by Steve Benen | Dec 18, 2025 | Maddowblog, Politics
Democrats spent much of 2025 reminding the House Republican majority of one thing: Without congressional action, tens of millions of American consumers would lose their existing ACA subsidies and face dramatic spikes in their health care coverage.
But as the year comes to an end, Speaker Mike Johnson and his GOP leadership team have decided not to act. Last week, House Republicans unveiled what they described as a “plan” to address rising costs, which was actually more of a hodgepodge of loosely connected conservative ideas than a serious, cohesive policy proposal.
On Wednesday afternoon, the chamber advanced the package on a 216-211 vote. (Every House Democrat opposed the proposal, and they were joined by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky.) If Senate GOP leaders even bother to take up the legislation, which is by no means a certainty, it is very likely to be discarded.
With House members heading home until the new year, the developments practically guarantee that Republicans will allow the current insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act to expire at midnight on Dec. 31. Though precise tallies vary, independent analyses show that the change will punish between 22 million and 24 million American consumers.
To hear the House speaker tell it, that’s just not that many people.
MIKE JOHNSON: Here’s the false narrative — Democrats are pretending as though this affects everybody in the country. It affects 7% of Americans, this extended subsidyCNBC: But we are talking 22 to 24 million AmericansJOHNSON: We’re going to help 100% of Americans reduce their premiums— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-12-17T14:44:34.001Z
During a Wednesday morning appearance on CNBC, the Louisiana Republican complained that Democrats are pushing a
by Steve Benen | Dec 18, 2025 | Maddowblog, Politics
When it comes to altering the White House, it’s been a busy year for Donald Trump. The incumbent president decided, for example, to pave the Rose Garden. He has taken a borderline-unhealthy interest in interior decorating, including bringing in his “gold guy” to add gold finishes to just about everything in the Oval Office.
The Republican also installed a flagpole that the president seemed awfully excited about, he boasted about “ripping” apart the tile in the bathroom attached to the Lincoln Bedroom, he installed a mirror and bronze lettering at the entrance to the West Wing, and he turned the Oval Office study into a depot for “TRUMP 2028” merch, as if it were a cheap gift shop at a Trump-owned property.
Then his ambitions took a more destructive turn: Trump tore down the entirety of the East Wing, despite having promised not to do so, to make room for a giant ballroom vanity project.
But to fully appreciate just how ridiculous the overhaul has become, consider what Trump has done to the colonnade at the White House exterior on the south side of the mansion.
In September, the Republican installed what was billed as a “Presidential Walk of Fame,” featuring images of American presidents. Predictably, the gaudy display was turned into an exercise in juvenile political trolling: Where there was supposed to be an image of Joe Biden, there’s a framed photograph of an autopen.
This week, it got worse. NBC News reported:
The White House has installed plaques on the exterior of the building bashing President Donald Trump’s predecessors, including Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, and promoting disinformation about their administrations.
The plaques were
by Steve Benen | Dec 18, 2025 | Maddowblog, Politics
The idea behind a year-end presidential address isn’t necessarily unreasonable. In late December, it stands to reason that White House officials would take a moment to pause and reflect and to take stock of the year that was, to give the public an assessment of their performance.
That is, in theory.
In practice, Donald Trump’s year-end prime-time address presented the American public with 18 minutes of combative presidential blame-shifting and excuse-making, packaged in the unsubtle desperation of a man who doesn’t seem to understand why so much of the public doesn’t appreciate his systemic failures and embarrassments.
But above all, the Republican president did what he always does: He lied uncontrollably. In fact, his speech was so littered with brazen falsehoods that it was rather easy to come up with a top 10 list.
#10: “Already, I’ve secured a record-breaking $18 trillion of investment into the United States.” It’d be great if that were true, but it’s not.
#9: “Our country was being invaded by an army of 25 million people.” That total wasn’t even close to being true.
#8: “I was elected in a landslide.” No, he wasn’t.
#7: “The price of a Thanksgiving turkey was down 33% compared to the Biden last year.” Is he still peddling this nonsense? Evidently, yes, though it’s still not true.
#6: Trump said the Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed this year included, among other things, “no tax on Social Security.” That might sound nice, but that wasn’t actually a part of the far-right package.
