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Democrats Vow to Hold the Floor ‘All Night’ to Block Trump ‘Project 2025’ Nominee

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Senate Democrats are uniting to block — or at least delay — the confirmation process for Russ Vought, the self-described “Christian nationalist” architect of Project 2025, as President Donald Trump’s nominee for Director of the Office of Management and Budget. To push back against his confirmation, they plan to hold the Senate floor starting Wednesday afternoon, vowing to speak “all night.”

U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI), who has urged Democrats use their power to stall Trump’s agenda, announced that “more than 35 United States senators on the Democratic side” will “take the floor for 30 hours.”

“Russ Vought is the main author of Project 2025,” Senator Schatz said. “He’s the guy that established this federal funding freeze. He is the architect of the dismantling of our federal government, harming us with Medicaid portals shut down, with Head Start shut down, with agencies illegally stormed and the servers being seized. We’ve got to fight back and we’re united, all 47 Democrats in opposition to Russ Vought’s nomination.”

“If confirmed, Russ Vought may be the most important man that no one’s ever heard of,” declared Senator Schatz on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon.

READ MORE: ‘Demagoguery’: Comer and Republicans Melt Down When Democrat Tries to Subpoena Musk

Vought has been getting some attention in the press.

“In times past, Vought — who famously asked ‘Is There Anything Actually Wrong With ‘Christian Nationalism?’’ in Newsweek in 2021 — would have been seen, and dismissed, as an over-the-top extremist well outside the boundaries of mainstream politics,” wrote Thomas B. Edsall in a New York Times opinion column on Tuesday. “Today, he is a lauded Trump loyalist on the verge of his second tour of duty with the president, in one of the most powerful posts in the federal government.”

“In Vought’s vision of the apocalyptic battle for the soul of America,” Edsall continued, “Democrats are ‘increasingly evil.’ The federal work force, in turn, is the enemy that must be forced into submission. ‘When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains,’ Vought, who is 48, declared last year. ‘We want to put them in trauma.’ ”

Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune plans to have Vought confirmed this week.

Senate Homeland Security Democratic Ranking Member Gary Peters last month during Vought’s confirmation hearing told him that when he ran OMB during President Trump’s first term, “you consistently ignored laws passed by Congress that directed how taxpayer dollars should be spent.”

“In 2020, an investigation by the Government Accountability Office found that OMB, under your leadership, broke the law eight times.”

Peters said Vought “inappropriately delayed disaster relief funding for Puerto Rico following the devastation of Hurricane Maria,” and “knowingly delayed getting critical resources to communities following a disaster even after Congress passed a law specifically requiring the funds be disbursed on time.”

READ MORE: ‘Democracy Weeks Away From Disintegrating’: Democratic Senator Issues Warning — and a Plan

He also, Peters charged, “pushed for” replacing “nearly 50,000 nonpartisan, career civil servants with appointees whose only qualification was their political loyalty.”

Senate Democratic Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Patty Murray has called Vought “incredibly alarming,” and one of Trump’s “anti-abortion extremists.” She noted that Vought was “the lead author of Project 2025, which called for ripping away birth control, allowing states to nigh women, lifesaving emergency care, and effectively banning all abortion nationwide.”

“He has said he wants abolition of abortion in the United States,” Murray added. “In other words, a national abortion ban without any exceptions, even in the cases of rape or when a mother’s life is at risk.”

“Vought has called to outlaw medication abortion, block funding, for Planned Parenthood, and advocated for President Trump to appoint a new special assistant in the White House to coordinate anti-abortion policies across government.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Blind to What’s Happening on His Watch’: Rubio Slammed After ‘Cheap Shot’ at Aid Groups

 

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Trump’s Slipping GOP Grip Fuels Doubts on $2000 Tariff Payoff Plan

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November 19, 2025

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President Donald Trump’s hold over congressional Republicans is showing visible signs of cracking. His effort to block the release of the Epstein files collapsed after a near-unanimous House vote and a unanimous consent vote in the Senate sent the bill to his desk. He is now clashing with one of his former loyalists, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). And Trump’s demand that Republicans kill the filibuster landed flat.

Now, Trump’s plan to send $2,000 tariff “dividend” checks to low- and middle-income Americans appears headed for the same fate as his promised $5,000 DOGE dividend payouts.

GOP lawmakers appear unconvinced on the president’s desire to send out the $2,000 checks — despite Trump’s new “affordability” push after his party’s damaging off-year November elections.

“The GOP pushback on the proposed checks, which the White House says would be funded by tariff revenue, is the latest sign of division between the president and the GOP-controlled Congress and a weakening of Trump’s firm control of Washington,” Bloomberg News reported.

READ MORE: ‘Real Mental Problems’: Trump Calls for Firing Fed Chair

Trump so far is undeterred.

“We’re going to be issuing dividends later on, somewhere prior to, you know, probably the middle of next year, a little bit later than that,” Trump said on Monday, according to Axios. “Thousands of dollars for individuals of moderate income, middle income.”

That would put the checks in the hands of voters slightly before the midterms.

Trump repeated his plan on Wednesday.

“We’re going to be doing a dividend — low- and middle-income people — of at least $2,000,” Trump told attendees at the U.S.—Saudi Investment Forum.

