Questions are swirling after the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed it has accepted an anonymous gift of $130 million to help pay the troops during the federal government shutdown. President Donald Trump earlier this week told reporters a “friend” of his offered to cover the soldiers’ salaries. Reportedly, the Pentagon is limited in what private gifts it can receive and how they may be used.

“By the way, a man, a friend of mine,” the President said on Thursday, “a friend of mine, a man that’s great — I’m not gonna use his name unless he lets me do it.”

“He called us the other day,” Trump continued, “and he said, ‘I’d like to contribute any shortfall you have because of the Democrats’ shutdown. I’d like to contribute, personally contribute, any shortfall you have with the military, because I love the military, I love the country, and any shortfall, if there’s a shortfall, I’ll contribute it.'”

“And today, he sent us a check for $130 million.”

On Friday, Defense Department Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed the payment, according to PBS NewsHour’s Nick Schifrin:

“On October 23, 2025, the @DeptofWar accepted an anonymous donation of $130 million under its general gift acceptance authority. The donation was made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of Service members’ salaries and benefits. We are grateful for this donor’s assistance after Democrats opted to withhold pay from troops.”

Bloomberg News reported that the “donation is President Donald Trump’s latest maneuver to seize greater control of government functions amid the shutdown, which has stretched into its fourth week.”

Questions immediately arose.

Defense One reporter Meghann Myers noted, “donors of amounts over $10,000 need to be vetted for conflicts of interest. Hard to do if the donor is anonymous. Or is the donor known to the Pentagon and they have agreed to withhold their identity?”

Bloomberg reported, “While individuals can make unconditional gifts to the US Treasury, they’re credited to the general fund or used to pay down the national debt. The money can’t be spent without a congressional appropriation — and it’s that lack of an appropriation that has shut down the government.”

Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger added, “The US spends roughly $16 billion per month on pay for the troops. So the idea that $130 million has somehow kept the DOD pay afloat is odd.”

Bloomberg also noted that the “$130 million total would only cover a small portion of the payroll for the nation’s roughly 1.3 million active-duty military members — averaging about $100 per person.”

The U.S. military is allowed to accept private donations, but only for “military schools, hospitals, libraries, museums, cemeteries and similar institutions, and to help service members and civilian employees who are wounded or killed in the line of duty, and their families,” Bloomberg noted.

Former U.S. diplomat Brett Bruen commented, “This doesn’t just raise major ethical concerns, it raises serious security concerns. Our military should be benefiting from or beholden to no one other than the American people.”

A prominent Senate Democrat is blasting President Donald Trump’s new refugee policy, calling it “racist” and “truly vile.”

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) pointed to a New York Times article that reported the president’s “proposals would transform a program aimed at helping the most vulnerable people in the world into one that gives preference to mostly white people who say they are being persecuted.”

“We began formally accepting refugees in the aftermath of WWII,” wrote Senator Murphy, who serves on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “Since then, we’ve provided lifesaving shelter for millions displaced by persecution and war, many targeted for their faith. In modern times, President Reagan saved the most refugees, admitting around 210,000.”

He explained that this new proposal would “drastically slash the numbers of refugees admitted.”

“But it gets worse,” he said. “The new policy reportedly will effectively allow only white foreigners to qualify. If you’re not white, you get turned away. It’s unreal – like we’re back in Jim Crow days.”

“How is he going to do this?” Murphy asked. “Reporting suggests Trump will give almost all of the refugee slots to white South African Afrikaners who he says are facing a genocide. But that’s made up – there’s zero reason to give preference to Afrikaners.”

According to The Washington Post, Trump’s “plan to overhaul the U.S. refugee resettlement process, including a drastic reduction in overall annual admissions, coincides with a concerted effort to prepare thousands of White South Africans to relocate to the United States through the system.”

“If the administration succeeds,” the Post reported, “almost all people admitted to the U.S. as refugees — as many as 7,000 from a maximum potential pool of 7,500 — could be Afrikaners, a group not traditionally eligible for the program but one that President Donald Trump says has been tyrannized by South Africa’s Black majority.”