#5: “When I took office, inflation was the worst in 48 years, and some would say in the history of our country.” Trump says this all
by Jessica Levinson | Dec 18, 2025 | Opinion, Politics
President Donald Trump issued an executive order last week announcing a federal policy in favor of minimal artificial intelligence regulation. The executive order, called “Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence,” targets “onerous” state laws that the administration views as forcing “ideological bias” into AI models or undermining “truth outputs.”
The primary goal is to allow AI to develop without significant limits.
By its own terms, the primary goal of the executive order is to squash or seriously decrease any state regulation of AI and to allow AI to develop, largely without significant limits. Some states have passed AI restrictions to address concerns related to privacy, misinformation and bias, but the Trump administration, which says AI development must proceed with minimal regulatory friction to ensure American dominance of the sector, has described what those states are doing as problematic. States are not going quietly; instead, they’re already pushing back against the Trump administration. Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Monday that regardless of Trump’s executive order, Florida will move forward with its plan to regulate AI, in part to create safeguards for children.
Policy issues aside, the executive order faces serious legal headwinds and is unlikely to withstand court challenges because, once again, Trump grossly overestimates his power.
Play
Trump admin ‘doesn’t have a strategy’ on AI: Ed Elson
December 12, 2025 / 07:18
The Trump administration is once again trying to achieve its goals by waving the magic wand of an executive order as if it will turn existing AI regulations into fairy dust. But an EO is the wrong tool for that. The Trump administration needs to do instead what it has thus far refused
by Steve Benen | Dec 17, 2025 | Maddowblog, Politics
In late July, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt enthusiastically delivered the announcement “that the construction of the new White House ballroom will begin,” she told reporters, and that Donald Trump and other donors “have generously committed to donating the funds necessary to build this approximately $200 million structure.”
By October, the price tag had grown to $250 million. Soon after, it was $300 million. As of Tuesday night, it’s $400 million.
Trump now says his ballroom will cost $400 million (it was supposed to cost $250 million less than two months ago)— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-12-17T02:31:58.080Z
In other words, the cost has doubled over the course of five months. The president acknowledged the new figure at a White House event where he boasted, “I build under budget,” seemingly indifferent to the irony.
The revised total comes on the heels of the Republican bringing in a new architect as his ambitions grew. (The New York Times reported a few weeks ago, “What started as a 500-seat ballroom connected to the East Wing grew to 650 seats. Next, [the president] wanted a 999-seat ballroom, then room for 1,350.” This week, Trump said he wants the ballroom to be large enough to host an inauguration.)
It also comes after Trump said he and his team had raised $350 million for the wildly unnecessary vanity project and suggesting he’ll have to return to donors for at least $50 million in additional cash.
This is of particular interest, not only because the White House has been reluctant to reveal the identities of some of the donors, but also because congressional Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have opened an inquiry into
by Steve Benen | Dec 17, 2025 | Maddowblog, Politics
When House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan sent a letter to former special counsel Jack Smith in October, the Ohio Republican demanded the prosecutor appear before his panel. Smith responded rather quickly, telling Jordan that he’d love to answer the committee’s questions — but Smith wanted the hearing to be public so that everyone could see and hear his answers.
Jordan refused, preferring secrecy to sunlight.
The far-right congressman soon after took the next logical step and subpoenaed the former special counsel. As The Associated Press reported, the closed-door inquiry is finally poised to get underway.
Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith is set for a closed-door interview with House Republicans on Wednesday after lawmakers rebuffed his offer to testify publicly about his investigations into President Donald Trump.
The private deposition is part of an ongoing investigation by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee into the Justice Department’s criminal inquiries of Trump during the Biden administration.
In case anyone needs a refresher, as 2025 got underway, the then-special counsel grudgingly stepped down after the 2024 election results derailed his criminal cases against Trump. As 2025 nears its end, however, the prosecutor remains a popular target for Republicans’ ire.
The president continues to peddle baseless attacks against the prosecutor; the administration continues to push out officials who worked with him; and assorted Republican voices continue to go after him with unhinged and easily discredited conspiracy theories.
On Capitol Hill, GOP lawmakers remain eager to treat Smith like a punching bag. Rep. Michael Rulli of Ohio recently accused the prosecutor of acts that he said bordered on “treason”; Sen. Marsha Blackburn referred Smith to the Justice Department for a
