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OPINION

‘No ObamaCare’: Here’s How Trump, Johnson, RFK Jr. Plan to Destroy Americans’ Health Care

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Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly named “JFK Jr.” instead of RFK Jr. in the headline. 

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson say they have big plans to implement “massive” changes to the entire U.S. food, drug, and health care system—from killing ObamaCare and all its protections, to handing over control of all health, food, and drug policies and agencies to conspiracy theorist and anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—and they’re openly bragging about it just days before Election Day.

Republicans conspired to block every one of Barack Obama’s initiatives even before the 44th President was sworn in to office in January, 2009. They have spent years promising to “repeal and replace” ObamaCare, or just end the Affordable Care Act entirely. Donald Trump for over a decade has repeatedly vowed to kill ObamaCare, and repeatedly said he would end it and unveil his new health care plan soon, before admitting during the presidential debate all he had were mere “concepts of a plan.”

In September, The Washington Post reported Donald Trump “has spent 13 years promising a health-care plan” (video below).

On Monday in Pennsylvania, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson vowed to kill the Affordable Care Act, which covers tens of millions of Americans, has dramatically slashed the number of uninsured Americans, and offers widespread protections to over 133 million people in America.

READ MORE: ‘Confident’ Harris Campaign Says All Swing States ‘In Play’ in ‘Extremely Close’ Race

“Health care reform’s going to be a big part of the agenda. When I say we’re going to have a very aggressive first 100 days agenda, we got a lot of things still on the table,” Speaker Johnson told an attendee at a GOP candidate’s meeting, NBC News reported.

“No Obamacare?” an attendee asked.

“No Obamacare,” Johnson responded, before explaining how Donald Trump wants to “go big” in removing regulations.

“We want to take a blowtorch to the regulatory state,” Johnson said, per NBC. “These agencies have been weaponized against the people, it’s crushing the free market; it’s like a boot on the neck of job creators and entrepreneurs and risk takers. And so health care is one of the sectors and we need this across the board.”

“And Trump’s going to go big. I mean, he’s only going to have one more term. Can’t run for re-election. And so he’s going to be thinking about legacy and we’re going to fix these things.”

Sunday night at Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, the ex-president promised to let RFK Jr. “go wild.”

“I’m gonna let him go wild on health. I’m gonna let him go wild on the food. I’m gonna let him go wild on the medicines.”

On Tuesday, RFK Jr. announced Donald Trump had “promised” to put him in charge of the entire federal public health system.

“The key that President Trump has promised me is control of the public health agencies, which are HHS and its sub-agencies, CDC, FDA, NIH, and a few others, and then also the USDA.”

READ MORE: ‘Maybe’ It’s Racist: JD Vance Tries to Whitewash Trump Rally Attack on Puerto Rico

House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Wednesday remarked, “House Republicans plan to kill the Affordable Care Act, impose a nationwide abortion ban and implement Trump’s Project 2025. These extremists cannot be trusted with the health, safety and economic well-being of the American people.”

Last year, Forbes published what it described as “all the conspiracies” RFK Jr. promotes. Among them (quotes are Forbes’s, not RFK Jr.’s):

“Covid-19 targets certain races and gives others immunity,” “Mass shootings are linked to prescription drugs,” “The 2004 presidential election was stolen,” “The pharmaceutical industry is throwing money at Democrats,” “The Covid-19 virus was genetically engineered,” “Vaccines can cause autism,” and, “Former White House medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci and Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates sought to exaggerate the pandemic, in part, to promote vaccines.”

New York magazine’s “Intelligencer” columnist Ed Kilgore reports that Speaker Johnson “plans to make repealing Obamacare an immediate priority if Trump wins and Republicans control Congress, which likely means it would be rolled into a gigantic budget-reconciliation bill and steamrolled through to passage if possible.”