Strikingly, Murphy adds, the “other group Trump is prioritizing? Members of the German political party AfD, who the White House says are being ‘targeted’ for their views. This is a neo-Nazi party that defended the SS. You think I’m making this up? I’m not.”

AfD, or Alternative for Germany, is a growing far-right nationalist political party.

Germany’s “main intelligence service has labelled some branches of the AfD as extremist groups and placed several of its leaders under surveillance,” TIME magazine reported earlier this year. “In the European Parliament, an alliance of right-wing groups expelled the party last spring for being too radical. One AfD official had suggested the Nazi SS were ‘not all criminals.’ Another has called the Holocaust a mere speck of ‘bird s–‘ on the glorious sweep of German history.”

Murphy, continuing with his warning, wrote, “Trump and the white nationalists that surround him aren’t even hiding their racist aims any longer. This proposal is a gross betrayal of the refugee program’s intent and will be an indelible stain on America’s reputation. We won’t easily recover from this.”

Promoting Senator Murphy’s remarks, Dr. Craig Spencer, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, warned: “This isn’t *just* racism.”

“It’s eugenics,” he charged. “Look further back, before WWII, to the 1924 Johnson Reed Act that slashed immigration into the U.S. Pushed by eugenicists, it prioritized resettling white immigrants from Northern and Western Europe.”

“Eugenics,” Spencer added, “also explains why members of the AfD—an extremist party whose leaders frequently use Nazi slogans—are reportedly prioritized for refugee slots in this administration’s plans.”

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), the once-loyal MAGA soldier whose recent attacks on her own party have led some to wonder if she is the "New Republican Voice of Sanity," is out with another thrashing of the GOP, this time on health care.

"More of my Republican colleagues are finally talking about the unaffordable health insurance crisis, but yesterday on our GOP conference call Speaker Johnson said he has ideas and pages of policy, but did not say a single policy plan," she wrote on Wednesday. "I think that is unacceptable."

Congresswoman Greene did not reserve her criticism for just Republicans.

READ MORE: Majority Call Trump a ‘Dangerous Dictator’ Leading Nation Off Course: Report

Claiming that "Democrats created this nightmare 15 years ago, then made it worse in 2021 by extending the ACA tax credits that are now expiring," she declared, "I find it unacceptable that Republicans are sitting on the sidelines doing nothing to fix this healthcare disaster that is leading many Americans into financial ruin."

Numerous reports say some — and including many of Greene's fellow Georgia residents — will see Obamacare premiums "more than double" unless Congress reinstates the Affordable Care Act subsidies, which Republicans to date have refused to do.

Greene blames Democrats for the expiring subsidies, and alleges that Democrats "are admitting they screwed the whole health insurance system up and they are admitting original Obamacare is now way too expensive."

Reminding her colleagues that they are the party in power, she called on Republicans "to build the off ramp off of Obamacare in a responsible way, deregulate healthcare and pharmaceuticals and demand price transparency across the board, and incentivize the market in such a way to open up competition which will drive down cost."

READ MORE: ‘Sick’: Jeffries Torches Trump’s ‘Out of Control’ Press Secretary

"Pick up your bat and ball and get in the game," she urged, while taking a swipe at MAGA loyalty.

"Our districts voted for us. Our districts sent us to Congress. No one else. No one or any lobby deserves our loyalty and support."

President Donald Trump, during his first term, promised multiple times he would put out a plan to "repeal and replace" Obamacare. No comprehensive plan ever surfaced. During the 2024 presidential campaign, he said he had the "concepts of a plan."

Last year in September, KFF reported that "Trump has long talked about making the ACA less expensive, but the question is less expensive for whom. Trump’s past proposals would certainly have made the ACA less expensive for the federal government, but with the trade-off of higher out-of-pocket premiums for people, more uninsured, and higher spending and greater risk for states."

READ MORE: Not a ‘Gut-Wrenching’ Problem: Ron Johnson Shrugs Off Millions Losing Subsidies

A sweeping new poll seen as a “reliable pre-election barometer” finds majorities of Americans deeply unhappy with the nation’s course and increasingly describing President Donald Trump as a “dangerous dictator.”

