Democrat Politics

The White House is pausing federal grants and loans starting on Tuesday as President Donald Trump’s administration begins an across-the-board ideological review of its spending.

The decision by the Republican administration could affect trillions of dollars and cause widespread disruption in health care research, education programs and other initiatives. Even grants that have been awarded but not spent are supposed to be halted.

“The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” said a memo from Matthew Vaeth, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget.

The pause takes effect at 5 p.m. ET, and it’s unclear from the memo how sweeping it will be. Vaeth said that all spending must comply with Trump’s executive orders, which are intended to undo progressive steps on transgender rights, environmental justice and diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, efforts.

Vaeth wrote that “each agency must complete a comprehensive analysis of all of their Federal financial assistance programs to identify programs, projects, and activities that may be implicated by any of the President’s executive orders.”

Washington is a hub of spending that flows to various departments, local governments, nonprofits and contractors, and the memo has left countless people who are dependent on that money wondering how they will be affected.

The pause is the latest example of how Trump is harnessing his power over the federal system to advance his conservative goals. Unlike during his first term, when Trump and many members of his inner circle were unfamiliar with Washington, this time he’s reaching deep into the bureaucracy.

“They are pushing the president’s agenda from the bottom up,” said Paul Light, an expert on the federal government and professor emeritus of public service at New York University.

He also said there are risks in Trump’s approach, especially with so many voters reliant on Washington.

“You can’t just hassle, hassle, hassle. You’ve got to deliver.”

Medicare and Social Security benefits will be unaffected by the pause, according to the memo. But there was no explanation of whether the pause would affect Medicaid, food stamps, disaster assistance and other programs. The memo said it should be implemented “to the extent permissible under applicable law.”

“Are you stopping NIH cancer trials?” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, wrote on social media, referring to the National Institutes of Health.

A briefing with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, her first, is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and Rep. Rose DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrats on the Senate and House appropriations committees, expressed “extreme alarm” in a letter to Vaeth.

“This Administration’s actions will have far-reaching consequences for nearly all federal programs and activities, putting the financial security of our families, our national security, and the success of our country at risk,” they wrote.

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A cartoon by Pedro Molina.

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Donald Trump kicked off his second presidency with a frenzy of pardons and grants of clemency, not only freeing some of his most violent supporters but also signaling that future right-wing violence will be protected.

Everyone expected that Trump would pardon rioters who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. After all, he’d spent the campaign saying he would. And yet the mass pardon of about 1,500 insurrectionists apparently surprised his own aides. Seeing the supposed law-and-order president rewarding violence against law enforcement really brought home the point that the only thing that matters to Trump is fealty to Trump. Violence committed in service of that fealty, we know now, is A-okay with Trump. Crushing a cop in a door? Totally fine. Tasing a police officer who later had a heart attack? Also cool. 

Jacob Chansley, right with fur hat

Trump’s protection of right-wing violence is clear—just ask the “QAnon Shaman,” Jacob Chansley. Chansley was released from prison in May 2023 after serving 27 months, but he still had a criminal conviction on his record. Upon receiving the pardon, Chansley gloated on X, “I GOT A PARDON BABY! THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!!! NOW I AM GONNA BUY SOME MOTHA FU*KIN GUNS!!!”

Trump’s pardon of insurrectionists who attacked police officers raised the hackles of police departments and unions, many of which issued a flurry of statements condemning the move. So Trump quickly threw police a bone by pardoning two Washington, D.C., police officers convicted in the death—and cover-up of the death—of a 20-year-old motorist. 

Trump said officers Andrew Zabavsky and Terence Sutton were in prison because “they went after an illegal” who was “a rough criminal, by the way.” 

In reality, the officers pursued 20-year-old Karon Hylton-Brown, an American citizen, for the extreme crime of … riding a moped without a helmet. Prosecutors said the officers chased him at “unreasonable speeds,” with Sutton forcing Hylton-Brown into an alley and then accelerating toward him. When Hylton-Brown exited the alley, another vehicle struck and killed him. Then the officers agreed to cover it up, turned off their body-worn cameras, and destroyed evidence. 

This was certainly a move to re-ingratiate Trump with fans in law enforcement. Indeed, the Washington, D.C., police union had been begging Trump to pardon the two officers. 

