Earlier this week, we noted that short-dated USA sovereign CDS were trading wider than China and Greece as trade policy uncertainty and the debt ceiling ‘X-date’ loomed…

…well, it appears Moody’s Rating Agency noted it too… because they just downgraded the Government of United States of America’s (US) long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings to Aa1 from Aaa and changed the outlook to stable from negative.

The one-notch cut comes more than a year after Moody’s changed its outlook on the US rating to negative, with Moody’s joining Fitch Ratings and S&P Global Ratings in grading the world’s biggest economy below the top, triple-A position.

This one-notch downgrade on our 21-notch rating scale reflects the increase over more than a decade in government debt and interest payment ratios to levels that are significantly higher than similarly rated sovereigns.

Successive US administrations and Congress have failed to agree on measures to reverse the trend of large annual fiscal deficits and growing interest costs. 

We do not believe that material multi-year reductions in mandatory spending and deficits will result from current fiscal proposals under consideration. 

Over the next decade, we expect larger deficits as entitlement spending rises while government revenue remains broadly flat. 

In turn, persistent, large fiscal deficits will drive the government’s debt and interest burden higher. 

The US’ fiscal performance is likely to deteriorate relative to its own past and compared to other highly-rated sovereigns.

The stable outlook reflects balanced risks at Aa1. 

The US retains exceptional credit strengths such as the size, resilience and dynamism of its economy and the role of the US dollar as global reserve currency. In addition, while recent months have been characterized by a degree of policy uncertainty, we expect that the US will continue its long history of very effective monetary policy led by an independent Federal Reserve. 

The stable outlook also takes into account institutional features, including the constitutional separation of powers among the three branches of government that contributes to policy effectiveness over time and is relatively insensitive to events over a short period. 

While these institutional arrangements can be tested at times, we expect them to remain strong and resilient.

The US’ long-term local- and foreign-currency country ceilings remain at Aaa. 

The Aaa local-currency ceiling reflects a small government footprint in the economy and extremely low risk of currency and balance of payment crises. 

The foreign-currency ceiling at Aaa reflects the country’s strong policy effectiveness and an open capital account, reducing transfer and convertibility risks.

RATIONALE FOR THE RATINGS DOWNGRADE TO Aa1

Over more than a decade, US federal debt has risen sharply due to continuous fiscal deficits. 

During that time, federal spending has increased while tax cuts have reduced government revenues. 

As deficits and debt have grown, and interest rates have risen, interest payments on government debt have increased markedly.

Without adjustments to taxation and spending, we expect budget flexibility to remain limited, with mandatory spending, including interest expense, projected to rise to around 78% of total spending by 2035 from about 73% in 2024.

If the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is extended, which is our base case, it will add around $4 trillion to the federal fiscal primary (excluding interest payments) deficit over the next decade.

As a result, we expect federal deficits to widen, reaching nearly 9% of GDP by 2035, up from 6.4% in 2024, driven mainly by increased interest payments on debt, rising entitlement spending, and relatively low revenue generation. 

We anticipate that the federal debt burden will rise to about 134% of GDP by 2035, compared to 98% in 2024.

Despite high demand for US Treasury assets, higher Treasury yields since 2021 have contributed to a decline in debt affordability. 

Federal interest payments are likely to absorb around 30% of revenue by 2035, up from about 18% in 2024 and 9% in 2021. The US general government interest burden, which takes into account federal, state and local debt, absorbed 12% of revenue in 2024, compared to 1.6% for Aaa-rated sovereigns.

While we recognize the US’ significant economic and financial strengths, we believe these no longer fully counterbalance the decline in fiscal metrics.

Moody’s couldn’t help but take a shot at Trump’s tariffs:

The US economy is unique among the sovereigns we rate.

It combines very large scale, high average incomes, strong growth potential and a track-record of innovation that supports productivity and GDP growth. 

While GDP growth is likely to slow in the short term as the economy adjusts to higher tariffs, we do not expect that the US’ long-term growth will be significantly affected.

But they did say something positive…

Despite reserve diversification by central banks globally over the past twenty years, we expect the US dollar to remain the dominant global reserve currency for the foreseeable future.

…

Moreover, the resilience of the US sovereign rating to shocks is supported by strong monetary and macroeconomic policy institutions.

Although policy has been less predictable in recent months, relative to what has typically been the case in the US and other highly-rated sovereigns, we expect that monetary and macroeconomic policy effectiveness will remain very strong, preserving macroeconomic and financial stability through business cycles.

The timing is exceptional, as Republicans try to get Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ out of committee… and as everyone knows, there’s no such thing as a coincidence in Washington.

US equity markets are trading down after hours on the news:

Trump’s gonna be pissed!!

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

Cool?

“I’m very concerned for [the president’s] life. And James Comey, in my view, should be held accountable and put behind bars for this.”

– DNI Tulsi Gabbard

“Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” Jim Comey, former FBI Director wrote on Instagram about the message “86 47” laid out in seashells on the sand that he came across, innocently.

You’d have to ask yourself: what was “cool” about that, exactly? Especially if, as Mr. Comey claimed on X soon after, that he didn’t know what it meant. 

Are things that you don’t understand “cool”? Is it just “cool” to learn that you can spell stuff out with seashells? (Who knew?)

Maybe he was surprised to learn that people other than Jim Comey fans might see his cute coded clip and conclude that it wasn’t such an innocent little gag. “47,” of course, refers to Donald Trump in the cavalcade of US presidents. Among the not-strrictly-fans was DNI Tulsi Gabbard, who went on TV hours later and said that Mr. Comey should go to prison for it — in so many words. You must suppose she meant after the appropriate procedures: an FBI deposition, a grand jury, an indictment, a trial. After all that, we’d probably get to the bottom of what JC meant by “cool.”

Now, it happens that in this new milieu of memes flying around every which way, the code “86 47” is not a complete mystery. It is apparently employed casually in settings where angry citizens gather to denounce the president. “86” is a term in restaurant kitchens when there is no more of an item that a waiter just brought in an order for. “Eighty-six on the monkfish, Carla,” the line-cook might yell. Apparently, mobsters like the phrase, too, for its pithiness: “Ay, somebody, go eighty-six that stronzo Rocco Vaselino, already! He ain’t paid da vig in a munt.” Soon, there will be no more of Rocco, you see. He will be food for the hellgrammites in the soil of the Jersey pine barrens. . . .

As DNI Gabbard pointed out — in case no one noticed — there have been two recent assassination attempts on Mr. Trump. It is a fact well-known to police psychologists that would-be assassins are curiously suggestible to prompts floating around in the zeitgeist. They tend to take them as commands. Go do this. And if anyone was a commanding figure, it would be Jim Comey, towering hero of the early anti-Trump resistance. Thus, it appears that Mr. Comey called for there to be no more of Mr. Trump. Not cool.

Also, not so cool, in the grand annals of the resistance, is the new book Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, by journalists (cough cough) Jake Tapper (of CNN) and Alex Thompson (Axios). The book purports to explain how the entire governance apparatus of the USA hid the mental decline of “Joe Biden,” the phantom president. Realize, please, that the news media is a vital part of that apparatus, and has been since the invention of the printing press, with its crucial role (until lately) as a regulating mechanism on the engine of public affairs.

In fact, it is precisely the role of the news media to notice things that public officials try to hide, so as to keep citizens apprised of what is really going on. And that is exactly what the news media intentionally declined to do during the four years of “Joe Biden.” But then, at least half the country, seeing “Joe Biden” in action on video, did not fail to notice his ever-worsening feeble bewilderment. Tapper and Thompson seek to shift the blame for this game of Pretend onto the gremlins behind the scenes in the White House who ran the “Joe Biden” show.

Tapper and Thompson are lying, of course, and in exactly the same brazen way as the bigwigs in the Democratic Party who sponsored this treasonous fraud. Jake Tapper, for one, stated repeatedly on-the-air from 2021 onward that “Joe Biden” was a capable and effective chief executive and denounced anybody who tried to argue otherwise. Just as Thompson, while accepting the Award for Overall Excellence at the White House Correspondents’ Annual Dinner in April, lied saying, “We, myself included, missed a lot of this story.” Really? Then what, exactly, was “excellent” about his reporting?

They also missed the story as to how the White House gremlins behind “Joe Biden” were wrecking the country with open borders, election fraud, drag queens in kindergarten, censorship, lawfare, and a colossal stream of secret grift from taxpayers through USAID-linked NGO’s to Democratic Party foot-soldiers like Stacey Abrams. The more plausible story — the truth, actually — is that the companies many reporters worked for, the old big newspapers like The New York Times and the WashPo, and the cable-news channels such as (especially) CNN and MSNBC were losing their audiences until they discovered that Trump Derangement was the only way to stave off complete failure.

Once they got going with that business model in 2016, they wrecked the news media’s credibility. And virtually everything after that has been an ongoing cover-up for their dishonorable malfeasance and the crimes of the party they fronted for. But the levers of power are in other hands now. There will be consequences for government officials who go to war against the people of this land, committing sedition and treason. Suggesting the murder of a president on social media is no light matter. By the time this blog is up, officers of the Secret Service may be visiting Mr. Comey at home. No need to batter down the front door with guns drawn, though. That would be so un-cool.

Following more Houthi ballistic missile attacks targeting Israel in recent days, the IDF conducted a wave of new airstrikes in Yemen on Friday, and crucially as the US military has stepped back amid the Trump-declared ceasefire.

The IDF announced that its airstrikes destroyed infrastructure at the Houthi-controlled ports of Hodeidah and Salif, following missile and drone attacks on Israel. Several dozens of Israeli Air Force aircraft were involved, in a major operation that included not just fighter jets, but refueler and surveillance planes.

This operation appears significantly bigger and more expansive in scope than all prior rounds of Israeli attacks on Yemen. The strikes will likely continue in the coming days, especially if the Houthis respond with more attacks on Israel. The timing of Trump having just wrapped up his Gulf Arab states tour is interesting, to say the least.

“These ports are used for the transfer of weapons and are another example of the cynical exploitation of civilian infrastructure by the Houthi terror regime to advance terror,” the IDF aid.

Yemen’s Sanaa International Airport was targeted by Israel for the second time, and much of it, including commercial aircraft, has already been destroyed.

The IDF said further that its goal is to “deepen the damage to the Houthis’ terror capabilities.” Interestingly all of this comes as President Trump departs the Middle East, after his four-day Gulf tour, which made little mention of Israel or of the Houthis – at least in public comments.

According to Times of Israel, these attacks were delayed so as not to disrupt Trump’s Gulf visit:

Israel waited until the end of US President Trump’s visit to the region before launching its reprisal strikes on the Houthis, a defense source tells Army Radio. Since the IDF’s last strike on Yemen, on May 6, the Houthis launched at least seven missiles and two drones at Israel.

“The IDF now struck and severely damaged the ports in Yemen that are under the control of the Houthi terror group. The airport in Sanaa also remains destroyed,” Defense Minister Katz has also described on X.

⚡️ From the bombing of Ras Issa port, northwest Yemen pic.twitter.com/a50AGfjlIj

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) May 16, 2025

“As we said, if the Houthis continue to fire missiles on Israel, they will suffer painful blows, and we will also strike the heads of terror just as we did to Deif and the Sinwars in Gaza, to Nasrallah in Beirut and Haniyeh in Tehran,” he added.

Underscoring just what a major and important operation this is, the Israeli government issued images of Prime Minister Netanyahu and his security cabinet leaders and top military commanders huddling in a command bunker:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir are huddled in the Israeli Air Force underground command center during the strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.

This is clearly Bibi ‘at war’… ironically as Trump wrapped up his regional tour emphasizing peace through deal-making, not chaos.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir in the situation room as Air Force jets attack infrastructure of the Houthi terrorist regime in Yemen.

📷 – Shira Keinan/Defense Ministry pic.twitter.com/gfnhIwTrBM

— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) May 16, 2025

Israel is further vowing to decapitate Houthi leadership. “We will hunt down and eliminate Abdul-Malik al-Houthi in Yemen as well. We will defend ourselves by our own strength against any enemy,” Katz added.

Our previous supply chain analysis revealed a list of major US brands that remained heavily exposed to China. The ongoing trade war has lit a fire under U.S. management teams, accelerating efforts to shift production—either through friend-shoring or reshoring—as it appears likely that some level of tariffs on Chinese goods will remain through the second half of the year. 

The latest U.S. company highlighting its China exposure is drinkware brand YETI, which disclosed at an investor conference this week that shifting production out of China has become a top priority.

Goldman analysts Brooke Roach, Evan Dorschner, and others wrote in a note on Thursday about the top takeaways from their visit to YETI’s headquarters in Austin, Texas, for an investor meeting. 

Roach said their conversations with management revolved around :

1. U.S. growth;

2. Drinkware;

3. Product innovation and portfolio extension;

4. Supply chain transformation and tariffs;

5. International expansion

On US growth, the drinkware business, and the innovation pipeline, the analyst summarized their conversations with management:

• U.S. growth opportunity: YETI continues to see immense growth opportunity in its core U.S. market. Within this, management expects growth to be driven by three components: (1) Stoking brand heat; (2) Continuing to build out the product portfolio; and (3) Expanding the depth of their channels. On product, management’s tone was especially positive on the bags category as a driver, but they also highlighted continued extensions of their core hard cooler and drinkware portfolios through new form factors, use cases, sizes, and other diversification.

