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US judge halts Trump’s deployment of the national guard to Washington DC
A federal judge on Thursday halted for now Donald Trump’s deployment of national guard troops to Washington DC, dealing the president a temporary legal setback to his efforts to send the military to US cities over the objections of local leaders.US district judge Jia Cobb, an appointee of former president Joe Biden, temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying national guard troops to enforce the law in the nation’s capital without approval from its mayor.Cobb paused her ruling until 11 December to allow the Trump administration to appeal.The legal fight is playing out alongside several others across the country as Trump presses against longstanding but rarely tested constraints on presidents using troops to enforce domestic law.The DC attorney general, Brian Schwalb, an elected Democrat, sued on 4 September after Trump announced the deployment on 11 August.The lawsuit accused Trump of unlawfully usurping control of the city’s law enforcement and violating a law prohibiting troops from performing domestic police work.Trump has unique law enforcement powers in Washington, which is not part of any state, but local officials say he overstepped by supplanting the mayor’s policing authority and violated legal prohibitions against federal troops engaging in civilian police work.Trump administration lawyers called the lawsuit a political stunt in court filings and said the president is free to deploy troops to Washington without the approval of local leaders. The administration also claims the troops are operating lawfully and successfully reducing crime.Trump, a Republican, has also moved to deploy troops in Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland, Oregon, to combat what he describes as lawlessness and violent unrest over his crackdown on illegal immigration.Democratic leaders of those cities and their states have sued to block the deployments, saying they amount to an attempt to punish political foes with militarized shows of force. More
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Democrats condemn Trump after he says they should be punished ‘by death’ over video post
Democrats expressed outrage after Donald Trump accused a group of Democratic lawmakers of being “traitors” and said that they should be arrested and punished “by death” after they posted a video in which they told active service members they should refuse illegal orders.The video, released on Tuesday, features six Democratic lawmakers who have previously served in the military or in intelligence roles, including senators Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly, and representatives Maggie Goodlander, Chris Deluzio, Chrissy Houlahan and Jason Crow.“Like us, you all swore an oath to protect and defend this constitution,” the lawmakers said in the 90-second video. “And right now, the threats to our constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home. Our laws are clear, you can refuse illegal orders, you can refuse illegal orders, you must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our constitution.”That seemed to prompt a furious response from the US president.On Thursday morning, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL.”In another post, he wrote: “This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP??? President DJT.” In a third post, he added: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” He also reposted a statement that said: “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!”Following Trump’s statements on Thursday, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic whip Katherine Clark and Democratic caucus chair Pete Aguilar released a joint statement condemning the remarks.“Political violence has no place in America,” they wrote. “Representatives Jason Crow, Chris DeLuzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan and Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin all served our country with tremendous patriotism and distinction. We unequivocally condemn Donald Trump’s disgusting and dangerous death threats against members of Congress, and call on House Republicans to forcefully do the same.”The Democratic leaders also said that they had been in contact with the House sergeant at arms and the United States Capitol police “to ensure the safety of these members and their families”.“Donald Trump must immediately delete these unhinged social media posts and recant his violent rhetoric before he gets someone killed,” the statement added.The lawmakers who appeared in the video also released a statement.“We are veterans and national security professionals who love this country and swore an oath to protect and defend the constitution of the United States,” they said. “That oath lasts a lifetime, and we intend to keep it. No threat, intimidation, or call for violence will deter us from that sacred obligation.”“What’s most telling is that the president considers it punishable by death for us to restate the law,” they continued. “Our service members should know that we have their backs as they fulfill their oath to the constitution and obligation to follow only lawful orders. It is not only the right thing to do, but also our duty.”They added: “Every American must unite and condemn the president’s calls for our murder and political violence. This is a time for moral clarity.”Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader, also condemned Trump’s remarks and posted on X: “Let’s be crystal clear: the President of the United States is calling for the execution of elected officials.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionHe added: “This is an outright THREAT. Every Senator, every Representative, every American – regardless of party – should condemn this immediately and without qualification.”Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, defended Trump’s claim that the Democrats had engaged in “sedition”, describing the video as “wildly inappropriate”, adding: “It is very dangerous, you have leading members of Congress telling troops to disobey orders, I think that’s unprecedented in American history.”Johnson also reportedly told the Independent that in what he read of Trump’s posts, Trump was “defining the crime of sedition”.“But obviously attorneys have to parse the language and determine all that. What I’m saying, what I will say unequivocally, that was a wildly inappropriate thing for so-called leaders in Congress to do to encourage young troops to disobey orders,” Johnson added.During a White House press conference on Thursday afternoon, when asked by a reporter, “Does the president want to execute members of Congress?”, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, responded: “No.”“Let’s be clear about what the president is responding to,” Leavitt said. “You have sitting members of the US Congress who conspired together to orchestrate a video message to members of the US military, to active duty service members encouraging them to defy the president’s lawful orders.She said: “The sanctity of our military rests on the chain of command, and if that chain of command is broken, it can lead to people getting killed, it can lead to chaos, and that’s what these members of Congress … are essentially encouraging.” More
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Republicans warn Bondi not to bury Epstein files after law’s passage
Within hours of Donald Trump signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law, Republican senators were on the ground to issue a pointed message to the US attorney general, Pam Bondi: don’t bury these documents.The bill’s passage marked a rare moment of bipartisan support in an otherwise ideologically fractured Congress as it now sets a 30-day deadline for the release of Department of Justice files related to the actions of convicted sex offender of minors and financier Jeffrey Epstein, dubbed by a judge “the most infamous pedophile in American history”.It also marked a rare defeat for Trump, whose own contacts with Epstein have been the subject of intense speculation, along with many other powerful figures who associated with the sex trafficker who killed himself in 2019. Trump had originally been against the passage of the bill, before switching in the face of a rebellion in his own party.The bill passed the House of Representatives with 427 votes and sailed through the Senate by unanimous consent, a level of cross party support rarely seen. Rather than celebrating, many Republican lawmakers spent the week bracing for what they fear may come: a slow drip of information, justified one way or another by Bondi’s justice department.“People who feel very strongly about this will feel like they’ve been duped” if the justice department claims “we can’t release anything because of an active investigation,” said Republican senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. “I don’t think that that will help calm the suspicions many have harbored for a long while on this.”The anxiety stems from the Trump administration’s earlier resistance to transparency, which included months of dismissing public demands – and even insults for those calling for release – before reversing course this week when its passage became inevitable.Now, with Bondi opening investigations into exclusively Democrats mentioned in Epstein’s correspondence, Republicans are watching closely for signs the department might use those probes as a reason to redact or withhold materials as they are now part of an ongoing investigation.“If you do a blanket hold, I think that they’re going to have a lot of people angry,” said Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a judiciary committee member. “It would just add fuel to the fire if they don’t produce something meaningful” he added later.The legislation mandates release of unclassified materials within 30 days in a searchable format. Yet it contains exemptions for information that could jeopardize active investigations and for material depicting minors – potential escape hatches the Justice Department could exploit.The bill requires disclosure of materials related not only to Epstein but also to his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite who was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison for recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein to abuse.Bondi acknowledged the congressional mandate on Wednesday, saying the department would “follow the law” while “protecting victims but also providing maximum transparency.”Still, her carefully measured words offered little comfort to some skeptics on Capitol Hill. Tillis pressed for clarity on any redactions. “I think they would do well to figure how to