Donald Trump has consistently railed against Fed Chair Jay Powell, a man the president himself nominated in his first administration, but Powell has reportedly just been given the "upper hand."
Trump has nicknamed Powell "too late" in connection with the Fed chair's refusal to bow to Trump's will when it comes to U.S. interest rates. But Powell has just been given the "upper hand," journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin said Wednesday.
Sorkin says the numbers set up a "very interesting conversation about what President Trump, for example, would ultimately say right now to a Jay Powell. who course, runs the federal reserve."
"Just overnight, if you saw, you had the president saying that Jay Powell should be resigning from his role because he should be lowering interest rates," Sorkin said. "This morning, I think this jobs number would give Jay Powell the upper hand to say, look, the reason I'm not lowering interest rates is the economy actually continues to be quite good, which is something you'd think that the president would enjoy and like."
He added, "Nonetheless, I think the chance right now of interest rates going lower anytime soon is taken off the table a bit this morning as a function of these jobs numbers."
Some GOP lawmakers are holding a "secret" until Donald Trump's megabill passes, and one insider flagged a potentially nefarious motive.
The drama has been palpable between Wednesday night, when Trump warned MAGA was unhappy with their GOP representatives, and early Thursday morning, when the so-called "big, beautiful" bill is set to pass at 8:00 AM Eastern Time.
Punchbowl News reporter Laura Weiss reported that GOP congressmen Keith Self and Josh Brecheen, who were "holdouts who flipped their rule votes" for the bill, "say they'll have more info coming on what got them to yes."
"They indicate they’ll announce more after final bill vote," she added before quoting Self, who said, "We made some progress on some fiscal issues."
Democratic House aide Aaron Fritschner, an insider to the process, made an observation:
"The only reason for them to keep this secret until the bill passes is if they think making it known would jeopardize votes by 'moderate' Republicans on passage," he said Thursday. "If this were on the level those people might want to find out what just happened, but they are not on the level."
He further added, "A thing to note as Republicans make claims about what their bill will do: they passed it in both chambers without waiting for a score. The July 4 'deadline' was fake and self-imposed, they didn’t have to do that. Passing this without a score was a choice."
The only reason for them to keep this secret until the bill passes is if they think making it known would jeopardize votes by "moderate" Republicans on passage. If this were on the level those people might want to find out what just happened, but they are not on the level https://t.co/d747mcTnE3 — Aaron Fritschner (@Fritschner) July 3, 2025
There was one "very telling" thing about the way GOP lawmakers flipped on Donald Trump's megabill, according to one journalist.
MSNBC host Ali Vitali was on air first thing Thursday morning to report on the so-called "big, beautiful" bill that is scheduled to be passed soon.
According to Vitali, the fact that Republican congressmen flipped for Trump, and received nothing in return, was "stark."
Vitali said the flipping was "less reading the bill and more reading the political tea leaves here."
"The fact that Republican leadership... were regularly warning about the fact that they wouldn't want to be the ones left in the White House's crosshairs if they were to vote against this bill, and I think momentum has a real role to play here," she added. "The idea of this July 4th deadline... it's amazing that it stuck because it's fake. It's not a deadline. Unlike the debt ceiling, for example, that would have had a hard date in the middle of August and thusly really put pressure on members to do it to avoid financial catastrophe for the country, this is a fake deadline that they were able to hold to regardless, and they were able to flip members not by giving them anything."
She continued:
"And it seems that Johnson learned something from his predecessor, speaker McCarthy, on the giving away the store in the process of negotiating towards what you want. That's a lesson, clearly from that. But the idea that people flipped and they actually got nothing, I think is really stark and really telling here."
That was the word from President Donald Trump early Thursday, as he watched five Republicans defect on advancing his marquee "Big, Beautiful Bill," which permanently extends tax cuts implemented during his first term. Critics of the bill say the cuts disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Americans. To offset the trillions of dollars lost in tax revenue from the tax cut extensions, Republicans are eyeing major cuts to Medicaid and food assistance, which are projected to leave 17 million Americans without health insurance, and boot nearly five million off of food assistance.
In a dramatic showdown at Capitol Hill, five Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Keith Self (R-TX), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), Victoria Spartz (R-IN), and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) — voted against advancing the bill, joining Democrats.
And Trump was not happy.
"Largest Tax Cuts in History and a Booming Economy vs. Biggest Tax Increase in History, and a Failed Economy. What are the Republicans waiting for??? What are you trying to prove??? MAGA IS NOT HAPPY, AND IT’S COSTING YOU VOTES!!!" he raged on his Truth Social platform just after midnight.