• Drinkware: While drinkware remains an area of pressure for the business overall given headwinds in specific SKUs, the company continues to see growth opportunity for the category as a result of innovation and new form factors. Management sounded particularly constructive on improving upon core products (such as stackable products vs. original items in the same family), as well as ceramic coated drinkware items and the upcoming sports jug launch. The food and cooking categories are also an area of opportunity, with management noting that several recent launches (food storage and bowls) were top requested items from ambassadors and customers. The company also pointed out its historical ability to weather other drinkware cycles in the past. Looking ahead, the company remains focused on driving relevancy in the core through innovation, though SKU productivity remains a key priority as well.

• Approach to innovation: The company is accelerating its innovation pipeline, with plans to launch 30 products this year and sustain the faster pace of innovation recently reached, while simultaneously building brand stories around new product launches. YETI discussed its approach to innovation, noting they have dedicated senior leaders who focus on each of their core growth opportunities: (1) softgoods; (2) C&E, and (3) food and beverage. The company highlighted that its current product portfolio provides opportunities for significant expansion in the shoulder areas of where they currently play, with products having connections to the core brand. Importantly, all products must have durability, performance, and design as core principles, as well as offer relevance to the consumer in multiple aspects of their life. YETI is thus focused on broader use cases outside of core outdoor categories (i.e. bags and backpacks rather than just the subcategory of hydration bags). Management noted several new innovations are on the horizon, including a broader rollout of their small soft coolers / lunchbag category and additional SKUs in the backpack category.

Here’s where analysts and YETI management discussed tariffs, sourcing, and international strategy.

The key takeaway: tariff pressures have accelerated YETI’s supply chain shift out of China, with production increasingly moving to Thailand, Malaysia, and other Southeast Asian countries equipped with full-scale manufacturing capabilities.

• Tariff commentary: YETI highlighted tariff disruption did drive the company to rework its product development process, driving a faster innovation cycle and speed to market. The company noted that the tariff impact will depend on timing of purchases and capitalization of inventory on the balance sheet (with constraints focused on new launches with production in China), but that it can recapture a lot of the pressures as they continue to diversify and optimize their supply chain.

• Sourcing: Shifting production out of China remains a key priority for YETI. The company clarified that its top partners have been building manufacturing facilities in Thailand and Malaysia which are now ramping. Beyond this, tertiary partners are also shifting production outside of China but are in earlier stages of the transition, with factories set to open in SE Asia. Net, the company expects to have four key partners and five factory facilities outside of China in their first wave of diversification which leverages existing suppliers. Importantly, management noted these facilities have full manufacturing capabilities (not just finishing and testing), are efficient (strong labor force / robotics capabilities), and have competitive costing to China sourcing (following initial start-up inefficiencies).

• International: Management reiterated the Australian and Canadian markets continue to perform well overall, and struck a constructive tone regarding the company’s potential in the UK. Germany is also a high-potential market but is in earlier stages of scaling compared to the UK. YETI also highlighted the whitespace it has in Asia which is largely an untapped market for the company.

Roach has a “Neutral” rating on YETI shares with a 12-month price target of $28. 

On Tuesday, Aaron Jagdfeld, CEO of Generac Holdings, appeared on Bloomberg Television to discuss the company’s long-term strategy to reduce reliance on Chinese supply chains. He outlined that Generac has been reducing its supply chain exposure to China since President Trump’s first term and will reduce its 10% exposure to 5% in 18 months. 

Seattle, Washington-based Wyze Labs, a popular seller on Amazon of smart home and wireless camera products, revealed on X earlier this month that their “first tariff bill” has “accelerated” efforts to leave China in two months, with serious consideration of restoring supply chains in the United States.

Trump’s tariff shock is working. It has always been about pressuring corporate America to detach from cheap China supply chains and either friend-shore or re-shore.  

.   .   . 

Just a reminder…

In Hot Water: YETI Bars Conservative Group from Customizing Cups https://t.co/1EGUoSSiY1

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 28, 2025

Authored by Mary Prenon via The Epoch Times,

Inappropriate attire, excessive use of cell phones, poor quality of work, and foul language are just a few of the reasons 65 percent of U.S. hiring managers gave for firing college graduates who had recently started their first job.

A Pollfish survey of 1,000 managers across America, reported by Resume.com, revealed the reasons that eight in 10 managers said newly hired college graduates did not work out during their first year on the job.

Excessive use of cell phones ranked as the top pet peeve of managers, at 78 percent. Some 61 percent of managers found their new hires were entitled or easily offended, while 57 percent noted these new employees were unprepared for the workplace. Lack of a work ethic scored 54 percent, followed by poor communication skills at 48 percent and lack of technical skills at 27 percent.

Other concerns managers had about the graduates included lateness, failure to turn in assignments on time, unprofessional behavior, and inappropriate dress and language. Seventy percent of companies surveyed noted that some hires had to be placed on performance improvement plans.

