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Donald J. Trump White House 2nd Term Page 23
Story by Lee Moran

MS NOW’s Jonathan Capehart struggled to stop laughing after airing a supercut of Donald Trump’s claims on Sunday’s broadcast of “The Weekend.”

The montage featured clips of the president repeatedly insisting that, under him, the “immense power of the state” would never again “be weaponized to persecute political opponents” and that his administration “has acted swiftly and decisively to restore fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law.”

“Perhaps on Earth 2 that is what Trump did, but for those living here on Earth 1…” Capehart said, breaking into laughter, apparently at the contrast between Trump’s remarks and his actions since returning to office.
Story by OK! Staff

President Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosure is drawing sharp criticism for revealing the extent to which he and his family have profited during his time in office.

The mandatory annual filing showed the president reporting more than $2 billion in income, including around $1.2 billion from cryptocurrency ventures tied to his family. The Wall Street Journal editorial board, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, sharply criticized the Trump family for what it called “profiting off the Presidency in ways that demean the office.”

The disclosure showed Trump received $593 million from World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture he founded with Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. The company’s CEO is Zach Witkoff, son of Steve Witkoff, the New York property investor Trump has used as a special envoy in the Middle East and Russia. Trump also netted $635 million from the $TRUMP memecoin he launched shortly before his inauguration.

The Crypto Windfall
The Journal’s editorial board argued that “The Trump clan is cashing in on the Presidency in big and sketchy ways,” pointing to World Liberty Financial deals with foreign actors and companies that may have been seeking influence.

The board cited past reporting on deals involving a crypto firm based in the United Arab Emirates and the government of Pakistan. It also noted that the UAE used World Liberty’s “stablecoin” to invest in Binance, whose co-founder Changpeng Zhao was pardoned by Trump after pleading guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act and serving a four-month jail term.

“A sitting president reporting more than $2 billion in income is not just unusual — it demands serious scrutiny,” said Christopher Lee, founder of Foresight Strategic Advisors, who has three decades of experience in political campaigns.
Story by Matthew Chapman

Nobel Prize-winning economist turned political analyst Paul Krugman ran over the latest numbers on just how many people fell for President Donald Trump's self-enrichment scams — and came up with an astonishing figure.

This follows a New York Times report that details the losses to investors from Trump's cryptocurrency "meme coin" issued around his second inauguration.

That report estimated a loss of $3.8 billion — but more than that, Krugman noted, "even more surprising is the number of people who were in effect suckers here — almost a million. That’s really amazing."

Trump himself promoted the $TRUMP coin, noted the Times report, and while around 500,000 people did profit off the trades, it “reflects a small number of early buyers capturing enormous gains while the broad retail majority absorbed the losses,” said analytics firm Nansen — a classic hallmark of so-called "pump and dump" schemes, which are prosecuted as illegal when they occur in the stock market but are harder to police in the more lightly regulated crypto world.

Story by Atlanta Black Star New

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have been put on notice. Not by Congress or any court of law, but by a rogue military officer who couldn’t stay silent any longer.

Air Force Major Jason Watson risked his career to do what no one else in the military has done yet: call for the impeachment, conviction, and removal of Trump and Vance from office.

On Wednesday, Watson showed up at a news conference by the activist group Removal Coalition on the Capitol steps in full military garb in violation of Air Force rules. Removal Coalition lobbies members of Congress to impeach Trump.

Democratic Congressman Al Green, who has filed articles of impeachment against Trump at least a half-dozen times, escorted him to the gathering, according to NBC News.

“I’m here with him because Representative Green is the only member of Congress that has demonstrated the courage and conviction to … force a vote on articles of impeachment,” the service member stated.
Story by Brandi Buchman

WASHINGTON — The final ruling of the Supreme Court term is over, but the stench of hypocrisy lingers.

If you were to read only one opinion that emerged as the final bell rung, it would likely be the birthright citizenship ruling that stopped President Donald Trump from telling people born on U.S. soil they aren’t Americans. From that ruling alone, one might believe the court’s image of itself as an unshakeable, immovable defender of the Constitution.

“The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land.’ We keep that promise today,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.

But the justices closed out their term with a handful of more questionable decisions.

They supercharged the power of the executive branch yet again by giving Trump — and any successor — nearly unfettered power to fire independent agency officials, upending 90 years of precedent and blowing apart congressional oversight. The court also removed limits on how much money political committees can spend when coordinating with single candidates during an election, meaning corporate donors and billionaires will have more opportunity to influence elections.

And in a final swipe — of many this year — on equal protection laws, the justices upheld a ban on trans girls’ and women’s participation in sports while openly disparaging transgender identity as a “lie to the public.”
Story by Ewan Palmer

A woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted by Donald Trump when she was 13 years old has gone into hiding over fears of retaliation.

A family member of the woman, identified only as Jane Doe 4, told The Guardian that she is “staying off the grid” and away from the Trump administration amid the fallout from allegations that resurfaced in the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Jane Doe 4 alleges she was abused and trafficked by Epstein, and that the disgraced financier took her to New York or New Jersey and introduced her to Trump when she was about 13 years old in 1984. The White House has described the allegations as “total baselessness,” a view it says is supported by the fact that the Biden administration was aware of the claims but did “nothing with them.”

The woman was interviewed four times by the FBI in 2019, when Trump was serving his first term, soon after Epstein was arrested on federal child sex-trafficking charges.

There is no indication that an official investigation into the allegation involving the president was conducted.
Story by Nicolai Haugsted

Donald Trump’s promise of hosting the biggest Independence Day fireworks celebration in American history produced an unforgettable night over Washington, D.C. — but not entirely for the reasons the White House had hoped.

According to Daily Beast, hours after hundreds of thousands of fireworks lit up the National Mall, city officials urged residents to stay indoors as smoke lingered over the capital, prompting a “Code Red” air quality alert warning of potentially unhealthy conditions.

Fireworks followed delayed celebration
Trump’s America 250 event was already running behind schedule after severe weather and evacuation orders delayed proceedings.

The president’s speech did not begin until after 11 p.m., pushing the 40-minute fireworks display well past midnight.

Around 850,000 fireworks were launched from ten separate locations across Washington in what Trump had promoted as the largest fireworks display ever staged.

“LET’S HAVE SOME FUN even if we are out late.”

