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Awards season is in full swing, kicking off with the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles Sunday night. But this year, the devastating wildfires across Southern California and President Donald Trump’s slew of unsettling executive orders set a different tone throughout the ceremony. Honorees and hosts often find ways to deliver political messages during awards shows, and the Grammys were no different. "There’s been a few changes in Washington. So I’m gonna enjoy tonight because this may be my last time I get to host anything in this country,” host Trevor Noah said in an apparent reference to Trump’s ongoing war on civil rights. Host Trevor Noah speaking at the Grammy Awards. But he could also be referencing Trump’s executive order that ended the law prohibiting employers from discriminating against potential employees based on characteristics such as race or sex. Later in the evening, rising LGBTQ+ pop icon Chappell Roan—who took home a Grammy for Best New Artist—also had a politically progressive message to share. “I told myself if I ever won a Grammy and I got to stand up here in front of the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels and the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a livable wage and health care, especially to developing artists,” she said. “Labels, we got you. But do you got us?” Roan’s message of unnecessary resilience while the wealthy elite profit off of the masses is an ongoing storyline in the current administration. But before she stepped on stage, Roan spoke with GLAAD about LGBTQ+ rights while on the red carpet. “Trans people have always existed and they will forever exist and they will never, no matter what happens, take trans joy away,” she said, acknowledging Trump’s “brutal” executive orders against the transgender community, including one that bans transgender people from the military and another that bans gender-affirming care for trans people under the age of 19. Trump also signed an order ruling that schools must not participate in “gender ideology,” including language that doubts the existence of transgender children as a whole. Another of his executive orders states that there are only two genders. “I would not be here without trans girls. So just know that pop music is thinking about you and cares about you and I’m trying my best to stand up for you in every way that I can,” Roan, whose music leans heavily on LGBTQ+ themes, added. Lady Gaga, who won the Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, also shared her support for the transgender community. “Trans people are not invisible. Trans people deserve love. The queer community deserves to be lifted up. Music is love,” she said during her acceptance speech. Shakira accepts the Grammy for best latin pop album. And Shakira, who is Colombian, took a moment to take a shot at Trump’s anti-immigrant policies. "I want to dedicate this award to all my immigrant brothers and sisters in this country," she said while accepting the Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album. "You are loved, you are worth it, and I will always fight with you." As Daily Kos previously reported, Trump butted heads with Colombian President Gustavo Petro after he shackled up undocumented immigrants and sent them to Colombia on military planes. Despite Trump labeling these immigrants as “criminals,” some aboard were reported to be pregnant women and children. Similarly, Trump also announced that he will be using Guantanamo Bay as an immigrant concentration camp. Alicia Keys also took a hit at Trump’s attacks against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives while accepting the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award. “DEI is not a threat. It’s a gift,” she said. The president ordered all federal DEI hires to be put on leave, and he even blamed DEI for the Los Angeles wildfires and the plane crash near the National Airport. “This is not the time to shut down the diversity of voices we've seen on this stage,” Keys added. “And the more voices, the more powerful the sound. When destructive forces try to burn us down, we rise from the ashes like a phoenix, and as you see tonight, music is the unstoppable language that connects us all.” Donate now to support Southern California relief efforts.
Awards season is in full swing, kicking off with the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles Sunday night. But this year, the devastating wildfires across Southern California and President Donald Trump’s slew of unsettling executive orders set a different tone throughout the ceremony. Honorees and hosts often find ways to deliver political messages during awards shows, and the Grammys were no different. "There’s been a few changes in Washington. So I’m gonna enjoy tonight because this may be my last time I get to host anything in this country,” host Trevor Noah said in an apparent reference to Trump’s ongoing war on civil rights. Host Trevor Noah speaking at the Grammy Awards. But he could also be referencing Trump’s executive order that ended the law prohibiting employers from discriminating against potential employees based on characteristics such as race or sex. Later in the evening, rising LGBTQ+ pop icon Chappell Roan—who took home a Grammy for Best New Artist—also had a politically progressive message to share. “I told myself if I ever won a Grammy and I got to stand up here in front of the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels and the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a livable wage and health care, especially to developing artists,” she said. “Labels, we got you. But do you got us?” Roan’s message of unnecessary resilience while the wealthy elite profit off of the masses is an ongoing storyline in the current administration. But before she stepped on stage, Roan spoke with GLAAD about LGBTQ+ rights while on the red carpet. “Trans people have always existed and they will forever exist and they will never, no matter what happens, take trans joy away,” she said, acknowledging Trump’s “brutal” executive orders against the transgender community, including one that bans