Wednesday, October 14, 2026

Chump's a public embarrassment

Chump is a fool with dementia and he in decline.  Alexander Willis (Raw Story) notes:

Over the span of roughly three hours, President Donald Trump posted two dozen videos — and one rant about Greenland — on social media Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning, a late-night barrage that left onlookers questioning the president’s mental state.

The first of the two dozen videos Trump posted online was an AI-generated clip of himself chasing, tackling and then warmly embracing a tiger, a likely reference to the recent death of 23-year-old William Chapman, a British man who was killed by a tiger during an incident at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park on Saturday and who, according to his family, struggled with “significant mental illness.”
“Trump posted this video to his Truth Social, just days after a man was mauled to death by a tiger at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park,” wrote Patricia Eguino, a former commissioner in Washington, D.C., and political activist, in a social media post on X. “His brain is cooked.”

Chapman’s family has asked people to stop sharing footage of the attack after Trump shared raw footage of the incident on Tuesday.

He is horrible.  Matthew Rozsa notes:


"The mentally ill president of the United States gleefully posts grisly video of a man being killed by a tiger," posted George Conway, husband to former Trump consultant Kellyanne Conway. "And then an official White House account, funded by taxpayers, reposts it. Will the American media finally report on the president’s manifest psychiatric disorders??"
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, American Immigration Council, echoed Conway's sentiments, echoed that sentiment.

"WOW," Reichlin-Melnick wrote on Tuesday. "Kristi Noem and Elon Musk, among others, 'chose to turn the power of the federal government against a singular employee with an impeccable record. ... The attacks against Ms. Comans were based entirely on false information' and many officials 'knew [they] were untrue.'"

To explain why Trump supporters display this behavior, Dr. Stephan Lewandowsky, a cognitive scientist and professor of cognitive science at the University of Bristol, spoke with AlterNet in August.

"If you look at internet trolls and their personality profiles, you find that they score very high on what's called the dark triad of personality: psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and [narcissism], that's what it's called," Lewandowsky told AlterNet. "So we know that trolls take pleasure in trolling, which means getting other people upset. And I think that's what we're observing here — this is basically trolling behavior. So would these people score high on the dark triad? I would think yes, but I don't know of any data that's done a personality profile specifically of MAGA voters. We do have it for trolls, though — I have data on that. People have published research on it, and the similarities are just overwhelming. So I'd be very surprised if these were well-adjusted, nice people."

The 80-year-old president was speaking at a campaign rally at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center in Wasilla when he began ranting about what he referred to as the "transgender mutilization" of children. Taking aim at Democrats in a bizarre tirade, Trump told the crowd: "We want them to have men in women's sports, we want them to continue to talk about transgender."

"We want them to talk about diversitay, as I say," he continued, mispronouncing the word "diversity."
"One of them uses the word diversitay, very elegant person," Trump added, appearing to slur his words as he said "one of them uses". It's unclear who Trump was referring to.

Critics were quick to call out the president's odd speech. "His brain completely misfires like this 10 times a day. Not ONE WORD FROM THE MSM. When Biden stuttered for 3 seconds it was a 10 day story on Fox News," one X user wrote as they shared a clip of the incident.


"He's constantly having to cover for the weird pronunciation tics he has now," a second person responded.

He can't speak.  It's part of the dementia and possibly evidence of a stroke.  Daniel Villarreal (LGBTQ Nation) notes: 

Clinical and forensic psychologist John Paul Garrison said last week that a brain lesion or damaged brain tissue may be to blame for President Donald Trump’s slurred speech during his October 2 rally at the University of South Alabama in the city of Mobile.

“President Trump seems to be experiencing significant issues with language production,” Garrison said in a recent YouTube video. “Now, he’s done this before. We’ve seen a number of times: he slurs words, he mixes words up, he cannot articulate himself. Specifically, right here, we’re hearing issues with articulation.”
Garrison noticed that during the rally, Trump mispronounced “you” and “yo,” “called” as “culled,” and then garbled a sentence while experiencing an arm spasm later on.