By the time the finale ended in the early hours of July 5, thick smoke had spread across much of the city, partially obscuring the skyline and leaving a visible haze hanging over the National Mall.
Opinion by John Stoehr

I will spare you the details of the rightwing reaction to the Supreme Court's decision last week to uphold birthright citizenship. I will spare you because they are disgusting, especially on America's 250th anniversary. What you need to know is that the mainstream of the Republican Party is no longer flirting with the so-called "Great Replacement Theory." In GOP circles, the idea that immigration is "civilizational suicide" is now conventional wisdom.

I know the Democrats have a lot on their plates right now, but the rest of us need to push them into accepting this reality. Rightwingers no longer care, if they ever genuinely did, about the "illegal" part of "illegal immigration." As their reaction to the court should make clear, federal law and the Constitution are obstacles to overcome. To them, it doesn't matter what immigrants do or don't. What matters is who they are – namely their race, culture and religion – and from the viewpoint of these reactionaries, it's their humanity that's "illegal."

I think it's up to the rest of us to push the Democrats, because they tend toward inertia, not action. The party's mainstream – think Chuck Schumer – will interpret the Supreme Court's decision on birthright citizenship as the end of the story. Fact is, it's probably the beginning. First, because the court itself is corrupt and in need of punishment. It's only a matter of time before it strikes down 158 years of Constitutional law. Second, because we have been here before. Democrats used to think abortion was settled. Look where that perspective got us.
Elon’s Musk’s ‘DOGE’ cuts fleeced the government workforce during the beginning of Trump’s second term, eliminating tens of thousands of federal jobs and shrinking many agencies. NOTUS is reporting that now, the Trump administration is hiring again to address staffing shortages and operational problems. NOTUS also reporting that the Treasury Department has an internal report warning about the dangers of an ‘AI bubble.’ NOTUS reporter Eric Katz joins Way Too Early to discuss.
Fox News is drawing attention after repeatedly airing footage from Donald Trump's Great American State Fair that has fueled a new wave of online debate. This video examines the broadcast, the reactions to the crowd shots, and why critics argue the footage tells a different story than the event's public messaging. It also explores how the clips spread across social media and why the coverage has become a talking point for both supporters and critics. Watch the full analysis to see the footage, the surrounding context, and why this Fox News segment is generating so much discussion.
During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on June 9, 2026, Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) addressed his Republican colleagues accusing the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) of fraud and called out Trump University, which faced multiple lawsuits over alleged fraud.
Story by Peter Stevens

Iran has targeted US military sites across the Middle East in a "crushing response" to US strikes.

Early on Wednesday, US Central Command (Centcom), said it launched "powerful" strikes at dozens of targets in retaliation for Iranian strikes on commercial oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.

At 2.44am BST Centcom said it completed the round of "offensive" strikes, hitting over 80 targets "with precision munitions".

"US forces struck Iranian air defense systems, command and control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile capabilities, and more than 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) small boats in and near the strait to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international commerce flowing through the international trade corridor," Centcom said.

Donald Trump was aware of the strikes on Iran and approved of the plans while in Ankara, Turkey, according to Axios.

Tehran condemned the US strikes as a "blatant act of aggression", adding that it would not allow US interference in the management of the waterway.

At 3.27am, Bahrain's Ministry of Interior said alarms had been activated, with citizens encouraged to go to the nearest shelter.

Kuwait's military, in a statement, said it was currently "confronting hostile missile and drone attacks".
Story by Ed Mazza

MS NOW host Chris Hayes on Tuesday said President Donald Trump “put his finger on the scale” to help the US team at the FIFA World Cup.

Last week, Trump personally called FIFA president Gianni Infantino after US star forward Folarin Balogun was given a red card and suspended. The decision was overturned after the phone call, prompting anger throughout the soccer community.

But the effort backfired, and the Belgian players mercilessly mocked Trump on social media in retaliation, doing his YMCA dance after they defeated the Americans on Monday.

“You could just say the US just had a bad game,” Hayes said. “Instead, a lot of people are wondering if Donald Trump curses sports teams ― if he has a sort of reverse Midas touch where everything in his grasp turns to, well, the opposite of gold.”
New footage obtained by KHOU 11 News raises serious questions about ICE’s account of a fatal Houston traffic stop that left 52-year-old father of three Lorenzo Salgado Araujo dead.
Story by Marco Margaritoff

President Donald Trump on Wednesday made a series of claims about Iran while attending a NATO summit in Turkey that clashed with wholly opposite comments he made over the past month, which CNN host Abby Phillip highlighted with a damning split-screen.

The MAGA leader told reporters Wednesday that the memorandum of understanding with Iran to end the war is “over,” calling the leadership “sick people” and “scum” and reiterating his administration’s claims that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons to attack the US.

“Iran’s deputy foreign minister said that the insults ‘are not a sign of strength,’” Phillip said Wednesday. “Instead, they show Trump’s policy, ‘based on brute force’ and sanctions and threats have failed. He then called Trump a ‘criminal’ and ‘murderous.’”
Story by Tom Boggioni

President Donald Trump's boast on Truth Social that his tariff war spurred Toyota to move its Tacoma truck manufacturing operations to the U.S. was drowned in derision by the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal this week.

The conservative WSJ board on Thursday rained on Trump's parade by pointing out that the manufacturing move should be celebrated, but, in the larger picture, his tariffs have been a disaster and Americans are still furious.

"The President is right that his tariffs are at work—in destroying U.S. jobs and raising prices," the editors wrote.
Trump and Epstein’s relationship remains one of the most controversial elite connections in modern politics. Investigators point to shared social circles, overlapping interests, and decades of interaction. Experts argue that their link exposes deeper issues of power and influence. This report uncovers the truth behind their long-standing relationship.
Story by Jack Buckby

Trump and Iran Publicly Disagree Over Next Round Of Talks: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday, July 10, that the regime in Tehran had contacted his administration and asked the United States to continue negotiations. Trump presented the news as a sign that the most recent round of American strikes, which hit 90 military targets inside the country, were working. But later that same day, Tehran was disputing reports that another round of negotiations or technical discussions had been arranged.

While Iran has so far not directly denied that talks may continue, a source close to the negotiating team told the state-linked Fars News Agency that talks of a new round next week had “no real basis.”

What Fars Just Revealed
The Fars news agency published an update on Telegram disputing claims made in Fox News and Al Arabiya that a new round of negotiations was due to take place between Iran and the United States next week. Citing a “well-informed source close to the Iranian negotiating team,” the outlet said the claim is not correct.

The outlet said that technical talks, which began as a result of Iran’s earlier round of drone attacks against commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, will not continue for the time being.