"The survey offers a snapshot of the nation's sour mood just more than a year before the 2026 midterms — and suggests that anger could rewire political alliances and test the durability of Trump's support," Axios reported.

PRRI, the Public Religion Research Institute, found that six in ten Americans (62%) see the country headed in the wrong direction. That includes strong majorities of Democrats (92%) and independents (71%), as well as nearly one in four Republicans (24%).

On how the president is doing his job, well over half of Americans (56%) disapprove. But nearly nine in ten Republicans (86%) approve, as do 32% of independents, and just 8% of Democrats. Overall, Trump has a 58% unfavorable rating, and a 40% favorable rating.

READ MORE: ‘Travesty’: Trump Reportedly Seeking ‘Bizarre’ $230 Million Payout From DOJ

The negative perceptions of the president appear to run even deeper.

"A majority of Americans agree 'President Trump is a dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy' (56%), up from 52% in March 2025, compared with 41% who agree 'President Trump is a strong leader who should be given the power he needs to restore America’s greatness.'"

Additionally, PRRI found that most Americans "agree with the statement 'What President Trump is doing to the federal government is an assault on constitutional checks and balances and the rule of law' (54%), compared with 43% who agree with the statement 'What President Trump is doing to the federal government is a long-overdue correction of disastrous policies pushed by elites at the expense of ordinary Americans.'"

Meanwhile, nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) are dissatisfied with the economy and how the federal government is functioning. That includes nine in ten Democrats, and nearly three in ten Republicans.

READ MORE: Not a ‘Gut-Wrenching’ Problem: Ron Johnson Shrugs Off Millions Losing Subsidies

When asked about how the federal government is handling undocumented immigrants, 57% disapprove, including 89% of Democrats and 18% of Republicans.

The survey also found that majorities "say that the cuts in federal funding of health care programs (60%) and universities and research institutions (55%), the implementation of new tariffs on imported goods (54%), and the increase in funding for ICE to speed up efforts to arrest, detain, and deport undocumented immigrants (52%) have gone too far, though partisan differences are stark, with Democrats being far more likely to say such changes have gone too far."

PRRI CEO Melissa Deckman told Axios that it "looks like political independents are very unhappy with Trump's actions," with "close to two-thirds on many indicators saying the administration has gone too far in its policies."

She added: "That's a warning sign for the GOP ahead of the midterms."

READ MORE: ‘Sick’: Jeffries Torches Trump’s ‘Out of Control’ Press Secretary

President Donald Trump reportedly appears to be demanding the U.S. Department of Justice pay him $230 million in compensation after multiple investigations during his presidential campaign.

"The situation has no parallel in American history, as Mr. Trump, a presidential candidate, was pursued by federal law enforcement and eventually won the election, taking over the very government that must now review his claims," The New York Times, citing people familiar with the matter, reported.

Noting that President Trump has installed his former personal lawyers at the top of the DOJ, the Times called it "the starkest example yet of potential ethical conflicts."

Trump, according to the Times, in 2023, submitted a claim that "seeks damages for a number of purported violations of his rights, including the F.B.I. and special counsel investigation into Russian election tampering and possible connections to the 2016 Trump campaign, according to people familiar with the matter."

READ MORE: Not a ‘Gut-Wrenching’ Problem: Ron Johnson Shrugs Off Millions Losing Subsidies

Another complaint, filed the following year, "accuses the F.B.I. of violating Mr. Trump’s privacy by searching Mar-a-Lago, his club and residence in Florida, in 2022 for classified documents."

Bennett L. Gershman, an ethics professor at Pace University, told the Times it was "a travesty."

“The ethical conflict is just so basic and fundamental, you don’t need a law professor to explain it,” Gershmann said. "And then to have people in the Justice Department decide whether his claim should be successful or not, and these are the people who serve him deciding whether he wins or loses. It’s bizarre and almost too outlandish to believe.”

READ MORE: ‘Sick’: Jeffries Torches Trump’s ‘Out of Control’ Press Secretary

Image via Reuters

Does religion drive Americans to support or oppose economic inequality? That’s a question explored by a Ph.D. candidate at The Ohio State University who recently examined ten years of a megachurch’s sermons in a published paper: “‘I Thank God We’re Rich’: Justifying Economic Inequality in an Evangelical Congregation.”

