Rep. Subramanyam Responds to Trump Shutdown Madness

Summary

The MeidasTouch Podcast: "Rep. Subramanyam Responds to Trump Shutdown Madness"

Date: October 4, 2025
Guests: Congressman Subramanyam (D-VA)
Host: Ron Filipkowski (for MeidasTouch Network)

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the U.S. government shutdown under the Trump administration, focusing on both the political gamesmanship and real-world impact, especially on federal workers and the wider public. Host Ron Filipkowski engages in a substantive conversation with Congressman Subramanyam from Virginia, dissecting the Republican approach, the spread of disinformation through official White House channels, and the broader consequences for democracy. The tone balances sharp critique, humor, and urgency, reflecting MeidasTouch’s trademark blend of commentary and advocacy.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. White House Memes and Propaganda

Timestamps: 00:00–03:13

• The episode begins with Ron Filipkowski highlighting the unserious nature of the official White House social media, which has been posting AI-generated memes mocking Democratic leaders during a critical government shutdown.
• Ron points out how the White House is attempting to shift blame for the shutdown onto Democrats with "desperate" and "embarrassing" memes, despite Republicans controlling all branches of government.
  • "They're posting photos like this of Chuck Schumer in a hot dog costume... They're saying Dems right now. And when you read the comments... it's like, how embarrassing for our country." (Ron, 00:35)
• Audience reactions pulled from social media demonstrate the general public’s awareness that responsibility for the shutdown rests with Republicans.

2. Congressman Subramanyam Responds: Shutdown as a GOP Strategy

Timestamps: 03:13–04:53

• Congressman Subramanyam suggests the shutdown was the Republican plan from the start:
  • "It seems more and more clear to me that this was the Republicans plan all along to shut down the government... They knew that." (Rep. Subramanyam, 03:14)
• He expresses frustration at the administration treating a serious crisis as a joke, emphasizing the anxiety and hardship this causes for federal workers and contractors, especially in his Virginia district.

3. GOP Gaslighting and Disinformation

Timestamps: 04:53–09:42

• The conversation shifts to how Republicans leverage moments of crisis (such as California wildfires) to launch disinformation campaigns, creating confusion and bending reality via outlandish claims (e.g., "transgender surgeries in Peru" or massive spending on illegal immigrants).
• Subramanyam deconstructs these talking points:
  • "Basically they said that Democrats want to shut down because we want to provide health care to illegal aliens, which is not true... They've been firing federal workers, they've been taking away veterans Benefits... and so you look at all those things they've done and the things they're saying, it's classic gaslighting, really." (Rep. Subramanyam, 06:56)
• He points out Republican absenteeism during crucial negotiations, noting that House Republicans "were told to stay home," leaving no path for negotiation or solution.

4. Committee Oversight and Trump’s $17 Trillion Claim

Timestamps: 09:42–12:47

• Ron raises Trump’s repeated claim of "bringing in $17 trillion" — a fabrication unaccounted for by any budget or appropriations committee.
• Subramanyam explains that such blatant lying has become normalized and largely unchecked:
  • "People are so numb now to all of his lies and his misdirection... For any other president, it would have been big news." (Rep. Subramanyam, 11:34)
• He highlights the ongoing lack of transparency about legitimate concerns — Trump's personal enrichment and foreign deals, contrasting the scrutiny given to average Americans.

5. The Stark Contrast: Elite Privilege vs. Public Hardship

Timestamps: 12:47–15:42

• Ron underscores the contrast between Trump world’s ostentation (golden ballrooms, lavish deals) and the suffering of ordinary Americans (farm bankruptcies, manufacturing slump, housing crisis).
  • "You see, by the way, every day, what's the $50 billion Jared Kushner deal with the Saudis to buy EA barely gets reported..." (Ron, 12:58)
  • "Farmageddon, farmers on the verge of bankruptcy... worst housing market since, like, 1995..." (Ron, 13:40)
• Congressman Subramanyam describes the administration’s approach as "let them eat cake," cutting social benefits for the vulnerable while subsidizing wealth for the elite.
  • "That's the policy of this administration. Let them eat cake. Right. Let's cut benefits, Medicaid benefits to people who need it most so that we can fund tax cuts for the richest corporations and people." (Rep. Subramanyam, 14:08)
• He calls for continued public activism and voting as means to push back:
  • "I've seen it over and over again, when you speak up, when you fight back and you don't acquiesce to this administration, you see results and you see them shift and you see them retreat and get scared away." (Rep. Subramanyam, 14:49)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On AI Memes and Accountability:

  • "They're posting photos like this of Chuck Schumer in a hot dog costume... they're saying Dems right now. And when you read the comments... it's like, how embarrassing for our country."
    — Ron Filipkowski (00:35)