Several congressional Republicans have publicly expressed opposition in a further sign of Trump’s grip slipping.

“I think it would be crazy to send money to people while we have a deficit,” U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said on Tuesday.

READ MORE: FBI Declared LGBTQ Pride Flag ‘Political Signage’ in Letter Firing Employee: Lawsuit

Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune also pointed to the deficit as a priority.

U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) reportedly is also opposed.

“House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington said he told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a Wednesday meeting that he’d prefer the tariff revenue go toward reducing the deficit, not to $2,000 checks,” Bloomberg added.

Experts also point to a lack of GOP support.

“We view this as very unlikely to get done,” Tobin Marcus of Wolfe Research said in a note, Bloomberg reported. “We don’t think a second reconciliation bill focused on $2k stimulus checks has the near-uniform support it needs.”

The Wall Street Journal earlier this week also pointed to an Epstein-related failure — U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert’s refusal to withdraw her name from the Epstein discharge petition — as yet another sign of Trump’s grip on the GOP slipping.

READ MORE: ‘Stunning Moment’: Trump Defends MBS While Ignoring CIA’s Khashoggi Murder Assessment

 

Image via Reuters

 

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‘Real Mental Problems’: Trump Calls for Firing Fed Chair

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16 hours ago

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November 19, 2025

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President Donald Trump unleashed another attack on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, calling for the firing of the independent agency chief who has just months left in his term. Experts this week suggested eroding the Fed’s independence could trigger stagflation.

In a speech at the U.S.—Saudi Investment Forum on Wednesday, President Trump urged his Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, to “work on” getting Powell to lower interest rates. Experts warn that lowering interest rates inappropriately could lead to even higher inflation.

“He’s got some real mental problems,” Trump told the audience at the Kennedy Center, referring to Powell. “He’s — something wrong with him.”

READ MORE: FBI Declared LGBTQ Pride Flag ‘Political Signage’ in Letter Firing Employee: Lawsuit

“I’d be honest, I’d love to fire his a –. He should be fired. Guy’s grossly incompetent,” Trump charged. “And he should be sued for spending $4 billion to build a little building. I’m building a ballroom that’s gonna cost a tiny fraction of that, and it’s bigger than the whole thing put together.”

Trump was referring to the renovations at the Federal Reserve. The Fed does not rely on tax dollars for its operations.

“You gotta work at him, Scott,” Trump continued from the podium. “The only thing Scott’s blowing it on is the Fed. Because the Fed, the rates are too high, Scott. And if you don’t get it fixed fast, I’m gonna fire your a –, okay?”

READ MORE: GOP Senator: Patients Should Shop for Health Care Like They Buy Shampoo

Critics weighed in on Trump’s attack.

“If you are a single-issue ‘affordability’ voter, this should be concerning,” remarked Catherine Rampell, the economics editor for The Bulwark.

Andrew Ackerman, who covers the Fed for The Washington Post, appeared to mock the president: “Trump: I want to fire Jay Powell but Scott Bessent won’t let me.”

READ MORE: ‘Stunning Moment’: Trump Defends MBS While Ignoring CIA’s Khashoggi Murder Assessment

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FBI Declared LGBTQ Pride Flag ‘Political Signage’ in Letter Firing Employee: Lawsuit

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17 hours ago

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November 19, 2025

By

An FBI employee has filed a First Amendment civil lawsuit alleging he was fired for displaying an LGBTQ pride flag near his desk. The flag reportedly was presented to him after it was flown outside the Bureau’s field office in Los Angeles. According to the lawsuit, his dismissal notice, signed by Director Kash Patel, claimed the flag was “an inappropriate display of political signage.”

David Maltinsky, a 16-year FBI veteran who was just weeks away from being promoted to agent status, claimed his firing was unlawful and sent a “ripple of fear” through LGBTQ employees at the FBI.

“I have determined that you exercised poor judgment with an inappropriate display of political signage in your work area during your previous assignment at the Los Angeles Field Office,” the letter reads, according to a CBS News exclusive report. “Pursuant to Article II of the United States Constitution and the laws of the United States, your employment with the Federal Bureau of Investigation is hereby terminated.”

READ MORE: GOP Senator: Patients Should Shop for Health Care Like They Buy Shampoo

Maltinsky is suing to have his job restored. In the lawsuit, Maltinsky alleges that a complaint was filed against him on President Donald Trump’s first day in office this year.

“We’re not the enemy and we’re not some political mob,” Maltinsky told CBS News. “We’re proud members of the FBI, and we have a mission to do. We go to work every day to do it.”

“The ripple effect of fear has been felt. Many gay colleagues have removed Pride flags from their desks, allies have removed Pride flags from their desk,” he added.

MS NOW last month reported that Maltinsky’s termination letter was “sent on the first day of a nationwide government shutdown that created job uncertainty throughout the federal workforce.”

Maltinsky had “won an Attorney General’s Award in 2022 in recognition of his work, according to a Justice Department news release.”

READ MORE: ‘Stunning Moment’: Trump Defends MBS While Ignoring CIA’s Khashoggi Murder Assessment

 

Image by Tony Webster via Wikimedia Commons and a CC license

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