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Donald J. Trump White House 2nd Term Page 26
Opinion by Chauncey DeVega

Donald Trump — America’s First White President, aspiring dictator for life, El Generalissimo, and Billionaire MAGA God and Prophet — is continuing his campaign to remake Washington, D.C. in his own image.

Trump is digging in, hunkering down, burrowing.

During the Civil War, at their peak, more than 20,000 Union soldiers and other forces were deployed to defend Washington, D.C. from an invasion or attack by the Confederates. The city was surrounded by many miles of fortifications and other defensive positions. It became one of the most heavily defended cities on Earth.

The Confederate traitors never took the city.

On Sunday, Trump announced on his Truth Social propaganda platform that his 250-foot-high arch will serve as a military fortress:

At the strong request of the United States Military, and for National Security purposes, I have agreed to convert the magnificent Triumphal Arch, planned since the Civil War Era many years ago, at the Receptive Circle [sic] adjoining the Arlington Memorial Bridge, into a top grade Military Complex/Triumphal Arch, to house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large numbers of drones, plus Snipers, on both the roof and plaza areas, and additionally have and hold large quantities of sniper ammunition in storage. There will be no facility like this anywhere in the World. Out of the 59 top cities and Capitals, Washington, D.C., IS THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD THAT DOES NOT HAVE A TRIUMPHAL ARCH, but it will now and, by far, the greatest of them all!
Trump admin's voter fraud claim hits embarrassing snag after state fact-checks names
Story by Erik De La Garza

The Trump administration said it had identified 185 noncitizens on Nevada’s voter rolls — but Nevada checked the names and says every one of them is a U.S. citizen.

“Our records indicate that they were citizens,” Nevada Deputy Attorney General said in a letter obtained by The New York Times. “You have provided nothing of substance to suggest otherwise.”

The finding cast doubt on a claim by the Department of Homeland Security, which had previously raised the possibility of nearly 16,000 noncitizens on the state’s rolls.

“Our records do not support DHS’s claims, and DHS has still not provided evidence to change that,” said Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar. “Instead, DHS officials continue their attempts to intimidate election officials into compliance and deter voters with huge claims of fraud with no evidence.”
Shootings by Immigration Agents Have Accelerated Under Trump. Here’s the Toll.
The shootings have mostly happened during traffic stops and vehicle encounters, and news organizations including CNN, The New York Times, and PBS have built their own tallies as the toll grows.

At least 21 people have been shot by on-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection officers during President Donald Trump’s second term, and six of those shootings were fatal, according to CNN’s tracking.

CNN, The New York Times, and PBS News have each assembled their own incident lists as the deportation campaign sends agents into cities nationwide. Nearly all of the cases share one feature: the person shot was inside a vehicle.

One Pattern Keeps Repeating
In Austin, Texas, an ICE officer shot Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, an immigrant from Venezuela, inside his car — the newest entry on the trackers. Like many cases on the lists kept by The New York Times and PBS, it began as a vehicle encounter and ended with an agent firing.

According to The New York Times’ incident list, six people have died, including three U.S. citizens. The Times counts at least 24 people shot at since last year, while CNN’s tally of on-duty ICE and CBP shootings stands at at least 21 during the second Trump administration.
Trump insists he was working — now facts show he was golfing
This video delves into Donald Trump’s claim of abstaining from golf for 120 days before the November 2024 election to focus on work. However, facts reveal he was golfing approximately 50 days prior, an outing that made headlines due to a thwarted assassination attempt. The video explores the discrepancy between his statement and the documented
Jack Smith eviscerates Trump in opening statement: 'President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation'
Story by Tom Durante

Former Special Counsel Jack Smith slammed President Donald Trump in his opening statement before a Senate panel on Tuesday, saying his investigation uncovered “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that the commander in chief “engaged in serious crimes against our nation.”

Smith, who was tasked with investigating Trump in 2022, spoke out as he faced lawmakers from the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“I stand by my decisions as special counsel, including my decision to bring charges against President Trump,” Smith said in his opening statement. “I made those decisions without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election.”

He went on:

Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation. If asked whether to prosecute a former president today based on the same facts, I would do so regardless of whether that president was a Republican or a Democrat. The charges against President Trump were the result of the evidence. Grand juries in two separate districts reached this conclusion based on his actions as alleged in the indictments they returned. Rather than accept his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results and prevent the lawful transfer of power.
Jack Smith found proof beyond “reasonable doubt” of Trump’s guilt
Opinion by Edith Olmsted

Former special counsel Jack Smith swears that President Donald Trump committed “serious crimes.”

In his opening remarks to the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday, Smith reiterated the findings of his two indictments against the president of the United States.

“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation,” Smith said. “If asked whether to prosecute a former president today based on the same facts, I would do so regardless of whether that president was a Republican or a Democrat.”

“The charges against President Trump were the result of the evidence. Grand juries in two separate districts reached this conclusion based on his actions, as alleged in the indictments they returned. Rather than accept his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results and prevent the lawful transfer of power.”
Jack Smith issues dire warning on Trump’s threat to rule of law
Story by Graeme Demianyk

Speaking before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, former special counsel Jack Smith launched a barely-veiled attack on President Donald Trump’s revenge tour as he warned that the “rule of law faces challenges unlike any we have experienced in our lifetime.”

In his opening statement, Smith told lawmakers that “individuals are threatened with criminal prosecution because they are perceived to have opposed the president,” and that “predetermined outcomes increasingly seem to take precedence over the Justice Department’s long-standing core values and traditions.”

“History teaches that the rule of law is rarely destroyed all at once; it’s often weakened by attacks on the institutions and the public servants sworn to uphold it,” he added.

Reuters last year documented at least 470 targets of retribution under Trump’s leadership.

Smith continued that he had been threatened with jail by Trump but that he remains “confident that the rule of law will endure because so many continue to uphold it faithfully each day throughout our legal system.”
Outrage after Fetterman’s MAGA-linked fundraising deals exposed
Story by Erik De La Garza

Sen. John Fetterman’s political operation is offering conservative groups a hefty cut of donations to recruit new donors, according to an exclusive new report in The Atlantic that is drawing sharp criticism of the Pennsylvania Democrat.

After Democratic fundraising firm MissionWired ended its work with Fetterman in June, his operation turned to a firm with MAGA-world ties, the report said. In a private message obtained by The Atlantic, a consultant offered conservative groups 75% of each recipient’s first donation.

“Fetterman would profit largely by gaining the contact information of new donors, allowing him to build a fundraising list he could use for a future campaign,” the outlet reported Wednesday.
Story by Tom Latchem

Vladimir Putin’s forces bombarded Ukrainian energy facilities within hours of Donald Trump’s boast that he had secured a partial ceasefire.

Trump, 80, announced Sunday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to immediately stop attacking each other’s energy infrastructure. While providing no details of the supposed breakthrough, he declared on Truth Social that the two countries had reached an agreement. “Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!” the U.S. president wrote.

Except nobody else seems to have got the memo.
Story by Alexander Willis

Journalists and legal experts reacted with disgust Monday to the federal raid on the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), with several arguing that the criminal probe shattered a critical, longstanding norm.

“The Trump [Justice Department] tears up yet another long-standing policy/norm, this one of refusing to take actions like this before an election,” noted Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, an immigration attorney and senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.

“[Attorney General Todd] Blanche, when he was Trump's lawyer, argued that so long as a candidacy was declared, no such action should occur. Now, it's 3 weeks from an election.”

Federal agents executed a search warrant early Monday on Omar’s home in Washington, D.C., as part of a criminal investigation, but “provided no other details,” the Associated Press reported.
Story by Danielle Kate Wroe

Barely a day passes without Donald Trump's conduct sparking widespread discussion around the world, and his most recent rally address is definitely no different. Taking the podium at a midterm rally in Tennessee, the President stunned onlookers after boasting to a gathering of devoted followers that he could essentially say whatever he pleased, and they would still enthusiastically approve.

Reveling in the crowd's admiration, Trump proclaimed: "There's such love in these rooms. It's like, I mean, it's amazing, when you stand up here, it's like the love. I could say the stupidest things, and you'd clap." However, some failed to notice the irony in his statement.

Rather than taking offense that he had just suggested they would unquestioningly applaud complete nonsense, the supporters positioned behind him seemed to validate his point.

