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Donald J. Trump White House 2nd Term Page 14
Opinion by Opinion Forum

A year after the president election, I feel completely swindled.

I am a Libertarian who voted for Donald Trump in 2024, the first time I ever voted for a Republican for president, because he made efforts to listen and address our concerns. He came to our national convention, promised to stay out of wars and slash government spending and useless programs with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

But none of it happened.

The only thing Trump did do was pardon Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, which I am very grateful for, but he has fallen completely flat on his face on all of his other promises. Now he is going after libertarians like Rep. Thomas Massie and Sen. Rand Paul, both representing Kentucky. A complete betrayal.
Opinion by Adam Serwer

The Sunday before the New York City mayoral race, President Donald Trump told New Yorkers he might withhold federal funding if Zohran Mamdani won.

“It’s gonna be hard for me as the president to give a lot of money to New York, because if you have a Communist running New York, all you’re doing is wasting the money you’re sending there,” Trump told CBS’s 60 Minutes. Mamdani responded to Trump’s threat of extortion—vote for my preferred candidate or else—by pointing out that said federal funding was not Trump’s to give. “This funding is not something that Donald Trump is giving us here in New York City,” Mamdani said. “This is something that we are, in fact, owed in New York.”

It was not the first time Trump treated federal funds as his personal property that he could use to extort political opponents or reward political allies. Trump has approved disaster aid for red states and denied it to blue states. In the midst of the government-shutdown fight with Democrats, he is refusing to disburse rainy-day funds for food stamps, saying (falsely) that the lapse will hurt “largely Democrats.” The Trump administration has cut funding for projects in states with Democratic majorities. It is withholding federal funding from colleges and universities that do not submit to ideological control by the federal government over whom they hire, what they teach, and what sort of students they admit, and rewarding those that comply.

Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to overturn the election on Trump’s behalf have received pardons, as have Republican officeholders convicted on corruption charges. Wealthy donors who funneled money to Trump’s family businesses have also been pardoned, such as Changpeng Zhao, the former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, who pleaded guilty to fraud charges in 2023. Trump’s selective pardons are balanced out by his selective persecutions. His political opponents, such as New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey, have been slapped with flimsy indictments. Cities and states that Trump sees as bastions of his political opposition are subject to occupation by masked federal agents. As soon as Mamdani won, many New Yorkers began bracing for Trump’s retaliation.
Story by Alex Woodward

Officials at President Donald Trump’s Department of Education violated the First Amendment rights of furloughed federal workers by “commandeering” their email accounts to “broadcast partisan messages,” according to a federal judge.

The ruling follows a lawsuit accusing the agency of illegally taking control of employees’ emails to send automatic out-of-office replies that blamed Democratic members of Congress for the government shutdown without their consent.

The messages followed a wave of partisan attacks from Trump administration websites that explicitly blamed Democratic officials and the “radical left” for the federal shutdown, which have drawn several complaints alleging violations of federal ethics laws.

“Nonpartisanship is the bedrock of the federal civil service; it ensures that career government employees serve the public, not the politicians,” District Judge Christopher Cooper wrote Friday.

“But by commandeering its employees’ e-mail accounts to broadcast partisan messages, the Department chisels away at that foundation,” he added. “Political officials are free to blame whomever they wish for the shutdown, but they cannot use rank-and-file civil servants as their unwilling spokespeople. The First Amendment stands in their way.”
Story by Matthew Chapman

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from forcing federal workers to set their email auto-replies to messages blaming Democrats in Congress for the government shutdown.

From the outset of the shutdown weeks ago, multiple executive branch departments have directed employees who are out of the office due to the shutdown to put partisan political messages in their automatic responses.

For example, the Department of Health and Human Services ordered workers to set their auto-reply to, “Thank you for contacting me. On September 19, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democratic senators are blocking its passage in the Senate, which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to this lapse, I am currently in furlough status and unable to respond to emails. I will reply once government operations resume.”

The American Federation of Government Employees sued, arguing orders of this sort violate the First Amendment by compelling government employees to make a partisan political statement they may not agree with.
During his remarks in the Oval Office this month, President Trump openly displayed his corruption. Trump stated, "You should give us a piece of the company."
Donald Trump announced a drug deal with Pfizer in the Oval Office several weeks ago in late September. During Q&A with the press, Trump bragged about being a good person. "I have a bigger heart than you do," Trump told reporters. Meanwhile, Trump refuses to fund SNAP amid the ongoing government shutdown, as he's more than willing to starve the American people just to one-up the Democrats.
During his remarks at the White House this week, President Trump admitted that the GOP caused the ongoing government shutdown. Trump stated, "The shutdown was a big factor, negative for Republicans."
Story by Andrew Gumbel

A year out from the 2026 midterms, with Republicans feeling the blows from a string of losses in this week’s elections, Donald Trump and his allies are mounting a multipronged attack on almost every aspect of voting in the United States and raising what experts say are troubling questions about the future of one of the world’s oldest democracies.

While Democratic leaders continue to invest their hopes in a “blue wave” to overturn Republican majorities in the House and Senate next year, Trump and some prominent supporters have sought to discredit the possibility that Republicans could lose in a fair fight and are using that premise to justify demands for a drastically different kind of electoral system.

Related: Republicans want to rig the midterm elections. Will they succeed? | Moira Donegan

This is not the first time Trump has questioned the credibility of US elections – he did it almost as vigorously in 2016 and 2024, when he won his bids for the White House, as he did in 2020, when he did not – but now the president’s confidants are threatening emergency powers to seize control of a process over which presidents ordinarily have no control.

Trump’s former chief political adviser, Steve Bannon, is urging him to get the elections “squared away” even before the voters have a chance to weigh in. Former legal advisers have suggested the electoral system is in itself an emergency justifying extraordinary intervention, possibly including federal agents and the military stationed outside polling stations.
During his remarks from the Senate floor today, Senator Bernie Sanders pulled back the curtain on Trump's reckless healthcare cuts. Sanders asked, "What is the reason for this?"
Story by Sebastian Murdock

President Donald Trump hosted another lavish party at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Friday as the longest federal government shutdown in history continues and millions of Americans go without federal food benefits.

