The Morning Sixpack - October 3, 2025
Trump wields power like a cudgel—gutting green energy, strong-arming colleges, fueling culture wars, and tightening his authoritarian grip.
“Here Comes the Reaper”: Trump’s Shutdown Gambit Targets Blue States and Millions of Jobs
Donald Trump is openly weaponizing the government shutdown to punish political enemies and slash federal jobs, while turning the crisis into a meme war.
The government has been shuttered for three days after Republicans and Democrats failed to strike a budget deal, and Trump is clearly enjoying the chaos. Overnight, he posted an AI video with the warning “Here comes the reaper,” portraying his budget chief Russell Vought as Death itself, complete with Blue Öyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper” blaring in the background. This isn’t governing—it’s performance art with a body count.
Vought, Trump’s grim reaper in a suit, now holds the fate of roughly three million federal workers in his hands. He’s already promised “thousands of layoffs” and is swinging the budget axe at Democratic strongholds. His cuts include an $18 billion funding freeze for New York City and $2.1 billion for Chicago, halting infrastructure projects in Schumer and Jeffries’ backyards. On top of that, the administration canceled $7.6 billion in clean energy grants across 16 blue states. “Money to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled,” Vought boasted online. Translation: political payback, but make it budgetary.
Senate Republicans, meanwhile, are shrugging and claiming they can’t control Vought—because apparently, the director of OMB now operates like an independent warlord. The math for a bipartisan funding bill is grim: Republicans need five more Democratic defectors to clear the Senate’s 60-vote hurdle, and Schumer’s bloc is holding tight after progressives torched him for compromising earlier this year. The shutdown clock is ticking, and Wall Street’s still whistling past the graveyard—for now.
And as federal workers brace for pink slips, Trump is doubling down on the sideshow. He mocked Democrats with sombrero memes and AI deepfakes, tossing a MAGA hat onto Hakeem Jeffries’ head in one clip, then laughing like a high school bully. JD Vance even “promised” the memes would stop if Democrats just caved. This is what governing looks like in 2025: hostage-taking with a side of digital humiliation.
Source: Daily Mail
Editor: Trump’s treating a federal shutdown like a WWE pay-per-view, except the undercard is millions of Americans who rely on these jobs and services. Vought’s “Project 2025” cosplay as the Grim Reaper isn’t some policy innovation—it’s a hatchet job wrapped in a culture war meme.
Parting shot: Governing by GIF is fun until someone’s paycheck doesn’t clear.
Trump Drops the Mask: Embraces Project 2025 to Dismantle Government During Shutdown Power Play
Donald Trump has fully embraced the far-right Project 2025 blueprint he once publicly disowned, using the government shutdown as a crowbar to pry power away from Congress and gut the federal workforce.
On Thursday morning, Trump boasted on Truth Social that he’d be meeting with his budget chief, Russ Vought—“he of PROJECT 2025 Fame”—to decide which “Democrat Agencies” should be slashed, and whether those cuts would be temporary or permanent. Just a year ago, Trump was swearing up and down he “knew nothing” about Project 2025. Now he’s treating it like his second-term Bible. For anyone still pretending this was all theoretical, well, welcome to the implementation phase.
The about-face is glaring. During the 2024 campaign, Trump’s team went to war with The Heritage Foundation over its 900-page plan, which Democrats gleefully used as a political cudgel. Trump called the project’s more extreme proposals “ridiculous and abysmal,” and his campaign chiefs insisted it had “nothing to do with the campaign.” Fast-forward to today: the shutdown is being wielded like a blunt instrument to fast-track the very agenda he claimed to reject.
As former Biden spokesperson Ammar Moussa put it, “Donald Trump and his stooges lied through their teeth about Project 2025, and now he’s running the country straight into it.”
But we all KNEW THIS. Those who “didn’t know” are either willfully stupid or lying. That’s it.
