A judge disqualified Sigal Chattah from handling a set of cases after the defendants challenged her legal authority.
By Erica Orden
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the top federal prosecutor in Nevada is disqualified from handling cases, a rebuke to the Trump administration’s effort to sidestep the traditional methods of installing U.S. attorneys.
U.S. District Judge David Campbell wrote in a 32-page opinion that Sigal Chattah “is not validly serving as Acting U.S. Attorney” and therefore her involvement in prosecutions “would be unlawful.”
Chattah is the second U.S. attorney installed by the Trump administration to see her authority stripped by a federal judge in recent months. In August, a federal judge disqualified Alina Habba as acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey, though that ruling is on pause pending appeal.
The Nevada U.S. attorney’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
U.S. attorneys are typically confirmed by the Senate, or in some cases installed by judicial appointment. In districts around the country, however, the Trump administration has sought to bypass those channels, installing top prosecutors on a temporary basis in “acting” or “interim” capacities. Increasingly, however, defendants are challenging the authority of those U.S. attorneys.
In Chattah’s case, four defendants indicted in Nevada moved to dismiss their indictments, arguing that she was not validly serving in the job. Campbell, an Arizona judge appointed by George W. Bush, was assigned to the matter after the Nevada district judges recused themselves. Campbell declined to dismiss the indictments, but disqualified Chattah from supervising their cases “or any attorneys in the handling of these cases.”
And he ordered the prosecutors working on the cases to file statements within one week stating that they are not being supervised by Chattah in those cases.
Chattah was installed as interim U.S. attorney in April after running as the Republican nominee for Nevada attorney general in 2022. Like Habba, she was seen as unconfirmable by the Senate, and in fact Trump never nominated Chattah to take the job permanently.
In the final days of her 120-day appointment as interim U.S. attorney, a group of more than 100 retired federal and state judges wrote to the chief federal district judge in Nevada to object to voting to install Chattah after her appointment expired. The group said her history of “racially charged, violence-tinged, and inflammatory public statements” disqualified her.
Instead of waiting for the judicial vote, the Trump administration named her the acting U.S. attorney.
Republicans continue to claim that the latest government shutdown happened in part because Democrats want to allow undocumented migrants to receive healthcare, which is not true. So, on Thursday night, Stephen Colbert begged them to tell a more “fun” lie.
By Andi Ortiz
To kick off his monologue, Colbert joked that President Trump “has tried every possible option to end the shutdown,” beginning and ending with blaming Democrats. The CBS host took particular issue with Republicans characterizing Democrats’ desire to restore some of the Affordable Care Act as “demanding free health care for illegal aliens.”
At that, a montage began playing featuring clips of various journalists debunking the claim on-air, explaining that undocumented migrants cannot even sign up for the Affordable Care Act.
“Yeah!” Colbert added. “And if you’re just going to completely make up stupid fear-mongering arguments, at least make them fun!”
Naturally, the late night host had a suggestion at the ready.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Democrats are spending trillions of dollars so they can ‘Jurassic Park’ your children,” he joked. “It’s shocking. They’re going to trap your child in amber! Suck out the baby blood, and then turn your child into little T rexes. The worst part is, the worst part, ladies and gentlemen, they’ll never be able to hug you.”
U.S. President Donald Trump's approval rating is underwater in all seven swing states, according to aggregated polling data.
By Kate Plummer
According to analysis by data journalist G. Elliott Morris posted in his Substack blog Strength In Numbers, the president's approval rating has sunk in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Arizona, all states he won in the 2024 election.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Newsweek: "President Trump is keeping his promises and Making America Great Again: whether it’s securing the border, securing historic investments in American manufacturing, taming Biden’s inflation crisis, or fighting against the Democrats’ radical demands of free health care for illegal aliens." Referring to a Rasmussen Reports poll from September 25, she added: "That’s why over 57 percent of Americans approve of the President and the incredible job he’s doing!"
Why It Matters
Politically volatile, swing states were important in determining the result of the 2024 presidential election and securing Trump the keys to the White House.
If Trump's popularity continues to decline in swing states, it may affect Republicans' performance in the November 2026 midterms and enable Democrats to pick up key seats in the House and the Senate. This, in turn, could affect the balance of power in Congress and the passage of legislation.
What To Know
According to the analysis, Trump's approval rating is -10 in Wisconsin, a state he won with 0.9 percent of the vote share.
In Michigan, a state he won with by 1.4 percent, his approval rating is at -12 percentage points.
In Pennsylvania, his 1.7 percent lead in 2024 has declined to -13 percentage points and his approval rating in Georgia is -11 points, a drop from 2024 when he won the state with a 2.2 percent margin.
Trump won Nevada by 3.1 points in 2024 but his rating there has since plummeted to -12 percentage points.
In North Carolina, his 3.2 percent margin has declined to -9 points.
In Arizona, his net approval rating stands at -7 percentage points. Trump won the state by 5.5 points in 2024.
Morris estimated Trump's approval rating in each state by looking at what his net approval rating would be if his 2024 results in each race were swung 14 points against him, a swing implied by his national approval rating. He averaged these findings with estimates from a model which makes state estimates using national survey data.
Meanwhile, the polling also follows a May survey by Civiqs which also showed that Trump's approval rating had declined in these states.
What People Are Saying
Speaking to Newsweek, Craig Agranoff, an Adjunct Professor at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) specializing in political marketing and campaigning said: "Based on these figures, it presents potential hurdles for Republicans as the 2026 midterms draw near. Past patterns suggest that when a president’s approval dips below 50 percent, their party may face setbacks in congressional contests, especially in battleground areas where independents and moderates hold sway. This situation might open doors for Democratic advances in the House or Senate should the numbers persist, given how lower approval can influence voter turnout dynamics across partisan lines."
He continued: "Regarding possible reasons for the slide, economic factors seem prominent, including ongoing inflation and tariff effects that have not eased as quickly as some anticipated, affecting various voter segments like younger people and lower-income households. Immigration policies, such as expanded deportations, could also factor in, potentially shifting views among groups that supported the President in 2024, highlighting a gap between campaign pledges and perceived outcomes."
What Happens Next
Trump's popularity is likely to fluctuate as his term continues. The midterm elections are scheduled to take place in November 2026.
Michael Ben’Ary, a veteran federal prosecutor, described deepening disappointment over what he deemed “political interference."
By Kyle Cheney and Daniel Barnes
A veteran federal prosecutor fired abruptly this week issued a stark warning to colleagues Friday: The Trump administration’s effort to cull perceived adversaries from the Justice Department has put Americans’ safety at risk.
“The leadership is more concerned with punishing the President’s perceived enemies than they are with protecting our national security,” wrote Michael Ben’Ary, in a note scotch-taped to his door after he cleaned out his office Friday, the last act of a 20-year career as a federal prosecutor.
In his note, Ben’Ary said his termination was a surprise, coming just hours after a conservative journalist pointed out he had once worked as senior counsel to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, one of the Biden-era officials Trump despises most. And it came while he is in the midst of leading the prosecution of Mohammad Sharifullah, who is charged with orchestrating the fatal bombing of 13 U.S. military service members in Afghanistan.
“Justice for Americans killed and injured by our enemies should not be contingent on what someone in the Department of Justice sees in their social media feed that day,” Ben’Ary wrote.
Spokespeople for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ben’Ary’s exit from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia came days after the termination of Maya Song, the office’s top deputy and another former aide to Monaco. The shake-up, in one of the most prominent hubs for national security cases in the country, adds to growing turmoil in that office stoked by Trump himself.
Last month, Trump engineered the ouster of the U.S. attorney in the district amid pressure to bring criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey and other Trump adversaries. And he pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi to install his former personal lawyer, Lindsey Halligan, to lead the office. Within days of Halligan’s swearing in, Comey was indicted on two counts related to his 2020 testimony to Congress — a case riddled with anomalies and legal defects.
Ben’Ary described deepening disappointment over what he deemed “political interference” in the department’s work and urged his colleagues to resist giving into those demands. It’s a microcosm of broader alarm among Justice Department veterans and other fired prosecutors, who have described pressure from senior officials to take actions they viewed as political or unethical.
NEW YORK (AP) — Most Americans want Congress to extend tax credits that, if left to expire at the end of the year, could raise health insurance costs for millions of Americans, according to a new poll released Friday from the health care research nonprofit KFF.
By ALI SWENSON
The survey, which was conducted from Sept. 23-29, just prior to the shutdown that began Wednesday, shows initial public support for a move that Democrats have been demanding be included in any government funding bill they sign. A Senate standoff, in part over the enhanced premium tax credits set to end in 2025 if Congress doesn’t act, has resulted in a government shutdown that’s lasted into a third day with no end in sight.
At the same time, the survey showed that only about 4 in 10 U.S. adults had read “a lot” or “some” about the subsidies as the shutdown began, leaving room for public opinion to shift in either direction as the political fight continues. A New York Times/Siena poll of registered voters conducted roughly in the same time period as the KFF poll found that most voters did not want Democrats to shut down the government, even if their demands were not met.
Republicans in Congress have expressed openness to negotiating the extension, but argue it can wait until government funding is restored through a stopgap measure they say is noncontroversial.
The vast majority of Democrats supported the extended tax credits, the poll found, but so did a slimmer majority of Republicans. Those who wanted the health care subsidies to continue were more likely to say they would blame President Donald Trump or the Republicans than Democrats if the credits expired.
Most want ACA tax credits extended
At stake is the cost of health insurance for the 24 million people who have signed up for health coverage through the ACA, in part encouraged by the billions of dollars in subsidies that made it more affordable for many people.
According to the KFF poll, about 3 in 4 Americans — 78% — said that they wanted Congress to extend expiring tax credits for people who buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
That view cuts across party lines, including majorities of Democrats, independents and Republicans. More than half of Republicans who align with President Trump’s Make America Great Again movement — 57% — also supported an extension, the poll found.
Looming expiration isn’t widely known, even among affected groups
The expanded subsidies, first passed in 2021 and extended a year later, allow some low-income enrollees to access health plans with no premiums and cap high earners’ premiums at 8.5% of their income. When they expire, ACA premiums will more than double for the average ACA enrollee, according to another KFF analysis.
KFF’s new poll shows that if the subsidies aren’t extended by the start of the Nov. 1 open enrollment period, many Americans who buy their own health insurance could be caught unaware that their premiums are set to rise next year.
About 6 in 10 people who have self-purchased insurance said they had heard “a little” or “nothing” about the tax credits’ expiration.
Asked if they could afford nearly double the cost they pay in health insurance premiums, 70% of people who purchase insurance through the ACA Marketplace said they could not do this without significantly disrupting their household finances. About 4 in 10 said they’d go without health insurance coverage if their premiums rose that much, while a similar share said they would keep paying and 22% would seek insurance from another source, like an employer or spouse’s employer.
Prior to shutdown, Republicans received more blame for tax credits ending
The poll found that just before the shutdown began, Americans who supported the tax credits were more likely to blame Republicans, who hold the presidency and majorities in both houses of Congress, if the subsidies are left to expire at the end of the year. According to the poll, about 8 in 10 U.S. adults who wanted the subsidies extended said either Trump or Republicans in Congress would deserve most of the blame, while about 2 in 10 said they would blame Democrats in Congress.
In general, though, Democrats were more likely than Republicans or independents to be aware of the pending expiration, leaving room for views to shift as the issue rises in prominence.
The findings come as a recent poll from The Washington Post also found more Americans lay blame for the shutdown on Trump and congressional Republicans than on congressional Democrats, though the findings were preliminary and many respondents were unsure.
Republican leaders, meanwhile, say Democrats are holding the government hostage over a decision that does not need to be tied to the immediate restoration of government funding.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries on Thursday said that millions of Americans are facing “dramatically increased health care premiums, co-pays and deductibles because of the Republican unwillingness to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits.”
The California governor continued to troll the Trump administration on social media after the president posted racist AI videos
By Meredith Kile
California Gov. Gavin Newsom continued to troll President Donald Trump and his administration on social media this week, copying the White House's latest tactics to spin mockery back in their direction.
Over the last several weeks, Newsom's press office account has taken to posting in all-caps, mimicking Trump's posting style on Truth Social.
This week — after the president came under fire for posting a racist, AI-created video of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — Newsom's account followed suit, posting some AI creations of its own.
In one of Newsom's clips, a viral meme version of Vice President JD Vance with a round face and long, curly hair presents "A History of Couches" — a callback to the infamous, but false, rumor that Vance recounted a sexual encounter with his couch cushions in his 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.
In "A History of Couches," the memeified deepfake of Vance introduces the Chesterfield style of leather sofa, detailing the history and "elegance" of its design.
"There are rumors that I once had an encounter with a Chesterfield," Vance appears to say in the AI-generated clip. "People exaggerate, twist the truth, but when you sit on one, you understand where such stories come from. The Chesterfield isn't just furniture, it's an experience, and some of us know that a little too well."
The governor captioned the AI video, "POOR JD! HIS SWEET BELOVED COUCH NOW COSTS MORE WITH THE TARIFFS!"
Newsom's mocking posts continued throughout Tuesday and Wednesday. In a second deepfake video of Vance, the AI-generated VP appears to address some of his real-life scandals, including a resurfaced photo of him in drag and allegations that he wears eyeliner. That video also mentions the fake couch rumor.
"What I don't understand is why people are so obsessed with this other thing: couch intimacy," the fake Vance says in the clip. "Like really? That's the part you're hung up on? Out of everything? That's bizarre to me."
Newsom's personal X account similarly targeted the vice president, sharing a clip of Vance on Fox News where a minion filter has been applied to mask his face and voice.
Newsom's latests efforts to troll Trump come just days after the president posted a fake AI video of himself.
On Saturday, Sept. 27, Trump posted a fake news clip apparently generated using AI in which he said every American would be getting "their own medbed card," according to outlets including Forbes, CNN and The Daily Beast.
The video, which was discussed and shared by CNN's Jake Tapper on Instagram, featured an AI-generated Fox News segment hosted by Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump. It highlighted the "historic new healthcare system," which, in actuality, is non-existent and often touted by conspiracy theorists.
“Every American will soon receive their own medbed card,” an AI-generated version of the president said in the video, in part. “With it, you’ll have guaranteed access to our new hospitals led by the top doctors in the nation, equipped with the most advanced technology in the world.”
The clip was deleted from Trump's profile around 12 hours after it was first posted, The Daily Beast reported. Fox News confirmed to The Verge that the segment “never aired on Fox News Channel or any other Fox News Media platforms."
By Vance Ginn, Ph.D, Deane Waldman, M.D.
October 3, 2025
The current federal government shutdown is framed by Democrats as an attempt to “protect Medicaid” enrollees from “devastating” cuts in coverage by the Trump administration. Republicans argue that Medicaid should be focused on truly medically vulnerable citizens and should not be paying for illegal residents or healthy adults who have returned to work. Both sides miss (or ignore) the real point: the U.S. healthcare system is failing Americans because it rewards bureaucracy, not care, effectively wasting trillions of dollars a year.
Medicaid was never meant to be the sprawling entitlement it is today. In 1965, it was designed to cover less than 2% of the population, specifically those who were truly medically vulnerable. Following expansions under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act and the COVID lockdowns and emergency declarations of both the Trump and Biden administrations, nearly one in four Americans is now enrolled. Many are healthy, working-age individuals eligible for employer coverage.
Image created using AI
Republican proposals to trim Medicaid would improve the rolls, reduce its $900 billion annual price tag, and focus resources on those who genuinely need help. Medicaid is not only fiscally unsustainable but also medically inefficient, with too many dollars lost to “BURRDEN”—bureaucrac y, unnecessary rules, regulations, directives, enforcement, and noncompliance.
When administrators are paid first, too little remains for providers, and the result is deadly. Medicaid enrollees often suffer long wait times and literally die waiting for care—“death by queue.” Georgia’s new Medicaid Pathways program spent $54 million on bureaucracy last year while delivering just $26 million in actual healthcare.