“This informed source, in an interview with a Fars reporter, denied the news published about the finalization of negotiations in Islamabad, as well as the claim that the technical talks will continue next week, and said: this news is a lie and has no real basis,” the outlet reported.
CNN split-screen: Trump praised an Iran MOU at G7, then called Iran 'scum' after Strait of Hormuz attacks.
Story by José Olivares

The three men who were in the van when federal immigration officials shot and killed a man in Houston, Texas, this week are strongly disputing the Trump administration’s narrative of the events and are being pressured to sign deportation orders, according to their lawyer and lawmakers.

The three men, who were arrested by immigration officials during the incident, denied that the driver of the vehicle, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, “weaponized” his vehicle against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. They also told their lawyer that there was never an ICE official in front of the van and that the shots that killed Salgado came from the “sides” of the vehicle.

On early Tuesday morning, while Salgado, his brother and two men were heading to work in Houston, he was shot and killed during a “targeted enforcement operation” by ICE officials. It is the latest shooting by federal immigration officials amid the Trump administration’s aggressive anti-immigrant campaign.

Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, a Texas attorney representing two of the men in the van, said during a press conference on Friday his clients “reiterated that at no point was there ever an agent standing in front of the vehicle, nor was an agent ever placed in the line of danger”. The men’s claims were first reported by the Washington Post.
Story by María Teresita Armstrong-Matta

Former Republican strategist Rick Wilson shared his speculations for MAGA ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

In a recent Substack post, Wilson wrote that MAGA cannot win a fair midterm election fight and plans to resort to cheating.

"Let me tell you a secret about the MAGA movement that isn’t a secret at all, because they keep saying it out loud: they know they can’t win a fair fight in November," Wilson wrote.
Opinion by Matthew Rozsa

A large number of President Donald Trump’s supporters began wearing masks in mid-2020 after their leader urged them to do so — and now, a scientific paper explains the psychology behind why they did so, per PsyPost.

“Political leaders play a potentially important role shaping behaviors and beliefs during crises. In the pandemic, a number of high-status politicians, notably leaders of populist parties, were seen to diminish compliance with institutional recommendations by casting doubt on COVID guidelines,” proclaimed the abstract of a recent study by Bartholomew A. Konechni, a sociologist at Sciences Po Paris, published in the journal American Sociological Review. “But what happens when such leaders change position and endorse previously discouraged behaviors?”

Konechni analyzed data of more than 5,000 patients from the Understanding Coronavirus in America panel to study how millions of Trump’s supporters switched from refusing to wear masks during the COVID-19 pandemic to embracing them, entirely because of Trump saying on July 1, 2020, that he started wearing them because he thought doing so made him look like the Lone Ranger. He learned that when Trump made his announcement that he would wear masks, it closed the gap between Republican and Democratic compliance by roughly 40 percent, particularly among individuals who were more exposed to the early-summer spikes in COVID-19. Yet this did not mean that they necessarily abandoned their original anti-mask views.

"Mr. Trump’s Section 232 national security tariffs on autos and parts have cost $35.2 billion through April of this year, and his steel and aluminum tariffs another $17.5 billion, according to U.S. government data."
Story by TMZ Staff

Boosie Badazz says he paid big money for a presidential pardon ... but now he's claiming all he got was a massive bill and an empty promise ... and he wants a big refund.

According to a bombshell NOTUS report, the rapper is taking legal action against political operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman after allegedly shelling out $600,000 to help secure a pardon from President Trump -- one Boosie says never came.

The report says Boosie -- whose legal name is Torence Hatch -- struck a deal with the pair last fall after they pitched themselves as having major pull inside Trump's orbit. Boosie claims they were so confident, they acted like they had POTUS "on speed dial."

Things allegedly escalated on New Year's Day ... when Boosie's lawyer got a call claiming Trump had already signed the pardon and the White House just hadn't announced it yet. But according to the report, the pardon never surfaced ... and Boosie is now trying to recover $300,000 under a clause in the contract requiring half the fee be refunded if no pardon was delivered.
Trump claims a 300-yard gash in Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool; witnesses and photos find no sign.
Bennito L. Kelty

A CNN anchor fact-checked President Donald Trump's election claims in a segment that prefaced the president's primetime speech about election meddling.

John King looked at Trump's insistence that the election was "rigged" and "stolen," as well as the dozens of lawsuits he's filed in battleground states. The only thing the Trump administration had said about his Thursday night speech was that it would focus on election meddling.

King noted that if Trump had won a lawsuit to overturn the results in Georgia, "That would have changed the math, but not enough. Joe Biden is still the president."
Story by David Edwards

A federal judge struck down President Donald Trump's ongoing effort to "rewrite the history" of the Jan. 6 riot, using a court ruling to cement the facts of the Capitol attack.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper — the Obama-appointed judge who originally sentenced Jennifer "Jenna" Ryan for her role in the riot — issued the ruling Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, denying Ryan's bid to erase her conviction from the record.

Ryan, a Dallas-area real estate agent, was sentenced in 2021 to 60 days in prison after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor for parading inside the Capitol, according to CBS News. Trump pardoned her on Jan. 20, 2025, as part of a blanket clemency covering roughly 1,500 January 6 defendants, local outlets reported.

After the pardon, Ryan returned to court asking Cooper to go further. She sought to wipe her conviction from the record entirely, using a rarely granted legal remedy that allows a court to vacate a conviction due to a fundamental error in the proceedings.

Cooper denied that request and used the ruling to tear down Trump's reimagined version of Jan. 6.

"Given the historical significance of the events of January 6 and ongoing efforts to rewrite them, the Court will take the opportunity to set the record straight…" Cooper wrote, making clear the ruling was about more than Ryan's petition.
Story by Ray Sanchez, CNN

Days after Gabriel Hurtado-Cariaco was arrested by federal officers in Nebraska last summer, government officials branded the Venezuelan delivery driver with incendiary labels: “a criminal illegal alien,” “a known Tren de Aragua terrorist” and even alleged he slammed one agent’s head into the ground and choked her.

But that version of events, reported by some news outlets, began unraveling when bystander videos contradicted accounts painting the immigrant as a villain, the officers as victims.

Then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche called Hurtado-Cariaco a “vicious Tren de Aragua gang member” in a June 2025 Justice Department statement.

“Violent attacks from terrorists against those who serve our communities will be met with swift and decisive justice,” Blanche said. The attorney general at the time, Pamela Bondi, weighed in, announcing a charge of attempted murder.