“To investigate how evangelical leaders confront the conflict between inequality and egalitarian passages of the Bible, I conducted a sermon analysis study of New River, a Midwestern suburban megachurch,” wrote Dawson P. R. Vosburg.

“New River’s approach to inequality was one of clear justification of the status quo, centered on the justification of wealth accumulation and the minimization of inequality’s moral importance,” Vosburg added.

The church’s pastors, he found, “justified economic inequality in several ways: proclaiming that God did not condemn ownership of vast wealth; minimizing domestic inequality in comparison to global inequality; selectively spiritualizing economic passages of the Bible; and saying that God owns everything and thus the status quo distribution is justified.”

Hemant Mehta of The Friendly Atheist examined the paper. He writes that Vosburg found sermons “that discussed anything financial—by searching for terms like ‘rich,’ ‘tithe,’ ‘debt,’ ‘billionaire,’ etc.—and analyzed the results to see how this typical white evangelical megachurch minimized the wealth gap.” He also noted that Vosburg anonymized the name of the church.

Mehta looked at the four ways New River downplayed wealth inequality:

“They condemned ‘rich shaming’ anyone”
The pastor, Mehta found, “delivered an anecdote about a rich couple that left another church and came to his because they felt personally attacked when their previous pastor condemned wealth from the pulpit. (At their new home, of course, their tithes would go into New River’s coffers.)”

“They downplayed U.S. inequality by focusing on global inequality”
Essentially, pastors told congregants that compared to the world’s poor, they were doing quite well.

“They re-interpreted Bible verses about poverty—even the direct ones”
When it comes to preaching about the poor, Mehta wrote, the pastor was “not talking about financially poor people, he’s talking about spiritually impoverished people.”

Vosburg told Mehta that pastors stressed tithing “over 150 times across 16 separate sermons.”

“They said God owns everything, anyway”
Ultimately, Mehta explained, the pastor’s point was to not be mad “at people with private jets and yachts and multiple summer homes.”

“The takeaway from all this,” Mehta wrote, “is that conservative policies that benefit the ultra-wealthy at the expense of everyone else in society are going to be supported by congregations like this one that are being brainwashed into thinking God loves the rich and the poor deserve their lot in life.”

Mehta also blasted the New River pastor.

“Pastors like this one hollow out Christ’s teachings until all that’s left is a gilded throne for the wealthy. In their hands, Scripture is a weapon to shame the poor, a shield to protect billionaires, and a drug to keep their congregations quiet while the cancer of inequality grows around them.”

The Trump administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has reportedly surged spending this year on domestic weapons — including guns, chemical weapons, explosives, and guided missile warheads — by 700 percent.

“Records from the Federal Procurement Data System reveal that ICE has increased spending on ‘small arms, ordnance, and ordnance accessories manufacturing’ by 700% compared to 2024 levels,” according to a report by Popular Information. “Most of the spending was on guns and armor, but there have also been significant purchases of chemical weapons and ‘guided missile warheads and explosive components.'”

“More weapons, more violence,” wrote Popular Information founder Judd Legum, noting that the “surge in spending on ICE weaponry has coincided with a wave of violent incidents by ICE officers.”

Legum pointed to several well-publicized incidents, including one recently where a Christian pastor, David Black, reportedly was shot in the head with a pepper ball.

“In another September incident, an ICE officer dropped his gun while violently making an arrest and then pointed it at bystanders,” Legum wrote.

“All over the country, federal agents have shot, gassed, and detained individuals engaged in cherished and protected activities,” a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Illinois reads.

“What we’re seeing is a general escalation of violence and the use of excessive force by ICE officers,” Ed Yohnka of the ACLU Illinois told NPR.

“Late last month,” NPR also reported, “a local CBS reporter said a masked ICE agent fired a pepper ball at her car … causing her to vomit for hours. The reporter, Asal Rezaei, said there was no protest happening at the time. Broadview Police are now investigating.”

White nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes, who infamously once dined with President Donald Trump and Kanye West (Ye) at Mar-a-Lago, blasted the president last week as a "weird guy" who is "not right in the head."

