Trump unveils health care plan that lacks details
President Trump has announced what he calls The Great Healthcare Plan, which actually is not a complete plan but just presents a couple of concepts. Key is to set up so-called health care savings accounts that would allow tax-free saving to pay for health care insurance premiums or other medical costs. That idea has been unsuccessfully floated for years by Republicans. Another proposal is to slash drug costs by up to 500% beginning this month, which is mathematically impossible and would mean that people would be paid to take medications. Trump also says he would end Obamacare.
Senate sent home without acting on health care premiums
Republican leadership in the Senate has sent the senators home for a week without allowing a vote on a bill passed in the House that would extend health care insurance subsidies for three years. Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he doesn’t think the senators working on the matter are close to a solution. About 20 million Americans have seen their health care premiums soar and an estimated 1.5 million have dropped out of Affordable Care Act insurance coverage. Republicans reportedly are insisting that any new bill contain a prohibition on any kind of abortion, even an abortion to save the life of a woman.
Trump repeats threat to invoke Insurrection Act
Tensions flared in Minneapolis again on Thursday in the wake of a second shooting by a federal immigration officer in just over a week. President Donald Trump responded by threatening to invoke the centuries-old Insurrection Act that would allow the deployment of U.S. troops to Minnesota. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it is a “tool at the president’s disposal” and Trump’s warning “spoke very loud and clear to Democrats across this country.” The president previously threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in response to anti-ICE protests in Portland last fall and, in 2020, he threatened to use the act to quell protests after George Floyd was killed.
ICE attacks family in Minneapolis
As President Trump continues to threaten intervention in Iran to protect protesters from attacks by the Iran government and is sending more Navy ships to the region, his ICE agents have attacked a family in Minneapolis who were in their vehicle riding home from a son’s basketball practice. According to the mother, she, her husband and their six children were trying to avoid an area where a peaceful protest was underway when ICE agents stopped their vehicle and fired flash bang grenades and a tear gas canister under it. The car was disabled and the tear gas exploded, filling the car. The youngest child went unconscious and needed to be resuscitated. The Department of Homeland Security had no comment.
European military personnel arrive in Greenland
Military personnel from several European nations have started arriving in Greenland to participate in joint exercises with Denmark as President Trump ramps up his threats to forcibly annex the island. Germany, Sweden, France, Norway, the Netherlands, and Finland have confirmed deployments, which analysts say carry more symbolic weight at a time of unprecedented tension within NATO. This comes after Trump said earlier this week that “anything less” than U.S. control of Greenland is “unacceptable.” Officials from Denmark and Greenland also met with Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Rubio on Wednesday, but the talks appeared to yield few tangible results.
Nobel Peace Prize does not transfer to Trump
Venezuela’s opposition leader, María Corina Machado, gave President Trump her Nobel Peace Prize medal during a meeting at the White House on Thursday. The gesture, however, does not make Trump a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump has long coveted the award, though the Nobel committee has been clear that it cannot be shared or transferred. Trump reportedly gave Machado a gift bag embossed with his signature. He refused to endorse her to head the Venezuelan government as she had hoped. He did issue a broad statement of his support for a “new, genuine electoral process” in Venezuela. Trump has publicly expressed doubt about Machado’s ability to lead the country.
