Friday Talking Points -- No YOU'RE The Poopyhead!

[ChrisWeigant]

The world's richest man and the world's most powerful man got into an online fight yesterday, which began when Elon Musk tweeted out: "Donny Trump is a poopyhead!" -- to which Donald Trump immediately responded: "No YOU'RE the poopyhead Elon!!!"

Well, no. That's not actually how it happened. But it's not that far from the reality, sad to say.

Of course, many have been predicting that these two would eventually have a spectacular falling-out, since they both possess planet-sized egos and are utter narcissists. In fact, it's a wonder they ever got along in the first place, when you think about it. We certainly never thought it would last this long -- we gave the whole thing only a couple months, way back when. But Trump seemed delighted by Musk's antics, even when Musk disagreed with him, and Musk was pretty obviously delighted to take on the role of the puppetmaster pulling Trump's strings, so for whatever weird reason it did last a lot longer than everyone expected. Until this week, that is. The best comment on the inevitability of the breakup came from the New York Times (the whole article is pretty snarkily amusing, we have to admit):

The moment had finally come, and it was every bit as lowdown, vindictive, personal, petty, operatic, childish, consequential, messy and public as many had always expected it would be.

We won't get into the blow-by-blow of what happened, since we have to assume that most of our readers have been gleefully following it all as it has unfolded, but if you've been in a coma until today here are two good timelines of all the insults and vitriol that has been flying back and forth between the two schoolboys.

It all started earlier, as Musk upped his badmouthing of Trump's signature legislative effort, the budget bill that has now made it through the House and is currently being hashed out in the Senate. Musk exhorted his millions of followers to call up their members of Congress and encourage them to "KILL the BILL," and called it a "disgusting abomination" for good measure. At the height of this playground bully showdown, Musk also essentially accused Trump of being a pedophile, we should mention. Allies of Trump rallied to his side, with Steve Bannon calling for Musk to be deported as "an illegal alien" (Musk is actually a naturalized U.S. citizen).

A few Republican senators actually welcomed Musk trashing the bill, since they are holding out for even deeper cuts in the Senate version (more on that in a moment). Then came the Thursday blowup, which many have likened to a messy celebrity divorce (for good reason).

Senator Ted Cruz even reflected this in his own take on the fallout: "I feel like the kids of a bitter divorce, where you're saying: 'I really wish Mommy and Daddy would stop screaming.'"

Now Trump is reportedly looking to sell the Tesla he bought from Elon (when he turned the White House into a Tesla dealership lot and filmed what could only be called a commercial for the car). Trump's not alone -- Tesla continues to face grim fortunes, as their sales continue to slip worldwide and the stock took an enormous hit during yesterday's playground spat. Musk, by one estimate, lost $34 billion in one day because of all the tantrums.

Some Russians openly celebrated their schadenfreude, with taunts. A close ally of Vladimir Putin posted on Musk's social media platform: "Why can't we all just get along?" Former president of Russia Dmitry Medvedev got in on the fun and posted: "We are ready to facilitate the conclusion of a peace deal between D and E for a reasonable fee and to accept Starlink shares as payment. Don't fight, guys!"

And at least one Republican in Congress was also joining in the fun, since he was one of just two House members to vote against the budget bill (because he shares Musk's dislike of all the deficit spending in it). Representative Thomas Massie had this to say yesterday: "I told my colleagues if I get hit on Independence Ave. and they have to deliver my eulogy [to] say: 'He was having his best day ever.'"

Meanwhile, the Senate Republicans haggled over what would make it into their version of the budget bill. They face the same conundrum as the House Republicans did, since some of them want to slash social services even further while others are cautioning that these cuts are going to affect a whole bunch of Republican voters. The Congressional Budget Office weighed in with their estimate of the bill's cost, and it was pretty much in line with everyone else's estimate -- by their calculations, the bill is going to blow a $2.4 trillion hole in the national debt.

So far, the biggest fight has been over Medicaid, as Republicans try to sneakily accomplish what they failed so spectacularly at before: undercutting Obamacare coverage. Their new rallying cry is that the millions and millions of people that they're actively going to throw off of Medicaid "don't deserve it" and are nothing short of "waste, fraud, and abuse."

This was personified this week by Senator Joni Ernst, who gave an answer in a recent town hall that showed precisely how uncaring Republicans are. When an audience member yelled out "People are going to die," Ernst responded with: "Well, we are all going to die." Instead of apologizing for her insensitivity, Ernst doubled down this week by posting a video of herself in a graveyard, ridiculing those who are concerned that Republican budget cuts are going to mean unnecessary deaths. It started out with: "Hello everyone, I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologize for a statement that I made yesterday at my town hall," but then quickly went off the rails into abject cruelty: "And I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that yes, we are all going to perish from this Earth. So I apologize. And I'm really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well." She also included a plea for everyone to "embrace my lord and savior Jesus Christ," which only proved that Ernst must have her own copy of the Bible with all of Christ's compassion for the poor and sick edited out. Or something. It's hard to tell.

Not content with just slashing Medicaid funding, some Republicans are even pushing to touch a second "third rail of politics," by going after Medicare funding as well. Because, y'know, there's probably lots of that "waste, fraud, and abuse" there too, right? Nothing like kicking some grandmothers off their health insurance to free up enough money to give Elon Musk an enormous tax break!

As usual, other things were also happening in the political world, as the firehose of incompetence and idiocy gushing from the White House just never seems to stop. So let's just quickly run down some of it in abbreviated form, shall we?

To celebrate Pride Month, the secretary of Defense announced he would be renaming a Navy ship which had been named for Harvey Milk. This continues his streak of petty attacks on anyone who is not straight, White, and male.

Elon Musk's legacy is becoming clearer, as the government is now reduced to massive amounts of inefficiency (taking days and days to accomplish things which used to take only minutes, for instance) and is scrambling to hire back thousands of employees Musk fired because (what a surprise!) it turns out they actually perform critical governmental functions.

The O.E.C.D. predicted a worldwide economic slowdown, as a direct result of Trump's senseless trade war. Wall Street is threatening the bond market is going to go crazy if the budget bill passes as written as well.

Trump's travel ban returned, and it's just as ugly as ever. And it was revealed that the guy Trump placed in charge of the people who are responsible for counterterrorism is a 22-year-old whose previous employment experience can mostly be summed up as "intern." What could possibly go wrong with that, eh?

Trump's poll numbers are tanking among Latino voters, which is not too surprising, now that they see what all his anti-immigrant talk really means.

Trump's war on science continues apace, with funds being slashed left and right, safety boards being dissolved, medical scientists getting more and more outraged over R.F.K. Jr.'s idiocy and conspiracy theories, and scientists quitting their jobs in disgust.

In legal news, judges keep ruling against Trump (over and over and over and over and over and over and over again -- and that's just one week's news, folks...), although the Trump administration did actually bring back two of the deportees that had been illegally removed from the country. And although it wasn't a definitive ruling, the Supreme Court actually (gasp!) left in place an assault weapons ban in Maryland.

We close with some good news on the international front, as Ukraine scored a stunning victory by infiltrating over one hundred military drones into Russia and then using them for a simultaneous remote-controlled attack on Russian airfields. With this one attack, Ukraine destroyed a goodly amount of Russia's fleet of long-range bombers, which is good news indeed. Slava Ukraini!





The Democratic Party had one notable addition this week, and one notable defection.

First, the good news.

Former Republican House member Joe Walsh announced this week that he has formally joined the Democratic Party, because "the stakes are simply too high to NOT become a Democrat." He had more to say on this subject as well: "Let's start with the obvious -- a tyrant sits in the White House. The very thing our Founders feared most is here. Throw in the fact that one of our two major political parties is a real and direct threat to democracy and the rule of law."

Now, before anyone points it out, Walsh made a name for himself by being a bigot. He said all kinds of purely hateful things on a regular basis. Which he fully admitted:

"I went to Congress on a mission to get our debt under control and to shake up the political establishment," [Joe] Walsh wrote. "I was passionate about my cause -- so passionate that I said and did things I regret, so passionate that I became, way more than I'm proud of, a divisive political asshole."

Walsh added that he has since "gained a greater understanding of and appreciation for LGBTQ issues, structural racism, the need for empathetic immigration reform, the dangers of climate change, and the role the government must play to help care for the neediest and most vulnerable among us."

"I'm still a conservative, but I'm not a conservative jerk," he wrote. "For the past seven years, I've been on a mission to help heal the divide in this country -- the divide I helped to create."

He now says he believes "decency, tolerance, understanding, empathy" are vital traits for politicians and that the Democratic Party is the only party that "values and practices these traits." He renounced his previous support of Donald Trump and pointed out something he personally knows full well:

"Donald Trump is the worst of us, and, sadly, the rest of the Republican Party emulates his cruelty, dishonesty, and authoritarianism," Walsh wrote. "We're better than what we've seen every day these past four months. America is better than this. As a former Republican, I know that cruelty sells."