"Look, something's wrong with him, man," Fuentes told a viewer on his online streaming show, as Mediaite reported. "And I'm not saying that to be nasty, but like, he's a weird guy."

"And some of the stuff that he does, just the way that he's always glazing himself, and repeats himself."

READ MORE: ‘Existential Threat’: U.S. on Path to Authoritarianism Warn Ex-Intelligence Officials

"Something's, he's not right in the head, and I don't know if that's his psychology or if it's just his age, but there's something not right there, and anyone that's been around him will tell you that," Fuentes charged.

"He's a weird dude," he added. "Like, he's an odd cat, and maybe you need to be to be as tough as he is, but he's not sharp. If there was something wrong with him ten years ago, it was a lot less apparent, because ten years ago, he's a lot more sharp, and, I think, compelling, and general, and now, he's just slow and monotonous, and repeats himself, and seems to really not know what's going on."

Fuentes was responding to a viewer who had written, “Looks like your assessment of Trump as a tired old man is correct.”

“Saw a report today that lots of his view of Chicago or NYC is from old BLM riot clips people show him. He just wants to play golf, fly on AF1, have fancy dinner parties, sign Oval Office EOs, watch 80s movie and get told he is getting revenge on [John] Bolton.”

Something is not right with Trump...
"The way that he's always glazing himself and repeats himself. He's not right in the head." pic.twitter.com/oHksiLQ3Uo
— Fuentes Updates (@FuentesUpdates) October 18, 2025

READ MORE: ‘Sick’: Jeffries Torches Trump’s ‘Out of Control’ Press Secretary

House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is the latest to lash out at Karoline Leavitt over the White House press secretary’s Thursday attack on the Democratic Party, during which she alleged it is “catering” to “Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals.” Leavitt’s widely-denounced remarks came as Republicans on Capitol Hill repeatedly targeted the nationwide “No Kings” Day protests set for Saturday as “Hate America” rallies.

“The Democrat Party’s main constituency are made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals,” Leavitt said on Fox News on Thursday afternoon. “That is who the Democrat Party is catering to — not the Trump administration, and not the White House, and not the Republican Party, who is standing up for law abiding Americans, not just across the country, but around the world.”

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Jeffries blasted Leavitt, but first took aim at a variety of Republicans over controversial issues and what he described as “racist” and “antisemitic” remarks.

“We’ve already seen a rise in political violence and hatred in America,” the Democratic leader began. “And then you’ve got swastikas apparently appearing in the offices of Republican members of Congress.”

“You’ve got Young Republicans engaging in the most antisemitic and racist speech possible,” he continued, referring to a Politico report that drew condemnation of the group’s members.

“Like, this is apparently who many of these people are,” he said.

“They are ripping the sheets off, in plain view of the American people. Their words, their actions, revealing themselves in so many different ways.”

“And then you got Karoline Leavitt, who’s sick,” he charged. “She’s out of control. And I’m not sure whether she’s just demented, ignorant, a stone-cold liar, or all of the above.”

“But the notion that an official White House spokesperson would say that the Democratic Party consists of terrorists, violent criminals, and undocumented immigrants — this makes no sense.”

“That this is what the American people are getting from the Trump administration, in the middle of a shutdown,” he observed. “So their actions continue to speak for themselves, which is why they’re on the wrong side of public sentiment.”

The federal government shutdown — now in its 16th day — shows no clear path to ending. Some Republicans are signaling divisions within their ranks, while Democrats remain united in demanding the restoration of Affordable Care Act subsidies and exploring ways to reach that goal.

A bipartisan group of senators is discussing “potential off-ramps,” Punchbowl News reported on Thursday, focused on the Obamacare subsidies. Led by U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the plan would be to hold two “side-by-side votes.”

The first bill would re-open the government, the second would include “a one-year extension of the Obamacare enhanced premium tax credits, plus a commitment to pass a longer-term solution by a date certain.”

Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune has stayed “on-message,” Punchbowl notes, but the “same can’t be said for Trump, who recently signaled he’d negotiate a health care deal with Democrats — without saying the government should re-open first.”