transgender people from the military and another that bans gender-affirming care for trans people under the age of 19. Trump also signed an order ruling that schools must not participate in “gender ideology,” including language that doubts the existence of transgender children as a whole. Another of his executive orders states that there are only two genders. “I would not be here without trans girls. So just know that pop music is thinking about you and cares about you and I’m trying my best to stand up for you in every way that I can,” Roan, whose music leans heavily on LGBTQ+ themes, added. Lady Gaga, who won the Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, also shared her support for the transgender community. “Trans people are not invisible. Trans people deserve love. The queer community deserves to be lifted up. Music is love,” she said during her acceptance speech. Shakira accepts the Grammy for best latin pop album. And Shakira, who is Colombian, took a moment to take a shot at Trump’s anti-immigrant policies. "I want to dedicate this award to all my immigrant brothers and sisters in this country," she said while accepting the Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album. "You are loved, you are worth it, and I will always fight with you." As Daily Kos previously reported, Trump butted heads with Colombian President Gustavo Petro after he shackled up undocumented immigrants and sent them to Colombia on military planes. Despite Trump labeling these immigrants as “criminals,” some aboard were reported to be pregnant women and children. Similarly, Trump also announced that he will be using Guantanamo Bay as an immigrant concentration camp. Alicia Keys also took a hit at Trump’s attacks against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives while accepting the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award. “DEI is not a threat. It’s a gift,” she said. The president ordered all federal DEI hires to be put on leave, and he even blamed DEI for the Los Angeles wildfires and the plane crash near the National Airport. “This is not the time to shut down the diversity of voices we've seen on this stage,” Keys added. “And the more voices, the more powerful the sound. When destructive forces try to burn us down, we rise from the ashes like a phoenix, and as you see tonight, music is the unstoppable language that connects us all.” Donate now to support Southern California relief efforts.
Daily Kos
Grammy stage becomes protest platform as stars take aim at Trump
Awards season is in full swing, kicking off with the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles Sunday night. But this year, the devastating wildfires across Sou...
Who would’ve thought Democrats and former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, would find themselves agreeing on the stupidity of President Donald Trump’s latest executive order regarding tariffs? During a Sunday interview with Lesley Stahl, of CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” McConnell ripped into Trump’s plan and said American consumers would be affected the most. “[Tariffs] will drive the cost of everything up. In other words, it will be paid for by American consumers. I mean, why would you want to get in a fight with your allies over this?” McConnell said. By that, McConnell was referring to Trump’s newly announced decision to impose tariffs against Canada, China, and Mexico. On Saturday, Trump signed an executive order imposing a 25% tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico, and a 10% tariff on Canadian oil and gas. Trump cited the countries’ respective questionable failures to curb the flow of fentanyl and undocumented immigrants to the United States. Trump also levied a 10% tariff on goods from China. The reaction was swift: Not only did the stock market plunge, but Canada and Mexico quickly announced plans to order retaliatory tariffs on American goods if Trump moves forward with his shortsighted plan. Already, though, he’s showing signs of wavering. Trump said on Monday he will pause the implementation of tariffs against Mexico for one month while the two countries hammer out an agreement on security and trade. In a post to Truth Social, Trump said he had a “very friendly conversation” with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and revealed that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio would participate in negotiations with Mexican officials during the one-month pause. It’s not clear whether Trump will take the same approach with Canada and China, and if he doesn’t, both countries are prepared to strike back. This past Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged to respond to Trump’s tariffs in a “forceful but reasonable” manner. “I won’t sugarcoat it—our nation could be facing difficult times in the coming days and weeks,” Trudeau said to an advisory council on Canada-U.S. relations. “I know Canadians might be anxious and worried, but I want them to know the federal government—and indeed, all orders of government—have their backs.” More recently, on Sunday, China’s Foreign Ministry threatened to take “necessary countermeasures to defend its legitimate rights and interests.” Sen. Rand Paul Perhaps it’s not shocking that McConnell, a vocal critic of the president, was one of the first Republicans to flat-out say that Trump’s tariff idea was a stupid one. But he’s not the only member of the GOP who has cited concerns about tariffs leading to inflated prices for Americans. Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican who only recently started to sour on the president, wrote in a recent post to social media that “tariffs are simply taxes.” “Conservatives were once united against new taxes,” he said on X. “Taxing trade will mean less trade and higher prices.” Meanwhile, Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican, also expressed skepticism about the tariffs. “We already had a trade agreement and it was a good trade agreement,” he said on CNN. “It’s hard for me to square that circle. We’ll see what the impacts are over the next couple of weeks.” Then there are a few members of the GOP who are more concerned with how tariffs will affect them personally. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said farmers in his state are still reeling from high fertilizer prices due to “Biden inflation” and can’t afford another hit. As a result, he recently begged Trump to exempt potash, or potassium-rich minerals that are a critical component of fertilizer. “Family farmers get most of our potash from Canada,” Grassley wrote on X. While most Republicans are keeping their powder dry, likely out of fear of pissing off Trump and his MAGA loyalists, the combined statements from Paul and McConnell, at least, put the duo squarely in line with where most Democrats are on the issue. After all, we know tariffs won’t bring down the price of groceries, something Trump pledged to do. There’s a widespread fear that Trump’s tariffs will instead lead to soaring grocery store bills. The cost of cars and car parts, electronics, and gas are likely to increase as well. Trump’s delusion has led him to believe his tariffs, or the threat of him imposing them, will force other countries to comply with his whims and demands. But we don’t yet know that to be true. What we do know is that starting soon, Americans might experience some sticker shock the next time they go to the store. And they have Trump to blame for that. Campaign Action
A cartoon by Clay Bennett. Campaign Action
Across this past weekend, Canadian sports fans showed their anger at President Donald Trump and his reckless foreign policy by booing the U.S. national anthem at professional basketball and hockey events. The NBA’s Toronto Raptors hosted the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday, and during the playing of the U.S. national anthem, the audience booed loudly. 🇺🇸 anthem booed hard in 🇨🇦 at the Toronto Raptors game. #TrumpTradeWar (H/T William Lou)— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) 2025-02-02T21:39:21.545Z The opening of Sunday’s NHL game between the Vancouver Canucks and Detroit Red Wings, also hosted in Canada, likewise saw heavy booing during the anthem. Vancouver is the latest to boo the Star-Spangled Banner— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog.lol) 2025-02-03T01:36:03.052Z And Ottawa Senators fans gave the same treatment to the U.S. during their match against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. Canadians boo as the US Nat’l anthem plays before NHL match between the Minnesota Wild & the Ottawa Senators. I don’t blame them. Honestly, I might boo us too if I were there tonight. #FOTUSbringsUSshame— YaKster (@yakwithyak.bsky.social) 2025-02-02T10:41:45.996Z Canadians’ booing comes on the heels of Trump’s Saturday announcement of steep tariffs on Canada, China, and Mexico. In a semi-coherent, half-capitalized screed on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “Countries like Canada, Mexico, China, and too many others to name, continue the decades long RIPOFF OF AMERICA.” “THIS WILL BE THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICA! WILL THERE BE SOME PAIN? YES, MAYBE (AND MAYBE NOT!),” he added in a somewhat cowardly equivocation. Economic experts have questioned the logic behind beginning what could be a “destabilizing trade war with the United States’ largest commercial partners,” according to The New York Times. “[W]e have fought and died alongside you during your darkest hours,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a press conference announcing retaliatory tariffs against $106 billion of U.S. goods (in U.S. dollars). “Yes, we've had our differences in the past, but we've always found a way to get past them,” Trudeau added. “As I've said before, if President Trump wants to usher in a new golden age for the United States, the better path is to partner with Canada, not to punish us.” YouTube Video Trump has also threatened to implement or expand tariffs against Brazil, Russia, and China, among other countries. Click here for Daily Kos’ Bluesky Starter Pack. Join us on Bluesky and @#$% Elon Musk!
Elon Musk, Donald Trump’s unelected co-president, announced on Monday that the United States Agency for International Development will be shut down, jeopardizing billions in foreign aid. USAID is funded via Congress, which almost certainly makes it illegal for Musk—an unelected billionaire who runs a federal advisory commission that appears to be running afoul of federal law—to unilaterally shut it down. However, Musk said on X Space—an audio platform on his X social media site—that he convinced Trump to shut the agency down, and that Trump agreed. "I went over it with the president in detail and he agreed that we should shut [it down]. I checked with him multiple times," Musk said early on Monday morning. Trump has yet to publicly say the agency is shut down, but he told reporters on Sunday that USAID is run by “radical lunatics." “We’re getting them out, and then we’ll make a decision,” he said. In the meantime, the USAID website is offline as of Monday morning. Dozens of people at the agency have been put on leave after they reportedly refused to follow a seemingly illegal funding freeze of all foreign assistance, which Trump had put in place. And on Sunday night, one of Musk's barely-out-of-college tech bros sent an email to the entire USAID agency, saying the office was closed and that no one should report to work unless told otherwise. “At the direction of Agency leadership, the USAID headquarters at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, D.C.