A menu posted online showed guests in Florida dining on filet, scallops and a dessert on the same day that the Supreme Court ruled the SNAP food program that 1 in 8 Americans rely on would not be fully funded amid the shutdown.

Guests at the party were seen wearing tuxedos and gowns and enjoyed a night of opera performances, according to The Daily Beast.
The president got a serious case of the sleepies while Dr. Oz rambled on about how Americans are too fat.
By Elyse Wanshel

Hey, we all tend to doze off while listening to the asinine jabberings of a daytime talk show host like Dr. Mehmet Oz.

But when you make that daytime talk show host the U.S. Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and he’s speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, falling asleep isn’t the best look.

And Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) highlighted exactly that in his latest troll post aimed at President Donald Trump.

On Thursday, Trump was seen with his eyes shut at several points during his administration’s announcement about lowered prices for certain weight loss drugs for Medicare and Medicaid recipients. In a moment, caught by CSPAN, Trump can be seen struggling to fight off the Sandman while listening to Oz spout off fatphobic rhetoric 25 minutes into the White House event.
Trump to Americans let them starve, I’m parting at Mar-a-Lago

Story by Grace Eliza Goodwin

The Trump administration is ordering US states to stop paying full food aid benefits to low-income American families, saying they are "unauthorized".

A memo from the US Department of Agriculture, which runs the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), said states can deliver just 65% of benefits after the Supreme Court allowed the administration to withhold some funding pending further legal hearings.
Story by Zachary Schermele, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – The record-breaking U.S. government shutdown appears headed for its end after more than a month of Washington gridlock caused real pain on main street.

It's welcome news to many in Washington and around the country after the stalemate led to furloughs and firings of hundreds of thousands of federal workers, while millions more Americans were unable to travel, afford food, or send their kids to preschool.

Still, not everyone got what they wanted out of the final deal.

Senate Democrats backed down from their long-held policy demands involving health care. Republicans who want to cut more spending aren't thrilled with President Donald Trump's White House.

Add it all up and it's Politics 101, which means there are always winners – and losers:
Story by Lesley Abravanel

President Donald Trump went on a Sunday night pardon spree, granting full clemency to at least 77 individuals involved in promoting alternate electors in battleground states after the 2020 election, including former Trump attorneys John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, according to Axios.

Announced by U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, the pardons cover potential federal offenses but exclude Trump himself and do not affect ongoing state prosecutions in Georgia, Arizona, and Michigan.

Others who received pardons include attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, attorney and Acting Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget Jeffrey Clark, and attorney and former Trump strategic advisor Boris Epshteyn.

Legal experts describe the action as largely symbolic, given the absence of federal charges against the recipients, but critics excoriated the pardons on social media.

One wrote on X that this move means the country is "waving goodbye to democracy again."

Chef Courtney Brown wrote that "AmeriKKKa has lost its way! This is an absolute disgrace!"
Story by Amy Coleman

He cleaned up New York, led the city through 9/11, and later stood beside Donald Trump during one of America’s most turbulent elections. Few figures have fallen as far or as publicly as Rudy Giuliani.

His 2024 disbarment was meant to close the book on his career, but it did the opposite. Instead, it opened a larger conversation about politics, power, and the limits of truth. So, what really happened to Rudy Giuliani, and why did President Donald Trump decide to pardon him?

Why was Rudy Giuliani disbarred?
According to the Associated Press, Rudy was disbarred in Washington, D.C. in 2024, after a court ruled that he made false and misleading statements while challenging the 2020 election results. The panel argued that his actions “undermined public trust” and violated the ethical responsibilities of an attorney. He had already been disbarred in New York prior to this ruling.

The disbarment effectively ended a decades-long career that once defined legal and political strength in New York City.
Opinion by Ja'han Jones

The Trump administration’s bigoted assault on historical accuracy — and in particular, history involving Black people — has become an international embarrassment. And some Dutch officials are making it clear they want no part in such a crusade.

Officials in the province of Limburg are rebuking the Trump administration and demanding answers over reports that two informational panels honoring a war hero named George Pruitt and referencing the segregation faced by Black troops were quietly removed from the visitors center at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Martgaarten.

Even as they endured racism from their white peers in the U.S. military, Black soldiers played key roles in liberating the Netherlands from the Nazis.

A spokesperson for the American Battle Monuments Commission, the federal agency that oversees U.S. military cemeteries, previously told Dutch news outlet NRC that the panels were “designed to be rotated regularly throughout the exhibition,” and claimed the Pruitt panel was “currently not on display, but not out of rotation.”

In response, sources told Newsweek's Ellie Cook that local officials in Limburg weren’t notified about the removals, that neither of the panels were on display as of Monday morning, and that the commission’s rationale still doesn’t seem to address the removal of the panel about segregation.
Story by Alexander Willis

A new report from Demand Justice revealed Tuesday that dozens of President Donald Trump-nominated judges had used "nearly identical” language in an attempt to dodge questions on the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol and the results of the 2020 election, with the group's president labeling the findings as a “political loyalty test.”

In the exclusive report, Demand Justice analyzed the responses of 27 of Trump’s nominees to questions from lawmaker that are frequently submitted to nominees after their hearings. All 27 were asked bluntly if Trump lost the 2020 election, as well as whether they would describe the Jan. 6 riot as an attack by a “violent mob.”

“When we looked into these answers, we expected some sort of a dodge, but what we revealed was even more disturbing,” said Demand Justice President Josh Orton, speaking on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Tuesday. Host Jonathan Lemire called Orton's report 'exclusive new findings."

“All of the language here is nearly identical! And all of it preserves their ability to say [they] did not contradict Donald Trump on what we know are the two most third-rail issues to Donald Trump,” Orton said.
Story by Sam Levine

Ethics officials at Fannie Mae were removed from their jobs as they investigated whether a top Trump ally improperly accessed mortgage documents of Letitia James, the New York attorney general, and other Democratic officials, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

William Pulte, a staunch Trump defender and the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), has accused James, Adam Schiff, a California senator, and Lisa Cook, a federal reserve governor, of mortgage fraud. All three have denied the accusations and James was indicted on specious federal charges last month.

Experts have raised questions about all three referrals and see them as a thinly veiled effort by Trump to target political rivals.

