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‘Shakedown’: Outrage Over Claim of Trump Plan to Defund Indiana in Map Clash
Heritage Action and President Donald Trump are coming under fire after the conservative advocacy organization made a claim that the president threatened to defund the state of Indiana should lawmakers not pass legislation to redraw its congressional district maps.
“President Trump has made it clear to Indiana leaders: if the Indiana Senate fails to pass the map, all federal funding will be stripped from the state,” Heritage Action wrote on social media on Thursday. “Roads will not be paved. Guard bases will close. Major projects will stop. These are the stakes and every NO vote will be to blame.”
The post ended with, “#PassTheMap.”
While President Trump has publicly threatened to support primary challengers against lawmakers who oppose his redistricting push, NCRM has not found any news reports confirming Heritage Action’s assertion. It is possible the group is relying on information that has not been reported or made public.
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Should Indiana pass legislation to redistrict, it reportedly could pick up only two more GOP-held seats.
Critics blasted Heritage Action, a sister group to the Heritage Foundation, for appearing to support Trump’s alleged threat, and blasted the president as well.
“The president and one of the most influential conservative groups in the country are threatening to deprive all Indiana residents of paved roads, guard bases, and major projects if they don’t pass an extremely gerrymandered map to deprive voters of choice,” noted Isaac Saul, founder of Tangle News. “Awesome stuff.”
“Heritage sure loves authoritarianism,” remarked Media Matters researcher Zachary Pleat.
Calling it “nonsense,” Joel Griffith, a senior fellow at the conservative group Advancing American Freedom wrote: “Appalling to see @Heritage_Action endorse this unconstitutional threat by @realDonaldTrump. The President does not have power to coerce state legislators to redraw congressional maps.”
Others appeared to aim their ire directly at the president.
READ MORE: ‘Shaky’ House GOP Leadership ‘Losing Control’: Report
“This is the behavior of a madman,” declared Tim Carney, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
“This isn’t conservative. This is fascist,” commented former Republican U.S. Congressman Joe Walsh.
Mother Jones’ D.C. bureau chief David Corn declared the move “dictatorial.”
“This does not sound like an appropriate or legal use of federal authority or presidential discretion,” observed Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias.
“Nothing about this shakedown is conservative,” noted CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Jacob Stewart, the deputy opinion editor for the IndyStar called the move “illegal.”
Jonah Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the conservative online magazine The Dispatch, wrote: “I remember when Heritage cared about federalism, the rule of law, separation of powers, and all that stuff. Now it’s all ‘We love Trump’s musk, do what he says (or what Tucker says).'”
“This is called extortion,” wrote former White House correspondent Sam Youngman, also deeming it “illegal.”
“If this comes to pass,” wrote IndyStar columnist James Briggs, “then the story will be that Trump is punishing Indiana citizens for reasons that have nothing to do with them and so-called Indianans will see the punitive measures for what they are.”
READ MORE: ‘You’re a Loser Dude’: Carville Scorches Trump as ‘Done’
Image via Reuters
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President Donald Trump last week reportedly blasted a group of dozens of U.S. Attorneys for what he viewed as a lack of urgency in pursuing his political adversaries.
The federal prosecutors had traveled to the White House for a photo shoot, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, but after Attorney General Pam Bondi introduced them to the president, “Trump criticized them as ineffective, saying the group was making it difficult for Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to do their jobs.”
The exchange between Trump and the U.S. Attorneys “came a day before federal prosecutors sent grand jury subpoenas to the Federal Reserve on Friday, related to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s testimony last summer about the central bank’s building-renovation project.”
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Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, was in attendance at the White House event, the Journal reported. The subpoenas reportedly were sought by prosecutors in her office.
One of Trump’s complaints to the U.S. Attorneys was that they were not acting fast enough and had yet to bring a case against U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA), a top Trump adversary.
The DOJ reportedly has been examining whether Schiff engaged in mortgage fraud, which has become a common allegation against other Trump critics, including New York Attorney General Letitia James. That case was dismissed, and subsequent grand juries have refused to indict her.
“The president criticized some specific prosecutors by jurisdiction and said he felt betrayed,” the Journal added.
On Monday, Pirro appeared to be quickly backtracking in her office’s investigation of Powell. The Federal Reserve Chairman announced on Sunday that he was being investigated by the Trump Department of Justice, sending markets — and prominent Republicans — spinning.