Project 2025’s fingerprints are everywhere. Trump has stacked his administration with its authors: Vought at OMB, Stephen Miller on immigration, Tom Homan as border czar, and FCC hardliner Brendan Carr. They’re not waiting for legislation; they’re using the shutdown to reshape the government unilaterally. Agencies have been ordered to prep for mass layoffs—not just furloughs—while billions in Democratic-backed green energy and infrastructure projects are being frozen. Vought once described OMB as “a President’s air-traffic control system” that should be “powerful enough to override implementing agencies’ bureaucracies.” Mission accomplished.
Republicans are openly bragging about the power grab. Sen. Mike Lee crowed that Vought “has a plan, and that plan is going to succeed in further empowering Trump. This is going to be the Democrats’ worst nightmare.” House Speaker Mike Johnson went even further, declaring that Schumer and Democrats “handed the keys of the kingdom to the president” by allowing the shutdown. Shalanda Young, Biden’s former budget director, was blunt: “The keys are gone. They’re lost. They’re down a drain. This shutdown is not what lost the keys.”
Source: AP News
Editor: Trump didn’t just reverse himself on Project 2025—he sprinted back to it like it was the last helicopter out of Saigon. And with Congress tied up in shutdown paralysis, he’s found the perfect moment to bulldoze decades of checks and balances.
Parting shot: If this were a poker game, Trump just threw the Constitution into the discard pile and went all in with a Project 2025 straight flush.
Trump Wanted Ike’s Sword for King Charles. When the Librarian Said No, He Got Fired.
Donald Trump tried to give a historic Eisenhower sword as a gift for King Charles, and when the museum director followed the law and refused, he was forced out of his job.
Before Trump’s state visit to Britain, the White House brainstormed gift ideas for the monarch and landed on something related to Dwight D. Eisenhower—naturally, because nothing says “special relationship” like looting a presidential library. An administration official even emailed the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Kansas from a personal account, asking for “like a sword or something.” Yes, that’s a real quote.
Todd Arrington, the library’s director, declined the request because, well, it’s illegal to give away U.S. government property. The sword in question, gifted to Eisenhower by Queen Wilhelmina in 1947, is part of the national collection and must be preserved for the public. The administration settled for a replica, but that wasn’t the end of the story. Shortly after the refusal, Arrington was pushed out of his position after nearly 30 years of government service. “I never imagined that I would be fired from almost 30 years of government service for this,” he said.
This wasn’t an isolated tantrum. Trump has repeatedly targeted libraries, museums, and federal officials who don’t bend the knee. He fired the Librarian of Congress, went after the Smithsonian to “bring it in line” with his worldview, and routinely punished people for obeying laws he found inconvenient. It’s part of a broader pattern: when career officials do the right thing, they end up on the chopping block.
The Eisenhower sword saga is just the latest example of Trumpworld’s “loyalty test” governance. Follow the rules, and you’re toast. Play along with ethically dubious schemes, and you’re golden. The message to federal employees is blunt: compliance with the law is optional, obedience to the boss is not.
Source: My Daily Grind
Editor: Trump wanted a literal piece of American history for a photo op, and when a librarian wouldn’t play Indiana Jones for him, he got the axe. It’s petty, vindictive, and depressingly on-brand.
FDA Approves New Generic Abortion Pill, Setting Off MAGA Firestorm
The FDA quietly approved a cheaper generic version of mifepristone, and Trump’s anti-abortion allies immediately went ballistic.
Evita Solutions, a drugmaker that filed its application four years ago, announced that federal regulators had officially signed off on its low-cost abortion pill, which can be used to end pregnancies up to 10 weeks. This should have been a routine bureaucratic move—generic drug approvals are usually a dull, rubber-stamp process. Instead, it’s become the latest flashpoint in the MAGA movement’s long-running war against reproductive rights. “This is a stain on the Trump presidency and another sign that the deep state at the FDA must go,” Students for Life Action fumed.
