Faith leaders, Democratic senators protest Trump tax bill
Politics
Faith leaders, Democratic senators protest Trump tax bill
June 10, 2025 | 10:56 PM GMT
Religious leaders, joined by several Democratic senators, held a rally at the U.S. Capitol on June 10 to demonstrate against President Donald Trump's tax and spending bill. Republicans can only afford lose three votes in the Senate to pass it.
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Live Updates: Court Will Consider Trump's Use of Troops as Immigration Protests Spread
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Yahoo
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Three ways the Trump-Musk feud revealed the GOP's twisted hypocrisy
Aside from being globally cathartic, the all-too-predictable breakup of President Donald Trump's unquenchable ego and Elon Musk's immense sense of self-importance pulled the dressing-room curtain back on the Republican Party. And what we saw was both cringeworthy and indecent. Or as I like to call it, the Republican Party. Here are three things this episode of 'Real Annoying Billionaires of Washington, DC' taught us about the conservatives who excitedly welcomed Musk – and his money – into politics: As the president and the weirdo billionaire hurled insults at each other on June 5, Trump posted this threat: 'The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts.' Gee, I wonder who, up until June 5, was helping Musk grease the wheels to line up 'Billions and Billions of Dollars' in additional government contracts? As The New York Times reported in March: 'Within the Trump administration's Defense Department, Elon Musk's SpaceX rocketry is being trumpeted as the nifty new way the Pentagon could move military cargo rapidly around the globe. In the Commerce Department, SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service will now be fully eligible for the federal government's $42 billion rural broadband push, after being largely shut out during the Biden era. … And at the Federal Aviation Administration and the White House itself, Starlink satellite dishes have recently been installed, to expand federal government internet access.' Opinion: Musk erupts, claims Trump is in the Epstein files. Who could've seen this coming? How quickly Trump went from filling Musk's coffers to repay him for his support and campaign contributions to suggesting Musk's contracts were, in fact, a form of government waste and fraud. (I mean … they are a form of government waste and fraud, but not in the way Trump was suggesting.) There's no other takeaway from this other than: We were happy to pay Musk whatever he wanted as long as he loved Trump, but the minute he stopped loving Trump, we can easily stop paying him. I think there's a word for that. Musk's swift about-face on Trump shows what many of us have long suspected: Republicans or Republicans-of-convenience like Musk don't actually like or respect Trump. On Feb. 7, Musk posted on social media: 'I love @realDonaldTrump as much as a straight man can love another man.' On June 5, Musk posted: '@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!' Going from 'I love you, man' to 'I'm alleging you're connected to a notorious sex offender who was facing child sex trafficking charges before he died of suicide in jail' is quite a journey. And it implies that Musk saw Trump for what he is: a useful, loathsome fool. Opinion: Who would want to have babies under a Trump administration? Not me. The minute Trump became not useful to Musk, he sang his truth, something I'd bet most Republicans would do if they had untold wealth and didn't have to worry much about repercussions. That tells you all you need to know about the modern-day GOP – liars boosting a lout in their own self-interest. For all its fanfare, the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency that Musk oversaw accomplished precious little cost-cutting while inflicting massive harm on America's global reputation, the lives of people reliant on U.S. aid, and the overall functioning of the federal government. Republicans knew this yet still tripped over themselves to toss roses at Musk's feet, hailing him as some kind of genius/savior. They wanted his money, and they wanted the disinformation cannon that comes with his right-wing social media platform. But when Musk grew wise to what Republican lawmakers were doing with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act – a deficit-ballooning monstrosity – he turned on his handmaidens and his former love, President Trump. Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. So Trump, of course, called him crazy. Which begs the question: Why were you letting a crazy person access Americans' most private data and demolish the federal workforce? And are you now going to … you know … make sure the guy you think is crazy didn't do something catastrophically bad? Congressional Republicans had to pick a side, and they've largely stepped into Trump's arms, knowing Musk may well be disliked even more than the sitting president. The Washington Post reported June 6: 'Across the government, the Trump administration is scrambling to rehire many federal employees dismissed under DOGE's staff-slashing initiatives after wiping out entire offices, in some cases imperiling key services such as weather forecasting and the drug approval process.' Translation: Musk's DOGE nonsense was for naught, an attempt to fluff a billionaire's ego while cloaking the high-spending, deficit-raising moves Republicans were going to make all along. There's a sucker born every minute, and two Republicans to take 'em. Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @ and on Facebook at You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump vs. Musk shows us depths of the GOP's moral rot | Opinion
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Trump lied about LA protests to deploy the National Guard. He wants violence.