Thune told MSNBC on Wednesday “that he has privately told Democratic leaders that, if they need a vote on extending Obamacare subsidies in exchange for opening the government, he’s willing to make that deal.”

“We can guarantee you get a vote by a date certain,” Thune said. “At some point, Democrats have to take ‘yes’ for an answer.”

But he also made clear he can’t guarantee the legislation to extend the subsidies would pass.

“Can I guarantee an outcome? No,” he told MSNBC.

“I can’t guarantee it’s going to pass,” he added. “I can guarantee you that there will be a process and you will get a vote.”

MSNBC also reported that “Democrats are showing little sign of cracking. In fact, Democrats seem to be digging in, particularly as Republicans sound increasingly dubious about extending the Obamacare subsidies.”

Over in the House, Speaker Johnson has not budged, insisting lawmakers there have done their job by passing a continuing resolution. He has repeatedly said he will not bring to the floor any other legislation to open the government, even if it comes from the Senate.

As for the possible Senate compromise, it does not appear to look promising to at least some House Democrats either.

Speaking at a CNN town hall Wednesday night, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was very explicit.

Asked what she would need to see, what commitments, before she would vote to re-open the government, the New York Democrat said she needs to see something tangible.

“I think we need to see ink on paper,” Ocasio-Cortez insisted. “I think we need to see legislation.”

“I think we need to see votes, and I think we need to see these things pass on the floor of the House, and the Senate, and signed by President Trump.”

Emphasizing her point, AOC added, “I don’t accept IOUs.”

“I don’t accept pinky promises — that’s not the business that I’m in.”

Asked if she needs to see a signature on legislation from President Trump to re-open the government, Ocasio-Cortez replied: “Absolutely.”

Republican Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries have agreed to a joint debate, following Jeffries’ proposal nearly two weeks ago to address the federal government shutdown.

“I write to challenge you to a debate on the Floor of the House of Representatives any day this week in primetime, broadcast live to the American people,” Leader Jeffries wrote in a letter on October 6. “Democrats have been clear and consistent in our position. The country needs immediate, bipartisan negotiations between the White House and congressional leadership in order to reach an enlightened spending agreement that reopens the government, improves the lives of hardworking American taxpayers and addresses the Republican healthcare crisis.”

Johnson subsequently declined to debate, according to The Hill.

But asked last week about debating Jeffries, Johnson said: “Hakeem, let’s sit down together, OK?”

Jeffries on Tuesday agreed, telling reporters, “I look forward to that,” according to The Hill.

C-SPAN made the announcement on Wednesday, stating that both Johnson and Jeffries “have publicly agreed to appear jointly on C-SPAN’s Ceasefire program, hosted by POLITICO’s Dasha Burns.”

“We look forward to providing a forum for a smart, civil, respectful exchange of ideas between both leaders,” C-SPAN noted, saying it is “currently working with both offices on scheduling.”

On Wednesday, Johnson said he would debate Leader Jeffries, “anywhere, anytime,” before quickly pulling back.

“I’ll debate Hakeem Jeffries anywhere, anytime—as soon as we get the government open,” Johnson told Fox News, before attacking the Democrat for “engaging in political theater, and stating absurd things.”

Johnson then went on to blast the Democrats for, he claimed, voting to “shut the government down.”

“The Republicans in Congress, House and Senate, have voted to open the government, and nine times, Democrats in Congress have voted to close it, all but one,” he said before targeting the Democratic Leader.

“Hakeem Jeffries led the effort in the House.”

“I am so frustrated by this. We all are.”

Once a die-hard MAGA foot soldier, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is continuing to break with her party, now attacking Republicans and specifically Speaker Mike Johnson over the high cost of living and keeping the House in recess during the federal government shutdown.

“My big warning is, we have to take this very seriously, because if Republicans are responsible for doing nothing about this and regular, innocent Americans’ health insurance premiums double, they’re not gonna be able to pay their rent,” the Georgia Republican lawmaker said.

Americans, Greene noted, are “already getting crushed with the cost of living expenses that the Biden administration created, but have not come back down.”