Sen. Josh Hawley wasted no time piling on, declaring, “I have lost confidence in the leadership at FDA.” The agency, for its part, reminded critics that it has “very limited discretion in deciding whether to approve a generic drug” and does not “endorse any product.” Translation: this was science and paperwork, not politics. But that won’t stop anti-abortion activists from using it as another loyalty test for Trump’s health officials, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Mifepristone’s been on the market since 2000 and has repeatedly been deemed safe and effective by FDA scientists. But under Trump’s current administration, political pressure has ramped up to review—and potentially roll back—its availability. In a letter to Republican attorneys general, Kennedy and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary pledged to conduct a “full review” of the drug’s safety, signaling that career scientists may be sidelined again. Makary and Kennedy have already slowed vaccine approvals, marking a sharp break from the FDA’s traditionally apolitical decision-making.
Evita’s new generic isn’t expected to dramatically change access to the drug, which is typically combined with misoprostol and used in roughly two-thirds of U.S. abortions. What’s actually limiting access are state-level abortion bans and restrictions that ignore medical consensus from groups like the American Medical Association. Evita says its product will launch in January, offering a cheaper option for clinics and patients in states where abortion is still legal.
Source: NPR
Editor: Only in Trump’s America could the routine approval of a generic pill turn into a culture-war circus. The FDA scientists did their jobs; the political arsonists did theirs.
Sen. Chris Murphy Warns: Trump Is Locking Down Power While Democrats Hesitate
Senator Chris Murphy says Trump’s escalating authoritarianism is outpacing Democratic resistance, and if they don’t act now, there may not be a real democracy left to defend.
On The Daily Blast podcast, Murphy blasted Trump’s budget chief Russ Vought for brazenly canceling billions in blue-state projects to punish political opponents and reward loyalists. Trump even bragged about meeting with Vought to decide which “Democrat agencies” to defund. “It’s pretty wild that the corruption is so brazen, is so transparent,” Murphy said, pointing out that every targeted state has two Democratic senators—except one, whose senator voted for the GOP’s continuing resolution. That state was mysteriously spared.
Murphy argued this is exactly the moment for Democrats to draw clear, hard lines. Instead, many are focused on protecting ACA subsidies—important, yes, but not nearly enough to address the creeping lawlessness. “This isn’t a normal time,” he said. “If you don’t mount a stand right now on behalf of democracy, there won’t be another opportunity.” He urged Congress to use the budget fight to block Trump’s ability to selectively spend money like a mob boss handing out favors, and to build legal constraints into any deal.
The senator painted a grim picture of Trump’s growing power grab: weaponizing agencies, consolidating media under loyalists, and intimidating donors and protesters. “If we are not already there, we are really, really close,” Murphy warned, comparing the U.S. to Hungary and Turkey, where elections still exist but opposition parties have no real path to victory. His solution: make Trump’s cronies pay a political price every time they ratchet up pressure, and stop pretending incremental policy wins can hold the line against authoritarianism.
Murphy didn’t mince words about his own party, either. Too many Democrats, he said, are “not up for this fight,” making excuses about strategy or tone. “People will get hurt in a shutdown. But they’ll get hurt more if our democracy never recovers from this,” he said. He’s pushing Senate leadership to demand real guardrails in the full-year budget, warning that signing off on anything less is “literally signing our own political death warrants.”
Source: The New Republic
Editor: Murphy’s dead right. Democrats keep acting like this is just another budget fight, while Trump is out here speedrunning the authoritarian playbook. You don’t fight a fire by adjusting the thermostat—you grab a damn hose.
Trump Slashes $7.5 Billion in Green Energy Funding, Targeting Blue States in Political Power Play
The Trump administration is yanking billions in clean energy funding from projects in Democratic-led states, gutting hydrogen initiatives and green jobs while calling the investments part of a “Green New Scam.”
The Department of Energy announced Wednesday night that it is canceling 321 awards for 223 energy projects totaling $7.56 billion. The cuts overwhelmingly hit states that voted for Kamala Harris in the last election, including California, New York, Washington, and Illinois. OMB Director Russell Vought gleefully previewed the move on social media, listing the targeted states and labeling the initiatives as “Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda.” The timing isn’t subtle—this comes amid a government shutdown standoff, with Trump using the budget process like a hammer to punish political opponents.