Just before Trump's post, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) declared he was “absolutely confident” Republicans would advance the sprawling megabill.
“We’re going to land this plane and deliver for the American people,” Johnson insisted on Fox News’ “Hannity," brushing aside concerns about GOP holdouts.
The Maryland father wrongly deported to a brutal Salvadoran prison due to a "clerical error" has filed an amended complaint detailing the "torture" he endured in the prison.
Lawfare's Anna Bower posted screen captures of the filing Kilmar Ábrego García's lawyers submitted on Wednesday, where he alleged "torture and mistreatment" at CECOT prison.
The filing begins with broad descriptions of "severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture."
“In Cell 15, Plaintiff Ábrego García and 20 other Salvadorans were forced to kneel from approximately 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM, with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion," the filing says. "During this time, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was denied bathroom access and soiled himself…"
Among the allegations of psychological torture was "prison officials repeatedly [telling] Plaintiff Ábrego García that they would transfer him to the cells containing gang members who, they assured him, would 'tear' him apart.”
It goes on to say that García would overhear "prisoners in nearby cells who he understood to be gang members violently harm each other with no intervention…"
This happened numerous times, he said.
"Screams from nearby cells would similarly ring out throughout the night without any response from prison guards," the filing continues.
A Justice Department prosecutor confessed to a Maryland court judge that García was not supposed to be sent to CECOT. It prompted questions from a judge as to why he couldn't simply be returned to the United States. The prosecutor said that he's never been able to get a straight answer to that question. He was fired shortly after.
The case ultimately went to the U.S. District Court, which agreed that the government must "facilitate and effectuate the return of [Ábrego García] to the United States by no later than 11:59 PM on Monday, April 7."
The administration appealed the decision, but the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling.
On Wednesday morning, Democrats attempted to send the 2026 budget back to committee but lost the vote by a single member's absence. After the vote, members began debating the bill, but Republicans made one significant mistake that could delay passage of the bill.
As Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman pointed out on X, in drafting the rule for the vote, Republicans "forgot to order the previous question." In parliamentary procedure, you ask for a special rule to order the previous question, stopping future debate whenever Republicans want.
"Without ordering the previous question, Speaker Johnson doesn't have an escape hatch if he starts debate on the bill," said Sherman. "Meaning, they have to vote on the bill once they get onto it. Johnson is probably going to want to fix this with an amendment on the floor when they begin considering the rule. But they will need a majority to change the rule."
There are eight Republican absences and one Democratic absence.
Meanwhile, members of the Congressional Black Caucus have lined up for what is called a "Conga Line" on the House floor, which Sherman also posted on X.
That means the list of "25 and counting" members will request "unanimous consent to insert statements of opposition into the record" regarding the budget reconciliation bill. Doing this allows Democrats to add further delays to the floor debate without taking time away from their side's debates.
Sherman explained that it "could slow the floor down."
Fox Business Host Maria Bartiromo was left stunned Wednesday morning after reading aloud the latest job numbers for the month of June, which, originally anticipated to show 95,000 new jobs, actually revealed payrolls had declined by tens of thousands.
“We are waiting any moment now to get the job numbers for the month of (June), the expectations call for the numbers to be up 95,000 for the month,” Bartiromo said. “Right now, seeing the numbers actually show a decline, down 33,000.”
Coming from the Automatic Data Processing National Employment Report, which measures changes in private-sector employment using payroll data from around 25 million workers, the June job numbers represent the first monthly decline since March of 2023, and eliminates the entirety of the 29,000 new jobs reported in May.
Joanna DiNizio, spokesperson for ADP, attributed the unexpected loss of jobs to a "reluctance to replace departing workers" in a statement Wednesday.
Much of the hesitancy for employers to invest in things like job creation has been attributed to President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, having implemented, paused and vowed to restore tariffs on imports several times throughout the year. The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development forecasts GDP growth in the United States to slow to nearly half of its 2024 pace over the next two years due in large part to Trump’s tariffs in a June report.
A legal expert spoke "the name that shall not be spoken."
Juries have a secret power that attorneys aren't supposed to talk about, according to MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos.
Cevallos on Wednesday appeared on the news network to discuss the high-profile criminal trial against Sean 'Diddy' Combs.
Noting that most of the elements of the criminal charges involved in the case have been met, Cevallos raised the possibility that the jury could still acquit the music mogul, just because they think it's right.