But in the end, these pardons serve the same purpose as the pardons of the rioters who attacked law enforcement: to send the message that violence is forgivable, even welcomed, as long as it is violence Trump likes, directed against people he hates. 

People participate in the March for Life, an annual anti-abortion rally, on Jan. 24, 2025, in Washington, D.C.

Trump’s grant of clemency to 23 anti-abortion activists could be seen as just a “thank you” to staunch supporters, but it’s more than that. Several of those pardons were for people who had violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, the FACE Act, by blockading clinics and preventing people from receiving medical services.  

Trump characterized them all as “peaceful protesters,” a weird way to describe the actions of Bevelyn Williams, who crushed a clinic staff member’s hand in a door while trying to block access to a clinic in New York. It’s clear that the anti-abortion activists saw this as their due, with one anonymous person even complaining to Politico that Trump pardoned the Jan. 6 rioters on Day 1 but waited a few more days to pardon the anti-abortion extremists. 

At root, all of these pardons send the same type of message: Right-wing violence is perfectly acceptable, and there will be no consequences. 

Make no mistake. Trump’s plans for the country require the active participation of people like this, and he’s well aware of it. It’s why he told the Proud Boys to stand back and stand by. It’s why he called the neo-Nazis at Charlottesville “very fine people.” It’s why he has repeatedly encouraged and praised violence at his rallies. He needs people who are easily goaded into committing future violence on his behalf—and now he’s pardoned those most eager to do so. 

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A cartoon by Clay Jones.

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Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany claimed that Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was wrong when criticizing Donald Trump over threatened tariffs against Colombia, but then had to admit on-air that the congresswoman’s comment was accurate.

McEnany, who was a press secretary during Trump’s first administration, made the slipup during an episode of the conservative network’s “America’s Newsroom” program on Monday.

The controversy began when Trump threatened Colombia with increased tariffs after its president, Gustavo Petro, said migrants being sent to that nation deserved to be treated with dignity. (Migrants had been restrained on a recent flight to Brazil.)

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York

“To ‘punish’ Colombia, Trump is about to make every American pay even more for coffee. Remember: *WE* pay the tariffs, not Colombia,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in response to the threat. “Trump is all about making inflation WORSE for working class Americans, not better. He’s lining the pockets of himself and the billionaire class.”

On Fox, McEnany responded, saying, “She said this, which is factually untrue.” 

Then McEnany paused mid-sentence and appeared to realize the congresswoman was in the right. “[Tariffs] could lead to inflation,” she admitted (without conceding Ocasio-Cortez’s argument was accurate).

“There’s also a universe in which people lower their prices, other countries lower their prices, and the prices could come down because they want access to the U.S. market,” McEnany added, detailing an extremely unlikely response to a tariff increase.

McEnany then pivoted to an unrelated (and out of nowhere) attack on Ocasio-Cortez, alleging that other Democrats who could possibly run for the presidency in 2028 have been more “muted” in their criticisms of Trump.

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Despite the deflection, recent history backs up Ocasio-Cortez. Tariffs imposed by Trump when he was first president led to increased costs that have been passed on to consumers. A tariff isn’t a penalty shouldered by a foreign government; it’s instead paid by the people who use the product in question. In the case of Colombia, that would be staples like coffee, flowers, and petroleum.

The factual misfire was just the latest episode Fox and the rest of conservative media lashing out at progressive leaders, like Ocasio-Cortez. But based on her track record since taking office, it is unlikely that complaints from Fox will deter the New York representative.

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Donald Trump’s mass deportation promise has hit some logistical and ethical hiccups in his first week back in office, forcing his administration to abandon the numbers and instead focus on PR. 

Even Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan has admitted that the feat of deporting millions of undocumented immigrants just isn’t possible.

While the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is bragging on X about arrests and publishing its numbers across social media, an insider told the Washington Post that the Trump administration is far from happy. 

According to the anonymous source, the White House has issued new daily quotas on ICE agents, telling the federal officers to ramp up their hundreds of daily arrests to at least 1,200 or 1,500. 

The Trump administration has even employed the help of a right-wing celebrity talking head to boost public morale: Dr. Phil McGraw. 

Activists with Revcom Corps Chicago hold signs outside of Hamline Elementary School in Chicago after federal agents were refused entry on Jan. 24, 2025.

The talkshow host—who is, by the way, a fake doctor—tagged along with Homan on a raid in Chicago where he spoke with a handcuffed undocumented immigrant from Thailand. 