Some of the most ambitious hydrogen energy projects in the country are now dead in the water. California is losing a $1.2 billion regional hydrogen hub that promised hundreds of thousands of jobs, while the Pacific Northwest saw a $1 billion hydrogen project axed. Meanwhile, hydrogen projects in Trump-aligned states like West Virginia and Pennsylvania remain untouched. “In Trump’s America, energy policy is set by the highest bidder, economics and common sense be damned,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom, calling the cuts a direct threat to clean energy jobs and public health.
This purge isn’t just ideological—it’s punitive. While the administration claims the cancellations followed a “thorough financial review,” many of the projects were already fully funded by Congress and designed to lower energy costs and create long-term employment. Companies like General Electric, Exelon, PG&E, and multiple solar and EV manufacturers are now left holding the bag. Sen. Martin Heinrich didn’t mince words, calling the move “nakedly political, unhinged, and unlawful,” warning that it will drive up energy bills and cost jobs nationwide.
The administration is clawing back more than $3.1 billion in grants issued between Biden’s lame-duck period and Trump’s inauguration, but officials have offered no explanation for what will happen to the money. This is less about fiscal responsibility and more about raw political punishment—a flex of executive muscle to remind blue states who’s boss.
Source: The Hill
Editor: Trump isn’t governing; he’s settling scores. He’s turning the federal budget into a partisan weapon and torching clean energy progress in the process. California loses jobs, utilities lose funding, and the planet loses time—all so he can dunk on “the Left.”
BONUS
Trump Dangles College Funding for Ideological Loyalty: “Sign the Compact or Lose Benefits”
The Trump administration is offering elite universities priority access to federal funding—but only if they pledge allegiance to a sweeping conservative agenda that critics say threatens academic freedom and free speech.
This week, nine universities—including MIT, Brown, Dartmouth, and the University of Texas at Austin—received a 10-page document titled the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” The proposal offers schools preferential treatment for federal grants, White House invitations, and other perks if they adopt Trump-aligned policies like capping international enrollment, freezing tuition, scrapping diversity initiatives, and forcing faculty to remain “politically neutral.” A Texas university regent called it “an honor.” Most other schools responded with cautious silence, as legal experts warned the plan amounts to a bribe with a gag order attached.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom came out swinging, threatening to strip state funding from any institution that signs on. “We will not BANKROLL SCHOOLS THAT SELL OUT THEIR STUDENTS, PROFESSORS, RESEARCHERS, AND SURRENDER ACADEMIC FREEDOM,” he wrote on social media. Legal scholars and academic leaders across the country echoed the alarm. “It is a breathtaking list of demands,” said Veena Dubal of UC Irvine, noting the compact reads “less like a voluntary agreement and more like a demand or a bribe.”
The compact’s provisions are sweeping. It would ban universities from considering race, gender, or political beliefs in admissions; cap international students at 15% of undergraduates; require five-year tuition freezes; and mandate public posting of graduate earnings by discipline. Schools with large endowments would be forced to offer free tuition to hard science students, while faculty would be muzzled from engaging in political speech on campus. Critics argue that many of these demands are unconstitutional and would gut both university finances and core academic freedoms.
Even some conservatives are uneasy with the power grab. Former Harvard president and Treasury Secretary Larry Summers warned that government meddling on this scale sets a dangerous precedent. “There are very legitimate critiques about elite higher education,” Summers said, “but in a free society, the government doesn’t get to dictate the policies of an institution, and say that’s going to shape its relationship with that institution.” Faculty unions are preparing legal challenges, and free-speech advocates warn of a chilling effect that would linger long after Trump leaves office.
Source: The Washington Post
Editor: This isn’t reform; it’s coercion with a federal funding carrot and a political stick. Trump is trying to turn universities into ideological franchises, complete with loyalty pledges and speech police. It’s the academic version of “Nice funding you got there—shame if something happened to it.”
If you hand the keys of higher ed to politicians, don’t be surprised when the syllabus starts looking like a campaign flyer.
" Trump didn’t just reverse himself on Project 2025—he sprinted back to it like it was the last helicopter out of Saigon."
That's fucking hilarious. The "5" time draft dodging puke had a chance to really fight for this country but elected to "TACO". Saigon was a word he heard on "fake news".