https://newrepublic.com/post/204418/mike-johnson-health-care-deal-obamacare-deadline
December 15 is the last day for Americans to register for Obamacare open enrollment.
House GOP moderates are breaking away from their party leader.
At least four Republican representatives—Brian Fitzpatrick, Jen Kiggans, David Valadao, and Mike Lawler—have decided to bypass House Speaker Mike Johnson altogether amid a disagreement on extensions for Affordable Care Act premium subsidies.
There are just 17 days left on the clock before the premium subsidies expire altogether. They assist individuals making upward of 400 percent of the federal poverty level. Without them, health insurance premiums for more than 20 million Americans are expected to double.
But that 17-day deadline is effectively nil. Even if the House manages to pass a package, the Senate isn’t expected to follow suit.
What’s more, Monday is the final day for people to register for ACA open enrollment—something many may be hesitant to do if they’re not sure whether the premiums will expire, sending health care costs skyrocketing.
Last week, Johnson granted Fitzpatrick and Kiggans an opportunity to vote on an amendment to extend the subsidies. But differing opinions over the amendment’s text have effectively crumbled the deal, and the cohort of moderate Republicans are expected to go their own way, Punchbowl News reported Monday.
“Fitzpatrick, Kiggans, and Reps. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) and David Valadao (R-Calif.) will go to the House Rules Committee Tuesday to offer their amendment, which would extend the subsidies for two years alongside income caps and anti-fraud reforms,” the digital outlet reported. “They expect it to be rejected. It’s unclear what the moderates will do after that. They’d effectively be free agents.”
Being free could put them in a position to side with Democrats, who have pitched a three-year extension to the Obamacare tax credits. The GOP representatives’ collective signatures would push the liberal party’s discharge petition over the finish line.
Without the subsidies, policy analysts expect a mass exodus from Obamacare plans altogether that could leave roughly four million Americans completely uninsured. The spike in uninsured Americans will spur a nationwide public health problem that has historically made premiums more expensive for the insured as hospitals look to recoup the lost cash.
But have no fear, Republicans have said they’ll focus on health care policy in the coming year—after millions of Americans lose their coverage.
Trump Hits New Low With Twisted Reaction to Stabbing of Rob Reiner
Donald Trump claims Reiner was responsible for his own death.
Donald Trump has responded to the tragic death of director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, with an unhinged Truth Social post attacking Reiner for criticizing him in the past.
Trump called Reiner “a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star,” and made the wildly insensitive claim that the pair died due to Reiner’s “anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS.”
Right now, police have not publicly confirmed any details as to the circumstances of the pair’s death, although People magazine reports that their son, Nick, killed them and is being questioned by law enforcement. Nick co-wrote the film Being Charlie with his father, who also directed it, and has spoken extensively about his struggles with drug addiction.
All that is known right now is that Sunday afternoon, the Los Angeles Fire Department was called to provide medical aid to the Reiners’ home and found the couple dead.
Trump has a history of undignified responses to the deaths of people who have criticized him, most notably Senator John McCain. Reiner was very popular in Hollywood and well known for his liberal activism, earning him posthumous tributes from former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Kamala Harris, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Even MAGA-supporting actor James Woods offered his “love and respect” to Reiner in a tribute on X.
Trump is receiving a backlash on Truth Social for his remarks, with replies from his fans criticizing his insensitivity.
Following Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension from ABC over his comments on Charlie Kirk in September, Reiner criticized Trump and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and noted that “there’s only a couple of us that are speaking out in this hard way.” He added, “This may be the last time you ever see me.”
This story has been updated.
Trump Derails His Christmas Speech to Ramble About Snakes
At one point, even Donald Trump acknowledged he’d lost the crowd.
Guests at the White House Christmas reception fell silent Sunday as President Donald Trump veered way off topic to deliver a cozy holiday tale about … poisonous snakes?
