On today’s show: Republicans narrowly passed a budget framework in the House, USA Today reports. The Washington Post’s Jacob Bogage explains what happens next. Greg Ip with the Wall Street Journal unpacks what Trump’s attempting to do about inflation, and how voters are perceiving the issue in the early days of his presidency. Families with trans children are asking where they go from here, following the Trump administration’s actions targeting trans people. The New Yorker’s Emily Witt has the story. Plus, mass resignations at Musk’s DOGE, a judge sets a deadline for the Trump administration to make certain foreign-aid payments, and the White House takes over the presidential press pool. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
Good morning. It's Wednesday, February 26th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, how inflation became Trump's problem, where trans kids are left after an executive order banning gender-affirming care, and the White House takes control of the press pool. But first, to Washington, where House Republicans narrowly passed a budget framework bill last night.
Chapter 2: How did House Republicans pass the budget framework?
After initially pulling the measure and seeming to not have the votes, Speaker Mike Johnson minutes later brought it back to the floor as members of Congress rushed, in some cases running, back to vote. It passed in a 217 to 215 vote. The budget resolution in the House is one step of a complicated process that would enable Congress to pass much of Trump's legislative goals.
But as they move ahead, Republicans will need to find consensus as much as possible, given their slim three-vote majority in the House. And some GOP lawmakers want completely different things.
Chapter 3: What are the challenges within the GOP regarding budget cuts?
It's kind of impossible to find a middle ground.
Jacob Bogage is the congressional economic correspondent for The Washington Post.
You've got folks who want these really, really steep budget cuts. They want to go after different kinds of social safety net programs. Then you have moderates who are saying, over my dead body, you can't do that. Then you have super hardline conservatives saying, I want more. And because the margins are so slim in the House, every member can demand very specific policies.
The tension between these goals can be seen clearly in the math. Collectively, this package could add more than $11 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years, and it would aim to reduce spending by about $2 trillion. But all the budget resolution does is tell committees to make spending cuts.
It's up to the committees themselves to find those cuts, and it's in the specifics where things get tricky. To cut spending by the amount some Republicans want, it's very likely Medicaid, which provides health insurance primarily to low-income Americans, would be a target.
Earlier this week, several Republican lawmakers signed a letter raising concerns about possible cuts to Medicaid to make the budget work. Recently, President Trump told Fox News that wouldn't happen.
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Chapter 4: How could Medicaid cuts impact Republicans politically?
Look, Social Security won't be touched other than fraud or something. We're going to find it's going to be strengthened, but won't be touched. Medicare, Medicaid.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Speaker Johnson managed to unite all but one Republican in the House around a plan that would require significantly reducing Medicaid costs and likely won't accommodate all of Trump's desired tax cuts. Bogage told us if Republicans do go ahead and reduce Medicaid, it could be disastrous for their constituents and for their own political futures.
There are districts in this Republican majority where more than half of the population are on Medicaid. And those are districts Republicans need to keep in the midterm elections if they want to continue governing with a majority.
This is only the beginning of the budget process. Republicans are hoping to pass this agenda through a process called reconciliation, where the House and Senate have to agree on a budget. And if they do that, it would mean Democrats cannot filibuster in the Senate. Lawmakers have until March 14th to agree on a budget. Otherwise, the government faces a shutdown. Now to the state of the U.S.
economy. Various consumer sentiment surveys show Americans are feeling jittery. Consumer confidence fell for its third straight month in February, marking the largest monthly decline since August of 2021. The latest survey from the University of Michigan found people are worried about Trump's tariffs potentially raising prices and inflation in general.
CNN reports that this is a dramatic reversal from the brief burst of optimism in the economic mood after President Trump's election in November. You might remember when he won, a number of experts and polls indicated that anger over inflation played a huge role.
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Chapter 5: What is the current state of the U.S. economy under Trump's presidency?
People endured quite a few years of rising prices for groceries, gasoline, other basics.
Greg Ip is the chief economics commentator for The Wall Street Journal.
So I think Trump knows that he has to deliver on lower costs for people in order to really fulfill the economic mandate that he's been handed.
That was one of Trump's promises to lower costs on day one. Lately, officials in his administration have tempered that promise, saying it's unlikely the president can do anything to bring down the cost of things like groceries anytime soon. And Ip told us there's a universal truth in that.
Whatever is happening in the economy, do not blame or thank the president because there is so little that a president can do. Most of these things are driven by really complex, multifaceted phenomena that have to do with the quality of the workforce, the level of technology, big global shocks like the financial crisis from 15 years ago or the COVID pandemic.
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Chapter 6: How are tariffs affecting prices and inflation in the U.S.?
Trump officials say expanding American energy production and rolling back regulations could help lower prices. But Ip told us Trump's agenda of higher tariffs and lower taxes risks making it difficult to keep inflation in check.
The president has promised 25% tariffs on all imported steel and aluminum to take effect in a few weeks' time. And we have already seen U.S. steel companies raising their prices because now they can compete better with imports. And we've seen prices on markets go up, and that will find its way into a variety of products that Americans consume.
Early polling indicates voters want to see prices drop quickly. A recent Reuters-Ipsos poll found that only 32 percent of respondents approved of the job Trump is doing so far on inflation. And a recent Gallup survey found that 20 percent of people rated the economy as excellent or good, which is lower than any point during Trump's first term, according to CNN.
As Ip explained to us, every president gets a honeymoon period when they're first elected, but Trump's may be wearing off.
He and his advisors are also very aware that if the inflation problem persists beyond a few months, the ability to blame this on Biden starts to ebb away and people are going to hold him responsible for it.
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Chapter 7: What do polls say about voter sentiment on Trump's handling of inflation?
One of the first actions President Trump took after he was inaugurated was signing an executive order titled Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation. The order banned the federal government from funding, sponsoring and supporting gender affirming care for kids, which includes things like puberty blockers, hormone treatments and certain surgeries.
Shortly after the order was signed, The New Yorker reported major hospitals in blue cities like New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. began canceling appointments for patients receiving this type of care. And despite the fact that this month two separate federal judges temporarily blocked Trump's order, not all hospitals have rescheduled.
Surgeries were canceled at at least two of New York City's biggest hospital systems, NYU Langone and Mount Sinai, as they dealt with pressure from all sides.
That could be that they're stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Emily Witt is a staff writer for The New Yorker.
A hospital like NYU Langone receives government grants for research. They receive probably more than a billion dollars a year in Medicaid reimbursements. They have Trump on the one side saying that he'll withdraw federal funding for their hospitals if they continue certain forms of treatment, and then the state saying that they'll sue.
That threat came directly from New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who published a letter reminding hospitals that canceling care on the basis of gender is illegal in New York. Witt told us some hospitals were canceling appointments even before Trump signed the order. And the parents of those kids who had had their appointments canceled were worried about what it all might mean.
There was a real sense of panic among the parents that, you know, even though it's not law yet, that the hospitals were preemptively canceling care. And that was scary because New York is one of several states that passed safe haven laws for trans patients and especially trans minors that were, you know, laws that were supposed to protect care for them in the state.
One family Witt spoke with told the story of their child who had exhibited signs of self-harm and other worrying behavior before expressing that in her heart and brain, she was a girl. So the family allowed her to seek medical care and start presenting as a girl.
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