Georgia is not an outlier; it’s the norm. Medicaid spends more and more on BURRDEN, leaving less and less for patients. Meanwhile, the American Medical Association reported national health spending in 2023 rose to $4.9 trillion—$14,570 per person—outpacing GDP growth. Americans are paying more, waiting longer, and dying in line.
The U.S. doesn’t lack spending. It lacks a system that prioritizes patients over paperwork.
Consider employer-sponsored insurance. A $300 billion federal tax exclusion means workers never see part of the money they earn. Instead, it flows into costly, one-size-fits-all coverage chosen by HR, creating “job lock” that traps employees in positions solely for the sake of insurance.
Medicaid’s spending formula magnifies the problem. States get more federal money the more they spend, with little to no accountability. Programs waste billions on administration while patients go untreated. Studies show Medicaid enrollees often fare no better than the uninsured, and one-third of doctors refuse new Medicaid patients.
Meanwhile, outdated certificate-of-need laws, scope-of-practice limits, and cumbersome, time- and money-wasting billing mandates restrict supply, reduce competition, and drive up costs. Administrative expenses consume up to 50% of U.S. healthcare spending, double the OECD average. Nearly one-fifth of the U.S. GDP is allocated to healthcare, yet incentives ensure that the bureaucracy thrives while patients wait for care that never comes.
The result: bigger bills, longer waits, and fewer choices for families—while bureaucrats prosper. Real reform means flipping incentives so patients, not administrators, come first.
Here’s how:
First, shift the tax benefit from employers to employees. Give families control of their healthcare dollars in no-limit health savings accounts. That means higher wages, portable coverage, and personalized plans.
Second, block grant Medicaid to the states. Washington’s open-ended funding fuels overspending. Capped support would encourage state innovation, such as time-limited personal HSAs for Medicaid that promote self-sufficiency.
Third, cut red tape. Repeal certificate-of-need laws and scope-of-practice restrictions so more professionals can meet patient needs directly.
Fourth, unleash innovation. Price controls, FDA delays, and politically driven subsidies weaken America’s biotech edge as China races ahead. Patients win when innovators compete to deliver faster cures at lower costs.
These reforms would lower costs and restore the principle that healthcare should serve families, not bureaucracies. Workers would see higher take-home pay. Patients would gain faster access to care. Americans would benefit from lower prices and new treatment options.
Washington’s spending doesn’t measure compassion. It’s measured by whether a parent can get a sick child treated promptly, whether seniors can afford their prescriptions, and whether breakthroughs reach patients promptly.
Healthcare reform isn’t about Washington saving the system it broke. It’s about trusting We the People (“We the Patients”), empowering states, and unleashing free markets. Until we enable patients and providers instead of bureaucrats and politicians, we’ll keep pouring trillions into a system where Americans pay for the privilege of waiting in line to die.
Why the left opposes everything Trump backs — even when they know he’s right
By Victor Davis Hanson
Published Aug. 24, 2025
Nothing seems to destroy him -- not the raid on his home, not 93 lawfare indictments, not efforts to strike him from state ballots, not two impeachments, not even two assassination attempts. AP
The Pavlovian left goes berserk at the mere prospect of each new Trump initiative.
Its escalating reactive venom and hysteria are calibrated to the success of Trump’s latest policy.
Yet the new hard-left Democratic Party offers no counter-agenda to explain its furor. Still less do Democrats attempt bipartisan efforts to craft shared legislation.
Take foreign policy.
Democratic senators trashed the recent Trump-Putin Alaska summit as a failure. Then they became depressed when, just days later, an entourage of European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suddenly flew to the White House.
The Euros praised Trump for offering some sort of negotiated pathway to peace after over three years of war and some 1.5 million dead, wounded, missing and captured on both sides — on Europe’s doorstep.
So why did Democrats object to such negotiations by Trump?
Was the reason that no such thing occurred during the Biden administration, when Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, after his earlier invasions during the Obama era?
What is the left’s alternate plan? The old Biden idea of supplying Ukraine with enough money and arms to keep fighting and dying, but with no path to either victory or a negotiated peace?
Would they prefer a fourth, fifth or sixth year of war, or another 1 million casualties?
The more Trump pressed almost all NATO members to pay their promised 2% of GDP on defense, the more Democrats grew irate over Trump’s overseas influence.
NATO members now want to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP and gush that Trump is “Daddy.”
Democrats steamed at that, since Europeans are supposed to hate Trump, not admire him for rebooting NATO.
Would they prefer the old, disarmed NATO?
Under the Biden administration, over 10 million illegal aliens flooded the country, sometimes 10,000 a day at the southern border. More than half a million criminals swarmed in.
Yet now there is essentially zero illegal immigration and over 100,000 criminal aliens deported. A million who entered illegally have voluntarily gone home.
Yet the left has fought the enforcement of immigration law tooth and nail.
Do they believe it is lawful and moral to break immigration law but immoral and illegal to enforce it?
What is their solution?
To allow in 20, 30 or 40 million more illegal aliens to distort the census and bring in new voters and constituencies?
Is their plan to protect 400,000 illegal-alien criminals to roam at will? Or to add another 600 sanctuary jurisdictions that will not hand over criminal illegal aliens to immigration authorities?
Democrats used to support reciprocal tariffs to save American jobs and businesses — while warning of Chinese mercantilism.
But now they blast Trump for negotiating tariffs with dozens of nations in efforts to reduce an unsustainable $1 trillion trade deficit.
So far, Washington projects $300 billion in new revenue.
Foreign businesses have promised to invest between $10 trillion and $15 trillion within the United States. Trading partners have lowered tariffs on US goods and services.
So why the left-wing frenzy?
Do they object to too much new federal income? Is there too much new foreign investment?
Are new foreign tariffs too low on US exports? Are Democrats worried that China may lose money?
In 35 minutes of precision bombing, Trump disabled the Iranian nuclear program that was readying nuclear weapons. Few Iranians and no Americans died. No wider war followed.
Did they prefer the Obama-era “Iran Deal” that had brought Iran to the threshold of nuclear acquisition? Did they want theocratic Iran to have nuclear weapons to threaten democratic Israel?
Do Democrats complain that Trump tweets too much and sometimes is crude in his postings?
Not really. California Gov. Gavin Newsom tries to out-Trump on social media.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett responds with scatological attacks.
Democrats in Congress let off f-bombs.
What explains the Democrats’ nihilism?
One, the prior Biden administration was among the most aimless, corrupt and unpopular in modern history — so the contrast with Trump’s successes is too hard to bear.
Two, Democrats so hate Trump the messenger that they seek to destroy his entire message, even when it benefits their own country and the world at large.
If Trump conducts peace, they prefer war. If he wages war on crime, they side with the criminal. If he stops illegal immigration, they want more illegal immigrants.
Three, they fear they have no alternatives to the Trump record, because his agenda is common sense and supported by a majority of Americans.
Four, the left cannot stop Trump’s success.
Nothing seems to destroy him — not the raid on his home, not 93 lawfare indictments, not efforts to strike him from state ballots, not two impeachments, not even two assassination attempts.
Instead, all that only made him stronger — and thus more hated.
Obamacare destroyed the health insurance market, Trump is rebuilding it
By Jack Hellner
September 10, 2025
For years, the Democrats have maintained their goal to take away freedom of choice on health care, wanting government health care for all. The misnamed “Affordable Care Act” took away freedom of choice, forcing everyone to buy a Rolls Royce policy, which obviously made premiums skyrocket.
Democrats continually lied, saying that if you liked your plan and doctor you could keep them, and they intentionally lied when they said Obamacare would substantially lower premiums. What a joke!
The bill had thousands of pages of regulations, and took away lifetime and annual limits, which meant small- and medium-sized companies couldn’t afford the risk, leaving large companies with a captive audience.