"A lot of people have talked about, whether they be lawyers or regular folks, that this doesn't feel like a case that belongs in federal court. So there's always an option," Cevallos said. "And this among lawyers... is the name that shall not be spoken, is jury nullification. Juries are never told this, but they do technically have the power to go in there and say, look, this crime, everything he did meets all the elements of this crime. But we have the unreviewable power to simply say we're going to acquit him anyway because we feel like it's the right thing to do."
The expert added that "there would be no comebacks, there's no appeal, and we lawyers are not even supposed to talk about this."
"So I'm going to be checking my email from the disciplinary board. But I'm just saying that it's something that exists out there in the ether," he then added.
"Late night… post storm (or is it before the storm?)…" Roy wrote along with a photo of the U.S. Capitol.
Sherman flagged the development, writing, "ROY with an ominous late-night tweet."
"The Texas Republican voted no in Rules last night. He has flipped a lot this congress," the journalist added. "But many in his world feel that the string is running out and promises have not been kept.... an interesting few days -- or more! -- ahead."
Roy has frequently been at odds with other Republicans, including the president's team.
The panel on CNN's "News Night with Abby Phillip" erupted after a GOP spokesperson claimed that President Donald Trump's megabill would reduce the deficit instead of increasing it, as several nonpartisan analyses of the bill have concluded.
Pete Seat, a former spokesperson for President George W. Bush, claimed that the budget bill would decrease the deficit by as much as $1 trillion. Other analyses from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office have estimated the budget bill will add as much as $3 trillion to the deficit.
"That's fake math!" said Sheelah Kolhatkar, staff writer for The New Yorker. "Everyone agrees that this bill isn't going to reduce our fiscal problems. It's going to massively add to the deficit."
The impact of Trump's budget on the federal deficit became a point of contention within the GOP. Fiscal hawks like Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) voted against the bill because of its impact on the deficit.
Other Republicans sought to distance themselves from the bill because of the cuts to Medicaid and other social benefits.
"It's not true that everyone agrees!" Seat shot back in defense of Trump's budget bill. "It cuts more than $1 trillion."
"That's based on fake math!" Kolhatkar replied.
Seat then changed the subject of the question to a philosophical thought experiment about whether the money earned by private citizens is the property of the government.
"No!" Phillip chimed in. "That is the cost of the bill."
Update: A verdict has been reached on several counts in the criminal trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs, but the judge told jurors to return Wednesday to continue deliberating on a RICO charge before it's announced.
A verdict has been reached in the sex trafficking trial of music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs.
CNN's Laura Coates reported from outside the high-profile trial in New York City to announce, "We have a verdict."
"We're told they sent a note just a few moments ago that the jury has reached a verdict on counts two, three, four and five. They are unable to reach a verdict on count one, as we have jurors with 'unpersuadable opinions on both sides.' Now, to break that down, count one is RICO, the most complex charge here that could come with up to life in prison."
Coates was referring to a charge under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
"The remaining charges include two counts of sex trafficking, one for each victim, Cassie Ventura and a pseudonym named Jane, and the last two in terms of transformation into the form of prostitution. So, we now know that on the RICO charge, it appears that the jury presently is hung. We do not yet know what the verdict is in the remaining counts, but suffice to say, over the last seven weeks the prosecution has been trying to persuade a jury of now 12 people with the alternates out that Sean 'Diddy' Combs should serve the rest of his life in prison based on five felony counts."
CNN anchor Brianna Keilar reacted to Coates' reporting, calling the verdict "huge."
The U.S. Senate passed its final version of President Donald Trump's 2026 budget legislation that has become known as the "big, beautiful bill."
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) voted against the bill, telling the press that she's put out a statement and would not speak about her vote to the press, reported Punchbowl News. The vote was 50-50, with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) had said she was voting no, but changed her mind after, at the last minute, "The Senate parliamentarian knocked out a handwritten parenthetical notation in the new Murkowski-focused provision that created a special preference for an Alaska rural hospital fund," Democrats told Punchbowl's Andrew Desiderio.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) also voted against it.
As the Senate staged a voting marathon on amendments to President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” ahead of the July 4 holiday, legislators, academics and physicians warned of the devastation the mega-spending package could cause people reliant on Medicaid.
At least three in four losing coverage would be due to Medicaid cuts in the bill, creating “stress and angst related to having gaps in coverage,” Adrianna McIntyre, an assistant professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told Raw Story.