release as much as possible and then have a very well-articulated reason for that which they can’t,” he said.Republican senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, however, was more optimistic. “Congress has spoken. I fully expect the Justice Department to release all the documents. It will take a while, but I believe they’ve started,” he said, adding, “I’m hoping we’ll see the first tranche…after Thanksgiving.”The urgency reflects deep skepticism about how the justice department has handled the case historically.In 2008, then-US attorney Alexander Acosta approved a non-prosecution agreement that allowed Epstein to plead guilty to state prostitution charges, avoiding federal sex-trafficking prosecutions. Epstein served 13 months of an 18-month sentence in a minimum-security facility with work-release privileges. That deal, later ruled to have violated victims’ rights, shielded Epstein from far more serious federal charges for over a decade until his 2019 arrest on federal sex-trafficking charges.Epstein died in federal custody in August of that year, one month after his arrest on sex-trafficking charges. His death was officially ruled a suicide.The Epstein files, so far roughly tens of thousands of pages of emails and correspondence released by the House Oversight Committee, detail the convicted sex offender’s connections across political, academic, and financial elites. Names from both parties appear, though Trump’s comes up over a thousand times, mostly linked to Epstein’s apparent obsession with the presidency.Senate majority leader John Thune, a Republican, weighed in on the side of his colleagues. “I trust the judgment of the justice department to ensure that whatever files they release protect the victims,” he said. Congress had “clear intent” to “get the information out there”, he addedThe near-unanimous support – marred by just one dissenting vote in the House – reflects both public interest and political stakes. The justice department now has 30 days to make the materials available in searchable format. The FBI has indicated its records include more than 300 gigabytes of data and evidence. Content depicting child abuse will remain sealed, and information that could compromise ongoing investigations may be withheld or redacted.The real test is now with Bondi’s department. Republican senators have made it clear they will scrutinize any major delays or broad redactions, so how swiftly and transparently the justice department acts could shape perceptions of the Trump administration’s commitment to accountability on a highly sensitive matter.Republican senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri summed it up: “All the credible information that can be released should be released.” More
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The Guardian view on devastation in Gaza: the world wants to move on, but Palestinians can’t | Editorial
The declaration of a ceasefire in Gaza in October brought initial relief to its inhabitants. Yet officials there said Israeli strikes killed 33 people, including 12 children, on Wednesday; Israel said its troops had come under fire. Another five Palestinians were killed on Thursday. Hundreds have died since the ceasefire was declared. Even if the shelling stops, the destruction of Palestinian life will carry on as Israel continues to throttle aid, and the consequences of two years of war unfold. The World Health Organization warned last month that the health catastrophe would last for generations.Food remains in short supply. While displaced families shiver in flooded makeshift shelters, with many facing a third winter of homelessness, aid organisations say they cannot deliver stockpiles of tents and tarpaulins. Israel, which denies blocking aid, has designated tent poles as “dual-use” items that could potentially be used for a military purpose. Save the Children reports children sleeping on bare ground in sewage-soaked clothing.The Guardian last week revealed US plans for the long-term division of Gaza into a “green zone” under Israeli and international control, to be redeveloped, and a “red zone” left in ruins; a US official described reunion of the strip as “aspirational”. This vision – with international troops essentially propping up Israeli occupation, and Palestinians drawn to those areas to escape squalor and chaos elsewhere – echoes disastrous US policies in Iraq and Afghanistan.This is the grim underpinning of the UN security council resolution this week, endorsing Donald Trump’s peace proposals. The “board of peace” looks like a colonial authority overseen by Mr Trump, and perhaps anchored by Tony Blair. Palestinian technocrats, somehow both domestically credible and acceptable to the US and Israel – a notable feat – would work beneath it. All this would be possible thanks to an international stabilisation force that the US hopes to see deployed by January. That would be a stretch even if countries prove truly willing to commit troops.The resolution improved on a draft text and won backing from the Arab world – and angry rejection from the Israeli right – by including references to a Palestinian state and Israeli withdrawal. Yet those references are couched in the vaguest terms, as an unguaranteed reward for sufficiently good behaviour, rather than as a recognition of inalienable Palestinian rights. If all goes according to