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Donald J. Trump White House 2nd Term Page 25
Story by Samy Magdy and Julia Frankel

Iran said Sunday it struck an unmanned U.S. vessel trying to enter the Strait of Hormuz, the latest salvo in a new flare-up of fighting between the two countries.

The U.S. did not immediately confirm the purported attack, which came a day after the U.S. military said forces struck three Iranian oil tankers in response to a missile attack on Navy warships.

The war began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28. But since a ceasefire agreement was announced in June, on-and-off fighting has persisted with both sides trying to inflict military and economic pain as negotiations have collapsed.

Strikes come about a week after fighting resumed

The U.S. and Iran resumed attacks last week, following a month of relative calm, with the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian communities along it again being targeted. At least five people were killed earlier in the week during a U.S. bombardment of southern Iran.
By Elwely Elwelly, Yomna Ehab and Muhammad Al Gebaly

DUBAI/CAIRO, Sept 8 (Reuters) - The Middle East war intensified on Tuesday with Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen launching strikes on several Saudi cities, further embroiling a U.S. ally in the conflict, while U.S. forces hit multiple Iranian oil tankers and Iran targeted a U.S. base in Jordan.

The Houthis attacked four cities in the south of Saudi Arabia, wounding 73 people and setting oil installations ablaze in what appeared to be a major expansion of the six-month-old war.

As global oil markets were pricing in the Saudi attacks, the U.S. military's Central Command said it destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers on Tuesday and posted video of the strikes, which it called a response to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeting a U.S. Navy warship with ballistic missiles twice over the previous two days. No Americans were harmed, the U.S. said.
Alexander Willis

Onlookers were left in shock Tuesday after the leader of a U.S. ally openly boasted on live television about a successful "influence" campaign waged on American leaders to push the U.S. into launching its deeply unpopular war against Iran.

Underwater in the polls ahead of the nation's October elections, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to Israel's popular Channel 14 Sunday night with a pitch to voters.

“I’ve been against Iran for almost 40 years… it took a long time to bring the United States to its senses,” Netanyahu said in Hebrew, according to Zeteo’s Prem Thakker.

“[I’ve had] close to 1,000 hours on American television with the ability to influence the United States — with the intimate knowledge of all its leaders, both those who support us and those who don’t support us — the ability to navigate this field, through it.”

A White House insider told Bloomberg in March that President Donald Trump’s decision to launch a war against Iran was “partly motivated by pressure from outside allies” — chief among them being Netanyahu.
Story by Hafiz Rashid

Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took over the Frederick, Maryland, neighborhood of Taskers Chance, and the situation quickly turned violent.

ICE told the Frederick News-Post that agents came to the neighborhood after a man fled from a traffic stop on Thursday, staking out the area beginning at 6 a.m. and staying for about 40 hours. Protesters showed up the same day after hearing that ICE was staking out a house. The situation was tense for the neighborhood’s residents, many of whom were afraid to leave their homes. Agents reportedly swarmed multiple streets, Katie Nash, vice president of the Frederick City Council, told The Baltimore Banner.
Trump’s accounts made interesting trades at key moments during the Iran war.

President Trump has made millions on his oil and gas investments thanks to the Iran war.

CNBC reports that the president’s investment holdings continued to trade energy stocks during the first six months of the war. Between February 27 and August 31, his nine largest fuel assets grew between $1.5 million and $4.4 million, the network estimates, referring to his annual financial disclosure.

Trump reported owning stock in Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Kinder Morgan, Marathon Petroleum, Occidental Petroleum, Phillips 66, Valero Energy, and the Williams Companies. CNBC calculated Trump’s gains based on what he said in his June disclosure about his assets, looking at how each stock performed over the six-month period.
Story by Charles P. Pierce

The Wall Street Journal is having itself a time rummaging through the guts of the administration’s various corruptions. The latest is a whopper of a tale regarding former secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem and her Very Close Advisor Corey Lewandowski and their vast attempts to monetize government services. Lewandowski apparently did everything except sell the FBI for parts.

When Corey Lewandowski was at the Department of Homeland Security, he approached senior Qatari officials with a proposal.

Hire me on the side, the longtime Trump aide who was effectively the shadow secretary at the department last year, told them, according to people familiar with his pitch. He said he could help the tiny, wealthy Gulf state with any issues that fell under the department’s purview, such as visas, the people said.

He approached representatives of the United Arab Emirates with a similar offer, people familiar with the outreach said.

The alleged moneymaking efforts, which appeared to be offers by Lewandowski to sell government services for personal gain, came while he had an expansive portfolio at one of the most powerful agencies in the federal government. The role gave him de facto decision-making authority over large amounts of recently appropriated billions of dollars, the president’s border and immigration enforcement agenda and the collection of tariffs, which have been vastly expanded under President Trump.
Iran says it captured an unmanned U.S. submarine near the Strait of Hormuz early Tuesday morning, calling it a major escalation. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy said the underwater vehicle was seized as a prize of war during a complex intelligence and operational action at dawn. Iran said the submarine had been added to the U.S. Navy fleet in 2025 and was equipped with some of the world's latest technology.
Opinion by Malcolm Ferguson

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao reportedly admitted that the Iranian military “blew the hell” out of the U.S. naval base in Bahrain—a shocking claim that contradicts the Trump administration’s narrative of total destruction of Iran’s attack capabilities.