“That would have to do with the motor functioning of his face,” Garrison said. “He struggled to produce language the way he intended, so we’re seeing a dysarthria here,” a motor speech disorder caused by damage to the nervous system, usually from a stroke or other disease.


Here's C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"


Wednesday, October 14, 2026.  Chump's Desperation Tour continues as polls demonstrate the American people feel Chump doesn't give a damn about them and only cares about enriching himself, Chump fires the US Ambassador to Greece but keeps Priss Pot Hegseth, his attacks on the safety net with his 'Big Beautiful Bill' are being felt around the country, and much more





Chump continues his Desperation Tour.  Not content to drag his own numbers down, he's determined to tank Republicans running for Congress. Stephen Silver (NATIONAL SECURITY JOURNAL) observes:

The 2026 midterm elections are just three weeks away and are shaping up to be a bloodbath for President Donald Trump’s Republican Party, thanks to the unpopularity of the president himself, as well as the Iran War and the still-high cost of living, including high gas prices.

It’s not a great state of affairs for the president, who won the election to return to office two years ago, largely because of the inflationary environment during the Biden years.
According to a CNN report on Monday, the midterm election has, on the Republican side, “turned into a triage operation,” with the GOP moving to defend seats, including in red states, that they thought were relatively safe until recently.

The report added that the president's party is increasingly fearful it will lose its Senate majority and the House of Representatives.

CNN also said that while Republicans have pushed Trump to travel more in recent months to support candidates, they now worry the president is so unpopular that such travel might hurt the candidates he’s coming to support.

“Trump is dragging the party down,” one House Republican, who did not share their name, told CNN.





He asked the voters to make the election about him.  And they have.  Mike Hills (BBC NEWS) explains:

One of the reasons the opposition Democrats have a chance to take back Congress is the president's low approval rating, which is a good indicator for how well his party could perform.

He began his second term as president with an approval rating of just over 50%, according to polling resource website Silver Bulletin, but it quickly fell into the 40s.

It was hovering around 42% when Trump decided to launch air strikes with Israel against Iran at the end of February this year but it fell below 40% shortly afterwards. It is currently sitting at about 37%.

Eight years ago, Trump's approval rating was significantly higher at this point in his first term, at 43%. Joe Biden's at the same point in his term was at 40%. In both cases, the sitting president lost control of the House in the midterms but kept hold of the Senate.

But Trump's poor ratings help explain why Democrats are hopeful of winning both chambers of Congress and why they are setting their sights on states that Republicans have won consistently in recent years.




And Chump does not even pretend to care about the needs and concerns of average Americans.  ALJAZEERA and AP note: 

Most US adults believe President Donald Trump has placed his personal financial interests and those of his inner circle ahead of the country’s since returning to the White House in 2025, according to a new nationwide poll.

The poll, conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and released on Tuesday, suggests that public perception of the Republican president leans heavily critical: Over half of surveyed adults view Trump’s second term as self-serving by investing in his own business and commercial pursuits “a lot”. Roughly one quarter believe he focuses on national interests, but only 11 percent feel Trump represents regular Americans. Fifty-five percent of Republicans surveyed said that Trump has prioritised his personal business interests “a lot” or “some”.

Half of the respondents report that Trump has placed zero priority on people “like them”.

Stephanie Gauthier (OBOXMA) notes, "With the November 3 midterms just weeks away, Donald Trump is confronting extraordinary polling numbers as frustration over affordability intensifies. A new AP-NORC survey finds 82% of Americans disapprove of his handling of the cost of living, while only 17% approve."  And that's reason enough for Republican candidates to distance themselves from him.  Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) reports:

National Republicans are pulling out of a handful of House races less than a month before the midterms, abandoning two sitting GOP lawmakers as the party tries to keep its losses from spreading.
Super PACs aligned with President Donald Trump and House GOP leadership canceled all remaining ad reservations over the weekend for Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), three people with direct knowledge of the plans told the New York Times, and internal Republican polling had shown both incumbents’ chances fading.
It’s the first time this cycle that national GOP groups have cut loose their own incumbents, following last week’s decision to pull money from Nebraska’s open seat, held by retiring Rep. Don Bacon. Taken together, Republicans have effectively surrendered three districts they currently control, even after an aggressive redistricting campaign meant to pad the party’s narrow House majority.