After Pulte made the referrals, former agency officials and experts told the Guardian they were highly unusual. Individualized mortgage data is highly sensitive and protected. And investigations into mortgage fraud are not typically handled by the FHFA inspector general, an agency watchdog staffed with investigative agents.
'I Would Make It 100% MAGA Related': Trump Slips Up, Admits He Wants To Make TikTok '100% MAGA Related' During Remarks In The Oval Office
During his remarks at the White House in September, President Trump admitted that he wants to make TikTok "100% MAGA related."
Fox News viewers call Donald Trump 'village idiot' following latest embarrassing gaffe
Story by Charl Wright

Fox News viewers have blasted Donald Trump, calling him a "village idiot" after he made an embarrassing comment during a press conference yesterday.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, President Trump admitted that he had "no idea what they analyzed" following a recent MRI scan at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland.

Trump revealed last month that he underwent the scan, which the White House claimed was "standard" for routine physicals. Karoline Leavitt, the president's press secretary, alleged that it was part of the 79-year-old's "annual checkup," however, people were quick to point out that it would have been his second one this year.

On Friday, November 14, one reporter asked the president, "Mr President, can you tell us why you needed to get an MRI? I understand that the results were good, but what was it for?"

Trump then responded by saying, "Because it’s part of my physical. Getting an MRI is very standard. What? You think I shouldn’t have it? Other people got it."
New emails on Trump, Epstein, and Russia spark alarming questions
Story by thedailydigest.com

Epstein: a self-professed intermediary between Trump and Russia
In a dramatic development, newly released emails from the Epstein estate portray the late financier as a self‑professed intermediary between the Trump circle and high‑level Russian officials.

Epstein offered his insight on Trump to Lavrov
According to Politico, in a June 24, 2018, email to former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjorn Jagland, Epstein wrote, “I think you might suggest to Putin that Lavrov can get insight on talking to me,” referring to Trump — just one month before the U.S. president’s high-profile meeting with the Russian leader in July 2018.

One of hundreds of emails uncovered on November 12
The email was uncovered among the hundreds of emails released by congressional investigators on November 12. In the email in question, Epstein added that Russia’s late UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin “was great. He understood Trump after our conversations. It is not complex. He must be seen to get something its that simple.”

Pivotal timing
The timing is striking: the message arrived just weeks before Trump’s July 16, 2018, summit with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. People magazine highlights that the meeting, widely viewed as a foreign-policy pivot point, sparked fierce criticism in the U.S. due to perceptions that Trump appeared deferential to the Russian leader.
USA TODAY domestic security correspondent Josh Meyer examined thousands of Epstein emails. Here are the biggest takeaways involving President Trump.
Travis Gettys

President Donald Trump's relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein continued into his first term in the White House, so much so that Epstein spent Thanksgiving with Trump while the president was in office, according to newly released emails written by the late financier.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a new batch of emails Wednesday obtained from Epstein's estate, followed by the Republican-led panel's release of 20,000 additional documents, and one of those exchanges shows that he claims to have spent Thanksgiving 2017 – Trump's first as president – at his private Mar-a-Lago resort.

Epstein exchanged emails on Thanksgiving morning, Nov. 23, 2017, with Manhattan modeling management guru Faith Kates, who asked where he was spending the holiday.
Alexander Willis

One particular email exchange included in the House Oversight Committee’s recent release of 20,000 pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein has resulted in an online frenzy, with questions circulating as to who a mysterious “Bubba” could be, who, according to the email, is suggested to have performed sexual acts with President Donald Trump.

“What’s your boy Donald up to now?” wrote Mark Epstein, Jeffrey Epstein’s brother, in March of 2018.

“All good. Bannon with me,” Epstein responded, presumably referencing Steve Bannon, Trump’s former White House chief of staff.

“Ask him if [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has the photos of Trump ----ing Bubba?” Mark Epstein wrote back, making reference to oral sex.

“And I thought I had tsuris,” Jeffrey Epstein wrote back, with “tsuris” being a Yiddish word for “troubles” or “woes” according to the Oxford Dictionary.

The internet quickly erupted over the email, demanding to know who the mysterious “Bubba” was, who was being referenced by Epstein’s brother.
New filings from New York Attorney General Letitia James' legal team are raising major doubts about the fraud case brought against her.
Story by bmetzger@insider.com (Bryan Metzger)

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that ABC News should have its broadcast license revoked after one of the network's reporters asked him about the Jeffrey Epstein files.

"I think the license should be taken away from ABC," Trump said in the Oval Office, seated beside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. "Because your news is so fake, and it's so wrong."

He added that Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr should "look at" revoking ABC's license because the network is "97% negative to Trump" and is "not credible."

Trump's comments came after the reporter asked him why he would not order his administration to release the Epstein files, even as he's called on members of Congress to vote for a bill that would compel his administration to release those same documents.

Earlier, that same reporter had also asked Trump about his family's business dealings in Saudi Arabia, and had asked the country's crown prince about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
Melissa Murray, NYU Law Professor and Sam Stein, Managing Editor of The Bulwark joins Nicolle Wallace on Deadline White House to discuss how Donald Trump has begun to lose his grip on the party that he has commanded for nearly a decade, and how continued political losses during the month of November point to him looking like a lame duck President earlier than previously anticipated.
Story by Joe Coughlan

The release of 20,000 documents relating to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein has led to renewed speculation over the links between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.

As Congress prepares to vote on the release of another tranche of Epstein files, experts say the documents indicate Russia may have obtained material to use to blackmail the US President.

The release by the US House of Representatives Oversight Committee last week included implications that the late financier sought to advise Russian politicians on how to understand Trump.

One email from June 2018, a month before the US President met Putin at a summit in Helsinki, indicated that Epstein had spoken about Trump with Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, before the latter’s death in 2017.

“[Churkin] understood Trump after our conversations,” said the email from Epstein, sent to former Norwegian prime minister Thorbjorn Jagland.

“It is not complex. He must be seen to get something, it’s that simple.”

He added: “I think you might suggest to Putin that Lavrov can get insight on talking to me,” apparently referring to Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister.

