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Trump calls affordability a hoax again in insult-ridden speech
02:21 • Source: CNN
Trump calls affordability a hoax again in insult-ridden speech
02:21
• Defense bill: The House is expected to take up a vote on the annual defense policy bill today, with GOP congressional leaders facing hurdles to muscle the bill through a narrow majority.
• Boat strikes: Tucked into the bill is a provision that would limit Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget unless he provides the House and Senate Armed Services committees with unedited video of US strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean. Meanwhile, the House committee chair is prepared to end his panel’s investigation into the September double-tap strike after viewing footage, an aide told CNN.
• Ukraine war: President Donald Trump spoke with European leaders amid the effort to broker peace in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a 20-point plan will be submitted to the US “in the near future.”
Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, expressed concern Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will not release the video of the “double-tap” strike that killed survivors on an alleged drug trafficking boat in September.
Warner, who was part of the Gang of Eight briefing with Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other top security and intelligence officials on Tuesday, suggested some in the briefing understood why lawmakers should have access video.
Asked if Hegseth offered any rationale for releasing some videos and not the follow-up strike recording, Warner said, “There is no rationale.”
“Understanding that Congress has an oversight responsibility and to draw this fake line that I’m going to show you some videos, which they want to brag about, but then not show the survivors and the subsequent action taken, and how that is different from the other videos. I mean, it just doesn’t pass the smell test,” he added.
Congress is almost out of time to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that would avert skyrocketing health care premiums for tens of millions of Americans next year.
House Republicans left a critical party meeting this morning still unclear what plan they will unify around to try to address rising health care costs.
Tomorrow, the Senate is set to vote on a Democratic proposal to extend the subsidies for another three years, as well as a GOP plan that focuses on expanding health savings account eligibility without extending the tax credits. Neither is expected to get the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate.
Here’s what some lawmakers are saying as the December 31 expiration looms:
- Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri told reporters that there needs to be a concerted effort to create a bipartisan compromise plan. Hawley urged Senate leaders Johne Thune and Chuck Schumer to “start hammering out a compromise.” He also said he does plan to vote for the GOP proposal.
- Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina: “The consensus is we need to come up with something. Something that’s, you know, that moves the ball forward,” he said, vowing Republicans would work around the clock to coalesce around a proposal.
- Rep. Kevin Kiley, a Republican in a battleground California district, is urging leaders to take up legislation, including his own proposal, to temporarily extend the enhanced ACA premium subsidies.
Meanwhile, Democrats were clear that they cannot support anything that doesn’t include an extension of the enhanced tax credits. Here’s what some lawmakers are saying:
- Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland: “They tried to kill it altogether a couple times, and now they can’t bring themselves to extend this one portion that helps middle class families,” he said of Republicans.
- Sen. Patty Murray of Washington said Democrats can’t support the GOP bill, “not with the choice issues in it,” pointing to lack of access to abortion care. “I don’t see any way that this helps the people that are being hurt right now by the tax credits going away.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune is holding out a long-shot possibility that a bipartisan compromise could be reached to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies before they expire at the end of the year.
Such an effort would require a dramatic shift in positions from members of both parties and would have to come quickly as the Senate is only scheduled to be in session through next week.
“I don’t know. I wouldn’t say that,” Thune responded when asked if it was safe to say the subsides will expire. “When we get through this exercise this week, the question is, are there enough Democrats who actually want to solve the problem to work the Republicans, a lot of us who want to fix the problem. Or are they going to succumb to their leadership and probably their far left base and just make this a political issue.”
Thune pointed to conversations between bipartisan rank-and-file members trying to find a path forward that might have success after votes on competing Democratic and Republican health care bills fail Thursday.
“If there’s an interest in solving it, I don’t rule it out. I mean, obviously, we don’t have a lot of time,” he said.
Thune was asked if he would support using a partisan tool known as reconciliation to pass a GOP health care bill without Democratic votes.
The Republican leader said he would prefer a bipartisan compromise that could get 60 votes to overcome a filibuster because the resulting legislation is “more durable,” but he added: “I wouldn’t rule anything out.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson declined to comment on whether the full video of September’s “double-tap” strike in the Caribbean should be released after missing a Gang of Eight briefing Tuesday where leadership and heads of the Intelligence committees were shown the video and briefed by Cabinet officials.
“So, my admission here is that I was not in the Gang of Eight briefing,” he said, citing meetings on health care being scheduled at the same time.
“I told Secretary [of Defense Pete] Hegseth and Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio I wouldn’t make it, so they’re going to meet with me individually. So, I have not yet seen that,” he said
Republican leaders touted “productive” discussions on health care in their Wednesday morning conference meeting that would lead to a package coming to the floor next week as Americans are facing jumps in their premiums due to expiring Covid-era Affordable Care Act tax credits.
“The overall system is broken, and we’re the ones that are going to fix it. You will see that laid out,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said while not revealing many details of the forthcoming package.
“We’re moving those through the regular order process, and that’s the way it’s supposed to work. So, you’ll see many of those processes. We think we can get it all wrapped up by the end of that deadline of January 30th, and you’ll see that process continue over the days and weeks ahead as well,” he added.
Johnson indicated any plan Republicans would put on the floor would not include extending the ACA subsidies, saying it “would be a dereliction of duty to just extend subsidies without massive reforms to them.”
The Trump administration is backing the annual defense policy bill, urging lawmakers to pass the National Defense Authorization Act for the next fiscal year despite it including a provision that increases pressure on the Pentagon to turn over videos of its strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.
The NDAA will “protect the homeland, and strengthen the defense industrial base, while eliminating funding for wasteful and radical programs that undermine the warfighting ethos of our Nation’s men and women in uniform,” reads a statement of administration policy from the Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday.
The House is expected to take up a vote on the bill Wednesday before it heads to the Senate. The measure sets out the nation’s defense policy agenda and authorizes nearly $900 billion in funding for military programs, including a 3.8% pay raise for service members.
“The FY 2026 NDAA refocuses the Department on lethality and restores the warrior ethos. The NDAA eliminates statutory provisions relating to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion offices, programs, training, activities, and authorities in the DoW,” the OMB memo says. “If S. 1071 was presented to the President in its current form, he would sign it into law.”
Tucked into the bill is a provision that would limit Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget unless he provides the House and Senate Armed Services committees with unedited video of US strikes on alleged drug boats. The House Armed Services chairman is prepared to end his panel’s investigation into the September double-tap strike after viewing footage, a committee aide told CNN.
President Donald Trump spoke today with top European leaders amid intensive efforts to broker peace in Ukraine, a person familiar with the call says.
France and the UK confirmed in separate statements that the call took place.
Trump’s conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also comes amid deteriorating ties between the US and Europe, as Trump blasted the continent’s leaders as “decaying” in an interview this week.
The three European leaders met this week in London with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as proposals go back and forth with Russia on ending its war.
France’s Élysée Palace said that in the call, the European leaders commended the US efforts toward a lasting peace in Ukraine, noting that work on this will continue.
A Downing Street spokesperson reiterated these points, writing that the leaders “agreed that this was a critical moment – for Ukraine, its people and for shared security across the Euro-Atlantic region.”
Trump said in the Politico interview on Monday that Zelensky needed to “get on the ball” and “start accepting things,” and criticized the Ukrainian leader for not reading his multi-point peace plan.
This post has been updated with additional information. CNN’s Joseph Ataman and Max Foster contributed reporting.
Delegations from Ukraine and the US will today talk about plans for the reconstruction and economic development of Ukraine after the war with Russia ends, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on Telegram.
The Ukrainians are also “finalizing work on 20 points of a fundamental document that could define the parameters for ending the war,” he said, adding that he expects this plan to be submitted to the US “in the near future.” This will be done after “joint work” with officials from the US and Europe is carried out, he said.
Zelensky yesterday had indicated the possibility of handing over the updated peace proposal to the US today.
Tomorrow, countries who form the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” will be meeting to discuss an end to the war, Zelensky added.
House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers is prepared to end his panel’s investigation into the September double-tap strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a committee aide tells CNN.
Rogers received a classified briefing last week to view the video footage and is now pushing for the rest of his panel to be able to see the video.
“The video and classified briefings from the Pentagon were sufficient to convince him this was a legal action. But he’s also been clear that we need a classified briefing where the rest of HASC’s members can see the video, and we expect that to happen next week,” the committee aide told CNN.
House Republicans are holding a high-stakes meeting this morning to settle on a health care strategy ahead of a critical December 31 deadline for expiring enhanced Obamacare subsidies.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and his committee chairs today are proposing a handful of smaller-scale measures to lower health care costs — without addressing the billions of dollars in expiring subsidies that is causing panic among GOP battleground members, according to multiple people familiar with the plans.
Their proposals include expanding cost-sharing reduction — a way that helps offset costs for lower-income people by requiring insurers to pay more — and encouraging Association Health Care Plans to allow small businesses to band together to purchase insurance at group rates, those people said.
It would also expand HSA choice accounts, but it is not expected to include major changes to the program.
The conference is expected to weigh the proposals, which are not yet final.
Johnson is under intense pressure from his fellow Republicans to find some way to tackle health care costs as Democrats increasingly hammer the GOP for allowing the enhanced Biden-era subsidies to expire.
But GOP centrists have been vocal that any plan that doesn’t address those subsidies — which will lead to steep premium hikes for millions of Americans in a midterm year — is not sufficient.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright argued that President Donald Trump understands Americans’ worries over high prices and reiterated the president’s claims that the Biden administration is to blame.
