Today in Politics, Bulletin 144. 6/3/25 Ron Filipkowski Jun 3 ∙ … Elon Musk trashed Trump’s budget bill, posting this today: “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it. It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.” … Musk also posted this about Republicans who support Ukraine and won’t vote for his DOGE cuts in a rescission bill: “In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.” … Maybe a new 3rd party forming? The DOGE Party? … Speaker Mike Johnson responded to Musk: “I know the EV credit is going away because the govt should not be subsidizing these things. I know that has an effect on his business. For him to come out and pan the whole bill is to me just very disappointing.” … Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who has never said how he will vote on it, responded to Musk: “The Senate must make this bill better.” … Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA): “Elon Musk is right to call out House Leadership. I wish I had a nickel for every time the Freedom Caucus sounded the alarm and nobody listened, only to find out the hard way we were right all along.” … Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT): “Musk is right: this bill IS a ‘disgusting abomination’.” … Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY): “I’ve been telling folks that Congress turned Trump’s big beautiful bill into a debt bomb. For that I took some big hits. Now Elon is backing me up with facts.” … Steve Bannon: "There are no DOGE cuts. Where is the fraud in Medicaid? Has anybody been turned over to DOJ for fraud? They haven't showed up with any. The problem with Musk is he gave false hope to this political class. He promised $1 trillion. Show me where it is?" … BLEACH BLOND BRAIN DEAD Press Sec Karoline Leavitt was asked about Rand Paul and Ron Johnson saying the bill will explode the deficit: “Those senators, it's not news that they disagree with this president on policy and the president has vocally called them out for it and for them not having their facts together.” … Trump posted on Truth Social: “Rand Paul has very little understanding of the BBB, especially the tremendous GROWTH that is coming. He loves voting ‘NO’ on everything, he thinks it’s good politics, but it’s not. The BBB is a big WINNER! Rand votes NO on everything, but never has any practical or constructive ideas. His ideas are actually crazy (losers!). The people of KY can’t stand him. This is a BIG GROWTH BILL!” … Paul appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning and criticized the bill - one of Trump’s favorite shows. Trump made that post about Paul minutes later. One big happy family! … Rep. Marge Greene (R-GA) said she has changed her mind and is now against the bill: “Full transparency, I did not know about this section on pages 278-279 of the OBBB that strips states of the right to make laws or regulate AI for 10 years. I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in there. We have no idea what AI will be capable of in the next 10 years and giving it free rein and tying states hands is potentially dangerous. This needs to be stripped out in the Senate.” … So apparently Marge voted for the bill without reading it. … Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA): “Many Senate Republicans are messaging pathetic weakness. They do not appear to have the courage required to save our Republic from financial collapse. They’re ‘uncomfortable’. Poor elitists, lost in their wealth, suffering through the cocktail parties and fundraisers, enduring the distant growl of working Americans. Well, we are watching boys, We are watching. FAFO.” … Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) was asked on Fox if there were Medicaid cuts in the budget (Trump says there aren’t). Marshall acknowledged that there is: “Medicaid cuts are going to strengthen Medicaid and save it for people who need it the most.” … CNBC: “Economic growth forecasts for the US and globally were cut further by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development as Trump’s tariff turmoil weighs on expectations. The US growth outlook was downwardly revised to just 1.6% this year and 1.5% in 2026. In March, the OECD was still expecting a 2.2% expansion in 2025.” … OECD Chief Economist Alvaro Pereira: “The reasons why we downgraded almost everybody in our forecast is that trade uncertainty and economic policy uncertainty has reached unprecedented levels. As a consequence, we’ve been seeing that consumption and investment has come down, and in fact, activity indicators also have come down. And if you take this into account, and we also try to estimate in our models, you see that there’ll be less growth, less jobs, and more inflationary pressures going forward.” … But Speaker Mike Johnson insists that the CBO is unfairly underestimating GDP growth when projecting budget deficits on their bill. … ICE Director Todd Lyons was asked why ICE agents are wearing masks with no identification displayed: “People were out there taking photos of names and their faces and posting them online.” … Reporter to Leavitt: 40% of crop farmworkers in the US are undocumented according to the Agriculture Dept. Do they have a carve-out in terms of the mass deportation program? Leavitt: “The president and Trump Admin have been very clear, if you are in the country illegally you are subject to deportation.” BLEACH BLOND BRAIN DEAD KAROLINE LEAVITT: … Q: Does the WH have a reaction to the election in South Korea? LEAVITT: “Yes, we do. Let me find it for you. (Flips through notes) Thank you. (Flips through notes) Um. (Flips through more notes). We do not.” … Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) took a little shot at Trump during his visit to Ukraine this week, and Steve Bannon was fuming: “Lindsey Graham, the clip that ENRAGES me is when he sits there in Ukraine and mocks President Trump and says: ‘There’s people that say you have no cards’, which is what the President said. Then he says ‘but you’ve got PLENTY of cards.’ Either cancel Lindsey’s passport to keep him from coming back to the country, or put him in jail. Lindsey is stirring it up right now.” … MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell roasted CNN last night: “The insanity of the current American president is officially taken for granted in the news media. No huge banners on the cable news network that recently devoted itself to the issue of presidential mental acuity. That network didn’t dare devote itself to the mental acuity of Trump. That network decided the that mental acuity of Biden last year is a more important story now.” … Ashley Biden just posted this about her dad: “He aged, YES! As we all do! And the stress of the presidency accelerates. But he was always MORE than capable of doing the job. And a damn good one. He worked harder than anyone I have ever known – he took his duty and sacred obligation to this country very seriously. The noise is so DAMN disrespectful and untrue. AND, it’s just that – noise/static – created by those committed to perpetuating and profiting from some real BS. Get lost with your anonymous sources and fake news.” … CNN: “Laura Loomer met privately with JD Vance at the WH this morning. The sources would not share the substance of the 1-on-1 meeting. Loomer did not meet with Trump. After Loomer’s last known visit to the WH in April where she met directly with Trump, the admin fired several NSC staffers whom Loomer labeled as disloyal, including the director and deputy director of the NSA.” … Fox & Friends did a segment ranting about the ‘TACO Trump’ label. Host Rachel Campos-Duffy: “He’s brave. He’s the bravest man in the world. They’re thinking that using the word ‘Taco’ and ‘Chicken’ on Trump will somehow damage or put a dent in that teflon image he has as a very brave person. He is brave to take on tariffs. It’s working. He’s negotiating and that’s where the deal is.” … Campos-Duffy is married to Transportation Sec Sean Duffy. Reminder that there is no Bulletin tomorrow because I have my podcast Uncovered live at 4:00 ET where we do a deep dive into the Top 10 stories of the week. I will be monitoring all the fallout of Musk trashing Trump’s budget over the next 24 hours and will likely lead the show with that. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here. Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. … Trump signed the order today raising tariffs to 50% on steel and aluminum effective tomorrow. AP: “Trump’s doubling of tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum could hit Americans in an unexpected place: grocery aisles. Big-ticket purchases from cars to washing machines to houses could see major price increases. But those metals are soubiquitous in packaging, they’re likely to pack a punch across consumer products from soup to nuts.” … “A look around a supermarket makes clear how many products could be impacted by new taxes on steel and aluminum, from beer and soda to dog food to can after can of beans, fruit, tomato paste and more. The Campbell Co., whose soup cans are a staple for millions of Americans, has said it was working to mitigate the impact of tariffs but may be forced to raise prices. ConAgra Brands, which puts everything from cans of Reddi-Whip to cooking sprays like Pam on supermarket shelves, likewise has pointed to the impact steel and aluminum tariffs have.” … Robert Budway, President of the Can Manufacturers Institute: “It plays into the hands of China and other foreign canned food producers, which are more than happy to undercut American farmers and food producers. Doubling the steel tariff will further increase the cost of canned goods at the grocery store.” … ConAgra CFO David Marberger: “We can’t get all of our materials from the US because there’s no supply.” … 23% of all steel used in the US is imported. 47% of aluminum is imported. … Economist Justin Wolfers: "If you wanted to find a way to really destroy American manufacturing, what you would do is figure out a way to jack up the cost of steel for American manufacturers." … NBC reported that restaurants in China who prefer US beef have started importing it from Australia since they have zero tariffs on their beef. Liu Li, a beef supplier at the Sanyuanli market for the past 30 years: “US beef is fattier and tastier. It’s a shame we’re in a trade war. The high price is just too much to bear.” … NBC asked former Bush trade negotiator Warren Maruyama why Trump hasn’t gotten trade deals done: “It’s going to be a long, drawn-out negotiation. You could hope that your trading partner is stupid and will agree to a bad deal. But, for the most part, most foreign trade negotiators are quite good, and it’s typically a pretty brutal head-to-head negotiation between two sophisticated countries who have been doing trade deals for decades.” … Economist Alex Jacquez: “I think it’s going to be a challenge for a number of our trading partners, who feel like they are negotiating with a gun to their heads and negotiating with an admin that is not reliable. You are just negotiating in a climate in which you do not know what your counterpart wants at the end of the day or is going to do in the interim. And so there’s not much of an incentive to come to the table if you are just going to get whacked for doing so.” … Newark Mayor Ras Baraka filed a lawsuit against NJ US Attorney Alina Habba for "false arrest and malicious prosecution." The lawsuit cited Habba’s statement the day of her appointment where she said “we can turn NJ red. Hopefully when I’m in there, I can help that cause.” Then days later she announced investigations of the NJ Gov and AG. The suit alleges that she made several false statements on Fox about Baraka’s conduct on the day he was arrested. Charges were dropped 13 days later.” … Habba responded: “My advice to the mayor - feel free to join me in prioritizing violent crime and public safety. Far better use of time for the great citizens of New Jersey.” … The Telegraph: “A senior official who dismantled the US govt’s Russian disinformation unit is married to a Russian woman with links to the Kremlin. Darren Beattie has provoked alarm within the State Dept since being appointed in Feb for his ardent pro-Russian views and focus on destroying the agency tasked with tackling Kremlin propaganda. Beattie, the under-secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, is married to a woman whose uncle has taken several roles in Russian politics and once received a personal ‘thank you’ message from Putin.” … “Two months before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Beattie said: ‘Imagine the whining from the Globalist American Empire if Putin ‘invades’ Ukraine. I love it when our national security bureaucrats fail!” He also praised Putin as ‘brave and strong’, and claimed the Russian leader had ‘done more to advance conservative positions in the US than any Republican.’ He also declared: ‘NATO is a much greater threat to American liberty than Putin ever was.’” … Beattie in Sept 2021: “The funny thing is just about every Western institution would improve in quality if it were directly infiltrated and controlled by Putin.” … Russian Nazi known as ‘Putin’s Brain’ Alexander Dugin is upset that Trump and MAGA members of Congress didn’t forcefully condemn Ukraine for the attack on Russia’s bombers: “MAGA, where are you? … Multiple media sources reported that Ukraine’s secret service SBU blasted the underwater pillars of a Crimean bridge overnight after a months-long operation. The Kerch Bridge cost Russia $3B is has been a symbol that Putin has been proud of to show that they are not leaving Crimea. … SBU chief Lt Gen Vasyl Maliuk personally oversaw and coordinated the operation. He stated that the bridge remains a legitimate military target due to its use by Russian forces for logistical support: "Crimea is Ukraine. Any symbol or tool of occupation will face consequences." … Steven Pifer, former US Ambassador to Ukraine: “Critics of Ukraine’s attack on Russian bombers claim that Russia had to keep its bombers in the open because of New START Treaty requirements. (1) New START does not require that. (2) Putin suspended Russian compliance with New START in 2023.” … New Polish President Karol Nawrocki to Zelensky on X: “I am looking forward to continue partnership of our countries, based on mutual respect and understanding. I believe it requires not only good dialogue but also solving overdue historical issues. Poland has been Ukraine's strongest supporter against the Russian aggression, no other nation understands this threat more than we do, and I hope we’ll continue to work together for the common good, for settling the unsettled past and building safe future together.” … Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) released another video about Gov. Kathy Hochul that pretty much indicates she’s running for governor: “If you look at the polling, over 50% of New Yorkers want someone new in the Governor’s office. I am considering running to fix decades of decay by single party Democrat rule.” … Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) introduced a resolution today to declare June as “Family Month” instead of Pride Month: “The American family is under relentless attack from a radical leftist agenda that seeks to erase truth, redefine marriage, and confuse our children. By recognizing June as Family Month, we reject the lie of ‘Pride’ and instead honor God’s timeless and perfect design. If we truly want to restore our nation, we must stand united to protect and uphold the foundation upon which it was built — the family.” … Trump posted that he is going after CA after the state high school track finals: “A Biological Male competed in California Girls State Finals, WINNING BIG, despite the fact that they were warned by me not to do so. As Governor Gavin Newscum fully understands, large scale fines will be imposed!!!” … DOJ Civil Rights Div Chief Harmeet Dhillon then sent letter to CA public schools: “You cannot implement a policy allowing males to compete alongside girls, because such a policy would deprive girls of athletic opportunities and benefits based solely on their biological sex, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.” She gave them until June 9 to change the policy or face consequences. … State Dept spokesperson Tammy Bruce was asked about her agency’s security alert about dating apps in Mexico being used to lure and kidnap Americans. She didn’t know anything about it: “It's something that I'm not read into enough to even riff about, but clearly if that's occurring it's a serious dynamic.” … Don Jr was asked on CNBC if foreign entities might be buying Trump crypto to influence US policy. Q - People question if the memecoin creates the opportunity for foreign adversaries or anybody to effectively funnel money to the president. JUNIOR: “With the memecoin, you don't know who's actually doing any of these things, so it's hard to influence if you don't know where the stuff is coming from.” … I feel better. … Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) to Meidas on Trump’s recent attacks on Federalist Society founder Leonard Leo: “This whole thing is hysterical—in every literal sense of that word. The fact that Trump is furious with him right now may just have to do with the fact that Leo-aligned groups brought the tariff suit and lined up against Trump on that.” … “But it also may signal a dawning realization by Trump: that he actually might not have truly chosen his Supreme Court appointees. That Leonard Leo and Don McGahn, his WH counsel who were running that process—might actually have been the agents of somebody completely else. And that Trump was the chump in the scheme, who didn’t know he was being played by the Koch brothers and the billionaire interests behind Leonard Leo.” … NextOn9News: “Attorneys for MyPillow Guy Mike Lindell said in opening statements at his defamation trial in Denver that they won’t present any evidence of his claim that the 2020 election was rigged: ‘It’s just words. All Mike Lindell did was talk. Mike believed that he was telling the truth, but doesn’t have to actually be true.” … Amazing that when they get in courtrooms, all the big claims they make outside the courthouse to the media suddenly go away. Lindell said he was going to prove the election was stolen to vindicate himself. But his lawyers are saying that their defense is - even though he lied, he believed he was telling the truth because he’s nuts. MAGA!