Hey everyone. Welcome back. Good to be with you.
Today we start at the DOJ where Donald Trump announced he is making his own personal defense lawyer the permanent Attorney General of the United States. Todd Blanche spent two months auditioning for this job by indicting the President’s enemies and trying to pay off his friends. Blanche has passed the test, and now he gets the title.
We will also discuss the House voting to end the war with Iran, new Medicaid rules that could strip coverage from millions of people, Spencer Pratt’s surge in L.A. and what it means about MAGA populism after Trump, and California’s painfully slow vote count, which is handing election deniers exactly the opening they have been waiting for.
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1. The Audition Is Over: Trump's Personal Lawyer Gets the DOJ
On Wednesday night, at a dinner in the Rose Garden, Donald Trump announced he will formally nominate Todd Blanche to be Attorney General.
Let’s remember how the job opened up in the first place. Pam Bondi was fired in April for not prosecuting Trump’s enemies fast enough. Blanche, the President’s former personal defense attorney, stepped in as acting Attorney General, and he made sure nobody would ever say that about him.
In two months, he intensified the department’s pursuit of the President’s longtime foes, including a new indictment of former FBI Director James Comey after the first case against him fell apart.
Then there is the slush fund. Last month, Blanche personally announced the nearly 1.8 billion dollar so-called weaponization fund to compensate Trump allies for their supposed persecution. Not only did he announce it, but he also went on TV to give his read on how the American people would feel:
Well he was very wrong. Everyone was opposed, even Republicans in Congress. That fund officially collapsed this week and there is reporting that the White House is going to stop trying, at least for now.
But Trump watched all of this unfold. For two months he saw Blanche carrying out his deeds, prosecuting his enemies, working to pay off his allies, and standing in front of cameras defending things that are indefensible. And he reached the conclusion that this is the guy. Blanche passed the test.
So do not expect anything to change. If anything, expect it to get worse. He will have the full authority of the office and the resources of the entire United States Department of Justice behind him. We saw what Blanche would do to get the job, now we will see what he will do to keep it.
2. Four Republicans Break Ranks as the House Votes to End the War
The House passed a war powers resolution directing the President to end hostilities with Iran. The vote was 215 to 208. Four Republicans joined every Democrat in supporting the measure.
It took four tries to get here. The last attempt died in a 212 to 212 tie. The time before that, Speaker Johnson sent the House home early for recess rather than hold a vote he knew he would lose.
The resolution is largely symbolic. The Senate has not finished its own version, and the White House disputes that it is binding at all. Trump lashed out this morning, calling the vote meaningless and the four Republicans “grandstanders” who “should be ashamed of themselves.”
But symbols matter. A majority of the House, including members of the President’s own party, went on record saying this war needs to end.
That number only grows from here. The economy is hurting, the ceasefire keeps failing, and members are hearing about it back home. Trump can call it meaningless all he wants. He saw the same vote count everyone else did.
3. Trump's New Medicaid Rules Are Out — and They're Harsher Than Anyone Was Told
This week the administration published the rule book for the new Medicaid work requirements. Nearly 400 pages telling states how to implement them, most of them by January 1st.
Able-bodied adults between 19 and 64 will have to document 80 hours a month of work, volunteering, schooling, or prove they qualify for an exemption. Budget estimates say more than 5 million people will lose coverage.
And before anyone says this is about lazy people gaming the system, look at the actual numbers. Most adults on Medicaid already work. Of the ones who don’t, most are caring for a family member, dealing with an illness, or stuck in a place where the jobs simply are not there.
Many of the people who lose coverage will still be eligible. They will simply fail the paperwork.
Unfortunately, it gets worse. For months, federal officials have told states that people with serious conditions would be exempt. But the rule is much harsher than anyone expected. The condition has to actively interfere with your ability to work.
A patient with early stage cancer, going through radiation but still technically able to hold a job, is not exempt.
I have no problem with the idea that able-bodied people should work. Most Americans agree with that. But that is not what this rule does. This rule takes coverage from people who are working, people who are sick, and people who got lost in the paperwork.
A health care system that only saves money by drowning the most vulnerable people in red tape and paperwork is not reform. It’s just evil.
4. Why JD Vance Should Be Watching Los Angeles
Meet Spencer Pratt, a reality TV villain who lost his home in the Palisades fire, launched a Republican mayoral campaign in Los Angeles, and picked up Trump’s endorsement along the way. On Tuesday, he outperformed every expectation and is most likely headed to a November runoff against Mayor Karen Bass.
Pratt has never held office. He has no policy record to speak of. What he has is five million followers and a gift for making people feel like someone is finally saying what they were thinking. He has built his campaign around anger, and you can feel it:
Think about every political ad you have ever seen. The soft music with the candidate shaking hands in a diner. Or walking in a parade. This is not that, and it works.
I watched the Republican party change from the inside. And what Spencer Pratt tells me is that the transformation is complete. The party I served in used to have a theory of government. You could agree or disagree with it, but it existed. Now it’s just about what can hold your attention the longest.
JD Vance is considered the Republican frontrunner for 2028. He got there by attaching himself to Trump’s machine and learning to speak its language. But at the end of the day, this Republican party is a stage.
Vance and Rubio are still politicians. They still have records to defend, positions to explain, votes to account for. The next candidate who comes out of nowhere, the way Pratt did, will not. They will have none of the baggage and all of the energy, and they will use it against whoever is standing in their way, including the people who thought the lane was theirs.
That is why some political analysts believe the biggest threat to JD Vance getting the GOP nomination in 2028 isn’t Marco Rubio, who DC insiders love. They believe it will be someone like Pratt - maybe even Pratt himself, who can ultimately be the entertainment-first alternative the MAGA base falls in love with.
Because what the Republican Party has become. No experience required. No record needed. Just volume and anger. The loudest voice wins, until a louder one comes along.
5. How California Feeds the Stop the Steal Machine
The race to replace Gavin Newsom is still too early to call, with millions of mail ballots left to count. Ballots postmarked by Election Day can keep arriving for a week, and counties have a month to finish. A final answer could take weeks.
Right on cue, the deniers pounced:
This is the same “Stop the Steal” poison we got in 2020, and let’s be clear. There is no evidence of fraud in California’s count. None.
But Democrats need to hear a hard truth too. Taking weeks to count votes is a competence failure, and it feeds the lie. Every empty day between the election and the result is a day the conspiracy theorists get to fill. If you want to be the party of democracy, you have to run democracy like you mean it.
And before anyone says this is just what big states with mail voting look like, let’s look at Florida.
In 2020, 11 million people voted there, and more than 93 percent of the results were public an hour and a half after polls closed. How? Florida lets counties start processing mail ballots three weeks before Election Day, and every ballot has to arrive by the time polls close. California accepts ballots for a week after the election, then takes a month to finish. That is a choice.
Florida used to be the punchline. They got embarrassed, they rewrote their laws, and now they count votes faster than anyone in America. California can too. Instead, they hand free ammunition to the liars.
There is a real scenario where control of the House comes down to a couple of seats in California. Imagine the country waiting weeks for those races to be called. The deniers thrive on delay and confusion, and we have seen what happens when we give them room to work.
Okay, that is the show for June 4th.
If today’s show hit home, hit the like button, share it with someone who needs to hear it, and please subscribe so you never miss what is coming.
See you then.
Some other stories that caught my eye:
Hurricane season started this week, and FEMA is walking into it short-handed. The agency has lost 5,000 employees since January 2025, according to a letter from House Democrats. FEMA insists it is ready, saying it has 8,100 people available to deploy and describing itself as "leaner, faster and laser-focused." The past year tells a different story. The administration openly floated eliminating the agency, the head of its urban search and rescue division resigned, and the acting administrator has changed three times with no confirmed leader in place. One longtime FEMA official told The Hill that not a single senior leader would privately say the agency is prepared. Forecasters do expect a below-average season, and we should all hope they are right.
On Wednesday, the Guardian reported that Ben Black, the Trump appointee running the federal government's 205 billion dollar international investment agency, had personal and business ties to Jeffrey Epstein. The evidence comes from emails and business filings released by the Justice Department itself, which show Black invested in the same company as Epstein in 2011 and stayed in contact with him for years afterward. Black's lawyers deny he ever had a relationship with the man. If the name sounds familiar, it should. His father, Leon Black, was once Epstein's highest-paying client, paying him roughly 170 million dollars for tax and estate advice. Ben Black squeaked through the Senate anyway, 51 to 47, and now he decides where billions of taxpayer-backed dollars go around the world.
