The Daily Moth 2-26-2025
It is Wednesday, February 26, 2025. Here are today’s top stories.
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Actress Michelle Trachtenberg dies at 39
Actress Michelle Trachtenberg, best known for her roles in “Harriet the Spy,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” or “Gossip Girl,” passed away at the age of 39. She was found dead in her New York City apartment this morning.
ABC news said Trachtenberg recently underwent a liver transplant and may have been experiencing complications. Her death is considered “natural causes” and there is no foul play suspected.
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/buffy-gossip-girl-actress-michelle-trachtenberg-dead-39/story
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Trump wants 25% tariffs on European Union
President Trump said he wants the U.S. to impose a 25% tariffs against the European Union. The details has not been announced yet, but Trump said the tariffs would apply to all things and include car imports. Trump believes that the EU was formed to “screw the U.S.”
Trump also threatened to impose a 25% tariff against Canadian and Mexican imports that he previously delayed on April 2.
This news is coming at a time when the U.S. stock market is in a bit of a downturn and after a recent report that said consumer confidence is at its lowest point since August 2021.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/26/trump-impose-25-tariffs-on-european-union/80537746007/
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Unvaccinated child dies in Texas measles outbreak
AP News reported that a school-aged child who was not vaccinated died from measles in the rural West Texas area.
There is an outbreak of measles in West Texas with 124 cases and it’s the largest outbreak in almost 30 years. The death from measles is the first in the U.S. since 2015.
The outbreak is largely spreading in the Mennonite community in West Texas.
AP explained that before the measles vaccine was introduced in 1963, there were 3 to 4 million cases of measles per year, but now it is usually fewer than 200 in a normal year.
Many schools require kids to get the vaccine, a two-shot series, but Texas law allows children to get an exemption for reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs.
https://apnews.com/article/measles-outbreak-west-texas-death-rfk-41adc66641e4a56ce2b2677480031ab9
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Trump’s idea of $5 million “gold card” to get U.S. citizenship
President Trump has an idea of a “gold card” program where foreigners can pay $5 million to get “green cards” and have a path to U.S. citizenship.
CNBC explained that Trump’s “gold card” idea is his way of replacing the EB-5 immigrant investor visa program, which allows foreign investors of large sums of money that create or preserve U.S. jobs to become permanent residents.
Trump said he would share more details in a few weeks.
I have to make a joke here — can U.S. citizens sell their citizenship for $5 million?
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/25/trump-floats-5-million-gold-card-as-a-route-to-us-citizenship.html
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House Republicans passes budget blueprint bill
AP News said House Republicans passed a big budget blueprint that includes $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and $2 trillion in spending cuts despite full opposition from Democrats. The bill aims to extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts bill, which expires this year. The bill now goes to the Senate, where Republicans have their own budget proposal of $340 billion, and it will be quite a process for them to come to an agreement. Republicans are trying to do a process called budget reconciliation so they can avoid a Senate Democratic filibuster.
The $2 trillion in spending cuts include $880 billion in cuts over the next 10 years to the committee that handles health care spending including Medicaid. Medicaid is not specifically named in the bill as facing cuts, but the committees will have a difficult job to find other places to make cuts, so there are fears that Medicaid will ultimately have to face cuts.
Democrats who criticized the bill said the tax breaks will mostly benefit the wealthy and hurt Americans by reducing healthcare access and increasing food insecurity.
https://apnews.com/article/johnson-trump-republicans-budget-vote-tax-cuts-4cb74ca15f6a74a7344355e4507ab9fe
https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/house-republicans-pass-budget-blueprint-medicaid-cuts/740970/
https://rollcall.com/2025/02/25/gop-budget-adopted-in-house-after-late-arm-twisting/
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Monica Lewinsky says Bill Clinton should’ve resigned
Monica Lewinsky said in a podcast interview that former President Bill Clinton should have resigned from office after it was revealed that they had an affair while she was a White House intern. Clinton was 49 and Lewinsky was 22 at the time.
Lewinsky said she knows that this could be an impossible thing for Clinton to do but it’s how she feels. Lewinsky has been more outspoken in recent years against bullying, drawing from her earlier experiences, and said she credits the younger generation for helping to reevaluate this story because they didn’t go through the “brainwashing or lived through that media lens.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2025/02/26/monica-lewinsky-bill-clinton-scandal-resign/80459963007/
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That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.