MSNBC host Jen Psaki tore into Donald Trump on Tuesday, blasting his visit to a Florida immigrant detention site nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz” and the Senate’s passage of what she mockingly called the “Big Ugly Bill.” In a sharp and unflinching opening monologue on The Briefing, Psaki argued that both the bill and the photo-op made one thing clear: “Cruelty isn’t just the point, it’s the priority.”
Trump’s trip to the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport — a remote, swampy detention center in Ochopee — came just as the Senate passed his immigration-heavy legislation. Psaki called out the timing, accusing Trump of staging the tour to distract from a deeply unpopular bill packed with Medicaid cuts and massive increases in immigration enforcement funding.
“This isn’t about policy or solutions,” Psaki said. “It’s about punishing people. And they don’t even try to hide it anymore.”
To prove her point, Psaki played past defenses of the bill by Republicans, including a moment from senator Joni Ernst.
“People are not — well, we all are going to die. For heaven’s sakes, folks,” Ernst told concerned constituents asking about health care cuts.
“That doesn’t get weirder the more you watch it,” Psaki said. “But that statement was, until today, probably the most callous thing any Republican had said in defense of this bill.”
Then came Vice President JD Vance.
Psaki pointed to a tweet Vance posted — not a slip of the tongue, she emphasized, but something he chose to write — where he brushed off the impact of Medicaid cuts as “immaterial” compared to funding ICE and deportations.
“In other words,” Psaki said, “what he’s saying there is that the 11 million people who will be kicked off their insurance and the hundreds of rural hospitals that could close — that’s trivial to J.D. Vance.”
“It’s minutia,” she added. “And it’ll all be worth it if they can pour billions into locking people up and deporting them under Trump’s cruel immigration crackdown. That’s basically what the vice president of the United States tweeted.”
Psaki then reminded viewers of a moment from the campaign trail — a question from a Wisconsin voter about how Trump and Vance would protect rural health care.
The voter asked: “What concrete plans would your administration have to protect rural health care access?”
“So, first of all, this goes back to the immigration issue,” Vance replied. “Now, you might not think that rural health care access is an immigration issue. I guarantee it is… We’ve got to stop that. Kick these illegal aliens out, focus on American citizens, and we will do a lot to make the business of rural healthcare much more affordable.”
Psaki called vance’s claims false and noted fact-checkers had already debunked the idea that undocumented immigrants are to blame for hospital closures. But even if his logic were true, she said, his statements now contradict his previous defense.
“First of all,” Psaki said, “what JD Vance just said there about immigrants burdening rural hospitals and forcing them to close is flat out wrong. Many fact checkers pointed that out at the time.”
“But even if it were true,” she continued, “Vance’s argument was that mass deportation would somehow save rural hospitals. Now, he’s saying rural hospitals can shut down, and people can go without health care — if it means getting Trump’s deportation agenda passed.”
“That’s the point,” Psaki said. “Actually, that’s the priority.”
She accused Trump and his Republican allies of being willing to hurt anyone — even their own voters — to push through their harsh agenda.
“That is why Trump spent the day at a swamp prison for immigrants instead of celebrating the Senate’s passage of this bill,” Psaki said.
“The senators who voted for this bill know exactly what it is: another piece of Trump’s cruel and callous disregard for people living in this country. And they voted for it anyway.”
She closed with a warning for Republicans in the House: “Tomorrow, this bill heads back to the House, where every single person who votes for it will have to face voters in next year’s midterms. And Democrats are doing everything in their power to keep the public’s attention on this bill, who it will hurt, and how it will hurt them.”
Watch the entire segment below from MSNBC:
