Latest / 5 minute updates on the latest Trump actions by Prof Christina Pagel / It’s been a busy week in Trump’s America

Transcript

It’s been a busy week in Trump’s America · 5 minute updates on the latest Trump actions by Prof Christina Pagel

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  SPEAKER_00: So much has happened in the US over the last week, from gerrymandering
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  SPEAKER_00: across the South to widespread attacks on opponents, to yet
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  SPEAKER_00: more corruption to foreign aggression and undermining science,
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  SPEAKER_00: this is just a whistle stop tour through all of
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  SPEAKER_00: So it's been a week of Republican gerrymander.
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  So last week,
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  SPEAKER_00: the Supreme Court
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  SPEAKER_00: gutted a section of the Voting Rights Act in such a way
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  SPEAKER_00: as to essentially allow
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  SPEAKER_00: the southern states to break up their majority black districts.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the southern states
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  SPEAKER_00: are now rushing to do exactly that before the 2026 midterms.
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  SPEAKER_00: So Tennessee, Louisiana and Missouri have all broken up majority black
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  SPEAKER_00: urban districts to each give the Republicans an extra seat.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, in Tennessee, the Democrat lawmakers
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  SPEAKER_00: actually protested this gerrymander in the state House.
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  SPEAKER_00: And in response, the Republican speaker
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  SPEAKER_00: of the Tennessee
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  SPEAKER_00: House of Representatives have stripped
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  SPEAKER_00: those lawmakers of all committee assignments as punishment.
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  SPEAKER_00: Then the Supreme Court cleared a path for Alabama
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  SPEAKER_00: to use a new voting map.
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  SPEAKER_00: So this is a voting map that Alabama had
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  SPEAKER_00: tried to use three years ago, but was then ruled illegal
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  SPEAKER_00: because it was ruled
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  SPEAKER_00: a racial gerrymander where they were disenfranchizing the black voters.
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  SPEAKER_00: And now the Supreme Court’s saying that given their recent decision,
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  SPEAKER_00: this map could probably be used for the midterms.
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  SPEAKER_00: so Alabama's going ahead and trying to do that.
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  SPEAKER_00: If they're successful,
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  SPEAKER_00: that could give the Republicans another 1 or 2 seats.
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  SPEAKER_00: South Carolina also tried to do a gerrymander, but it actually failed.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it was blocked by the South Carolina State Senate,
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  SPEAKER_00: when five Republican senators basically crossed the aisle
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  SPEAKER_00: and voted with the Democrats.
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  SPEAKER_00: So we thought that was the end of it.
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  SPEAKER_00: But it isn't because the Republican governor of South Carolina
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  SPEAKER_00: then called lawmakers back for a special session
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  SPEAKER_00: at the end of last week to basically insist that they redraw
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  SPEAKER_00: the state map and eliminate its only majority black district.
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  SPEAKER_00: If that succeeds, then that's another seat for the Republicans.
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  SPEAKER_00: So overall, this is likely 4 to 5 extra seats for the Republicans.
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  SPEAKER_00: Plus, they've got another four seats now
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  SPEAKER_00: because the Florida Republican gerrymander succeeded.
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  SPEAKER_00: But the Virginia Democrat one did not, when the Virginia Supreme Court
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  SPEAKER_00: ruled their gerrymander illegal.
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  SPEAKER_00: It has been a doozy of a week for attacking enemies.
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  SPEAKER_00: So let's start with Trump, who has been on a tear on Truth Social.
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  SPEAKER_00: First, he attacked Democrat Illinois Governor J.B.
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  SPEAKER_00: Pritzker with an AI generated cartoon, basically
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  SPEAKER_00: mocking Pritzker's weight
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  SPEAKER_00: and accusing him of being too busy eating to keep Chicago safe.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump also attacked Supreme Justices Gorsuch and Coney Barrett
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  SPEAKER_00: for ruling against his tariffs policy.
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  SPEAKER_00: He said they were disloyal for ruling against him
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  SPEAKER_00: when they were appointed under his presidency.
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  SPEAKER_00: now Supreme Court justices are supposed
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  SPEAKER_00: to follow the law in the Constitution.
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  SPEAKER_00: They are not supposed to be influenced by loyalty to a president.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump also then threatened the primary
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  SPEAKER_00: challenge for hardline conservative Representative Lauren Boebert.
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  SPEAKER_00: So normally she's considered a staunch Trump ally.
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  SPEAKER_00: But she then campaigned for House Representative Thomas
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  SPEAKER_00: Massie in his Kentucky district.
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  SPEAKER_00: And Trump does not like Thomas Massie.
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  SPEAKER_00: So he wrote on social media:
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  SPEAKER_00: Boba is campaigning for the worst Republican congressman
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  SPEAKER_00: in the history of our country, Thomas Massie
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  SPEAKER_00: of the great Commonwealth of Kentucky.