Another email from the release, sent in 2019, appeared to show Epstein telling a journalist that Trump “knew about the girls”, although it was unclear what this referred to.
Published on: November 19, 2025 at 10:40 AM ETGoogle News IconFollow Us On Google News
Turkish national arrested after violent ICE struggle in New York.
Written By Pramila Tripathi, Edited By Divya Verma

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE agents recently stated that a Turkish national accused of attacking immigration officers and attempting to grab a weapon during a confrontation in Western New York has been taken into custody.

In a statement released on Tuesday, ICE agents revealed that the suspect has been identified as Saim Irgi, a 39-year-old Turkish citizen who is allegedly in the U.S. illegally. Arresting officers further mentioned that the accused violently resisted arrest and shouted the Arabic phrase “Allahu akbar,” which means “God is great,” as officers struggled to restrain him.

The incident occurred in Tonawanda, just outside Buffalo, when ICE officers were conducting a targeted operation. They spotted a vehicle leaving a home connected to their investigation and decided to follow it. The driver, later confirmed to be Irgi, was pulled over by the officers. His immigration status was eventually discovered, which led to the altercation.
Alexander Willis

Steve Bannon, MAGA influencer and former White House chief of staff to President Donald Trump, promised to shield Jeffrey Epstein from prosecution just months before his death in prison, newly unearthed text messages suggested Monday.

The text messages – highlighted by author and academic Karen Piper Monday – were part of a document dump of 20,000 pages of files from Epstein’s estate that were released by the House Oversight Committee last week.

“If either one of us, in different investigations will need to testify publicly, it would be preferred to do it with two nostrils instead of one,” wrote Epstein in a text dated Dec. 5, 2018 to a person who, while their name was redacted, is believed to be Bannon based on “contextual clues,” The Guardian and other media outlets have reported.

“You don't have to worry personally because I'm sending u somewhere beyond extradition,” wrote back the responder believed to be Bannon less than two minutes later.
Story by Salvador Rizzo, Jeremy Roebuck

Justice Department lawyers acknowledged Wednesday that a full grand jury never reviewed the final indictment against former FBI director James B. Comey, a remarkable admission that could threaten the viability of the case.

The revelation came during a court hearing in which U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff quizzed prosecutors over what appeared to be a missing portion of the transcript of the grand jury proceedings.

The grand jurors had rejected an early version of an indictment charging Comey with three counts. Hours later, the grand jury foreperson signed off on a two-count indictment charging Comey with making false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding. The foreperson said at the time that a majority of the panel had approved those two counts.

Prosecutors acknowledged Wednesday that they revised the indictment to delete the rejected count. But, in a remarkable concession, they told Nachmanoff that they never presented that revised indictment to the full grand jury for approval. Instead, they said, they had the foreperson sign the new version before presenting it to a judge, while a deputy foreperson was also in the room.

That means “there is no indictment Mr. Comey is facing,” defense lawyer Michael R. Dreeben said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney N. Tyler Lemons sought to downplay the error, arguing that the revised indictment was changed only to remove the count that the grand jury rejected.

“The new indictment wasn’t a new indictment,” he said.

Nachmanoff said little during Wednesday’s two-hour hearing about how he viewed the significance of the issue. The hearing had been called to consider Comey’s arguments that the case should be dismissed on the grounds that he is only being prosecuted because of President Donald Trump’s vindictiveness.

The judge also did not immediately rule on the vindictive prosecution motion, saying the issues were “too weighty and too complex” for a quick decision. Comey’s attorneys have already signaled they intend to file a separate challenge to the case based on grand jury irregularities.

Another email from the release, sent in 2019, appeared to show Epstein telling a journalist that Trump “knew about the girls”, although it was unclear what this referred to.
Story by Robert Davis

Another one of PresidentDonald Trump's government officials may be using Signal to conduct official business at the Department of Justice, according to a watchdog group.

American Oversight sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday, arguing that Ed Martin, who leads the DOJ's Weaponization of Government group, appears to be auto-deleting files using an app such as Signal. The watchdog group argued that Martin may be violating the Federal Records Act if this is the case.
Story by Jordan King

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) has changed the language of a new policy regarding the display of hate symbols including swastikas and nooses after it was revealed it had planned to describe them as “potentially divisive.”

The USCG used this phrase for the first time earlier this month, The Washington Post revealed, shifting from a 2019 policy stating that the symbols were “widely identified with oppression or hatred,” meaning their display would be “a potential hate incident.”
Story by Thomas Kika

ICE and its agents incurred the wrath of a federal judge following extensive reviews of body camera footage and “impossible to believe” statements relating to the recent enforcement operations in Chicago.

In recent months, Chicago has emerged as one the epicenters of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, with ICE launching a major enforcement effort in September dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz.”

Judge Sara L. Ellis, of the Northern District of Illinois, issued a 233-page opinion concluded that ICE leadership and agents had systematically lied about everything from the nature of certain enforcement efforts and the severity of tactics deployed. Throughout the opinion, Ellis highlighted instances in which the claims made by ICE in court were disproven by video evidence.
Jen Psaki reports on the U.S. Coast Guard reclassifying swastikas and nooses from hate symbols to "potentially divisive," while at the same time, a former FBI employee is suing for being fired for displaying a pride flag.
Story by Matthew Chapman

President Donald Trump just lobbed death threats at a group of Democratic military veteran lawmakers for reminding the troops they are required to refuse illegal orders — but then a series of courts hit him in the face with precisely the reason that reminder was necessary, former Trump administration Homeland Security staffer Miles Taylor wrote for his "Defiance" Substack on Friday.

The Democrats in question, which include Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), and Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), put out a video this week, stating that the Uniform Code of Military Justice requires illegal orders — like an order to shoot unarmed civilians — to be disobeyed. Trump hit back on Truth Social by first demanding they be arrested, then writing, "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!" then retweeting another user who said George Washington would have hanged them all.

