Trump Tears Into Senate GOP Leader Thune
The House adjourned Thursday for a five-week August recess, but not before it rebuked President Trump a second time over the Iran war. Four Republicans again joined with Democrats in backing a war powers resolution directing Trump to end the war or seek congressional authorization to continue it. The measure does not have the force of law, though, and Senate Republicans blocked a similar resolution from getting a floor vote. Here's what else is happening.
Trump, White House Tear Into Senate GOP Leader Thune
Tensions between President Trump and Sen. John Thune have exploded into public view this week, as the president continues to pressure the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act, his package of voter restrictions, and to eliminate the filibuster, which would allow Republicans to pass the election bill with a simple majority.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday that the president's patience with the Senate Republican leader is wearing thin.
"His patience is running out. He wants to see as much of the SAVE America Act passed as possible by the August recess," Leavitt said at a White House briefing. "The House did its job; the Senate needs to do its job, too."
Senate Republicans simply don't have the votes that would be needed to force a vote on the SAVE America Act or kill the filibuster. Trump has refused to accept that reality. He continues to push for a bill that would require proof of citizenship from people registering to vote in federal elections, require voter ID at polling places and dramatically reduce the use of mail-in voting. Trump's preferred version of the bill also includes restrictions on transgender women in sports and gender-affirming care for young people.
As Trump and Republicans push their election agenda, the House on Wednesday passed a $95 billion budget blueprint that authorizes money to incentivize states to adopt the GOP's voter measures. House Republicans also agreed to merge their election reform bill with the $1.15 trillion annual defense authorization bill they passed on Wednesday before sending the legislation to the Senate.
In a speech in Marietta, Georgia, on Wednesday, the president tore into Thune himself.
"I have to say, Mike Johnson and Congress have done a great job, but we're having a hard time in the Senate. The Senate, what they're doing is just, it's just not right," Trump said. "It's like the Senate is a place that you send things when you want them to die."
Trump again called for the Senate to "terminate" the filibuster, and he called on the public to join in pressuring Thune.
"Everybody call John Thune at the Senate," Trump said. "He's the leader of the Republican Party, and tell him to get this stuff approved."
Thune responded angrily to Leavitt's comments Thursday. "Well, maybe she or somebody else ought to get on the phone and get the votes, right?" he told reporters about the election bill. "It's 50 around here, and so instead of, you know, pointing the finger at Republicans, they might think about going after the people who are stopping it on the floor, which is the Democrats, and if there are Republicans that they think are gettable, get on the phone."
Thune also told reporters that the Senate doesn't have the votes to advance the House-passed budget framework.
"As I've said before you got to get to 50, and I can't count to 50 right now on a budget resolution," Thune said according to The Hill. "We'll see. We'll have those conversations with the conference. The priority is funding the government. To me that's the thing we got to keep our eyes on."
Thune had said earlier this week that he will hold the House budget resolution and could use the partisan reconciliation process it sets up to fund the government if Democrats don't compromise on a stopgap funding extension that will be needed at the end of September. Thune said he plans on bringing a Senate stopgap to a vote before senators leave for their August recess.
What it all means: Thune and Senate Republicans are under immense pressure from Trump and the MAGA base, but the math hasn't changed. The Senate still doesn't have the votes to pass the SAVE America Act. The Senate also might not take up the reconciliation bill before Election Day given that work on the stopgap spending bill could still take weeks. And the politics of that reconciliation bill, which includes $60 billion more for the Pentagon and the war in Iran, are complicated - and could get even more complicated if several senators who want to offset at least part of the budget bill's costs push to modify the House framework.
The bottom line: Getting Trump's election changes and the House-passed $95 billion budget plan through the Senate before the midterms will be difficult, if not impossible.
Trump Admin Announces New Double-Digit Tariffs on 60 Countries
The Trump administration is imposing new tariffs ranging from 10% to 12.5% on 60 major trading partners, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced Thursday. The tariffs will take effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time on Friday, just as a previous set of temporary 10% tariffs expires.
The tariffs are being imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which governs unfair foreign practices affecting U.S. commerce. Greer said his office conducted 60 investigations into potential violations of a prohibition against the importation of goods produced with forced labor and found all 60 economies that he investigated had violated the law, empowering him to impose punitive tariffs.
The new tariffs come after the Supreme Court ruled in February that most of the global tariffs President Trump imposed in 2025 violated the Constitution. The Trump administration reportedly set out to find a more durable legal basis to impose import fees on virtually all its trading partners, and the new tariffs are a result of that process.
A new legal logic: The new tariffs are designed to hold up under judicial review. Still, some legal experts question the reasoning behind the tariffs. Peter Harrell, a trade lawyer at Georgetown Law School who served in the Biden administration, told The New York Times that he doubted the administration's explanation for the need for tariffs. "It's not really about forced labor," he said. Instead, the trade representative is "using this forced labor investigation as a pretext to impose tariffs that Trump wants to impose for his own economic theories and preferences."
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden also expressed skepticism about the new tariffs. "Trump's next trade scheme is ordering USTR to reconstruct his illegal global tariffs under the guise of addressing forced labor," he said.
Testifying before Congress on Wednesday, Greer admitted that the administration sees tariffs as an essential tool for achieving its political goals, regardless of the legal basis. "The specific authorities this administration is using have changed, but the trade strategy has not," Greer told lawmakers. "We are committed to continuing to use tariffs and to negotiate deals to support the re-industrialization of our economy, protect American workers and increase their wages and shrink our trade deficit."
Quote of the Day
"Once again, the Trump Administration is threatening to jeopardize public safety by unlawfully withholding billions in critical funding; and once again, they won't get away with it."
− Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha, announcing a lawsuit by a coalition of 24 attorneys general and two governors challenging new conditions imposed by the Trump administration for states to receive billions of dollars in federal disaster relief funding.
The new lawsuit challenges the requirements imposed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, arguing that they require the states to change the way they conduct elections and assist DHS in enforcing federal immigration law. The new conditions for receiving aid would also allow DHS to terminate any federal grant at any time and for any reason. The suit says that the administration is trying to impose some of the same conditions on funding that courts have rejected before.
"This Administration is using the safety of Americans as collateral by attempting to bully the states into relinquishing their constitutional right to enact policies and laws that best serve their residents," Neronha said. "Moreover, Congress allocated these funds to the states for preparing for and responding to emergencies including counterterrorism and natural disasters, and the executive branch has no legal say in the matter."
In a statement to the Associated Press, a FEMA spokesperson described the lawsuit as "partisan pushback" and said that "left-wing politicians" could be expected "to oppose common-sense measures designed to protect election security and safeguard the integrity of American democracy."
Democratic Senator Pitches MediKids, Universal Health Care for Children
Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey introduced a bill this week that would provide healthcare for all children in the United States, starting at birth and continuing until age 26.
The MediKids Act would automatically enroll newborns in Medicaid's Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment program, which currently provides comprehensive preventive health care, vision, dental and behavioral services for eligible enrollees under the age of 21. All children covered by Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program - about 36 million in total - are currently eligible for the benefit.
Kim says his plan would provide coverage for about 23 million additional children, including roughly 4.4 million children who currently lack health insurance, as well as a much larger number who are underinsured. The program would be fully funded at the federal level, and access would be guaranteed regardless of family income. Families with private health insurance would be free to opt out.
"Millions of children are falling through the cracks of our healthcare system," Kim said in a statement. "I built MediKids to be a step we can take right now to guarantee every single child in the United States the care they need, when they need it. No kid should go without care in our country."
Kim did not provide an estimate of the cost of the program but said it should be much less than the cost of Medicaid, since younger people consume less healthcare on average. The proposal also fits within the existing healthcare structures and requires no additional bureaucracies or designs and could be implemented quickly.