To his public defender, Hurtado-Cariaco’s case is yet another instance where video footage or other evidence largely undercuts the government’s account of immigration enforcement actions.

“It certainly seems like a pattern to me,” Federal Public Defender Richard McWilliams told CNN, referring to recent immigration arrests where DHS’ narratives were at odds with the evidence or undermined by video footage.

“If no one had recorded it, we’d be going to trial,” McWilliams said of his client’s arrest, underscoring just how crucial such documentation can be in high-stakes cases with pliable narratives.
Story by Thomas Kika

More critics in the technology space have begun to get their hands on one of President Donald Trump and his family's biggest scams, the "Trump phone," and their reactions have been brutal so far, with some tarring the cheap device as "awful" and "deeply unserious."

First launched over a year ago, Trump Mobile was an initiative launched by The Trump Organization, claiming that it would be able to sell an affordable-yet-premium smartphone, the "T1," made entirely in the U.S., in keeping with the president's aggressive anti-imports agenda. In the months since then, the idea has appeared to devolve rapidly, with the design going from the one initially shown, looking like an all-gold iPhone, to the version that is now being sent to the press, which is an old HTC model with cheap plastic parts painted gold. The packaging also touts that it is merely "assembled" in the U.S., suggesting that the parts were made overseas.

Despite around 600,000 customers placing a deposit, phones have yet to actually ship to customers. Finished models have, however, gradually made their way into the hands of mobile reviewers, and the results have been rough.
Story by Matthew Rozsa

When rapper Boosie Badazz — a.k.a. Torence Ivy Hatch Jr. — announced he was suing a lobbying firm that he paid to get him pardoned by President Donald Trump for alleged unlawful firearm possession, the music star did more than air his own grievances. According to a recent report, Hatch also shed light on how Trump has systematically used his pardoning authority to enrich his allies and consolidate his power.

“$600,000: That's the amount rapper Boosie Badazz reportedly paid a Washington lobbying firm to secure a presidential pardon,” NPR's Ayesha Rascoe told NOTUS reporter Jasmine Wright in a Sunday interview. “The rapper, whose real name is Torrence Hatch, was looking to overturn a federal conviction over the unlawful possession of a firearm. But the pardon hasn't happened. Now Hatch is reportedly looking to recover half of what he paid through arbitration. The rapper's case represents a growing industry in Washington, D.C.: wealthy clients paying to try to secure clemency from President Trump.”

As Wright explained to Rascoe, “There was an impetus by folks around the President, and the President himself, to do more of these pardons,” with the Justice Department’s pardon attorney Ed Martin losing much of his authority to the president and his inner circle.
Story by Ross Ibbetson and Phillip Nieto

Dozens of US troops were wounded in three Iranian strikes in Jordan that the Pentagon kept quiet in the week before Friday's attack that killed two American soldiers and left one missing.

The attacks damaged multiple American helicopters and were never publicly disclosed, but multiple officials confirmed them to the New York Times on Monday.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said last week it was retaliating against Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, never mentioning the strikes on American troops in Jordan.

The discrepancy exposes the tension between what the Pentagon says it must keep secret to protect operational security and its obligation to keep the public informed about the war.

CENTCOM is not required to release information about injured troops.

Many of the injuries were not severe, and revealing details about the wounded could aid Iran as it attacks bases housing thousands of US troops, Pentagon officials told the Times.
Story by Phillip Nieto

Donald Trump has delayed honoring slain US troops as leaked intelligence warns Tehran is unlikely to cave to his demands even after a fresh round of strikes.

The President had been scheduled to receive the remains of First Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan, 25, and Private Isabella Gonzales, 19, who were killed in an Iranian attack on a US air base in Jordan.

The dignified transfer was set to take place at Dover Air Force Base on Tuesday but was abruptly postponed, with no new time announced.

The Pentagon also identified Sergeant Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, who was killed during the controlled detonation of an Iranian drone.

US troop death toll rises to 18
American troop deaths in the war have risen to 18 as nearly 100 US troops have been injured in Iranian strikes on bases across the Middle East over the past two weeks.

US intelligence analysts are also warning Trump that Iran is unlikely to soften its stance or make nuclear concessions, despite renewed strikes on the regime's military and civilian infrastructure, according to the Washington Post
Donald Trump's golf trips are drawing renewed attention as critics question the cost of his outings while many Americans continue to face financial challenges.
Story by Lee Moran

“Late Night” host Seth Meyers on Monday aired a montage of clips showing Donald Trump being booed at a string of high-profile sporting events.

The latest came at the World Cup final on Sunday, where Trump was met with jeers after taking to the field following the match.

Meyers also showed clips of Trump being booed while attending the FIFA Club World Cup final, the U.S. Open tennis tournament, an NFL game and the NBA Finals.
Story by Steve Benen

During last fall’s government shutdown, the Trump administration started cutting energy grants to states, but the only states that were seriously affected were ones Donald Trump lost in the 2024 election. At the time, officials in the affected states accused the White House of “mafioso tactics” and brazenly abusing its powers by politicizing grant decisions that are supposed to be based on merit.

Team Trump was initially dismissive of the claims. Russell Vought, the White House budget director who terminated hundreds of grants, insisted that he was simply paring back Biden-era federal grants that the White House considered wasteful because as Vought put it, they were part of a “Green New Scam” — whatever that was supposed to mean.

It wasn’t long, however, before that posture started evolving.

In December, for example, the Republican administration’s lawyers made no real effort to deny the underlying allegations, instead arguing in a court filing that it’s “constitutionally permissible” to consider partisan politics when distributing (or canceling) federal funds.

This week, Team Trump gave up the game, effectively admitting in a legal filing that the “mafioso tactics” claims were correct all along. The New York Times reported:
Story by Brianna Sainez

Donald Trump caused an uproar after taking a shot at LeBron James while weighing in on how the NBA star compares to Hall of Famer Michael Jordan.

"Michael Jordan is a guy that’s a friend of mine. Play golf with him. He’s a really good guy," Trump, 80, told reporters in the Oval Office, a news outlet reported on Friday, July 24. "I think LeBron is – maybe he’s a racist. Maybe he doesn’t like Trump, but I only like people that like me. So I would say Michael Jordan all the way."

Donald Trump Supports 'Friend' Michael Jordan
Trump was asked about his stance on who he considered basketball's greatest of all time the same day as news of James' signing to the Philadelphia 76ers made headlines.