Despite this, wrote Taylor, "Rather than unify in repudiating the vile remarks from the president, Republicans immediately echoed Trump, daring Democrats to 'name one' illegal order anyone in Trump’s government had been asked to carry out. Some similarly accused Democrats of 'sedition,' despite the lawmakers merely telling government workers to comply with the law."
Moody's Analytics identifies states with farming and light manufacturing economies as most vulnerable to contraction. Federal job cuts in Washington D.C. have created the deepest regional downturn.
Democrats are calling for additional security for the lawmakers.
Trump faced mounting losses this week in court on numerous fronts, both personal and presidential. An appeals court rejected Trump’s efforts to revive his defamation suit against CNN, a federal judge ruled against his deployment of National Guard troops to Washington, DC, and another judge ruled he likely violated the law when trying to cut millions in funding to local governments unless they followed conditions related to immigration enforcement. Former White House lawyer during Trump’s first term, Ty Cobb, joins “The Weekend” to discuss.
Story by Jack Revell

Elon Musk’s social media site X has rolled out a new feature in an effort to increase transparency—and unwittingly revealed that many of the site’s top MAGA influencers are actually foreign actors.

The new “About This Account” feature, which became available to X users on Friday, allows others to see where an account is based, when they joined the platform, how often they have changed their username, and how they downloaded the X app.

Upon rollout, rival factions began to inspect just where their online adversaries were really based on the combative social platform—with dozens of major MAGA and right-wing influencer accounts revealed to be originating from overseas.

“This is easily one of the greatest days on this platform,” wrote Democratic influencer Harry Sisson.

“Seeing all of these MAGA accounts get exposed as foreign actors trying to destroy the United States is a complete vindication of Democrats, like myself and many on here, who have been warning about this”.
Story by David McAfee

A large number of MAGA social media influencers were exposed over the weekend as being being based in other countries.

Podcaster Matt Binder posted screenshots showing that Charlie’s Voice Rising, a popular Charlie Kirk fan account, is based in Eastern Europe (non-EU).

One popular influencer wrote "wait this is crazy" along with a screenshot showing that Defiant Ls, a MAGA account that has 1.6 million followers, is from Japan.

Dem influencer DreamLeaf wrote, "This one is great," along with evidence that a MAGA account called "Americaman" is actually based in Indonesia.

PatriotTakes, which is dedicated to research monitoring and exposing right-wing extremism and other threats to democracy, drew attention to post Trump himself had shared.

"Trump just boosted a MAGA account based in 'South Asia' #AmericaFirst," he wrote, before Brian Tyler Cohen said, "Perhaps it would be easier to identify which MAGA accounts are actually based *inside* the United States."
Story by Simon Marks

If it weren’t so pathetically predictable, the weekend’s developments in Washington pertaining to President Donald Trump’s 28-point peace plan for Ukraine would stretch credulity. It turns out the document is not – in fact – Trump’s 28-point peace plan, but mostly a Russian document that US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff or one of his colleagues may simply have run through an online translation app before giving it the White House seal of approval.

At the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, was pictured in deep conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. As they discussed the crisis sparked by Trump’s demand that the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accept the American-backed plan by Thursday, or else face an immediate and complete cut in US military assistance, even the three European leaders may not have fully understood the scale of Trump’s sell-out to Moscow.

The architect of the latest Kremlin moves to secure a peace that dismembers Ukraine and is entirely favourable only to Vladimir Putin, is one of the Russian leader’s most prominent advisers. Harvard-educated Kirill Dmitriev has shuttled back and forth between Moscow and various cities in the United States for meetings with Witkoff, Trump’s fellow property magnate who has become America’s de facto “Mr Fixit”.
Story by Associated Press

Lawmakers critical of President Donald Trump’s approach to ending the Russia-Ukraine war said Saturday they spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio who told them that the peace plan Trump is pushing Kyiv to accept is a “wish list” of the Russians and not the actual proposal offering Washington’s positions.

A State Department spokesperson denied their account, calling it “blatantly false.”

Rubio himself then took the extraordinary step of suggesting online that the senators were mistaken, even though they said he was their source for the information. The secretary of state doubled down on the assertion that Washington was responsible for a proposal that had surprised many from the beginning for being so favorable to Moscow.

It all added up to a confusing — and potentially embarrassing — turn of events for a Trump administration-blessed peace plan that already faced a potentially rocky future.

The widely leaked 28-point US-backed peace plan was, according to the White House, the result of a month of work between Rubio and Trump envoy Steve Witkoff along with input from what it said was both Ukrainians and Russians. The plan acquiesces to many Russian demands that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has categorically rejected on dozens of occasions, including giving up large pieces of territory. Trump says he wants Ukraine to accept the plan by late next week.
Story by Holmes Lybrand, Devan Cole, CNN

A federal judge dismissed the indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday.

The judge found that the appointment of interim US Attorney Lindsey Halligan in Alexandria, Virginia, was invalid.

Trump handpicked Halligan for the role amid increasing pressure to bring criminal cases against his political enemies, including Comey and James.

“The Attorney General’s attempt to install Ms. Halligan as Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was invalid,” Judge Cameron McGowan Currie wrote in her Monday order.

According to Currie, “all actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment” including the indictments against Comey and James “were unlawful exercises of executive power and are hereby set aside.”

The judge tossed out the cases “without prejudice,” leaving open the possibility that the cases against Comey and James can be brought again alleging the same conduct.
Story by Marisa Laudadio

Newly surfaced emails from predators Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell discussing their old friend Donald Trump are sending shockwaves through Washington — and raising more questions about what the president really knew.

In the messages, Epstein mentions Trump multiple times — sparking renewed interest in a story the White House has unsuccessfully tried to move past for months.

What Rep. Garcia said
Representative Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, called the correspondence eye-opening as it fuels "glaring questions" about what officials may be hiding.

"The more Donald Trump tries to cover up the Epstein files, the more we uncover," the California representative said in a press release.
Story by Megan Liscomb

Though President Donald Trump has long insisted that other countries will pay the price for his sweeping tariffs, economists, business owners, and Americans who've experienced it say that Americans are the ones who will end up footing the bill.

So when Trump posted a warning on Truth Social early this morning saying he expects that tariff payments will soon "SKYROCKET," people naturally had a lot to say about it.

Here's what he said:
"Despite the massive amount of money being made by the United States of America, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, as a direct result of Tariffs being charged to other countries, the full benefit of the Tariffs has not yet been calculated in that many of the buyers of goods and products, in order to avoid paying the Tariffs in the short term, “STOCK UP” by purchasing far more inventory than they can use.