Creepily, the audience members were still grinning broadly after being insulted. In the background, you could see their shoulders bouncing with amusement as they cheerfully glanced at those around them.

It's an unsettling indication that Trump's followers will unquestioningly support him – even when his statements lack coherence.
Opinion by Svante Myrick, opinion contributor

I don’t think of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito as a particularly funny guy. But his recent interview with CBS News legal correspondent Jan Crawford made me laugh out loud.

“We are not part of any political movement, and we are not attempting to further any political agenda,” Alito said.

C’mon, man, you’re killing me!  

Alito’s claim is hilarious in an absurdist deadpan sort of way. But the laughter it provokes is not happy laughter. It’s the kind of grunt that pops out of your mouth when you hear President Trump spout some ridiculous thing. It’s preposterous that he is our president, and yet there he is.

When it comes to Alito’s claim, the history is clear. The right-wing Supreme Court majority — Alito and Clarence Thomas hold down its right-most edge — was built explicitly to further a political agenda.

The Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation and the whole massive right-wing infrastructure built over the past 50 years is the fruit of a long-term campaign by corporations, foundations and wealthy individuals to amass enough political and legal power to reverse a century of progressive advances.
How quickly Trump admin moved taxpayer money for midterm propaganda ads alarms judge
By Alexandra Hutzler

A federal judge expressed alarm at how quickly the Trump administration moved to use taxpayer funds for midterm election advertisements following an Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and Republican operatives.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rochon issued a temporary restraining order Sunday to immediately stop the propaganda ads, a win for pro-democracy groups who argue they are an illegal misuse of funds appropriated by Congress.

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) was able to shift $20 million for the ads in a matter of hours, Rochon said in a 40-page opinion Monday explaining her decision. The restraining order is necessary to ensure the government doesn’t just “reapportion funds from another source to continue running similar advertisements,” she wrote.

The New York Times reported earlier this month that Trump and his White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, met with Republican strategists on August 7 to talk about the midterms and how to use money from a super PAC to support Republican candidates.

“During that meeting, President Trump reportedly expressed a desire to promote his administration and showed the strategists videos of himself, including footage later incorporated into one of the challenged advertisements,” Rochon wrote in her opinion.
Andrew Feinberg

House Speaker Mike Johnson has told the Trump administration he has doubts about its plan to broadcast the firing squad execution of Fort Hood gunman Nidal Hasan, warning that video of the killing could end up as "a recruiting tool for future terrorists."

Johnson was asked about the plan by CBS News national correspondent Robert Costa, who noted that Vice President JD Vance had already said he would "not watch it." The speaker said he hadn't yet discussed the matter with President Donald Trump, Vance or Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who announced last week that the December 3 execution would be public, but that members of his conference had raised objections.

"There are colleagues who have concerns," Johnson said. The worry, he explained, was that the government would be producing a video that extremists could use as "a recruiting tool for future terrorists," adding: "You know, we got to think through the policy implications of all that. I wouldn't be watching it if it was aired."
Trump considering firing Kimberly Guilfoyle after reports of misconduct, source says
By Kevin Liptak, Kylie Atwood

President Donald Trump is weighing whether to dismiss Kimberly Guilfoyle from her position as US ambassador to Greece after a string of reports about misconduct, a person familiar with the matter said Sunday.

Trump has been monitoring reports claiming Guilfoyle, who was engaged to Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr. for four years, accepted lavish gifts as ambassador and sought money in exchange for providing access to administration figures before she was confirmed.

Lawyers for Guilfoyle have denied the allegations about seeking money and said reports about her travel were misleading, adding that she complied with federal gift and reporting requirements.

The State Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is investigating Guilfoyle amid the misconduct allegations, a source familiar with the effort told CNN Monday.

The change is in response to the case of Win Rozario, a 19-year-old Queens man, who was shot five times and killed while experiencing a mental health crisis in his home in March 2024.
Kevin Breuninger

President Donald Trump on Monday defended last week’s decision to temporarily ease restrictions on Russian diesel fuel exports after the announcement drew bipartisan criticism.

Trump, in a Truth Social post, accused the media of hypocrisy for allegedly refusing to cover past purchases of Russian energy by the European Union.

“The European Union paid Russia 250 Billion Dollars for Energy, and the Fake News Media doesn’t want to get near that story,” Trump wrote.

