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Mulvaney: ‘The President Is Going to Build the Wall’ 

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Mick Mulvaney on Fox News Sunday

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney once again reiterated that another partial government shutdown may becoming, assuming congress is unable to provide a budget inclusive of his border wall proposal.

Negotiations at current have only included about half of the five billion dollars President Trump has sought to begin construction of the wall. Many have indicated that the cost for such a barrier would be far higher than that.

Even though money remains a question, Mulvaney was adamant that the president would be constructing his wall regardless.

“The president is going to build the wall,” said Mulvaney. 

Mulvaney added, “We will take as much money as you can give us, and we will often find the money someplace else — legally — in other to secure that southern barrier. But this is going to get built with or without congress.”

Mulvaney was, however, unwilling to rule out yet another government shutdown, saying, “government shutdown is still technically on the table.”

“Let’s say that the hardcore left wing of the Democrat party prevails this negotiation and they put a bill on the president’s desk with, say, zero money for the wall or $800 million, some absurdly low number,” said Mulvaney. “How does he sign that? He cannot in good faith sign that?”

Mulvaney’s comments echo the President’s own last week, where the president claimed to not be willing to “take anything off the table” in these negotiations, including the possibly of declaring a national emergency.

“Well, I don’t — I don’t take anything off the table,” said Trump to Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan. “I don’t like to take things off the table. It’s that alternative. It’s national emergency, it’s other things and you know there have been plenty national emergencies called.”

This also echoes a previous statement by Mulvaney just two days after the previous shutdown ended, also on Face the Nation. 

“He doesn’t want to shut the government down,” said Mulvaney. “Let’s make that very clear. He doesn’t want to declare a national emergency. What he wants to do is fix this the way that things are supposed to get fixed with our government which is through legislation.”

Congress has until the end of next week to provide the President with a budget proposal. It will them be up to President Trump to sign it to avoid another costly government shutdown.

View the entire exchange with Mulvaney below:

Image via screen capture from video source.

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‘Divine Providence’: Johnson Paints Trump as ‘Miraculously’ Spared by God

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House Republican Speaker Mike Johnson paid tribute to President Donald Trump on Tuesday, portraying him less as an elected leader and more as a divinely chosen figure. He declared that Trump had been “miraculously” spared from an assassination attempt during the 2024 campaign, so that he could go on to enact his “America First” agenda by signing into law the GOP budget—his so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, a sweeping package of tax cuts and government spending.

Speaker Johnson, widely viewed as a Christian nationalist, told reporters (video below) that during last year’s assassination attempt that left one bystander dead, “God miraculously spared the president’s life.”

“I think it’s undeniable, and he did it for an obvious purpose. And his presidency and his life are the fruits of divine providence,” declared Johnson. “He points that out, obviously, now all the time, and he’s right to do so.”

READ MORE: ‘Dumb-Dumb’: Fox News Host Declares Rising Democrat a ‘Mental Deficient’ Amid Senate Buzz

“As President Trump has lived since with the acknowledgment, everyday since, he has acknowledged that each new day isn’t guaranteed to us,” Johnson claimed. “It isn’t to any of us, and that’s why we’re not wasting any time. That’s why he remains so strong and resilient. It’s why we have such a sense of urgency. President Trump took a bullet to his head. He got up shortly thereafter. He pleaded with the crowd to fight, and then he went on to win a historic election, less than four months later. America’s changed because he survived that day.”

Johnson’s rhetoric contains several hallmarks of fascistic rhetoric, including deification of a leader and positioning him as a figure chosen by God to do God’s work.

Critics responded to Johnson’s remarks.

“How far is it from divine providence to divine right and absolutism?” asked journalist and author Nikolaus von Twickel.

READ MORE: ‘Absolute Cringe’: DHS Ridiculed After Attacking CNN Report—by Confirming It

“This is the Speaker of the House publicly and confidently espousing Christian Nationalist talking points and characterizing a profoundly, unrepentantly sinful man as a quasi-deity,” noted award-winning author Jennifer Erin Valent. “Every true believer needs to call this out for the blatant heresy that it is.”

Utah Democratic state Senator Nate Blouin declared, “this is insane rhetoric and it’s disturbing to see people of faith embrace it.”

