Expert flags curious timing of Trump purge as ‘crypto scheme’ investors lose billions
President Donald Trump's dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is almost certainly illegal under the separation of powers — but, wrote former Labor Secretary Robert Reich in a lengthy post to Facebook, even beyond that, the timing of the move raises suspicions.
The bureau is the only federal agency solely tasked with policing financial misconduct against banks and other monetary institutions against small-time consumers.
And there might be a reason Trump doesn't want that kind of oversight, wrote Reich.
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"Thousands of investors in Trump’s crypto scheme lost $2 billion in just weeks while the Trump Organization racked up $100 million in trading fees," wrote Reich. "Just so happens that the CFPB, which Trump is trying to kill, recently announced new regulations for the crypto industry."
Right around the time of Trump's inauguration, a series of Trump-themed crypto coins became available, which were snatched up by supporters and generated large amounts of value. After the hype faded, many of those same supporters raged that they were taken for a ride.
Reich is not the only one to suspect ulterior motives in the crippling of CFPB.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the brainchild behind the agency in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, suggested this week that tech billionaire Elon Musk, who publicly celebrated as his unelected software engineer allies summarily shut down the bureau, doesn't want the agency around to police his plans to add a financial transactions feature to his X platform, formerly Twitter.
‘Go back to law school’: Trump lawyer Alina Habba mocked after latest claim
Donald Trump's lawyer Alina Habba was on the White House lawn Tuesday claiming that the "separation of powers" means the president has the "ultimate authority."
However, the opposite is true, as children in civics classes are taught. The Founding Fathers sought to create a government with no supreme head like the king in England.
So, as the United States court system explained in a video, the framers crafted checks and balances.
Habba's blunder led to mass mockery among legal and political experts.
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Reporter Jake Lahut posted, "The founders could not have envisoned Alina Habba."
"We're in the stupidest timeline," complained Max Flugrath, of Fair Fight Action.
Legal analyst Bradley Moss shared a face-palm emoji on Bluesky before saying, "I really don’t think ANY of these folks understand our system of government."
"What's the difference between a rock and Alina Habba? A rock can be useful," quipped artist Candee Corliss.
Michael A. Cohen, an MSNBC columnist and not Trump's former lawyer, pointed out, "Fun fact: She went to law school."
"Alina, dear, go back to law school. Or, at least read Marbury v. Madison. Also, stop talking because every time you do, you make a fool of yourself," posted legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega.
Key House Republican takes swipe at GOP budget chair as disloyal to Trump
House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-MO) lashed out at House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-TX) as the negotiations for President Donald Trump's agenda continue, accusing Arrington and other deficit hawks of being disloyal to the president.
The two lawmakers are in charge of committees that are key to financial issues in Congress.
According to Politico, House Republicans "had tentatively settled on a plan last week to instruct the Ways and Means Committee to not increase deficits by more than $4.7 trillion to accommodate the cuts" — but a newly revised plan circulated at the start of this week "was expected to contain an even lower number to appease deficit hawks, including Arrington. That would leave barely any wiggle room for Smith to extend the 2017 tax cuts that are set to expire at the end of the year — much less Trump's plan to end taxes on tips, overtime pay and other things."
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Smith is losing his patience over the matter, lashing out at Arrington on record with Politico.
“Let me just say that a 10-year extension of President Trump’s expiring provisions is over $4.7 trillion, according to [the Congressional Budget Office]. Anything less would be saying that President Trump is wrong on tax policy.”
This flap is far from the only roadblock to getting Trump's tax, border, and energy policies passed. A fundamental disagreement remains between the House and the Senate, where House lawmakers, along with Trump, want to pass everything together in a single reconciliation package to craft a grand bargain with the deficit hawks, and Senate lawmakers prefer splitting off the tax legislation into a second bill to increase the likelihood of its passage.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has for weeks been in talks with members of the House Freedom Caucus to try to sell them on the two-bill strategy. But this week, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) put his foot down and insisted on moving forward with one bill.
Larry David sparks internet firestorm with ‘genius’ sketch-comedy roast of RFK Jr.
Comedy legend Larry David ridiculed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a hysterical sketch delivering laughs online.
David, who was formerly a personal friend of Kennedy's and even played the husband of Kennedy's real-life wife, actress Cheryl Hines, on the popular show "Curb Your Enthusiasm," made it clear what he thought about the Trump official. He appeared to tell his character in the spoof to "drop dead" in one segment of his new HBO series, "Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America."
In the sketch, David casts himself as the mother of Jonas Salk — an American virologist and biomedical scientist who developed one of the first successful polio vaccines — who gets into a fighting match with neighbor "Bobby," who has a similar-sounding voice and tan as the health secretary.
The internet reacted to the brutal burn.
"Holy s---, Larry David absolutely COOKED RFK Jr's stupid a--, playing Dr. Jonas Salk's mom, saying it would be a 'dark day for humanity' if some idiot ever put HIM in charge of health. This is HILARIOUS!" The X account BrooklynDad_Defiant!, which has more than 1.3 million followers, wrote.
"The bear part is by far the best SICKO!" Journalist Meghan McCarthy wrote on X.
"Larry David is a flat out genius," Eric Land, a political commentator with nearly 10,000 followers, wrote on X.
"Larry David casting himself as Salk's mom is the kind of absurdly precise satire that makes the point better than any actual policy debate could. It's the only way to fight that level of chaos," author Hüseyin Örskaya wrote on X.