WRAL NEWS notes, "Democrat Roy Cooper leads Republican Michael Whatley by a wide margin in the race to claim North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate seat as voters sour on President Donald Trump, a new WRAL/WSOC Poll shows. Whatley, a longtime Republican Party insider, was endorsed by Trump and has themed his campaign largely around delivering for Trump’s agenda if elected to the U.S. Senate. He has consistently trailed Cooper, the former governor, in polls this year. The new poll, released Tuesday, shows a continuation of that trend."  Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi (RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER) notes, "Democrats once again lead North Carolina in voter registration. That’s an about-face from January 2026, when, for the first time in North Carolina history, registered Republicans outnumbered registered Democrats by about 2,000 people. That came a couple of months before the March 3 primary. As of Saturday, there are 490 more registered Democrats than Republicans in North Carolina - out of nearly 7.8 million registered voters."



Americans know Chump's in it for Chump.  They see it.  Marco Margaritoff (HUFFINGTON POST) explains:

Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that President Donald Trump has engaged in illegal or unethical activity to profit from his presidency, according to a new poll released Tuesday from The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

“Most Americans say President Trump has prioritized his personal financial interests and the interests of people close to him since taking office again in 2025,” the AP-NORC article states in its introduction. “Far fewer say he has prioritized the country as a whole or people like them.”

And this is a reason he has lost support.  Even within his own party.  Frank Yemi notes:


A Republican mayor in California is saying he intends to vote for Democrats in next month's midterms, warning that people are starting to question their support for President Trump.

Victor Martinez, the mayor of Mendota in the San Joaquin Valley, is still a registered Republican but told the Financial Times he intends to support Democrats in the next election.

"I think a lot of people are waking up," Martinez, who was born in El Salvador, told the paper. "They're really voting for what's right and what needs to happen."

His decision comes as Trump's position with Latino voters is up for a test following the gains that helped get him back in the White House in 2024.

The Financial Times reports that some Hispanic voters are growing disillusioned with the rising cost of fuel, the cuts to social programs and the administration's hardline approach to immigration.


The voting bloc helped deliver President Donald Trump’s 2024 victory, sending him to the White House for a second term. Republicans in Texas also saw gains that year, picking up two seats in historically Democratic districts in South Texas.
Halfway through Trump’s term, some Latino voters are rethinking their presidential pick, polling shows. This year’s midterm offers the first opportunity to express that disappointment with their votes, even if the president isn’t on the ballot himself.

Midterms are historically tricky for the party in control of the White House, and this year - when Texas is on pace to have the tightest races it has seen in years - Hispanic Texans have emerged as a key vote to win over.

“The Hispanic vote is going to be the determinate vote,” said Daniel Alegre, CEO of Spanish-language media company TelevisaUnivision. “It is the true swing vote that is still persuadable.”


