mysticpickle

Trump launched into a pair of vicious and increasingly racist rants against Somalia and Somali Americans this week, first at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday and then during an Oval Office photo op on Wednesday. He called Somali migrants “garbage” and said they should “go back to where they came,”

WHITNEY WILD: How did it make you feel when you heard the president say that?

MOHAMED AHMED: I got five children. My children are not garbage!

WHITNEY WILD: What would you say to the president if he were standing here right now?

MOHAMED AHMED: Mr President, we campaigned for you. We have hope in you. We see hope in you. Please differentiate between good, bad and evil.

A rural medical clinic in Nebraska — located in a district that President Donald Trump won by more than 50 points in the 2024 election — is being forced to close its doors, with its CEO citing federal cuts to Medicaid as the main reason behind the shutdown.

The closure comes just days after Republicans pushed through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a sweeping tax cuts and spending package that includes deep reductions to Medicaid. The bill passed in the House by a 218-214 vote, with every Democrat and two Republicans opposing it. Trump is expected to sign it into law on July 4.

The legislation aims to fulfill Trump’s signature campaign promises — including making permanent the tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit wealthy Americans and ramping up funding for immigration enforcement. To offset those costs, the bill imposes large spending cuts on Medicaid and food assistance programs, which critics argue will devastate working-class, low-income, and elderly Americans — particularly those in rural red states.

Community Hospital, based in McCook, Nebraska, announced this week that it will shut down its rural clinic in Curtis, a town of about 900 residents.

“Unfortunately, the current financial environment, driven by anticipated federal budget cuts to Medicaid, has made it impossible for us to continue operating all of our services, many of which have faced significant financial challenges for years,” said Community Hospital CEO Troy Bruntz in a statement on Wednesday.

One is Michael Lyras, a 44-year-old American, who lives in Volusia County, near Orlando, in central Florida. Lyras studied addiction counseling in college but is currently disabled and receiving food stamps. He voted for Trump “all three times” but says he is upset with the way things are going: “I regret my last vote enormously,” he says.

“It was necessary to make changes, but not in this way, sacrificing our civil rights and liberties that are enshrined in our Constitution,” Lyras adds. “He [Trump] is turning this into a police state and he’s acting like an authoritarian. I didn’t vote for any of this”

Vivek Ramaswamy, the former presidential candidate running as a Republican for governor of Ohio, posted a Halloween photo of himself and his two sons on Friday. The post received a wave of xenophobic and racist replies, including one user who wrote, “I see this year Vivek went as an H1B immigrant here to steal your jobs. Very scary. Like the brown version of the Grinch.”