While the president did not specify, his figure roughly tracks with some estimates of how much the EU has spent importing fossil fuels from Russia since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The European Commission has launched a plan to phase out its dependence on Russian energy.

“I made the right choice for the American People — ALWAYS, AMERICA FIRST!” Trump wrote in the social media post.
Shortly after President Donald Trump announced that the two nations would spare each other’s energy assets, Russia attacked a power station in Kharkiv.
By Steve Kopack

Oil and gas prices rose Monday after an “energy ceasefire” announced by President Donald Trump Sunday failed to gain any traction.

U.S. diesel fuel futures rose slightly in late afternoon trading, while Brent crude oil jumped 2% to almost $108 per barrel and U.S. crude oil rose more than 2% to about $94.

The price pressures continued to mount with just weeks to go before the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Republicans face a steep climb to maintain their majorities in Congress, and voters across the country cite high gas prices as a key issue impacting their votes.

The average nationwide price of diesel fuel Monday was $6.26 per gallon, nearly 80% higher than it had been at the start of the year, according to AAA data.
Story by Sarah K. Burris

Three hours into court proceedings at the Washington, D.C., federal court, Judge Ana Reyes made it clear that she no longer has faith or trust in the U.S. government, and that includes the Department of Justice.

AlterNet has been following the proceedings in which the judge unleashed a torrent of fury on lawyers for intentionally filing a notice that they were going to chop down hundreds of historic cherry blossom trees over the holiday weekend at 4:55 p.m. on Friday ahead of the holiday weekend. Less than 24 hours later, the trees were gone.

The morning session involved the furious judge shouting at the top of her lungs. It was so startling that former CBS News reporter Scott MacFarlanesaid he'd never heard a judge so angry or shout so much at government lawyers.

One by one, the judge called in National Park Service employees and demanded that Department of the Interior officials appear in court not "as soon as possible" but immediately.

Each employee passed the buck, characterized MacFarlane. They claimed they weren't the decision-makers behind tearing down the trees so quickly and defying the court's instructions.

As she looked to next steps, the judge confessed how disappointed she was to see her faith in the federal government shaken so severely.

Lawfare senior editor Molly Roberts was among those in the courtroom to hear Judge Reyes close the day with a lecture directed at President Donald Trump's administration.
Story by Harry Thompson

Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal has torn into Donald Trump for his sanctions-busting deal to buy diesel from Russia.

The 80-year-old president announced last week a deal to buy millions of barrels of diesel from Vladimir Putin’s Russia in a bid to bring down prices before midterm elections on Nov. 3.

But in an editorial published Sunday titled “Trump’s Diesel Insult to Lindsey Graham,” the Journal’s Editorial Board said the amounts involved would be too small to affect global prices and any money raised would simply fund Putin’s aggression against Ukraine.

“Thirty-six million barrels of Russian diesel won’t move prices much. The world consumed 28 million barrels of diesel and other distillates daily in 2025, according to OPIS, which is part of Dow Jones Energy,” the Journal wrote in its op-ed.

“What the deal will do is directly finance Mr. Putin’s bloody war in Ukraine.”
Frank Yemi

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman says allegations of corruption surrounding President Donald Trump and his administration are finally registering with voters, pointing to new polling suggesting the issue could become a significant problem for Republicans ahead of the midterm elections.

“The cesspit of corruption that is Donald Trump’s presidency is finally getting the attention it deserves,” Krugman wrote Monday on Substack. “It’s about time.”

Krugman, the recipient of the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, said controversies involving Trump, his family, and senior administration officials had previously struggled to gain prominence because wars, tariffs, inflation and other major issues competed for voters' attention.

He wrote that there are increasing indications the problem of corruption is finally reaching the general public.

Krugman cited a recent poll by The Economist and YouGov as evidence. That survey showed that 84 percent of Americans think that most or many of those who run the government are corrupt. Thirty percent said Republicans are more corrupt than Democrats, 22 percent said Democrats are more corrupt, and an additional 37 percent believed the level of corruption is the same for both parties.
Story by David Edwards

Supporters of the White House barely showed up in replies to its latest post about election fraud, as critics claimed its “bots” vanished after drones hit a Russian data center.

