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chris murphy
'Mega-Layoffs' Under Trump as Corporations Have Cut 1 Million Jobs This Year—Most Since 2003
“Trump put billionaires in charge of everything," said progressive Congressman Greg Casar. "It’s a disaster.”
Nov 06, 2025
The US labor market, which in recent months had ground nearly to a halt, now appears to be entering a downward spiral.
As reported by the Washington Post on Thursday, new data from corporate outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that employers in October announced 153,000 job cuts, which marked the highest number of layoffs in that month since October 2003.
Total announced job cuts in 2025 have now reached 1.1 million, a number that the Post describes as a "recession-like" level comparable to the steep job cuts announced in the wake of the dotcom bust of the early 2000s, the global financial crisis of 2008, and the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
John Challenger, the CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, told the Post that the huge number of October layoffs showed the economy was entering "new territory."
"We haven’t seen mega-layoffs of the size that are being discussed now—48,000 from UPS, potentially 30,000 from Amazon—since 2020 and before that, since the recession of 2009," he explained. "When you see companies making cuts of this size, it does signal a real shift in direction."
CNBC noted that the Challenger report found that the tech sector is currently being hardest hit by the layoffs, and it said that the adoption of artificial intelligence was a significant driver of job cuts.
"Some industries are correcting after the hiring boom of the pandemic, but this comes as AI adoption, softening consumer and corporate spending, and rising costs drive belt-tightening and hiring freezes," the report said. "Those laid off now are finding it harder to quickly secure new roles, which could further loosen the labor market."
With the backing of Big Tech investors, President Donald Trump has pushed to prevent states from regulating AI, over the objections of labor groups and progressive lawmakers. Last month, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) warned that without strong regulation, tech billionaires' investments in AI will likely "increase their wealth and power exponentially" while wiping out "tens of millions" of jobs.
According to Bloomberg, however, AI adoption is just one factor in companies' decision to enact mass layoffs, as some firms have also cited the need to protect their profit margins from the impacts of President Donald Trump's tariffs, which have raised prices for a wide variety of products and materials.
Democratic lawmakers were quick to seize on the news of mass layoffs as evidence that Trump is sending the US economy into a ditch.
"Trump put billionaires in charge of everything," remarked Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) in a social media post. "It’s a disaster."
"Trump inherited the fastest growing economy in the [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development], fastest reduction in inflation, record job creation," said Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.). "Dumb tariffs, racist immigration policies, attacks on the rule of law and termination of congressionally mandated programs did this."
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), meanwhile, simply wrote that "Trump’s economy suuuuucks."
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New Levels of Corruption Feared as Trump Family Adds Gambling Business Atop of Crypto Grift
"The White House is a full-time, 24/7 corruption machine," said Sen. Chris Murphy.
Oct 29, 2025
President Donald Trump's family has long generated controversy and criticism for running a cryptocurrency business during his second term in office, and now they're adding an online betting business to their portfolio.
The Financial Times on Tuesday reported that the president's Truth Social platform is getting into the prediction market business to allow bettors to place wagers on the outcomes of elections, sports games, and other events.
The new "Truth Predict" betting market platform will be a partnership between the Trump Media and Technology Group and Crypto.com, a cryoptocurrency trading platform that in the past has donated millions to Trump causes.
According to the Financial Times, the Trump family in recent months has become more intertwined with the online betting industry, as Donald Trump Jr. has taken on "advisory roles at the two industry-leading prediction market companies, Kalshi and Polymarket."
Additionally, Trump Jr.'s venture capital firm has invested in Polymarket, which Wired reports has not operated in the US since 2022 when it reached an agreement with the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission to settle allegations that it operated an unregistered derivatives trading market.
Mike Masnick, a journalist at Techdirt, pointed out the glaring conflict of interest posed by the most powerful person in the world owning his own prediction market platform.
