Todd Zwillich

If You Can Keep It: The fight over funding the government It happens every year — sometimes even more frequently than that.

Had a lot of fun on @the1a.org with @jwhitepubradio.bsky.social and @toddzwillich.bsky.social. A productive conversation. the1a.org/segments/if-...

Trump's Medicaid cuts will hurt children's hospitals The GOP said its overhaul of Medicaid was aimed at reducing fraud and getting more adult beneficiaries to work. Among the likely side effects: fewer services and doctors for treating sick children.

The GOP said its overhaul of Medicaid was aimed at reducing fraud and getting more adult beneficiaries to work. Among the likely side effects: fewer services and doctors for treating sick children.

Opinion | Stop Acting Like This Is Normal

Kudos to @brianbeutler.bsky.social, somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/o...

I am, not really. It kind of just asks the big, obvious one.

Great! Has anyone actually asked?

It's easy to see why Fox has no interest asking that question while helping Trump avoid it. But it’s not easy to see why everyone else fell for it.

So why WAS Trump off the air for a week? There is a reason, & it'd be better if people were asking for it instead of tilting at internet culture.

Note that the NYT health conspiracy think piece explores every aspect of discourse around Trump's absence (bruises, ankles, dishonest history, aspirin, Internet conspiracies, partisanship) EXCEPT the bottom line: WHY was he actually invisible?

...it also served to crowd out the obvious and important question: Why was the president off the air for a week, and did he have health problems during that time?

In the real world, Trump has visible signs of physical infirmity. WH Drs explained them. He also has a demonstrated history of lying or obfuscating about his health. Fox was helpful to Trump in the Oval by teeing up the laughable, wild conspiracy for him to knock down. But...

Trump, the definition of the TV president, & deeply embroiled in battles over UKR, tariffs, & putting armed troops on the streets by virtue of his personal will, was not on the airwaves from Tues 8/26 until Tue 9/2. He wasn't on vacation. He was in the WH & not appearing on TV

President Trump Is Alive. The Internet Was Convinced Otherwise.

Trump was absent from public view for a week. We still don't know why. Everyone's missing the story, and it's nuts. 🧵
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/u...

Inside a Virginia ICE office: One meal a day, 40 people in a room and no bathing for days "The situation is getting worse by the day," warns Amy Fischer, an organizer with Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid. "It is an office; it is not intended to detain people."

NEWS: ICE's Chantilly office is a "black box" where conditions are increasingly dire, attorneys & a relative of person detained tell @msnbc.com
- 1 meal a day = a single burrito
- some 40-90 ppl crammed into room, sleeping on concrete
- Some held as long as 7 days
www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/v...

“‘Terrorizing the workforce’ is a phrase I heard a lot this week. And that may indeed be the point.”

The letter, for Epstein's birthday, includes a message depicting a fake exchange between Trump and Epstein: "Enigmas never age" "wonderful secret."www.wsj.com/politics/tru...

In Iowa, Trump Begins Task of Selling His Bill to the American Public

No mention of Trump’s “Shylock” slur in this NY Times article about his “victory lap” speech in Iowa.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/u...

Donald Trump and Sean Hannity Set Off a Wave of Disinformation After Iran Bombing Trumpworld has been trying to spin the US military’s bombing of Iran as a complete and total victory, even as independent experts and MAGA loyalists object.

Minutes after we published this article, Sean Hannity removed a video from his Instagram account that falsely claimed to show an explosion at the Fordow nuclear facility in Iran.

The post had been up since Saturday night and viewed over 5 million times

www.wired.com/story/donald...

Trump chooses the timing of salient announcements like this. This one obv has the added effect of pushing down tonight’s cable coverage of embarrassing developments like Elon Musk’s “kill the bill” and escalation in Russia.

PAPERLESS ORDER: Plaintiffs' request at ECF No. 177 for leave to file a motion for sanctions pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37 is GRANTED. Plaintiffs shall file their motion no later than June 11, 2025. Defendants shall file their response within seven days of the motion's filing. Signed by Judge Paula Xinis on 6/4/2025. (heps, Deputy Clerk) (Entered: 06/04/2025)

NEW: In the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case, Judge Xinis grants the plaintiff’s request to file a motion for sanctions.

Motion due June 11.

As a side matter, reporters & headline writers calling reconciliation Trump's "domestic agenda" are incorrect. Most of the agenda--deportations, tariffs, gutting due process, pardoning criminal allies, attacking institutions, crippling govt, & gathering money--has been accomplished without Congress

The abomination squad How Elon Musk learned to start worrying and hate the GOP budget bill

New from me, still filling in at @brianbeutler.bsky.social's Off message: A user's guide to Trump's budget bill in the Senate: Medicaid, the parliamentarian, WH disinfo and what's at stake for the future of the GOP. open.substack.com/pub/brianbeu...

Between this and the Venezuelan TPS ruling, #SCOTUS has now cleared the way for removing more than one million non-citizens who, until now, were *legally protected* against removal.

This also ratchets up the stakes in the "third-country" removal case, since many of these folks *can't* be sent home.

Pay Me Trump is exploiting the Presidency with relentless consistency. Just look.

You've heard about the scale and variety of the ways Trump is inviting corruption and openly exploiting the presidency for personal gain. It's in the news all the time, but confronting it all in one place is staggering. open.substack.com/pub/brianbeu...

Bringing the joy to @brianbeutler.bsky.social’s community

Charging Into Oblivion This time, the electric car can't be killed. But American workers' chance to benefit from it can be, and a lot of them are Trump voters.

From me, in Off Message: The GAO concluded Trump's killing of the federal EV charger program was a no-brainer illegal impoundment. Now the US has months, not years, to undo the damage to workers and industry. Even if courts reverse it, it's probably too late open.substack.com/pub/brianbeu...

Memory holed: 2 mos ago RFK forced out Dr Peter Marks, FDA’s head of vaccine review & regulation. Marks said: “It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.” amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/03/...

Spent hours working on this post and RFK just...tweeted it out.

abcnews.go.com/Politics/rfk...

Strategic Ambiguity, Preventable Misery RFK Jr. has Trump Administration officials cosplaying "pro-science" while staying true to his anti-vax roots. The result will be more disease.

New from me, guesting on @brianbeutler.bsky.social's Off Message: RFK Jr. and Trump officials are embracing strategic ambiguity to balance anti-vaccine propaganda with responsible-sounding public health policy. That balance doesn't exist. open.substack.com/pub/brianbeu...

“They didn’t let me talk to my attorneys...they didn’t let me talk to my wife.”

“They just nabbed me and disappeared me. My body was chained, shackled, treating my like an animal.”

YouTube video by PBS NewsHour WATCH: Georgetown scholar says he was 'chained, shackled' in ICE detention

EXCLUSIVE: In their first broadcast interview since his release from ICE detention, Georgetown scholar Badar Khan Suri and his wife, Mapheze Saleh, spoke to @lbarronlopez.bsky.social
about Khan Suri's release after nearly two months in a detention facility in Texas. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e4X...

“chicago pope” is one of the shows jack donaghy greenlit when he was tanking nbc