Just a few weeks from the end of the 2026 midterm elections, there are all sorts of variables that could affect the outcome on the margins. There remain many races for House, Senate and governorships that are very close. Polling errors could be painting an unduly rosy picture of Democratic prospects. Late ad blitzes or candidate debates may tilt the balance here and there. “October surprises” remain a possibility, or even a “November surprise” by way of Trump administration efforts to suppress or intimidate voters.
But the basic national dynamics of this election seem very clear. Midterms are always to a considerable extent referenda on the job performance and character of whoever occupies the White House. In Donald Trump, we have a highly controversial president who is the dominant personality of our era, with a record that that is drawing terrible reviews from the public. His current job approval ratio per the Real Clear Politics polling averages is 38.1 percent approval and 59.5 percent disapproval. Presidents with this level of unpopularity almost always post big midterm losses. But he also has a virtually unshakable hard core of supporters. As a party Democrats have made their campaign a consistent frontal assault on Trump’s most vulnerable point–his poor record on, and his contemptuous disinterest in, high and rising living costs — with important sub-themes stressing the corruption that has flourished in his administration and deploring his war of choice against Iran. For their part, Republicans have mostly focused on energizing Trump’s most loyal supporters and maximizing their turnout, while trying to get more skeptical voters to think about their misgivings towards the opposition.
Let’s be clear about one thing: Trump’s energize-the-base tactics aren’t going to win the midterms. These voters are already energized. Yes, slightly increasing their turnout can help staunch the bleeding and keep down Democratic gains in deep-red territory. But even if the president gets them whipped up into a frenzy, there aren’t enough of them to overwhelm super-energized Democrats plus the vast and largely alienated ranks of swing voters who don’t like Trump’s economy or Trump’s war, and are generally tired of his act.




As Chump flits around the country talking about how much he loves this man's rear end or that man's thighs, as he insists that gas prices are lower, as he claims that "affordability" is a hoax and an invented word by the Democrats (despite affordability dating back in this country to the start of the 20th century), he gives listeners even less reason to believe him.  Matt Egan (CNN) reports: 

From $4 gas and 7% mortgage rates to surging airfares, the Iran war is significantly raising the cost of living for inflation-weary consumers ahead of the midterm elections.

The conflict has cost US consumers about $265 billion since it started in late February, according to estimates from Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. That equates to about $2,000 in higher costs for the average American household.

“Many Americans have rightly connected the dots between the Iran War and the painfully high cost of living and thus want the war to end,” Zandi told CNN on Tuesday.

Not only have consumer prices increased, but paychecks are not keeping up.

Wage growth slowed in September to a five-year low. Real wages, adjusted for inflation, have declined almost every month since the Iran war started, prompting some consumers to dip into savings and rely on credit cards to get by.




Chump's administration is a plethora of unqualified officials.  Priss Pot Hegseth may be the most unqualified.  His current asinine notion is that we need to live stream the execution of a prisoner. 



The daughter of one of the victims of the Fort Hood terror attack slammed plans by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to livestream the perpetrator’s public execution.

Keely Cahill Vanacker’s father, Michael Cahill, was one of 13 people shot dead by radical Islamist Nidal Malik Hasan, whose execution by firing squad is set to be broadcast live on Dec. 3.

“I think that is absolutely the worst thing you could do. I think that this has nothing to do with justice,” Vanacker said of Hegseth’s plan, speaking to CNN on Monday.
Vanacker — who grimly described it as turning “tragedy” into “entertainment” — said she learned of the move from her son, who found out from an Instagram reel.

“I can’t imagine, with social media, how horrific it would be and how widespread it would be. It is not something you could just get away from,” she said, adding that this would not bring “closure” to the families.



But despite one embarrassment after another, Chump keeps Hegseth in place.  THE WEEK argues that Priss Pot is too similar to Chump for Chump to quit him. 

But this week, the country learned that Chump could quit Kimberly Guilfoyle and he did yesterday.  Joshua Feldstein (THE HILL) reports: 

The scandal surrounding Kimberly Guilfoyle, U.S. ambassador to Greece, came to a head on Tuesday morning after White House press secretary Katie Zacharia said in her first press briefing that the administration has asked Guilfoyle to resign.

It was first reported by The Wall Street Journal last week that Guilfoyle asked Trump donor Eric Deters to a pay $100,000 credit card bill.

Hiding the evidence: Not only did Guilfoyle apparently ask Deters for a little cash but she requested he do the transaction through a wire transfer to not leave a paper trail, The Hill’s Julia Manchester wrote.