“Colleges don’t teach students how to behave in the workplace, and there is a lack of transitional support from both universities and employers,” Resume.org’s career coach Irina Pichura stated in the report.

“Most students graduate with little exposure to professional environments, so when they arrive at their first job, they’re often learning basic workplace norms for the first time. Colleges should have a workplace training program to support graduates’ transition to the workplace.”

Clark Lowe, CEO of O’Connor Company, a leading national commercial construction firm, agrees.

“Colleges do a disservice to students in not preparing them for work,” he told The Epoch Times. “Parenting has also been pushed off to the schools, and building of character has been pushed off to the workplace. That’s very frustrating!”

Lowe served as an adjunct professor for Mercy University in Dobbs Ferry, New York, for many years, teaching graduate business courses.

“A lot of professors have no work experience beyond teaching,” he said.

“They grow up in academia and stay there, but all of those degrees and certificates are not going to replace work experience.”

Based in Pinehurst, North Carolina, the O’Connor Company is a remote company with about 60 employees, including skilled construction workers, project managers, and staff in accounting, marketing, and administration. It develops nonresidential structures such as public and educational buildings.

Last year, the company hired 30 new employees and plans to add 10 more this year.

“The latest generation seems to be getting more and more entitled,” Lowe said.

He and his team have also had some problems with recent college graduates, especially those who had never held any type of job.

“In our experience, those people tend to be difficult to work with since the work ethic is not there and they have never learned what it’s like to earn their own paycheck,” he said.

Previous Work Experience Is a Must

Lowe looks for individuals who show initiative and drive and are excited about coming to work. Previous work experience is a must for his firm.

“We don’t care what type of work they did, whether it was in a gas station or retail store,” he said. “What’s important is that jobs teach them responsibility, time management, and a work ethic.”

Only 58 percent of companies responding to the Pollfish survey indicated they plan to hire from the class of 2025, and one in six hiring managers admit they’re hesitant to hire recent graduates at all. Of those managers who are open to hiring new Generation Z graduates, more than 50 percent are seeking qualities such as initiative, a positive attitude, a strong work ethic, adaptability, and openness to feedback.

Pichura also shared advice for recent graduates on how to demonstrate initiative during and after the hiring process.

“During the interview, candidates should come prepared with research and ideas,” she said.

She recommends using real examples, such as stories where the individual stepped up without being asked to solve a problem. She refers to the “Situation, Task, Action, Result” method as the “STAR” method.

Once hired, Pichura noted, a new employee should look for ways to take ownership of tasks, ask for feedback, and go beyond their role.

“Even in an entry-level role, new hires can stand out by looking for small ways to own tasks, solve problems, and offer solutions before being asked,” she said.

“Being reliable, meeting deadlines, and treating every task with care and intention builds trust and credibility early on.”

Having embarrassed themselves with their TDS-driven cognitive dissonance over the past few months, Democrat-voting UMich respondents (and women, and low income Americans) in the preliminary May survey (a month after Liberation Day and also post-Pause and the massive meltup in stocks) turned the TDS-terror dial to ’11’.

Consumer Expectations are now at their lowest since – drum roll please… May 1980…

Source: Bloomberg

Tariffs were spontaneously mentioned by nearly three-quarters of consumers, up from almost 60% in April; uncertainty over trade policy continues to dominate consumers’ thinking about the economy. 

Note that interviews for this release were conducted between April 22 and May 13, closing two days after the announcement of a pause on some tariffs on imports from China.

The percentage of UMich respondents making unsolicited negative comments about news they’ve heard on government economic policy has surged to a record high of 66%!

Source: Bloomberg

The share of consumers expecting unemployment to rise in the year ahead increased for the sixth consecutive month and is now more than double the November 2024 reading and the highest since 2009.

Source: Bloomberg

Year-ahead inflation expectations surged from 6.7% last month to 7.3% this month, the highest reading since 1981 and marking five consecutive months of unusually large increases of 0.5 percentage points or more.

Source: Bloomberg

This month’s rise was seen across all three political affiliations. Long-run inflation expectations climbed from 4.4% in April to 4.6% in May, reflecting a particularly large jump among Democrats to a ridiculous 9.6% over the next year!!

Source: Bloomberg

Republicans did forecast a rise in their view of 5Y inflation expectations (while Democrats were flat at 5.1%)…

Source: Bloomberg

Spot the odd one out – UMich Democrats, The NY Fed, or The Market…

Source: Bloomberg

One more for fun – comparing Democrats view of the inflationary outlook to the ‘hard’ inflationary data…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, given their historic track record (completely refusing to acknowledge the surge in inflation under Biden), should we simply be ignoring the manic Democrats screaming about inflation now?