“Tale” is probably giving him too much credit. During his address, 79-year-old Trump turned his attention to Peru, which he said “is known to be a rather rough place in terms of physical creatures crawling around.”
“Twenty-eight thousand people die a year from a snake bite, a certain snake. It’s a viper. It’s said to be the most poisonous snake in the world,” Trump said. “But the venom rarely works, it’s so powerful, the snake. It’s said to be the most poisonous. That, the black mamba, the brown mamba, and the viper from Peru.”
Trump tried to explain that he was telling this “story” because his son Donald Jr. was sitting in the audience, but he didn’t end up telling any story at all.
“And so, he’s being read his rights and his—this is, they thought he was dead three times, three different times, they carried him out, feeding him the anti-venom, and over a period of months he was unconscious for a long time, many weeks, and he made it. I asked him, ‘How ya doing today?’ And he said, ‘Is it perfect?’” the president rambled incoherently.
Suddenly, Trump seemed to notice that he’d lost his audience.
“Look how quiet everybody is,” the president said. “You know, it’s funny when you talk about snakes and things like that, people find it interesting.”
Interesting? No. Deeply concerning? Yes.
Ilhan Omar Reveals Her Son Was Targeted by ICE
The Democratic representative has been the focus of right-wing attacks in recent weeks, led by the president himself.
The son of Representative Ilhan Omar was caught up in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota.
In an interview with local TV station WCCO on Sunday, Omar said that federal agents pulled over her son on Saturday and demanded proof of citizenship.
“Yesterday, after he made a stop at Target, he did get pulled over by [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents, and once he was able to produce his passport ID, they did let him go,” Omar said, adding that her son always carries his passport. According to the Somali American congresswoman, it’s not her son’s first brush with ICE: In the past, agents entered a mosque where he and others were praying but left without incident.
After ICE had visited that mosque, she said she “had to remind him just how worried I am, because all of these areas that they are talking about are areas where he could possibly find himself in and they are racially profiling, they are looking for young men who look Somali that they think are undocumented.”
Earlier this month, President Trump launched an immigration crackdown targeting the local Somali American community in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, the largest in the country. The president said he did not “want them in our country,” calling Omar and the rest of the community garbage.
On Friday, Omar sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons accusing the government of “blatant racial profiling” and “an egregious level of unnecessary force” in Minnesota.
“It is clear to me that this surge came in direct response to Trump’s racist comments about Somali people, and about me in particular,” Omar wrote.
Kash Patel Makes Another Major Error on Brown University Shooting
The FBI director has once again prematurely announced details about the suspect.
Kash Patel celebrated too early again.
On Sunday, the FBI director made a lengthy post boasting about the bureau’s efforts to detain a person of interest in the Brown University shooting on Saturday night that killed two and wounded nine.
“Early this morning, FBI Boston’s Safe Streets Task Force … detained a person of interest in a hotel room in Coventry, RI, based off a lead by the @ProvidenceRIPD. We have deployed local and national resources to process and reconstruct the shooting scene—providing HQ and Lab elements on scene,” Patel wrote, attaching pictures. “We set up a digital media intake portal to ingest images and video from the public related to this incident. And the FBI’s victim specialists are fully integrating with our partners to provide resources to victims and survivors of this horrific violence. This FBI will continue an all out 24/7 campaign until justice is fully served.”
Local authorities even confirmed that the person of interest was detained off of a tip obtained by Patel’s FBI.
The person of interest was released hours after Patel’s announcement.
This blunder from Patel reeks of the same overeagerness that led to this same outcome in the Charlie Kirk shooting.
In September, he drew the ire of the left and right for his premature social media post the day of the shooting, declaring that “the subject for the horrific shooting” was in custody—a claim almost immediately contradicted by local officials. Patel later backtracked, and the manhunt ensued for another 27-plus hours before the suspect, Tyler Robinson, was turned in by a family member.
