The Briefing with Jen Psaki
'Big, brutal setback': How GOP infighting sent Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' off the rails
17 May 2025
The budget bill Donald Trump was hoping to come home to following his trip to the Middle East has not come to fruition and the longer it takes to work out, the more skittish Republicans will be about attaching their name to a bill that is so full of unpopular policies with an election on the horizon.
Full Episode
Today, Donald Trump was on his way back from his big trip to the Middle East. And after several days where he was definitely showered with lavish gifts and a whole lot of praise from foreign leaders, he's coming back to quite a mess here at home. I mean, he got a big smackdown from the Supreme Court today.
Former US Attorney for the Southern District, Preet Bharara, is going to join me here in a minute to talk all about that. Trump's big, beautiful bill, as he called it, also had a major setback today in Congress. The ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, who was in the room for all that drama, will also join me here a little bit later.
But before all that happened, before he had kind of a downer, a pretty big downer, I should say, of a Friday, Donald Trump started the day in his comfort zone, watching Fox News on his plane. At least, that's what we think happened, because
Early this morning, the president's social media feed started lighting up with live and almost constant commentary about some of the pressing issues Fox News was covering this morning. I mean, early this morning, Fox ran this segment about human remains found near Taylor Swift's New England estate. Around that same time, Trump posted to his social media feed this.
Has anyone noticed that since I said I hate Taylor Swift, she's no longer hot, question mark, which is a key pivotal part of this. Why is there a question mark? Now, Taylor is obviously still hot by basically any metric. I think anyone would agree to that. And more importantly, that's an insane thing for the President of the United States to ask the American public.
See the key question mark there? Also, what is he even trying to say there? I mean, it's a Friday. So, I mean, if you read it literally, does he think his words somehow put a curse on Taylor Swift that changed her level of hotness? Maybe he does. Who knows?
But apparently that wasn't even the only Fox News segment Trump was watching this morning, because later in the morning, there was one about Bruce Springsteen criticizing Trump during his UK tour, which appeared to prompt yet another missive from America's pageant judge in chief, who posted a long, unhinged screen, you can see it on the screen there, about Springsteen.
Trump called him a dried-out prune of a rocker and said, his skin is all atrophied. Now, I'm not sure, just as a side note, that word means what he thinks it means, but there it is. And not for nothing. But have you seen the guy over my shoulder lately? I mean, honestly.
Trump did manage to focus on work just long enough to send another post imploring Republicans in Congress to unite behind his one big, beautiful bill, which is shorter, I believe, in words than the one about Bruce Springsteen, but that aside. Now, here's the thing, though.
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