“This nation was formed by patriots fleeing this kind [of] purple Dominionist cant,” television writer and playwright Hal Corley wrote. “Presidents are not anointed like divine right royalty and such doctrinaire rhetoric should be condemned.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: At Faith-Based Event Trump Courts Religious CEOs, Uses Expletive, Calls Dems ‘Evil’

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Trump Vowed to Slash Prices and ‘End Inflation’—Inflation Just Hit Highest Level in Months

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Despite President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that there is “no inflation,” consumer prices jumped in June, rising to an annual rate of 2.7%—the highest level in months. Economists cite the President’s tariffs, now beginning to take effect, along with rising costs for food, energy, and rent.

The Consumer Price Index increase “is slightly higher than expected and is up from an annual pace of 2.4 percent in May,” according to The New York Times.

ABC News called it “a notable surge of price increases as President Trump’s tariff policy took hold.”

“Worsening inflation poses a political challenge for President Donald Trump, who promised during last year’s presidential campaign to immediately lower costs,” the Associated Press reported Tuesday, noting that inflation “rose last month to its highest level since February as President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs push up the cost of a range of goods.”

READ MORE: Rollins Slams Medicaid, Touts Healthy Food to Cut Health Care Costs—GOP Cut Both Programs

As far back as August of 2024, Trump vowed, “Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again, to bring down the prices of all goods.”

Days later, he added, “Under my administration, we will be slashing energy and electricity prices by half within 12 months, at a maximum 18 months.”

Fast forward to just one day before Election Day: “A vote for Trump means your groceries will be cheaper,” he promised.

READ MORE: ‘Absolute Cringe’: DHS Ridiculed After Attacking CNN Report—by Confirming It

Economists and economic experts say the Trump tariffs, a tax on certain imported goods from certain countries that are expected to jump August 1, are leading to higher prices for American consumers.

“Tariffs are starting to raise prices,” observed Heather Long, a Washington Post columnist and the chief economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union.

“This is just the beginning,” she added. “But we need to watch food closely. Increases there are really tough on middle class and moderate-income households.”

Long pointed to several categories of imports and listed their price jumps:

“Linens +5.9%, Oranges +4.7%, Olives +4.4%, Cookware +4%, Audio equipment +2.9%, Major appliances +2.4%, Coffee +2.2%, Sports equipment +1.8%, Toys +1.4%,” while noting that eggs are down 10.8 percent.

Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden, a former top Biden administration official, wrote simply, “Thanks for raising our cost of living with your inane tariffs @realDonaldTrump.”

U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) noted, “Trump and Republicans are hurting our economy and increasing your costs.”

READ MORE: At Faith-Based Event Trump Courts Religious CEOs, Uses Expletive, Calls Dems ‘Evil’

 

Image via Reuters

 

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Rollins Slams Medicaid, Touts Healthy Food to Cut Health Care Costs—GOP Cut Both Programs

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U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins claimed Medicaid is “bankrupting” the states, while suggesting that “healthy” foods could serve to help reduce health care costs. Yet both Medicaid and nutrition programs like SNAP were slashed under President Donald Trump and Republicans’ so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was signed into law just ten days ago.

“Medicaid is bankrupting almost every state,” Secretary Rollins claimed in remarks on Monday (video below).

With the Republicans gutting over $1 trillion in federal Medicaid funds, and approximately $200 billion in SNAP funds, states face either picking up that massive shortfall or cutting some programs, benefits, or users.

Medicaid is “taking between 30, 40, 45, 50 percent of the state budgets, and has for a really long time, for those of us who come from state policy, we know this very, very well,” Rollins continued. State funds for Medicaid (not including federal matching funds) account for less than 20 percent of state budgets, overall, according to the Pew Research Center.

READ MORE: At Faith-Based Event Trump Courts Religious CEOs, Uses Expletive, Calls Dems ‘Evil’

Secretary Rollins previously served as a policy director for Texas Governor Rick Perry and led the right-wing Texas Public Policy Foundation. More recently, she headed the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank dedicated to advancing President Trump’s first post-presidency agenda.

Rollins decried what she says is the number one purchase using SNAP funds: “sugary drinks and junk food.”

“Frankly, we have to make a change,” she insisted.

“So there is a lot of wholesale across the government that we can do, but there’s also a recognition that a lot of these communities that are part of the Medicaid program, they don’t always have access to healthy food,” Rollins continued, not mentioning the billions the BBB Act gutted from both.

Rollins insisted the federal government has to do “a better job through our nutrition programs, through our partnerships, et cetera, of ensuring that those communities have access to healthy foods.”

“So on the back end, we have programs that are not bankrupting our government.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Dumb-Dumb’: Fox News Host Declares Rising Democrat a ‘Mental Deficient’ Amid Senate Buzz

Image via Reuters

 

 

 

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