Donald Trump, the president who glibly pardoned the men and women convicted in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021, wants you to believe that the second most populated city in America is in ruins, destroyed by 'insurrectionist mobs.' That's nonsense. Trump inhabits an imaginary, dystopian America spun from his opportunistic lies. The president wants you to believe, because it's politically expedient for him, that predominantly peaceful protests in Los Angeles over intentionally provocative raids by agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency are vast and violent. He wants you to believe that Los Angeles has burned. He wants you to believe that, as he posted on social media June 8, 'violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming and attacking our Federal Agents,' and that the city is under siege from a 'Migrant Invasion.' I'll say it again: Our president inhabits an imaginary, dystopian America spun from his opportunistic lies. After promising to target 'criminals,' Trump's administration, to make up for the paltry number of actual criminals ICE agents have been able to find and deport, has resorted to going after immigrants waiting for work in Home Depot parking lots. It's targeting immigrants who are properly following the immigration process, posting ICE agents outside courthouses to snatch noncriminals who are seeking a better life. It's making a point of hitting a liberal city with a large immigrant population for one reason and one reason alone: Trump wants violence. He wants you to believe there are hordes of murderous immigrants making America dangerous and unlivable. He used that baseless imagery to justify ordering National Guard troops to Los Angeles, against the wishes of the California governor. Trump wants to normalize this kind of power grab. Opinion: Manufacturing down, food expensive and ICE is deporting moms. Happy now, MAGA? Because that's the kind of power you want if you exist in an imaginary version of America spun from opportunistic lies. Republican leaders want all of this as well. Trump is living, breathing evidence that the GOP wants power at any cost, and Republican lawmakers are more than happy to parrot their leader's xenophobic fearmongering. Despite years of screaming about 'government overreach,' they'll sit back and gladly watch Trump sic U.S. soldiers on American citizens and use a blue-state city as a test model for tyranny. Why? Because our president and members of his party inhabit an imaginary, dystopian America spun from their opportunistic lies. Opinion: Republicans, be so for real. This embarrassing government is what you wanted? California officials, from Gov. Gavin Newsom to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, have made clear they don't want or need the National Guard in the city. Over the weekend, there were isolated incidents involving property damage, vehicles burned and, as KLTA-5 reported, "LAPD said officers encountered demonstrators throwing 'concrete, bottles and other objects.' " Police responded with sizable force, from tear gas to rubber bullets and flash bangs. But overall, officials have said, and widespread reporting has supported, that the protests have been small and predominantly peaceful. Still, Trump told his millions of social media followers that he was sending federal forces to 'liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion, and put an end to these Migrant riots. Order will be restored, the Illegals will be expelled, and Los Angeles will be set free.' I repeat, because it bears repeating: Trump inhabits an imaginary, dystopian America spun from his opportunistic lies. On June 8, the same day Trump and Republicans were telling Americans that Los Angeles was a chaotic war zone, the Los Angeles Pride Parade went off in Hollywood without a hitch. And The New York Times reported: 'The chaotic demonstrations that consumed social media and cable news in recent days were concentrated around only a couple parts of the region ‒ the working-class suburb of Paramount, where federal agents clashed with protesters near a Home Depot, and downtown Los Angeles.' Opinion: Trump's mass deportation scheme is an insult to all of us The city is immense. The chaos, in terms of people and the extent of any damage, has been minimal. Yet Trump and his Republican enablers choose to live in an imaginary, dystopian America spun from their opportunistic lies. Making all of this worse, of course, is that the supposed need for mass deportations is built on lies. Lies about a 'migrant crime wave.' Lies about America being unsafe because of immigrants. If the ICE raids targeting Los Angeles are necessary, why aren't they also necessary in the red states one would assume Trump is more inclined to protect? Why are ICE agents not searching for undocumented workers on farms in Nebraska or in meat-packing plants in Indiana? Why are anti-ICE protests in red states not being met with equal federal force? Why go to one of the bluest cities in one of the bluest states? Why doesn't Trump simply let those Democrats deal with the alleged 'migrant crime' and focus on the 'real Americans' he claims to care about? Perhaps because this is all nonsense. Or a distraction from Trump's recent clash with Elon Musk or the criticism of his deficit-ballooning tax bill making its way through Congress. Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. Newsom was asked late June 8 what he wanted to say to Trump about the situation in Los Angeles and the decision to federalize the National Guard and send soldiers in. The governor said: 'Where's your decency, Mr. President? Stop. Rescind this order, it's illegal and unconstitutional, and I said it, I'll say it again, it's immoral. You're creating the conditions that you claim you're solving, and you're not. And you're putting real people's lives at risk.' One last time: Trump inhabits an imaginary, dystopian America spun from his opportunistic lies. And that, unlike fabricated 'migrant riots,' puts every American in danger. Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @ and on Facebook at You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump is using LA as a testing ground for tyranny | Opinion