The Daily Beast reported that Pirro’s investigation is “an inquiry that even Republican lawmakers have blasted as a revenge plot against one of the president’s adversaries that threatens the independence of America’s central bank.”
READ MORE: Warning Signs Flash for GOP as CNN Analyst Predicts House Flip
Image via Reuters
The price of food in grocery stores and restaurants surged to a three-year high last month, even as President Donald Trump on Tuesday insisted he had “defeated” inflation during what he described as “the greatest first year in history” of any president.
“Grocery prices are starting to go rapidly down,” Trump told an audience in Detroit on Tuesday. CNN’s Daniel Dale noted Trump made the claim “on the same day new Consumer Price Index data shows December had the biggest one-month spike in grocery prices, 0.7%, in more than three years.”
Despite the president’s claims, Axios reported that the cost of food in grocery stores rose “roughly 2.4% in December compared to the prior year.”
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“But that masks double-digit price increases for a slew of household staples over the past 12 months, including coffee (+20%), beef (+16%) and candy (+10%).”
Delivering his speech on affordability — which as recently as last month he declared a “hoax” — Trump said on Tuesday, “Under our administration, growth is exploding, productivity is soaring, investment is booming, incomes are rising, inflation is defeated, America is respected again, like never before.”
On tariffs, which experts say could increase prices for American families by nearly $5,000 annually and push nearly one million Americans into poverty, Trump pushed back.
“The evidence shows overwhelmingly that the tariffs are not paid by American consumers,” he said, a claim not supported by experts.
The White House on Monday said that Trump has been “laser-focused on making America affordable” since taking office. Just one month ago, President Trump called affordability a “hoax” perpetrated by Democrats.
Trump: Meanwhile, grocery prices are starting to go rapidly down pic.twitter.com/D5WU4nIVTD
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 13, 2026
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Image via Reuters
As Republicans continue their exodus from the House, a CNN analyst reveals that Democrats hold an advantage in party identification over the GOP, Democrats identifying as liberal just hit a 50-year high, and Democrats — he predicts — will take back the House in the November midterm elections.
CNN analyst Harry Enten reported that “the self identified liberalness of this country is at a 50-year high.” And he noted that “more folks are identifying as liberal than at any point since the Gerald Ford administration.”
In 1976, 30 percent of Democrats said they were liberal, Enten said.
“Look at where we are today: 59 percent — 3 in 5 Democrats — say they are liberal.”
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“This Democratic party is a liberal — it is a liberal party. Fifty-nine percent of Democrats now identify as liberal,” he continued. “That is also a 50-year high.”
Enten noted that “that is not the only good news for liberals.”
“The party ID margin, Democrats versus Republicans. Now get this, in the latest reading according to Gallup last quarter, it is an eight-point advantage for Democrats.”
“That looks nothing like what we saw going into the 2022 midterms when Republicans had a five-point advantage, and of course, took back the House. This is even better than what we saw Democrats had back in 2017, in quarter four, when they had a six-point advantage, and, of course, Democrats easily took back the House then.”
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“Democrats are gonna take back the House,” he said.
Enten also pointed to the prediction markets, which now say there is a 77 percent chance of Democrats taking back the House in November.
Liberal used to be a four-letter word in this country, but no longer.
The % of Americans identifying as liberal is at a 50-year high. Most Dems now say they’re liberal (59%), a 50-year high too.
Also, the Dem lead on party id is even bigger than at this pt in the 2018 cycle! pic.twitter.com/wriMxybqVG
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) January 13, 2026
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Image via Reuters
Trump ‘Laser-Focused’ on Affordability Says White House After Calling It a ‘Hoax’
Pirro Backtracks as Powell Investigation Rapidly Goes Off the Rails
Democrat Demands DOJ and DHS Reveal How Many Pardoned ‘Insurrectionists’ Have Been Hired
Warning Signs Flash for GOP as CNN Analyst Predicts House Flip
Trump Declares Grocery Prices ‘Rapidly Down’ as Cost of Food Surges to 3-Year High
Trump Blasted Federal Prosecutors as ‘Weak’ for Not Targeting His Adversaries: Report
Trump Declares Grocery Prices ‘Rapidly Down’ as Cost of Food Surges to 3-Year High
Warning Signs Flash for GOP as CNN Analyst Predicts House Flip
Democrat Demands DOJ and DHS Reveal How Many Pardoned ‘Insurrectionists’ Have Been Hired
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