Freedom Writers Collaborative

Limiting funding for SNAP could help defray the costs of President Trump’s tax plans, but could result in millions of low-income families losing access to aid.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, shared photos of himself and his grandchildren swimming in waters that handle sewer overflow.

When President Donald Trump sat alongside his Cabinet a day after he crossed the 100-day mark of his time in office last month, members of the cabinet took turns to praise the president. Although everyone offered glowing reviews, Attorney General Pam Bondi stood out by telling Trump that he was genuinely the best president of all time. "President, your first 100 days has far exceeded that of any other presidency in this country. Ever. Ever. Never seen anything like it. Thank you," she said during the Cabinet meeting. READ MORE: 'Embarrassment:' Trump admin asks judge to hide it's tactics for mass layoffs In a podcast for The New Republic discussing Trump's need for constant approval, journalists Greg Sargent and Amanda Marcotte described the "over-the-top" praise he receives from his aides as feeding into his "narcissism.""Every emotion is exaggerated to the maximum. They pretend to be angry at the loudest volume. They pretend to be sad with the biggest droopy faces and wailing tears. Everything’s loud and garish and schmaltzy," Marcotte said. "Most of us would be embarrassed to have somebody praise us like that because we know it’s not true... But he just needs it to just be constantly coming into his ears. And it’s getting worse as he ages, for various reasons. Any psychologist will also tell you that when narcissists are feeling insulted or they’re feeling their insecurity rise up, often because their approval ratings are coming down or they’re otherwise failing, their need to be told they’re the greatest just continues to go up." Sargent and Marcotte also analyzed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's description of the president, calling it "cultlike." "She routinely fluffs Trump with astonishingly cultlike descriptions of him to reporters—ones that portray him as powerful, calm, and completely in command of events. But then, left to his own devices on Truth Social, Trump presents the opposite picture, erupting regularly in wild meltdowns and uncontrollable hissy fits over the tiniest of slights," Sargent said. READ MORE: Trump's new greed deal the ultimate act of destruction the prophets have predicted According to Marcotte,"the over-the-top nature of it does affect certain people by convincing them—I don’t think Trump’s voters, even his biggest fans, think he’s the greatest president ever; the person with the most integrity via all time; no person has ever been anything more thing than Donald Trump ever has." She added that repeated claims such as, "He’s the greatest businessman of all time," unintentionally reinforce the notion that he was at least a successful businessman, which is actually false. "He was a failure. He bankrupted his company over and over and over again," Marcotte said during the podcast. The speakers also discussed "AI-generated and real photographic imagery of over-the-top abuse" of migrants detained by the administration "and functionally kidnapped and renditioned to a foreign prison." "And they shaved their heads. They made sure to like make their tattoos as garish as possible. They had videos of them bent over in these torture positions. And you see the effect that it has on the audiences at Trump’s 100-day rally. The crowd went absolutely nuts," she said. READ MORE: An 'Angry Black Woman' explains how it's up to white Americans to defeat Trumpism

The signs of a contracting economy are hitting small businesses hard, even as President Donald Trump announces, and then delays, another massive 145 percent tariff on a U.S. trading partner. The Wall Street Journal reports the owner of a San Francisco card-game company was recently driven to cash in his money-market funds, while the founder of a Colorado tent-making company is having to seek investors. Another Colorado company that makes watches and jewelry is delaying signing a new office lease, and a New Hampshire company, 5 Star North, had to reduce it’s 12-person staff to five—with three of those already seeking new employment. “Nobody in power seems to care about small business,” said 5 Star North owner Scott Anderson, who assembles various products from Chinese parts importers. “At this point the only option I see is selling out the rest of what we have and shutting our doors.” READ MORE: 'Under cover of night,' Republicans unveil plan to kick over 8 million off healthcare Small businesses don’t have the resources or margins to weather economic unpredictability as the president announces and rescinds tariff after tariff. Many only a single factory site, or they sell only to a handful a handful of suppliers. This would make switching production to countries not targeted Trump difficult even if the president did not pick and choose and update tariffs by the week. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the advocacy group Small Business Majority called on the Trump administration to provide an exclusion from the new tariffs for small-business importers, but WSJ reports Trump dismissed calls for relief. “They’re not going to need it,” Trump said. “They’re going to make so much money—if you build your product here.” That’s not the way Think Tank owners Lisa Popowich and Jonathan Stein saw it when they opened their manufacturing parts invoice from China earlier this month. READ MORE: 'Embarrassment:' Trump admin asks judge to hide it's tactics for mass layoffs “I wanted to throw up,” Popowich told WSJ, after seeing a bill showing tariffs as high as 161% per item, adding $8,752 to a $5,649 order. Other business owners like ASM Games co-founder Alfred Mai say he is paralyzed at the choice of either paying the tariffs to get inventory or risk running out of inventory. Read the full Wall Street Journal report here.

His longtime career in the Foreign Service included protecting Vaclav Havel, the writer and dissident who became the first president of the Czech Republic.