“I’m grateful that Utah authorities have captured the suspect in the Charlie Kirk assassination, and think it is time for Republicans to assess whether Kash Patel is the right man to run the FBI,” right-wing culture warrior Chris Rufo posted then. “He performed terribly in the last few days, and it’s not clear whether he has the operational expertise to investigate, infiltrate, and disrupt the violent movements—of whatever ideology—that threaten the peace in the United States.”
It’s clear that these questions still apply—and that the FBI director is still more concerned with looking tough and being celebrated than he is with actually being good at his job.
All Trump Wants for Christmas Is a “Triumphal Arc”
The president is obsessed with his latest new vanity project.
At a White House Christmas reception on Sunday, President Donald Trump made clear what he wants from Santa this year.
“We’re building an arc, like the Arc de Triomphe,” he said during a rambling speech, after spending 10 minutes talking about golf. “And we’re building it by the Arlington Bridge … opposite the Lincoln Memorial.”
Trump’s “triumphal arc” (yes, “arc”) is the latest construction project on his list, which also includes the 90,000-square-foot, $250 million ballroom he’s tearing down the East Wing of the White House for, and his Rose Garden renovation, in which he paved paradise and put up a parking lot—sorry, a “club.”
“I put Vince in charge of the triumphal arc,” Trump said, referring to his former speechwriter and the current director of the Domestic Policy Council, Vince Haley. “Vince came in one day, and his eyes were teeming. He couldn’t believe how beautiful. He saw it, and he wanted to do that,” the president continued, intelligibly.
“It will be like the one in Paris, but to be honest, maybe it blows it away—it blows it away, in every way,” Trump said.
But the president wasn’t quite finished gushing about his plans. He called Memorial Circle, the site across from Lincoln Memorial right on the border with Virginia, “a circle that’s been waiting to have the arc built on it.” Apparently, Memorial Circle was asking for it.
Trump then asked Vince to show the plans to the National Trust. “I’ve always gotten really along well with the National Trust, so take a look, show it to them, maybe they’ve got some good ideas.” (The National Trust is currently suing the president to block construction of his ballroom.)
While Trump gilds the Oval Office and plans his next vanity project, Americans are struggling to pay for necessities like groceries and doctors’ visits. Trump’s legacy will be one of staggering economic inequality—but at least we’ll have an “arc” to remember him by.
MAGA and Silicon Valley Are Battling for Influence in the White House
A new report lays out the tensions at play behind Trump’s executive order on AI.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday intended to stop states from regulating AI—an idea that had received a lot of pushback from members of his base.
The order didn’t emerge out of a vacuum, of course. MAGA Republicans and Silicon Valley leaders have been locked in a battle for influence over the White House on tech policy for some time, The Washington Post reported on Sunday.
Trump’s tech advisers seem to be winning.
Let’s back up a few months: over the summer, the Senate killed a bill that would have imposed a 10-year moratorium on AI laws from states. Then, when a draft version of the just-signed executive order leaked last month, many Republicans, who traditionally support states’ rights, tried to stop the president from going forward with it.
GOP members including Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene decried the idea, writing on X that “states must retain the right to regulate and make laws on AI and anything else for the benefit of their state. Federalism must be preserved.”
Conservative groups, members of Congress, and governors all reportedly reached out to the White House to raise the alarm about the draft as well.
The Post spoke to more than a dozen people familiar with the administration’s AI policies and White House officials and concluded that this moment was emblematic of a wider struggle between Trump’s base and his tech advisers and industry leaders who used their money and sway to help put him in office.
“It feels like millions of votes across the country just got traded for thousands of [venture capitalist] and tech rich votes in regions Republicans will never win,” one source said.
Compromises were made to the draft to bring Republicans on board, and silence critics, the Post reported, and Trump ended up signing the order this week.
The
tension between what Big Tech and the president’s populist supporters
want isn’t likely to disappear overnight, though. And as the midterm elections loom, more and more cracks are appearing among Trump’s MAGA base.