While the damage to the U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters at Naval Support Activity Bahrain in a February 28 drone attack has been well-documented, Cao’s Thursday comment to a reporter at the conservative outlet The Epoch Times is perhaps the most vivid, sober analysis of the situation from an individual of his ranking.

Cao also told The Epoch Times’ Ryan Morgan that Iran’s attack left them unable to “pull in” the USS Abraham Lincoln, the aircraft carrier that was at sea for months and ravaged by reports of poor conditions and low morale.
Story by Rachel Chason, Mohamad El Chamaa, Suzan Haidamous, Meg Kelly

AMMAN, Jordan — Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen seized a key port city on the Red Sea on Thursday, providing what could be substantial leverage for the Iranian regime in the ongoing U.S.-Iran war.

Videos shared online, verified by The Washington Post, showed militants shouting Houthi slogans rolling in trucks down the main thoroughfare of the coastal city of Mokha, which had been held by forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

In another video, filmed in the city’s port area, just north of the airport, two men linger near what appears to be a mine-resistant military vehicle produced in a joint venture between U.S. manufacturer Oshkosh and Saudi Arabia’s Al Tadrea Manufacturing Co.

The day's top stories, curated by Washington Post editors. Sign up for free

Analysts and a Yemeni official confirmed what the videos suggested: The Houthis had taken control of the city, amid renewed fighting in Yemen and between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, in the latest front of the multipart conflict that has swept the region over the more than six months since Israel and the United States attacked Iran.

Since Iran largely blocked maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz in late February to exert economic leverage in the face of attacks, the Bab al-Mandab Strait off Yemen has become an increasingly crucial waterway for global shipping, including oil exports from the Persian Gulf.
Pres. Trump said there was no damage "whatsoever" to U.S. warplanes based in Jordan.
Iranian-designed drones gave Russia a relatively inexpensive way to conduct long-range attacks against Ukraine while putting constant pressure on Ukrainian air defenses. Their usefulness is not measured only by how many targets they successfully destroy: forcing Ukraine to detect, track and intercept repeated waves can itself consume valuable resources.
Story by Jonah Kaplan

New photos obtained exclusively by CBS News reveal for the first time the widespread damage and destruction of buildings and vehicles at multiple U.S. positions across the Middle East, as a result of Iranian missile and drone attacks.  

The images were sent to CBS News by active service members on condition of anonymity because of rigid media restrictions within the military.

"This is major damage to our bases that hasn't been communicated to the American public," one deployed service member told CBS News. "We're standing there with our eyes closed getting punched in the face."

One photo, taken at Prince Sultan Air Force Base in Saudi Arabia, shows a direct hit on the back half of a Boeing E-3 Sentry four-engine aircraft, its tail severed from the charred fuselage that also supported a rotating radar that is essential for collecting midair intelligence.
Story by Chris Morris

Donald Trump and his family generated at least $2.2 billion in income last year (1), which is nearly four times more than he reported in 2024. Much of that money came from his supporters who invested in his businesses, such as Trump Media and Technology Group, or bought his $TRUMP meme coin.

Their fortunes, however, didn’t fare nearly as well. In fact, Trump’s supporters are reportedly down an estimated $7 billion after investing in the president’s business ventures.

Trump Media shares have lost 56% of their value in the past year (2) , while the Trump coin’s value also tumbled about 81% in that time (3). Many of the retail investors who sunk their savings into those ventures — often as a sign of loyalty to Trump — have seen the money vanish right as economic volatility began to spike. And they’re not happy with Trump, or the members of his inner circle.
CBS News obtained new images of damaged buildings and equipment at U.S. positions in the Middle East. This comes amid renewed scrutiny surrounding military resource management and Iran war spending. CBS News' Jonah Kaplan has more.
MS NOW has exclusive new reporting about military families living in fear as U.S. troops face undisclosed missile attacks abroad. Nicolle Wallace is joined by Priya Sridhar, authored on this story, for analysis on Deadline White House.
Story by Bennito L. Kelty

The Pentagon's thoughts about withdrawing 25,000 troops from Europe are spurring fears of the threat the move would create for U.S. allies.

On Thursday, NBC News reported that the Pentagon is considering pulling out 25,000 or more U.S. troops from Europe, which is nearly a third of the American forces stationed there. The withdrawal would include aircraft, ships, and weapons, even though NATO allies have warned about the growing threat from Russia.

Online critics pointed to the move as proof that President Donald Trump and his administration are aligned with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

"For the umpteenth time: Trump works for Putin," wrote former GOP congressman Joe Walsh in a post on X. "He's a Russian asset. Plain & simple. Putin is smiling again today."
Story by Noah Robertson, Tara Copp, Warren Strobel, Alex Horton

More American service members have died in the Middle East during the ongoing Iran war than the Pentagon has disclosed publicly, according to six U.S. officials familiar with the Defense Department’s internal casualty accounting data.

Five of the officials said there have been at least 22 military fatalities — four more than what appears in the Pentagon’s public database, known as the Defense Casualty Analysis System, or DCAS.

A sixth official, who like the others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the figures, said 23 service members have died since Feb. 28, when the Trump administration, in concert with Israel, initiated the Iran war. Not all of the undisclosed deaths are directly tied to the conflict but have involved U.S. personnel who were in the Middle East amid ongoing hostilities, this person said.
Story by AP

Ukrainian forces fired more than 1,000 drones at Russia overnight, including hundreds that were launched toward Moscow, officials said Sunday as the Kremlin was wrapping up the third and last day of its parliamentary elections.

