Trump Freaks Out He Couldn’t Bully One Republican Into Line on Budget

One Republican lawmaker isn’t backing down to Donald Trump, and it’s sending the president for a spiral.

Representative Thomas Massie was the only House Republican to vote against passing a stopgap measure Tuesday to keep the Trump administration funded through September. The budget bill narrowly passed 217–213, with one Democrat—Representative Jared Golden—voting for the measure.

“So Massie can vote for Debt Ceiling AND Budget to be put into the Trump Administration, making them both the Republicans problem and responsibility, but can’t give us a simple Continuing Resolution vote allowing us the time necessary to come up with a ‘GREAT, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL???’” Trump posted on Truth Social early Wednesday morning. “Republicans only ‘NO’ Vote. GRANDSTANDER!”

The Senate now has until Friday to pass the legislation and avert a government shutdown.

Massie has been Trump’s go-to target this week after the Kentucky Republican made it clear Monday he would vote against the bill. The president took to his usual tactic: threatening party members on social media until they cave.

“Congressman Thomas Massie, of beautiful Kentucky, is an automatic ‘NO’ vote on just about everything, despite the fact that he has always voted for Continuing Resolutions in the past. HE SHOULD BE PRIMARIED, and I will lead the charge against him,” Trump posted on Truth Social Monday night.

But this time, it didn’t work. Instead of cowering to the GOP’s autocrat like many of his colleagues have done before him, Massie responded to the president’s threat with humor and a smile.

“He’s going after Canada and me today. The difference is Canada will eventually cave,” Massie told reporters Tuesday, Politico reported.

In his 15 years in the House, Massie has had no problem breaking from his colleagues. In fact he’s voted against so many bills that it earned him the nickname “Mr. No.”

The 54-year-old is well-versed in responding to Trump’s empty threats too. In 2020, after Massie forced the House to vote in person on a Covid-19 response bill, the president called him a “third-rate-grandstander” and threatened to boot him from the GOP.

But Massie’s still here, and he will no doubt continue to vote according to his own hawkish budgetary principles.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. equated the health risks of getting the measles vaccine to contracting measles itself, in a dangerous escalation of his misinformation campaign amidst massive outbreaks.

Kennedy continued to emphasize that getting vaccinated should be a personal choice during an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity that aired Tuesday night.

“The government shouldn’t force them to do it, there are adverse events from the vaccine, it does cause deaths every year,” Kennedy warned.

“It causes all the illnesses that measles itself causes, encephalitis, and blindness, et cetera,” he continued. “And so people ought to be able to make that choice for themselves. And what we need to do is give them the best information, and encourage them to vaccinate. The vaccine does stop the spread of the disease.”

But Kennedy doesn’t actually think that the vaccine and the illness are the same—he thinks one is better. During the interview, the health secretary claimed that contracting measles was somehow a better method at prevention than getting the vaccine, because it gave people natural immunity.

“It used to be, when I was a kid, that everybody got measles. And the measles gave you lifetime protection against measles infection,” he said. “The vaccine doesn’t do that. The vaccine is effective for some people for life, but for many people it wanes.”

To put it simply, within one interview, Kennedy suggested people might be better off just letting themselves get sick—promoting the spread of the deadly illness that has already infected more than 220 people across several states, resulting in the death of at least one child. Then, the health secretary said that people could get the vaccine, but suggested that it was just as dangerous as contracting a viral illness.

The Centers for Disease Control states that the MMR vaccine is the safest way to protect against measles, and is “much safer than getting measles, mumps, or rubella.” The side effects of the measles vaccine are “usually mild and go away on their own,” according to the CDC.

Encephalitis International, a health non-profit, found that only one to two children in one million who received a measles vaccination developed encephalitis from the vaccination, “which is less than the incidence of all types of encephalitis.”

While measles can cause childhood blindness, the CDC does not consider blindness as a possible side effect of MMR.

Throughout the current outbreak, Kennedy has continually downplayed the importance of getting vaccinated while promoting unproven medicines, such as cod liver oil, which contains vitamin A. He has also claimed that the inhaled steroid budesonide and the antibiotic clarithromycin resulted in “almost miraculous and instantaneous.” While these may help to treat some of the symptoms associated with measles, they will not prevent infections.

Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist, tore into Kennedy’s remarks in a post on X Tuesday calling his claims “two truths & a lie.”

“Truth: There are adverse events from MMR and all vaccines. Truth: People die, albeit very, very, VERY rarely,” she wrote. “BIG FUCKING LIE: the MMR does NOT cause measles or any sequelae. It prevents measles. It’s safe & effective. Measles disables & kills children.”

In a separate post, she noted that the vaccine’s mortality rate was often “grossly exaggerated” by the anti-vaccine movement, of which Kennedy has long been a fixture.

Not only are Kennedy’s claims false and misleading, and not the position of the government he purports to represent, but they are a dangerous message for Americans in the midst of ongoing measles outbreaks.