Source: Bloomberg

The Republicans seemed to get it? But then again, they’re all racist ignoramuses with no PhDs… so there’s that, right!?

Sorry, one more that made us fucking laugh… one-third of women surveyed believe inflation over the next year will be 15% or higher…

Low-Income Americans are also terrified like never before…

So someone is lying: actual spending all time high while reported sentiment (based on 250 polled UMich respondents) is all time low.

Is the soft-data slump all driven by leftists imbibing mainstream media’s desperate propaganda-fueled terror of what Trump is doing?

Perhaps that explains why soft survey data has started to turn back up to hard data reality in the last week as it’s hard to hate and keep pushing out your depression-era forecasts when stocks are at record highs and jobless claims remain near record lows.

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

A federal judge in New Mexico has dismissed the charges against dozens of illegal immigrants who were accused of violating security regulations by trespassing on a military zone along the U.S.–Mexico border, according to court documents filed this week.

Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Gregory Wormuth ruled that the federal government had failed to demonstrate that the illegal immigrants knew they were entering the restricted New Mexico National Defense Area (NMNDA).

According to court filings dated May 14 and 15, the government argued that it had placed signs in both English and Spanish to declare that the area is a military zone and that any unauthorized entry is prohibited.

But Wormuth stated that this was insufficient to prove that the illegal immigrants knew they were violating security regulations when they entered the areas, as the defendants may have missed the signs.

“As the United States concedes, the NMNDA spans over 180 miles of ‘often difficult and mountainous terrain,’” the judge stated. 

“The mere fact that some ‘signs’ were posted in the NMNDA provides no basis on which to conclude that the defendant could have seen, let alone did see, the signs.”

Assistant Federal Public Defender Amanda Skinner said that Wormuth dismissed the trespassing charges against all illegal immigrants who made initial court appearances on May 15. They still face charges for crossing the border illegally.

The Epoch Times sought comment from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico, which filed the charges against the illegal immigrants last month, but did not hear back by publication time.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico began charging illegal immigrants with violating security regulations for crossing into the restricted military zone on April 28, on top of illegal border crossing charges. At least 339 people have been charged for entering the military zone as of May 9, according to the attorney’s office.

The military zone includes the Roosevelt Reservation, a 60-foot-wide corridor owned by the federal government running along the border in California, Arizona, and New Mexico.

The Interior Department transferred control of nearly 110,000 acres of federal land along the border to the U.S. Army on April 15, granting the military control of the border zone for three years.

The U.S. Northern Command announced on May 1 a second military zone dubbed the Texas National Defense Area, a 63-mile stretch that runs east from the Texas–New Mexico state line in El Paso.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has previously warned that any unauthorized attempt to enter the national defense areas would lead to an arrest.

“Any illegal attempting to enter that zone is entering a military base—a federal, protected area,” Hegseth said in a video message on April 25. 

“You will be detained. You will be interdicted by U.S. troops and Border Patrol working together.”

Hegseth said that this marked only the first phase, as the Defense Department plans to expand military zones along the U.S. border to further strengthen border security.

“If you have attempted to evade, that’s evading law enforcement, just like you would any other military base. You add up the charges of what you can be charged with misdemeanors and felonies, you can be looking at up to 10 years in prison when prosecuted,” he said.

President Donald Trump issued a memorandum on April 11 authorizing the military to take control of the land to curb illegal immigration and drug trafficking.

“Our southern border is under attack from a variety of threats,” Trump wrote in the April 11 memo. “The complexity of the current situation requires that our military take a more direct role in securing our southern border than in the recent past.”

Update (1210ET): The House Budget Committee has voted down the reconciliation bill by a vote of 16-21 – with GOP Reps. Clyde, Roy, Breechen, Norman and Smucker (who flipped his vote) all voting “no”.

“This bill falls profoundly short. It does not do what we say it does with respect to deficits,” said Rep. Chip Roy.

Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) said “I am unable to support this package in its current form, but I look forward to strengthening this bill to ensure that it does pass, so that we full all of our America First promises to the American people.”

Whilst Ralph Norman (R-SC) said “Sadly, I’m a hard no until we get this ironed out.”

According to Punchbowl‘s Jake Sherman, Smucker likely flipped “no” to preserve the ability to reconsider the bill at a later time.

House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Jody Arrington (R-TX) said after the vote “I do not anticipate us coming back today.”

*  *  *

A fiery intra-party fight exploded on Capitol Hill Friday as House Republicans clashed over President Donald Trump’s mammoth “One Big Beautiful Bill,” with Trump himself jumping into the fray to torch conservative holdouts as attention-hungry “grandstanders.”

