announce plans for a new plant in the US at this time, we have invested over $3 billion in advanced vehicle manufacturing in America in just the past 3 years.”

… I think Biden was president then.

… The jobs report will be coming out tomorrow, and it’s not going to look pretty. CNBC reports that employers announced 172,017 layoffs for February, which is up a staggering 245% from January and the highest monthly count since July 2020. This is the worst February since 2009. Analyst Andrew Challenger: “With the impact of the DOGE actions, as well as canceled government contracts, fear of trade wars, and bankruptcies, job cuts soared in February.”

… Fox host and former Trump appointee Larry Kudlow: "Some very smart people are telling me that the February jobs number coming out Friday could be flat, even negative. The GDP tracker from the Atlanta Fed is showing for the first quarter a -2.5 or -2.8%. And we've had lousy numbers on things like housing and business investment. We're gonna have to suffer through some bad news."

… Car owners are now missing their monthly payments at the highest rate since 1994. Bloomberg reports that the number of auto borrowers at least 60 days past due on their loans rose to 6.56% last month. The Fed Reserve Bank of NY reported that the share of auto loans among all borrowers that transitioned into serious delinquency - defined as 90 days or more past due - rose to the highest level since 2010.

… Disabled Air Force vet Nathan Hooven voted for Trump but was just fired by DOGE. He told AP: “I think a lot of other veterans voted the same way, and we have been betrayed. I feel like my life and the lives of so many like me, so many that have sacrificed so much for this country, are being destroyed. I’ve been blindsided. My life has been completely upended with zero chance to prepare. I was fired without notice, unjustly, based on a lie that I’m a subpar, poor performer at my job.”

… 30% of the federal workforce are military veterans.

… An internal memo from the new Secretary of the VA obtained by Military.com shows that the agency intends to fire more than 83,000 employees.

… There is now a change in strategy for Trump, Musk, DOGE and Johnson, and that is to include all the DOGE cuts that have been halted by the courts in the House CR. This will force Republicans in swing districts to vote for all of them or vote against them to force a government shutdown, and most of these cuts are not popular with their constituents.

… CNN’s Manu Raju: “In closed-door meeting with Musk for more than 90 minutes, GOP senators push for a vote to codify DOGE cuts through a package of rescissions. Musk is open to it, senators said. Musk meets with House Rs tonight.”

… They are running out of time on all of this, because the government shuts down next week if they don’t get it done.

… Sen. Lindsey Graham: “So what I want to do is take all of those things that DOGE has found, all the silly spending, put it in a bill, call rescission and vote on it and I dare them to vote to keep this kind of crazy stuff going.”

… CNN’s Kaitlyn Collins asked Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) why Congress didn’t make these cuts to begin with instead of trying to have Musk do it: “I like Elon Musk doing it. He's also finding and writing code and and figuring out the code of the federal government.”

… The Congressional Budget Office has scored the House Republican budget framework, and made it clear that it is impossible for them to cut $880 billion without taking hundreds of billions from Medicaid. Trump has promised repeatedly that Medicaid would not be touched.

… AOC: “Everyone who voted for this - almost every House GOP - voted to cut Medicaid. When they try to pretend later that they didn’t, know that they are lying to you. This was the vote. They knew it, we knew it, CBO confirms it. Good news is we can still defeat it. Time to organize.”

… The Prospect reports that the Social Security Administration is making major cuts in staff: “Field offices will be affected. The same thing happened in the 80s, when 21% of field office jobs were cut. And a new research paper finds that it resulted in 80,000 eligible Americans not getting earned benefits. It'll be worse today, as nearly 2x as many people are on Social Security/SSI. Low-income disabled, blind, and elderly people won't be able to access assistance. One field office worker said people will die while waiting for benefits.”

… ABC reports that Mike Johnson’s Chief of Staff Hayden Haynes was arrested after Trump’s speech for DUI after crashing into a parked Capitol Police car.

If you missed yesterday’s episode of Uncovered, I talked quite a bit about Democrats reaction to the speech along with a deep dive into several other hot news items this week. You can watch it here.

… Gavin Newsom had his first podcast episode and the guest was right-wing talk show host and blatant racist Charlie Kirk, who said he gets nervous whenever he gets on a flight and there is a black pilot. I have to admit I was pretty disappointed in this move. I get that the mission statement of the podcast is to “call out” people who disagree with him, but I watched it and didn’t see much calling out happening.

… Newsom told Kirk that he that the ads Trump ran against Kamala Harris about transgender athletes in women’s sports really hurt: “She didn’t even react to it, which was even