Moscow’s mayor described the wave of drones as the “largest ever” drone attack on the Russian capital and said there had been damage to a Moscow oil refinery and a residential building.

Across the wider Moscow region, the attack killed two people and wounded 20, local Gov. Andrei Vorobyov said. The dead were a 74-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman, he said.

Writing on social media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv had used a range of missiles and drones in the attack — including Ukraine’s domestically made Flamingo and Pelican missiles — to hit oil and logistics facilities.

“These are billions of dollars that sustain the war machine,” Zelenskyy said, referring to the financial pressure that Kyiv hopes to put on Russia’s economy.
Story by Michael Panter

With each passing year it appears that President Donald Trump’s account of where he was and what he was doing during the 9/11 terror attacks evolves.

Yet it’s fair to say that he’s never leaned into the idea that he was personally in danger on the day commercial airliners were hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center.

Until now.

On Tuesday, September 8, Trump spoke at a ceremony on the White House Ellipse to honor emergency responders. The 80-year-old – notorious, it must be said, for embellishing facts and twisting narratives – shared a never-before-heard account of being physically carried to safety from a building close to Ground Zero.

“We thought it was coming down on top of us, and two firemen, big strong guys, I’m not the smallest guy in the world, they grabbed me under the arm, said, ‘Got to get out of here,’ and they literally lifted me up,” Trump told the audience.

“This is not easy to do. I’m big. They lifted me up and they started running with me. I said, ‘Fellas, I can run myself,’ but they were amazing. But they thought it was coming down. It didn’t come down.”
Story by Matthew Rozsa

President Donald Trump has lost the support of a former Montana governor who is not only a Republican, but used to chair the Republican National Committee.

"It's a classic bait and switch from Donald Trump," former Gov. Marc Racicot told CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday. He was referring to Trump's promise to give $5,000 to every American adult if Republicans retain control of both houses of Congress in November. "Typical — full of holes, and frankly, impossible to accomplish without congressional approval. You're talking about $1.4 trillion being added to the deficit. Of course Congress is going to be involved, especially when you have a request from the administration for $1.4 trillion of additional defense spending."

He added, "They paid $1.4 trillion this year on the national debt. There's another trillion dollars of spending over appropriation levels. So they're spending money — he's spending money like a drunken sailor. And the fact of the matter is, I think it's going to be virtually impossible to bring about and see adopted by Congress. It's a bait and switch."
Story by Alexa Lisitza

One year ago, conservative personality Charlie Kirk was fatally shot while speaking at a Utah Valley University event.

Kirk was a controversial figure, and the aftermath of his death led to some very odd moments from MAGA, conservatives, and the right. Here's a few standout moments:

1.Some of the most notable moments following Kirk's death occurred at a memorial service held in his honor. The late podcaster's wife, Erika Kirk, infamously walked out onto a red-carpeted stage, complete with pyrotechnics, music, and all of the WWE-style works.

"This isn't grief," one person said in a viral response. "It's a ******* spectacle."
President Donald Trump closed out the GOP’s midterm convention Thursday by repeatedly pleading with its attendees to vote, urging them at one point to “cheat like hell” to help Republicans keep control of Congress.
Story by Claire Anderson

Donald Trump closed out the unusual Republican midterm convention by telling his supporters that they needed to vote — or face the consequence of going to hell. Before that statement, he requested that attendees take a pledge, adding another bizarre layer to the already-strange situation.

"So, help me god. You know what happens if you don't vote? You go to hell, you know that. OK? You go to hell. I don't want that to happen to you, so please go and vote.," Trump said. "Together, we will defeat the Communists."

As for pledge, the president said, "So, please raise your right hand: I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States." The audience echoed the sentiment and Trump finished, "I'm going to try and cheat like hell like they do."
Story by Reanna Smith

The Republicans’ midterm convention in Dallas took a violent turn on Thursday as members of the crowd could be heard clearly calling for several prominent Democrats to be shot.

Senator Ted Cruz was delivering a speech during which he talked about New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Democratic Senate nominees Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan and James Talarico of Texas. As he did so, shouts of "he should be shot," could be heard coming from the crowd.

Cruz did not appear to react to the calls for violence. "When Mamdani says he wants to seize the means of production," Cruz began saying.

"He should be shot," a member of the crowd can be heard shouting as the senator paused his sentence. "He means it, Cruz finished.

"When Abdul El-Sayed says he has an obligation to comply with Sharia Law," he continued. Cruz paused again, this time more members of the crowd appeared to join in as they shouted, "He should be shot."
Story by Adam Lynch

New transcriptions from President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against BBC reveal how dangerously close the president is to having potentially hurtful information about his January 6 antics made public.

The BBC has already admitted the piece incorrectly claimed Trump “made a direct call for violent action” during the January 6 riots. But the tax-funded company, which must be a good steward of British funding, is contesting the $10 billion that Trump is demanding.

Additionally, new transcripts received by Law & Crime reports the judge over the case appears to be completely prepared to make Trump hand it over some potentially damning information.

“The transcript of the proceedings revealed that [Chief U.S. District Judge James] Boasberg thought the BBC ‘made convincing arguments’ and has a ‘decent chance’ of getting what it seeks if those documents turn out to be ‘necessary,’” Law and Crime reports.