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  SPEAKER_00: And anybody who could be that dumb deserves a good primary fight.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump had previously also attacked two term Republican Senator
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  SPEAKER_00: Bill Cassidy because he felt that Cassidy wasn't loyal.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now those attacks worked, as this week, Cassidy lost his bid
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  SPEAKER_00: for reelection in Louisiana's primary for senator.
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  SPEAKER_00: Basically, the Trump backed challenger, Julia Letlow,
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  SPEAKER_00: and then another state treasurer, John Fleming,
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  SPEAKER_00: advanced to the June runoff.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump then used Truth Social to gloat about Cassidy's loss,
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  SPEAKER_00: saying his disloyalty to the man who got him elected is now
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  SPEAKER_00: part of legend, and it's nice to see that his political career is over.
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  SPEAKER_00: The next day, Senator
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  SPEAKER_00: Lindsey Graham supported Trump's position, saying in an interview
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  SPEAKER_00: that there's no room
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  SPEAKER_00: within the Republican Party to destroy President Trump's agenda.
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  SPEAKER_00: So moving on to the media, Trump attacked Fox News
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  SPEAKER_00: for inviting on Democrat congresspeople and commentators,
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  SPEAKER_00: While at it, he then called Democrat Congressman Ro Khanna scum,
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  SPEAKER_00: Hakeem Jeffries very low IQ and Bill Maher as low rated.
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  SPEAKER_00: He basically implied that to help
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump win elections, Fox News should not invite on any Democrats ever.
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  SPEAKER_00: A couple of days later, Trump accused media organizations of treason
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  SPEAKER_00: if they reported
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  SPEAKER_00: that Iran is having any success in its war against the US.
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  SPEAKER_00: He took this further in a televised exchange on Air Force One,
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  SPEAKER_00: when Trump called a New York Times
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  SPEAKER_00: reporter treasonous and fake for his coverage of the ongoing Iran war.
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  SPEAKER_00: And this is when, only a few days earlier, the Wall Street
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  SPEAKER_00: Journal said that it had received subpoenas
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  SPEAKER_00: for the records of its reporters
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  SPEAKER_00: related to one of its articles on the risks of military action in Iran.
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  SPEAKER_00: So this is all quite a chilling attack on freedom of the press.
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  SPEAKER_00: So moving away from the president, Defense Secretary Pete
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  SPEAKER_00: Hegseth said that he has referred Senator Mark Kelly to Pentagon
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  SPEAKER_00: lawyers for allegedly disclosing classified information
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  SPEAKER_00: about depleted US weapon stockpiles from the Iran war.
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  SPEAKER_00: But this is information that Senator Kelly says he received directly
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  SPEAKER_00: from Hegseth in a public televised Senate hearing.
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  SPEAKER_00: So it's just one more attack on Kelly.
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  SPEAKER_00: These attacks started several months ago, after he participated
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  SPEAKER_00: in a video calling on US military service members to follow the law.
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  SPEAKER_00: Moving on to the vice president.
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  SPEAKER_00: So Vice President JD
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  SPEAKER_00: Vance basically threatened states that don't comply with his crackdown
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  SPEAKER_00: on fraud, with the loss of federal funding for Medicaid and Medicare.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the same day
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  SPEAKER_00: Vance announced that the administration
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  SPEAKER_00: would withhold $1.3 billion in federal Medicaid payments
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  SPEAKER_00: to California, he basically said that the state
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  SPEAKER_00: had failed to combat fraud in its public health insurance program,
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  SPEAKER_00: and that's a claim that California Governor Newsom vigorously denies.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, in this bit,
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  SPEAKER_00: the US Department of Justice has just accused Yale University
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  SPEAKER_00: of illegally considering race in its admissions to its medical school.
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  SPEAKER_00: So this is now the second medical school
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  SPEAKER_00: under scrutiny from the Trump administration.
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  SPEAKER_00: UCLA was already being accused of that this month.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it all forms part of Trump's ongoing anti-DEI agenda.
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  SPEAKER_00: On the international stage, the US has considered
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  SPEAKER_00: asserting its power in Central and South America.
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  SPEAKER_00: So first,
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump said that he's seriously considering making Venezuela
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  SPEAKER_00: the 51st state and then the US military struck yet
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  SPEAKER_00: another alleged drug trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific, killing
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  SPEAKER_00: two people and leaving one survivor.
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  SPEAKER_00: So that now brings the total number
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  SPEAKER_00: of strikes to 58 and the death toll to over 190 people.
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  SPEAKER_00: And this week too,
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  SPEAKER_00: there came a five month investigation that has named 13
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  SPEAKER_00: previously unidentified victims of these US boat strikes.
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  SPEAKER_00: So this joint effort, led by 20 journalists
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  SPEAKER_00: from the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism,
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  SPEAKER_00: found that all the victims so far came from extremely poor communities
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  SPEAKER_00: across Latin America and the Caribbean, while at least
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  SPEAKER_00: some of them have no indication whatsoever of any involvement
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  SPEAKER_00: in drug smuggling.
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  SPEAKER_00: A little bit further north in Mexico, the CIA escalated its secret
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  SPEAKER_00: war on cartels with some fatal operations.
