Good morning. I’m Thom Hartmann.
Republicans are shutting down Trump’s demand for another $350 billion for the Pentagon spending, calling it a political nightmare. Raw America’s Washington correspondent is filing a new report from Trump’s UFC monstrosity on the White House lawn. The president’s loyalists on the Kennedy Center board are mounting a hail-mary campaign to keep his name on the building. And a new report reveals nearly 100 billionaires are pumping millions into Susan Collins’ reelection campaign.
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Republicans Shut Down Trump’s Demand for More War Funding
Trump is now demanding another $350 billion for the Pentagon in a third reconciliation bill. But Senate Republicans are looking at that request and telling him absolutely not.
One unnamed Republican senator told the Hill they don’t “want to have another vote-a-rama” like they just had for the ICE funding bill, saying the last one “about broke our backs.”
Republicans can only afford to lose three votes in the Senate and two in the House. And the political environment couldn’t be worse for another grueling budget fight. There’s real public backlash over the Iran war. And vulnerable Republican senators have zero appetite for sitting through another wave of Democratic amendments designed to become campaign ads in the fall.
Republican John Cornyn of Texas said more Pentagon funding is “going to be an enormously heavy lift.” He’s also warning another reconciliation battle could be politically toxic for GOP senators already in difficult races across the country.
Republican Lisa Murkowski was even more blunt, saying giving Trump what he wants would be “very, very, very challenging.” She was the only Republican to vote against the ICE funding bill last week, and she’s not hiding her skepticism about going through that process all over again.
Former Republican leader Mitch McConnell told colleagues this week: “it’s safe to conclude there will not be another reconciliation bill.” Republican Susan Collins is also pouring cold water on the effort, meaning it’s safe to say the votes aren’t there even in the Republican-controlled Senate.
But Trump is still pushing for the $350 billion. He also wants the bill to include his draconian anti-voting rights legislation the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, photo ID at the polls, and a near-total ban on mail-in ballots.
Republican Leader John Thune hasn’t ruled out the new funding, but even he’s admitting that the votes just aren’t there yet. Right now, it looks like Republicans are more focused on their own political survival than giving Trump everything on his wish list.
James Madison warned back in 1795 that of all the enemies to public liberty, war is the one most to be dreaded, because it’s the seed that grows every other kind of power a government can grab. The Constitution handed the power of the purse to Congress for exactly that reason, and the fact that even Trump’s own party is reaching for that brake tells you the framers built it to be used.
Raw America Gets an Early Look at the UFC Circus on the White House Lawn
(Advertisements for Meta AI on the grounds of the White House. Photo by Luke De Cresce / Raw America)
What do a 90-foot claw, 500 Porta-Potties, and illegal corporate advertising on a National Park site booth all have in common? They’re all on the South Lawn of the White House right now.
Raw America’s DC reporter Luke De Cresce went to get an early look at what the Trump regime is calling “UFC Freedom 250,” which is set to take place this Sunday during Trump’s 80th birthday, right in view of the Washington Monument.
The UFC logo is hanging practically above the White House. Corporate sponsorship packages are going for $1.5 million a pop. County fair-style tents are spread across one of the most exclusive pieces of real estate in the country. The administration is billing all of it as a celebration of America’s 250th anniversary. But this is all in direct violation of laws prohibiting corporate advertising in America’s national parks, which includes the White House.
UFC events are almost always held on Saturdays. The Fourth of July falls on a Saturday this year. So why is this event happening on Sunday?
Sunday is Trump’s birthday. And Trump gets 1,400 personal tickets, up from an original 1,000, to hand out to whoever he chooses.
Is this a celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary, or is it a birthday party for a self-obsessed president dressed up in patriotic branding? The White House lawn full of Porta-Potties and corporate logos speaks for itself.
George Washington could’ve kept power for life and chose instead to hand it back, setting the precedent that this country is a republic and not a royal court. Turning the People’s House into a corporate-sponsored birthday spectacle, with the president’s logo flying where the nation’s business is supposed to get done, is the kind of monarchy in everything but name that the founders wrote the Constitution to keep out.
Trump’s Kennedy Center Board Fights to Keep His Name on the Building
A federal judge ordered that Donald Trump’s name be removed from the Kennedy Center by Friday. But Trump’s loyalists on the board are doing everything they can to stop it.
The board voted Thursday to seek a stay of the ruling from Judge Casey Cooper. Hours later, Justice Department lawyers filed a notice of appeal and a motion to stay. To succeed, they’ll need to show they’re likely to win on appeal and that removing Trump’s name would cause the center “irreparable harm.”
Judge Cooper’s original ruling, issued May 29, was a massive rebuke. In a 93-page opinion, he wrote that Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it. He also found that the Trump-allied board made its renaming decision based on an “insufficient, one-sided presentation of information.” He ordered the name removed from the exterior and even blocked the administration’s plan to close the center by July 5.