The Wall Street Journal also reported over the weekend that Deters allegedly helped fund Guilfoyle’s luxury vacations to promote their business interests.

Following the Deters report, the accusations mounted against Guilfoyle, who was previously married to California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and engaged to Donald Trump Jr.

Guilfoyle responds: The former ambassador responded to the resignation on the social platform X, saying that the “allegations are false.”

“I will forever be grateful to President Donald J. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for entrusting me with the extraordinary privilege of representing the greatest country in the world,” Guilfoyle wrote.



It started out so well for her.

Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. ambassador to Greece until she was effectively fired on live television on Tuesday when the new White House press secretary said that President Trump had asked for her resignation, was at one point engaged to Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son. The couple owned a $9.7 million home in Florida, appeared at Trump rallies together and sent each other adoring posts on Instagram.

“Falling in love with my fiancé more and more every day,” Ms. Guilfoyle posted on Instagram on Valentine’s Day 2022. “@donaldjtrumpjr, you’re my best friend, my support system and my forever guy.”

“Thanks for always being there no matter what the haters are throwing our way,” he posted in 2024. “I love you.”

Today, the junior Mr. Trump is married to a Florida socialite and model. And Ms. Guilfoyle, who was nominated as ambassador to Greece by the president soon after her engagement to his son was broken off two years ago, is out of a job after a series of damning reports in The Wall Street Journal, including that she asked a Republican donor to pay off $100,000 on her American Express credit card just before her Senate confirmation hearing in July 2025.


While she leaves the inner circle, Alien Musk has returned.  Sara Boboltz (BUZZFEED) reports Alex Gibney and Ronan Farrow who made the documentary MUSK have some questions regarding Musk and his DOGE boys who filtered through highly sensitive data on American citizens and then did what with it? 


The Supreme Court on Tuesday took up a Trump administration’s bid to prevent a watchdog group from seeking information about the Department of Government Efficiency, which played a key role in firing thousands of federal workers and canceling government funding.

The court agreed to hear a Justice Department appeal that sought to prevent Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington from obtaining records under the Freedom of Information Act. A ruling is due by the end of June.

The Trump administration has argued that DOGE, spearheaded by former administration adviser Elon Musk, was not subject to what are known as FOIA requests.

DOGE, which played a key role in dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, was a controversial feature of Trump’s early months in office, triggering various lawsuits. Its operations have since dwindled.


Last year, the D.C. District Court sided with the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, watchdog in its lawsuit against DOGE, which argued that the agency is subject to the Freedom of Information Act but was ignoring public records requests. After the court allowed CREW’s lawsuit to move forward, and gave the watchdog group a sworn deposition from acting DOGE Administrator Amy Gleason, the Trump administration stepped in to appeal the decision.

The conservative-majority Supreme Court has interfered in the case before, blocking a CREW discovery request last summer. Now the high court will hear the Trump administration’s argument that DOGE was a presidential advisory organization and not a federal agency—making it exempt from public records requests.


 DOGE raises so many questions that deserves answers.  Possibly Democrats taking control of one or both houses of Congress could force answers to those questions? Daniel Desrochers and Oliver Ward (POLITICO) report: 

 
Democrats know they can’t repeal President Donald Trump’s tariffs as long as he’s in the White House. But if they win control of Congress, they plan to haul in top administration officials and possibly executives to explain how Trump picked his targets in his trade war — and why he gave others a pass.

With midterm elections less than a month out, Democratic lawmakers and aides on the House Ways and Means, House Foreign Affairs and Senate Finance Committees are preparing a big oversight push on Trump’s trade policies, especially suspected quid pro quos that may have benefited wealthy interests and foreign governments.

Among the exchanges drawing scrutiny from Democrats are the president’s decision to lower tariffs on Switzerland after a visit from gift-bearing executives with Rolex and other Swiss firms and a move to ease export restrictions on the United Arab Emirates months after an Emirati royal invested in a Trump-linked cryptocurrency company.

