Badlands Daily: July 3, 2025 – Tariff Windfalls, Medicaid Meltdowns, and the Shadow CIA

On this pre–Fourth of July episode, CannCon and Alpha Warrior kick things off with the blowout June jobs report showing 147,000 new positions, 830,000 gained by native-born Americans, and record-breaking tariff revenues exceeding $121 billion. They break down Trump’s trade deal with Vietnam that imposes steep tariffs on Chinese trans-shipping and explore why corporate media is melting down over tariffs that are revitalizing American jobs.

The hosts also tackle the Medicaid work requirement uproar in Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” debunking CBO predictions about mass disenrollment and highlighting how Medicare fraud has ballooned to $14 billion. They dive into new court rulings blocking Trump’s asylum policies, while Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s viral dissent gets roasted for sounding like a text message.

Other highlights include a deep look at John Ratcliffe’s bombshell CIA review exposing Brennan and Clapper’s role in rigging the 2016 Russia collusion narrative and a discussion about the Pentagon’s 60,000-strong clandestine “signature reduction” army operating worldwide. From USAID’s shutdown sob stories to Zelensky’s PR meltdown, this episode mixes humor, policy, and righteous frustration at a system running out of lies.