Author: Sky York Journal

Sky York Journal Despite his central role in the Trump administration, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought had not appeared before Congress to answer questions since last June. That changed this week. And members of Congress had a lot of them. Pressed by senators Thursday on the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine Congress and its constitutional power of the purse, Vought repeatedly insisted the administration had done no such thing. He shook his head “no” on many occasions as members of the Senate Budget Committee accused him of breaking the law by refusing to spend money in the…

Sky York Journal GRAPEVINE, TX – On a cold spring morning in this tony Dallas suburb, dozens of activists had heard the call. They had read the posts; they understood the stakes: America was in crisis, facing a threat from within. It was time for action, and time to take a 5 a.m. bus to the state capital to protest Sharia law.  The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the group that organized the trip, the True Texas Project, part of the “antidemocratic hard right.” Its leaders have expressed fears of white genocide; the woman who funded the trip runs a right-wing-themed…

Sky York Journal As soon as the Supreme Court struck down many of President Donald Trump’s tariffs in February, his administration imposed a new, sweeping 10% tariff on a broad swath of products and countries under a different law, called Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. Now, a group of 24 states and some small businesses is challenging the legality of those replacement tariffs in court. A win for them — likely, ultimately, at the Supreme Court — would further erode a core part of the president’s economic and foreign policy agenda. Trump initially relied on the International…

Sky York Journal Congress is back in town from their two-week Easter recess and Senate Republicans are trying to execute on a second reconciliation package as Congress continues to be consumed by a 58-day Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown, resignations and potential Democratic-led war powers votes. As Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) explained it on Monday night, leadership is hoping to keep the reconciliation package “very, very skinny — anorexic-like skinny.”  “To execute on it and do it with any kind of speed, you’ve got to keep it really tight,” Thune told reporters Monday night. The plan is…

Sky York Journal FRISCO, TEXAS – Far-right activists are seizing on a new example of the America they fear. It’s a booming, Texas city home to the Dallas Cowboys’ practice facility and a PGA golf resort.  The activists’ problem? The city’s population of Indian immigrants and people of Indian descent has grown dramatically in recent years as the town has massively expanded. Per the 2020 census, it was America’s fastest-growing city. The 2000 census put Frisco’s population at 33,000. By 2020, it was 200,000; the city’s mayor told TPM he estimates the current population to be around 250,000. With that…

Sky York Journal Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) suspended his gubernatorial campaign Sunday after four women accused him of sexual misconduct or assault.  One woman, a former staffer of the congressman, told the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN that Swalwell sexually assaulted her twice, in 2019 and 2024. Another woman told CNN that she woke up in Swalwell’s hotel room with no memory of how she’d gotten there. Two others told CNN that they’d received unsolicited sexual photos and messages from Swalwell. Swalwell has denied the allegations, though has seemed to allude to infidelity to his wife in various statements. The…

Sky York Journal Federal employees involved in the massive operation that led to a surge of deportations and detentions around Minneapolis in recent months have received a souvenir from the controversial mission. A federal worker provided TPM with images of a challenge coin that was given to employees from various government agencies at the B.H. Whipple Federal Building Minnesota, which holds a detention center and has served as a headquarters for ICE agents and others involved in the controversial Minneapolis operation, which was dubbed “Metro Surge.” The commemorative token includes portraits of President Donald Trump and a person who appears…

Sky York Journal President Donald Trump fired off an extraordinary Truth Social tirade on Thursday directed at some right wing commentators who have broken ranks over their concerns about his war in Iran. Trump’s post, which was 482 words long, called out ex-Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, conspiracy theory broadcasters Alex Jones and Candace Owens, and the former Fox News hosts Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson.  “They have one thing in common, Low IQs. They’re stupid people, they know it, their families know it, and everyone else knows it, too!” Trump declared in the post, which extensively featured non-standard grammar and…

Sky York Journal Experts have for months been telling TPM that any vote by Congress to fund President Donald Trump’s war in Iran could end up being construed under the law as a passive approval by the legislature of a war it did not greenlight — as has happened with past conflicts. And as Republicans tee up votes on various aspects of war funding, Democrats are sounding the alarm. Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters on Thursday she thinks providing money for the ongoing Iran war — which the Trump administration waged…

Sky York Journal House Democrats on Thursday tried to rein in the Trump administration’s unauthorized Iran war while the House is on its two-week Easter break. A group of House Democrats — including Reps. Don Beyer (D-VA), Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA), James Walkinshaw (D-VA), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), Madeleine Dean (D-PA), Glenn Ivey (D-MD), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), and Emily Randall (D-WA) — attended the House’s pro forma session Thursday morning in an attempt to pass a war powers resolution with unanimous consent. The effort failed when the member presiding over the session as speaker pro tempore, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), ignored…