Kilgore adds, Johnson’s “party’s designs on health-care policy are radical, meant to replace the regulations central to Obamacare’s coverage guarantees with ‘free market’ provisions almost certain to return the health-care system to the days when insurers aggressively discriminated against anyone old, sick, or poor. Johnson’s rhetoric will also give Democrats an opportunity to remind voters that the last ‘repeal Obamacare’ package aimed to decimate Medicaid, the federal-state health-care program for poor people and a key part of the country’s social safety net. Beyond that, Johnson seemed to to be telling Pennsylvanians a reelected Trump wouldn’t care if his health-care plans made Americans unhappy.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: Former Top Trump White House Official Called for ‘Male Only’ Voting

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OPINION

He Wanted Hulk Hogan to Run for Senate — Now Scott Jennings Thinks He May Meet That Bar

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18 hours ago

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May 2, 2025

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CNN opinion contributor Scott Jennings, who this week appeared onstage at a Trump rally, says he would be all in if President Donald Trump asked him to run for U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell’s Kentucky seat. Jennings, a vocal Trump supporter, previously floated professional wrestler Hulk Hogan as a replacement for outgoing Senator Marco Rubio.

“If Marco Rubio does in fact become Secretary of State,” Jennings said on CNN last November, “we’re gonna need a new senator from the state of Florida. And we need someone with Rubio’s national security credentials. Now, there’s one Floridian who can do it. He stood up to the Russians and the Iranians in the 1980s when he defeated the Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkov, two of America’s most lethal foes. He is a real American. He fights for the rights of every man. He knows that courage is the thing that keeps us free. Ladies and gentlemen, I announce—Ron DeSantis, get on it—Hulk Hogan for U.S. Senate.”

Jennings has been called a “supervillain” and “cable TV’s ubiquitous MAGA Man of the Moment,” by The Daily Beast. His job on the cable TV network appears to be to start fights—and finish them—in defense of President Trump.

READ MORE: ‘What Drunk on Power Looks Like’: Trump Goes on Attack in Wild Rants

That favor may now be returned.

“If the president wants me, I’ll run,” Jennings reportedly has said, according to The Daily Beast. “If he wants somebody else, I’ll support that candidate.”

Jennings may be Trump’s latest choice to fill a congressional seat — or perhaps a job in the White House, as he and the President teased out on Friday:

Kentucky Republican political insiders say Jennings is a definite possibility to run for McConnell’s seat. The former Republican Leader is retiring and not running for re-election. Some note that Jennings’ website certainly looks like a political candidate’s. “Conservative Ideas. Middle America values. Fearless strategy,” it reads.

Critics are not amused.

“CNN is still standing by Scott Jennings,” wrote The Washington Post’s media reporter Jeremy Barr. “On the one hand, it’s great to have on-air contributors who are ‘close to the action.’ On the other hand, networks generally want them to maintain even an iota of distance to give their commentary more credibility.”

“Scott’s relationship with Trump has always been interesting,” Barr added. “He was once harshly critical of him and as recently as 2022 he said on CNN ‘We need a new nominee.’ But he tends to come back to Trump’s camp when he’s in power or about to be.”

READ MORE: Democrats Call for Hegseth’s Ouster After Trump Demotes National Security Advisor

Barr pointed to a piece he wrote last October: “How Scott Jennings became CNN’s go-to GOP pundit — and pugilist.”

“So his being a belligerent a-h— on CNN was all about angling for a job in the Trump administration,” wrote advocacy journalist Lauren Windsor. “Do better, @CNN.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Absolutely No Clue’: Trump Roasted Over Unique Declaration of Independence Interpretation

 

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OPINION

As US Economy Shrinks Trump Appears Unaware of Crisis: ‘This Is Biden’s Stock Market’

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3 days ago

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April 30, 2025

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To mark his first 100 days in office — “100 Days of Greatness,” he called it — President Donald Trump threw himself a celebration rally in the swing state of Michigan on Tuesday, declaring he has returned America to a “golden age.”

“The arena was surrounded by banners that read, ‘Investing in America,’ ‘Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!,’ ‘The Golden Age,’ ‘Buy American, Hire American’ and ‘The American Dream is Back,'” The Guardian reported. “Trump’s supporters held signs with slogans such as: ‘Make America Great Again’ and ‘Golden Age of America.'”

On Wednesday, the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that the American economy shrank in the first three months of 2025, the first time it has done so in nearly three years.

READ MORE: ‘Prices Go Up’: Economist Mocks Treasury Secretary’s ‘Empty Shelves’ Position

“Real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased at an annual rate of 0.3 percent in the first quarter of 2025 (January, February, and March), according to the advance estimate released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter of 2024, real GDP increased 2.4 percent.”

Economic experts had predicted 3% GDP growth for the first quarter, (some more, some less, but in that neighborhood) before Trump’s tariffs.

Economists and financial experts are pointing to President Donald Trump’s policies, including his tariff war, as the reason for the contraction.

“Real GDP down. Consumption down. Prices up. It’s very easy to criticize what is happening right in front of your eyes when you’re not in a woke cult,” observed Spencer Hakimian, founder and chief investment officer of the hedge fund Tolou Capital Management.

Hakimian pinned the blame for the economy contracting directly on Trump’s policies.

And pointing to the BEA’s numbers, Hakimian added, “Welcome to the recession.”

While the official “we are in a recession” declaration has not yet been made, some are doing so already, given the multiple forecasts predicting a recession, and some saying a recession is the current best possible outcome America (and possibly the global economy) will see this year.

Conservative commentator David Frum of The Atlantic responded to the economic news.

“Trump pushed the US economy into decline by his ignorance and malice, enabled and abetted by advisers who were variously obnoxious, stupid, cowardly, and/or crazy,” said Frum, a former George W. Bush speechwriter.

Despite the declarations of experts, President Trump quickly denied responsibility for any economic pain, and, appeared to not understand the issue.

Forty-three  minutes after the economic news — a contraction of gross domestic product — had been announced, Trump declared the “stock market” problem was not his but his predecessor’s.

“This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s,” the President claimed on Truth Social. “I didn’t take over until January 20th. Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers. Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden ‘Overhang.’ This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS, only that he left us with bad numbers, but when the boom begins, it will be like no other. BE PATIENT!!!”

The issue is not the stock market—although the markets tanked upon news of an economic contraction—but the actual economy.

READ MORE: ‘Great Jobs of the Future’ Are Generations of Family Factory Work Says Commerce Secretary

“CEOs of major retail giants warned last week that prices would rise and shelves would soon fall empty if the president didn’t reverse course,” The Daily Beast reported Thursday. “The S&P 500 is down 8 percent since Trump’s inauguration—its worst run during a president’s first 100 days in office in more than 50 years. Some financial analysts worry the U.S. is heading toward recession.”

The President appears to be in denial.

During his first 100 days interview with ABC News, which aired Tuesday evening, senior national correspondent Terry Moran told Trump tourism is down.

Trump refused to believe him, despite the facts that prove this have been freely available for weeks.

Economist Justin Wolfers, a professor of economics and public policy, posted charts showing tourism “cratering,” along with video of Trump insisting tourism is up.

Despite all the economic data and expert predictions, despite what we now see as an economic contraction, and some say a looming recession, President Trump is steadfast in his position.

ABC’s Moran told the President, “with the economy, the number one issue for so many people, for just about everybody. It — it’s one of the main reasons that you’re back in this office. And now we have this trade war with China that — that Moody’s and other analysts say is gonna cost American families thousands of more dollars per year. And there is a lot of concern out there. People are worried, even some people who voted for you, sayin’, ‘I didn’t sign up for this.’ So how do you answer those concerns?”

“Well,” Trump replied, “they did sign up for it, actually.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Lying Again’: Hegseth Ripped for Ending ‘Woke Biden Initiative’ Trump Signed Into Law

 

Image via Reuters

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OPINION

‘Strategically Disastrous’: How JD Vance Is Harming America’s Foreign Relations

Published

2 weeks ago

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April 16, 2025

By

In the realm of foreign policy, Vice President JD Vance has drawn sharp criticism, with critics branding him as “extremist,” the “Malicious American,” and the “Brutal American“—labels sparked by what they describe as his “naked hostility,” his “morally wrong” and “strategically disastrous” posturing, and a demand to interchange “truth for trade.” If alienating allies is the objective, critics say, he’s well on his way to achieving it.