That heavy inventory purchase is now, however, wearing thin, and soon Tariffs will be paid on everything they apply to, without avoidance, and the amounts payable to the USA will SKYROCKET, over and above the already historic levels of dollars received.

These payments will be RECORD SETTING, and put our Nation on a new and unprecedented course. We are already the “hottest” Country anywhere in the World, but this Tariff POWER will bring America National Security and Wealth the likes of which has never been seen before.

Those opposing us are serving hostile foreign interests that are not aligned with the success, safety and prosperity of the USA. They couldn’t care less about us.
Story by Alexander Bolton

President Trump’s heated rhetorical attacks on Democratic lawmakers, whom he called out as “traitors” who deserve to be jailed, have left his Republican allies in Washington dumbfounded and skeptical about any bipartisan dealmaking at the end of 2025.

Republican lawmakers and strategists fear that Trump is undermining his own credibility and ability to get anything done before the midterm election.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Sunday said that Trump labeling his political opponents as traitors was “reckless” and “irresponsible.”

“If you take it at face value, the idea that calling your opponents ‘traitors’ — and then specifically saying that it warrants the death penalty — is reckless, inappropriate, irresponsible,” Paul told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Other GOP lawmakers were quick to distance themselves from the president.

Initially, they could hardly believe Trump had threatened to toss prominent members of the Democratic Party in jail — a jarring comment even from a president who is known to post on social media without a filter.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) furrowed her brow incredulously when a reporter last week described to her Trump’s comments on Truth Social, in which he accused Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and a group of House Democrats of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
Story by Hugh Cameron

The American cattle industry continues to express frustration with Donald Trump and his administration for policies they say are undermining domestic profits and threatening the nation’s ranchers.

“Great job of destroying the United States Cattle industry,” Mo-Kan Livestock auction owner Jim Hertzog posted to X on Monday, mentioning both the president and Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins. Hertzog included an image displaying feeder cattle futures and showing across-the-board declines in contract prices for young cattle.

Why It Matters
Beef prices in the U.S. continue to climb to record highs—the beef and veal index were up 15 percent annually in the most recent inflation print—significantly outpacing broader price increases and adding to the financial woes facing consumers in late 2025.

However, proposals to address this from the administration—such as by importing large quantities of beef from Argentina—have drawn fury from America’s cattle ranchers. Farmers warn that this will undercut their domestic competitiveness and profits, while experts believe this will do little to resolve the primarily domestic factors driving up prices.
The president's vile language and investigation of Sen. Mark Kelly could have dangerous consequences
By Sabrina Haake

The news that came from across the Potomac on Monday was shocking: the Pentagon had launched an investigation into Mark Kelly, a combat veteran and Democratic senator from Arizona, after supposedly receiving “serious allegations of misconduct.”

Kelly was unfazed. “If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work,” he responded on social media. “I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution.”

Last week the senator, a prominent Trump critic, appeared with five other Democratic lawmakers in a video in which they reminded military members of their duty to disobey illegal orders. “This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens,” they said. “Like us, you all swore an oath to protect and defend this Constitution. Right now, the threats coming to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad but from right here at home. Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.”
Story by Leigh Kimmins

A wave of former Justice Department employees is reportedly leaving behind more than just empty seats, revealing a glimpse of life inside the Trump administration.

Farewell letters paint a portrait of an agency appearing to buckle under President Donald Trump’s second-term demands, with some insiders warning of “potentially irreversible damage,” according to Axios.

The Justice Connection, a network of DOJ and FBI alumni, has been collecting the notes from those who have walked out.

Contributors describe collapsing ethics, corrosive pressure, and a toxic workplace. Executive Director Stacey Young said in a statement that staff are “being asked to put loyalty to the president over the Constitution, the rule of law, and their professional ethical obligations.”
Story by Amudalat Ajasa

The Environmental Protection Agency is abandoning a rule that would strengthen limits on fine-particle pollution, a move scientists and experts say could lead to dirtier air and more U.S. deaths.

On Monday night, the agency moved to vacate defense of the rule, which the Biden administration finalized last year, arguing that the previous administration did not have the authority to tighten it. That regulation imposed stricter standards on fine particulate matter measuring less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, including soot, which ranks as the nation’s deadliest air pollutant.

The agency argued in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that the Biden-era rule was done “without the rigorous, stepwise process that Congress required,” according to the court filing. “EPA now confesses error and urges this Court to vacate the Rule before the area designation deadline of February 7, 2026.”

EPA press secretary Carolyn Holran said the Biden administration rule would cost “hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars to American citizens if allowed to be implemented.”

President Joe Biden’s EPA estimated that compliance could cost the industry up to $590 million each year.
Story by Sam Levine in New York

Donald Trump may have inadvertently pardoned any citizen who committed voter fraud in 2020 when he granted a pardon to Rudy Giuliani and other allies for their efforts to overturn the election, legal experts say.

The pardons of Giuliani and others who participated in the fake elector scheme earlier this month were largely symbolic since the federal government dismissed its criminal cases once Trump was elected. Many of those pardoned have faced criminal charges at the state level.

But, the federal pardon could wind up having a big effect on people like Matthew Alan Laiss, who is accused of voting in both Pennsylvania and Florida in the 2020 election. According to a federal indictment handed down in September, Laiss moved from Pennsylvania to Florida in August of 2020 and voted first with a mail-in ballot in Pennsylvania and then in person in Florida on election day. Both votes were for Trump, Laiss’s lawyers wrote in court documents. He has pleaded not guilty.

The case is still in its early stages. Last week, Laiss’s lawyers, public defenders Katrina Young and Elizabeth Toplin, argued that the charges should be thrown out because Trump had pardoned him.

They argued that Trump’s 7 November pardon was sweeping. It applies to any US citizen for conduct relating to the advice, creation, organization, execution, submission, support, voting, activities, participation in, or advocacy for or of any slate or proposed slate of presidential electors, whether or not recognized by any state or state official, in connection with the 2020 presidential election.” And while it lists a number of people the pardon specifically applies to, it also says the pardon is not limited to those named.
Story by Adam Lynch

CNN reports the Pentagon is now looking at reducing the military rank and pension pay of Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz) over a video he participated in that urged troops to disregard illegal orders.