The results of Obamacare are obvious. Health insurance is much more unaffordable. In 2009, a policy for individuals cost an average of $92.43 per month, and family coverage was $349.36 per month, according to BLS data. The average cost of individual coverage in 2025 is $621 per month, or up 480%, which is 431% higher than the 49% overall inflation rate from 2009 to 2025. The average cost of family coverage in 2025 is $2,026 per month, or up 575%, which is 526% higher than the 49% overall inflation rate from 2009 to 2025.
Yet, most people posing as journalists and other Democrats continue to intentionally lie to the public that Obamacare has made health insurance more affordable.
Thankfully, we now have a president who understands freedom of choice and more competition is the way to make things more affordable, not complete government control:
Trump unlocks cheaper healthcare plans that could save American families thousands of dollars
President Donald Trump just took a pivotal step to make healthcare affordable again.
On Sept. 4, his administration announced that most Americans will now be eligible to buy what are known as ‘copper plans’ on the ObamaCare exchanges. Before this reform, nearly all Americans were legally barred from buying these much more affordable plans. But now working families can get the plans they need at a price they can afford – and many uninsured people will likely get covered as a result.
The president is fixing one of the fundamental problems with ObamaCare. That law forced Americans who get their insurance on the individual market to buy costly plans, and in the 11 years since the law went into effect, they’ve gotten even pricier.
Biden and the Democrats couldn’t get enough people to sign up for Obamacare, so they kept ratcheting up subsidies and income eligibility levels.
Here’s more, from Sally Pipes at Newsmax:
Thanks to Obamacare, Insurance Fraud Irresistible
According to a new study by the Paragon Health Institute, an astounding number of patients with premium-free exchange plans filed no claims whatsoever last year.
[snip]
It’s hard not to interpret this situation as anything but evidence of widespread fraud enabled by the enhanced premium subsidies green-lit by Democrats in 2022.
First, some background. As part of the pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act, the Biden administration made exchange premium subsidies even more generous than the Affordable Care Act envisioned. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act extended those enhanced subsidies through the end of this year.
One consequence of this policy is that anyone earning between 100% and 150% of the federal poverty level now has access to effectively zero-cost insurance.
That creates a strong incentive for insurers and brokers to enroll as many of these people in exchange plans as possible. They can claim the federal premium subsidies — and the enrollee can ostensibly get free coverage.
According to the study, there were a whopping 12 million individuals who fell into this category last year. That's a more than three-fold increase from just three years prior, before Biden's enhanced subsidies went into effect.
How much is this scheme costing taxpayers?
The Paragon study estimates that in 2024 alone, $40 billion in federal subsidies were paid to health insurance companies on behalf of patients who received no medical care.
This looks like these policies have generated massive fraud. How is it possible that over 50% of people, 12 million, covered by Obamacare didn’t use health insurance at all and insurers were paid $40 billion for that coverage?
Are we really supposed to believe that 12 million people who have these policies didn’t get shots, didn’t pick up prescriptions, didn’t go to urgent care or emergency rooms, didn’t get their no cost physicals, and didn’t get mammograms?
Of course, if Trump and other Republicans want to investigate Obamacare for fraud, they will be accused of wanting to take away health insurance from people and causing people to die. Those are the standard talking points in all elections.
Democrats ARE spending money on healthcare for illegal migrants — in California, it’s $6.4 billion
By Chris Pope
Published Oct. 2, 2025, 4:50 p.m. ET
Last week, Vice President J.D. Vance tweeted: “Democrats are about to shut down the government because they demand we fund healthcare for illegal aliens.”
Democrats and the media bristled. That wasn’t true, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash) protested: “Undocumented immigrants are not eligible to enroll in federally funded health coverage under existing law or Democrats’ funding proposal.”
Liberal fact-checkers argued that Medicaid subsidies for emergency care were trivial, and did not count as health coverage.
But their “fact checks” are just semantics.
In fact, last year, nationwide Medicaid spending on “emergency care for undocumented aliens” almost tripled — because the state of California used it as a method of laundering federal money to fund a comprehensive health benefit for its unauthorized residents.
Medicaid is an enormously lucrative program for states.
It gives them between $1 and $9 for every $1 they spend on health care benefits for eligible low-income Americans, without any upper limit.
Illegal immigrants are supposed to be prohibited from receiving Medicaid, as they are from obtaining Medicare and Obamacare subsidies — but an exception to this is that states may claim federal Medicaid funding for hospitals to provide “emergency care” for unauthorized immigrants.
CNN’s fact-checker plays down this provision, noting: “Less than 1% of total Medicaid spending went toward emergency Medicaid for undocumented immigrants in fiscal year 2023.”
Yet this exception has quickly become a significant loophole.
From 2023 to 2024, Medicaid spending on “Emergency Services for Undocumented Aliens” suddenly soared from $3.8 billion to $9.1 billion.
This wasn’t due to the economy or changes in healthcare costs. In 49 states, in fact, emergency Medicaid spending declined.
The surge in this expenditure was entirely due to the state of California, where spending suddenly leaped from $1.6 billion to $6.4 billion.
The federal government is supposed to cover 50% of California’s Medicaid costs — but Washington paid for 70% of the state’s Medicaid ESUA expenditures in 2024.
What happened?
In 2024, California became the first state to offer comprehensive health insurance to all undocumented immigrants.
Here's what we know about the government shutdown
Democrats and Republicans failed to reach an agreement over a stopgap funding measure by Tuesday night’s deadline, leading to the shutdown.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes fell at the start of Wednesday’s trading session following the shutdown.
Student loan payments must still be met during this time, while the Education Department will halt new grantmaking activity and investigations over possible civil rights violations.
If the shutdown continues, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ nonfarm payrolls report, considered far more comprehensive and reliable than the ADP release, will not be released on Friday.
Funding for the Hudson Tunnel project and Second Avenue subway extension in New York has been put on hold.
The program now covers 1.6 million people at a cost of $8.5 billion per year.
This benefit was supposed to be paid for with state-only funds, but California has taken advantage of Medicaid’s open-ended payment structures to shift the cost to the federal government.
The state claimed $4.8 billion of increased Medicaid expenditures as “emergency services for undocumented aliens” — 56% of the cost of the eligibility expansion.
For context, emergency care normally accounts for only 5% of health care spending.
This is not the only way California made the feds pay for the new benefit: The state also imposed a tax on insurers to increase the cost of covering legitimate Medicaid beneficiaries.
That allowed it to claim $5 billion in federal revenues as “state funds,” which could be used to extend healthcare benefits to immigrants supposedly excluded from Medicaid.
Six other states, including New York, provide comprehensive health benefits to illegal immigrant adults — although they have not yet been so brazen about claiming federal funds for the purpose.
This summer’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act only trimmed the matching rates which states can claim for Medicaid ESUA benefits.
That will reduce the share of California’s costs borne by federal taxpayers from 70% to 50%. The Trump administration may also be able to withhold matching funds for expenditures which are inappropriately categorized as “emergency care.”
But a deeper problem remains: The enormous and open-ended discretion Medicaid gives states to claim federal funding makes it hard for the feds to ensure that the program’s expenditures are reserved for its intended purposes.
Until that changes, the Democratic claim that federal money isn’t being used on illegal immigrants is simply not true.
Blame government shutdown on ObamaCare — the ruinous law that broke American politics
By David Harsanyi
Published Oct. 2, 2025, 6:40 p.m. ET
Speaker Mike Johnson at a press conference with other Republican leaders on the government shutdown on Oct. 2, 2025. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Since Democrats have shut down the federal government because they want another $1.5 trillion bailout of ObamaCare, it’s a good time to remind everyone that the law has been a wide-ranging and expensive fiasco.
Virtually every promise made by Democrats regarding the Affordable Care Act has failed to come true.
Sure, Barack Obama infamously promised that Americans could keep their preferred insurance if they desired.
By the end of his second term, around 7 million people had been booted from their insurance because of the ACA. Who knows how many have been dropped since.
But let’s also not forget that Obama pledged that the law would reduce family health insurance premiums by “up to” $2,500 annually by the end of his first term.
Premiums not only continued to rise during his presidency, but since 2010, they have spiked from $13,000 to nearly $24,000.
