A loFi livestream of a cartoon Trump is the latest White House budget propaganda

ALSO INSIDE: How senate staffers track voter outreach to help their boss decide how to vote on bills.

Jun 30, 2025

Cam here 👋 bringing you your daily dose of what people are doing – good, bad, and otherwise – in the world of politics. We’re diving into the stories you won’t see anywhere else. And remember, you can also keep up with me over on TikTok and Bluesky.

And if you’re looking for a little more from COURIER, Akilah Hughes’ new series, “How is This Better?” explores why politics feels more like a reality show than real life, and our docuseries “REPRESENT” follows candidate Deja Foxx as she gets real about the highs and lows of running for Congress.

Since day one of Trump’s political career, people have desperately attempted to normalize his absurd abuses of power and blatant corruption – and 10 years later, much of corporate media remains a victim of their own attempts to return to a sense of normalcy.

It’s time to stop sane-washing the insanity.

What Happened

As you’ve probably heard, the Republican-controlled US Senate right now is trying to pass President Donald Trump’s tax bill that would give tax breaks to billionaires at the expense of working families ahead of the Fourth of July this Friday.

Most coverage of the bill has been presented with a horse race mentality: the active vote is a spectacle, a competition between Trump and a handful of seemingly resistant Republican senators, whose final decision is an enigma, and all the public can do now is sit back and wait in suspense as 100 people decide the fate of 300 million onlookers.

The White House is more than happy to tap into the tune-out mentality: their official YouTube channel streamed an animated, working-class hero version of Trump for 24 hours, serving up fries at McDonald’s while disinformation about the bill scrolls by and relaxing Lo-Fi music plays in the background.

And while the horse race coverage encourages voters to apathetically sit back and watch the show and while cartoon Trump smiles and waves out the drive-thru window, far-right propaganda outlets are working overtime to convince the public that this budget is for hardworking Americans, Trump is their unstoppable champion, and any who opposes him will be crushed.

But that’s not the case at all, and there are two crucial things outlined below that members of Congress have told me, time and time again, every US resident can do to effectively use their voice and their power to remind their representatives that they are in their position to serve the people, not the 1%.

Here’s a good (and unique) example of that:

Attempts to Sanewash

Far-Right Spin

While Congress votes, staffers are keeping tally

This is a democracy – voters are responsible for how their representatives represent them. And today and in the coming days, representatives will use that power and potentially create one of those last-second vote changes that turn tides, like Sen. John McCain’s vote to save the Affordable Care Act in 2018, or Sen. Thom Tillis’ decision not to back Trump’s budget bill just the other day.

And with the levels of unpopularity this bill has achieved among the public, convincing those who represent the public to vote against it is and should be a top priority for everyone – and should, logically, be an easy task.

But first, a reminder of what’s at stake:

If Trump and MAGA’s budget bill passes, analysts from Wharton estimate that households earning less than $51,000 — which is a third of all US households — would actually see their income drop next year.

At the same time, the top 0.1% of households would get an average boost of $390,000.

@couriernewsroom The largest upward transfer of wealth in American history.

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While this bill stuffs money into the pockets of the ultra-wealthy, it simultaneously strips billions and billions of dollars in funding for Medicaid and food assistance programs. But even with those major cuts to programs like Medicaid, it’s still not enough to cover the tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. The independent Congressional Budget Office estimates this will add $2.5 trillion to the national deficit by 2035.

On the other hand, if the rich were to actually pay their fair share, we could make some real progress. If Trump’s $600 billion in tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy were used in a different way, they could:

End homelessness in America three times over
Fund universal health care for children four times over
Build 3 million homes for veterans

All of this is being debated in the Senate right now, and voters who have an opinion on this bill are encouraged to call or message them so they know where people stand when they cast their vote. Every member of Congress I’ve spoken with has told me that their staff meticulously tracks every public comment they receive, and it is absolutely factored into their decision on how to vote.

At the same time, they’re hearing from billionaires, corporations, and other major donors who want this bill to pass so they can pay less taxes. This all explains why Sen. Rand Paul ultimately voted against Trump yesterday, but Sen. Lisa Murkowski voted to pass the budget despite speaking against it just days before.

When you call or email, you’ll probably get a form response back, and it will feel like you’re speaking into a void. But your outreach is tracked, monitored, and factored into a decision that will impact the US for decades to come.

So please, take a minute, and reach out to your two senators today. Their vote will ultimately come down to which side of their chalkboard had more tallies: billionaires or voters.

Appointed Ohio US Sen. Jon Husted

Since taking office in 2025, Sen. Husted has:

Reported a personal wealth of anywhere from $1.4 million to $3.3 million
Sponsored 7 bills, none of which have been signed into law
Wants to grant AI tools access to rewrite federal law in an attempt to cut out “useless and burdensome” rules and regulations
Purchased non-public stock from Boxabl a month before they announced plans to go public
Finally relinquished a controversial paid board seat at Heartland Bank

Fun Facts

Sen. Husted scored a US Senate seat in a battleground state with only one vote cast: that of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who appointed Husted to finish Vice President JD Vance’s term earlier this year. Husted already abandoned his plans to run for governor and is instead running to keep his seat in 2026, but could face the same fate as former battleground appointees Sens. Martha McSally and Kelly Loeffler.

Husted doesn’t have the financial backing of tech oligarch Peter Thiel, like his predecessor did, but his history of courting unsavory campaign contributions indicates he’ll have no trouble filling his war chest. Husted received a $1 million contribution in 2018 from an Ohio energy company that bribed Husted and his colleagues in the Ohio General Assembly for a $1 billion bailout. It’s since been turned into an HBO documentary.

Husted’s bribe from FirstEnergy was undisclosed, and it wasn’t until 2024 that Cleveland reporter Jake Zuckerman uncovered the dark money trail. Husted claims to have no knowledge of the bribery scheme, despite texts revealing that Husted asked FirsEnergy executives for a donation, and the $1 million was contributed, after which Husted became the bailout’s fiercest supporter. Husted has thus far evaded prosecution, but other state legislators involved have been sentenced to years in prison, and a trial for FirstEnergy’s former executives is scheduled for January.

Before his private utility bailout bribe, Husted successfully provided one of his corporate donors a $200 million payout. He did this by rewriting the state’s charter school laws, shutting down Ohio’s Legislative Office of Education Oversight, and pushing through more than $1 billion in public education funds to the failed online school ECOT.

As a reward, Husted received $36,000 in campaign contributions — and an honorary diploma from the failed educational institution.

Helping versus fearmongering

As guided by his latest shadow president, Stephen Miller, Donald Trump has drastically expanded ICE’s authority to detain, arrest, and deport US residents. Communities have risen up to challenge this aggressive overreach and have successfully led massive protests, closed ICE detention centers, and protected immigrants at courthouses from being abducted.

But in the earnestness to help, sharing information without verifying the facts can play into the Trump administration’s plan to sow fear into immigrant communities and inadvertently cause real harm. People are avoiding necessary medical care based on unverified information about agents at hospitals, for example, putting themselves at serious risk based on inaccurate information.

I’ve seen it firsthand. Every week, immigrant rights advocates send me tips on locations of potential worksite raids or courthouses where immigration officers are suspected to be waiting. Some of these tips are accurate, and our reporters are able to let communities know. Other tips aren’t, and if we had reported on potential raids without first sending journalists out to investigate, our stories could have done more harm than good.

There is a way to exercise an abundance of caution without spreading fear and misinformation. Arizona State Sen. Analise Ortiz, a former journalist and longtime advocate for immigrants’ rights, put together an excellent overview of what people can do to responsibly report ICE activity in their community — check it out below.

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