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  SPEAKER_00: And this is while the Trump administration
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  SPEAKER_00: has instructed federal prosecutors to use terrorism statutes
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  SPEAKER_00: to target Mexican officials complicit in the narcotics trade.
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  SPEAKER_00: With the Iran war,
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  SPEAKER_00: there's little sign of any kind of conclusive peace deal
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  SPEAKER_00: between Iran and the US, both the House
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  SPEAKER_00: and the Senate this week separately blocked
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  SPEAKER_00: War Powers Resolutions, which would have required
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  SPEAKER_00: congressional approval for Trump to continue his war efforts in Iran.
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  SPEAKER_00: And meanwhile, the Pentagon has now dismantled
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  SPEAKER_00: a legally required civilian harm mitigation and response program,
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  SPEAKER_00: which is designed to handle training and procedures critical
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  SPEAKER_00: in limiting harm to civilians in war.
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  Corruption.
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  SPEAKER_00: There’s a lot of corruption going on.
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  SPEAKER_00: So Trump is still treating Washington, D.C.
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  SPEAKER_00: a bit like his personal property.
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  SPEAKER_00: So a company Trump used for work in his Virginia golf
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  SPEAKER_00: course has been awarded a no bid, $7 million contract
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  SPEAKER_00: to paint the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial in D.C..
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  SPEAKER_00: And you may have heard that Trump is staging a UFC cage
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  SPEAKER_00: match on the white House lawn in June, so technically,
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  SPEAKER_00: all of the tickets to watch the match are free,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the UFC is footing the bill for the event.
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  SPEAKER_00: But sponsorship packages that include ringside
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  SPEAKER_00: seats are apparently being selling for $1 million or more.
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  SPEAKER_00: One report said at least $1.5 million.
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  SPEAKER_00: So the white House said, oh, nothing to do with us.
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  SPEAKER_00: You should talk to the UFC.
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  SPEAKER_00: The UFC has reiterated that it's not selling
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  SPEAKER_00: tickets to the event, but it didn't comment or wouldn't
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  SPEAKER_00: say where this sponsorship money was going.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then in January, Trump sued his own Inland Revenue Service,
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  SPEAKER_00: demanding $10 billion in damages for tax leaks during his first term.
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  SPEAKER_00: So the latest is that he's now expected to drop that $10 billion
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  SPEAKER_00: lawsuit in exchange for the creation
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  SPEAKER_00: of a $1.7 billion fund, to compensate his allies
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  SPEAKER_00: who claim they were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration,
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  SPEAKER_00: which is to say the least, an interesting use of taxpayer money.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, I just want to mention a few
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  SPEAKER_00: worrying ways
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  the administration
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  SPEAKER_00: is still undermining science and evidence based policy in the US.
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  SPEAKER_00: That all happened this week.
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  SPEAKER_00: So last month, Donald Trump fired 22 of the nation's top science advisers
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  SPEAKER_00: from the National Science Board of the National Science Foundation.
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  SPEAKER_00: It has now emerged that Trump fired them just as
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  SPEAKER_00: they were putting the finishing touches to a two page report
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  SPEAKER_00: warning that China has raced ahead of the US in key scientific fields.
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  SPEAKER_00: So the board hadn't approved the final version when its members
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  SPEAKER_00: were fired on the 24th of April, and so the report was never released.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then on to RFK Junior, the health secretary.
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  SPEAKER_00: So while he's not said that much publicly about vaccines
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  SPEAKER_00: in recent months,
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  SPEAKER_00: RFK has not abandoned his quest for evidence that they are unsafe.
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  SPEAKER_00: So The New York Times reported
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  SPEAKER_00: that Kennedy is spearheading an intense, multi-agency
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  SPEAKER_00: push for government scientists and federal data contractors
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  SPEAKER_00: to examine his long held theory that vaccines are helping
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  SPEAKER_00: fuel an epidemic of chronic disease, for which, by the way,
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  SPEAKER_00: there is absolutely no evidence.
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  SPEAKER_00: And as RFK seeks to generate his own evidence,
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  SPEAKER_00: he is actually ignoring evidence that already exists in other areas.
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  SPEAKER_00: So the Trump administration has decided
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  SPEAKER_00: to restrict use of federal funds for fentanyl test strips.
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  SPEAKER_00: So these fentanyl test strips were approved for use a few years ago.
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  SPEAKER_00: They used to help people
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  SPEAKER_00: make sure that the drugs don't contain potentially lethal fentanyl.
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  SPEAKER_00: these strips can save lives.
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  SPEAKER_00: And they have not been shown to increase drug use.
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  SPEAKER_00: And public health officials described this latest decision as a clear
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  SPEAKER_00: shift away from harm reduction, which could have fatal consequences.
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  SPEAKER_00: So that's all for the roundup this week.
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  SPEAKER_00: All the actions are on
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  SPEAKER_00: TrumpActionTracker.info, and I'll be back in a week or so.