To buttress its defense, BBC lawyer Maxwell Mishkin is leaning on the hard work of investigators who came before him. He have asked Boasberg to unseal to the "greatest extent possible" various executive privilege rulings that went against Trump during special counsel Jack Smith's grand jury probe.
Story by Daniel Wolfram

The reflecting pool saga that has gone on for months on end may be coming to an end.

The pool at the Washington Monument that was supposed to be restored for the country’s 250th anniversary was botched completely. Trump immediately blamed vandals for intentionally destroying the newly renovated pool.

Now there is news about the reflecting pool that seems to be the final nail in the coffin. The most likely outcome is not the way the president wants this to end.

Atlantic Industrial Coatings admits its own fault
Internal documents obtained by The New York Times show that flawed repair work, not deliberate sabotage, ruined the reflecting pool’s new lining.
Story by Joseph Gedeon in Washington

On the night Republicans gathered to mourn the killing of Charlie Kirk and warn against the dangers of violent rhetoric, a crowd at the party’s irregular midterm convention in Dallas repeatedly called for a sitting Senate candidate to be shot, while the Republican senator at the podium never denounced or even noted the outbursts.

The outbursts came repeatedly during Ted Cruz’s Thursday night address at the American Airlines center, when he named a Democrat he accused of holding radical views. After the senator mentioned the New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, video footage depicts at least one audience member shouting: “He should be shot!” The same cry followed when Cruz named Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, and again after he named Texas Senate candidate James Talarico. Cruz did not pause or respond to the shouting, and it remains unclear whether he heard it from the stage. Cruz did not respond to a request for comment.
Story by Falyn Stempler

President Donald Trump is under fire for accusing former President Barack Obama of buying voters after vowing this week to pay voters $5,000 dividends if his party maintains control of Congress after the November midterms.

Trump made the announcement earlier this week during an atypical Republican midterm convention in Dallas. He told the roaring crowd that he would pay every American adult a $5,000 dividend check if Republicans maintain control of Congress after the upcoming election, a claim that reportedly came as a surprise to his White House staff.

"If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them... because of our tremendous strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in ‌the United States of America for $5,000," Trump said Wednesday evening at the GOP midterm convention. "The only caveat I have is that the dividend that we're making must be spent in the United States of America," without providing any more specifics.
Story by Dobrina Zhekova

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but quality of life can be measured. And a new study ranked the state of Tennessee last when it came to living well.

The study, part of CNBC’s annual report on America’s top states for business, gave the Volunteer State an overall F grade for quality of life, acknowledging a poor history on education as well. The network similarly called it one of the worst states to live in thanks having one of the highest violent crime rates in the country, the third-highest rate of drug deaths, and a number of laws that negatively affect the LGBTQ+ community.

Overall, Tennessee came in as the No. 9 state for doing business in the United States, scoring better in several other categories like infrastructure, the cost of doing business, and business friendliness.
Story by Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld

This constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore. A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong. And such a people, deprived of the power to think and judge, is, without knowing and willing it, completely subjected to the rule of lies. With such a people, you can do whatever you want.”

– Hannah Arendt

This summer, our country and the world commemorated the 56th anniversary of the historic and breathtaking Apollo astronaut’s Moon landing taking “a giant leap for mankind” while leaving behind a small U.S. flag and the delicate detailed footprints of the brave astronauts from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

In its own way, the Trump administration has also taken a breathtaking “giant leap” as our country and world look on. The leap that Trump and his MAGA co-conspirators have taken, however, is not extraterrestrial. This leap, rather, follows a deranged trail outside of the traditional political and civil discourse environment into the toxic atmosphere of blatant lies and deceptions, leaving behind a stench-filled, democracy-killing dump in its wake.

I found it more than ironic that Trump is going after his political foes by directing the Secretary of his Department of “Justice” Pam Bondi to file criminal perjury charges against former CIA Director James Comey as well as New York Attorney General Letitia James and California Sen. Adam Schiff (D) for alleged mortgage fraud.
Story by Joseph Konig

A purported scam run by two convicted fraudsters allegedly ensnared rapper Boosie Badazz as he sought clemency from the president for a gun charge

NEED TO KNOW
60 Minutes opened its new season with a hidden-camera report on the thriving industry of pardon brokers and alleged scammers taking cash for promises of influence on President Donald Trump

A purported scam run by two convicted fraudsters — longtime D.C. lobbyist Jack Burkman and his partner-in-crime Jacob Wohl — allegedly ensnared rapper Boosie Badazz as he sought clemency from the president for a gun charge

“This is what I was led to believe: If you come with this money, you will get a pardon,” Boosie told 60 Minutes
After months of reporting on the firings, hirings and internal debate at CBS’ 60 Minutes, the iconic Sunday night news program opened its 59th season with a hidden-camera report on the thriving industry of pardon brokers and alleged scammers taking cash for promises of influence on President Donald Trump.
Story by Justin Elliott, Brett Murphy, Joshua Kaplan and Alex Mierjeski / ProPublica

On May 24, Donald Trump Jr. was celebrating in the Bahamas, as scantily clad dancers in stilettos and sailor caps performed for him and his guests. It was the last night of his wedding, a lavish, three-day party held across a pair of ultra-exclusive private islands. A five-tier funfetti cake had been airlifted in from Florida, and helicopters and seaplanes descended on the islands before guests settled into their oceanfront villas. That night on the beach, Trump Jr. lifted his bride into the air while fireworks launched from a barge over the sea.

