Political Glance
Regular funding for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits was due to run out on Saturday, Nov. 1. “The well has run dry,” the Agriculture Department said.
But rulings by judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, issued within minutes of each other on Oct. 31, ordered the department to use $5.25 billion in contingency funds to continue SNAP.
Federal judges order Trump admin to continue SNAP benefits.
US will limit number of refugees to 7,500 and give priority to white South Africans
The Trump administration is going to restrict the number of refugees it admits into the United States next year to the token level of just 7,500 – and those spots will mostly be filled by white South Africans.
The low number represents a dramatic drop after the US previously allowed in hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and persecution from around the world.
The administration published the news on Thursday in a notice on the Federal Registry.
No reason was given for the drop in numbers, which are a dramatic decrease from last year’s ceiling set under the Biden administration of 125,000.
The Associated Press previously reported that the administration was considering admitting as few as 7,500 refugees and mostly white South Africans.
The government memo said only that the admission of the 7,500 refugees during 2026 fiscal year was “justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest”.
Trump Demands 'Deranged' Jack Smith Be Jailed In Heated Post
President Donald Trump demanded that former Special Counsel Jack Smith be hauled off to jail amid the political leader’s repeated, sweeping calls for the prosecution and jailing of his perceived political opponents.
In a Truth Social post Wednesday, Trump complained that “these thugs should all be investigated and put in prison.”
He added, “A disgrace to humanity. Deranged Jack Smith is a criminal!!!” alongside an article titled, “More than 160 Republicans potentially investigated in FBI’s Arctic Frost probe, House panel says.” The piece was published by right-leaning outlet Just the News Tuesday.
Trump’s post came after Axios reported that 160 Republican figures may have been investigated amidst the FBI’s Arctic Frost probe into alleged efforts by Trump’s allies to overturn the 2020 election, according to newly released documents.
Trump followed up his calls for Smith’s arrest in a separate fiery Truth Social post Thursday.
“He is a CRIMINAL AND SHOULD BE IN JAIL. A MAJOR LOWLIFE AND FAILURE. An ugly person, both inside and out! I beat him badly, and love watching him squirm now,” he wrote.
Trump’s Shutdown Layoffs Hit Blind Workers Who Help The Blind
Christine Faltz Grassman was stunned when she received a layoff notice from the Department of Education on Oct. 11, 10 days after being furloughed due to the government shutdown.
Grassman, who is blind, helps oversee a federal program that offers government contracting opportunities to blind vendors. She wondered how she would cover her mortgage and bills — and who would make sure the government is following a New Deal-era law meant to boost employment among blind Americans.
Her shock quickly turned to anger as she thought about the Trump administration’s treatment of workers with disabilities.
“The mentality of these people is if we have a disability and we have a job, we’re taking it away from an able-bodied person,” said Grassman, 56. “It’s not enough that I went to an Ivy League school, that I went to law school and can run circles around half the Cabinet… It doesn’t matter, because we’re blind.”
White House fires entire commission that reviews designs for federal buildings
The White House has fired six members of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, the independent federal agency that advises the president and Congress on design plans for monuments, memorials, coins and federal buildings. The seven member commission is made up of experts in architecture, art, urban and landscape design. Since its creation in 1910, the commission has reviewed plans for everything from Arlington National Cemetery to Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
As first reported by The Washington Post, the commissioners who were terminated are Bruce Redman Becker, Peter D. Cook, Lisa E. Delplace, William J. Lenihan, Justin Garrett Moore and vice chair Hazel Ruth Edwards. The chair position, now vacant, was held by Billie Tsien, one of the architects working on the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Lenihan confirmed in an email to NPR the six were terminated "effective immediately."
In an email to NPR, the White House said it is "preparing to appoint a new slate of members to the commission that are more aligned with President Trump's America First Policies."
The commissioners would have advised President Trump on his anticipated White House ballroom and his plans for a monument similar to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which he says will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. In an email to NPR, architect Bruce Redman Becker, one of the commissioners who was fired, wrote that "Neither project has been submitted for review yet."
DeSantis urges Florida universities to stop hiring foreign visa workers
Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, is urging the state’s universities to stop hiring international employees through the H-1B visa program.
DeSantis said he wants the Florida board of governors “to pull the plug” on the practice. Nearly 400 foreign nationals are currently employed at Florida’s public universities under the H-1B visa program, reported the Orlando Sentinel.
“Universities across the country are importing foreign workers on H-1B visas instead of hiring Americans who are qualified and available to do the job,” said DeSantis in a statement. “We will not tolerate H-1B abuse in Florida institutions. That’s why I have directed the Florida Board of Governors to end this practice.”
However, it’s unclear how such a move could be carried out. States do not have authority to revoke federal visas, and US Citizenship and Immigration Services regulations prohibit firing employees based on immigration status.
Last month, Donald Trump raised the H-1B visa fee from $215 to $100,000, a decision likely to face legal challenges. He also issued a proclamation alleging “systematic abuse” of the program.
The H-1B program permits employers to hire skilled foreign professionals for specialized positions that are difficult to fill with US workers. Across Florida, more than 7,200 people hold H-1B visas.
Trump directs Pentagon to start testing nuclear weapons
President Trump said on Wednesday that he has instructed the Defense Department (DOD) to immediately begin testing U.S. nuclear weapons on an equal basis to China and Russia.
“The United States has more Nuclear Weapons than any other country,” Trump wrote. “This was accomplished, including a complete update and renovation of existing weapons, during my First Term in office. Because of the tremendous destructive power, I HATED to do it, but had no choice! Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but will be even within 5 years.”
The Hill has reached out to the Pentagon for comment.
Trump’s announcement on TruthSocial came shortly before he was slated to meet face-to-face with Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time since 2019 in South Korea on Thursday.
The U.S. halted the explosive testing of nuclear arms in 1992.
Former Trump’s national security advisor, Robert C. O’Brien, encouraged Trump, a presidential candidate, in June last year to test nuclear weapons if he wins the 2024 White House election.
“Washington must test new nuclear weapons for reliability and safety in the real world for the first time since 1992—not just by using computer models,” O’Brien https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5580424-trump-directs-pentagon-to-start-testing-nuclear-weapons/wrote in an article for the Foreign Affairs magazine, which was published in June last year. “If China and Russia continue to refuse to engage in good-faith arms control talks, the United States should also resume production of uranium-235 and plutonium-239, the primary fissile isotopes of nuclear weapons.”
More Articles...
Page 3 of 172