During the first Trump administration, the President repeatedly came under fire for promoting a brand of foreign relations that was seen as entirely transactional. Turning a blind eye to decades of presidents promoting democracy and human rights as critical components of their foreign policy, Trump forged friendships with authoritarian dictators, invited terrorists to Camp David, and delivered “extensive damage” to “the United States’ international interests and global security.”

In this new, second Trump administration, the President appears to have gone all in on that transactional approach. In what is seen as an effort to upend the world order, Trump is on the offensive, attacking friend and foe alike, distancing America from the rest of the world on the premise that the rest of the world needs America more than America needs the rest of the world.

But Vice President JD Vance appears to have taken Trump’s foreign policy to a far different place: an attempt to create a political and cultural reshaping of foreign nations into the far-right realm. Where Trump wanted trade and military deals, Vance seeks to promote the far right and encourage attacks on minorities.

His efforts, to some, were first noticed during the infamous Oval Office meeting with the President of Ukraine. When Vance took the lead in publicly berating Volodymyr Zelenskyy on live television, many saw it as the moment the United States pivoted—from supporting Ukraine to effectively siding with Russia.

The Vice President is now fully engaged in the role of President Trump’s attack dog.

READ MORE: ‘Willful Disregard’: Judge Finds ‘Probable Cause’ to Hold Trump Admin in Criminal Contempt

But the costs are high.

Vance’s assault on a world leader seen as a hero to Western democracies effectively killed what was billed as a wildly lucrative rare earth minerals deal with Ukraine, and with it, a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia that President Trump campaigned on—stating that he could bring peace in just one day.

The Greenland imbroglio was another embarrassing event—not only for Vance, but for the Second Lady, and for America. What was supposed to be a week-long charm offensive turned into a few offensive hours.

Now that Trump has imposed his worldwide tariffs, Vance appears to be the one attempting to negotiate country by country.

It is not going well.

Last week, Vance told Fox News that America is borrowing money from “Chinese peasants” to “buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture.”

Robyn Dixon, Moscow Bureau Chief for The Washington Post, reports that the “JD Vance comment about ‘Chinese peasants’ was taken in China as deeply offensive, and it is now a hurdle to trade talks. Trump administration’s approach appears tone deaf on this.”

READ MORE: Secret Musk Pentagon Briefing Nixed by Trump Led to Ouster of Longtime Hegseth Associates

Spencer Hakimian, the founder and chief investment officer of the hedge fund Tolou Capital Management, one week after the Vance “peasants” comment, posted that “Chinese purchases of American oil are down -90% Y/Y, while Chinese purchases of Canadian oil are up +700% Y/Y.

“That’s a $20B annual loss for the United States at $60/barrel.”

Bloomberg News reports that “China wants to see a number of steps from President Donald Trump’s administration before it will agree to trade talks, including showing more respect by reining in disparaging remarks by members of his cabinet, according to a person familiar with the Chinese government’s thinking.”

It’s not just China, Greenland, Ukraine, or Germany that have had to experience the American Vice President.

According to The Independent, Vance wants the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to repeal hate speech laws “in order to get a trade deal over the line.”

The UK-based news outlet adds that “a senior Washington figure, who has provided advice for the administration, claimed he is ‘obsessed by the fall of Western civilisation’ – including his view that free speech is being eroded in Britain – and that he will demand the Labour government rolls back laws against hateful comments, including abuse targeting LGBT+ groups or other minorities, as a condition of any deal.”

“’No free speech, no deal. It is as simple as that,’ the Washington source said.”

That may come as a surprise to some, but taking a walk back to just a few months ago, it shouldn’t.

In February, Vance traveled to Germany to declare support for its growing neo-Nazi party.

“After berating European allies, Vance met with the leader of the far-right AfD party, Alice Weidel,” The Washington Post’s European Affairs columnist Lee Hockstader wrote.

“That Vance took up the cause of the AfD, a party polling at around 20 percent which many Germans regard as beyond the pale, is heedless of history and contemptuous of the transatlantic alliance,” Hockstader said. “In doing so, he managed to transform Europe’s old stereotype of the Ugly American into something more grotesque: the Malicious American.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘This Is a Big Deal’: Top Hegseth Advisor ‘Escorted’ Out of the Pentagon Amid Leak Probe

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