“It certainly is a downshift from yesterday when they were saying a court martial was in order,” said CNN Chief National Affairs Correspondent Jeff Zeleny.

“They are losing in the independent judiciary, but inside the administration is a place where administration officials win because they control the rules,” Zeleny explained, adding the martial justice system is a “more favorable venue” for the commander-in-chief.
Story by Carl Gibson

President Donald Trump may have signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law, but his FBI has reportedly been hard at work keeping certain parts secret ahead of their release.

That's according to a recent Bloomberg article, which reported that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has reportedly allocated nearly $1 million in overtime pay to agents in an operation known as the "Epstein Transparency Project," with some reportedly maligning the effort as the "Special Redaction Project." The initiative involved an estimated 1,000 FBI agents working out of a facility in Winchester, Virginia (Jeffrey Epstein's brother, Mark, previously said a "pretty good source" told him the DOJ was redacting the Epstein files in Virginia).

Bloomberg reported that between March 17 and March 22 of this year, the bureau spent $851,344 alone. Agents also clocked 4,737 hours of overtime pay between January and July of this year, poring through the DOJ's remaining evidence pertaining to the deceased sex trafficker.

Agents specifically spent their time on “search warrant execution photos,” “street surveillance video" and aerial footage, as well as documents relating to the investigation into Epstein’s death in prison in 2019. The administration is currently working on a 30-day deadline to release the files under the legislation Trump signed into law earlier this month.
Story by Aysha Bagchi, USA TODAY

A judge dismissed the Georgia state criminal election fraud case against President Donald Trump and his co-defendants Nov. 26 at the request of a prosecutor.

Peter Skandalakis, the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia, said in a motion filed in the Fulton County Superior Court that he believes declining to prosecute the case any further would best "serve the interests of justice and promote judicial finality" in the case.

The decision comes after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, whose office brought charges against Trump and several other co-defendants, was disqualified from the case as a result of a romantic relationship she had with another prosecutor.
Story by Austin Sarat

Donald Trump has a lot to be thankful for this week. On Wednesday, a Georgia prosecutor decided to drop criminal charges accusing the president of conspiring to overturn his 2020 defeat in the state. While good news for Trump, it was bad news for the rule of law and history itself.

Peter Skandalakis’ decision not only lets the president get away with his outrageous effort at election interference in a critical swing state, but his rendition of what Trump did and why he did it muddies the historical record. As the New York Times noted, Skandalakis, who is the executive director of the state’s nonpartisan prosecutor council, “shredded the case originally brought by Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, taking it apart charge by charge in a 22-page filing.”

He did so in the face of a mountain of evidence that Trump’s conduct in the Peach State was particularly egregious. Not only did the president enlist a rogue’s gallery of co-conspirators to threaten state election officials, but early in January 2021, he also asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes that would reverse his defeat.

As Trump put it in an hour-long conference call to the secretary, “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state… So what are we going to do here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.”

“There’s no way I lost Georgia,” Trump added. “There’s no way. We won by hundreds of thousands of votes.”

When Raffensperger resisted his entreaties, Trump threatened him. If he didn’t determine that thousands of ballots in Fulton County were cast illegally or destroyed, the secretary would be subject to criminal liability.

When Raffensperger refused, Trump warned, “You have a big election coming up, and because of what you’ve done to the president — you know, the people of Georgia know that this was a scam. Because of what you’ve done to the president, a lot of people aren’t going out to vote, and a lot of Republicans are going to vote negative because they hate what you did to the president.”
Story by Marita Vlachou

The New York Times on Wednesday defended one of its female reporters, Katie Rogers, who became Donald Trump’s latest target after co-authoring a piece exploring the president’s health and aging.

The article written by Rogers and Dylan Freedman, titled “Shorter Days, Signs of Fatigue: Trump Faces Realities of Aging in Office,” cited an analysis showing that the president has decreased his public appearances by 39% and has held a shorter schedule than he used to by this point in his first presidency. The report also noted that Trump has been spotted dozing off during meetings.
How Fani Willis botched the only serious case to challenge Trump
Story by John Bowden

Fani Willis’ effort to prosecute then-former President Donald Trump, alleging a coordinated effort to change the results of the 2020 election and keep himself in power, ended on Wednesday, the day before his first of four Thanksgivings he’ll celebrate as commander-in-chief once again.

The case against Trump and 14 other co-defendants collapsed in a heap after a prosecutor assigned to take over the case from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis asked a judge to dismiss the charges, citing the unfeasible prospect of compelling a sitting president to appear in court and the small likelihood that the trial could still be mounted after he left office.

It marked the end of the last effort to hold Trump accountable, at least criminally, for the lawbreaking and corruption his enemies have long argued was a defining characteristic of the MAGA Republican president before his rise to power — and resulting from his efforts to cling to it after voters decided otherwise.

The book is now closed on any prosecution of Trump or any of his allies and supporters for the violent riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob stormed the halls of Congress to seeking to halt the certification of the election. The statute of limitations will expire next year for any federal charges related to the violent attack.
Epstein thought Trump was ‘borderline insane’
Story by Marisa Laudadio

Jeffrey Epstein didn't hold back in a set of emails he exchanged with a former high-profile official in the Clinton and Obama administrations as he blasted two men he once considered allies — President Donald Trump and attorney Alan Dershowitz.

In one of the December 2018 messages, Epstein called Trump "borderline insane" and said Dershowitz was only "a few feet further from the border but not by much."

Fears Trump would 'do crazy things'
The ex-Cabinet official — economist Larry Summers, a former president of Harvard University who served as treasury secretary during President Bill Clinton's administration and director of the National Economic Council during President Barack Obama's White House tenure — then asked Epstein, "Will Trump crack into insanity?"

Epstein replied, "I hope someone close to him gets indicted, but not sure, otherwise the pressure of the unknown will force him to do crazy things."

Other emails also revealed that just months before Epstein's 2019 arrest for trafficking, Summers was asking the predator — who died in a New York jail cell while awaiting trial — for advice about courting women.

