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Today we cut through the spin on Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" with someone who actually knows how these programs work.
Trump allies say they're not cutting Medicaid — just adding "reasonable" work requirements. But what does that actually mean for your family? And if you're like most Americans, you may not realize how much these programs already support your daily life.
I spoke with an expert: Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the former administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under President Biden. She oversaw programs serving over 100 million Americans and understands better than almost anyone what's buried in this legislation.
What Brooks-LaSure reveals is striking. She explains how these cuts could mean hospital closures, especially in rural areas, and why even people with employer insurance would be affected. We also discuss the serious threat this bill poses to Medicare, the impact on nursing home care for aging parents, and more.
Most importantly, she connects policy to real stories. This is a chance to hear from someone who's made these programs work for real families every day. To watch the interview, cast your eyes to the video at the top of this newsletter.
This bill has passed the House but still needs to clear the Senate. You can contact your Senator here to make your voice heard.
Also in today’s newsletter, a new deportation quota has moms and working people in ICE’s crosshairs; why Trump blames a far-right hero for undermining his tariffs; the latest news from the Supreme Court; the government’s contracts with Palantir; and more.
For paid subscribers we have a news quiz and some News That Doesn’t Suck at the end. Thank you for your support!
Next week I’ll be interviewing Representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. We will talk Trump and the rule of law. Please share your questions for him in the comments.
Here Are Your Headlines:
Healthy Debate? Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) was confronted at a town hall today by audience members furious over her support for Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which could cause over 10 million people to lose Medicaid coverage. “People are going to die!” One attendee seemed to yell. “Well,” Ernst responded, “we all are going to die.” A curiously callous response from a lawmaker who in January proudly described introducing two national anti-abortion bills as “standing up for life.” When the audience booed, Ernst cooly said it’s her job to make sure the government only covers those who are eligible, and “those that are not eligible … should receive those benefits elsewhere.”
Context: As the “Big Beautiful Bill” is debated in the Senate, Republicans are struggling to defend harsh Medicaid cuts from increasingly angry voters. The Party is telling lawmakers to frame the bill as “strengthening Medicaid,” which is going about as well as you’d expect; Representatives Gabe Evans (R-CO) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO) were loudly booed by local Coloradans while attempting to defend their support for the bill at a town hall yesterday. The Democratic Party, meanwhile, is making these cuts a central part of their push to take back control of Congress in 2026.
Real Impact: One detail that’s getting lost in the coverage. The bill adds so much to the deficit (if passed as written) it would trigger automatic cuts to Medicare. That’s in addition to the cuts for Medicaid. For more, check out my conversation with Chiquita Brooks-LaSure at the top of this newsletter. And for a recent report on how Medicaid cuts will affect older Americans, see here.
Some breaking news: PBS is suing to block President Trump’s executive order cutting funding for public television. This comes just days after NPR filed a similar suit. The story is being covered by the AP, Axios, CNBC, CNN. But so far it’s getting no coverage from outlets on the right. I know this because the Ground News app and website offer a feature called “blindspot.” They show you which stories are being ignored by outlets on any part of the political spectrum. Today it shows that outlets on the left are ignoring a story about a USDA employee who was charged in a $66 million food stamp fraud scheme. Ground News gathers sources from across the political spectrum and around the world. And the “blindspot” analysis is one of my favorite features. If you want to check it out, you can get a discount. GroundNews is offering the News Not Noise community 40% off their all-access vantage subscription plan. To subscribe, go to GroundNews.com/NNN.
Prosecute the Huddled Masses: Today the Supreme Court handed a victory to supporters of Trump’s mass deportation plan. The Court today allowed Trump to temporarily revoke legal protections for 530,000 migrants. All of them were granted permission to immigrate to the US from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela; today the court lifted their legal status making them targets for ICE removal.
Context: These migrants were allowed to live and work in the US under a Biden-era humanitarian parole program, because of economic and political chaos in their home countries. Earlier in May, the Court also revoked a separate program, Temporary Protected Status, which means Trump can deport 350,000 Venezuelans.
What’s Next: The administration claimed in court it has a “strong interest” in expediting the deportation of these immigrant families to the dangerous conditions they fled. In her dissent Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that this ruling will allow the administration “to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending.” Next time a White House official claims that they are targeting “illegals” or “criminals” — remember that ICE could be targeting nearly a million people to whom the US promised sanctuary and safe haven.
Sky High: Steven Miller and Kristi Noem last week instructed immigration officials to aim for 3,000 arrests per day. That’s over a million per year, triple the administration’s goal from a few months ago and more than double the highest number of deportations in a single year. (That was about 400,000 under Obama, and includes many people turned away at the border, rather than established residents snatched off the streets and flown to a random country halfway across the world.) This is why you see so many working people and moms being targeted.
This Is America: Shocking reports of ICE arrests have been going viral, often with horrific video footage. Masked officials refusing to present a warrant then smashing a car window and pulling a mother away from her screaming daughter; agents raiding a work site in Florida and detaining over 100 workers, including some who claim to have legal documentation; officials detaining a high school student at immigration court while he was attending a hearing on his request for asylum. Children crying in school as they realized their parents would not be around to pick them up, while adults searched for friends, neighbors, or strangers able to care for them. Studies repeatedly show how damaging even the threat of immigration raids are on children’s long-term health. A personal note: Please take a moment to look at the videos and read the stories. For those who are not targeted by this sweep, I think it is our responsibility to bear witness and inform others.