"So the company the president currently owns is teaming up with a cryptocurrency company to create a prediction market, which will take bets... on things the president himself has quite a lot of control over?" he wrote in a post on Bluesky. "Gosh, I'm sure nothing bad will happen."
The Trump family's entrance into the online betting market came on the same day that Reuters published an extensive report showing how the Trump family has used its cryptocurrency business to generate a massive increase in wealth in a matter of mere months.
According to Reuters' calculations, "the Trump Organization’s income soared 17-fold to $864 million from $51 million a year earlier," with more than 90% of this income coming from the Trump-backed cryptocurrency venture. Reuters also reported that the $800 million is just the actual income the Trump Organization has taken in so far, and that it has billions more in unrealized gains from the crypto venture.
Washington University law professor Kathleen Clark, who specializes in teaching government ethics, told Reuters it was obvious that investors in the Trump crypto venture were hoping to get some kind of favor from the government in exchange.
"These people are not pouring money into coffers of the Trump family business because of the brothers' acumen,” she said. “They are doing it because they want freedom from legal constraints and impunity that only the president can deliver."
Trump last week sparked corruption accusations when he pardoned cryptocurrency magnate Changpeng Zhao, whose company Binance has been a major booster to the Trump family's crypto business.
“Binance has been one of the main drivers of the growth of World Liberty’s dollar-pegged cryptocurrency, called USD1,”The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. “It delivered World Liberty’s first big break this spring when it accepted a $2 billion investment from an outside investor paid in USD1. Binance has also incentivized trading in USD1 across platforms it controls.”
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer (R-Tenn.), who for years investigated former President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, for his foreign business dealings, was asked by CNN host Jake Tapper if he would investigate the Trump family's crypto venture.
Comer indicated that he was fine with the Trump family's potentially corrupt money-making schemes because they were being done out in the open.
"We... are reading about this, we're trying to digest it," he said. "The difference between the way the Trump family's operating and the Biden family, is they're admitting they're doing this. The president campaigned as a business guy... as long as you disclose the income and disclose the sources, I think that's acceptable."
WATCH — @jaketapper: “The Trumps made $800 MILLION in crypto from foreign influence in half a year. Will you looking into that?”@RepJamesComer: “The difference is they’re open about (their corruption).” 🤔
TAPPER: *ZERO PUSHBACK* pic.twitter.com/QRMHPUZ0Iy
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) October 28, 2025
Critics of the president, however, said this hands-off approach to investigating the Trump family's business dealings was unacceptable.
Democratic operative David Axelrod wrote in a post on X that it is "kind of incredible that the House Oversight Committee is spending its time on Biden's auto pen but they won't touch how Trump has doubled his wealth in a year."
Axelrod also thought congressional investigators should be asking about "who's buying his meme coins," "the deals his kids are cutting all over the world," and "the gifted jet from Qatar."
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) argued that no president in US history has engaged in this level of corruption.
"Trump and his family’s crypto ventures are selling out our national security through sweetheart deals with money launderers, fraudsters, and foreign governments," he wrote on X. "The scale of this corruption—reaping more than $800 million and pardons for business partners—is unprecedented."
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) noted on Tuesday that Binance this week promoted sales of the Trump family's meme coin mere days after the president pardoned its founder.
"The White House is a full-time, 24/7 corruption machine," he said.
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Sen. Murphy: Trump Wants Shutdown 'Because He Thinks He Can Exercise King-Like Powers'
"This is a leader who is trying to transition our government from a democracy to something much closer to a totalitarian state," the Connecticut Democrat warned.
Oct 26, 2025
Twenty-six days into the shutdown, US Sen. Chris Murphy argued on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday that President Donald Trump "is refusing to negotiate... because he likes the fact that the government is closed, because he thinks he can exercise king-like powers, he can open up the parts of the government that he wants, he can pay the employees who are loyal to him."