• On the Shutdown Being Pre-Planned:

  • "It seems more and more clear to me that this was the Republicans plan all along to shut down the government."
    — Rep. Subramanyam (03:14)

• On Republican Gaslighting:

  • "It's classic gaslighting, really... They weren't even here yesterday, the day that we're supposed to have potentially a vote again to avert a shutdown."
    — Rep. Subramanyam (06:56–07:25)

• On Trump’s $17 Trillion Boast:

  • "People are so numb now to all of his lies and his misdirection... For any other president, it would have been big news."
    — Rep. Subramanyam (11:34)

• On Contrasts and ‘Let Them Eat Cake’:

  • "That's the policy of this administration. Let them eat cake... Let's cut benefits, Medicaid benefits to people who need it most so that we can fund tax cuts for the richest corporations and people."
    — Rep. Subramanyam (14:08)

• On the Importance of Public Action:

  • "When you speak up, when you fight back and you don't acquiesce to this administration, you see results and you see them shift..."
    — Rep. Subramanyam (14:49)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:00 – Opening critique of White House memes during a crisis
• 03:13 – Rep. Subramanyam’s view on shutdown as GOP strategy
• 06:54 – Gaslighting and Republican messaging against Democrats
• 09:42 – House Oversight, Trump’s $17 trillion claim, normalization of lying
• 12:47 – Economic contrast: Trump’s world versus the average American
• 14:07 – "Let them eat cake" policy, push for activism and voting

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Summary Takeaway

This episode exposes how, amidst a government shutdown, the Trump-led White House resorts to mockery, disinformation, and gaslighting rather than leadership, putting federal workers and vulnerable Americans at risk. Congressman Subramanyam provides a grounded, critical response, urging persistent accountability and grassroots action as the country faces governance crises and deepening inequality. The MeidasTouch team’s signature blend of sharp analysis, humor, and advocacy for democracy shines throughout the episode.

Transcript

[Ron Filipkowski]

During these very serious times, while Donald Trump has forced the government into a shutdown, we expect leadership right at the White House. In fact, I think Donald Trump said that back in 2011 and 2013, the President must bring people together to avoid shutdowns. Well, here's what's being posted from the official White House account, which looks like a 4chan meme machine at this point. That's not a good thing. And they're posting photos like this of Chuck Schumer in a hot dog costume. We're all trying to find the guy who did this. They're saying Dems right now. And when you read the comments from a lot of these posts that the White House is making rapid fire. It's like, how embarrassing for our country that this is our official social media account. Don't the Republicans control all branches of government? There's another post where Donald Trump does a video where he says, transgender for everybody. I don't even know what that means with the transgender flag. And says this shutdown is about transgender for everybody. You look at the comments and they say, I literally follow this account just to see the current administration get roasted in the comments. Maga, how are y' all really believing this stuff? Your mom took Tylenol. If you believe this pro tip. If you really want anyone outside of MAGA to believe incorrectly that this is the Democrats fault, you may not want to post clips and memes every 10 minutes. Saying that this is the Democrats fault seems desperate. And then someone else wrote, I love my government propaganda machine. White House. Another post. They made Democrats have shut down the government. A quote from Donald Trump. Then in 2013 from one of the commenters, a shutdown means the President is weak. Another person commented, Dave the pirate writes, don't the Republicans run the House, the Senate, and the presidency? I guess Trump is just powerless against those big bad Democrats. Another person responded, good to see the comments filled with people who understand how government works. Another comment, republicans control both houses and the presidency. This lie don't fly. Then someone goes, who holds the majority in the House? Who holds the majority in the Senate? Sounds to me like a few Republicans flopped on you. That's a Republican problem. And again, we're just taking some anecdotal data of the White House account, but those are the most popular comments on all, all of the recent posts. I want to bring in a Democratic Congress member from Virginia, Congressmember Subramanian. We've had him on the show before. Congressman, it's great to see you here. You know, these are very serious Times, I mean, they are. And look, I like humor on my show. I like to pretend that I'm funny sometimes. But I also like to know when I direct that humor and how to address these issues, especially, you know, you represent a district in Virginia that has a lot of government workers, people who are either have been laid off or are going to be laid off. People are scared. They're living paycheck to paycheck. Right now, in Trump's economy, things are bad unless you're a billionaire. And to me, this behavior of, like, posting, you know, AI memes of Leader Jeffries and sombreros, like it's not the time. And like, right now, we need a leader, not. Not whatever the hell this is. What do you make of it all, Congressman?