[,] will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, February 3, 2025,” reads an email sent from Gavin Kliger, one of the small group of men reportedly between the ages of 19 and 24 who work for Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a federal advisory commission. Even a former Trump administration official told CBS News that the order to shut the agency down is beyond the pale. Elon Musk, left, and Donald Trump attend a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 5, 2024. “[W]hy would anyone comply with this? The press office has no authority to order this and it’s not signed by any agency leader,” the unnamed former Trump official told CBS’ Jennifer Jacobs. Neither Trump nor Musk appear to have the legal authority to shutter USAID. Former President John F. Kennedy created the agency by executive order in 1961, following the passage of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, which reorganized the U.S.’s foreign aid. Any major change to the agency is assumed to require congressional approval. What’s more, the agency has been funded by Congress, and unilaterally impounding the congressionally approved funding also would seemingly run afoul of the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. Already, two federal judges halted Trump’s attempt to freeze all congressionally appropriated funds. “The Executive’s action unilaterally suspends the payment of federal funds to the States and others simply by choosing to do so, no matter the authorizing or appropriating statute, the regulatory regime, or the terms of the grant itself. The Executive cites no legal authority allowing it to do so; indeed, no federal law would authorize the Executive’s unilateral action here,” U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell Jr. wrote in a decision blocking Trump’s attempted funding freeze. It seems Trump’s attempt to shutter an entire federal agency would fall under the same premise. Ultimately, closing USAID would be devastating for millions of people worldwide—as well as Americans living in the United States since USAID helps contain the spread of deadly viruses and diseases that could impact Americans if they are not kept at bay. Atul Gawande, who was the assistant administrator of global health at USAID under former President Joe Biden, said ending USAID would be a disaster. “This Administration is trashing US standing, alliances with scores of countries built over half a century, world-leading capacity and expertise, and American security,” Gawande wrote in a post on X. “Make no mistake—these essential, lifesaving activities are being halted right now. Consequences aren’t in some distant future. They are immediate.” Gawande also laid out just some of the programs that would expire by ending the agency: I ran @USAID health programs for the last 3 years. Trump’s 90 day Stop Work Order on foreign assistance does serious damage to the world and the US. Examples: 1. Stops work battling a deadly Marburg outbreak in Tanzania and a wide outbreak of a mpox variant killing children in west Africa before it spreads further. 2. Stops monitoring of bird flu in 49 countries, a disease which already killed an American on home soil. 3. Stops critical work to eradicate polio. 4. Stops >$1B in corporate drug donations and coordination eradicating tropical diseases like river blindness, elephantiasis, and others on the verge of elimination in whole regions. 5. Stops medicines, supplies, systems building, staff support aiding >90 million women and children to get low cost vaccinations, prenatal care, safe childbirth, contraception, and other basic lifesaving health needs. 6. Stops direct services for 6.5 million orphans, vulnerable children, and their caregivers affected by HIV in 23 countries. 7. Stops donated drug supplies keeping 20 million people living with HIV alive. 8. Would furlough all USAID contract staff — which includes half of its global health bureau—unless exempted. Democrats are sounding the alarm about Trump’s actions. “It’s hard to overhype how dangerous this moment is. This [is] a naked attempt to seize government by the right wing billionaire class so they can steal from the American people,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut wrote in a post on X. Thank you to the Daily Kos community who continues to fight so hard with Daily Kos. Your reader support means everything. We will continue to have you covered and keep you informed, so please donate just $3 to help support the work we do.
It’s been 14 chaotic days since Donald Trump’s circus of horrors set up shop in the White House and the media is still playing catch-up. It’s difficult to overstate just how disruptive and destructive the Trump administration has already been, between Elon Musk seizing access to the government’s sensitive payment system and Trump’s tidal wave of regressive and possibly illegal executive orders. Jim Acosta Daily Kos’ Emily Singer found that Republicans had no shortage of excuses for Trump’s unhinged week. Fortunately for them, no one in the media really bothered to ask. That could be because a growing number of TV anchor chairs are sitting empty, a crisis that got even worse this week when CNN’s Jim Acosta and NBC News’ Chuck Todd unexpectedly announced their resignations. In Acosta’s case, it was clear CNN wanted him out as a way to rebuild the network’s toxic relationship with Trump. So much for accountability journalism! As the media industry wrestles with layoffs, sudden departures, and the increasing subservience of outlets’ corporate owners, there’s hardly time left over to report on America’s speedy descent into autocracy. Don’t worry: Daily Kos is here to pick up all the stories that legacy media left on the cutting room floor. Let’s see what the media missed this week! The Hangover Let’s give a tiny credit where credit is due.he Sunday cable news shows led their coverage with what The Wall Street Journal is calling “The Dumbest Trade War in History.” But even the best newscaster will struggle to explain the nuances of tariffs and import quotas during a five-minute news segment. That’s where our own Markos Moulitsas comes in, with a special report on how Trump’s 25% tariffs are about to screw Kentucky’s $9 billion bourbon industry. Donald Trump Trump’s sweeping tariffs are both broader and deeper than the trade war he led against China during his first term. That means Kentucky’s distillers aren’t the only ones who are about to feel the pain: Farmers who supply feed grain and the corn and rye used for bourbon are also facing dire economic storm clouds. In 2018, when Trump implemented smaller tariffs than he’s threatening today, the United States ended up authorizing nearly $30 billion in direct aid to farmers hurt by the trade war that followed. That’s almost six times as much money as we spend to operate the entire legislative branch. Farmers faced so much economic pressure during Trump’s