Jordan, 63, and James, 41, are often compared despite playing in different eras, as both have put up similar career statistics. The Ohio native is a four-time NBA champion, while Jordan won six NBA titles during his legendary career.
Story by Collin Woodard

Between starting a disastrous war with Iran and their love of power-hungry data centers, Republicans have been incredibly successful at raising energy costs in the United States. Last month, NPR reported that inflation hit a three-year high back in May, and costlier energy accounted for 60% of that figure. Oil and gas are more expensive, sure, but electricity prices were also up 6% compared to the year before. While we already knew Trump killed billions of dollars worth of clean energy projects that could have helped blunt the impact, the New York Times now reports Trump killed some of those projects just because they'd benefit states that didn't vote for him.

That admission didn't come from Trump himself, but was instead revealed in court documents White House lawyers filed in a lawsuit over an October decision to cancel nearly $8 billion in Biden-era grants meant to fund clean energy projects across the country. At the time, the Republican administration claimed the canceled projects were part of its valiant crusade to stop wasteful spending, but according to the White House's lawyers, they were lying. Instead, the NYT writes that "federal officials acknowledged this month that they had terminated the funding 'based solely' on political criteria, targeting projects in states that were represented by Democrats and had voted for Kamala Harris, the party's presidential nominee, in the 2024 election."
Story by Liz Foster

Marc Thiessen, a former White House speech writer, made a blunder while discussing Donald Trump’s family history.

Thiessen, 59, spoke about the president’s heritage during an appearance on Fox News. He claimed that Trump is a “first-generation American” whose “father” came to the United States during “the Gold Rush.” However, Donald’s father, Fred Trump, was born in New York City in 1905. Fred’s German-born father, Frederick Trump, immigrated to the U.S. in 1885. During the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, Frederick moved to Canada, where he amassed wealth by opening a restaurant and a brothel.

“A few inaccuracies here…” wrote one user in response to a clip of Thiessen’s error. Thiessen’s statement about Trump’s heritage comes as the President sparked outrage for not bowing during a dignified transfer.

“Now they just make up s—. The gold rush...seriously?” posted one user to Thiessan’s inaccurate statement. The California Gold Rush took place in the 1840s and 1850s. The Klondike Gold Rush occurred in the 1890s. Donald Trump’s father, Fred, was not alive during either of these time periods.

“Dude, Donald’s dad was born in America. Donald was born in America. They truly think we are stupid,” added another reply.
Opinion by Terry H. Schwadron

Whether by intention, error or force of law, the Trump administration has owned up that Donald Trump sees himself president of MAGA, not of the nation.

A New York Times report this week disclosed a month-old court filing in which federal officials acknowledged that they cut $7.5 billion in clean energy programs selectively among states “based solely” on whether those stated had voted for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

In court answers about a lawsuit challenging the stated reasons of cuts based on “waste and fraud,” the government copped to the real reason – partisan politics. Indeed, the administration funded grants for states that had backed Trump in 2024, even though the Energy Department had recommended they be cancelled.

It may not be a specifically impeachable offence, but it certainly shows that Donald Trump is abusing his office, his oath – and weirdly even punishing the Trump voters in the states taking the cuts.

Trump certainly has been acting in a variety of ways as if he wants to target states that voted against him, but this court filing seemed a public acknowledgement that should get some serious attention.

As The Times concluded, “The admission showed how Trump has weaponized the provision of federal education, energy, health, housing and infrastructure aid in his second term. Far from rooting out the sort of misspending that Trump sees as rife in Washington, the White House has instead sought to leverage the budget as a tool to assist its allies — or as a cudgel to hurt the president’s foes.”
Story by Hannah Furnell

Donald Trump's "diaper nurse" has continued to accompany him to nearly every event and meeting, sparking concerns about the president's well-being.

The 80-year-old Commander-in-Chief's aide, Natalie Harp, has become one of the most recognizable and influential people in his inner circle, frequently appearing alongside him during events and public appearances. As she continues to be seen with Trump, whose marriage to Melania is at its lowest point due to a 'disturbing' reason, conspiracy theorists have speculated about their closeness as his health sparks concerns.

Trump has seemingly grown attached to the young, "ever-present" blonde. Harp was most recently spotted accompanying him to Michigan on Monday, July 27, and some have claimed she's behind his "unhinged" Truth Social posting sprees. It came after Karoline Leavitt accidentally humiliated Trump as critics asked about his 'diaper'.
Opinion by Thom Hartmann

Trump is now officially allocating federal resources based on whether people voted for or against him: any other president in recent history would’ve been impeached for this.

One of the most visible differences between authoritarian and democratic governance is how the government treats parts of the country based on their politics.

This is not a new idea in American politics. From Andrew Jackson’s spoils system to Boss Tweed (the morbidly rich oligarch who ruled 19th century’s New York with an iron fist) to the nakedly authoritarian rule within the Confederate states between 1835 and 1865, we’ve had more than our fair share of autocrats who’ve corrupted or even paused democracy to the benefit of themselves and their friends.

But now Trump and his reichwing lickspittles have turned this form of occasional/historical corruption into an entire philosophy of governance.

Imagine, for a moment, if either Presidents Clinton or Obama had announced that they were only going to send government subsidies, emergency aid, and funding to states that voted for them in the previous presidential election. The outrage would have come fast and furious, and the media reaction would have been explosive.
Story by Nicolai Haugsted

Vice President JD Vance has become the focus of an increasingly aggressive online campaign that supporters say is designed to damage his standing among conservatives and weaken his prospects for a future presidential bid.

According to the Daily Mail, investigators examining the campaign argue that the growing wave of anti-Vance messaging extends beyond spontaneous criticism and instead bears the hallmarks of a coordinated political effort.

Reports cited by the publication allege that a pro-Israel advocacy group paid conservative influencers to publish attacks against Vance across selected social media platforms.

The campaign, frequently promoted under the slogan “Never Vance,” has also reportedly been linked to former political strategists involved in digital messaging efforts aimed at criticizing the vice president’s foreign policy positions.

Those allegations have fueled debate over the growing influence of organized online campaigns in American politics.
Story by Matthew Chapman

The Trump administration's prosecution of an Olympic canoeist accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is already falling apart.

According to NBC News, a witness before the grand jury in the case against David "Davey" Hearn "testified that the area was already damaged and would have required repairs regardless," citing what lawyers said in a court filing Monday.
Story by Ron Dicker

CNN fact checker Daniel Dale shredded President Donald Trump for recently telling one of his “remember” lies ― events that the president asks people to recall but didn’t happen.