“The first arrest in Chicago with @RealTomHoman was a convicted sex offender and internet predator from Thailand,” McGraw wrote on X along with a video of the arrest. 

And while Homan told McGraw that they aren’t just “picking up anyone with a tan,” at least 15 Native Americans across Arizona and New Mexico have reported being stopped, questioned, or detained by federal law enforcement. 

According to CNN, one Indigenous woman was in her workplace when it got raided. She and seven other Native Americans were lined up behind white vans where they were questioned for two hours without access to their phones or any way to contact their families. 

“There’s a lot of fear, and I know they’re probably feeling frustrated knowing that they don’t feel safe in the country where they were born or where their ancestors come from and there’s a lot of frustration of them being stereotyped,” Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley told CNN. “I think there’s a confusion with other races, maybe just because having a brown skin, automatically being profiled or stereotyped to be in a certain group or race.”

Undocumented immigrants who were detained by ICE officials also made headlines for the demoralizing treatment from the U.S. government. 

The inhumane shipment of Colombian and Brazilian immigrants back to their home countries caused a massive reaction from Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Brazilian officials. 

Photos showed undocumented immigrants handcuffed and lined up as they were hurried on to military aircrafts where they were reportedly denied food and water. 

One Brazilian minister said the practice of handcuffing undocumented immigrants was “blatant disrespect” to their people.

​​“On the plane they didn’t give us water, we were tied hands and feet, they wouldn’t even let us go to the bathroom,” Edgar Da Silva Moura, a Brazilian immigrant, told France 24. “It was very hot, some people fainted.”

“Things have already changed [with Trump], said Luis Antonio Rodrigues Santos, a 21-year-old who was deported. “Immigrants are treated as criminals.”

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Congressional Democrats are calling out President Donald Trump’s inaction on food prices, even though he campaigned on lowering them. On Monday, 19 of them sent a letter to his desk demanding that he act on record prices impacting American consumers. 

“Your sole action on costs was an executive order that contained only the barest mention of food prices and not a single specific policy to reduce them,” wrote the lawmakers. “You have tools you can use to lower grocery costs and crack down on corporate profiteering, and we write to ask if you will commit to using those tools to make good on your promises to the American people.”

The letter proposed six concrete measures the White House could take to lower prices, including banning price gouging during crises like pandemics and allowing the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Agriculture to address monopoly practices in the food industry. Democrats bolstered their argument by citing recent examples of corporate price manipulation.

“Last year a Kroger executive admitted in federal court that the company raised the price of eggs and milk ‘significantly higher than the cost of inflation’ in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic,” the Democrats said. “In 2023, a federal court found that the country’s largest egg producers had engaged in a pricefixing conspiracy in the mid-2000s. Major beef, poultry, and potato producers have similarly been accused of or admitted to price-fixing.”

Trump’s presidential campaign harped on inflation and food costs, blaming former President Joe Biden for skyrocketing grocery prices. The majority of voters indicated that the economy was one of the top deciding factors in the 2024 election, if not the top reason. 

“First, we must get economic relief to our citizens,” Trump said at the Republican National Convention in July. “Starting on Day 1, we will drive down prices and make America affordable again. We have to make it affordable. It’s not affordable. People can’t live like this.”

Yet Trump spent his first week in office focused on muting health agencies, enacting mass deportations across the country that included wrongfully detaining U.S. veterans, pardoning violent Jan. 6 insurrectionists, potentially getting rid of FEMA, and dismantling DEI programs. 

Chocolate, beef, coffee, and orange juice are some of the foods that have seen staggering price spikes over the past year. Meanwhile, egg prices have soared to an all-time high due to inflation and a spike in bird flu, which has led to significant shortages. Prices are expected to continue to increase 20% this year, with some states like California reporting $8 per dozen. Some restaurants have resorted to adding a surcharge for items with eggs in them.

Lowering food costs for working Americans is clearly not a top priority for the Trump administration. His vague executive order that focused on pricing directed the executive branch departments and agencies to “pursue appropriate actions” to lower prices on housing, health care, and home appliances—without any details on how to do so.

Instead of taking decisive action to lower food prices, Trump’s administration seems intent on raising them even higher. Case in point: the ongoing mass deportations of undocumented people, which could lead to labor shortages in industries that rely on migrant agriculture workers. This could further drive up costs for everything from food production to restaurant bills.

While Trump’s focus on high grocery prices has already shifted elsewhere, Democrats are placing the needs of American consumers front and center and working to ensure that grocery bills don’t continue to break the backs of everyday Americans. The ball is now in the White House’s court.

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The Justice Department said Monday that it had fired more than a dozen employees who worked on criminal prosecutions of President Donald Trump, moving rapidly to pursue retribution against lawyers involved in the investigations.

The abrupt action targeting career prosecutors who worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s team is the latest sign of upheaval inside the Justice Department and reflects the administration’s determination to purge the government of workers it perceives as disloyal to the president.

Jack Smith speaks about an indictment of Donald Trump on Aug. 1, 2023.

The norm-shattering move, which follows the reassignment of multiple senior career officials across divisions, was made even though rank-and-file prosecutors by tradition remain with the department across presidential administrations and are not punished by virtue of their involvement in sensitive investigations. The firings are effective immediately.

“Today, Acting Attorney General James McHenry terminated the employment of a number of DOJ officials who played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump,” said a statement from a Justice Department official. “In light of their actions, the Acting Attorney General does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the President’s agenda. This action is consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government.”

It was not immediately clear which prosecutors were affected by the order, or how many who worked on the investigations into Trump remained with the department. It was also not immediately known how many of the fired prosecutors intended to challenge the terminations by arguing that the department had ignored civil service protections afforded to federal employees.

Smith himself resigned from the department earlier this month after submitting a two-volume report on the twin investigations into Trump’s efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election and his hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. At least one other key member of the team, Jay Bratt, also retired from the department this month after serving as a lead prosecutor in the classified documents case.

The firings were first reported by Fox News.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, Republican of Colorado, seemed to suggest that the national minimum wage should be lowered, claiming that the high teenage unemployment rate is due to it being too expensive for companies to hire young people.

Boebert made the comment in response to a tweet from Rep. Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky.

“No taxes on workers under 18 yrs old. I love it because: 1. They need experience to pick a college major. 2. They need to develop a work ethic. 3. The economy needs more workers. 4. They don’t get to vote,” Massie said.

Boebert replied, “So many of our youth have lost the opportunity to enter the workforce due to high minimum wage requirements,” she wrote. “High taxes, insurance, and paid leave requirements are a few of many issues as well. Small business owners are unable to invest in first-time workers or provide them with skills training for their future.”

xSo many of our youth have lost the opportunity to enter the workforce due to high minimum wage requirements. High taxes, insurance, and paid leave requirements are a few of many issues as well. Small business owners are unable to invest in first-time workers or provide them…— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) January 26, 2025

The federal minimum wage has remained at $7.25 an hour since 2009. If someone worked 40 hours a week for all 52 weeks in the year and took no days off, they would only earn $15,080—a salary below the poverty line and impossible for anyone to live on. In Boebert’s state of Colorado, the minimum wage is $14.81.

Boebert has long argued that the minimum wage is too high.

In 2022, she claimed that a higher minimum wage would have prevented her from getting her first job at McDonald’s when she was 15 years old.

xLauren Boebert says raising the minimum wage “robs” young people and stops businesses wanting to “invest” in them. pic.twitter.com/O29375PzLn— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) August 9, 2022

Opposing a livable minimum wage is bad politics, as polling shows that voters overwhelmingly believe that the federal minimum wage is too low and should be raised.

A Data for Progress poll from April 2024 found that 86% of voters believe the federal minimum wage should be increased. That number is nearly identical between Democrats, Republicans, and independents. 

Similarly, Civiqs’ poll on minimum wage found that just 5% of voters believe the federal minimum wage should be lower than $7.25 an hour, as Boebert seems to suggest. 

But a number of Republicans, including President Donald Trump’s Treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent, are against increasing the federal minimum wage.

Bessent, a billionaire hedge fund manager, said during his confirmation hearing that he doesn’t think it’s time to increase the federal minimum wage.

“I believe that the minimum wage is more of a statewide and regional issue,” he said.

While it is true that the unemployment rate is the highest for workers between the ages of 16 and 17, it isn’t because the minimum wage is too high.

Rather, it’s because the labor force participation rate is currently higher, and older workers with more experience and skills are getting jobs over inexperienced youth, according to an S&P Global report.

But that fact doesn’t seem to matter to Boebert.

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A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know.=

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