last tariff tantrum that rural suicide rates reached record highs. It sure didn’t feel like a Golden Age for farmers on the plains. The second time around will be even worse. As Daily Kos’ Alex Samuels reports, Trump is considering additional 100% tariffs on 10 emerging economies if they replace the dollar as their reserve currency. The threat is widely seen as an effort to keep growing nations out of China’s political orbit, but those tariffs would mainly only succeed in sending consumer prices soaring. If Trump follows through on his threats, consumers will ultimately pay more at the cash register and the gas pump for the foreseeable future. For now, Trump thinks that’s a price most Americans are willing to pay. The Purge Legacy media has bent over backwards to sanewash Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to lead the FBI. Instead of focusing on Patel’s repeated pledges to “come after” members of the media, outlets including NBC News focused instead on Patel’s disagreement with Trump over pardoning 1,500 felons involved in the Jan. 6 riot. Not a single cable news outlet led with Patel reaffirming his commitment to investigate the president’s personal enemies. The DOJ purge is here. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is carrying out a sprawling purge of the FBI and national security agencies in preparation for what now looks like Patel’s narrow confirmation. Daily Kos’ Morgan Stephens reports that Trump has already ordered the removal of multiple top FBI officials in the first of what could be multiple waves of mass resignations and firings. The New York Times confirmed that reporting on Friday, adding that Trump had also fired FBI staff involved in his multiple criminal prosecutions. Meanwhile, CBS News reported late Sunday that “questionnaires” have been sent to over 1,000 FBI agents who worked on Jan. 6 cases. Trump has been hard at work reshaping the federal justice system in his own image. It’s taken the president just two weeks to fire more than a dozen of the government’s top U.S. attorneys, empty out key FBI departments, and drive his critics from career civil service positions. Patel has reassured Republican lawmakers that further purges will come once he is safely installed as the FBI’s top man. The result will be a federal police force staffed entirely by Trump’s truest believers—and more than willing to harass anyone the president suggests. Patel’s invisibility in the mainstream media is one of the biggest abdications of journalistic responsibility we’ve seen so far. That media sanitization has allowed Patel to come within a hair’s breadth of the FBI’s considerable police powers, and its continued silence makes his confirmation more likely with each passing day. Kash Patel is ready to be Donald Trump’s federal enforcer. The question is: Are we ready for him? Reach out! Keep the conversation going all week by sharing stories you think the media missed with me at @themaxburns on Bluesky! And remember: If you’re tuned to cable news, you aren’t even getting half of the story. Until next week, keep your eyes peeled and stay inquisitive, friends. 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President Donald Trump wants fewer federal workers, and fewer workers is what he got on Wednesday. When a deadly mid-air collision between a commercial jet and a military helicopter happened near Ronald Reagan National Airport, one air traffic controller was working a job usually assigned to two, according to preliminary findings by the Federal Aviation Administration. Of course, Trump blamed the crash on diversity, former presidents, and more, rather than admit he let his pet billionaire, Elon Musk, force out the head of the FAA on Day 1. As Trump lays waste to the government’s ability to handle the large-scale tasks it’s well suited for, he’s weaponizing it to do something it’s not at all designed for: attacking individuals and organizations he hates. It’s the logical outcome of MAGA’s politics of grievance. Take the rescission of over 200 job offers issued by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The bank regulator was already short of examiners—the people who monitor banks and ensure they follow rules and, most importantly, don’t fail. When Signature Bank collapsed in March 2023, a review found that for the previous six years, the FDIC had been unable to sufficiently staff the team that oversaw the bank, due to turnover and personnel shortages. Making sure banks don’t collapse is not just something the federal government should do. It’s also something the federal government is best at. You do not want a world where banking regulations differ across 50 states. You do not want a world where you find out that the money you had in a Minnesota bank is protected, but the sums you had in a California bank are not. This is likely true for even the most puddingheaded Silicon Valley master-of-the-universe type since the notion of conducting large-scale business banking with 50 sets of rules is untenable. Or take Trump’s musings on how he’d like to get rid of the Federal Emergency Management Agency because “I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems.” To see how well that would work, look at Louisiana, Florida, and Texas—three MAGA states that, together, have gotten the bulk of FEMA’s direct assistance since 2015. In 2021, Louisiana was walloped by two hurricanes and two sets of severe storms. For those disasters, the state received just over $3.9 billion in FEMA aid and over $2.1 billion in disaster-recovery grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to data from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Now, this comparison isn’t quite apples-to-apples because Louisiana’s state budget doesn’t follow the calendar year, but heading into the 2020-2021 fiscal year, the state’s 2021 FEMA needs alone were over one-third of the state’s general fund ($9.2 billion) and over one-tenth of its total budget ($36.1 billion). There is no way a state can take care of its own problems at that scale. Water is dropped by helicopter on the Kenneth Fire in the West Hills section of Los Angeles on Jan. 9, 2025. Trump may happily shovel federal disaster