Recently, Dale commented on a doozy from last week when Trump claimed there was no wind to power televisions when he debated a doddering Joe Biden on June 27, 2024, so people couldn’t watch it.

“The president is making stuff up again,” Dale said.

“More than 51 million Americans watched that debate on television alone, including people, of course, in the state that produces by far the most wind power and that is Texas, Republican-dominated Texas,” he said.
Story by US Staff

United States diplomats stormed out of the United Nations after the French compared their country to North Korea.

France criticised Washington for joining Russia, North Korea and seven other countries in voting against a proposal to extend the term of Volker Turk as the UN human rights chief for four more years.

Mike Waltz, America’s ambassador to the UN, responded by accusing France of backing a human rights chief who he said criticises democratic nations such as the US and Israel while “cosying up to the world’s worst oppressors”. He did not elaborate.

Speaking during a UN Security Council session on Russia’s war against Ukraine, Dan Negrea, Mr Waltz’s alternate, said the US delegation had exited during France’s remarks and would remain absent until they “renounce their condescending and disrespectful rhetoric”. He said France’s comments amounted to “politicised drivel” and “disingenuous grandstanding”.

“Today, I remind them that it is the United States that remains the beacon of liberty for the world,” he said. “As such, we will not be affording them the benefit of listening to their politicised drivel until they renounce their condescending and disrespectful rhetoric and behave in a manner commensurate with their seat on this council.”
Why does Trump have to ask Putin? Is Putin Trump's boss?

President Trump appears to put more faith in Putin's denial, instead of Zelensky’s warning that Russia is giving Iran satellite imagery to help them target U.S. bases in the Gulf. Trump told reporters on Air Force One yesterday that he’ll ‘ask Putin about it,” appearing not to consider the Russian president might not tell the truth. This comes ahead of a White House visit later today from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss the status of their war with Russia. The Morning Joe panel discusses the latest developments.
Story by David Edwards

A federal appeals court ruled in President Donald Trump's favor but warned him that his mail voting order may be impossible to carry out and could be swiftly blocked if he tries.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled Tuesday that the lawsuit was not yet ready for court review, according to Democracy Docket.

The Democratic groups had not yet suffered enough concrete harm to sue, the court found.

The order directs the U.S. Postal Service to withhold mail ballots from anyone not on citizenship lists compiled by the Department of Homeland Security, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

The Brennan Center said that millions of eligible voters could have their ballots go undelivered, with no notification that they had been blocked. The court insisted that it could intervene if Trump went too far.

"If the federal agencies were to take the actions the Plaintiffs fear and if they were to attempt to impose those massive changes on the States' voting systems on the threshold of the upcoming election," the court wrote, going further than its ruling required.
Story by Alexander Willis

A “mystery” super political action committee (PAC) formed “only recently” has been exposed for dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into a competitive Michigan Democratic primary, Punchbowl News reported Tuesday, employing tactics similar to other dark money groups later discovered to be tied to Republican operatives.

The group, Michigan Sunrise PAC, has poured close to $600,000 into the race during its final stretch, and in support of progressive congressional candidate William Lawrence, while also hitting Lawrence’s Democratic opponent Matt Maasdam.

“The group began airing a TV ad over the weekend slamming Maasdam as a ‘Florida Republican’ who was bankrolled by MAGA billionaires,” Punchbowl News reported. “Digital ads touted Lawrence as the best candidate to stop President Donald Trump while highlighting his endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) and Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.”
Opinion by John Casey

We are now under 100 days until the midterms, and Republican strategists and GOP leaders have all come to the same conclusion for their caucus: keep Donald Trump's name out of your mouth, and ostensibly keep him off the campaign trail.

Operatives close to the White House are reportedly telling incumbents and challengers alike — privately, one assumes, so the boss doesn't find out — to stop echoing his line on the Iran war, stop defending his economic numbers, and build their own case to voters instead.

They'd be fools to attach themselves to him, even in some red districts where inflation has really come home to roost. Trump's almost “worst ever” approval rating is in the mid-30s and sinking. The war is closing in on half a year old, with no clean end in sight.

Gas prices are up, "affordability" is the word Democrats have successfully claimed as their own, and every additional minute Trump spends talking is, by the party's own admission, a minute of bad news for candidates trying to get their messages through and survive in November.
Story by Cameron Adam

President Donald Trump has been blindsided by a “surprise attack” from Iran, days after he had temporarily paused his war on the country.

U.S. Central Command announced on Tuesday that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces launched “multiple ballistic missiles” from Iran as part of an “attempted surprise attack” on American forces based in the Middle East.

“All Iranian missiles were successfully intercepted. U.S. forces remain vigilant and at a high state of readiness,” the statement read.

The attacks come just one day after Trump, 80, said the U.S. had stopped bombing Iran last Friday because the regime “wanted to talk.”

Iran’s foreign ministry denied that claim, saying they were not interested in direct negotiations.

Speaking on Fox News on Tuesday morning, Trump was asked about his statement, given Iran’s response.
Story by Hazel Gandhi

A St. Louis couple who had recently deported from the U.S. to Guatemala was shot dead and bound in a sugarcane field in Guatemala.

Nixon Giovanni Pérez Paz and Glendy Marisol González de la Cruz had left the U.S. a while ago from Missouri and were discovered dead in southern Guatemala.

Marisol, 25, had recently self-deported to be with her husband, Pérez Paz, who was deported by the ICE. Their 14-month-old daughter, Giovanni, was found crying beside her mother. Giovanni was suffering from dehydration when she was first found and medical personnel took her to a medical center where is currently recovering, according to St. Louis Public Radio. It comes after an ICE agent involved in the fatal Maine shooting was exposed as a 'killing monster' by his ex-wife.
A jaw-dropping new court filing is drawing intense attention after the Trump administration appeared to acknowledge in federal court documents that it terminated $7.5 billion in clean energy grants to states based solely on whether those states voted for Kamala Harris — confirming in writing what they had tried to disguise as cost-cutting, and establishing a precedent that the president can withhold federal money from any state that didn't vote for him.
Story by Lesley Abravanel

Right-wing conspiracy theorist and former InfoWars host Alex Jones publicly called for President Donald Trump's immediate impeachment and removal via the 25th Amendment.

Jones cited the administration's aggressive military actions toward Iran and the support of a trillion-dollar National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as unconstitutional, declaring, "We are facing tyranny!”