“We're going to legislate, but we will investigate, as well,” said Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.), who sits on House Ways and Means. “There's some low-hanging fruit when it comes to the appropriate investigations that need to be done in this administration's pay-to-play scheme that is so prevalent.”


There are a lot of questions that could be answered if Democrats get control of even one house of Congress.   Robert Reich reminds that the corruption is linked to the economy: 

In these last weeks before the midterms, Democratic candidates have been gaining ground by talking about two things: the affordability crisis and political corruption.

If Democrats regain control of Congress and genuinely want to respond to affordability, they’ll need to do everything possible to root out the corruption.

The two are inseparable. In large part, prices are rising faster than paychecks because so much of the economy has become subject to political bribery, Trump Republican pay-to-play schemes, and kickbacks to Trump and his cronies.

1. Trump’s war and the corruption underlying it

Trump’s war on Iran is causing Americans to spend almost 50 percentmore on gas than before the war, on average. And the diesel fuel needed to transport almost everything else we buy now average.
These price increases due to Trump’s war tell only half the story. The other half is the political corruption at the root of the war — enriching Trump’s friends and family.


As prices increase, more suffer because Chump has gutted the safety net.  THE NEWSHOUR (PBS) reported on that last night.


Geoff Bennett:

More than five million people have lost their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits since President Trump's so-called One Big Beautiful Bill passed last year. The bill cut SNAP funding, expanded work requirements, and recently pushed more program costs to states.

And, as Stephanie Sy reports, that's meant many more people are turning to food banks for support.

Stephanie Sy:

Seventy-year-old Joan Steenburgh rarely misses her weekly trips to the food pantry. In rural Hanover, Virginia, she visits Moments of Hope to supplement SNAP benefits for herself and the two children she cares for.

Joan Steenburgh, SNAP Recipient:

Now my food stamps have been cut from $500 a month to $300. I would expect the most people that are politicians, $300 meal would be nothing to them. But you expect for us to raise two healthy children for $300 a month. It's no way possible that you can do that unless you have help.

Stephanie Sy:

More than 100,000 Virginians have lost their SNAP benefits in the last year. And in Central Virginia, SNAP participation is down more than 15 percent.

Dennis Hatchett, CEO, Feed More:

When SNAP changes, people are forced to either not eat or access food banks.

Stephanie Sy:

Dennis Hatchett is the head of hunger relief organization Feed More supporting food pantries across the region. He says, in the last year, he's seen a 20 percent increase in visits to local food pantries.

Dennis Hatchett:

Can food banks be a substitution for SNAP? I'd have to tell you, absolutely not. They're meant to work in conjunction. SNAP is the single most effective means of fighting food insecurity, and food banks are here to provide a supplement at the end of the month.

Stephanie Sy:

President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill is projected to cut $186 billion in federal spending on SNAP over the next decade.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: In one year, we have lifted 2.4 million Americans, a record off, of food stamps.

(CHEERING)

Stephanie Sy:

The law raised the age limit to be exempt from SNAP work requirements from 55 to 65 and increased the amount of paperwork required to stay enrolled. And starting next year, states with higher SNAP error rates will lose federal funding and have to pick up part of the benefit costs.

In the last year, almost every state has seen a decline in people enrolled in SNAP. And many still eligible are receiving much lower benefits.

Betty Hayes, Moments of Hope Food Pantry: We have people that are getting as low as $17 a month in food stamps or SNAP benefits.

Stephanie Sy:

Betty Hayes runs Moments of Hope Food Pantry. She says client visits have doubled in the last two years, but her neighbors' support will help them get by.

Betty Hayes:

At the beginning of the year in my back warehouse, I had enough surplus, a two-month window. So if I could not get any more food, I had two months' worth of nonperishable items that I could make it through with the clients that we had. I have two weeks' worth of food in the back warehouse.

I think the community will step in because the community has stepped in before. And I have never run out of food. We just keep on going.