money at red states while starving blue ones. (His comments about California’s fires have made that clear.) However, the ability of the government to respond nimbly to disasters requires steady streams of funding and a well-established infrastructure. The rapacious hollowing-out of federal capacity and funding will still mean far fewer resources are available for Trump’s favorites. So, if the government won’t spend money on keeping its airways, banks, or states safe, where will your federal tax dollars go? Toward things like requiring the attorney general to demand that state and local officials investigate K-12 teachers who “unlawfully facilitat[e] the social transition of a minor student.” To be perfectly clear, there is no existing federal law about any such thing, so Trump is demanding that state laws about the sexual exploitation of minors and practicing medicine without a license be stretched to include being nice about pronouns. In doing this, Trump is seeking to eviscerate the principles of local control, or the idea that the smallest unit of government is the most adept at responding to the needs of its community. That’s why we don’t have a vast swath of federal education policy about what gets taught and how. School boards and cities are better able to make those determinations. Indeed, this flies in the face of Trump’s other education goal: eliminating the Department of Education and returning education policy to the states. (Of course, it’s doubtful he’d allow blue states to fully handle their education policies.) Besides this sort of thing being stupid and cruel, it’s also unsustainable. How long can the administration hurl resources at things like multiple sloppy edits to the official biography of a groundbreaking female astronomer? Such a small focus—and at the start of a new presidential administration—is pathetic. This level of vigilance, of forever needing to throw red meat to the red base, requires constant and massive surveillance efforts. The federal government can’t possibly surveil every teacher in every public school to make sure those teachers aren’t being supportive of their trans students. That’s where state and local officials get dragged in. Trump is counting on a culture of fear—that anyone can turn a teacher in for some perceived indiscretion. Trump is building a government that won’t be able to celebrate the kind of wins we expect from the federal government: stopping bank collapses, keeping aircraft from crashing, ensuring cities rebuild after natural disasters. Rather, the wins will be only how many individual people he has managed to harm. His base was promised terrorized immigrants, resegregation, and the elimination of trans people from public life. And each time Trump manages to use the whole of the federal government to hurt people, they will celebrate wildly. Campaign Action
A cartoon by Clay Jones. Campaign Action
By Vanessa G. Sánchez and Daniel Chang for KFF Health News California is advising health care providers not to write down patients’ immigration status on bills and medical records and telling them they don’t have to assist federal agents in arrests. Some Massachusetts hospitals and clinics are posting privacy rights in emergency and waiting rooms in Spanish and other languages. Meanwhile, Florida and Texas are requiring health care facilities to ask the immigration status of patients and tally the cost to taxpayers of providing care to immigrants living in the U.S. without authorization. Donald Trump returned to the White House declaring a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, suspending refugee admissions, and challenging birthright citizenship, or the policy of giving U.S. citizenship to anyone born in the U.S. As he begins carrying out the “largest deportation operation” in the nation’s history, states have offered starkly different guidelines to hospitals, community clinics, and other health facilities for immigrant patients. Trump has also rescinded a long-standing policy not to arrest people without legal status at or near sensitive locations, including schools, churches, and hospitals. A proposal to formalize such protections died in Congress in 2023. But no matter the guidelines that states issue, hospitals around the U.S. say patients won’t be turned away for care because of their immigration status. “None of this changes the care patients receive,” said Carrie Williams, a spokesperson for the Texas Hospital Association, which represents hospitals and health care systems in the state. “We don’t want people to avoid care and worsen because they are concerned about immigration questions.” During Trump’s first term, immigration agents arrested people receiving emergency care in hospitals and a child during an ambulance transfer. Immigration officers in Texas arrested a woman awaiting brain surgery in a hospital in Fort Worth. In Portland, Oregon, officers arrested a young man leaving a hospital, and in San Bernardino, California, a woman drove herself to the hospital to give birth after her husband was arrested at a gas station. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents enter a restaurant to remove evidence in Cheektowaga, New York, on April 16, 2008. An estimated 11 million immigrants live in the United States without authorization, with the largest numbers in California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois, according to Pew Research Center. Half of immigrant adults likely without authorization are uninsured, compared with fewer than 1 in 10 citizens, according to the 2023 KFF-Los Angeles Times Survey of Immigrants, the largest nongovernmental survey of immigrants in the U.S. to date. While some states are highlighting health care expenses incurred by immigrants, a KFF brief noted that immigrants contribute more to the system through health insurance premiums and taxes than they use. Immigrants also have lower health care costs than citizens. Some health care providers fear Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will disrupt their work at health facilities and cause patients, particularly children, to skip medical care. On Trump’s first day, the Republican president issued an executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship for children born to a parent without legal authorization or on a visa, which could leave them ineligible for federal health and social programs. The order was immediately challenged by states and a civil rights group. “You are instilling fear into folks who may defer care, who may go without care, whose children may not get the vaccines they need, who may not be able to get treatment for an ear infection or surgery,” said Minal Giri, a pediatrician and the chair of the Refugee/Immigrant Child Health Initiative at the Illinois chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. A recent survey conducted by the Im/migrant Well-Being Research Center at the University of South Florida found that 66% of noncitizens reported increased hesitation in seeking care after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law in 2023 requiring hospitals that accept Medicaid to ask about a patient’s legal status. That’s compared with just 27% for citizens. “That really was alarming to me to see how this law made people hesitant to go to the doctor, even in an emergency,” said Liz Ventura Molina, a co-author of the survey and report. In signing the law, DeSantis touted it as “the most ambitious anti-illegal immigration” legislation in the nation. This month, the Republican governor called for a special session of the state legislature to help support Trump’s immigration agenda. Jackson Health System, a public safety net provider in Miami, said in a statement that quarterly reports to the state don’t contain individual patient information. “We do adhere to all required cooperation with law enforcement agencies, including ICE, as part of any criminal investigations, understanding that privacy laws mandate we only release private patient information through a court-ordered warrant.” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott In August, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, issued an executive order similar to Florida’s law to record health care costs incurred by immigrants without legal authorization. All hospitals that receive funding from Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program are expected to begin reporting the data to Texas Health and Human Services in March. Even cities controlled by Democrats are walking a fine line. New York City Mayor Eric Adams met in December with Trump’s incoming “border czar,” Tom Homan, and pledged to remove immigrants who have been convicted of a major felony and lack legal status to remain in the country. At the same time, Adams proposed an awareness campaign to let immigrants and asylum-seekers know they are safe to use the city’s hospital systems. Some states are going further by advising health facilities to do all they can to protect immigrant patients. In December, California Attorney General Rob Bonta released a 42-page document recommending providers avoid including patients’ immigration status in bills and medical records. The guidance also emphasized that while providers should not physically obstruct immigration agents, they are under no obligation to assist with an arrest. According to the document, health care facilities should post information about patients’ right to remain silent and are encouraged to provide patients with contact information for legal-aid groups “in the event that a parent is taken into immigration custody.” If feasible, it says, the facility should designate an immigrant-affairs liaison to help train staff and provide nonlegal advice to families. California Attorney General Rob Bonta “We cannot let the Trump deportation machine create a culture of fear and mistrust that prevents immigrants from accessing vital public services,” said Bonta, a Democrat. On Tuesday, the Trump administration directed the Department of Justice to investigate state and local officials who don’t cooperate with immigration enforcement. During Trump’s first term, California limited cooperation with federal authorities, citing public safety and community trust concerns. The department, then under Jeff Sessions, sued to block the law but the state won in federal court, arguing that states have the authority to decide whether local resources are used to enforce federal law. The Trump administration appealed, but the Supreme Court turned down the petition. Under California law, state-run health care facilities are required to adopt policies to limit their participation in immigration enforcement, and private entities are encouraged to follow similar protocols. David Simon, a spokesperson for the California Hospital Association, which represents more than 400 hospitals, said members have incorporated such policies, ensuring patient privacy. “Hospitals don’t call ICE about patients,” Simon said. California is bracing for a new round of clashes with Trump. Gov. Gavin Newsom and fellow Democratic state leaders have agreed to set aside $50 million for litigation and grants to nonprofit immigrant groups. Lawmakers in New Jersey are considering legislation to limit health care facilities from asking about a patient’s immigration status. The bill would also require the state attorney general to establish policies for hospitals and health care facilities for ensuring patient access. In New York City, hospital administrators are directing staff to seek guidance from an “immigration liaison” if immigration authorities show up, and to take photos and videos of any enforcement actions if they can’t reach them first. They are also discouraging staff from actively helping a person hide from ICE. In Massachusetts, some clinics and hospitals are training staff on how to read ICE warrants and plan to require ICE agents to identify themselves and present a warrant if they want to enter a private area. “You can’t be scrambling in the moment,” said Altaf Saadi, a neurologist who co-directs a clinic for asylum-seekers at the Massachusetts General Hospital. “We have to prepare for these worst-case scenarios, and we hope that they don’t happen, but we do need to be prepared.” This article was produced by KFF Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation. KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.
