Prosecutors placed on leave hours after describing Jan. 6 attack as a ‘mob of rioters’
Prosecutors punished for stating truths Trump doesn’t like.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/29/jan-6-prosecutors-case-leave-00627086
Judge extends order barring mass firings of federal workers during shutdown
“A federal judge has indefinitely extended her order banning the Trump administration from mass firing federal employees during the government shutdown.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/28/government-shutdown-federal-workers-rifs-ruling-00626042
SNAP benefits set for first-ever lapse with Senate set to reject funding patches
“Senate Republicans will block a Democratic bill that would keep federal food aid flowing to 42 million Americans as they try to build pressure to reopen the government, Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday.
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Thune separately told reporters that if the Senate starts “going down the road of … take care of this group or that group … it just begs the larger question, how long is this going to drag on?”
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Democrats and even privately some Republican lawmakers argue the Trump administration has the legal authority to tap a $5 billion contingency fund, or other USDA funds, to ensure SNAP benefits keep flowing during the shutdown. Dozens of Democratic governors and attorneys general have sued the administration over its decision not to tap those funds.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/29/snap-benefits-set-for-first-ever-lapse-with-senate-set-to-reject-funding-patches-00627280
Capitol agenda: Thune says shutdown talks are picking up
“The ongoing federal shutdown could cost the U.S. economy between $7 billion and $14 billion, according to a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.”
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/10/29/congress/shutdown-talks-thune-democrats-snap-deadline-00626811
25 states sue Trump admin over withholding food aid funding
“The plaintiffs are disputing the Trump administration’s statements that it doesn’t have the legal authority to use the $5 billion it has in emergency funds to pay for at least part of SNAP, which requires more than $8 billion to pay for November benefits. They also argue that USDA could tap Section 32 funds, which it did to tide over the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, to fully fund SNAP next month.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/28/25-states-sue-trump-snap-food-aid-shutdown-00625431
Trump’s New Tariffs on Furniture Will Be Costly, and Americans Will Pay
“American goods are losing ground fast. A recent KPMG survey finds that “60% of businesses reported decreased overseas sales” in the first six months of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. For instance, U.S. liquor exports tumbled 9 percent in the second quarter of this year, with steep declines across the European Union, Canada, Britain, and Japan, which together buy about 70 percent of these exports. In another example, China—once a key customer for U.S. farm goods—has turned instead to Argentina and other suppliers, and total U.S. soybean exports are down 23 percent this year.
Smaller companies are also adversely affected. A valve and gas component maker in Napa Valley just announced that it will shut down a plant and discharge 237 employees, citing weak overseas demand linked to tariffs. Let’s not forget the upcoming Supreme Court case of V.O.S. Selections, Inc. v. Trump, where U.S. importers and resellers of wine, electronics kits, apparel, and other goods argued that the April 2 “Liberation Day” tariffs disrupted their supply chains, forced steep price increases, and threatened their viability.
American consumers, too, are paying the price. KPMG finds that nearly half of American companies have already raised prices because of tariffs; two-thirds have passed at least part of those costs on to shoppers; and nearly 40 percent have paused hiring, with a third cutting jobs.
CEOs overwhelmingly expect tariffs to weigh on business for years. Goldman Sachs estimates U.S. consumers are now footing 55 percent of the total tariff bill, while foreign exporters bear only a sliver of the costs.”
https://reason.com/2025/10/16/trumps-new-tariffs-on-furniture-will-be-costly-and-americans-will-pay/
Trump Adds 3 More Names to the List of Enemies He Wants the Justice Department To Prosecute
“Like Patel, Bondi was confirmed after promising to be guided by the facts and the law rather than the president’s grudges. “The partisanship, the weaponization, will be gone,” she declared. “America will have one tier of justice for all….There will never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice.”
Blanche sang the same tune during his confirmation hearing. “Politics should never play a role in the Department of Justice,” he said. “We will work to restore the American people’s faith in our justice system.”
Whether or not Bondi and Blanche meant those words when they said them, the president plainly does not share the vision they described. “They’re all guilty as hell,” Trump said in the Truth Social rant addressed to Bondi, which mentioned Adam Schiff, the not-yet-indicted Democratic senator from California (whom Trump also mentioned on Wednesday), along with Comey and James—a list to which he has now added three more names. Guilty of what? The Justice Department’s job, as Trump sees it, is to figure that out.”
https://reason.com/2025/10/16/trump-adds-3-more-names-to-the-list-of-enemies-he-wants-the-justice-department-to-prosecute/
Is China Beating Trump?
China’s stranglehold on the supply of rare earths is damaging America’s ability to build military equipment and commercial cars. So far, Trump’s trade war on China is costly with little to no reward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXd0dTfc2Pk
How Trump Triggered California’s Redistricting Fight
“Trump, who urged Texas and other Red States to redistrict before the end of the decade in a shameless attempt to help the GOP pick up additional seats as we head toward the midterm elections. The Republican Party holds a slim House majority, so a slight shift can slow its agenda.
As the president posted on Truth Social: “Big WIN for the Great State of Texas!!! Everything Passed, on our way to FIVE more Congressional seats and saving your Rights, your Freedoms, and your Country, itself. Texas never lets us down. Florida, Indiana, and others are looking to do the same thing.”
This isn’t as ominous as, say, the GOP effort to steal the 2020 presidential election with absurd claims, bad lawyers and a mob attack on the Capitol. But it’s yet another GOP assault on democratic norms. Prop. 50 is the Democrats’ attempt to neuter these ill-gotten GOP gains. It’s not good, but it’s justifiable. It’s temporary, with the redrawing heading back to the commission in 2030.”
https://reason.com/2025/10/17/in-californias-redistricting-fight-there-are-no-principled-combatants/
Woman Acquitted of Assaulting FBI Agent After 3 Grand Juries Declined To Indict
“In August, President Donald Trump took over the police force in Washington, D.C., and flooded the city with officers from various federal agencies. As part of this show of force, federal agents arrested hundreds of people, while prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia—led by interim U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro—seemingly intended to throw the book at them, whether or not the punishment actually fit the crime.
This week, one of the administration’s more high-profile cases crashed and burned at trial.
In July, according to a charging document, D.C. resident Sydney Reid filmed with her phone as agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took two people into custody from the city jail. When one ICE officer told Reid to move back, she “continued to move closer to the officers and continued to record the arrest.” When she didn’t reply to further commands, an officer pushed her against the wall, and FBI Agent Eugenia Bates stepped in to assist as Reid “was flailing her arms and kicking and had to be pinned against a cement wall.” During the scuffle, the indictment claims Reid “forcefully pushed [Bates’] hand against the cement wall” and “caused lacerations,” and it includes a picture of her hand with two red marks.
Reid was arrested for “assaulting, resisting, or impeding” federal officers, a felony punishable by up to eight years in prison. But when prosecutors presented the case, a grand jury declined to indict—not once or even twice, but three separate times.
This is not unique to Reid: In August, the same month, prosecutors also failed to secure a grand jury indictment against Sean Dunn, the Department of Justice employee who threw a sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection officer stationed in D.C. In fact, within three weeks of Trump’s D.C. takeover, grand juries declined to return indictments at least seven times.”
https://reason.com/2025/10/17/woman-acquitted-of-assaulting-fbi-agent-after-3-grand-juries-declined-to-indict/