Democrats used to love to talk about “bending the cost curve.” Well, congrats.
Obama also promised that ObamaCare’s state exchanges would enhance competition among insurers and lower costs. Taxpayers are now on the hook for 90% of the cost of those premiums.
If the COVID-era ObamaCare subsidies are allowed to sunset, taxpayers will be responsible for a mere 80%.
Without the subsidies, the Congressional Budget Office predicted that 3.6 million users would leave the exchanges.
ObamaCare didn’t create better health-care insurance options for consumers; it created millions of state dependents.
The ObamaCare exchanges were sold as self-sufficient engines of capitalism even as Democrats were doing everything to inhibit market competition.
Many ObamaCare exchanges now only have a single insurer. Aetna, UnitedHealthcare and Humana have all basically abandoned them.
One of the most contentious debates over the ACA was the cost. Democrats stressed that the project would cost less than a trillion dollars over a decade.
On numerous occasions, Obama promised he would not add “one dime” to the debt. Democrats, in fact, guaranteed the ACA would help reduce deficits.
If you dared question the estimates, fact-checkers would swarm and call you a liar.
There’s no definitive number on the debt added by ObamaCare since its passage. It is likely in the hundreds of billions of dollars, if not trillions.
Democrats promised that penalties on employers who failed to provide health insurance would bring in “substantial” revenue to allay costs.
Once the ACA was passed, Obama ignored that requirement by delaying implementation, before “tweaking” the law without any constitutional authority.
The employer mandate now brings in only a small fraction of promised returns.
Obama also kept delaying the ACA’s “Cadillac tax,” a levy on alleged “gold-plated” private employee plans.
The tax was meant to discourage upper- and middle-class workers from obtaining the types of plans Democrats deemed too generous as a way of lowering costs but also raising “revenue.”
Once labor unions found out they also had “gold-plated” plans, well, Democrats dropped the idea, which was repealed in 2019.
The individual mandate, which the Supreme Court miraculously transformed into a “tax,” now exists only in conceptual form, despite Democrats’ promise that it would generate tens of billions of dollars in revenue.
It brings in zero dollars.
So it’s no surprise that Democrats have been demanding Republicans bail out the poorly conceived law since its passage.
When Congress refused to pass new subsidies in 2013, the Obama administration, again without any constitutional authority, ordered the Treasury to create a $7 billion per year appropriation for insurance companies participating in the allegedly self-supporting exchanges.
When a district court ruled that the payments were unconstitutional, Obama ignored the decision.
Don’t you love it when Democrats lecture people about norms?
When Democrats added new ObamaCare subsidies to the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act to fund those with incomes 400% over the federal poverty line, they sold it as a temporary measure to get through the COVID-19 economy.
Every Democratic leader referred to the subsidies as “a bridge” that was meant to help until the economy rebounded from the pandemic.
Here we are in 2025. You know what they say about temporary government programs.
Aside from all the failed promises, the passage of ObamaCare broke American politics.
For the first time in US history, a party unilaterally rammed through a massive national reform without any input from half the country.
In their effort to appease a handful of moderates in their party, Democrats larded up ObamaCare with unenforceable mandates, taxes and bureaucratic complexities that created the illusion of affordability.
When they still couldn’t pass the bill using the traditional lawmaking process, they blew up a bunch of governing norms to do it.
Now, Democrats have shut the government down to try and force Republicans to help prop up this disastrous law.
Dems shut down the government because they think it’s not going bankrupt fast enough
By Post Editorial Board
Published Oct. 2, 2025, 6:37 p.m. ET
Democrats have shut down the federal government because they think the federal debt isn’t spiraling out of control fast enough — they demand the Republican majorities in Congress agree to spend more taxpayer cash on Dems’ priorities.
Dems forced the shutdown by using the filibuster to prevent a Senate floor vote that would’ve passed the House “stopgap” bill to fund federal operations for another six weeks or so.
As their price just to allow a vote, Democrats demand roughly $1.5 trillion in added spending.
Despite their denials, a significant part of that is funding for health coverage for illegal immigrants: Their own alternative bill spelled that out, with language repealing recent GOP legislation that restricts Medicaid coverage of such migrants.
The main category of federal Medicaid spending on “undocumented aliens” jumped from $3 billion in 2023 to $9 billion in 2024; even more federal cash flows indirectly to such care via various state accounting gimmicks that the Biden administration winked at.
An even bigger chunk of Dems’ $1.5 trillion demand is to fund ObamaCare subsidies to lower the price of insurance bought via the “exchanges.”
Democrats used their Biden-era majorities in Congress to impose these “temporary” subsidies first via the “American Rescue Plan Act” and then the “Inflation Reduction Act” (though of course bailing out ObamaCare had nothing to do with bouncing back from COVID or fighting inflation).
Millions of Americans won’t buy ObamaCare policies without these subsidies because — despite Dems’ insistence at the time that ObamaCare would “bend the cost curve down” — premiums have nearly doubled since Democrats rammed the law through without a single Republican vote.
The GOP’s willing to discuss restoring some subsidies — but not in the stopgap bill.
Meanwhile, the ObamaCare law also vastly spiked federal Medicaid outlays, bribing states to expand coverage by picking up 90% of the added costs — another “temporary” arrangement that Dems keep extending.
As a result, Uncle Sam’s Medicaid spending has exploded: It jumped from $409 billion in 2019 to $615 billion in 2023 and roughly $650 billion this year.
The GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act this year aimed to slow that growth in coming years; undoing those restraints is another part of Democrats’ $1.5 trillion ransom demand.
Now step back and look at the bigger picture.
Thanks in good part to President Joe Biden’s two huge spending bills, the national debt is now over $37 trillion, up from not quite $28 trillion when he took office.
Not only did that hog-wild spending produce Bidenflation, it put the country on a completely unsustainable fiscal path.
Republicans are trying to restore sanity by 1) slowing Medicaid’s growth, 2) declining to renew the huge subsidies that cover up ObamaCare’s failure, and 3) stopping the use of federal funds to cover illegal immigrants’ health care.
Democrats are trying to blackmail the GOP into surrendering on all three counts — abandoning all efforts to stop the debt from spiraling out of control — simply to fund the government through November.
JORGE MARTINEZ: Democrats Chose Illegal Immigrant Benefits Over The American People, And Now Washington Is Closed
by Daily Caller News Foundation
October 2, 2025
The government is officially shut down. Agencies have gone dark, families are anxious, and markets are uneasy. But make no mistake: This crisis is not the product of fiscal prudence or a careful budgeting process. It is the direct result of Democrats demanding $1.5 trillion in new spending, including billions for free healthcare and benefits for illegal immigrants, at the expense of hardworking Americans.
This is political hostage-taking, plain and simple.
At the center of this standoff is the Left’s obsession with expanding entitlements for non-citizens. According to the White House’s own analysis, the Democrat plan would commit nearly $200 billion over the next decade to cover healthcare for illegal immigrants and other non-citizens. To fund this reckless giveaway, they would gut reforms designed to protect vulnerable American patients.
This shutdown is not about whether veterans get their checks or whether small businesses receive federal support. Conservatives offered clean funding measures to keep the government open. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the radical Left rejected them. They chose illegal immigrants over American citizens.
Shutdowns are never painless. Economists estimate that each week of closure drains about $15 billion in GDP and costs tens of thousands of jobs. Families waiting on permits, benefits, or loan approvals will see delays. Active-duty military will continue serving without pay. Essential workers will carry on, but under stress and uncertainty.
That hardship lands squarely on the shoulders of the Democrats. They had the choice to fund government responsibly— border security, veterans, infrastructure, law enforcement — without tying it to a radical agenda. Instead, they walked away.
This comes as the national debt already tops $37 trillion, and annual interest payments on that debt are projected to exceed defense spending within two years. At a moment that demands restraint and focus, Democrats doubled down on giveaways and pork-barrel politics.