“It was everything we dreamed of and more,” his wife later wrote on Instagram.

That dream was heavily funded by a secret benefactor: Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch close to President Vladimir Putin.
The Trump administration is using American diplomacy to further personal business interests and ideological goals. Nicolle Wallace is joined by Anne Applebaum for analysis on Deadline White House.
Story by Darryl Coote

Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Federal immigration investigators may have violated state laws while carrying out a Trump administration effort to identify alleged unlawful voters, according to a whistleblower complaint made public Monday.

The anonymous whistleblower is a client of the Democracy Defenders Fund, which last week submitted a disclosure to Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., alleging that investigators are being directed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to misrepresent themselves as registered voters to access state voter records using sensitive personal information obtained from Department of Homeland Security data.

According to the 40-page whistleblower disclosure Padilla made public Monday, investigators may have already committed thousands of violations of state laws in this effort to obtain the voter records, which they then compare with USCIS records to determine whether the person is a U.S. citizen and whether they may have lawfully registered to vote or cast a ballot.

The voter information is allegedly being unlawfully accessed by investigators who are required to review at least 40 people a day, according to the whistleblower disclosure. It states that this quota gives an investigator only 12 minutes to determine if a subject is a U.S. citizen, whether they are an unlawful voter and, if so, to create a federal law enforcement record that the whistleblower warns may be based on unreliable data.
Opinion by Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling

Iran has threatened to unveil a new weapon and alter the landscape of the war if Donald Trump follows through on his pledge to “wipe out” the nation.

“If a new aggression takes place, we will definitely change the weapons and geography of the war,” Hossein Mohebbi, a spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, told Fars news agency Monday.

Mohebbi did not elaborate on the weapon types, or clarify which new areas could be hit. But he did add that the world would be “astounded” by the new weapons, and reiterated that the U.S. has already “been defeated in this war” but “it does not have the courage to admit and accept this defeat.”
Story by Thomas Kika

President Donald Trump's bruising return to the White House has sent many longtime foreign allies scrambling to get their distance, and according to a new piece from The Atlantic, that distance will last long after Trump is gone.

Trump's second term as president has been marked by notable and widespread disrespect toward nations once seen as close U.S. allies. Between his attempts to level massive tariffs against nearly every nation in the world and his frequent breaches of diplomatic norms, Trump has created a hostile global environment in which allies no longer feel safe trusting in the stability of the U.S.

In a new piece for The Atlantic on Tuesday, staff writer Vivian Salama argued that this new dynamic, in which the nations of the world are working to establish a safe distance from the U.S., is bound to become the new normal for years to come, even after Trump leaves office and is potentially replaced by a more traditional, dependable administration.

"For years, the strategy among U.S. allies was to wait President Trump out," Salama explained. "Now many are preparing for a world in which the United States is no longer indispensable — not simply during Trump’s presidency but afterward as well, regardless of who occupies the White House. They are building military capabilities, diversifying trade, developing new domestic industries and forging relationships that reduce their dependence on Washington."

Writing further, Salama stressed that this is not a wholesale abandonment, but more of a precaution being taken to protect against the recurring instability of American leadership.
Opinion by Edith Olmsted

One of our closest allies now believes that it can’t rely on the United States under President Donald Trump’s leadership.

Belgium’s foreign ministry warned that America was “no longer the ally it has been in the past,” according to a late-2025 strategy document reviewed by the Financial Times.

The Belgian document called for a “thorough re-evaluation of the relation between the European Union and Belgium on the one hand, and the U.S. on the other hand.” It argued that the current political dynamics in the United States were “likely to compromise several vital interests of Belgium and the European Union.
Story by IdahoLearningNews Editorial Team

A veteran foreign correspondent says Russian intelligence left messages in his family's apartment to prove a point about how thoroughly the Kremlin watches people — and he thinks that same machinery explains a presidency.

Luke Harding has a theory about why President Donald Trump, 80, seems so careful with Vladimir Putin, 73 — and it comes from an unsettling place: his own apartment in Moscow. The veteran Guardian correspondent alleges that Trump “excessively appeases” the Russian president because the Kremlin likely holds compromising material on him, and that Trump knows it.

Harding made the claim on The Daily Beast Podcast in a conversation with host Joanna Coles, and he grounds it in personal experience: in 2007, while he was reporting from Moscow, he says Russia’s Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, broke into his family’s home and planted bugs. It is an allegation, not a verified fact, and it should be weighed that way.

A Sex Manual by the Bed
In Harding’s telling, the surveillance he describes was meant to be noticed. Returning from a family holiday in Berlin, he found a Russian-language sex manual placed beside the marital bed — a message, he says, that left no ambiguity about who had been inside the apartment.

“They made it clear that they were watching us,” Harding said, recalling the moment he had to assure his wife the object was not his. “Darling, this really isn’t mine. The KGB have introduced this.”
Story by Kathrine Frich

Election seasons always bring a flurry of late preparations.

Local officials scramble to keep the process completely by the book.

But occasionally, the intense push to secure the ballot box crosses a serious legal line.

Rushing the system
According to a whistleblower report published by The New York Times and cited by Huffpost, the Department of Homeland Security is rushing to find non-citizens on voter rolls before the November 3 midterm elections.

