The Gov Hub Newsletter: December 9, 2025

A new study has confirmed what anyone that scrolls Zillow from time to time has noticed – more than 75% of homes in the U.S. are categorized as unaffordable.

After royally screwing farmers with a tariff war, leading to crops like soybeans to sit and rot with no buyer, the Trump Admin has unveiled a $12 billion handout for farmers with an aid package. The proposed bandaid will give $11 billion in tariff revenue to crop farmers via the Farmer Bridge Assistance program, and the last $1 billion to farmers with crops that don’t qualify for the main pot of welfare.

Layoffs in the U.S. are on target to surpass those of the pandemic era circa 2020 with over 1.1M layoffs announced in 2025.

Socialism by Trump has further become a reality, with the Trump Admin giving the green light to Nvidia to sell its H200 computer chips to customers in China as long as the U.S. government gets 25% of the revenue from the chip sales. The deal gives access to technology vital for national security to its biggest economic [and potentially military] rival – China.

Washed up reality star turned Sec. of Transportation Sean Duffy said verbatim that he had no plan for lowering the cost of food at airports.

The current president was interviewed by Dasha Burns for an eppy of The Conversation, and when asked about people’s concern about high prices impacting their holiday shopping, he had this to say.

The guy who continues to try and market himself as a soybean farmer known as Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent got fact checked in real time at the NYT Dealbook Summit when asked about inflation. Bessent falsely tried to claim that inflation is worse in blue states than red – the numbers however do not add up on that.

In a diabolical move that disregards science, the CDC’s vaccine advisors have voted to narrow its hepatitis B vaccine guidance for newborns, limiting the recommended dose at birth only to mothers who test positive for the virus that’s #1 trait is wreaking devastating levels of havoc on the liver. The next steps on overturning 30 years of science that’s prevented newborns from suffering from hepatitis B derived chronic illness depend on this vote’s approval by the CDC’s current director, Jim O’Neil.

At a super duper weird AF presser at Reagan International Airport, both RFK Jr. and his buddy-in-transportation, Sean Duffy went on weird rants about breast milk, with RFK Jr. using his moment with a mic to stigmatize women that decide not to breast feed. Also at the presser, were the two of them doing the Admin’s pull-up challenge…. File that under things we never needed to see.

Dr. Oz – who somehow is the administrator over at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services – is burning the daylight sending diet-centric emails to CMS workers, dropping advice on not double fisting treats and “how to crush cubicle cravings.”

The Trump Admin’s Department of Health & Human Services has rescinded the nursing home minimum staffing rule – a Biden-era rule that was set to require nursing homes that participated in federal programs like Medicare to have a minimum number of healthcare staff on their roster. Those running nursing homes had previously argued that the rule was only going to make staffing shortages worse, especially in rural areas leading to possible closures. Whereas consumers [and pro-consumer groups] have argued for more staffing to better or fully support nursing home residents.

Speaker Mike Johnson [LA-R] has been working behind the scenes to remove a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that would ensure coverage for IVF for all active duty military personnel.

Adrianna Smith, who despite being declared brain dead, was forced to continue on life support because of Georgia's stone-age level abortion ban, the baby is not doing well according to her surviving family. The baby she was forced to have – again, despite being brain dead – is still fighting for his life six months later.

The FDA just announced that it’s going to “investigate” whether the COVID-19 vaccine caused adult deaths.

The current vice president used his Christmas party speech to share a story about his shoe size and its correlation to the size of his dick. Holy ick.

Known creeper and self-proclaimed Nazi Nick Fuentes admitted to Piers Morgan that he’s never had sex, doesn’t think women should leave the home or vote, and denied that he was gay. In that interview exchange, Piers called Fuentes a “misogynistic dinosaur," which while accurate, is a disservice to dinos.

A marketing campaign worth a trophy or two is this one announced by the CEO of Columbia Sportswear, which challenges flat earthers to prove their conspiracy theory by “finding the edge of the earth.” The challenge asks the flat earthers to send in a pic to prove their point with a possible financial reward attached to it. The tongue and cheek campaign of course rides on the fact that an expedition to finding “the edge of the flat earth” would require solid gear.

According to a new Gallup poll, Trump’s disapproval rate has risen to 60% and his approval rating has dropped to a meager 36%.

Gene Simmons of KISS was spotted in the White House press room late last week ahead of receiving a Kennedy Center Honors Awards and sharing his POV on the American Music Fairness Act with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Trump has revised the days that National Parks give free admission. MLK Day and Juneteenth were both cut from the free day list and replaced with Trump’s birthday.

Despite the abysmal horror show that ICE is conducting across the country, an investigation by the DailyMail found that ICE is having a horrendous time trying to recruit agents. Per the investigation, applicants were found to be failing open-book tests, others had pending criminal charges, and there was even a 469-lb man who wasn’t cleared for physical activity.

In the good news but too soon to tell category is an update out of Missouri on an effort by Dems to block the state’s GOP gerrymander that would kick a Congressional Dem out of their seat. The ballot measure initiative has submitted double the amount of required signatures for next steps at a whopping 305,000. Next in line for what happens is in the hands of GOP Sec. of State Denny Hoskins.

Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva [AZ-D] was pepper-sprayed and shot with fire pellets by masked agents while questioning ICE agents during an immigration raid in Tuscon, Arizona at a local restaurant.

In the wake of Trump calling Somali people “garbage,” a Somali U.S. citizen was grabbed at a mall in Minneapolis, MN and detained for over 24 hours by ICE. During that time she alleges she was sexually assaulted by ICE and asked what she was hiding under her hijab.

In what could be categorized as a Fourth Amendment violation, amongst others, is behavior from ICE agents, as caught on video of them removing security cameras from homes they’re trying to gain access to.

On Sunday, a Neo-Nazi group that calls itself “Blood Tribe,” put on their creepy AF mask and red shirt uniforms, traveled across state lines, and then marched outside of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas before piling back into the back of a U-Haul truck, which was ticketed for a traffic violation.

The Babson college student and DACA recipient Any Lucia Lopez Belloza who was deported while trying to fly home to surprise her family for Thanksgiving, spoke to reporter Jacob Soboroff about her experience. She shared that she wasn’t able to even call her parents to tell them she was being deported and didn’t even know where she was being deported to until she was on the plane.

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino admitted on Fox News that he was paid to lie on his podcast about claims surrounding a suspect that had placed pipe bombs outside of the RNC and DNC headquarters before Jan 6. insurrection. The lie he was paid to push was that it was “an inside job.”  The change in tune comes as the FBI arrested an actual suspect.

More details have been revealed about the ICE arrest of Karoline Leavitt’s quasi sister-in-law following Bruna Ferreira’s release on bond – the details include a rebuke of the White House’s narrative that Ferreira is a criminal, with her public record showing no criminal convictions and shares custody of her son, who she was going to pick up from school the day of her arrest.

FIFA seemed to come up with a peace prize to please the current U.S. president, presenting him with the inaugural “FIFA Peace Prize,” at the World Cup draw. Trump did in fact put the participation medal on himself, and was then trolled by the political version of 50 Cent, Gov. Gavin Newsom.

FBI Director Kash Patel is yet again under fire for taxpayer paid for resources he’s using for himself, and most specifically his girlfriend. In this instance, claims have surfaced that he scolded the lead agent on the FBI security team to take his gf’s drunk friend home – mind you, this is amidst criticism that having this elite team assigned to the country singer for security prevents real-time reaction to actual crises. 

On the docket this week, according to Trump, is an executive order he plans to sign that will go over the heads of states [anti-state’s rights] and attempt to blanket ban them from being able to pass AI regulation.

The allegations that everyone in the Trump orbit are on something got harder to beat after Palantir’s CEO Alex Karp displayed an artistic at best display of body language while on stage at the NYT Dealbook Summit, trying to dismiss claims that Trump is a fascist. 

Congressman Robert Garcia [CA-D] headed over to the Bravo Clubhouse for an eppy with Andy and RHOBH Kyle Richards.

Congressman Maxwell Frost [FL-D] was spotted playing the drums on stage at an Aly & AJ concert in Orlando, Florida.

Senator Adam Schiff [CA-D] explained on New Yorker Radio what the behind the scenes conversations with his Republican colleagues look like: a mix of “someone worse will come if…” rationalizations and fear of retribution from Trump.

NY State Assemblymember and candidate for Congress, Alex Bores took to TikTok to share the passing of the Passover Act that aims to increase candidacy participation.

Following a court ruling that declared that Alina Habba was unlawfully serving as the U.S. Attorney for the district of New Jersey, Habba has resigned. The fight over the appointment appears not to be fully over however, with AG Bondi sharing on Twitter that the DOJ is going to seek other avenues on it.

Trump’s DOJ has hit uno-reverse on the 50-year old “disparate impact” standard – a policy framework that had banned local govs and orgs that get federal funding, from having policies on the docket that disproportionately harm people of color. The move is derived from an executive order signed by Trump earlier in the year that directed his cronies to get rid of “disparate-impact” liability in every nook and cranny. 

The anti-science Trump EPA has removed the #1 driver of global warming, fossil fuels, as a cause from its online pages that are supposed to explain the causes of climate change. Despite the cause and effect being as easy an equation as 2+2=4, the webpages have been scrubbed of references that make oil and “natural” gas look bad.

The EPA said YAY to cancer causing formaldehyde according to ProPublica, which found that the agency is making edits to the dangers caused by the chemical pollutant. The proposed edits are to double the amount of formaldehyde allowed in the air and considered “safe.”

As a result of the Trump Admin’s immigration policies, international student enrollment is down BIG time at U.S. colleges and universities. It’s an equation that is estimated to cost the U.S. economy $1.1 billion. For ref, according to CNBC, international students at U.S. schools resulted in an infusion of $55 billion into the U.S. economy in the ‘24-’25 academic year.

What’s left of Trump’s Education Department announced the end of the SAVE income-driven student loan repayment plan after reaching a settlement, that should a court approve the settlement, will have borrowers moved to other repayment plans.

Bloomberg: MAGA Billionaires Can’t Get Enough Testosterone

The Washington Post: Trump’s Attack on DEI may hurt college men, particularly White men

AP: Supreme Court seems likely to back Trump’s power to fire independent agency board members

The Guardian: Maha v Maha: feud grows as EPA rolls back rules on toxic chemicals