President Donald J. Trump and Vice President JD Vance have drawn a sharp line: government should serve Americans first. That means securing the border, defending the homeland, strengthening wages, and investing in infrastructure. It does not mean funneling taxpayer money to illegal immigrants or bloated agencies that exist to enforce woke ideology.
The Trump-Vance Administration’s budget framework is a plan rooted in national interest, not political gamesmanship. Unlike Democrats, this administration has been transparent. They told the American people exactly what they would fund and what they would not. It is the Left that chose to block these commonsense measures and force a shutdown.
Why would Democrats force this outcome? The answer is simple: politics. They believe that by dragging the nation through a shutdown, they can paint Republicans as irresponsible while hiding their own radical priorities.
But Americans are not fooled. Poll after poll shows that citizens want stronger borders, fiscal discipline, and an end to handouts for those who broke our laws to enter this country. By making illegal immigrant healthcare the hill they chose to die on, Democrats have revealed their true priorities.
This shutdown is painful but also clarifying. It exposes the Left’s willingness to sacrifice stability in order to expand government dependency. And it highlights the Trump-Vance Administration’s commitment to an America First agenda, even under intense pressure.
Republicans must hold the line. To surrender now would be to signal that Democrats can always win by threatening chaos. That would guarantee more reckless spending, more border neglect, and more shutdowns engineered by the Left in the future.
Instead, conservatives should rally around the principle that government exists for citizens, not special interests, and not illegal aliens. That is the only path to a stable, prosperous, and sovereign United States of America.
The shutdown is real. The pain is real. But so is the opportunity to redefine what government stands for. If Republicans stay united and the Trump–Vance Administration continues its firm leadership, Democrats will have no choice but to come back to the table, and on terms that prioritize America first.
This fight is not just about dollars. It’s about direction. Do we spend our future on illegal immigrant benefits and ideological programs, or do we invest in security, sovereignty, and American prosperity?
EXCLUSIVE: Mike Johnson Rips Democrats, Legacy Media For ‘Intentionally Lying’ About Healthcare For Illegals
by Daily Caller News Foundation
October 2, 2025
House Speaker Mike Johnson blasted Democratic lawmakers and their allies in the legacy media on Thursday for appearing to intentionally mislead Americans about illegal immigrants receiving taxpayer-funded healthcare.
Johnson and top GOP leaders accused Democratic lawmakers of seeking to restore nearly $200 billion in health care benefits for illegal migrants and other non-citizens in exchange for reopening the government. The speaker has been embarking on a media blitz in recent days and told the Daily Caller News Foundation the effort is partly to refute left-wing talking points that legacy media outlets are pushing in an effort to give cover to Democrats during the shutdown fight.
“As has been demonstrated over and over, the mainstream media is simply repeating verbatim Democrat false talking points,” Johnson told the DCNF. “We have to be out there telling the truth — because the entire mainstream media apparatus is covering for the Democrats and sharing their falsehoods.”
“ABC, CNN, CBS, MSNBC — they don’t even pretend to be objective anymore,” Johnson continued. “It’s just a totally one-sided parade.”
Johnson spoke with the DCNF on the second full day of the shutdown, which began after Senate Democrats rejected a clean, bipartisan bill to fund the government through Nov. 21. The speaker has repeatedly said that he and Senate Majority Leader John Thune see no reason to negotiate with Democrats until they vote to reopen the government.
CNN notably cut away from a House GOP leadership press conference on Thursday after Johnson began discussing how Democrats’ funding plan would provide healthcare benefits to illegal migrants.
The CNN anchor appeared to fact-check Johnson’s statement despite her colleague, Jake Tapper, acknowledging Wednesday that Democrats are seeking to eliminate a provision that cracks down on certain states who provide illegal migrants with emergency Medicaid coverage.
Democrats’ proposal would also restore billions in funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting, eliminate a $50 million fund for rural health providers and enact a permanent extension of Biden-era Obamacare subsidies.
Johnson also ripped ABC’s George Stephanopoulos for accusing him of falsely claiming that Democrats’ proposal provides healthcare for illegal migrants in an interview Wednesday.
“They’ve [Democrats] gotten cover because, as you’ve seen, most of the mainstream media outlets are delivering, giving them softball interviews and asking them the question to read off the page,” Johnson told the DCNF. “Conversely, when I go on it’s like a coliseum.”
Johnson has pointed to six provisions within Democrats’ $1.5 trillion counter-proposal that would undo Republicans’ Medicaid reforms enacted in July and provide taxpayer-funded healthcare benefits to noncitizens, including illegal migrants.
Nearly every House Democrat voted against the clean seven-week funding extension to avert a government shutdown on Sept. 19. The one Democrat who broke ranks accused top Democrats of plunging the country into a government shutdown to curry favor with far-left activist groups.
Democrats are seeking to remove GOP-passed language that reduces Medicaid payments to states who have expanded Medicaid and offer emergency coverage to illegal migrants.
“There’s a lot of emergency health care at hospitals that [is] provided to illegal aliens,” Vice President JD Vance told “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday. “That was funded by the federal government. We turned off that funding because of course we want American citizens to benefit from those hospital services, not to be taxed and then have those hospital services go to illegal aliens.”
The Democrat funding plan also removes new restrictions passed by Republicans in July that bars most noncitizens from receiving Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare.
Democratic lawmakers’ proposal would also restore a maneuver dubbed the “California Loophole” that allows Democratic-led states to use Medicaid spending to provide benefits to illegal migrants.
The amount that Democrats propose to spend on healthcare benefits for noncitizens is roughly equal to the $195 billion needed to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program for the next decade, according to a memo authored by the White House.
Johnson also sharply criticized his Democratic colleagues for either deliberately misleading voters or being unaware of the language within their own proposal to fund the government.
“There are Democrats who are intentionally lying and hoping that people will buy it,” Johnson told the DCNF. “They’re hoping that they’ll get sufficient air cover from mainstream media allies to try to convince the American people that what is on paper isn’t actually there.”
“And then there’s others who simply are ignorant of the facts,” Johnson continued. “They haven’t read, or maybe they read and don’t understand the very simple language in the legislation that they drafted.”
Some Democratic lawmakers, conversely, have defended the restoration of healthcare benefits for noncitizens and illegal migrants.
“Are Democrats demanding health care for illegal aliens?” a reporter asked Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters, who voted to shut down the government, on Tuesday.
“Democrats are demanding health care for everybody,” Waters replied. “We want to save lives.”
Johnson predicted that American citizens losing access to some healthcare services due to the shutdown could force Democrats to relent and reopen the government.
“This is real pain for real people,” Johnson told the DCNF. “The question is, how much of an appetite will they have, for how long, to jeopardize the health and safety of real American citizens?”
‘The Party of Hate, Evil, and Satan’: Trump Blasts Dems
by Sandra Rhodes
October 3, 2025 at 10:00 am
President Donald Trump had a few choice words in describing the Democratic Party as the federal government remains shutdown.
Trump took to social media Thursday night to post a collage of Democrats Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) plus former President Joe Biden and former first lady Jill Biden, per Mediaite.
The words “The Party of Hate, Evil, and Satan” are included along with “The Democratic Party is Dead! They have no leadership! no message! no hope! their only message for America is to hate Trump!”
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@DailyTruthPosts) October 3, 2025
The government has been shut down since midnight Wednesday after a stopgap funding measure failed to pass the Republican majority Senate where the vote was 53-47. Sixty votes are needed.
Schumer seeks to barter Democratic votes in exchange for an extension of COVID-era healthcare premium subsidies for Obamacare.
The cost is immense for more than 20 million Americans if those subsidies are not extended.
Their premiums could more than double each month from $888 a month to $1,904. The subsidies expire Dec. 31.
Trump also made a post on social media boasting he had presided over “record Black employment” while also claiming there was “record Black imprisonment” under former President Bill Clinton and “record Black welfare” under former President Barack Obama.
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@DailyTruthPosts) October 3, 2025
CNN has since reported that claim was false.
Trump and the GOP have also claimed Democrats want unauthorized immigrants to receive government healthcare — a measure that is illegal and a claim also shot down by CNN fact-checking.
