President Trump and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi signed the US-Japan Framework Agreement Tuesday, which the White House says includes a $500 billion investment commitment from Japan. [From a White House video]
WEDNESDAY 10/29/25
At Least George Santos is Free – Could former President Biden’s pardons go undone? US Attorney Gen. Pam Bondi is “reviewing” Biden’s use of an autopen for pardons now that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has released a long-awaited, 100-page report on his actions, Newsweek reports.
“My team is reviewing the Biden administration’s repeated use of autopen for pardons,” Bondi X-tweeted. “Thank you to @RepJamesComer for his GREAT work on this. We look forward to working alongside @GOPoversight to deliver accountability for the American people.”
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Where’s the Republicare? – Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is working hard to work out a solution to the four-week long partial shutdown of the federal government – one that apparently includes a GOP healthcare plan. Johnson is working too hard to find time to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, the Arizona Democrat elected to replace his late father in the House.
“I am so tired. … We’re working overtime. Here in Washington, our House committees have continued to conference together and do all the work we can to assure the work is ready for the floor for action as soon as we get back the legislative session,” he told reporters Tuesday, CNN’s The Source reports.
Sticking point is the tax credits for people who get their health insurance through Affordable Care Act marketplace plans, which are about to expire. Senate Democrats want the tax credits restored, while Senate Republicans want to pass a continuing resolution before negotiating over the credits. The GOP says Democrats want to give the tax credits to illegal aliens. It’s a classic game of chicken.
Some House Republicans are dissenting from Johnson’s strategy, including erstwhile MAGA acolyte Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who asked whether it would take a visit to a SCIF – sensitive compartmented information facility – before she is allowed to look at a Republican health care plan.
“And I demanded to know from Speaker Johnson what the Republican plan for healthcare is to build the off-ramp off Obamacare and the ACA tax credits to make health insurance affordable for Americans,” MTG posted Tuesday. “Johnson said he’s got ideas and pages of policy ideals and committees of jurisdiction are working on it, but he refused to give one policy proposal to our GOP conference on our own conference call.”
Oh, and, SNAP … Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is leading a group of Senate Republicans in an effort to keep the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funded to make sure 42 million Americans continue to receive food stamps past Friday, the Maine Wire reports. Collins urged Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in a letter to avoid SNAP recipient delays in receiving benefits.
“The needless and reckless government shutdown driven by Sen. Schumer is putting nutrition resistance for these individuals at risk,” Collins said last week.
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More GOP Dissent – Five Republican senators Tuesday joined 48 Democrats to terminate President Trump’s 50% tariffs on Brazil, 52-48, The New York Times reports. President Trump imposed the “emergency” tariff on Brazil, with whom the US has a trade surplus, after former President Jair Bolsonaro was imprisoned for an attempted 2022 coup to overturn his re-election loss to Lula Inácio Lula da Silva.
“Emergencies are like, war, famine, tornado,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), the single Republican sponsor of the bill, said. –TL
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Shutdown Day 28 -- TUESDAY 10/28/25
China-US Trade Back to Normal? – After President Trump walked back the 100% tariff he was ready to impose on China this Saturday, he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping “reached a substantial framework” to discuss when they meet in South Korea Thursday.
American and Chinese negotiators who met in Malaysia last weekend had “reached a substantial framework” for Trump-Xi negotiations, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told ABC News This Week last Sunday. But we have seen this plot before, according to Tuesday’s New York Times: Truces between Trump and Xi have quickly fallen apart, so there is much skepticism how long any trade deal the two reach this week will last.
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California Gerrymander vs. Texas Gerrymander is On – With one week to go to the off-year midterms, Republican opposition to California’s Proposition 50 “has gone quiet” according to Politico. The ballot measure would give the state’s Democratic-majority legislature the right to a mid-decade redrawing of its congressional map and potentially offset the five seats in Congress that Texas Republicans expect to pick up with their own mid-decade gerrymander (which did not require a ballot measure).
Politico reports that Charles Munger Jr., biggest funder of California Republicans’ No on 50 campaign has cut his spending on it from $4 million a week to less than $300 per week, while Stop Sacramento’s Powergrab spent $155,000 on the campaign last week to $3.8 million for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) Yes on 50. –TL
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Shutdown Day 27 - MONDAY 10/27/25
War No War on Venezuela – President Trump on Friday said his administration probably will not declare war on Venezuela, which is sitting on the world’s largest known oil and gas reserves and has rich mineral resources. The US military under the president’s orders has struck 10 boats in the Caribbean and killed 43 aboard since last summer, accusing them of smuggling drugs without publicly identifying them, let alone allowing them due process over the allegations.
Congressional Democrats and some Republicans object to what they consider undeclared war.
On Friday, Trump told reporters; “I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. Okay. We’re going to kill them. You know, they’re going to be like, dead.”
Interviewed on CBS News Meet the Press Sunday morning Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a close Trump ally said of war on Venezuela, declared or not; “Yeah, I think that’s a real possibility.”
Later Sunday Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) told CBS News’ 60 Minutes he believes we are about to invade Venezuela, which will also be the end of Cuba as it relies on its Caribbean neighbor’s oil reserves.
“We’re going to make sure there’s freedom and democracy,” Scott said.
Regime change … That would most certainly include removing Venezuelan President Nikoľas Maduro, who as his vice president replaced Hugo Chavez upon his death in 2013. Maduro is widely believed to have manipulated Venezuela’s 2024 elections, when he defeated the pro-Trump candidate María Corina Machado, who remains in hiding in her country after she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize that Trump had wanted.
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Let’s Make a Deal – President Trump is in Asia most of this week. His first stop was in Kuala Lumpur, where he signed a trade agreement with his Malaysian hosts while witnessing a peace agreement he takes credit for helping broker between Thailand and Cambodia. He was off to Tokyo on his way to South Korea Thursday to meet with at least 10 leaders at a summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
There, he also plans to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in hopes of smoothing out what has become rough trade negotiations with the world’s number-two economy since Trump retook the White House. (Per The New York Times.) –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa