logo
Donald Trump Won't Sign His Own Bill, Josh Hawley Says

Donald Trump Won't Sign His Own Bill, Josh Hawley Says

Newsweek14-05-2025
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri said President Donald Trump wouldn't even sign his own "big, beautiful bill" as it stands due to GOP House-proposed reductions to Medicaid.
Hawley told CNN's Manu Raju on Wednesday, "This bill is not gonna become law in its current form, not least because President Trump won't sign it. I've talked to him about this personally multiple times. He has been crystal clear — no Medicaid benefit cuts."
Hawley: "This bill is not gonna become law in its current form, not least because President Trump won't sign it. I've talked to him about this personally multiple times. He has been crystal clear -- no Medicaid benefit cuts." pic.twitter.com/yEafCPZW8k — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 14, 2025
This is a developing news story and will be updated as more information is available.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Commanders and Guardians don't need to revert to racist names to be great again
Commanders and Guardians don't need to revert to racist names to be great again

USA Today

time12 minutes ago

  • USA Today

Commanders and Guardians don't need to revert to racist names to be great again

Instead of focusing on the names of professional sports teams, maybe Trump should focus on releasing the Epstein files and lowering egg prices, as he promised. Help me out, Wisconsin. Please, no one tell President Donald Trump that Milwaukee used to have an MLB team called the Braves or that Marquette University used to be known as the Warriors. I don't want to jump into the way-back machine. You might have heard Trump is urging the Washington Commanders and the Cleveland Guardians to revert to their former team names, which included derogatory terms based on racist caricatures. He even suggested that if the Commanders did not change their name back, he would obstruct the NFL team's efforts to build a new $3.7 billion football stadium in Washington, DC. This stance is part of Trump's agenda to "Make America Great Again," even if it offends Native Americans who have criticized the previous names and images for decades. This can be seen as his latest attempt at what he believes is patriotism. I'm afraid he wants to take America so far back to a time when there was separate water fountains for Black and White people. Trump claims Native Americans 'want this to happen' In a July 20 post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump claimed that Native Americans want the names reverted. "There is a big clamoring for this," wrote Trump. "Our great Indian people, in massive numbers, want this to happen. Their heritage and prestige is systematically being taken away from them. Times are different now than they were three or four years ago." I'm uncertain how many Native Americans Trump consulted to conclude that "massive numbers" want the name changed back. Even if that were true – which I doubt – it raises the question of why they would like the name to be reverted in the first place. Take our poll: Trump wants Washington Commanders to revert to old name. Should they? | Opinion Forum Following George Floyd's killing by a Minneapolis police officer, there was a renewed effort to remove Confederate statues seen as symbols of slavery and racism and to eliminate racist sports team names. By the end of 2020, nearly 100 Confederate monuments had been taken down, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Efforts begun in the Biden administration to rename offensive and derogatory place names – including many in Wisconsin – were halted by Trump-appointed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. The Washington football team rebranded as the Commanders in 2022 following the controversy surrounding their original name. Similarly, the Cleveland baseball team changed their name to the Guardians in 2021 after going by their original name since 1915. Neither Washington nor Cleveland appears willing to cave to pressure to revert to names they used in the past simply to appease Trump, and they should firmly stand by this decision. Furthermore, if Trump interferes with the Commanders' efforts to secure a new stadium, the NFL should consider legal action. This could prevent Trump from targeting other teams in similar ways. What would stop him from pushing teams to return to leather helmets or reinstating outdated rules intended to protect players? Milwaukee Brewers, Marquette Golden Eagles changed names Imagine what will happen if Trump discovers Milwaukee's past? Before moving to Atlanta in 1966, the MLB franchise used a logo with a laughing Native American with a mohawk and feather. What about my alma mater, Marquette University? Will he pressure the school to change from the Golden Eagles back to 'the Warriors,' which in 1961-71 featured Willie Wampum, a Native American with a giant cartoonish head and Indigenous clothing? I must admit that I had a hard time adjusting to the name changes for Washington and Cleveland. The team change for the nation's capital was especially difficult for me because, as a football historian, I remember the great battles between the Washington (derogatory name) and the Green Bay Packers. Do you remember the 1983 football game between Washington and Green Bay at Lambeau Field, which became the second-highest scoring game in Monday Night Football history? Washington's quarterback, Joe Theismann, and the Packers' quarterback, Lynn Dickey, combined to throw for nearly 800 yards. The Packers won the game 48-47 with a field goal by Jan Stenerud. Opinion: Trump bans AP and words he doesn't like. 'Free speech' was never about the First Amendment. This game quickly made the Washington team my second favorite. Although its logo featured an image of Blackfeet Chief Two Guns White Calf, I didn't find anything wrong with the depiction of the Native American with a red face. For years, I hadn't fully understood the significance and racial implications of the derogatory name and imagery associated. That changed after a conversation with one of my former editors, Ricardo Pimentel. He posed a thought-provoking question: "James, what if the Washington team was called the Washington N-words?" While no one would ever take it that far, his words made me rethink and recognize the impact of such imagery. This is something that Trump should consider before interfering with professional sports. Instead, he might want to focus on delivering on promises he made to the American people, you know about releasing the Jeffrey Epstein case files and lowering egg prices. James E. Causey is an Ideas Lab reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where this column originally appeared. Reach him at jcausey@ or follow him on X: @jecausey

Ukraine's Zelenskyy promises new plan to fight corruption following protests
Ukraine's Zelenskyy promises new plan to fight corruption following protests

USA Today

time12 minutes ago

  • USA Today

Ukraine's Zelenskyy promises new plan to fight corruption following protests

KYIV, July 23 (Reuters) - Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy promised a quick new plan on Wednesday to fight corruption, after a law curbing the independence of anti-graft agencies triggered the first street protests of the war and rare rebukes from European allies. Opposition lawmakers and European officials called on Wednesday for Kyiv to reverse the law, which Zelenskiy signed overnight. It was rushed through parliament on Tuesday a day after the security services arrested two anti-corruption officials for suspected Russian ties. In his nightly televised address, Zelenskiy said the corruption fighting agencies - an investigating agency known as NABU and a prosecutor's office known as SAPO - would continue to function "but without any Russian influence". "It all must be cleansed," he said. In the morning, he met officials including the heads of NABU and SAPO and said he would unveil a new plan to fight corruption within two weeks. More: Putin stalls. Trump changes his mind. Ukraine targets Moscow. Latest on the war. "We hear society," he wrote on Telegram. "We all have a common enemy – the Russian occupiers, and the protection of the Ukrainian state requires sufficient strength of the law enforcement and anti-corruption systems, and therefore a real sense of justice." STRONGEST CRITICISM OF THE WAR The law prompted some of Kyiv's European allies to deliver their strongest criticism of Zelenskiy's government since Russia's invasion in 2022. Several hundred people took to the streets in Kyiv and other large Ukrainian cities late on Tuesday to protest, the first such demonstrations of the war. More: President Trump says Zelenskyy should not target Moscow with strikes "This is complete nonsense from the President's Office," Solomiia Telishevska, 20, a student in Kyiv on holiday, told Reuters. "This contradicts what we are fighting for and what we are striving for, namely to (join) the European Union." The law's critics say the government appears to be trying to curb the work of anti-corruption agencies to protect officials. After decades when Ukraine was seen as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, cleaning up its government has been held up as the most important condition for Kyiv to join the European Union and integrate more broadly with the West. More: Ukraine celebrates Trump's weapons reversal, but the 'devil's in the details' The issue risks antagonising Kyiv's most loyal allies at a particularly risky time, when it is trying to smooth over the relationship with Washington, where President Donald Trump has frequently criticised Zelenskiy. "Ukraine's anti-corruption institutions are vital to its reform path. Restricting them would be a significant setback," Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said in a post on X. Benjamin Haddad, France's European Affairs minister, said it was not too late to reverse the decision. Yaroslav Zheleznyak, from Ukraine's opposition Holos party, said that he and several other lawmakers would propose a bill "to overturn this big shame that was adopted and signed", and also challenge the law in the Constitutional Court. EUROPEAN DREAM The law was passed a day after Kyiv's SBU domestic security agency one NABU official on suspicion of spying for Moscow and another suspected of illegal Russian business ties. It also conducted sweeping searches and arrests of a number of agency employees on other grounds, including traffic accidents. NABU said that even if Russian infiltration was a problem, the crackdown had gone too far, making it impossible to carry out its mission. Corruption is consistently cited by investors and the general public as one of the key challenges facing Ukraine. Fighting it is a condition attached to billions in Western financial aid. Ukrainian political analysts said the legislation risked undermining society's trust in Zelenskiy during a critical stage of the war against Russia. Fierce fighting rages along more than 1,000 kilometres of the frontline. Russian troops continue their grinding advance in the east and have stepped up near daily attacks on Ukrainian cities with hundreds of drones. The public's aspiration for a European future is vital to sustaining the war effort, said Valerii Pekar, a Kyiv-based analyst: "Only democracy and the European choice give us a chance to win," he posted on Facebook. (Reporting by Olena HarmashEditing by Peter Graff)

Changes to federal student loans leave aspiring medical students scrambling to cover costs
Changes to federal student loans leave aspiring medical students scrambling to cover costs

Chicago Tribune

time12 minutes ago

  • Chicago Tribune

Changes to federal student loans leave aspiring medical students scrambling to cover costs

Twenty-year-old Eric Mun didn't want to believe it: Only one kid in the family could make it to medical school — and it wasn't going to be him. Mun had done everything right. He graduated high school with honors, earned a scholarship at Northwestern University and breezed through his biology courses. He immigrated to Alabama from Korea as a toddler. From the quiet stretches of the South, he dreamed of helping patients in a pressed white coat. But dreams don't pay tuition. And with new borrowing limits, Mun's family can only support one child through school. 'My parents already implied that my older brother is probably going to be the one that gets to go,' Mun said. President Donald Trump's sweeping 'big, beautiful' tax and spending bill, signed into law earlier this month, imposes strict new caps on federal student loans, capping borrowing for professional schools at $50,000 per year. The measure particularly affects medical students, whose tuition often exceeds $300,000 over four years. Aspiring physicians like Mun have been thrown into financial uncertainty. Many members of the medical community say the measures will send shock waves through a system already laden with economic barriers, discouraging low-income students from pursuing a medical degree. 'It might mean there are people who want to be doctors that can't be doctors because they can't afford it,' said Richard Anderson, president of the Illinois State Medical Society. Before the passage of Trump's budget bill, the Grad PLUS loan program allowed graduate students to borrow their institution's total cost of attendance, including living expenses. The program was slashed as part of a broader overhaul to the federal student loan system. Now, beginning July 1, 2026, most graduate students will be capped at $20,500 in federal loans per year, with a total limit of $100,000. Students in professional schools, like medical, dental or law school, will face the $50,000 annual cap and a total limit of $200,000. Mun's parents work at an automobile assembly plant. Throughout high school, he knew he would have to rely on scholarships and federal loans to pay his way through college. Mun's voice faltered. 'I'm just trying to remain hopeful,' Mun said. Also folded into the bill: the elimination of several Biden-era repayment plans, cuts to Pell Grants and limits to the Parent PLUS loans program, which allows parents of dependent undergraduates to borrow. Proponents of the Republican-backed bill said the curbed borrowing will incentivize medical schools and other graduate programs to lower tuition. The tuition of most Chicago-area medical schools is nearly $300,000 for four years, not including cost-of-living expenses. Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine has a $465,000 price tag after accounting for those indirect costs, according to the school's website. Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science trails closely behind at nearly $464,000. 'One of the main concerns about the Grad PLUS program is money that is going to subsidize institutions rather than extending access to students,' said Lesley Turner, an associate professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. Still, many medical professionals expressed doubt that schools will adjust their costs in response to the bill. Tuition for both private and public schools has been steadily climbing for decades, up 81% from 2001 after adjusting for inflation, according to the Association of American Medical some evidence that Grad PLUS may have contributed to those tuition hikes. A study co-authored by Turner in 2023 found that prices increased 65 cents per dollar after the program's introduction in 2006. There was also little indication that Grad PLUS had fulfilled its intended goal of expanding access to underrepresented students. But Turner cautioned against the abrupt reversal of the program. After accounting for inflation, the lifetime borrowing limits now placed on graduate students are lower than they were in 2005, she said. Many students may turn to private loans to cover the gap, often at higher interest rates. More than half of medical students relied on Grad PLUS loans, according to AAMC. The median education debt for indebted medical students is around $200,000, with most repayment plans lasting 10 to 20 years. The median stipend for doctors' first year post-MD was just $65,100 in 2024. 'I think for many reasons, it would have been reasonable to put some sort of limit on Grad PLUS loans, but I think this is a very blunt way of doing it,' Turner said. In a high-rise on Northwestern's downtown campus last week, 20 undergraduate students and alums from local colleges gathered for the Chicago Cancer Health Equity Collaborative Fellows program. The eight-week summer intensive offers aspiring medical professionals a deep dive into cancer health disparities information and research. Participants like Mun have been left reeling after the flurry of federal cuts. Alexis Chappel, a 28-year-old graduate of Northeastern Illinois University, watched her dad struggle with addiction growing up. She was deeply moved by the doctors who supported his recovery, and it inspired her to pursue medicine. But she has no idea how she'll cover tuition. 'I feel like it's in God's hands at this point,' Chappel said. 'I just felt like it's a direct attack on Black and brown students who plan on going to medical school.' Just 10% of medical students are Black and 12% are Latino, according to AAMC enrollment data. Socioeconomic diversity is also limited: A 2018 analysis found that 24% of students came from the wealthiest 5% of U.S. Pendergrast, who graduated from Feinberg in 2023, relied entirely on Grad PLUS loans to fund her medical education. Juggling classes and clinicals, she had little money saved and no steady stream of income. Pendergrast was so strapped for cash that she enrolled in SNAP benefits — a program also cut under Trump's budget bill. Now an anesthesiologist at University of Michigan Health, she's documented her concerns on TikTok for her 48,000 followers. 'It's not going to improve representation, and it's not going to improve access,' Pendergrast said. 'It's going to act as a deterrent for people who otherwise would be excellent physicians.' For low-income students, the application process is already fraught with economic obstacles, Pendergrast said. Metrics like GPA and the Medical College Admissions Test, or MCAT, are heavily weighted in admissions, and may disadvantage students from underresourced schools. Many students also lack mentorships or networks to guide them through the process, she noted. 'I think the average medical student is going to be richer and whiter, and not from rural areas and not from underserved communities,' Pendergrast said. The elimination of Grad PLUS loans comes amid a mounting nationwide physician shortage. A recent AAMC report predicted a shortfall of 86,000 physicians by 2036. Meanwhile, a significant portion of the workforce is poised to enter retirement: The U.S. population aged 65 and older is expected to grow 34.1% over the next decade. The shortage is particularly concentrated in primary care. In practice, that means longer waiting times for patients, and an increased caseload on physicians, who may already suffer from burnout. 'If the goal is truly to make America healthy again, then we need to have a strong physician workforce … We should be coming up with ideas to make it more accessible for people who want to be doctors as opposed to hindering that,' Anderson said. Sophia Tully, co-president of the Minority Association of Pre-Med Students at Northwestern, said she and her peers have struggled to reconcile with a system that often feels stacked against them. The 21-year-old plans on taking an extra gap year before medical school in an effort to save money. Tully summed up the environment on campus: 'For lack of a better word, people are panicking.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store