“Food prices have gone up this year,” she said, in direct contradiction to President Donald Trump’s repeated statements to the contrary. As recently as Tuesday the president claimed, “groceries are down, it’s all down.”

“Even the Department of Agriculture,” Greene continued, “put out a report on that in August, and there’s many other problems — even potentially that we could see a slowdown in the economy next year, and I pray to God, not a recession.”

“So this is extremely serious,” she stressed. “Everyone should be talking about it, and here’s where I’m upset: Republicans are doing nothing.”

“The House is not in session, which I think is inexcusable. Mike Johnson should be calling us back because we should be working.”

Last week, Greene also criticized the Speaker over his refusal to bring the House back into session.

“I don’t think that it’s believable to tell the American people that while we control the White House, the House, and the Senate, that we can’t return to work in Washington, D.C., because Chuck Schumer and six other Democrats won’t vote to open the government,” Greene said.

“I just, I know people,” she continued. “They don’t believe that.”

House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Wednesday echoed Greene’s lament: “House Republicans need to get back to work,” he said in a press conference.

The Bulwark on Tuesday had asked, “When even Marjorie Taylor Greene is talking about living in reality, maybe the ground is finally shifting?”

As the "No Kings" Day rallies fast approach, Republicans are increasingly lashing out in an effort to paint the protests as un-American and the protesters as a small group of disgruntled extremists.

The first No Kings Day events — among, if not the largest protests in U.S. history — drew an estimated four million people across every state in the nation. Saturday's are expected to see an even larger turnout. Attendees are protesting authoritarianism and corruption, the federal government shutdown, and massive cuts to Obamacare subsidies and social programs including Medicare, Medicaid, and SNAP.

U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), the House Majority Whip, has been among the most vocal critics of the No Kings Day protests.

On Tuesday, Congressman Emmer told Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo that Democratic congressional leaders like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are "afraid" of the protestors, whom he described as "the most radical, small, and violent base in the country."

READ MORE: ‘Seem Very Nervous’: Top Trump Officials Blasted After Lashing Out at ‘No Kings’ Protests

"You'll see them on Saturday on the Mall," he said. Republicans have repeatedly implied that the protests are only being held in Washington, D.C., but according to No Kings organizers there will be rallies across the country.

The protesters "just do not love this country," and "these guys are afraid of them," Emmer alleged, while calling the protest a "Hate America rally."

"We call it the 'Hate America' rally because you'll see the hate for America all over this thing when they show up," Emmer continued. "The rumor is that they can't end this shutdown beforehand because this small but very violent and vocal group is the only one that's happy about this."

The Bulwark's Andrew Egger on Monday warned: "There is no other way to read Republicans calling No Kings a 'hate America rally' run by 'Antifa people' than as an attempt to create the conditions to crack down on the protest with the might of the state."

READ MORE: ‘Mealy-Mouthed Lies’: Johnson Decimated Over Health Care Claims

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy on Monday also implied that congressional Democrats are waiting until after the protests to try to reopen the government, and alleged the protestors were paid and part of "Antifa."

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has repeatedly attacked the No Kings Day rallies.

“The theory we have right now,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told Fox News on Friday, “they have a hate-America rally that’s scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall. It’s the pro-Hamas wing and Antifa people, they’re all coming out."

He added, “this hate-America rally that they have coming up for October 18th, the Antifa crowd, and the pro-Hamas crowd, and the Marxists, they’re all gonna gather on the mall,” and called participants “an angry mob that’s a big chunk of their base.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise also called the protests "Hate America rallies," as HuffPost reported.

"Democrats want to keep the government shut down to show all those people that are going to come here and express their hatred towards this country that they’re fighting President Trump, that they’re keeping the government closed, as if it’s something to be proud of,” Scalise said.

Tuesday morning, Scalise added, "Chuck Schumer is throwing a temper tantrum here at home just to appease the most radical elements of his base."

Emmer: "These guys are playing to the most radical, small, and violent base in the country. You'll see them on Saturday on the Mall. They just do not love this country." pic.twitter.com/Jkq08NFEpy
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 14, 2025

READ MORE: ‘Cornerstone of American Freedom’: National Security Group Blasts Johnson Attack