That is an impressive evolution of political thought, you have to admit. While some may be wary of Walsh (he truly was odious, back when he was in Congress), we think any converts to the cause should be given the benefit of the doubt (at least at first). Therefore, we have to applaud Joe Walsh for his conversion to being a Democrat and award him this week's Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week for his newfound compassion and clear-headed view of where the two parties stand today. We realize we may come to regret this award later, but we have to remain hopeful that we won't. For now, we welcome Joe Walsh to the Democratic Party with open arms.

[Joe Walsh is a private citizen, and it is our blanket policy not to provide contact information for such persons, sorry.]





Which brings us to the Democratic Party's loss this week. Karine Jean-Pierre has apparently written a book. Legacy Lit, the publisher, put out a teaser statement this week for her project, which will be titled: "Independent: A Look Inside A Broken White House, Outside The Party Lines." And to live up to the title (apparently), she announced that she's leaving the Democratic Party and is now an independent:

Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary under Democratic President Joe Biden, now considers herself an independent and has written a book about her experience working in a "broken White House."

. . .

Jean-Pierre, who also served as a senior adviser to Biden, said in a statement that once Biden's term ended -- and President Donald Trump returned to office -- she "determined that the danger we face as a country requires freeing ourselves of boxes."

"We need to be willing to exercise the ability to think creatively and plan strategically," she said in the statement from Legacy Lit. "We need to be clear-eyed and questioning, rather than blindly loyal and obedient as we may have been in the past."

The press release by the publisher said that the book would detail "the three weeks that led to Biden's abandoning his bid for a second term and the betrayal by the Democratic Party that led to his decision." So, obviously, she's got a big axe to grind.

The whole thing seems like either a publicity stunt or (more likely) an attempt to get some cushy pundit job on a major network. Jean-Pierre probably sees herself as following in the footsteps of George Stephanopoulos and Jen Psaki, transitioning into commentary and a nice big fat paycheck. Which is, all things considered, not too unexpected these days.

But to advocate for "freeing ourselves of boxes" at the current political juncture just seems wildly idealistic if not downright naive. Doing so would only weaken the Democratic Party when it is already at a political nadir. And, as mentioned, it seems no more than a big publicity stunt on her part.

So because for at least part of the week she still qualified as a Democrat, we have to hand Karine Jean-Pierre a Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week award as she heads out the door.

[Karine Jean-Pierre is also a private citizen, so we cannot provide contact information for her either, sorry.]




Volume 799 (6/6/25)

Another mixed bag of a week, starting off (of course) with some mockery over the Musk-Trump dustup. But our second talking point today is one that we fervently wish Democrats would all get behind in a big way right now, because it is rather masterful. It not only points out the callousness of Republicans (by tying them all to the most obnoxious of them), but it leads right in to a discussion of the underlying badness of what the budget bill fight is all about in a beautiful way.

Just for once, we hope Democrats actually surprise us and pick up on a brilliant bit of political framing and start singing from the same songbook. C'mon, guys... you can do this! It ain't rocket science....



Poopyheads

This one's pretty obvious.

"So the president of the United States of America and the richest man in the world are calling each other poopyheads in mean tweets? This is appalling to anyone who still remembers when our presidents actually had some dignity and gravitas and were above getting in playground fights online just because their fragile little egos got bruised. How do you think the rest of the world sees us now? Russia is mocking us, and everyone else is either laughing long and hard or shaking their heads in disgust. Oh well, at least Trump has joined the thousands of other owners of a Tesla in hastily selling his car because he is so disgusted with what the head of the company has become. At least there's that...."



The "Well, We're All Going To Die Act"

Chuck Schumer (of all people) actually came up with a great talking point this week. We strongly encourage every single Democrat with a pulse to start using this phrase incessantly. Seriously, hammer this home in a big way, folks! It's pretty easy -- all you have to do is whenever the Republican budget bill comes up in an interview, stop the question with: "Oh, I'm sorry, are you talking about the 'Well, We're All Going To Die Act'?" Here is how Schumer explained his new term for the bill:

When Joni Ernst said people will die, she summed up the callousness of the whole Republican majority in terms of people's health.... Despite the lies that Republicans have been telling Americans and maybe themselves, there's a cold, harsh reality that this bill is just tax breaks for the ultra wealthy paid for by gutting health care for up to 16 million Americans.

They're coming for Medicare too

It hasn't actually happened yet, but they are reportedly eyeing it, so hit them hard now while the iron is hot.