A messaging bill: The bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Cory Booker, Tammy Duckworth and Alex Padilla, all Democrats. No Republicans are backing the legislation, and the bill isn't likely to progress in the current Congress. But Democrats and child advocates hope the bill will spark a conversation that helps push the country toward universal healthcare coverage for children - and perhaps for all.
Andrew D. Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, expressed support for the bill. "Pediatricians see first-hand how Medicaid works for the children and families who rely on it - support that should be available to all children, regardless of where they live or where their parents work, and MediKids would do just that," he said. "The American Academy of Pediatrics applauds Senator Kim for his leadership on this bill and urges Congress to advance it."
In an interview with WNYC's Brian Lehrer, Kim made it clear that covering children could be a first step toward universal coverage. "I hope we can get to universal healthcare, and that's what we're pushing for," Kim said. "This doesn't exclude the ability for us to be able to get there. In fact, I think it will be easier to get to universal healthcare when we have all these kids growing up with universal care."
The bottom line: Democrats looking for issues and policy positions that resonate with voters are trying to spark renewed debate on healthcare and, in some cases, revive a long-term push for more universal coverage.
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Fiscal News Roundup
- House Again Rebukes Trump Over Iran War Powers, While Similar Effort Stalls in Senate – CBS News
- Trump to Slap 'Sweeping' New Tariffs on 60 Trade Partners as Global Duties Expire – CNBC
- 'We're Getting Into an Ugly Phase': Trump's New Tariffs Are Angering Voters and US Allies Alike – Politico
- Thune Says Senate Lacks Votes for $95 Billion Budget Resolution – The Hill
- Trump's Patience With Thune 'Is Running Out' – Politico
- 'Figure Out a Way to Get It Done': Scalise Warns Pressure Is Building on Senate GOP to Move on Reconciliation – Politico
- Global Oil Prices Cross $100 a Barrel as Iran War Sends Fuel Prices Surging – ABC News
- More Than 24 States Sue Trump Administration After It Put Conditions on Receiving Disaster Funding – Associated Press
- Medical Billing Arbitration Paid Out $15 Billion to Providers in Surprise Bill Disputes – Wall Street Journal
- Trump Administration Says Surprise Billing Law Is Being 'Gamed' by Doctors – New York Times
- Cassidy Shifts on CDC Nominee, Citing Change to Disputed Autism Page – Washington Post
- Amid a Big Hiring Push, Police Experts Question Ice Officer Vetting – NPR
- US Intelligence Agency Quietly Cut About 200 Jobs Since June 1 – Washington Post
- Almost 2 in 3 Feel Dissatisfied or Upset With Trump Ballroom, Reflecting Pool, Arch Projects: Survey – The Hill
- Elon Musk Says He Got 'Carried Away' With Trump - but Still Holds on to Contentious Political Views – Guardian
Views and Analysis
- Mike Johnson's Budget Blueprint Faces Senate GOP Buzzsaw – Jordain Carney, Politico
- Thune to Take the Blame for the Failure of Trump's Agenda – Ed Kilgore, New York
- Reconciling With Inaction – David Dayen, American Prospect
- I'm From Nebraska. Here's What Wealth-Tax Advocates Don't Realize – Ben Nelson, Washington Post
- That 1969 Jobless Claims Feeling – Courtenay Brown and Neil Irwin, Axios
- 'Cancer Doesn't Care What Party You Belong To': Poisoned Water Is Turning This Rural State Bluer – Tom Philpott and Nina B. Elkadi, Politico
- Rising US Casualties in the Iran War Should Force a Rethink of Middle East Basing – Elliott Abrams, Council on Foreign Relations
- Congress Wants to Get More Homes Built Quickly. That Might Be Harder After DOGE – Cassandra Dumay and Katherine Hapgood, Politico