Trump’s Support Is Declining Among MAGA Base: Poll
More Americans are suffering from economic woes, and Donald Trump is losing support.
President Donald Trump’s support is starting to waver, even among his staunchest supporters, a new poll shows.
Don’t get it twisted—Trump’s approval rating among adults has been in the red for months, and is still falling, with now close to 60 percent of Americans saying they disapprove of the president. But according to an NBC News Decision Desk poll that surveyed 20,252 adults online, the two groups that show the largest drop in support for the president since April are Republicans and MAGA Republicans.
For people who identified themselves as Republicans rather than part of MAGA, the percentage who “strongly approve” of the president has dropped to 35 percent, from 38 percent in April.
Among MAGA Republicans, there’s a much higher percentage of people who strongly approve of Trump: 70 percent. But that’s down eight percentage points since April.
Plus, fewer Republicans report being part of MAGA today than did earlier this year. In April, 57 percent of Republicans identified as MAGA, but today the two sides of the party are equally split at 50–50.
These are small shifts, but they belie Trump’s fracturing base of support. From Marjorie Taylor Greene’s split from the president and abrupt resignation to the botched rollout of the Epstein files, to Trump’s tariffs and inability to bring down prices, there are some issues that even die-hard MAGA adherents can’t overlook.
Climate Change Is Coming for Your Favorite Holiday Foods
Consider yourself forewarned.
Chocolate, vanilla, coffee, cinnamon: The ingredients for your favorite holiday foods are becoming increasingly harder to grow because of climate change.
For example, cocoa beans are grown in West Africa, which has been facing more days of extreme heat and drought, according to a recent report from the Weather Channel. “The crop doesn’t like it,” meteorologist Jennifer Gray explained.
And when cocoa production falls, consumers also feel the heat: Prices for chocolate have shot up over the last year and were four times as high at the end of 2024 as they were in 2022.
Vanilla and cinnamon, key ingredients for holiday baking that are largely grown in Southeast Asia and Indonesia, are also under threat. “Because we rely on just a handful of islands to produce basically our world’s cinnamon, it is extremely vulnerable. These are also places that are facing climate extremes,” Gray said.
And for something like coffee, climate change is drastically shrinking the land where it can grow. Suitable locations could decrease by 50 percent by 2050, according to a 2014 study. Plus, the Trump administration’s on-again-off-again tariffs have shocked the coffee market, one that’s already reeling from landslides and floods in Vietnam.
That festive mocha latte looks like it’ll be getting a lot more expensive. Luckily, we’ll have a lot more heat waves, fires, and floods to deal with to distract us.
Trump Scraps Abolition Coins, Features Himself Instead
The Trump administration nixed commemorative coins meant to honor abolitionists and women in favor of honoring more old white men.
To celebrate America’s 250th birthday, President Donald Trump is commemorating the most important person in the country’s history: himself.
Back in 2021—days after the January 6 riots—Trump signed an act to authorize the creation of new coins to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary. The act specified that one coin be focused on women’s contribution to U.S. history.
In response, a bipartisan committee came up with some recommendations: a coin featuring Frederick Douglass to represent abolition, one with a “Votes for Women” flag to honor women’s suffrage, and a coin featuring 6-year-old Ruby Bridges, who helped desegregate her school in 1960.
But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has ultimate say, did not follow these recommendations, reported The New York Times.
Instead, the new coins will feature a Pilgrim couple on the Mayflower, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Abraham Lincoln. (The Trump administration, apparently, was not satisfied with the already significant coin representation of three out of four of these historic American men.)
And then, the collection’s pièce de résistance: a Trump dollar coin, featuring the president’s likeness on both sides.
It’s worth pointing out that it is incredibly abnormal—and some would argue, anti-American—to have a sitting president on a coin. Washington refused to have his likeness on a coin while he was president, as it felt too king-like for the leader of the newly free United States, according to the Times. Trump, apparently, has no such qualms.
donald, The orange faced oligarch