To Tariff or Not To Tariff: We are in tariff limbo. A US trade court struck down some of Trump’s tariffs on Wednesday, but on Thursday an appeals court temporarily paused that ruling while considering whether to let the tariffs remain in place for longer. This only applied to tariffs that Trump enacted by claiming emergency powers (through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act). These include the baseline 10% tariff on most trading partners, the sweeping tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada, and the so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of countries. Trump’s tariffs on steel, aluminum, and cars are not affected, as they were implemented under a separate law.
What’s Next: Trump called on the Supreme Court to “reverse” the trade court’s decision “QUICKLY and DECISIVELY.” His administration could formally ask the Supreme Court to do this as soon as today. If the ruling stands, Trump might lose some of his ability to force other nations into trade deals. (Though this ability has thus far resulted in no deals anyway.) That said, Trump might also be able to impose tariffs in other ways.
Bad Advice: One of the judges on the three-person trade court panel that ruled Trump overstepped his authority when imposing tariffs was appointed by… Trump. Who’s fault is that? Any guesses? That’s right — the influential conservative Federalist Society, and in particular one of its leaders, Leonard Leo, whom Trump yesterday called a “sleazebag” for giving him “bad advice on numerous Judicial Nominations” during his first term.
Brain Drain: Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced this week the US will begin "aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students.” The State Department will also apply more scrutiny to future visa applications from China and Hong Kong. This move could imperil the studies of hundreds of thousands of students in the US — and, therefore, the universities and local economies that benefit from the billions of dollars these students bring to the country. We’d also lose out on their abilities. About 16% of all graduate STEM students in the US are Chinese. Among the achievements of Chinese-born scientists in the US are IVF, the contraceptive pill, and key advancements in nuclear physics. What happens when these bright minds are forced to leave the US? Well, when rocket scientist Qian Xuesen was deported after helping the US win World War Two, he became the “father of Chinese space technology” and helped China launch its first satellite into space.
Enemy of My Enemy: Harvard’s 2025 class had their commencement ceremony yesterday. Students cheered as the embattled university’s president made a sly dig at Trump’s ongoing attempt to remove foreign students. A university that spent over a year deeply divided amid the ongoing war in Gaza seems to have come together in the face of a common enemy: the US president. “School pride is probably at an all-time high,” one of the undergraduate student body presidents said. “I hope it continues.”
Surveillance State: The Trump administration is quietly sending hundreds of millions of dollars to data analytics firm Palantir in what seems like an attempt to expand government surveillance of Americans. Remember, in March Trump issued an executive order calling for agencies to share data, sparking fears he plans to compile information on Americans — information he could then use to prosecute critics.
Context: Palantir was founded by Peter Thiel, a Trump-supporting far-right tech billionaire whom even Elon Musk reportedly considers to be a “sociopath.” (Note: Thiel reportedly considers Musk to be a “fraud and a braggart.”) Palantir works with US police departments and federal agencies like the FBI, NSA, and ICE to monitor prisoners, immigrants, and, well, potentially everyone. As the government consolidates data through DOGE, it also gains increasing power to monitor not just enemies, criminals, and immigrants but even citizens too.
Note: If you’ve used Partiful, the event-planning app that’s exploding in popularity, you might be interested to learn that it was founded by a group of Palantir alum.
Goodbye: Elon Musk held his final press conference with Trump today; he’s officially leaving the Trump administration. He leaves behind a number of powerful allies installed in government. Don’t worry though, he said he’ll remain a “friend and advisor to the president.” When asked why he had a black eye, Musk blamed his five-year-old son. “I said ‘go ahead, punch me in the face,’” Musk explained, “and he did.” Family dinners must be interesting in the Musk home.
Drugged Up: The New York Times is out with a wild report alleging that while Musk was helping Trump win the 2024 election, he was reportedly chronically using ketamine — to the point it was affecting his bladder — as well as ecstasy and magic mushrooms. He also reportedly traveled with a medication box containing about 20 pills, likely including adderall. It’s unclear whether this alleged drug use continued during his 130-day rampage through the federal government, or if his often erratic behavior was done entirely sober.
Make America Honest Again: The Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again Commission released what it called an “evidence-based” report last week on children’s health, but it cited studies that don’t exist. Among the nonexistent studies were ones on mental illness and medications prescribed for children; real scientists were listed as authors for these invented studies, though the MAHA report itself had no public authors listed. The White House yesterday corrected the false citations, which it dismissed as “minor citation and formatting errors.” You know what frequently hallucinates fake information? AI tools.
Vaccine Down: Health Secretary RFK Jr terminated a $766 million contract with Moderna to develop vaccines for different influenza strains, including bird flu. He also offered to move hundreds of ostriches from a farm in Canada that had dozens of birds die from flu to a ranch owned by CMS director Mehmet Oz. Meanwhile, bird flu continues to spread in the US, with at least 70 people falling sick and one dying.
Conflicting Advice: The CDC updated its COVID vaccine advice yesterday, keeping them on the federal schedule for children with a new medical condition — a direct contradiction of RFK’s Tuesday claim that the shots would be removed from the federal schedule for children altogether. And what about pregnant women, who have a higher risk of severe COVID? The official CDC position: “no guidance.” Fantastic.
No Regrets: Former President Joe Biden said today he didn’t regret seeking reelection and claimed he’d “have beaten” the Democrats now questioning his decision to do so. When asked about Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s book, which claims advisors and family members conspired to hide Biden’s declining health, the former president said he “can beat the hell out of both of them.”
