Letters from an American - October 21, 2022

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

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October 21st, 2025. On this, the 21st day of the government shutdown, President Donald J. Trump invited all but one Republican senator to lunch today at what he calls the Rose Garden Club, a patio where the White House Rose Garden used to be. The missing senator was Rand Paul, a Republican of Kentucky, whose detain. determination to cut the national debt has led him to vote consistently against measures that will increase it, including the Republican continuing resolution to fund the government. Trump boasted that the shutdown was enabling the administration to cut funding for what he continues to say are democratic priorities. Although the executive branch has no legal power to stop appropriations for congressionally approved projects, and Republican voters will also be

hurt by the administration's attempts to cut public programs and infrastructure projects. Trump called out director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vote, calling him Darth Vader as he slashes through funding and fires government workers. Jay O'Brien of ABC News reported this afternoon that a number of states are warning that they will not be able to continue to provide supplemental nutrition assistance program or SNAP benefits after November 1st, unless the shutdown ends. Snap serves about 42 million Americans and was already under pressure because the Republicans' budget reconciliation bill of July, the one they call the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, cut about $186 billion out of the program over 10 years. Now, Texas, Pennsylvania,

Minnesota, and New York have warned they cannot fund the program if the shutdown continues. Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican of Louisiana, is refusing to call the House into session, keeping its members out of Washington, D.C., and thus continuing to jam the Senate into passing the House continuing resolution. As Michelle Snell of MSNBC noted, keeping the House out of session also keeps members away from the Congressional Press Corps, where the divisions in the Republican Conference could go public. Wilson also insists that keeping the House out of session is preventing him from swearing in Representative-elect Adelaideh Grijalva, a Democrat of Arizona, who was chosen by voters on September 23rd, although speakers have sworn in representatives during pro forma sessions in the past. Grahalva has said she will be the 218th signature on a discharge petition that would force a vote on whether to demand the release of the Epstein files, the final signature needed.

Today, the state of Arizona and Grahalva sued the House of Representatives over Johnson's refusal to swear Grahalva in, thus depriving her Arizona constituents of representation. Arizona Attorney General, Kristen Mays, wrote, This case is about whether someone duly elected to the House, who indisputably meets the constitutional qualifications of the office, may be denied her rightful office simply because the Speaker has decided to keep the House out of regular session. Mays has asked the court to authorize someone else to swear Grahalva into office. Kate Riga and Amina Uchell of Talking Points memo note that the lawsuit addresses Johnson's excuse for delaying Grahalva's swearing in by saying that then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat of California, delayed the swearing in of Representative Julia Letlow, a Republican of Louisiana.

until about a month after her election. In fact, Pelosi contacted Letlow to see when she would like to be sworn in. Ms. Grijalva would be delighted if Speaker Johnson would contact her to commit to a mutually agreeable time, as Speaker Pelosi did for Dr. Letlow, the lawsuit notes. Johnson called the lawsuit absurd and said it was a publicity stunt. Meanwhile, Michael Stratford of Politico reported today that the United States has signed an economic stabilization agreement with Argentina's central bank, offering extraordinary assistance to Argentina as its economy under Trump-ally Javier Malay plummets. The agreement commits the U.S. to swapping $20 billion in currency to prop up the Argentine peso,

in addition to at least two previous direct purchases of pesos. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant has also said the government is arranging for private lenders or sovereign wealth funds to put another $20 billion into the Argentine economy. But as Alexander Saidi and Santiago Perez of the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, banks want security from the United States that they will get their money back if the Argentine economy continues to sink. On Sunday, Trump suggested to reporters that the U.S. might also buy Argentine beef, saying such a purchase would help bring down prices in the U.S.

But with Argentina having undercut U.S. soybean farmers in the Chinese market, U.S. cattle farmers met this suggestion with anger. As Lori Ann LaRaco of CNBC reported today, they say that their own herds are dwindling because of drought and the parasitic screw worm and that the government isn't doing enough to address those problems. Besant claims that Argentina is a systematically important ally of the U.S., but as economist Paul Krugman noted in his newsletter last week, that importance is not economic.

Unlike Mexico, which borders the U.S. and which accounted for 10% of U.S. exports when the U.S. stepped in to help stabilize its economy in 1994, Argentina is not geographically close and accounts for less than 0.5% of U.S. exports. Argentina's systematic importance to the administration is, as Krugman notes, both that the administration wants a Trump-like politician to succeed and apparently that some of Besson's hedge fund billionaire associates invested heavily in Argentine bonds in a bet on Malay. bailing out the government, even for a short while, will let them get their money out. In contrast to the administration's approach to Argentina, with its right-wing government,

Trump announced on Sunday that the U.S. would raise tariffs on Colombia and end funding to the country. Although Jeff Mason, Andy Sullivan, and David Lundgren of Reuters, note that funding in the past primarily came from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which the Trump administration has already shut down. Trump claimed that leftist Colombian president Gustavo Petro is an illegal drug leader, calling him low-rated and very unpopular. He added that Petro better close up drug operations or the U.S. will close them up for him and it won't be done nicely.

Trump complained that Petro has shown a fresh mouth toward America. For his part, Petro posted on social media, that U.S. government officials have committed murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters. He was referring to a September 16th strike by U.S. forces on a boat in the Caribbean that killed at least one Colombian national. The United States has invaded our national territory, fired a missile to kill a humble fisherman, and destroyed his family, his children, Petro wrote. Yesterday, Columbia recalled its ambassador to the U.S.

Katie Edmondson of the New York Times reports that despite the shutdown, the administration has found $172 million to buy two Gulfstream private jets for Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noem and other Homeland Security officials. The initial request of the department was for $50 million for a single new plane. The Department of Homeland Security called the new purchase a matter of safety. Devlin Barrett and Tyler Pager of the New York Times reported today that Trump is demanding that the Department of Justice hand over about $230 million to compensate him for investigating the ties between his 2016 campaign and Russian operatives and for violating his privacy by searching Mara Lago for classified documents in 2022. Trump filed the claims

in 2023 and 24. Now, his own appointees will decide whether the American taxpayers should pay the compensation Trump wants. When Caitlin Collins asked Trump about the demand tonight, Trump answered that media outlets had paid him settlements because what they did was wrong. And you know, when somebody does what's wrong,

now, with a country, it's interesting, because I'm the one that makes a decision. right and you know that decision would have to go across my desk and it's awfully strange to make a decision where I'm paying myself in other words did you ever have one of those cases where you have to decide how much you're paying yourself in damages but I was damaged very greatly and any money that I would get I would give to charity the demolition of the East Wing of the White House continued today this afternoon Senator Jeff

Merckley, a Democrat of Oregon, took the floor of the Senate to hold it through the night to protest Trump's grave threats to democracy. He said, we cannot pretend this is normal. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts. Recorded with music and post. by Michael Maas.