As the House Budget Committee met to advance the 1,116-plus-page megabill – packed with Trump’s signature proposals on taxes, Medicaid, and immigration – chaos broke out behind the scenes, and in front of the cameras, as hardline conservatives threatened to blow up the entire process.

“Republicans MUST UNITE behind ‘THE ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL!’” Trump posted on Truth Social. “We don’t need ‘GRANDSTANDERS’ in the Republican Party. STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE!”

The scorched-earth post came as the House Budget Committee met down to mark up the massive reconciliation bill, which bundles together much of Trump’s second-term policy wishlist: tax cuts, welfare reform, immigration crackdowns, and the death of Biden’s green energy subsidies.

But what was supposed to be a legislative victory lap turned into a high-stakes hostage crisis, with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) caught between warring GOP factions, each demanding major changes and threatening to sink the bill if they don’t get their way.

Conservatives on the committee – Reps. Chip Roy, Ralph Norman, Andrew Clyde, and Josh Brecheen – signaled they were ready to vote against the bill unless major changes were made. Their demands include a faster phase-in of Medicaid work requirements, a ban on undocumented immigrants receiving federal benefits, and immediate termination of Inflation Reduction Act clean energy provisions.

“If they don’t [change it], I’m gonna vote no. We’ll kill it,” Norman warned Thursday. “I don’t want to. But I will.”

The vote is ongoing, with Roy and Norman both using their time during committee to voice their opposition, CNN‘s Sarah Farris reports.

Ok we’re now at TWO no votes: Roy and Norman both used their time during committee to say they’re opposed

Both Brecheen and Clyde supposed to speak now but neither are there to speak. If either opposes, it’s done for today. https://t.co/pDIwEaw6zT

— Sarah Ferris (@sarahnferris) May 16, 2025

The tension spilled into full view Friday morning when Norman, Roy, and Clyde abruptly left the committee room moments before the markup was scheduled to begin, prompting immediate speculation they were staging a walkout. All three returned shortly afterward, saying little, but still signaling deep frustration.

Norman told reporters the situation was “very disappointing,” adding “I hope they recess.”

Rep. Roy: “I’m not going home this weekend. I’m staying here all weekend and we’re going to get this damn thing done but the right way.

I’m not going to vote for a bad bill. I didn’t come here to raise debt. I didn’t come here to increase deficits. I didn’t come here to cement… pic.twitter.com/0jcqR9cgz3

— Rep. Chip Roy Press Office (@RepChipRoy) May 16, 2025

Johnson, for his part, is trying to keep the circus moving. He has pledged to make some concessions – such as speeding up work requirement timelines and possibly harmonizing those across both Medicaid and SNAP – but every adjustment risks triggering a backlash from the other side of the GOP spectrum.

“If you push too hard on one side, the other side bulges out,” opines Punchbowl News. “That’s exactly what’s happening here.”

Very SALTy

Moderates are already howling over cuts to safety net programs and demanding changes of their own. Blue-state Republicans want the SALT deduction cap raised above the $30,000 ceiling currently in the bill. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) wants to remove language that would block legal refugees from getting food aid. And Florida Republicans are furious over a provision that clamps down on provider taxes – a method states use to draw more federal Medicaid dollars.

The markup itself became a theater of dysfunction – with Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT) joking about the fact that he went viral earlier this week for falling asleep during a late-night hearing. “I also appreciate that you schedule the markup during daylight hours,” he said. Chair Jodey Arrington (R-TX) fired back: “Some of the staff decided to chip in and equip your chair with an electric shocking mechanism… I hope that is also a bipartisan proposal.”

Unbelievable. Rep. Blake Moore falls asleep during a committee meeting and had to be woken up. pic.twitter.com/xSKPKkP628

— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) May 14, 2025

But behind the laughs, the reality is grim. With Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) absent for the birth of his child, Johnson can’t afford even a single Republican defection if he wants the bill to make it out of committee.

Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) tried to downplay the drama, telling reporters, “The goal is to get it out of the committee today… because failure is not an option.”

How did we get here? These speed bumps aren’t surprising. This is a gigantic legislative grab-bag with lots of disparate priorities. We get that. It reminds us a bit of Build Back Better – which failed and led to the IRA, for what it’s worth. -Punchbowl News

Indeed, Speaker Johnson has tried to do what many before him could not: push through a comprehensive, everything-at-once bill that pleases both fire-breathing conservatives and centrist pragmatists. But by skipping the usual slow walk through committee education and member negotiations, he may have created a legislative trap for himself.

And of course, after all of this – the bill still has to get through the Senate…

Stay tuned for updates…

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended his recent statements about vaccines during a congressional hearing on May 14.