“People are frustrated that prices are high. And the president fully gets that, and I think in a live audience like that, everyone there knows it,” Wright said, referring to Trump’s speech in Pennsylvania last night.
For context: A recent CNN fact check showed that average grocery prices rose 0.3% from August to September. And average grocery prices were about 2.7% higher than last year in September. One Pennsylvania resident, Frank Fiore, told CNN’s Alayna Treene outside a grocery store this week, “It’s all bullsh*t. Nothing has come down. Everything has gone up. Maybe eggs have come down a little, but how many eggs can you eat?”
While the country has seen lower gas prices, Wright blamed higher diesel prices on the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
“Ukraine has been attacking Russia’s refining infrastructure. Russia exports two main things, crucial, that people refine and diesel. So those diesel exports out of Russia are down, and it’s made the diesel market much tighter, tighter than the gasoline market,” Wright said.
President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency was only “a little bit successful,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on a podcast yesterday, adding that he would not lead the project again.
The billionaire was a major donor to Trump’s presidential election campaign and became a close ally and adviser to his administration.
Musk led the DOGE team in seeking to slash the federal government’s budget and workforce in the first five months of Trump’s second term.
But the role and his political rhetoric sparked a backlash against him and Tesla, including vandalism of Tesla cars.
“I think instead of doing DOGE, I would have basically worked on my companies. And they wouldn’t have been burning the cars,” Musk said on the podcast with former Trump administration official Katie Miller.
Asked if he would go back and lead DOGE again, Musk said: “No, I don’t think so.”
Musk’s work for DOGE also sparked concerns among investors that he was not paying enough attention to Tesla as it faced slowing sales.
Musk and Trump had a bitter public falling out around midyear over the president’s sweeping tax and spending bill. But there have been some signs of reconciliation.
Some background: DOGE has disbanded with eight months left to its mandate, the Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told Reuters this month. DOGE claimed to have slashed tens of billions of dollars in expenditures, but it was impossible for outside financial experts to verify that because the unit did not provide a detailed public accounting of its work.
President Donald Trump’s first public event today is at 2 p.m. E.T., according to the White House schedule. He will take part in a roundtable in the White House’s Roosevelt Room.
Then, at 5 p.m. ET, he is set to greet pastors in the Oval Office.
Both the events are closed to the press, but we’ll make sure to bring you any updates on the day’s developments from Washington as they happen.
As we’ve reported, Trump made a winding, insult-ridden speech in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, yesterday while delivering remarks on how his administration will improve its standing when it comes to affordability.
Turning now to foreign policy, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to President Donald Trump’s remarks during an interview with Politico, where Trump said it was time for an election in Ukraine.
Speaking yesterday, Zelensky said that his country will be ready to hold elections in the next 60-90 days if the US and Europe are able to guarantee security for the vote.
Elsewhere:
- Zelensky also said yesterday that Ukraine and its European allies will likely hand over its updated peace proposal to the US today.
- Three documents are being discussed with the Europeans and the Americans, Zelensky said. One document is a 20-point framework, one is about security guarantees, and another is about Ukraine’s recovery.
- Zelensky also said yesterday that Ukraine does “not have the strength” to take back Crimea, a peninsula to the south of the country which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
- Pope Leo has expressed concern at US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine, suggesting it would weaken the US’ alliance with Europe.
- Despite Trump’s claim that Ukraine is “losing” the war, multiple officials told CNN there are no new US or European assessments suggesting there have been significant changes on the battlefield.
CNN’s Victoria Butenko, Daria Tarasova-Markina, Hira Humayun, Christopher Lamb and Jim Sciutto contributed to this reporting.
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Trump calls affordability a hoax again in insult-ridden speech
02:21 • Source: CNN
Trump calls affordability a hoax again in insult-ridden speech
02:21
President Donald Trump spoke on how his administration will improve its standing on affordability during remarks in Pennsylvania last night.
He also veered off topic in his long-winded speech, complaining that his prepared remarks were boring, setting off on several expletive-riddled tangents.
Here’s what he said on the economy:
On the trade war: Trump highlighted his tariff policy and the benefits he said it has brought to Pennsylvania. He also touted his initiative to eliminate taxes on tips and overtime hours.
Blame game: Trump sought to debut a new economic message: Democrats drove up prices, “and we’re bringing them down.” But he also called concerns about affordability “a hoax” before acknowledging that he’d been encouraged not to say that because it would be misconstrued. He also maintained that blame for high prices rested on former President Joe Biden, relentlessly mocking his predecessor.
Attacking the Fed: Trump renewed attacks on the central bank, seeming to suggest that Fed governors who were appointed under Biden may be illegitimate. From the stage, Trump then asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to look into what could be done. The Fed is expected to announce a third consecutive rate cut today.
CNN’s Adam Cancryn, Alayna Treene and Samantha Delouya contributed reporting.
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