“And so I’m calling for it right now: 25th Amendment, impeachment, whatever needs to happen to get this front and center, to get control of our country,” he said.

'This Is a Disaster'
Jones’ sharp turn against the president he once championed occurred during a livestream in which he claimed that a large-scale U.S. ground war in Iran is a fait accompli and alleged that the administration is preparing a military draft to sustain it.

“And if you think it’s crazy now, imagine what’s coming with this. They want us in a total war so they can censor and take our freedoms, nationalize everything, and push us aside with AI — total liability, immunity, and protection. This is a disaster. We are facing tyranny, but the public’s awakening. We’ve got to come together and transcend left and right, and we have to say no to an expanded war that will definitely destroy the economy and kill a bunch of our troops. They’re preparing a massive ground invasion. It’s all confirmed. This is going down right now,” he said.
Story by Jack Hobbs

Members of the Republican Party are being denounced as hypocrites after a video of President Donald Trump invoking the Fifth Amendment resurfaced online.

The now-viral 30-second clip, uploaded to X, shows the president, whose marriage to Melania is at its lowest point due to a 'disturbing' reason, in 2022 reading a prepared statement during a deposition, invoking the right not to self-incriminate. "I once asked, if you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?" the president said while not looking at the camera.

"I was asking that question," Trump, then 76-years-old, read, still keeping his head down as he read the statement word for word. "Now, I know the answer to that question." It comes after Karoline Leavitt accidentally humiliated Trump as critics asked about his 'diaper'.

"When your family, your company, and all the people in your orbit have become the targets of an unfounded, politically motivated witch hunt supported by lawyers, prosecutors, and even the fake news media, you really have no choice," he said. According to the person who posted the video, Trump had invoked the Fifth Amendment 440 times during the deposition.

"In 2022, Donald Trump said, 'I once asked, if you're innocent, why do you take the 5th amendment,'" the video's caption read. "Trump took this privilege a total of 440 times in this deposition."
Story by Rebecca Beitsch

The Trump administration on Friday appealed a ruling from a federal judge in Florida who found the president effectively colluded with his own government in bringing a $10 billion suit against the IRS.

That suit, which the Justice Department pointed to as the basis for creating its $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, was highly criticized by Florida-based U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, who said the case was “brought to manipulate the judicial process.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ) never needed the litigation to create the fund, and Williams’s ruling did not block it, though she did order the parties to not refer to the fund as a settlement in the case.

But it nonetheless shows the Trump administration’s appetite for continued battle over the fund and could indicate an effort to revive the president’s suit against the IRS.

It comes as Trump has faced roadblocks in the Senate to confirming his pick to lead the DOJ, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, as two GOP senators have asked the top attorney to put in writing his pledge to end the anti-weaponization fund.
Trump insists ‘perimeters of a deal has been agreed to’ as he pauses attacks on Iran. But is there any substance to his claim?
By Al Jazeera Staff

United States President Donald Trump says the US and Israel have agreed to halt new attacks on Iran, provided a deal to end the months-long conflict is reached “rapidly”.

The region has been on edge, fearing that the fighting could escalate once again after Washington and Tehran traded threats of renewed heavy attacks, including against energy infrastructure.

Trump said on his Truth Social platform early on Sunday in Iran and late on Saturday in the US that Iran and other Middle Eastern countries asked him to hold off on the attacks because “the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to”.

Iran denied Trump’s claim that Tehran asked the US to refrain from conducting new strikes. Citing military officials, the agency said the allegation “was nothing but a new lie” and that the Iranian armed forces were “on high alert and ready for any eventuality”.

Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway critical to global energy supplies, remains shut, and shipping is disrupted as well in the Red Sea by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.
by Finya Swai

Democrats are reacting to the Justice Department’s move to drop its Reflecting Pool vandalism case against a former Olympian David Hearn, saying the move validated their longstanding criticism that the administration is weaponizing the Justice Department.

The Justice Department on Friday moved to dismiss its felony destruction of property charge against Hearn after finding that the damage to the pool’s lining was caused by a “rushed and botched installation,” not vandalism as alleged.

While the department’s conclusion cited construction faults in its reasoning to dismiss the case, the Trump administration rejected the conclusion and continued to argue vandalism was the reason for the botched multi-million dollar renovation.
Exclusive: Daphy Michel, from Haiti, was dropped off in Pittsburgh in 20F temperatures wearing summer clothes
Alba Asenjo Domínguez

The family of a Haitian immigrant who froze to death in early March at a bus shelter in Pittsburgh after she was dropped off in the city by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is poised to file a lawsuit this month against the United States and “multiple other governmental and non-governmental entities”, the Guardian has learned.

Daphy Michel, 31, had been in county jail for six months after a reported mental health crisis and street incident, and then was arrested by ICE before being released with a ankle monitor.

She was left to make her way home to Charleroi, a small community on the outskirts of Pittsburgh about 20 miles (32km) away, but was found dead three days later. In June, Pennsylvania officials said she died from hypothermia and ruled her death a homicide.
Story by Anushka Basu

・Capital One reportedly said it closed more than 300 Trump Organization accounts after a months-long review of anti-money laundering.

・The bank is seeking to dismiss a suit by the Trump Organization and Eric Trump, saying the political debanking claims lack merit.

・Trump-linked entities say the accounts were shut down for political reasons following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in 2021.

Capital One Financial (COF) reportedly said that it closed the bank accounts of the Trump Organization after a months-long review by its anti-money laundering (AML) team, marking the first time a bank has publicly linked AML concerns to the President's family business.

The bank moved to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Trump Organization and Eric Trump, claiming the allegations of political debanking were “misguided” and “based on cherry-picked quotations unsupported by the full context” of documents submitted to the court, Reuters reported on Saturday.
Story by Joseph McBride

Donald Trump has famously claimed that he is very hard to beat at golf and once reacted with hostility after losing to a 15-year-old during the 2007 Westchester Men’s Club Championship.

Trump, 80, celebrated winning the annual Trump National Golf Club Bedminster club and senior championship this year, allegedly carding 70 on a Par-72 course. This follows Trump's double victory in Florida two years ago, as he continues to dominate at his own clubs.

His latest success takes his number of victories at his clubs to over 40, though his scores have been questioned during his two presidential terms. Trump has faced allegations of cheating on the course, but back in 2007, he suffered a humbling defeat. It all comes as Trump rudely showed where his priorities really were when greeting military troops.

