Donald Trump Signs A Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Law — Explained

Navarrette Nation Substack — The Explainer 7/4/25

Advisory: Americans are tired of opinions. What they want instead are clear and simple explanations for what they see going on in a world that seems to get more complicated by the week. In that spirit, the Friday edition of Navarrette Nation Substack will now be titled “The Explainer.” Every Friday, the one big story of the week, explained. Simple as that.

Critical Thinking At A Critical Time

Every Friday

777 words; 8 min

Well, it’s done. Today, at a White House ceremony celebrating the Fourth of July, President Donald Trump signed into law his so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.” And the only thing it cost the hollowed out husk previously known as the Republican Party was its heart, mind and soul.

But who knows how much those three trinkets are worth these days. The GOP probably won’t even know they’re gone.

Meanwhile, passing the massive $3.4 trillion bill was a huge legislative win for Trump. It demonstrated the president’s political skills as well as his ability to steamroll adversaries and coerce allies to get everything he wants and nothing he doesn’t.

Apparently, Trump and his Republican accomplices — especially House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune — don’t know much about history…or math.

My fellow political junkies will surely remember the political catch phrase “voodoo economics.”

That blast from the past goes back 45 years. It was during the 1980 Republican presidential nomination fight that George H.W. Bush blasted the policy agenda of his opponent, Ronald Reagan, as being less about trickle down and more centered on hocus-pocus. Reagan wanted to slash social spending, increase defense funding and lower taxes — and do all three without adding to the national debt. Totally impossible, Bush scoffed, dismissing Reagan’s fiscal game plan as nothing more than smoke and mirrors or “voodoo economics.”

All week, I’ve been thinking about that exchange, and that memorable phrase. Because the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” tax-and-spend budget bill that President Trump crafted and House and Senate Republicans dutifully passed — albeit by narrow margins — is the 2025 version of voodoo economics. The bill made it to the president’s desk by trampling every principle that Republicans have claimed to stand for.

Despite the fact that Trump said while campaigning last year that Republicans should not strip away health care from working-class Americans, the bill is estimated to result in between 12 million and 15 million people — many of them in MAGA — losing Medicaid coverage.

Despite the fact that Republicans like to market themselves as the party of fiscal discipline and budgetary restraint, the bill is likely to add — to the chagrin of GOP fiscal hawks — another $3 trillion to America’s national debt, which already tips the scales at $37 trillion.

Despite the fact that Republicans like Reagan supported immigration, and would never have backed the sweeping deportation raids currently being inflicted upon cities like Los Angeles, the bill increases funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Folks, that’s a lot of “despites.” Congressional Republicans turned themselves inside out in order to support their president.

Getting this enormous bill passed and signed was always going to be a heavy lift that would make for high drama. Here are five quick takeaways from this big but not-so-beautiful telenovela.

1. The bill became more unpopular as time went on. Why is unclear. Americans are used to seeing bills that promise lower taxes, spending cuts, and increased defense spending. But in politics, bigger is not always better. I have a hunch that it was the enormity of the 1,000+ page bill that scared off many folks.

2. “Hold your nose” Republicans had a starring role. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska opposed the bill all along, but she eventually voted “yes” in exchange for generous servings of pork for her constituents. Even after she sold out, she seemed to be visibly uncomfortable with her decision.

3. Trump, Johnson and Thune shrewdly used a strategy of sticks and carrots to get every possible Republican vote for the bill in both chambers. The sticks came from Trump who threatened to “primary” any Republican lawmaker who didn’t fall in line. The carrots were from Johnson and Thune, who offered goodies in exchange for votes.

4. The Medicaid cuts are likely to pack a punch for MAGA voters, many of whom come from the working-class and sometimes depend on government assistance to offset the costs of health care. Remember, Trump helped the GOP get the support of everyday, blue-collar Americans. But what Trump giveth, Trump might taketh away.

5. Without Trump, there would be no BBB — and no drama. That’s not just because another Republican president would likely not have been bold enough to propose it and aggressively push it through. It’s also because, only with Trump in charge, were Republicans willing to support a bill they would probably never have supported otherwise.