The process might involve breaking state rules.
Story by Sarah K. Burris

Former officials in President Donald Trump's administration have been caught by the court deleting messages and potentially relevant evidence despite ongoing court cases and an order to retain documents.

Daily Beast correspondent Tom Latchem noticed the filing that popped up on Sept. 11, showing that at least two former Homeland Security officials deleted information.

Former Secretary Kristi Noem's top staffer, Karen Evans, served as "one of the ousted Department of Homeland Security chief’s most trusted aides," the report claimed. After she was told to retain information, including Signal chats, she "intentionally destroyed" those messages.

Judge Susan Illston wrote in a court filing that Evans, a former acting Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) leader, acted with “intent to deprive” plaintiffs of the information requested in the case.

"Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(e)(2), plaintiffs are therefore entitled to a presumption that the information lost was unfavorable to defendants," the judge said.

"Evans should have known better," the judge blasted. "She previously served as Chief Information Officer at DHS, in charge of the agency’s records preservation policies. At a hearing on this litigation, her personal attorney touted that 'she is more so an expert” on Signal “than anybody else here[.]'"
Story by Tom Latchem

Donald Trump’s administration is still advertising jobs with a controversial question about “loyalty” to the president even after a court blocked its use.

An investigation by the Daily Beast’s sister Substack, PunchUp, has found the question in almost 40 distinct placements spanning at least four separate departments, despite a federal judge last week ordering the government to stop using it.

The decision centered on one of four essay questions introduced under Trump’s Merit Hiring Plan. Question 3 asked: “How would you help advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role?” The administration claimed it intended to highlight candidates’ “dedication to public service.”
Story by Rachel Dobkin

A Republican running for a seat in the Florida House of Representatives marched with neo-Nazis in the infamous “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, according to a new report.

Marshall Rawson — who has touted his activism in preserving Confederate soldiers' monuments across North Florida — marched alongside the League of the South during the deadly Charlottesville rally, Talking Points Memo, an independent political news organization, reported Monday.

The League of the South is described by civil rights organizations as a white supremacist group that advocates for the secession of Southern states.

Rawson and his now-wife Megan were seen on video arriving at the Charlottesville rally and being greeted by name by League of the South members, according to Talking Points Memo, which reviewed the footage.

The Republican was also seen in a photo taken during the protest standing near neo-Nazi James Alex Fields Jr., who later drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, the news outlet reported.
Story by Alexander Willis

President Donald Trump sparked outrage after his administration was exposed for preparing a $2.8 billion military package amid “extraordinarily dire” economic signs — funded entirely by American taxpayers.

On Tuesday, The Washington Post revealed that the Trump administration was actively preparing to sell $2.8 billion worth of weapons to Israel, including 40,000 “controversial” 2,000-pound bombs, citing an anonymous U.S. official. While described as a sale, the Post noted that the “transaction is financed through a mechanism known as Foreign Military Financing,” in which American taxpayer dollars are transferred to Israel to fund the purchase.

Right-wing media figure Tucker Carlson expressed outrage on Tuesday over the arrangement, calling it a “gift” at the expense of American taxpayers in support of Israel’s siege on Gaza, which he labeled a “genocide,” as has a United Nations committee and countless human rights groups.

Author and writer Amani Al-Khatahtbeh accused Trump of “letting Israel rob America blind,” and urged Americans to “wake [the f---] up.” Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), once a fierce Trump ally, lashed out at the president for apparently greenlighting the deal.
Story by Erik De La Garza

Donald Trump Jr.’s wife tried to dismiss questions about a lavish gift from a Russian oligarch — but ended up confirming the central allegation, according to a new analysis.

The Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt examined Bettina Trump’s response to reports that Umar Kremlev, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, paid for two nights of the couple’s wedding celebrations.

“Bettina Trump, Trump Jr’s new wife, attempted some PR damage control on her Instagram on Tuesday, but kind of botched it,” Gabbatt wrote. “She decried ‘fake news’ before going on to confirm that, yep, Kremlev did pay for two nights of celebrations.”
Daniel Hampton

Conservative commentator Erick Erickson is naming the white men he says are pulling the right toward white nationalism and dictatorship, and he says some of them are close to Vice President JD Vance.

In a lengthy Substack essay published Wednesday, Erickson accused a small, well-funded group of men of quietly working their way into conservative think tanks and church organizations.

"You might think it does not affect you, but, in time, you will see their efforts in your church pews, in your kids’ brains, and in your politicians’ mouths," Erickson wrote on X. "It begins with shampoo."

At the center of the network, Erickson explained, is Charles Haywood, who made his fortune selling shampoo before selling his Indianapolis hair-care company. Haywood wrote a manifesto describing a future government that would not be democratic and would bar women from choosing careers over family, Erickson reported.

Erickson cited reporting that Haywood's foundation has given $390,500 to the Claremont Institute since 2022. He also tied Haywood to a men's fraternal order that he says includes Claremont's president and the chief executive of the venture firm New Founding.

Erickson argued the ideas have reached the vice president's orbit. He noted Vance blurbed "Unhumans," a book by right-wing activist Jack Posobiec that Erickson said holds up dictators Francisco Franco and Augusto Pinochet as models for dealing with the left. He also wrote that Haywood's foundation funds American Moment, a staffing pipeline he said was founded with Vance's support to place young conservatives in administration jobs.
Story by Nur Ibrahim

Claim:
A member of the legal team for U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who has challenged President Donald Trump's actions involving the Kennedy Center, wrote in a court declaration that she saw a forklift repeatedly run into pillars at the building.