The second-longest government shutdown in US history began early this month because congressional Republicans want to maintain their funding plans, while Democrats want to help the millions of Americans facing healthcare coverage losses and surging insurance premiums by reversing the GOP's recent Medicaid cuts and extending Affordable Care Act subsidies.
"Let's be clear. We're shut down right now because Republicans are refusing to even talk to Democrats about a bipartisan budget bill," Murphy (D-Conn.) told CNN's Jake Tapper. "Yes, we have priorities, just like they do. One of our priorities is pretty simple, making sure that premiums don't go up by 75% on 22 million families this fall."
"Now, the reality is, if they sat down to try to negotiate, we could probably come up with something pretty quickly," the senator suggested, pointing to Trump's $20-40 billion bailout for Argentina. "That's enough money to relieve a lot of pressure of these premium increases. So, we could get this deal done in a day if the president was in DC, rather than being overseas. We could open up the government on Tuesday or Wednesday, and there wouldn't be any crisis in the food stamp program."
"I just don't want to live in a world in which Donald Trump and a handful of billionaires decide which part of government works and which don't."
Trump arrived in Malaysia on Sunday and is set to spend the week traveling in Asia. His administration refuses to use a contingency fund to deliver food stamps—officially called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits—during the shutdown, imperiling relief for about 42 million low-income people and drawing intense criticism from Democrats in Congress.
Federal workers, contractors, and service members are also at risk of not being able to buy groceries due to missed paychecks. However, one of the president's rich friends—billionaire banking heir and railroad magnate Timothy Mellon, according to the New York Times—donated $130 million toward paying more than 1.3 million troops, which potentially violates federal law.
Asked about the donation, Murphy accused Trump of wanting to behave like a king, adding: "This is a leader who is trying to transition our government from a democracy to something much closer to a totalitarian state. And so this is part of what happens in totalitarian states: The leader, the regime only, decides what things get funded and what don't, often in coordination with their oligarch friends."
"So, I just don't want to live in a world in which Donald Trump and a handful of billionaires decide which part of government works and which don't, which is why I would rather have him at the negotiating table tomorrow, so that we can reopen the government and it can be a democratically elected Congress that decides what things get funded, not a handful of superrich dudes," said the senator, who spoke at the second "No Kings" protest in the nation's capital earlier this month.
Trump has used the shutdown to try to advance his purge of the federal workforce. He's also continued his escalating push for regime change in Venezuela, blowing up boats he claims are running drugs and on Friday deploying an aircraft carrier—all without approval from Congress, which has the sole power to declare war, according to the US Constitution. Murphy has previously condemned the boat bombings as "another sign of Trump's growing lawlessness."
The president has also continued pushing his sweeping tariffs, which Murphy has called "a political weapon designed to collapse our democracy." Just days before the US Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on the legality of the administration's global trade policy, Trump on Saturday announced a new 10% tariff on goods from Canada—which will raise prices for American consumers—in response to the Ontario government's advertisement featuring former President Ronald Reagan's critique of import taxes.
Asked about the announcement, Murphy told Tapper: "I think it's just further confirmation that these tariffs have nothing to do with us. Prices are going up on everything in this country. Manufacturing jobs are leaving... These tariffs really are just a political tool that the president uses to help himself, sometimes to enrich himself."
Murphy also connected the tariffs to the Trump administration's broader crackdown on dissent, from recent his designation of antifa as a domestic terrorist organization and a related National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 targeting a wide range of critics, to the US Department of Justice prosecuting the president's political enemies and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr temporarily forcing late-night host Jimmy Kimmel off the air.
"Whether he likes it or not, even the government of Canada or the government of Ontario has the right to criticize him," Murphy said, "but he's now going to use the tariffs to try to punish people overseas from speaking out against him, just like he's using the Department of Justice or the FCC to try to punish and control people who are speaking out against him here in America."
"So these tariffs aren't about rebuilding our economy," he added. "They aren't about helping regular consumers. They're just about giving Trump additional power to try to benefit himself politically and financially."
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