Alternet Posts

The cost-of-living crisis is proving to be the biggest thorn in the side of Donald Trump during his second term, and according to a new report from NOTUS, his energy policies will make matters even more "toxic" for him and the GOP if he does not "reverse course."

Experts speaking with NOTUS prior to Trump's second inauguration predicted that skyrocketing energy prices would become a major political problem for the next administration, and as of this week, those same experts said "their predictions have already come to pass." In some parts of the US, household energy bills jumped by as much as 25 percent over the past three years, and the situation will only worsen as the rest of Trump's term plays out, with AI data centers consuming more and more power.

Trump's handling of the economy and his inability to bring down consumer prices have seen his approval with voters tank over the course of the year. Democrats running campaigns centered on affordability also saw major gains in off-year elections, leading many observers to predict major losses for the GOP in the 2026 midterms. Increased power bills could become a focal point for the cost-of-living conversation, and as NOTUS highlighted, Trump's energy policies are poised to make things worse....

After Donald Trump narrowly defeated then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the United States' 2024 presidential election, Democratic strategists spent months feeling demoralized. It was a close election — Trump won the national popular vote by roughly 1.5 percent — yet he made gains with Latinos, Generation Z, independents and swing voters and flipped six states that Joe Biden won in 2020: Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin.

Moreover, Republicans retook Congress' upper chamber when three Democratic U.S. senators — Pennsylvania's Bob Casey Jr., Ohio's Sherrod Brown and Montana's Jon Tester — were voted out of office.

But a series of elections in November and December went well for Democrats, including double-digit victories in gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia and landslides in three Pennsylvania Supreme Court retention elections. And Eileen Higgins became the first Democrat to win a mayoral race in Miami in 30 years. ...

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) is accusing President Donald Trump of blocking a non-controversial water project affecting her district after the lawmaker challenged Trump to force the release of the Epstein files in November.

“… Trump decided to veto … a bipartisan bill that passed both the House and Senate unanimously. Why? Because nothing says ‘America First’ like denying clean drinking water to 50,000 people in Southeast Colorado, many of whom enthusiastically voted for him in all three elections,” Boebert said, according to Colorado news reporter Kyle Clark. “… I sincerely hope this veto has nothing to do with political retaliation for calling out corruption and demanding accountability. Americans deserve leadership that puts people over politics.”

“I thought the [Trump] campaign was about lowering costs and cutting red tape,” Boebert added....

President Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly claimed that his tariffs are paid exclusively by foreign countries exporting goods into the US, but the reality remains that the costs are paid by the companies importing goods into the country and are most often passed down to consumers. Now, a new report from Fortune has found the full impact on small businesses, with tariffs siphoning thousands of dollars out of them every month.

Fortune reported the findings of the Center for American Progress (CAP), which it describes as a "left-wing think tank," from a report published on Dec. 17. According to CAP, between April, when Trump enacted his sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs on nearly every country, and September, roughly 236,000 small businesses in the US paid, on average, $151,000 more in import duties compared to the same period of time in 2024. This equates to a little over $25,000 per month.

“The Trump administration’s broad, costly, and frequently shifting policies threaten to undermine one of the strongest engines of the American economy,” Michael Negron, an analyst with CAP, said in a statement about their findings. “A season of opportunity for small businesses has turned into one of uncertainty.”...

President Donald Trump is now asking his supporters to donate money by implying Democrats could steal future "tariff rebate checks" and give them to undocumented immigrants.

Liberal group Meidas Touch initially reported on the email, which told supporters: "Here are 3 reasons I need YOU to STOP THE BOIL NOW BEFORE MY END-OF-YEAR FUNDRAISING DEADLINE." The email went on to suggest that Trump wanted to send $2,000 checks to "workers" using revenue generated from his tariffs, though he claimed Democrats planned to "send your check to illegals if you don't respond in the next hour!"

The solicitation warned that control of the House and Senate were both on the line, and that supporters' money was needed for "STOPPING COMMUNISM," using Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (D) as examples. The email made no mention of Trump's public embrace of Mamdani in the Oval Office last month....

President Donald Trump spent part of a joint event alongside a foreign leader to simultaneously attack the Federal Reserve's ongoing renovations of its campus while touting his planned White House ballroom.

During a Monday press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump answered one reporter's question about his planned replacement of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell by launching a litany of complaints about the Fed's upgrades of its two main buildings in Washington D.C. After repeating the false claim that the renovation was costing $4 billion (the highest estimates peg the cost at $2.5 billion), Trump argued that Powell was "incompetent" due to the cost of the project.

"We have a fool at the Federal Reserve, I mean, [former President Joe] Biden reappointed him. It's too bad," Trump said of Powell, who was appointed in November of 2017 during Trump's first term. "You would have thought he wouldn't have done that. But, he's an absolute fool who's building a new Federal Reserve, or he's doing a renovation of a building. Maybe he's up to $4.1 billion to do a renovation of a few very small buildings. It's the highest price in the history of construction."...

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) suggested over the weekend that a Trump administration official may have quietly contacted a federal appeals judge to stall a contempt inquiry, and the legal analyst interviewing him declared that if so, “people are going to jail.”

In a clip flagged by political video aggregator Acyn Torabi from the Legal AF podcast, Whitehouse laid out a hypothetical involving D.C. Circuit Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee.

“If some MAGA official communicated to Judge Rao or her chambers and that resulted in the administrative stay that held the door open and kept the facts from the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation and stalled investigation into misconduct by the DOJ,” Whitehouse began, “ask any judge how big a deal that is.”...

President Donald Trump cut off reporters and walked away after they repeatedly demanded evidence for his claim of widespread mail-in voting fraud in California.

Trump spoke to reporters outside the White House on Monday as he prepared to board Marine One for campaign events.

The midterm elections are less than a month away, on Nov. 3....

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) bragged about a road salt win at a Maine Senate debate, and her challenger's comeback had observers cheering.

On Tuesday, Collins faced Democratic challenger Troy Jackson in a debate weeks before the midterms. Asked what she would do about President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canada, Collins pointed to a specific victory.

"I was successful at getting road salt removed from the tariff list," Collins said. Jackson responded by pouncing on the answer....