Writing in 1799, Vice President Thomas Jefferson defended his nation’s strong press freedoms with evangelical fervor. “To preserve the freedom of the human mind and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to devote itself to martyrdom,” Jefferson wrote. “For as long as we may think as we will and speak as we think, the condition of man will proceed in improvement.” How disappointed our Founding Fathers would be in the craven, fearful way America’s corporate media has surrendered to Donald Trump in the months since his election. How disappointed we should be, too. First ABC News made the baffling decision to settle a $15 million defamation lawsuit Trump filed against the network, outraging the company’s employees. Then Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg settled another baseless Trump lawsuit, this time handing the president a cool $25 million. The latest domino fell on Thursday evening when Paramount, the parent company of CBS News, indicated it would settle yet another Trump defamation suit. That decision comes despite legal experts dismissing Trump’s suit as baseless and intended solely to intimidate. It’s working. Corporate news outlets are abandoning the American people at the very moment we most need a free, fearless, and independent media. Most of those once venerable institutions are giving up without so much as a fight. What a loss for democracy. A $15 million settlement may be a rounding error against ABC News parent company Disney’s $91 billion annual revenue, but Trump now has powerful new resources to wage his war on the media from inside the federal government. Chief among Trump’s new batch of enforcers is Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr. On Jan. 22, just two days after Trump was inaugurated, Carr threatened investigations into ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News for their perceived unfair coverage of Trump’s 2024 campaign. Those investigations stem from three complaints filed by the right-wing legal advocacy organization the Center for American Rights, which has been open about its goal of having the news networks’ broadcast licenses revoked. Those complaints also serve as a roadmap for Trump’s prospective FBI Director Kash Patel, who has repeatedly pledged to “come after” media outlets who hurt the president’s feelings. A less consolidated, more nimble news media might have joined together in coalition to push back against Trump’s authoritarian attacks on press freedom. Instead, today’s billionaire executives view their news properties as just one piece of a much broader corporate quilt. Some, including new Los Angeles Times owner and avowed MAGA booster Patrick Soon-Shiong, even regard their own newsrooms with open contempt. As Trump is discovering, there’s no reason to threaten outlets that are only too eager to sew their own mouths shut. Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the Los Angeles Times Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos’ transformation of the Washington Post into a Trump-curious newspaper may be the most high-profile step in the media’s subjugation, but Soon-Shiong’s tenure at the LA Times is what Americans should expect going forward. Last year Soon-Shiong sparked controversy after gutting his paper’s editorial team and replacing key voices with polarizing, Trump-aligned pundits like Scott Jennings. He also publicly spiked the paper’s planned presidential endorsement of Kamala Harris, driving a round of senior staff resignations. The decisions were intended to send a clear message to Mar-a-Lago: Go easy on us, you have friends here. The media’s cascading surrender is yet another bitter symbol of America’s institutional decay. News outlets are no longer operations where management inhabits the same office building as their journalists. Their owners are now many layers of corporate bureaucracy separated from the journalism they produce. That makes it easier than ever for media outlets’ mega-rich owners to strangle and pillage news operations in a way that simply did not happen when those outlets were run by journalists. The fact that media outlets have always served as a safeguard of our democracy doesn’t matter to the Disney Corporation. They see their acquisition of ABC News as a loss-leading enterprise. It’s just a means to more effectively serve you ads for Whirlpool dishwashers—the official appliance brand of Walt Disney World™. That they sometimes break news is a bonus. Venture capital firms like Alden Global Capital have been hollowing out the media industry for decades by buying independent outlets and stripping their assets. Veteran journalists face unceremonious layoffs, replaced by either inexperienced young journalists, artificial intelligence or, for more than half of the country, by nothing at all. The result is a media industry so hollow and starved of institutional knowledge that it can no longer carry out its fundamental accountability role. Trump simply came along and delivered the killing blow. Jim Acosta Media industry veterans seem to understand their industry is trapped in a death spiral. CNN’s Jim Acosta implied as much when he abruptly quit the network last week, a decision driven by CNN’s desire to muzzle one of their network’s most pointed Trump questioners. Trump greeted the news with glee. “Jim is a major loser,” the president posted on Truth Social. “[He] will fail no matter where he ends up.” That may sound like bravado, but it’s actually Trump breathing a sigh of relief over CNN’s decision to censor itself. Like the dozens of veteran reporters who have resigned from the Washington Post after Bezos’ MAGA pivot, Acosta understands that real journalism is impossible if your bosses have more in common with Trump than they do with their own reporters. Acosta and the journalists who have fought their own corporate structures to hold Trump accountable recognize when the deck has been impossibly stacked against them. After all, investigating corruption is their job. Is there a way forward for the media’s role as the watchdog of power? It’s tough to say. That return to legitimacy won’t come in the consolidated and Trump-loyalist corporate media landscape we have now. To continue serving the people, more journalists will need to follow the lead of Acosta at CNN and the Washington Post’s fleeing editors. The corporate media failed us. It’s up to the nation’s exiled journalists and underserved news consumers to reject that corruption and begin the long, difficult process of returning journalism to its core mission of holding power accountable. Because an America without a free and combative press is no America at all. Campaign Action