Stephanie Sy:

The Trump administration says the changes will cut waste and fraud and decrease dependency on government assistance, a stance echoed by Republican lawmakers.

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA):

I make this very clear. We are not cutting Medicaid. We are not cutting SNAP. We're working on the elements of fraud, waste and abuse.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN):

Every dollar from this program is intended to help feed eligible individuals in need. That's not where every dollar goes, not by a long shot.

Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL):

These programs have massive waste, fraud, and abuse in them. Democrats don't want to tackle them. Republicans do.

Stephanie Sy:

But Dennis Hatchett says the people Feed More serves rely on SNAP to put food on the table.

Dennis Hatchett:

There's this misconception that people who are on SNAP don't need SNAP. What we're finding is that the vast majority of people who are accessing SNAP are working. They're asset-limited, income-constrained, employed people. We have got stats that show as many as you know 50, 60 percent of the people who are accessing our food banks are people who are working one, two, even three jobs.

Stephanie Sy:

And Joan Steenburgh, a former nurse, says with less money for food, she now may have to go back to work.

Joan Steenburgh:

Well, I have worked for all, what are you talking about, 30 years in nursing or taking care of people. And now, instead of me sitting back and enjoying life, I have got to get a job to be able to raise enough money and be 70 years old and have to get a part-time job at this point in your life again to be able to make ends meet.


Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:


Washington, D.C. – Today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, released the following statement on the Trump administration holding back or cutting off billions of dollars Congress provided the Department of Energy to bring new energy online and lower Americans’ energy costs. Four recent reports detail how, over the last 18 months, President Trump’s policies have raised energy costs for families and delayed and defunded critical energy investments.

“President Trump hasn’t just sent gas prices through the roof with his war with Iran; he and his administration have systematically held up and cut off energy investments Congress has made that should be lowering families’ energy bills. Congress gave the Department of Energy tens of billions of dollars to build out the power grid and cut the costs that families pay to heat and cool their homes. But the Trump Administration is still holding that money back and letting politics decide which projects survive. This president’s corruption is already sending Americans’ energy bills higher. The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse. We will keep pressing until this money reaches the projects and families it was meant for,” said Murray and Kaptur.

Congress provided funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the annual Energy and Water Development appropriations bills for a variety of cost-cutting energy investments. The funding supports power lines, grid upgrades, home energy savings, and bringing more power online. But starting in January 2025, the Trump Administration froze funds for energy programs and kept them frozen after Kaptur and Murray demanded answers. The Department announced the cancellation of 24 awards worth $3.7 billion in May 2025 and another 321 worth nearly $8 billion on October 1, 2025. In July 2026, the Department’s lawyers admitted in court that the October cancellations were based solely on the politics of each recipient’s state.

Four reports released recently show the Department of Energy is failing to spend money Congress provided—driving up Americans’ costs—and it is letting politics drive its decisions:

  1. Recent analysis from Energy Innovation, which includes state-level impacts, found that the Trump administration’s energy policy changes since January 2025, including the Department’s cancellation of hydrogen hub funding, will cost households an additional $920 billion for energy from 2026 through 2040, or about $6,500 more in energy costs per household.
  2. The Department of Energy Alumni Network and Lawyers for Good Government reported that a year after the Department canceled hundreds of awards, 61 percent of terminated awards remain in limbo, 69 percent of the awards the Department said it would keep have received negligible funding in the past six months, and another 1,731 projects worth $3.9 billion have heard nothing from the Department.
  3. The Natural Resources Defense Council published internal Department records, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, indicating that DOE’s committee reviewing awards for termination was made up entirely of political appointees and Department of Government Efficiency staff. This follows DOE’s earlier admission in court that its decision to cancel energy projects “was based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state.”
  4. The EFI Foundation found that 94 percent of the $57.5 billion Congress provided DOE through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act has still not reached recipients, and $29.3 billion, or 51 percent, has not been legally committed to any project.

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