“I’m going to tell the truth about everything we know and we don’t know about vaccines,” Kennedy told Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) while testifying before the Senate Health Committee. “I am not going to just tell people that everything is safe and effective if I know there are issues. I need to respect people’s intelligence.”

Several lawmakers expressed concern about Kennedy’s recent comments, which include saying that the protection conferred by the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine wanes over time.

“The result is to undermine faith in the vaccine,” Murphy said.

“It’s kind of like saying, ‘Listen, I think you should swim in that lake, but you know, the lake is probably toxic, and there’s probably a ton of snakes and alligators in that lake, but I think you should swim in it.’ Nobody is going to swim that lake if that’s what you say. I want you to acknowledge that when you say you support the measles vaccine, and then you go out and repeatedly undermine the vaccine, with information that is contested by public health experts, that is not supporting the vaccine.”

Kennedy responded, “If I advise you to swim in a lake that I knew there to be alligators in, wouldn’t you want me to tell you there were alligators in it?

“The reason people have lost faith in this program is that they’ve been lied to by public officials for year after year after year.”

Several outbreaks of measles have appeared in the United States in 2025, including an outbreak in Texas that has spread to hundreds of people. Texas officials say most patients are unvaccinated or have unknown vaccination status.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the administration of two doses of the MMR vaccine is 97 percent effective against measles.

Studies, including a paper from French researchers, have found that the protection wanes slowly over time.

“We’re always going to have measles, as the vaccine wanes very quickly,” Kennedy said recently at a town hall.

He has also said that the MMR vaccine has side effects and that many vaccines on the childhood vaccination schedule have not been tested in randomized, controlled trials against placebos.

“[That] means we don’t understand the risk profile for those products and that’s something that I intend to remedy,” Kennedy told lawmakers on May 14, referring to the Department of Health and Human Services’ announcement that all new vaccines must be tested against placebos before being licensed.

Kennedy testified before the Senate panel and the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee. It was the first time he appeared before Congress since being confirmed in February.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) asked Kennedy, who has said his children received the typical vaccines in their childhood, if he had a child today, would he get that child vaccinated with the MMR shot?

“Probably,” Kennedy said. “I would say my opinions about vaccines are irrelevant.

“I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me. I think if I answer that question directly, that it will seem that I’m giving advice to other people, and I don’t want to be doing that,” Kennedy said, adding that health officials were going to try to outline the pros and cons, or the risks and benefits, of each vaccine.

Pocan tried to get Kennedy to answer the same question for the chickenpox and polio vaccines. The health secretary demurred.

Republicans largely steered clear of vaccines during the hearings. A number of them praised developments under Kennedy, including the banning of some artificial dyes and the focus on cutting costs at the health agency.

“You’ve done more to shine the light on things that average Americans can do to make themselves healthier than almost any secretary that I can recall,” Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) said, “so thank you for that service.”

Boeing has tentatively reached a nonprosecution agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to avoid a June 23 trial over allegations it misled federal regulators about a flight control system tied to two fatal 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019, according to Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter. 

Sources said the deal requires a judge’s approval and would allow the Seattle-based planemaker to avoid entering a guilty plea in the case.

Here are more details from the report: 

Boeing has no longer agreed to plead guilty in the case, prosecutors told family members of crash victims during a Friday meeting, the sources said. The company’s posture changed after a judge rejected a previous plea agreement in December, prosecutors told the family members.

DOJ officials are still weighing whether to proceed with a nonprosecution agreement or take Boeing to trial, a DOJ official said during the meeting. No final decision has been made, and Boeing and DOJ officials have not yet exchanged papers to negotiate final details of any nonprosecution agreement, the official told family members.

In April, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said the planemaker was negotiating with the DoJ to reach a revised plea deal in the criminal fraud case.

“I want this resolved as quickly as anyone,” Ortberg said at a U.S. Senate hearing, referring to the timeline for settling the case. He added, “Hopefully, we’ll have a new agreement here soon.”

Last month, Boeing reached settlements with the families of two victims killed in the March 2019 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX.

In 2021, Boeing accepted responsibility for compensatory damages to the families of the 157 victims of the Ethiopian Airlines crash.

Boeing apologized for both crashes last month, saying it “made an upfront commitment to fully and fairly compensate the families and accepted legal responsibility for the accidents. We will continue to work to fairly resolve the claims of the family members.”

Reuters notes that the planemaker has “settled more than 90% of claims from the two 737 MAX accidents and paid billions of dollars in compensation to the families through lawsuits, a deferred prosecution agreement, and other payments.”

Of course, the nonprosecution agreement still requires a judge’s approval and could force Boeing to pay additional fines, implement further internal reforms, or strengthen compliance measures, among other conditions. Those conditions have not yet been released.