Donald Trump’s wild tariff moves are freaking out his own advisers, who are getting panicked messages from business leaders.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump administration officials, including his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, are getting worried phone calls from CEOs and lobbyists hoping to get the president to lay out a specific economic agenda regarding tariffs. Several have stopped trying to get Trump to back away from his approach on tariffs, appealing to the White House for a clearer message instead.

On Monday, Trump met with CEOs from IBM, Qualcomm, HP, and other tech companies, who warned the president that tariffs could hurt their industry, the Journal reported, citing an unnamed source. Trump told reporters that the topic of the meeting was investing in the United States.

The various messages coming from the White House have also spooked Republicans who think Trump doesn’t have a coherent plan on the economy. Trump has refused to rule out a recession and indicated that tariffs could hurt the average American, and as a result stocks have plummeted. All of the market’s gains since his election have been wiped out, and Trump has flip-flopped and carved out exceptions for his tariffs at the same time.

Trump economic staffers have gotten nervous, including people on the National Economic Council, who are worried that the president’s tariffs and lack of a clear economic plan are not only hurting the stock market but leading to price hikes across the country. Trump has not listened to their warnings.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appears to be out of the loop on some decisions, at one point saying on Fox News that Canada and Mexico could be close to a deal with the U.S. to avoid some tariffs. This caused chaos within the administration, and some officials managed to persuade Trump to pause tariffs on items that comply with the USMCA trade agreement for one month.

Nobody seems to know what Trump’s plan or his endgame for the economy appear to be. For now, the stock market continues to slide, prices are in flux, and everyone watching the news is on edge for whatever crazy idea Trump decides to go with in the short term. People are spending less, and businesses have no idea what to plan for.

The European Union has struck back with its own retaliatory tariffs—and they’re aimed directly at red states.

The EU on Wednesday announced tariffs on $28 billion worth of U.S. imports, including but not limited to steel and aluminum, textiles, home goods, agricultural products, motorcycles, alcohol, and even jeans—with a special focus on Republican states. Tariffs will also be hitting soybeans in Louisiana (Mike Johnson’s home state); beef and poultry in Kansas and Nebraska; and produce in Alabama, Georgia, and Virginia.

“As the U.S. are applying tariffs worth $28 billion, we are responding with countermeasures worth 26 billion euros,” said EU Commission President Ursula von der Lyen, who manages trade conflicts on behalf of the 27 EU countries. “We firmly believe that in a world fraught with geopolitical and economic uncertainties, it is not in our common interest to burden our economies with tariffs.

“Jobs are at stake. Prices will go up. In Europe and in the United States,” she continued. “We deeply regret this measure. Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and even worse for consumers. These tariffs are disrupting supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy.”

This language is in stark contrast with how Trump has discussed tariffs, dismissing any fallout as short transitory periods while refusing to acknowledge the massively destabilizing actions that will have a negative long-term impact on Americans everywhere, including those who voted for him in November.

Pro-Palestine activist and legal U.S. resident Mahmoud Khalil wasn’t arrested by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for committing an actual crime, but because Secretary of State Marco Rubio had personally determined that he had to go.

Khalil, who is a green card holder, was arrested by ICE last week under the authority of the Immigration and Nationality Act, or INA, two officials at the Department of State and Department of Homeland Security told Zeteo News Tuesday.

Section 237(a)(4)(C)(i) of INA says that any “alien” is “deportable” if the secretary of state “has a reasonable ground” to believe their presence could result in “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences” for the United States.

Separately, a White House official told conservative rag The Free Press Monday that the government did not believe Khalil had committed an actual crime. “The allegation here is not that he was breaking the law,” the official said.

The White House official alleged that Khalil was “mobilizing support for Hamas and spreading antisemitism in a way that is contrary to the foreign policy of the US,” a claim that Khalil has denied and that the government has released no evidence to support.

The INA was originally used to oust those suspected of being Soviet spies. But it has never been used to punish speech, and it’s unclear what evidence Rubio would need to provide to justify superseding Khalil’s First Amendment rights.

Despite the shaky constitutional grounds, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Tuesday that the Trump administration fully intended to move forward with more arrests like Khalil’s, meaning that its crackdown on the free speech of Palestinians and their advocates will likely continue.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Council for Immigration, posted on X that the application of the INA presented “very significant” problems with free speech and that “the law may well be unconstitutional.”

Reichlin-Melnick explained that under the law, Khalil would still be entitled to an immigration hearing where he could challenge the basis of his deportation. His status as a lawful, permanent resident would not be immediately stripped.

Khalil, whose wife is eight months pregnant, was reportedly moved from New York to the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center, much to the surprise of his legal representation. U.S. District Court Judge Jesse Furman ordered a hold on Khalil’s deportation Monday, “unless and until the Court orders otherwise,” according to Reuters.

The lack of an actual criminal offense might explain why, at a press conference Tuesday morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson gave a confusing explanation for the arrest of the protest organizer.

In a post on Truth Social Monday, President Donald Trump cheered the arrest of the green card–holding graduate student, writing that the presence of “terrorist sympathizers” was “contrary to our national and foreign policy interests.”