The bill's focus on kicking off undocumented migrants, in particular, is blown “way, way, way out of proportion” and “complete drivel," Peter Kowey, emeritus chief of cardiology at the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research in Pennsylvania, told Raw Story.
Undocumented patients he’s encountered more often than not have “better health insurance than citizens,” working and purchasing their own plans, he said.
Legislators from left and right spoke out about how the proposed restrictions on Medicaid would harm their constituents, from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who accused Republicans of “cruelty” for supporting the bill poised to “hurt” and “kill people,” to Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who voted against the bill for “betraying a promise” to Americans who would ultimately be pushed off Medicaid.
“Senate Republicans are doubling down on ripping health care away from people and raising costs for families to fund giant tax handouts for billionaires and giant corporations,” Warren told Raw Story in a statement.
“This ugly bill is a slap in the face for families, and I’m taking all my fight to the Senate floor to stop it.”
The Senate version of the bill proposes increased spending for border security, defense and energy, while decreasing spending on health and nutrition — with 11.8 million Americans set to lose insurance by 2034 with more than $1 trillion in Medicaid funding cut, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
If the bill passes, proposed Medicaid restrictions include work requirements for able-bodied adults and increased eligibility checks — expected to save $325 billion over a decade — and cuts to provider taxes, which states use to fund their Medicaid costs — reducing spending by nearly $191 billion in that time, according to the agency’s estimate.
Still, even with those cuts, the deficit would still grow by more than $3.3 trillion, according to the agency.
Trump urged legislators to continue steaming ahead toward his July 4 deadline, encouraging them to ignore the Senate parliamentarian who determined provider tax cuts and restrictions on care to undocumented individuals were not in compliance with Senate rules.
The White House insisted on Sunday that “there will be no cuts to Medicaid.”
“OBBB protects and strengthens Medicaid for those who rely on it — pregnant women, children, seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income families — while eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse,” it said.
“OBBB removes illegal aliens, enforces work requirements and protects Medicaid for the truly vulnerable.”
‘Buried in patients’
Kowey, who is also chair in cardiovascular research and professor of medicine and clinical pharmacology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, said physicians “depend on a reasonable Medicaid payment,” and with less reimbursements, practices will fold.
That will make it even harder to get an appointment with physicians “literally buried with patients,” especially when there’s already a shortage of primary care providers, said Kowey, author of the forthcoming book Failure to Treat: How a Broken Healthcare System Puts Patients and Practitioners at Risk.
Plus, hospitals still need to treat "indigent" patients, whether or not they have insurance, Kowey said. More patients without Medicaid will leave hospitals to “suffer the financial consequences and close at a higher rate, and we're all going to suffer for that,” Kowey said.
McIntyre agreed that hospitals and nursing homes “already at the financial margins” stand to close if the Medicaid restrictions pass.
“I think for a lot of folks it means that they won't be able to access health care, or they won't be confident that they can access health care because they won't know if they're going to get a bill from the hospital if they show up,” McIntyre said.
Kowey said the employment requirements in the Republican bill create unnecessary "bureaucracy" as the majority on Medicaid already work.
“These paperwork requirements largely just end up screening people out of coverage, and some of them might come back in,” McIntyre said.
“They might figure out that they've lost coverage, but they might not learn that until they show up needing care, and that could create access issues for them.”
‘Gasoline on the fire’
Veronique de Rugy, senior research fellow and chair in political economy at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a libertarian research center, said the bill would not deliver on its promises for slashing the deficit, calling it “barely pro-growth.”
De Rugy, who advocates for small government and lower taxes, said cuts to Medicaid could go even further.
“If Americans want large spending — they don't want to touch Social Security. They don't want to touch Medicaid. They don't want to touch Medicare. They want all the tax credits for this green energy and this child tax credit and this and that — then they should pay more taxes,” de Rugy said.
“They can't continue financing it on the back of future generations that are going to face much higher taxes and are going to face inflation.”
The White House said the bill “delivers the largest middle- and working-class tax cut in U.S. history.”
That’s a problem if it means future generations pay the price, de Rugy said, adding: “There was a time where the Republican Party used to understand this message.”
Kowey said it was “astounding” that Republicans would propose a bill to “benefit rich people and take money away from Medicaid patients,” which might cost them reelection.
“I hope people make this connection, that the people in Washington not only don't care about you, but they're willing to throw gasoline on fire, which is basically what this legislation is doing,” Kowey said.
