Trump Has Turned House Freedom Caucus Into a Total Laughingstock

Since Donald Trump entered the White House, the supposedly hardline fiscal conservatives of the House Freedom Caucus appear to have softened that line to a malleable putty—and everyone on Capitol Hill knows it.

The Bulwark reported Wednesday that as members of the HFC left for summer break, they were “all over the place” following a series of toothless concessions to the president’s sweeping spending agenda. Now, the House Freedom Caucus has even earned a new nickname among reporters and lawmakers: the House Folding Caucus.

Although they had initially criticized the Senate’s version of Trump’s behemoth budget bill at the beginning of July, HFC members ultimately fell in line to support the president’s bill that would explode the national deficit by trillions of dollars. A few weeks later, they momentarily stalled Trump’s GENIUS Act, arguing that the cryptobill went against an executive order banning central bank currency. But once again, they conceded to the president’s demands after the GOP leadership promised to tie the ban into the Pentagon’s policy bill later this year.

HFC Chairman Andy Harris said that the group should start working on a one-year continuing resolution that would allow them to freeze federal funding, but the group’s position remains unclear. Four members are currently staging their exits from Congress, with Representatives Ralph Norman, Byron Donalds, and Andy Biggs all preparing gubernatorial campaigns in their respective states, and Representative Mike Collins launching a Senate bid in his state.

With a president who just does whatever he wants regardless of what Congress thinks, a far-right attack dog is no longer required—and has been left neutered and freezing in the doghouse.

Texas Republicans are moving forward with their gerrymandering plan that will essentially create new pro-Trump districts in a state that already has an overwhelming GOP majority.

The new map, revealed Wednesday, will create five new GOP-skewed districts, which could very well help Republicans grow their majority in the House in 2026. The map puts districts currently held by Democratic Representatives Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez at risk of becoming more red, while isolating blue districts to create even more Republican-leaning ones.

The map’s new districts will contain three regions that Trump carried by 10 to 15 percentage points last election, shamelessly rigging the game to seize power in a thinly divided Congress. It will also create six districts without incumbents—making 2026 an even more critical race.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is reportedly headed to Texas on Wednesday for a sit-down with Democratic leaders, while the map is set for final approval in a committee hearing on Friday.

On Wednesday, Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa said he was “offended” by Donald Trump’s “personal attacks,” as the president wages war on the Senate’s “blue slip” tradition.

Traditionally, when the president nominates someone for a federal judgeship, the Senate Judiciary Committee chair (currently Grassley) sends so-called blue slips to the nominee’s home-state senators. If both return the slips, the nomination proceeds; if at least one holds off, it’s effectively vetoed.

In giving the minority party significant influence over the confirmation process, the tradition restricts Trump’s ongoing effort to mold the judiciary in his image. The president has thus been applying pressure on Grassley to abandon it.

On Tuesday evening, Trump said, in a Truth Social post, that the tradition is a “probably Unconstitutional” “hoax” and “SCAM” that would force him to appoint Democratic or “weak” Republicans rather than “Highly Qualified” (read: MAGA) judges.

He urged Grassley to find the “Courage” to abandon the tradition “IMMEDIATELY,” so as to “not let the Democrats laugh at him and the Republican Party for being weak and ineffective.” The president also made a point to take full credit for Grassley’s 2022 reelection to the Senate “when he was down, by a lot,” Trump said.

The president also shared a number of other users’ posts opposing blue slips, some of which took pot shots at Grassley. One called Grassley a “sneaky” “RINO,” short for Republican in name only. One accused the senator of “standing in the way” of Trump’s agenda. Another post shared by Trump suggested that certain elected officials, including Grassley, have been in office too long and ought to be “dethrone[d]” via term limits.

On Tuesday night, Grassley indicated that he would not do away with the tradition. The senator then hit back at Trump during his opening remarks at a Wednesday Senate Judiciary hearing.

“Last night, I was surprised to see President Trump on Truth Social go after me and Senate Republicans over what we call the ‘blue slip,’” Grassley said, before giving a brief explanation of the tradition for “people in the Real America” rather than the “island surrounded by reality” that is Washington, D.C.

“I was offended by what the president said, and I’m disappointed that it would result in personal insults,” Grassley continued.

Politico reports that Grassley’s decision to hold firm has the support of party leaders on both sides of the aisle.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin has decided to pretend that the health risks caused by greenhouse gases don’t exist—but the Fox News chyron beneath him told a different story.