Trump, who was elected board chair by his own handpicked trustees in February, wrote a 582-word Truth Social post attacking the judge and floating the idea of transferring control of the institution to Congress. Because of course he did.
Behind the scenes, it got even weirder. A source told CNN that Trump called into Thursday’s board meeting from the Oval Office using Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s iPhone, and spent part of the meeting attacking both the judge who wrote the decision and his wife. The board then voted to pass a resolution praising Trump’s “major contributions” and “unprecedented commitment” to the institution.
The Kennedy Center has already taken Trump’s name off of its website and YouTube channel and instructed employees to update all email signatures and letterhead. But as of Friday, the name is still on the building. Whether it comes down depends entirely on whether the courts grant the administration’s motion.
Let’s be clear: Trump’s involvement has already done real damage. Ticket sales plummeted after he put his name on the building. Artists canceled concerts. The National Symphony Orchestra’s executive director walked out.
Madison wrote in Federalist 51 that the whole system depends on ambition counteracting ambition, with each branch checking the next so no single man can rule by his own will. A federal judge reminding a president that he can’t bolt his own name onto a memorial Congress created is that design doing exactly the job it was built to do.
Nearly 100 Billionaires Are Bankrolling Susan Collins’ Campaign
A new analysis of campaign finance data has revealed that America’s billionaire class is propping up Susan Collins’ reelection bid.
The Maine Monitor published a list this week showing that nearly 100 billionaires and their spouses have contributed to Collins’ campaign and its affiliated PACs. So far they’ve spent nearly $10 million on the Maine Republican, representing roughly a third of everything pro-Collins groups have raised from all donors combined.
The biggest single check came from hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, who put $2.5 million into a super PAC backing Collins. Stephen Schwarzman, who is the CEO of Blackstone, gave at least $1 million. New Balance chairman James Davis and far-right hedge fund manager Paul Singer also each put up more than $1 million. The Maine Monitor noted that the majority of Collins’ billionaire donors are in hedge funds and private equity, which we all know are obviously not Maine-based industries.
Keep in mind that Collins voted for Trump’s tax cuts in 2017 that delivered massive handouts to large corporations and the wealthiest Americans. ProPublica reported that after Collins withdrew an amendment that would have targeted a beloved private equity tax break, that industry became her top source of donations.
Collins’ Democratic challenger, Graham Platner, is running a different kind of campaign. So far, grassroots donors giving $200 or less have contributed $9.6 million to his campaign, with the average donation coming out to just $26.
The contrast couldn’t be sharper. Nearly 100 billionaires on the Repubican side. 15,000 volunteers and small-dollar donors from nearly every zip code in Maine on the Democratic side.
That’s the fight for the Senate in Maine, which is a microcosm of the larger threat to American democracy right now.
Theodore Roosevelt pushed the Tillman Act through Congress in 1907 to ban corporate money from federal elections, because he understood that when a handful of rich men can buy a senator, the people stop governing themselves. A century later, nearly 100 billionaires bankrolling one incumbent is exactly what he was trying to outlaw, and it’s happening in plain sight.
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I’m Thom Hartmann. The fight is here. Thank you for being in it.
STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
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Activists Have Stopped or Delayed Nearly $130 Billion in Data Center Projects This Year. A new study funds that opponents of AI data centers across the U.S. have successfully stopped or postponed an estimated $130 billion in development between January and March of 2026 alone. The group Data Center Watch found that at least 75 projects were halted or delayed in the first quarter of the year, which is the highest number of delays and cancellations since the group began tracking data center opposition in 2023.
Trump’s FBI Raids Offices of Voting Rights Group in Ohio. FBI agents recently showed up at the Cleveland, Ohio offices of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, which helps register voters in the Buckeye State. Agents also knocked on the doors of the group’s staffers across the state, with some bearing subpoenas and seeking access to employees’ electronic devices. Board member Prentiss Haney told MS NOW that FBI agents were also pressing volunteers and canvassers for information about the group’s activities, calling it “straight-up intimidation tactics.”
Alaska Elections Official Threatens to Disqualify Candidate with Same Name as Incumbent Senator. Alaska Director of Elections Carol Beecher is now on the verge of disqualifying Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dan J. Sullivan, who shares the same name as current Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) from the Republican primary ballot this August. According to NBC News, Beecher is a registered Republican who has donated to Republican campaigns and causes in the past.
Cornyn Predicts ‘Disaster’ for Republicans and ‘Miserable’ Two Years for Trump. Outgoing Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) — who recently lost his Republican U.S. Senate primary to Trump-endorsed challenger Ken Paxton — is now predicting his own party will suffer an electoral “disaster” in November’s midterm elections. He also said President Trump will have “the most miserable two years of his life” should Democrats retake Congress. Cornyn added that Trump’s insistence on Republicans having “slavish” loyalty to him will be the party’s undoing.
