Everyone in the country at the moment, albeit from different vantage points, seems to have the same question: What the actual fuck is going on?

Is the plan to have permanent tariffs? Are these meant as the basis of some kind of negotiation? Are we going to have blanket tariffs as the basis of a system of corruption in which favored industries and companies gain exemptions in exchange for fealty and cash? (So, countries as universities and law firms?) Is the idea just to replace income taxes with tariff income and fundamentally shift taxes to the middle and working classes?

At a basic level, the entire MAGA movement, and Donald Trump from whom all of it stems, simply doesn’t grasp the nature of American power or its limitations. In their view, the United States is the natural and inherent dominating power in the world. We’re the most powerful and the strongest. And starting from that view, they look out onto the world and think if we are in charge, why don’t we act like we’re in charge?

Earlier this week I noted the fact that the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services had been oddly immune thus far to the DOGE axe, not just compared to other HHS divisions and agencies but across almost the entire federal government. This seemed in large part because of the role Brad Smith, a key DOGEr who worked at CMS during Trump’s first term, and because of nominal DOGE chief Amy Gleason who worked in high level roles at Smith’s companies. I noted that relative immunity because there were signs that might soon change. It has now changed.

On March 31st, CMS COO Amy Brandt sent out instructions for major cuts that had to take place across CMS. As she explained, HHS had been assigned a total amount of savings from canceled contracts. And of that total amount CMS was responsible for just over $2.7 billion. That amounted to 35% of CMS’s average total spend on contracts from the years FY2023 and 2024. So in technical terms, a shit-ton of money and a huge percentage of the overall budget.

On Monday I did a series of posts about what SSI disability recipients and their parent-guardians were seeing on their Social Security portals. Peoples’ portals had the new language: “This beneficiary is currently not receiving payments.” As I noted, those people’s payments did eventually show up and on Tuesday, as of mid-afternoon, the portal issue was resolved as well. On Tuesday, I can now report, an internal SSA email was sent out notifying employees about the problem and that it had been resolved, in other words, more or less at the same time as TPM’s follow-up report. The problem, as the email put it, was that “customers received a message starting they are not receiving any Social Security payments after attempting to log into their mySSA account.” Interestingly, it goes on to say that the problem “began Monday, 03/31/2025, after a migration of services.”

A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Kate and Josh discuss the special elections, Cory Booker’s 25-hour filibuster and the downfall of Elise Stefanik.