“EPA is proposing to rescind the 2009 Obama EPA Endangerment Finding to eliminate all of the greenhouse gas emissions regulations that followed,” Zeldin said during an interview on Fox News Tuesday, “including electric vehicle mandates, which amounts to a trillion dollars’ worth of savings.”

In December 2009, the EPA published an Endangerment Finding that stated that the current and projected concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.” Greenhouse gases trap outgoing infrared heat within the Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in global warming.

Just a few months ago, Zeldin couldn’t even say whether carbon was a pollutant (spoiler alert, it is). Now he is primed to remove the finding that set the standard for multiple industries to limit their greenhouse gas emissions.

But as independent journalist Aaron Rupar pointed out on X, Zeldin’s announcement was rendered immediately ridiculous by the chyron just beneath him.

As the anti-science flunkie in charge of the EPA happily announced his plan to strip greenhouse gas regulations, an “Extreme Heat” warning appeared in the bottom right corner. The chyron below him displayed the “Hottest Temps Now” from different cities across the country: 102 degrees in Arizona; 100 degrees in Florida; 100 degrees in Georgia; 99 degrees in California.

This week, a record-breaking heat wave struck the eastern United States, with excessive heat advisories being issued everywhere from Florida to New York. Over the last decade, heat-related deaths have doubled in the U.S.

The Obama-era Endangerment Finding that Zeldin would like to repeal directly linked greenhouse gas emissions to widespread changes in extreme temperatures around the world—adding that rising temperatures would likely turn deadly.

“The impact on mortality and morbidity associated with increases in average temperatures, which increase the likelihood of heat waves, also provides support for a public health endangerment finding,” the report stated, noting that “heat is already the leading cause of weather related deaths in the United States.”

The Trump administration just dashed any chance of a new trade deal with India, imposing a 25 percent tariff on the country Wednesday along with a penalty for buying military equipment and energy from Russia.

The world’s most populous nation has held off on offering new concessions to the U.S., announcing on Tuesday that it was prepared to accept tariffs as high as 25 percent on its exports to American consumers.

But with just two days on the clock to finalize the deal, it doesn’t seem that Donald Trump has a firm handle on India’s jaded approach to the negotiations.

“WE HAVE A MASSIVE TRADE DEFICIT WITH INDIA!!!” he exclaimed on Truth Social Wednesday.

The U.S. imports more goods and services from India than it sells. In 2024, the country’s trade deficit with India was $45.7 billion—a 5.4 percent increase over the prior year, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

“Remember, while India is our friend, we have, over the years, done relatively little business with them because their Tariffs are far too high, among the highest in the World, and they have the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary Trade Barriers of any Country,” Trump wrote in an earlier post.

“Also, they have always bought a vast majority of their military equipment from Russia, and are Russia’s largest buyer of ENERGY, along with China, at a time when everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE—ALL THINGS NOT GOOD!” he continued. “INDIA WILL THEREFORE BE PAYING A TARIFF OF 25 PERCENT, PLUS A PENALTY FOR THE ABOVE, STARTING ON AUGUST FIRST. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER. MAGA!”

Historically, it takes U.S. officials roughly 18 months to negotiate a new trade agreement with another country. That boils down to exhaustive reviews of the country’s prior trade, sorting through thousands of line items of products, and analyzing the complex minutiae of local import and export laws.

Despite the fact that India was one of the first countries to open up new trade negotiations with the U.S. in February, even Trump administration officials have acknowledged that the deal with India is still half-baked. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC Monday that India has “strong interest in opening portions of its market” to U.S. products but that the talks require more time. Last week, India’s Trade Minister Piyush Goyal told Reuters that India was making “great progress” with the Trump administration.

But blowing past traditional expectations in favor of baseless projections has not proven to be a strong success strategy for the second Trump administration. Instead, choosing to throw the country into a trading blitz with dozens of its biggest trading partners has effectively forced the U.S. into a regrettable losing position, with American officials constantly having to hedge on what were supposed to be adamant deadlines.

If Trump is to be believed, however, then Friday could be the exception.

“THE AUGUST FIRST DEADLINE IS THE AUGUST FIRST DEADLINE—IT STANDS STRONG, AND WILL NOT BE EXTENDED,” Trump wrote earlier on Wednesday. “A BIG DAY FOR AMERICA!!!”

India isn’t the only country holding out on U.S. trade negotiations. China, Mexico, Canada, South Korea, Taiwan, Brazil, Switzerland, and Thailand have also not finalized their arrangements with the Trump administration, though not all of them face the August 1 cutoff.