Lucas: Karen Spilka and the Massachusetts Senate will ‘take on’ Trump. Yeah. Right.

President Donald Trump must be deeply troubled these days No not over anything Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping has disclosed about invading Taiwan And it has nothing to do with Vladimir Putin snarling over Trump-sponsored ceasefire talks in Ukraine or the world reaction to tariffs Neither does it concern the joke justice warriors of the progressive Democrat U S district court judges ganging up on him to stifle his sweeping initiatives ranging from the deportation of criminal illegal aliens to cutting USAID These developments he can handle Taking on the Massachusetts state Senate is a different matter What surely must have Trump shaking in his boots was last week s vow by Democrat state Senate President Karen Spilka to stand up to him and his campaign to cut fraud waste abuse in federal governing body programs Up to now Trump has only been forced to deal with attacks from Massachusetts U S Sens Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey along with the nine useless Massachusetts members of the U S House all Democrats Warren has even coupled with Vermont Sen Bernie Sanders to go after Trump for allegedly rewarding billionaires at the expense of the working class The pair of progressives used to attack millionaires until they became millionaires themselves They then upped their match to billionaires Anyway if anyone knows about FWA in establishment it is the Democrat-controlled Massachusetts Senate which under Spilka is fighting tooth and nail to ward off an audit by state Auditor Diana DiZoglio even though the voters overwhelmingly approved of it at the ballot box DiZoglio could begin by auditing the way Spilka uses state funds to embellish the salaries of senators who are loyal to her by appointing them chairs of committees that sometimes do not even meet DiZoglio served unhappily in the Senate before she was elected auditor For instance Spilka at a lame press conference last week named Sen Cindy Friedman of Arlington to head a coordinated committee called Response to deal with Trump budget cuts Friedman the chair of the Senate Steering and Procedures Committee will work with other committees to lead the state through the uncertainty of federal action by Trump If nothing else the Senate knows how to create committees And Spilka s creation of Response is nothing more than a constituents relations gimmick to appease left wing loonies accusing the Democrat-controlled Legislature of not standing up to Trump as if the Legislature had the power to do so And Spilka s press conference was conveniently held just days before in the modern day s anti-Trump Hands Off Boston rally on Boston Common protesting the Trump Musk assault on democracy and vowing never to bow to tyrant kings or fascism We the People of Massachusetts will come together to tell the corrupt cruel chaotic tyrants in D C hands off Boston the group s flyer noted It also came just after the announcement that the Trump administration had terminated million in residual COVID- funds that Massachusetts schools expected Gov Maura Healey a long time Trump critic condemned the decision as she has other federal budget cuts But she was not at the Spilka press conference nor did she send a representative Also absent was House Speaker Ron Mariano or anyone else from the state House of Representatives Indicative of what a con job it all was is the fact that no member of the state s delegation to Congress who deal daily with the Trump administration attended not Warren or Markey or any of the nine hapless members of the U S House So it was left to Spilka and the Massachusetts state Senate to take on Trump Yeah Right She ll show him It is not known if Friedman will be paid extra for her new duties but she ostensibly will Last year Friedman with the legislators base pay of was paid an additional for chairing one committee and vice chairing another for a total of Related Articles Massachusetts reps slam Trump admin for clawback of M in K- funding Trump administration demands Harvard end DEI ban masks at protests to keep federal funding Trump declares liberation day as he orders tariffs on all foreign goods Trump signals DOGE may close early after Elon Musk s departure Campbell joins suit against RFK Jr over B wellness care grant terminations Base pay now is but greater part legislators like Friedman make much more especially if they are Spilka loyalists Spilka is paid They are worth every penny Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas can be reached at peter lucas bostonherald com