THE DEMOCRATS WANT TO GIVE YOUR HEALTHCARE MONEY TO ILLEGAL ALIENS AND OPEN OUR BORDERS TO THE CRIMINALS OF THE WORLD, A DEADLY COMBINATION BECAUSE EVERYBODY WILL COME!
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@DailyTruthPosts) October 3, 2025
Members of the GOP have beseeched Democrats to tone down their rhetoric in the aftermath of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination in September.
However, Trump has warned of the “enemy within” as he defended his deployment of the military in the U.S.
Democrats Ask For Money While Blaming Trump, GOP For Shutdown
by Daily Caller News Foundation
October 2, 2025
Leading Democrats are fundraising off of the government shutdown — and blaming Republicans and President Donald Trump for it — despite voting against keeping government operations running, according to emails reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Senate Democrats sparked a government shutdown on Wednesday after rejecting a clean, bipartisan extension of government funding. Democratic lawmakers and top Democratic spending groups have sent a flurry of fundraising emails with donation links attached since the shutdown began despite the funding lapse jeopardizing active-duty service member pay, disaster relief funding and Americans’ access to certain healthcare services.
The House Majority PAC, a top Democratic outside spending group involved in House races, sent out a fundraising emailon Wednesday featuring an image of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama, with text that reads “Republicans’ shutdown continues, and Barack and Michelle Obama speak up!” The email also states that “one of the most powerful and respected Democratic couples in HISTORY have stood up and called on every American to act before it’s too late!”
“That’s why House Majority PAC is uniting a HISTORIC wave of support to show Trump and Republicans that Democrats will make their government shutdown BACKFIRE!,” according to the email. “So top Democrats have agreed to 600% MATCH every donation to help us do it!”
A fundraising email penned by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Wednesday attacked the president for posting an altered-video of the minority leader donning a sombrero.
“He [Trump] just posted a racist and bigoted attack against me in a desperate attempt to distract from the Republican shutdown,” the email read. “When extremists fan the flames of hostility, you better believe I’ll respond.”
“I’m asking 786 supporters to step up and prove Democrats stand united,” the email continued. “Will you rush $15 before midnight to hand Donald Trump and his MAGA allies a stunning rebuke?”
Jeffries notably declined to say on Wednesday whether he would withhold a paycheck during the government shutdown.
Vulnerable House Democrats who are expected to field competitive GOP challengers during the midterms have also blasted out fundraising missives during the shutdown.
Democratic Nevada Rep. Steven Horsford argued Wednesday in a fundraising email that Republicans were responsible for the shutdown despite the Nevada Democrat voting against funding the government.
“Together, we can hold Republicans accountable and demand a government that works for the people,” Horsford wrote. “Thank you for being in this fight.”
Similarly, Democratic Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur wrote Wednesday in an email requesting donations that she and her Democratic colleagues in Congress have “been in Washington all week, doing our job: working to keep our government open and fighting to protect affordable healthcare for families in Northwest Ohio and across the country,” while Republicans “literally walked out.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson adjourned the House following nearly every House Democrat, including Kaptur, opposing a bipartisan spending bill to fund the government on Sept. 19.
Democratic candidates running for House seats in 2026 have also recently sent fundraising appeals attacking Republicans over the shutdown.
“Today, Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress have shut down the federal government, and we will all pay the price,” Democratic New Hampshire House candidate Stefany Shaheen reportedly wrote in a fundraising email obtained by the NHJournal.
Shaheen is running in a contested primary to succeed Democratic New Hampshire Rep. Chris Pappas, who is vying to replace Shaheen’s mother, Democratic New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, in the Senate.
Shaheen did not disclose that her mother has voted against a House-passed bipartisan bill to fund the government three times. The retiring senator is expected to vote on the measure for a fourth time on Friday.
The DCNF also reviewed fundraising emails sent by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Emilia Sykes of Ohio and Eugene Vindman of Virginia.
Johnson told the DCNF in an interview Thursday that House Democrats have lost further credibility after voting to shut down the government and then immediately insisting that they are serious about reopening the government.
“Their whole existence is framed around messaging, no matter how false or misleading,” Johnson said. “The House Democrats are simply not being taken seriously by anyone at this point.”
Jeffries, Horsford and Kaptur did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment. Stefany Shaheen did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
WATCH: Hakeem Jeffries Freezes When Confronted With Proof Of Healthcare For Illegal Aliens In Dem Plan
By Cullen McCue
Oct. 03, 2025
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) was at a loss for words when CNN host Jake Tapper confronted him with the fact that some portions of the Democratic Party’s demands in the ongoing shutdown fight will provide healthcare for illegal aliens and non-citizens.
Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have claimed that they are merely arguing in favor of a continuation of Obama-era Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits that are set to expire and additional healthcare expenditures for American citizens. “It’s a total, absolute [expletive] lie,” Schumer fumed while speaking with MSNBC on Wednesday morning.
Jeffries has said the same, claiming that Republican arguments on the issue constitute an “outright lie.”
“Federal law prohibits the use of taxpayer dollars to provide medical coverage to undocumented individuals. That’s the law. And there is nothing in anything that we have proposed that is trying to change that law,” he said during a September 30 interview with CNBC.
Republican leaders, including Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), have pushed back by pointing to Biden-era programs that allowed non-citizens to receive healthcare benefits. “Yes, it is illegal for illegal aliens to receive health care paid for by hardworking American taxpayers. But [Democrats are] making the demand to change that. … That’s one of Chuck Schumer’s primary demands to keep the government open,” Johnson told CNN on September 28.
As the shutdown dragged on towards the 24-hour mark on Wednesday, Jeffries once again appeared on CNN to claim that Republican arguments about healthcare for illegal aliens are false. Host Jake Tapper responded by pointing to exact provisions that contract the Democrats’ line of attack.
“So let me ask you about a provision that the Republicans are talking about quite a bit. I know you want to talk about and Democrats want to talk about extending the Obamacare subsidies which expire at the end of 2025. But they talk about the provisions and it’s right here,” Tapper said while showing Jeffries the provision.
“Subtile e, and this has to do with the repeal of health care subtitle changes and specifically what it is they they’re how they characterize it, is you want to give health insurance uh to undocumented immigrants,” he continued, at which point Jeffries interjected with “that’s a lie.”
Tapper agreed, though he did note that the plan “does bring back funding for emergency Medicaid to hospitals, some of which does pay for undocumented immigrants and people who don’t have health insurance.”
“And also there is this provision, and it’s not about undocumented immigrants, it’s about people with asylum seekers and people with temporary protected status, et cetera, et cetera, but about their ability to get Medicaid. So they’re non -citizens, they’re not undocumented, they’re not illegal. Why even include that in a bill knowing that they’re going to seize right upon that and use that to message?”
REPORT: President Trump Declares U.S. Is Now In a Formal WAR With Drug Cartels
by Kaley
Oct. 03, 2025
In a memo to Congress, President Trump has reportedly declared an official war on drug cartels!
Specifically, the brief memo said that the U.S. is now in a formal “non-international armed conflict” with the cartels in North and South America.
Check it out:
🚨 BREAKING: Trump admin tells Congress that US is now in 'non-international armed conflict' with drug cartels designated as terrorist organizations pic.twitter.com/prH6ATwUQl
BREAKING 🚨 President Trump has decided that the U.S. is engaged in a formal “armed conflict” with drug cartels his team has labeled terrorist organizations and that suspected smugglers for such groups are “unlawful combatants,” the administration said in a confidential notice to…
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) October 2, 2025
BREAKING 🚨 President Trump has decided that the U.S. is engaged in a formal “armed conflict” with drug cartels his team has labeled terrorist organizations and that suspected smugglers for such groups are “unlawful combatants,” the administration said in a confidential notice to Congress this week — NYT
Fox News covered the story:
Since President Trump took office, drug cartels have rightfully been officially designated as terrorist organizations.
And, it’s not just talk. The Trump administration is taking serious action to treat dangerous drug cartel members as the terrorists they are.
As you probably know, President Trump’s war declaration comes after the U.S. military has already conducted several successful strikes on Venezuelan drug boats.