plan, “conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”. Israeli withdrawal would be based on standards and timeframes agreed by the military itself as well as the US and others. Countries have backed not what this text does mean but what it might conceivably mean or become.Some believe that this is the best that can be salvaged from current circumstances, given Mr Trump’s presidency; others hope that it is just possible that this unpromising start could allow something better to be forged. But it is hard not to conclude that for some governments, this is more about conscience-salving and reputation-laundering than the best interests of Palestinians. Germany has already announced that it will resume weapons exports to Israel. For Palestinians, “what looked like a forever war may be metamorphizing into forever misery”, the political scientist Nathan Brown has warned. Countries that were complicit in a genocidal war have all the more duty to demand better. More
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Telling a reporter ‘quiet, piggy’ was shocking – even for Trump | Margaret Sullivan
Catherine Lucey, who covers the White House for Bloomberg News, was doing what reporters are supposed to do: asking germane questions.Her query to Donald Trump a few days ago during a “gaggle” aboard Air Force One was reasonable as it had to do with the release of the Epstein files, certainly a subject of great public interest. Why had Trump been stonewalling, she asked, “if there’s nothing incriminating in the files”.His response, though, was anything but reasonable.It was demeaning, insulting and misogynistic.He pointed straight at Lucey and told her to stop doing her job.“Quiet. Quiet, piggy,” said the president of the United States.From what I could tell, none of her colleagues in the press corps immediately rose to her defense. Things just moved on – business as usual, in a sense.And yet, if I were making a timeline of Trump’s use of the press as a punching bag, this moment would deserve a place on it. Maybe it was his pointing. Maybe it was his direct command, as if he were in charge of what a reporter is allowed to ask.Maybe – probably – it was the nasty name-calling, which is meant to put a reporter in her place in front of the world. Maybe – probably – it was the lack of protest from other reporters.This, after all, is life in Trump’s America. Consider just the past day or so.Trump celebrated the Saudi crown prince, who, according to a 2021 US intelligence report, approved the killing of a Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. (The crown prince has denied involvement in the killing.) The US president gave him a hero’s welcome to the White House.Trump insulted and threatened ABC News and its fine reporter Mary Bruce, who also asked germane questions, about Khashoggi as well as the Epstein files. “I think you are a terrible reporter. It’s the way you ask these questions,” he said. He called ABC a “crappy company” and said its license “should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake and it’s so wrong”.We’re supposed to be used to this by now.Clearly, the president’s fervid supporters must approve of this sort of thing; they seem to see it as a way the president is using his power and position to diminish the “elite”, who he has taught them to despise.But getting used to it is dangerous. We all get worn down. “What can you do?” shrug even the caring among us.But, for me, “quiet, piggy” somehow breaks through. It should be a bridge too far, not business as usual.Wouldn’t it have been something to see the entire press corps shout back at Trump, in defense of their colleague? Wouldn’t it have been something to see them walk away from the gaggle?Why didn’t they?“Because access beats out solidarity, every day of the week,” Bill Grueskin, a former Miami Herald and Wall Street Journal editor who is a professor at Columbia Journalism School, posted on Bluesky. If any members of the press corps had somehow managed to push back and defend their colleague, they undoubtedly would have been punished by exclusion from these press briefings.So, yes, the access problem.And I’m sorry to say, they also don’t push back because they’re so used to it. After all, it’s nothing new. It’s just an especially egregious example of what’s been going on for years.I’ve been watching these moves of Trump’s for a long time. I was the Washington Post’s media columnist during the entire first Trump term, so I got an up-close look at how he constantly disparaged the press and its representatives – especially women, and even more especially, women of color.He often clashed, for example, with Yamiche Alcindor, who then covered the White House for the PBS NewsHour, condemning her supposedly “nasty” questions. This year, he called Alcindor, who now works for NBC, “second rate” and demanded that she, too, “be quiet”. He publicly called April Ryan, a longtime White House reporter, “a loser”.Nothing changes – it only worsens – because Trump gets away with it. His stalwart supporters don’t seem to care. The members of the press corps may write a sternly worded letter (or not), but they normalize it, too, by their inaction.Will this “quiet, piggy” moment make a difference? Only for those who care about decency in public officials and in American society.Maybe that’s an old-fashioned notion. And I’m not sure there are enough of us who remember that it matters.
Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture More
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In Tennessee, Democrats hope a ‘coalition of the pissed off’ will flip a red district
Republicans have controlled Tennessee’s seventh congressional district for four decades. The party finished about 21 points ahead of the Democrats when the seat was last contested, alongside Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election last November.Twelve months on, that lead has narrowed dramatically, according to opinion polls – and a challenger is attempting to build a “coalition of the pissed off” to overturn it altogether.With a special election scheduled for next month, Democrats have nominated Aftyn Behn, a progressive state representative in the district, as their candidate. As Trump’s approval rating continues to fall amid cost-of-living concerns, she is attempting to stage the biggest challenge in a generation to Republicans in the district, and flip the seat for the first time since 1983.“If you are dissatisfied, if you are not OK with what’s going on, then I’m your candidate,” Behn said. “If you think things are fine, I am not your candidate. If you are upset with the cost and chaos, I am your candidate.“We have been working to build a coalition of the disenchanted, a coalition of the pissed off, and I think it’s working to our favor.”After the resignation of the Republican representative Mark Green earlier this year, the party tapped Matt Van Epps, an army veteran supported by several billionaires and publicly backed by Trump. Two separate polls put Van Epps just eight points ahead of his Democratic rival.Van Epps did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the race, which amounts to a key test for the Democratic party and its ability to tap into voters’ indignation toward Trump amid persistent inflation and affordability concerns.Voters in Tennessee’s seventh congressional district seat, which comprises parts of Nashville, and middle and west Tennessee, will head to the polls on 2 December. Early voting has begun.Ken Martin, the Democratic National Committee chair, has campaigned with Behn, and the DNC has been providing volunteers and phone bank support. Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance at an event for Behn this week, her first event as a campaign surrogate since leaving office. Trump, meanwhile, hosted a tele-rally with Van Epps last week, and the Republican National Committee has devoted similar resources and funding to his campaign.‘Epicenter of the crisis’“Tennessee is a state that has bought and sold to the highest bidder, and politicians are doing that bidding,” said Behn. “My campaign doesn’t accept corporate Pac [political action committee] money. We are not bankrolled by special interests. Unfortunately, that is the legacy right now, which I’m trying to break.”Under Trump, the federal government “has not delivered on their promise of affordability”, said Behn. “And Tennessee is at the epicenter of the affordability crisis.“We have some of the most expensive housing and rent. It is one of the worst places for workers in the country. We’re hitting all these metrics that are making it nearly impossible to survive in the state, which is why I’m running.”Tennessee is 10th in the US states in Consumer Affairs’ grocery cost burden rankings, which measure the share of income consumers in each state are required to spend on groceries. Housing has meanwhile become increasingly expensive across the state, according to the non-partisan policy research center Sycamore Institute, which attributed this to growing population, the Covid-19 pandemic, and a lag in home construction.Behn recently led a campaign against a push by Elon Musk’s Boring Company to build a high-speed underground tunnel for Tesla vehicles from downtown Nashville to the city’s airport. Despite vast local opposition, state Republicans circumvented local officials to unanimously provide the firm with access to state-owned land at no cost. Construction began last month.“Unfortunately, our government right now works clandestinely for the puppet masters rather than the people,” added Behn. “It’s a fight that I was willing to take, and I think it can be extrapolated to the broader resentment towards the billionaire boys’ club, and these multinational greedy corporations, selling us out and rigging the system in favor of themselves.”In Tennessee, Medicaid cuts under Trump and the expiration of Affordable Care Act subsidies are estimated to increase the uninsured population in the state by 210,000 people by 2034, according to analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.At the same time, Trump’s tariffs are hitting the state hard, with a report by Pew Research finding last month that Tennessee is one of the states most vulnerable to tariffs, as global products contributed 21.9% of its gross domestic product in 2024.Van Epps has refused to participate in a debate with Behn ahead of the election. Her campaign has sought to create entry points for voters curious, or willing, to cross party lines. Behn has appeared on conservative talk radio shows and run a field campaign designed to knock on doors throughout the district, prioritizing voter contact in a state where turnout consistently ranks among the lowest in the US.