[Congressman Subramanian]

You know, as all of this unfolds, it seems more and more clear to me that this was the Republicans plan all along to shut down the government. I mean, they put, you know, this terrible proposal before us again, and we didn't vote for it last time, we're not going to vote for it this time. They knew that. And Russ Vote is at the OMB is looking at how he can fire more federal workers, even though that's illegal during the shutdown. And now they're putting out these tweets that they think is funny and these AI generated videos. And it just seems to me like they're enjoying this shutdown and that they think this is funny and it's not funny. The reality is this is going to hurt a lot of people, including my friends and neighbors in Virginia. It's going to hurt a lot of contractors who go completely without pay. And most of all, it's going to hurt the American people. And I think the American people are sick of this. They're sick of these shutdown fights. They're sick of Congress acting like this. And these seem to only happen when Republicans are in charge, these shutdown fights. It seems like when President Trump especially is in office, you better believe that shutdown's gonna happen. I talked to one federal worker who said, in January, Trump's in office, I better start saving, because there's probably going to be a shutdown even. And I was like, even with the Republican majority. And they're like, especially with the Republican majority. And so they were right. And I think these mean tweets and, you know, these, you know, weird AI videos seem to lend more credence to the fact that they wanted this all along.

[Ron Filipkowski]

You know, when you look at a lot of major crises that have taken place out here in California, horrible fires last January. I go back to Biden's administration where, you know, maybe there would be a train derailment in the Palestine area, in the Ohio, whatever it would be, it would, it would actually see to me that that's when these Republicans would like get giddy, like they were like, all right, now's the time where we put our kind of right wing disinformation machine and let's come up the craziest crap to flood the zone. I mean, during the fires, it was, there was a magical faucet that is on the border of California and Canada. Of course, it doesn't border Canada. And this faucet that Governor Newsom didn't turn on the faucet and he was too focused on saving the smelt fish, that he didn't care about the fires. And, you know, seeing Governor Newsom's progression the first two days, he was like, why would I respond to these stupid things? But then he realizes that if you don't deal with it, it has a way of bending reality. So you actually have to address these things. And now here as we're dealing with the shutdown, you saw some of the posts that I showed you. I mean, they're saying what this shutdown is about is the Democrats demanded trillions of dollars for transgender surgeries in Peru, and they also are demanding trillions of dollars for illegal immigrants to go on Medicaid and to get the Affordable Care act tax credits and to the illegal immigrants. And it's so far out there that it's hard to in a symmetrical way, address something that's such a lie, which is why I think they make the lie so big and outrageous. But, you know, what's, what's your take on how you deal with, with that? And do you think the people in Virginia and your district are buying what's being sold right now to them?

[Congressman Subramanian]

Yeah. You know, if you want to raise your blood pressure, check out their news conference from earlier today where Mike Johnson and John Thune were there. And basically they said that Democrats want to shut down because we want to provide health care to illegal aliens, which is not true because these programs we're trying to protect are not illegal immigrants, are not eligible for them. But even more so, they went on to say, I kid you not, that we're out here as Republicans to protect federal workers and protect veterans benefits and food access. Well, you know what? The last nine months, they've been doing nothing but the opposite. They've been firing federal workers, they've been taking away veterans Benefits, firing veterans as well and taking away food access programs like Slap Snap. And so you look at all those things they've done and the things they're saying, it's classic gaslighting, really. And so you know what the other thing to note about this is? They weren't even here yesterday, the day that we're supposed to have potentially a vote again to avert a shutdown or try to figure out a way forward. It's not like we could negotiate with Republicans. They were told to stay home and not to even come in this week. And so how are they? They had six months to avert a shutdown, and yet here we are yesterday and they don't even show up to work. I mean, you, you know, most jobs, if you don't show up to work and you don't do your job, you get fired. And I hope they all get fired over this because the American people deserve much better. Now, in my district, people, I have a very smart district with a lot of people who serve our government. They protect us, they keep us safe, keep us healthy. And they're either federal workers or contractors in many cases. And they're wise to this. They understand that shutdowns really only happen because of far right wing Republicans. And remember, this speaker got to power because the previous Republican speaker was negotiating with Democrats too much. Right. And so the Freedom Caucus staged a revolt last time. And so that's the makeup of this current Republican House membership is that they don't want to work with us. They just want to force us to vote for their crap. And in the end, we're not going to be for it anymore. We're not going to do this. I'm glad some Democrats from this past spring who voted for that last time see that you can't trust Republicans on these issues and that you need to get them to the table and figure out a bipartisan solution rather than going along and being dragged along with this takeover of the federal government and these cuts to health benefits for every American. So, you know, I think my constituents understand this and they're fed up, really.