Will the “Big Beautiful Bill” be good or bad for America? It’s too soon to tell. We’ll have to wait and see. This much is clear now: We’ve never seen the likes of it. And hopefully, we never will again.

There, that should explain things.

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Fresh Ink —

Creators Syndicate

Nationally Syndicated Column, 6/26/25

Ruben Navarrette

As Trump Continues To Terrorize Los Angeles, the Question Remains: Who Are These Masked Men?

SAN DIEGO -- As they try to tell the complicated story of what has been happening for the last three weeks on the streets of Los Angeles, the media have been making a big mistake.

Reporters, anchors and columnists need to stop accepting at face value the increasingly dubious claim that these are, in fact, "ICE agents" who are snatching from predominantly Latino neighborhoods an untold number of people who are never seen or heard from again.

Who says the masked men carrying out these abductions without identification or judicial warrants are sworn law enforcement officers working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement? As lawyers say in court, that claim assumes facts not in evidence.

Maybe the media have up to now just assumed that these goons were ICE agents because some of them claim to be conducting an "immigration investigation." Or maybe it's because some of them wear vests stamped with official-looking insignias. Not good enough.

Until more is known, here's what the media should say: "Today, in a largely Latino neighborhood, an individual working at a car wash appears to have been kidnapped by a group of masked men with no identification, warrants or official paperwork of any kind who threw the worker to the ground, punched and manhandled him before tossing him into an unmarked civilian vehicle and driving away. The masked men also shoved witnesses and tried to stop the abduction from being filmed. Anyone with information about this apparent crime should contact local police immediately."

It's been three weeks since the Trump administration invaded Los Angeles with Marines, National Guard and hundreds of federal law enforcement officers.

Yet we still don't know who the people making contact with migrants really are. They're likely independent contractors hired by the Department of Homeland Security who are paid by the hour or being offered a bounty for every immigrant they scoop up.

Some of the masked men may be white supremacist Oath Keepers or Proud Boys who are finally getting the chance to live out a longtime fantasy where they round up as many Mexicans as the family minivan can hold and take them to heaven knows where.

We may not know who these people are, but we have a pretty good idea who they aren't. They aren't police. If you take a good look at the footage taken by witnesses and placed on TikTok, the video evidence suggests that many of the abductors appear to be over-the-hill, out-of-shape, often unarmed impostors who seem to be playing cop.

According to KABC-Channel 7 in Los Angeles, one of the witnesses to these makeshift immigration raids is a woman named Bertha Alicia Guzman. She intervened during a recent raid at a car wash in Torrance and prevented a worker from being detained by, well, whoever these people are. Guzman filmed the intervention. The video shows her telling the worker in Spanish not to answer any questions as a masked man stood next to him. The car wash owner's son, Emmanuel Karim Nicola-Cruz, also questioned the men, telling them they were trespassing on private property. They ignored him. Nicola-Cruz said one of his other employees was shoved against a fence while another was pushed to the ground. Again, remember, all this was done by people who wouldn't identify themselves.

It appears that the Trump administration -- which lies about most things -- has based the entire occupation of Los Angeles on a whopper.

It appears that a lot of the people currently snatching Mexicans off street corners all throughout Los Angeles -- because they fit the "profile" of what illegal immigrants look like -- aren't really ICE agents at all.

It was about two weeks ago that this first occurred to me. And I haven't stopped thinking about it since. Blame my upbringing. I know all about cops. I grew up around them. My father was on the job for 37 years.

These people don't act like cops. For one thing, real cops wouldn't let concerned bystanders with phones prevent them from doing their jobs. They might threaten to arrest the bystander for obstructing justice. But they certainly wouldn't scurry away like frightened squirrels.

Who are these masked men? Finding out should be a top priority for the brave men and women of the Los Angeles Police Department. They don't wear masks, and they're sworn to protect and serve the people of their city. It's time for them to get on with the "protecting" part.

To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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