“We’re running one of the most competitive races the state has ever seen, and I think people really appreciate that,” claimed Behn. “As a state legislator, I have organized the most town halls of any one of my colleagues. I have open communication. I’m highly accessible and that is how I’ll be as this district’s next congresswoman.“Whereas you have my opponent who is hiding from the press, hiding from the people, and only speaking to select closed-door cadres of people,” she continued. “I think it speaks to the moment – how you have a fighter for government, transparency, accountability, who believes in everyone participating in our democracy, versus a closed-door, special-interest candidate, who only is beholden to a special group of people, of which most folks don’t have access to.” More
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Trump’s ‘affordability’ efforts are a mess of absurdity and magical thinking | Steven Greenhouse
When running for president last year, Donald Trump wooed and wowed voters by vowing to reduce prices “starting on day one”. But once he was inaugurated, he seemed to pay precious little attention to prices and affordability.All that changed, however, when inflation-weary voters thrashed Trump and the GOP on election day this month – within days, the Trump administration launched a slapdash effort to focus on affordability. Unfortunately, the campaign is a hot mess: a pile of absurdity, contradictions, magical thinking, scapegoating and good ol’ Trumpian dishonesty, with Trump repeatedly blaring that “prices are down”.Two days after election day, Trump got his administration’s affordability drive off to a disastrous start when he said, “Our groceries are way down. Everything is way down … So I don’t want to hear about the affordability.”With those words, billionaire Trump – who spends a lot of time palling around with fellow billionaires – showed utter contempt for the millions of Americans who struggle with affordability every time they go the grocery store. Trump told them they got it all wrong. He told them that they shouldn’t bother him about the trivial issue of affordability when he has bigger things to worry about, such as, perhaps, his obsession with winning the Nobel peace prize. Trump in effect said: I don’t feel your pain.Trump’s statement about everything being “way down” was absurdly obtuse and dishonest. How in the world could every price be way down when his cherished tariffs were pushing up prices? Banana prices are up 6.9% over the past year, beef is up 14.7% and coffee up 18.9% (in part because of the huge, punitive tariffs Trump placed on Brazil’s coffee and beef). Between January and September, prices rose in five of the six main grocery groups tracked in the Consumer Price Index, including meats, poultry and fish (up 4.5%); non-alcoholic beverages (up 2.8%); and fruits and vegetables (up 1.3%).Despite these numbers, Trump keeps pushing his big lie about affordability. Since election day, he has said there’s “virtually no inflation”, “prices are way down” and “it is far less expensive under Trump than it was under sleepy Joe Biden”. Trump said all this even though prices overall have unarguably risen since Biden left office. Right now, inflation is running at a 3% annual clip, which is 50% higher than the Federal Reserve’s 2% goal. In another falsehood, Trump boasted that gas prices have fallen to nearly $2 a gallon, even though his Department of Energy says they average $3.19.Hit in the head by reality (and declining opinion polls), some Trump aides evidently told the Maga king that his “prices are down” rhetoric made him sound dangerously out of touch with typical Americans, many of whom are angry about prices continuing to climb after Trump promised to bring them down. Trump’s advisers seized on one quick fix to reduce some prices: roll back some of Trump’s beloved tariffs. That sensible idea contradicted Trump’s absurd assertion that new tariffs wouldn’t raise prices for US consumers.With some tariffs being rolled back on coffee, beef, tomatoes and bananas along with other tropical fruit, Trump will no doubt trumpet to the world that he’s cut prices as soon as those foods start declining in price. That would be like an arsonist boasting