[Ron Filipkowski]

You sit on the House Oversight Committee. It's now being led on the Democratic side by ranking member Robert Garcia. You were elected in 2024, part of a new wave, if you will, of kind of younger Democrats. Well, you and I are the same age younger Democrats who are, you know, making sure to use the opposition role right now, though, to still conduct robust oversight, which I think a lot of people see with the stick to it. Iveness regarding the Epstein Files. You know, an issue that I'm wondering, you know, your perspective as someone who sits on the House Oversight Committee is, you know, Donald Trump keeps saying that he brought in $17 trillion. He repeats it over and over again, and in connection with the shutdown talks, which is kind of counterintuitive to me because, look, I think we all know that he's lying about the number, but just assume that he's telling the truth and he actually brought in $17 trillion. Well, no one on the House Appropriations seen the money. No one in the Treasury Department seen the money. No one on the Budget Committee seen the money. So that means $17 trillion is missing, I think, about the Bernie Madoff scandal. One of the biggest Ponzi schemers in history there. $45 billion went missing. And of course, we know what happened there. So if $17 trillion, as he keeps on saying, exists, what account is it in? Did he steal the 17 trillion? He's promised dividend checks and rebate checks over and over again. Shouldn't the American people who are struggling get this money right now? And why isn't anybody asking, well, which account is it in? Show us where it is. Seems like a big deal. Or is the number just so big that it's like, ah, it's Donald being Donald.

[Congressman Subramanian]

Yeah. No, show your math, right, and show us the proof. That's the thing. I mean, the reality is, I think a lot of people, they're just so numb now to all of his lies and his misdirection. And so he can throw out something like that. It's not news anymore. For any other president, it would have been big news. Oh, $17 trillion, that's not even possible. That must be a lie. But with this president, people are so used to him not telling the truth, that we are where we are. But, yeah, I'd love to see his math on that. I would love to know why it's not being returned to the American people if that's the case. What I do know is we have all the accounting on how he's enriching himself and his family. That's billions of dollars, certainly. I mean, they're using all these grips now, and they're using our foreign policy to enrich themselves. And, and people in the administration are enriching themselves. And so, you know, I've sent many letters asking about that. Haven't gotten much of a response. And anytime I speak up about it on the House floor, Republicans tell me that that's not decorum, that I should be nicer to the President. Not be mean to the president. And so that's an actual policy that they have on the House floor now. So I think we have to continue asking the questions at least, and asking for the proof, knowing, though, that most people, I think, have resigned themselves to the fact that the president doesn't tell the truth.

[Ron Filipkowski]

You know, and then to me, finally, you know, before we go, I mean, there's just such a contrast right there between him bragging about the gold in the Oval Office and golden ballrooms, and he was in the UK in golden carriages, and he's talking about turning, he turned the Rose Garden into Club Rose Garden, a club for rich Republicans only. He posts these videos of what the UFC fights on the White House lawn are going to look like. And so, I mean, you see that. And then you see, by the way, every day, what's the $50 billion Jared Kushner deal with the Saudis to buy EA barely gets reported to begin with as well, where he's funded by the Saudis and his affinity company and then Saudi's PIF bought it. But, like, that's like a blip. Like, oh, yeah, that's just makes a bunch of sense. Trump Plaza in Saudi Arabia, billion dollar project announced this week as well. But you have that. Then you have what the American people are going through. Farmageddon, farmers on the verge of bankruptcy, if not already bankrupt, construction and manufacturing workers essentially in a recession, worst housing market since, like, 1995. It just seems that contrast right there is so stark right now. So before we go, I want you to comment on that because it seems that, you know, it's one of these eat your cake moments, if you will.

[Congressman Subramanian]

Yeah, that's the policy of this administration. Let them eat cake. Right. Let's cut benefits, Medicaid benefits to people who need it most so that we can fund tax cuts for the richest corporations and people. Right. But we have to still be talking about this. We can't ignore this. We can't ignore the policies of administration, however frustrating it is, that it's not covered. We still have to bring up these issues in the end. You know, they rely a lot on indifference and they rely a lot on fear and the projection of power, but they're really not as strong as people think. And I think what we have to do is push back. And really, whether it's, you know, someone who's affected by Medicaid cuts or a federal worker who's furloughed right now, everyone speaking up makes a huge difference. And I've seen it over and over again, when you speak up, when you fight back and you don't acquiesce to this administration, you see results and you see them shift and you see them retreat and get scared away. And so I think that continues to be our plan for how to push back. And it has to continue. And you know, we have elections in Virginia coming up early voting's already started and it's in November. And we can send a huge message in Virginia, New Jersey, and all across the country to people and two members of Congress on the Republican side included that the people are not accepting these policies. And so. But it starts with actually speaking up about it and not being afraid.

[Ron Filipkowski]

Congressman Subramanian, appreciate you joining us.

[Congressman Subramanian]

Thank you everybody.

[Ron Filipkowski]

Hit subscribe let's get to 6 million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our [e-mail] you'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski ad free episodes of of our podcast and more exclusive content only [e-mail].

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