Rating:
True

Context:
We are unable to determine why the forklift was running into the pillars, and cannot confirm whether it was a malfunction or intentional.
Story by Kathrine Frich

Driving up to the local pump used to be a routine chore that barely registered on a driver’s weekly budget.

Lately, watching the digits roll higher on the digital display feels a lot more painful.

But as motorists reach for the fuel nozzle, a cheeky bit of political satire is greeting them right on the glass.

Pointing the finger
Small adhesive stickers featuring President Donald Trump are popping up on fuel pumps across the country. The tiny decals show the president pointing directly at the rising dollar amount alongside a brief message stating, “I did that!”
Story by Kevin Collier

A small group of cybersecurity researchers said Sunday that they broke into OpenAI earlier this year, an announcement that has added a new element of alarm around AI security and safety.

The researchers, from a small company called Hacktron, found that by chaining together two unknown vulnerabilities, one in a third-party company called Discourse and one in how OpenAI validates its employees, they could access employees’ ChatGPT accounts. As is customary for researchers — sometimes called “white-hat hackers” — they caused no harm to the company’s systems.

Hacktron conducted the entire operation within 72 hours in late July, soon after some of OpenAI’s agents broke containment and hacked the AI platform Hugging Face.

An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed Hacktron’s report and said the vulnerabilities have since been patched.

“We thank the researchers for contacting us and sharing their findings,” the spokesperson said.
Erik De La Garza

President Donald Trump announced Friday that he is barring three major news organizations from the White House, effective immediately.

"I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW ... and Politico ... from the White House as a result of their constant 'reporting' FAKE NEWS!" Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.

"Media Outlets shouldn't be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they're covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America," he continued, before suggesting the ban would widen. "Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow."

Trump uncorked two false claims into the announcement as parenthetical asides. He described MS NOW as having "recently changed their name from MSNBC due to lack of viewership and credibility!" The network became MS NOW on Nov. 15 because Comcast spun its cable networks into a separate company, Versant, and NBCUniversal retained exclusive rights to the Peacock brand. The network kept its programming lineup and expanded its Washington bureau during the transition.
Story by Reanna Smit

Donald Trump has been accused of failing to salute Marines for the second time in a month, after criticizing former president Barack Obama for his 2014 coffee cup salute.

Footage captured on Wednesday showed the 80-year-old president disembarking the Qatari-gifted Air Force One as he arrived in North Carolina to campaign for Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley.

Trump could be seen gripping the handrail as he slowly descended the stairs of the aircraft. The bottom of the staircase was flanked by two US Air Force members saluting. As he reached the airmen, Trump walked straight past them, failing to return the salute, something that is customary for the president to do.
Story by Adam Lynch

While speaking with a panel about President Donald Trump’s recent ban of CNN, MS NOW and other possible media outlets, CNN anchor Erin Burnett played a withering supercut of Trump’s adolescent-grade abuse and name-calling of women around him at press gaggles.

This, Burnett insisted, was “only a small sample.”

“What a stupid question for you to ask,” Trump barked to an unknown woman on July 27.

“You’re the most obnoxious reporter in the whole room,” he told another woman on December 8, 2025.

“You are the worst reporter,” Trump told CNN’s Kaitlan Collions on February 3.

“Quiet! Quiet, piggy,” he ordered another woman on Nov. 14, 2025.

“I’m tired of it, you dumb person,” Trump told a woman on May 12.

“She’s a horror show,” he blasted another female reporter on May 8, while talking to aids.

And finally: “You have a lot of hate in your heart,” Trump accused a woman Sept. 16, 2025.

“As I said, that’s a small sampling,” Burnett told her panel, adding “he thrives on those exchanges.”
Story by OK! Staff

Donald Trump is facing fresh scrutiny after he led his followers to swear a bizarre pledge on the last day of the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas, Texas.

Doubling down on his repeated claims that Democrats cheat in elections, Trump urged the crowd to repeat after him, “I don't care if I'm registered or not, I'm gonna try and cheat like h--- like they do.”

Donald Trump Made Pledge at the Republican Midterm Convention
The incident occurred on the night of Thursday, September 10, when the president was giving his speech to his followers at the Texas event.

In a bizarre move, he asked the crowd to “please raise [their] right hand” and repeat his words verbatim.

“I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States, that loves us so much he can't even breathe, that I will go out with my family, my friends, I'll do it anyway,” he said.

He also insisted, “There's never been bigger cheaters; they don't care,” referring to Democrats.

“I am gonna go out and I'm going to get my friends and family and we are going to vote on November 3rd, or we are going to vote before that!” Trump concluded.

Per The New Republic, the president’s actions seemed eerily similar to “cultlike behavior.”

“The ‘cheat like h---’ line proves that Trump's rants about election fraud have always been self-serving, as he doesn't care about any laws as long as he wins,” the publication pointed out.
Story by MacKenzie Sigalos

Google said on Friday that its Gemini model had hacked three other companies, the first time the search giant has disclosed that one of its models autonomously gained access to third-party computer systems without permission.

In May, the Gemini model accessed three separate private computer systems by guessing passwords and by twice using a repository of publicly listed passwords, Google said.

The incident happened as part of a "capture-the-flag" security test run by Israeli startup Irregular, and Google's agents were never supposed to access the broader internet, but a bug in the testing environment made internet access available.