Sportswriter Rick Reilly has accused Trump of cheating on several occasions and decided to examine his tournament history in an article for The Guardian. Reilly once said of Trump, "When it comes to cheating, he’s an 11 on a scale of one to 10."

Reilly has continued to call out Trump, and before his Bedminster championship in 2025, he wrote on social media, "Hey Trump, tomorrow is the Senior Champ at Bedminster. Are you shameless enough to pretend you won it? Even after the whole planet saw you cheat in Scotland? Is your ego that sick."
Story by Alexander Willis

Amid his bid for confirmation, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a notice Sunday night declaring that the Justice Department had rescinded its controversial “anti-weaponization fund” designed to award payouts to Capitol rioters, but journalists immediately noticed “the fine print” told a different story.

“Look what they just tried to sneak through at midnight,” wrote Brett Meiselas, co-founder of the progressive media organization MeidasTouch. “What a scam!!!!”

Reading the “fine print” of Blanche’s notice, however, MeidasTouch argued that the DOJ not only neglected to terminate Trump’s IRS immunity, but had actually reaffirmed it.
Story by IdahoLearningNews Editorial Team

The number has become a shorthand for the case, but it is often flattened in retellings. The setting matters because civil courts can treat silence differently than criminal courts.

Donald Trump invoked the Fifth Amendment 440 times in the New York civil fraud case, but the 440 invocations happened in a deposition, not at trial. New York judge Arthur Engoron counted the answers in a written decision, making the figure a court-record reference point rather than a campaign-trail estimate.

That distinction matters because a deposition is sworn pretrial testimony, and because civil litigation gives silence a different role than it has in a criminal case. The number is consequential, but it is not the same as a criminal conviction or an admission of wrongdoing.

The figure came before trial
The 440 count traces to Trump’s Aug. 10, 2022 deposition in the New York attorney general’s civil fraud investigation and lawsuit. Engoron, who presided over the case, cited the number in connection with that sworn testimony.
Trump’s reflecting pool mess makes the transition from debacle to scandal
Story by Steve Benen

Donald Trump’s Reflecting Pool renovation project was already an embarrassing fiasco. The president obsessed over the renovation project, which he apparently saw as a metaphor of sorts: He would tackle a lingering problem that had vexed previous administrations, while delivering impressive results quickly and cheaply.

It wouldn’t just be a triumph for his presidency, it would be a totemic success story, demonstrating how Trump’s unique approach to problem-solving is fundamentally superior to what Americans have come to expect from traditional officials.

We soon learned otherwise. Indeed, reality quickly left little doubt that the water was too green, the costs were too high, the no-bid contract was too indefensible, the timeline was too long, the blue paint floated to the surface too often, and the draining and refilling of the pool was too frequent.

The Republican proved the opposite of his intended point. Instead of demonstrating the superiority of his model, he offered timely evidence that his approach — rooted in cutting corners, controversial contracts, rushed timelines, etc. — simply doesn’t work.
Trump's lawsuit backfires as filing reveals accounts closed over money-laundering fears
Story by David Edwards

Court documents revealing that President Donald Trump was de-banked after a money laundering probe have been linked to a reinvigorated effort to protect him from prosecution by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Capital One's July 31 filing marked the first time a bank formally tied anti-money laundering concerns to Trump's business empire, according to Al Jazeera.

Two days later, Blanche tried to lock in a written guarantee barring the IRS from auditing Trump, his family, and his business entities for conduct predating the settlement, according to NPR.

"Friday: Capital One reveals Trump was debanked bc he was laundering money. Sunday: Acting Attorney General solidifies promise his tax crimes won't be punished," national security blogger Marcy Wheeler wrote on X.
Loser and cheater Trump faces harsh accusations as new video surfaces
Story by Nicolai Haugsted

Donald Trump is once again facing accusations over his conduct on the golf course after celebrating another club championship victory, with critics questioning whether the win was as straightforward as the president claimed.

The latest controversy erupted after Trump declared himself champion at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, before posting footage of the decisive shot that quickly became the focus of online scrutiny.

Trump competed in both the Senior Men’s Club Championship and the Super Senior Men’s Club Championship at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on August 2.

Soon after the event, he announced his victory on Truth Social, claiming he had finished with a score of 70 despite having little time to practice because of his presidential duties.

“The Winning Shot in the Bedminster Club Championship! Thank you very much to all of those who participated. I won with a score of 70… It’s called TALENT, and I have it, and they don’t!”
Sen. Durbin: Trump's AG pick lied under oath
Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, spoke about Todd Blanche ahead of the confirmation vote on whether to make Blanche Attorney General.
Story by Kathrine Frich

When high-stakes political moments are broadcast live, a single question can derail an entire press event.

A routine document signing is supposed to project calm control. Instead, one recent ceremony spiraled into a heated outburst that left audiences at home completely stunned.

Meltdown on camera
During an August 3 Fox News broadcast, President Donald Trump sat in the Oval Office to establish a new commission. Then, an MS Now reporter shifted the topic to a high-profile legal defeat.

The journalist asked about the Justice Department abruptly dropping its criminal case against former Olympian David Hearn. Authorities had originally accused the athlete of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

The president immediately directed his fury at U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro. “I guess she choked! I don’t know what the hell happened,” he told the press pool, according to Fox News cited by the Irish Star.
Story by Matt Naham

Nearly three dozen former federal judges backed the sanctions imposed on Donald Trump's attorneys and said there should be no stay pending appeal, given the "strong evidence of collusion and lack of adversity" and "bad faith" underlying the president's lawsuit against the government he heads.

As Law&Crime has reported, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams on July 13 found Trump's lawyers filed a "non-adversarial, collusive" lawsuit to "manipulate the judicial process" and improperly force the IRS into a $1.776 billion "settlement" with "no viable basis in law or fact."

Consequently, the Obama-appointed judge imposed both monetary and non-monetary sanctions against Trump's attorneys, going so far as to refer Alejandro Brito to the Florida Bar. The monetary sanctions were "appropriate […] reimbursement" for the 35 former federal judges and ex-IRS officials who separately intervened as amici curiae or friends of the court, the ruling said.

Unsurprisingly, the former judges sought $4,610.83 and ex-IRS officials asked for $39,000 in attorneys' fees. Just as unsurprisingly, Trump's legal team has, on an expedited basis, sought a stay of Williams' order pending an appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, claiming the judge's bar on "referring to the settlement in official proceedings" and "wrongful invitation to seek fees" exceeded her authority.
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