It also comes amid reports that the Department of War is preparing to strike drug labs inside Venzuela.
Fox News has more details on the memo:
The Trump administration sent a memo to Congress on Thursday saying that the United States is now “in a non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels, which administration officials have designated as “terrorist organizations.”
“The President directed these actions consistent with his responsibility to protect Americans and United States interests abroad and in furtherance of United States national security and foreign policy interests, pursuant to his constitutional authority as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive to conduct foreign relations,” the memo states.
The notification to congressional lawmakers came as Democrats on key committees have accused the administration of exceeding its powers to use the military against the cartels, particularly in the wake of recent strikes on what the administration said were drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean.
“The cartels involved have grown more armed, well-organized, and violent,” the memo said. “They have the financial means, sophistication, and paramilitary capabilities needed to operate with impunity.”
“They illegally and directly cause the deaths of tens of thousands of American citizens each year,” it continued. “Although friendly foreign nations have made significant efforts to combat these organizations, suffering significant losses of life, these groups are now transnational and conduct ongoing attacks throughout the Western Hemisphere in the form of organized cartels. Therefore, the President determined these cartels are non-state armed groups, designated them as terrorist organizations, and determined that their actions constitute an armed attack against the United States.”
The memo specifically cites the Sept. 15 strike.
The New York Times was the first to obtain the memo and provided more context.
Here’s more from the original NYT report:
The notice was sent to several congressional committees and obtained by The New York Times. It adds new detail to the administration’s thinly articulated legal rationale for why three U.S. military strikes the president ordered on boats in the Caribbean Sea last month, killing all 17 people aboard them, should be seen as lawful rather than murder.
Mr. Trump’s move to formally deem his campaign against drug cartels as an active armed conflict means he is cementing his claim to extraordinary wartime powers, legal specialists said. In an armed conflict, as defined by international law, a country can lawfully kill enemy fighters even when they pose no threat, detain them indefinitely without trials and prosecute them in military courts.
Geoffrey S. Corn, a retired judge advocate general lawyer who was formerly the Army’s senior adviser for law-of-war issues, said drug cartels were not engaged in “hostilities” — the standard for when there is an armed conflict for legal purposes — against the United States because selling a dangerous product is different from an armed attack.
Noting that it is illegal for the military to deliberately target civilians who are not directly participating in hostilities — even suspected criminals — Mr. Corn called the president’s move an “abuse” that crossed a major legal line.
“This is not stretching the envelope,” he said. “This is shredding it. This is tearing it apart.”
Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, said in a email that “the president acted in line with the law of armed conflict to protect our country from those trying to bring deadly poison to our shores, and he is delivering on his promise to take on the cartels and eliminate these national security threats from murdering more Americans.”
The Trump administration has called the strikes “self-defense” and asserted that the laws of war permitted it to kill, rather than arrest, the people on the boats because it said the targets were smuggling drugs for cartels it has designated as terrorists. The administration has also stressed that about 100,000 Americans die annually from overdoses.
However, the focus of the administration’s attacks has been boats from Venezuela. The surge of overdose deaths in recent years has been driven by fentanyl that drug trafficking experts say comes from Mexico, not South America. Beyond factual issues, the bare-bones argument has been broadly criticized on legal grounds by specialists in armed-conflict law.
The notice to Congress, which was deemed controlled but unclassified information, cites a statute requiring reports to lawmakers about hostilities involving U.S. armed forces. It repeats the administration’s earlier arguments but also goes further with new claims, including portraying the U.S. military’s attacks on boats to be part of a sustained, active conflict rather than isolated acts of claimed self-defense.
Specifically, it says that Mr. Trump has “determined” that cartels engaged in smuggling drugs are “nonstate armed groups” whose actions “constitute an armed attack against the United States.” And it cites a term from international law — a “noninternational armed conflict” — that refers to a war with a nonstate actor.
“Based upon the cumulative effects of these hostile acts against the citizens and interests of the United States and friendly foreign nations, the president determined that the United States is in a noninternational armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations,” the notice said.
What are your thoughts?
Do you support a formal war on the drug cartels who have been harming Americans for decades?
DHS Arrests Over 800 Criminal Illegal Immigrants in Chicago’s Operation Midway Blitz
By Cole Harrison
Oct. 03, 2025
For too long, Chicago residents have watched their neighborhoods transform into personal fiefdoms for criminal networks. Families double-lock their doors, avoid certain streets after dark, and wonder when their elected officials will prioritize citizen safety over political posturing. (Here’s a hint: they won’t.)
Now, after years of escalating violence and lawlessness, the federal government has delivered what local politicians wouldn’t—a massive enforcement operation that’s finally putting criminals where they belong.
From Daily Wire:
Homeland Security agents arrested more than 800 illegal immigrants as part of its “Operation Midway Blitz” and the massive raids will continue despite the government shutdown…
“The Trump Administration will not allow violent criminals or repeat offenders to terrorize our neighborhoods or victimize our children and innocent Americans. We will not allow sanctuary politicians or violent rioters to stop us from enforcing the law and arresting pedophiles, murderers, gang members, rapists, and domestic abusers from American communities.”
The numbers tell the real story about Operation Midway Blitz’s success: over 800 illegal immigrants arrested, including rapists, individuals with DUI convictions, and criminals who had been previously deported only to return and commit more crimes. This isn’t random enforcement—it’s targeted removal of dangerous individuals who’ve proven they have zero respect for American laws or American lives.
The operation, launched in honor of 20-year-old Katie Abraham who was killed by an illegal immigrant in a hit-and-run crash, represents everything sanctuary city politicians have failed to do. Governor Pritzker complains about federal agents carrying “large weapons” and wearing tactical gear. Meanwhile, these same agents descended on apartment complexes teeming with suspected Tren de Aragua gang members. One raid alone involved 300 federal officers.
Targeting Violent Gang Networks
The scope of criminal activity being addressed is staggering. These aren’t people seeking a better life—they’re organized crime members who’ve exploited America’s generosity and sanctuary policies to establish criminal enterprises. The Tren de Aragua gang, a Venezuelan criminal organization, had essentially colonized entire apartment buildings in Chicago. Their business model? Human trafficking, drug distribution, and violent crime. And they thought they’d found the perfect safe haven.
Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin didn’t mince words about the operation’s goals: hunting down “the worst of the worst” who have “flocked to Chicago and Illinois” specifically because they knew local politicians would protect them from federal law enforcement. The audacity is breathtaking—but not as breathtaking as watching them finally get arrested.
Democrats Admit Policy Failures
In a twist that surprises absolutely nobody who’s been paying attention, even Chicago’s own Democratic leadership is finally admitting what conservatives have said all along. The sanctuary policies created this mess.
Alderman Raymond Lopez, after watching his proposal to allow cooperation with federal immigration officers get voted down, laid the blame squarely at Mayor Brandon Johnson’s feet. “You challenged them to go do that, and yet you cry here and say we’re under attack,” Lopez told the mayor during a heated city council meeting. “You all brought this on the people of the city Chicago… You are the ones who allowed this to happen in your communities, because you had the chance to protect people and said, ‘No.'”
State Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer noted the obvious: “The TRUST Act is the reason why federal authorities have come to Illinois. It’s because Gov. Pritzker has made it illegal for our local law enforcement to enforce federal laws.” Funny how clarity arrives when your constituents start demanding answers.
The Trump administration’s message is unmistakable: no amount of political theater, violent protests, or sanctuary policies will prevent the removal of violent criminals from American communities. Operation Midway Blitz proves that when local leaders fail their citizens, federal law enforcement will fill the void. For the law-abiding residents of Chicago who’ve been abandoned by their own government, these 800 arrests represent something they haven’t felt in years—hope that someone finally puts their safety first.
Key Takeaways
Federal agents arrested 800+ violent criminals Chicago politicians refused to touch
Even Democrat aldermen admit sanctuary policies created this crisis
Operation continues despite violent mobs attacking ICE agents
When local leaders choose criminals over citizens, federal intervention becomes necessary
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