The agents stopped their intrusion when they determined they had accessed real company systems, not just part of the testing environment, Google said.

"In a standard evaluation, the model found public information online and guessed credentials to access websites it thought were part of the test," Heather Adkins, vice president of security engineering at Google, said in a statement. "In all three of these instances, the model stopped."
Story by Danni Santana

Sen. Bernie Sanders isn’t shy about calling out billionaires and their spending habits in public. This week, the democratic socialist took to X to criticize Walmart, the country’s largest private sector employer, on social media.

According to Sanders, Walmart has executed $37.6 billion in stock buyback purchases since 2020. That money could instead have been used to give all of its employees $23,550 bonuses, he says.

“Walmart pays wages so low that many of their workers need Medicaid and SNAP paid for by taxpayers,” he wrote in a July 23 post.

Stock buybacks can be lucrative for publicly-held companies if they believe their stock is undervalued. This can, in turn, return more value to shareholders by decreasing the amount of public shares available as well as improve the company’s earnings per share. Public companies may also leverage the strategy to avoid hostile takeovers.
Story by IdahoLearningNews Editorial Team

The man heard on the recording now holds a senior Republican National Committee role, giving new weight to what was said in that room two days after the 2020 election.

Leaked audio captured Andrew Iverson, then Donald Trump’s Wisconsin campaign chief, directing staff to keep pushing claims that Democrats were trying to steal the 2020 election — even as the people in the room privately acknowledged they had lost. The recording, obtained by the Associated Press, is from a strategy session held Nov. 5, 2020, two days after voters went to the polls.

The audio matters now because of where Iverson landed: he is currently the Midwest regional director for the Republican National Committee, a role with sway over a region that includes future battleground states. What his staff said behind closed doors in Wisconsin, and what they said publicly, were two very different things.

What the Recording Actually Captures
Iverson ran Trump’s campaign in Wisconsin, a pivotal battleground that Joe Biden won by roughly 20,000 votes. According to the AP, the operatives gathered that day knew they had been outflanked by Democratic turnout efforts in the state’s largest counties.

That knowledge did not change the marching orders. “Here’s the drill: Comms is going to continue to fan the flame and get the word out about Democrats trying to steal this election,” Iverson said on the recording. “We’ll do whatever they need (inaudible) help with. Just be on standby in case there’s any stunts we need to pull.”
Barack Obama warning resurfaces after Donald Trump's media ban decision
Story by Harry Fletcher

A resurfaced clip of Barack Obama seemingly blasting Donald Trump's administration has gone viral after the current US president banned certain media outlets from being able to attend and report from the White House.

Trump announced on social media on Friday (18 September) he was "proud" to ban CNN, Politico and MS NOW "from the White House as a result of their constant 'reporting' FAKE NEWS".

All three outlets have publicly condemned the decision and have confirmed their reporters have since been denied access to the White House. A number of other publications have posted messages of support and solidarity with them.

And a clip of Obama speaking during an appearance at Hamilton College in upstate New York from April 2025 has resurfaced and gone viral.
Story by DonkeyHotey

If you plan to vote for Republicans in 2026, you are embracing their extremist agenda. Republicans have been telling us what their platform is since the moment newly reelected President Donald J. Trump signed his first couple of executive orders eliminating birthright citizenship and mandating following anti-vaxxers’ advice in managing vaccines.

Republicans’ primary goals are to deport or jail as many people of color as possible and eliminate all government services that benefit American citizens (targeting minorities when possible), while bathing corporate America and billionaires in subsidies, tax breaks, and deregulation. Meanwhile, Republicans, wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross, use their positions in government to funnel money to themselves, their families, and their supporters.
Secret donors paid millions to Clarence Thomas-linked law firm with Supreme Court cases
Story by Alexandria Jacobson, Investigative Reporter

A conservative law firm with deep ties to Justice Clarence Thomas, President Donald Trump and a history of arguing more than a dozen cases on hot-button right-wing causes before the Supreme Court took in more than $33.5 million from nonprofit dark money networks, according to new watchdog research.

Consovoy McCarthy, a boutique conservative law firm started in 2014, brought in more than $29 million since 2015 from nonprofits associated with Leonard Leo, a co-chair of the Federalist Society, a Project 2025 contributor and architect of the conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court, alone, according to tax filings analyzed by True North Research, a progressive investigative research firm.

Leo has a well-documented history of using his networks to funnel money to ultraconservative causes, from working to limit access to abortion medication to supporting anti-trans laws.

Nonprofits do not need to disclose the identities of their donors, and when such groups support political causes without revealing the sources of their funding, it's considered “dark money.”
Senate Republican on Trump Jr. wedding gift from Russian oligarch: 'Really bad'
Story by Alexander Bolton

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) says Donald Trump Jr.’s acceptance of lavish gifts from a Russian oligarch with ties to the Kremlin looks “really bad” and warned it would be “wrong” for anyone with “proximity to power” to accept items of great value from an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Anytime someone gives you a $250,000 gift and they have strong ties to the Kremlin, that’s wrong,” Cassidy told Margaret Brennan, the host of CBS’s “Face the Nation," on Sunday.

“You — with that proximity to power, being the president’s son, you’ve got to give faith to the American people that Washington is not a swamp,” he added. “And even though in your mind it might be a gift, the appearance of it is really bad.”
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