"Republicans are apparently not satisfied with cutting 800 billion dollars from Medicaid -- which will mean millions upon millions of Americans lose their healthcare -- but now they're looking for more cuts in Medicare too. That's the program America's seniors rely upon for their health. They're doing all this -- yanking health insurance coverage away from millions -- all so they can heap tax cuts on the richest people in the country. Those are their priorities. They call all those millions of people they'll be denying healthcare to 'waste, fraud, and abuse' and callously tell them: 'Well, we're all going to die.' Well you know what? I call them Americans and I don't think this country should shower tax cuts on those who don't need them by denying others the chance to live. Call me old-fashioned, I guess, but I have different values."



Tariffs hurt

Remind people that this is all a self-inflicted wound.

"Trump's tariff war with the rest of the world has consequences, folks. He just upped steel and aluminum tariffs to 50 percent this week, which is going to raise the cost of tons of things Americans buy -- from cars and washing machines down to anything you buy at the supermarket that comes in a can. Trump says he's doing it to save jobs, but history doesn't agree. When George W. Bush hiked steel tariffs, it cost the American economy 200,000 jobs -- far more jobs than exist in the steel industry. When Trump hiked tariffs on steel and aluminum in his first term, he added something like 1,000 jobs in the steel industry -- while losing 75,000 jobs in the wider manufacturing sector. These tariffs are already hurting, as businesses that have been reluctant to raise prices are now forced to. This is going to hurt small businesses and it's going to mean you will be paying more for all kinds of products. Tariffs are nothing more than a tax on the American consumer, and we're just beginning to see the price hikes caused by it all. Remember that at the supermarket checkout: Trump did this to you."



A historic betrayal

Veterans are feeling the effects of Elon Musk in a big way.

"Today thousands of veterans protested on the National Mall and at other sites around the country, because they are angry and afraid of what Donald Trump and Elon Musk are doing to the Veterans Administration they depend on. One of them explained why he was protesting by saying: 'In America, we shouldn't have to defend democracy from the president.' This is one week before Donald Trump wastes tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to hold a giant military parade to celebrate his own birthday, mind you -- complete with tanks rolling through the streets of Washington. Meanwhile, Trump callously stripped protected status from the brave Afghans who risked their own lives to aid America during our war there. We promised them we'd take care of them, and we are now breaking that promise. Senator Lisa Murkowski had a few things to say to the president about this: 'This decision endangers thousands of lives, including Afghans who stood by the United States. This decision represents a historic betrayal of promises made and undermines the values we fought for far more than 20 years in Afghanistan.' Donald Trump doesn't care about promises made to veterans or to those who stood with our military in the middle of a war. All he cares about is having the same sort of military parade that happens regularly in places like Russia and North Korea. Murkowski's right -- this is disgraceful, and it is a history betrayal of what America stands for... or used to, at any rate."



Hurricane season? What's that?

You can see this trainwreck coming a long way off....

"The new head of FEMA -- who has precisely zero experience in disaster management -- told the agency's employees that he had never heard of 'hurricane season' before. Boy, doesn't that just fill you with confidence that he'll do a good job? When this leaked, he tried to explain it away by saying it was 'a joke.' After all Elon Musk's cuts to the agency, which got rid of one-fourth of their staff, that'll certainly be comforting to all the victims of this year's hurricanes, right? Because to them, hurricane season is no laughing matter. So let's see... Trump fired a bunch of people at FEMA, he fired a whole bunch of meteorologists who track hurricanes, and now FEMA's being led by a guy who is obviously completely clueless about what his new job entails. What could possibly go wrong with all of this?"



Yes! We have no bananas!

Representative Madeleine Dean ripped into Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick this week in a committee hearing. She began by telling Lutnick: "Americans, by the way, loooove bananas. We buy billions of them a year. I love bananas. What's the tariff on bananas?" He responded that it would generally be 10 percent -- the new worldwide tariff rate on everything. Dean pointed out that Walmart has raised prices on bananas by eight percent. Lutnick countered by saying: "If you build in America and produce your product in America, there will be no tariff," which is where Dean got in her memorable line:

We cannot build bananas in America.

Chris Weigant blogs at: ChrisWeigant.com
Follow Chris on Twitter: ChrisWeigant
Full archives of FTP columns: FridayTalkingPoints.com

[Jack Valentino]

1. No, it is much MORE "lowdown, vindictive, personal, petty, operatic, childish, consequential, messy and public"

than I expected it to be!!!!!


And I have suddenly developed this intense craving for popcorn,
which I can't entirely explain, but I have eaten two buckets of it in the past 24 hours,
and my supply is now running low.... (very true, not making this up---
one of my favorite things to eat while I read,
but not about 'the girls', but about the preamble to the American Civil War...)

Ok, ya got me. Lot of similarities there....