These and many more exchanges between Epstein and his associates surfaced after the House Oversight Committee publicly released more than 20,000 documents obtained from Epstein's estate through a subpoena.
Trump Sure Has Been Nasty Toward Female Journalists Lately
Story by Lydia O'Connor

President Donald Trump has been on a tear the past two weeks with vicious attacks on the people who get under his skin most: journalists.

While Trump has long had a fraught relationship with the press, his affronts lately have skewed highly personal and degrading toward female journalists, for whom he regularly reserves his most below-the-beltinsults.

His Wednesday morning screed took aim at New York Times reporter Katie Rogers, one of two journalists who worked on a Tuesday story about the president’s health, aging and reduced public appearances. Trump slammed her as “ugly.”

“Katie Rogers, who is assigned to write only bad things about me, is a third rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out,” Trump wrote in his 300-plus-word rant on Truth Social.

Notably, Trump said nothing in his post about the Times’ Dylan Freedman, who co-bylined with Rogers and contributed to the story by analyzing Trump’s schedules and social media posts.
'Bleak reality of' Trump’s 'Gilded Age' as MAGA wages war on food assistance
Alex Henderson

When Donald Trump, during one of his campaign rallies, declared, "I love the poorly educated," that type of populist-right messaging was a radical departure from pre-MAGA conservatism. Republicans, for decades, praised the ultra-rich as "job creators" and "exceptionalists" while attacking recipients of public assistance — from food stamps, now the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), to Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) — as people who gamed the system.

Trump, now nine and one-half months into his second presidency, still paints himself as a populist. But Salon's Chauncey DeVega, in a biting article published on November 4, points to the interruption of SNAP benefits as a stark example of MAGA Republicans' indifference to hunger and poverty.

"Over the weekend," DeVega explains, "more than 42 million Americans did not receive their Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Tens of millions of children, the elderly, disabled and other vulnerable people now face a brutal fact: They don't have enough to eat…. Poverty and hunger are forms of structural violence that stunt lives, limit upward social mobility and raise the odds that a hungry child will one day end up in prison. They cause a range of physical, emotional and psychological harm, including shortened lives and death."

"Poverty," DeVega laments, is a "public police choice" — and MAGA Republicans, he says, are choosing to promote "poverty" as well as "hunger."
Story by Alex Griffing

President Donald Trump meets with Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump reportedly called the new prime minister of Japan, Sanae Takaichi, and asked her to back off public statements of support for Taiwan following a long, “angry” call with China’s President Xi Jinping, reported the Wall Street Journal this week.

The WSJ reported that following Trump’s hour-long call with Xi, “Trump set up a call with Takaichi and advised her not to provoke Beijing on the question of Taiwan’s sovereignty, said Japanese officials and an American briefed on the call.”

Xi has long had his eye on reclaiming Taiwan as a part of China, an attack many observers have warned would be devastating for both countries and could spiral into a wider conflict.
Trump’s golf trips cost taxpayers $71M since January, report says
Story by Erin Keller

President Donald Trump has reportedly spent about $71 million in taxpayer-funded costs on golfing during his second term, and if his current pace continues, that total could reach $300 million by the end of his term.

According to a HuffPost analysis, Trump’s latest visit, on Wednesday, marked his 16th trip to Mar-a-Lago this year, with each trip costing $3.4 million in travel and security.

If Trump makes two more trips to Mar-a-Lago in December, his 2025 golf costs would surpass $75 million, putting his total for the term over $300 million, the outlet said.

During his first term, Trump spent $151.5 million in taxpayer-funded golf travel and security.

Besides Mar-a-Lago, Trump made nine trips to his Bedminster, NJ, golf resort about $1.1 million each, and one trip to his new Aberdeen, Scotland course, costing nearly $10 million in taxpayer funds.

HuffPost’s analysis relies on cost estimates from a 2019 Government Accountability Office report on Trump’s first–term Mar-a-Lago trips. Most of the costs come from military and law enforcement salaries, which haven’t kept up with inflation, so the figures aren’t adjusted to current dollars.

Still, the real costs are almost certainly higher than these unadjusted estimates.
'This amounts to murder': Trump official faces 'serious legal jeopardy' over 'kill' order
Lesley Abravanel

A Washington Post exclusive details how Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gave an order on the first Caribbean boat strike, saying to leave no survivors.

"As two men clung to a stricken, burning ship targeted by SEAL Team 6, the Joint Special Operations commander followed the defense secretary’s order to leave no survivors," write Alex Horton and Ellen Nakashima.

"The longer the U.S. surveillance aircraft followed the boat, the more confident intelligence analysts watching from command centers became that the 11 people on board were ferrying drugs," they write.

U.S. military officials have confirmed in private briefings to lawmakers that there was cocaine on the boats targeted in recent strikes, but no fentanyl, despite saying these attacks are part of a war on the deadly drug.

The Trump administration has not publicly released direct evidence to support its claims about the specific drugs on board the vessels it targeted in a series of lethal strikes since September.

"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation," they write.

“The order was to kill everybody,” one of those people told the Post.

On September 2, a missile struck a ship off the Trinidad coast leaving "two survivors clinging to the smoldering wreck," according to the report.
Rising debt and political gridlock triggered rare dual downgrades of U.S. creditworthiness this year.
Story by Brett Arends

I’m not surprised that President Donald Trump and the Social Security Administration put out the latest inspector-general report the day before Thanksgiving, when nobody is paying attention.

It’s yet another embarrassment.

The latest 57-page report to Congress details a variety of Social Security frauds that took place under Trump’s first administration, only to be caught, stopped and prosecuted … er … under Joe Biden.

And it confirms what has long been suspected, and which will come as no surprise to MarketWatch readers: namely that Elon Musk and Trump were talking total nonsense for the first six months of this year, when they were claiming that there was a “huge” amount of fraud in Social Security, including hundreds of thousands of dead people claiming benefits.

None of this, of course, will catch up with the Trillion-Dollar Man himself, Musk, who got months of juicy headlines promising huge fraud discoveries, then fled town before the facts arrived. Just before the 2024 presidential election, Musk promised voters he would find “$2 trillion” in savings from the federal budget, though it later turned out he was supposed to say only $1 trillion. Well, the great entrepreneur must have had the budget savings number confused with the Tesla pay deal he was simultaneously in pursuit of.
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