that he put out a fire that he had started.When Trump spoke last Monday to a “summit” of McDonald’s executives and franchisees, he once again showed that he’s out of touch – with typical Americans and the truth. He said, “This is … the golden age of America because we are doing better than we’ve ever done as a country.” He sought to calm angry consumers by adding: “Prices are coming down and all of that stuff.” That’s easy for a billionaire to say, but it’s hard for millions of Americans not to fret about prices “and all of that stuff” and not just because 42 million Americans faced having their food stamps cut off and 24 million face having their health premiums soar, often by over $1,500 a year, because Trump and the Republican-led Congress will not extend Obamacare subsidies.Sorry, Mr President, but Americans strongly disagree with your claim that it’s a golden age. According to a Pew poll in October, 74% of Americans think economic conditions are fair or poor, while just 26% think they are good or excellent. What’s more, according to a CNN poll last month, 61% of Americans say Trump’s policies have “worsened economic conditions in this country”.Scott Bessent, Trump’s treasury secretary, recently contradicted Trump’s boasts of a golden age. Bessent said that far from booming, some parts of the US economy “are in recession”. The manufacturing sector that Trump vowed to save appears to have contracted eight months in a row and lost about 33,000 jobs since January. Pointing to this economic weakness, Bessent called on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates – a move that would help affordability.Seeing the huge public dismay about affordability, Trump has resorted to one of the oldest tricks in the book. He promised to, in effect, buy off disgruntled Americans, in this case, with “a dividend of at least $2,000 a person (not including high income people!)”. For many struggling Americans, that must sound like manna from heaven, but it’s unlikely that Congress, already alarmed about huge budget deficits, will enact that idea.Trump’s statement that the $2,000 won’t go to “high-income people!” feels like a confession that his “big, beautiful bill” gave far too much in tax cuts to the rich and too little to everyone else. It also shows that the public’s complaints are hitting home that Trump has become the president by, for and of the billionaires.In a recent speech, Bessent said that the administration is “improving affordability” by holding down spending, noting that this helps hold down interest rates. But Trump’s proposed $2,000-a-person payment would undercut all that. It would increase federal spending and thereby push up interest rates and probably inflation, too, by putting more money in consumers’ pockets.In another supposed fix for affordability, Trump put forward the hare-brained idea of creating 50-year mortgages, with the notion that this would help reduce monthly mortgage payments. But the truth is that 50-year mortgages, compared with 30-year mortgages, would do little to lower monthly mortgage payments. They would often reduce payments by just $100 or $200 a month. The bad news is that 50-year mortgages would, as David Dayen has written, often more than double the already huge amount of interest that homeowners pay and would greatly slow their accumulation of equity.In their affordability campaign, Trump and his truth-challenged crew are yet again blaming Biden for the country’s economic problems, including rising prices. JD Vance said: “We inherited a disaster from Joe Biden,” while Kush Desai, a White House spokesperson, said, “Cleaning up Joe Biden’s inflation and economic disaster has been a top focus for President Trump since day 1.”This is absurd, untruthful rubbish. As I’ve written, Biden handed Trump a very strong economy, with inflation way down, economic growth strong and unemployment low. But Trump’s policies, especially his tariffs, have created an economic mess, pushing up prices and slowing GDP growth.Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, says that 22 states are already in recession, with their economies damaged by Trump’s tariffs. Zandi fears that if big states like California and New York tumble into recession, the US could slide into a broad economic slump. During recessions, consumers overall have less money to spend, and inflation typically declines. Unfortunately, with Trump’s much-ballyhooed affordability campaign likely to do little to hold down prices, his most effective “tool” in achieving increased affordability could prove to be pushing the nation into recession.That’s something that struggling Americans really can’t afford.
Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labor and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues More