“Under President Trump, criminals who disrupt the integrity of America’s elections will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” the White House wrote on X Monday.

The post shared a Justice Department announcement of charges against 16 people accused of illegal voting, fraudulent voter registration and related election crimes.

A Raw Story review of the 176 most relevant replies Monday found that 138 opposed or mocked the White House. Only 19 backed it, and 19 more could not be classified.
Story by Sanjana Karant

The Trump administration continued to air taxpayer-funded propaganda ads on television Monday morning despite a federal judge’s temporary orderthe night before blocking the government from running the campaign-style videos, according to advertising data from AdImpact.

After a coalition of advocacy groups filed a lawsuit challenging the ads – arguing they constitute taxpayer-funded “propaganda” – the Department of Homeland Security said in a Saturday court filing that the ads wouldn’t continue past Sunday. President Donald Trump had also said campaign funds would be used to pay for future ads.
Story by Matthew Rozsa

On Monday, a former top adviser to President Donald Trump denounced the Republican's economic policies for increasing America's national debt — and an economist who advised a budget-balancing Democratic president agreed with him.

"This isn’t apocalyptic," posted Anthony Scaramucci, who briefly served as Trump's communications director in 2017, on X. "It’s just math. 10-year treasury at 6 percent. $40 trillion in debt. Do the math. That’s $2.4 trillion in annual interest payments. Larger than the entire Social Security disbursement."

He added, "You cannot sustain that."

Scaramucci then urged Americans to go back to the tax rates in effect during President Bill Clinton's presidency, speculating that deficit spending could be reduced by trillions if they did so.

"No Republican is going to do that," Scaramucci said. "Trump isn’t going to do that. And when Trump leaves office, he will be personally responsible for 42 percent of all the national debt in American history."

AlterNet spoke with one of the architects of President Bill Clinton's economic policies, his Undersecretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs Dr. Robert J. Shapiro. He played a critical role in developing the programs that balanced the budget and allowed Clinton to preside over four budget surpluses during his administration.
Story by Marco Margaritoff

Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that President Donald Trump has engaged in illegal or unethical activity to profit from his presidency, according to a new poll released Tuesday from The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

“Most Americans say President Trump has prioritized his personal financial interests and the interests of people close to him since taking office again in 2025,” the AP-NORC article states in its introduction. “Far fewer say he has prioritized the country as a whole or people like them.”

The nationwide survey was conducted between Sept. 24 and Sept. 28 and found that 41% of the 2,140 polled U.S. adults believe Trump has done something illegal to profit from his position, with another 18% arguing he has done something “unethical, but not illegal.”

That puts general distrust in the MAGA leader’s ethical or legal behavior at a whopping 59% in the poll, which further found that only 18% of respondents said Trump has done “nothing wrong” — while another 21% said they do not know whether he has or hasn’t.

“More adults see Trump as focused on his own business interests and those of his inner circle than on the country as a whole or people like them,” states the poll in its introduction. “A majority, 56%, say Trump has prioritized his personal business interests ‘a lot.’”
Story by Bennito L. Kelty

A retired conservative federal judge says one personnel move by House Speaker Mike Johnson would tip off Americans to a scheme to override voters.

J. Michael Luttig, a former judge on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, told Jim Acosta on Tuesday's episode of "The Jim Acosta Show" that the warning sign is Johnson firing the clerk of the House and installing a loyalist before the 120th Congress convenes on January 3.

"If Mike Johnson fires the clerk and puts in his place a loyalist to Mike Johnson and the House Republicans and to Donald Trump, that will be the signal moment that will tell the American people that Donald Trump and Mike Johnson are going to try to refuse to seat Democrats-elect in the 120th Congress," Luttig said, adding that this "is where the whispers began and are getting louder by the day."

Luttig explained that under Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution, the House is "the judge of its elections and returns," which he said has been interpreted for 200 years to let the chamber decide whom to seat, even when those members were elected by voters in their districts. Under House rules, the clerk submits the official roll of members-elect certified by their states, and Johnson as speaker has the power to fire the clerk and name a temporary replacement, Luttig said.
Story by OK! Staff

Elon Musk and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have been exposed in a blistering federal court ruling accusing top government officials of orchestrating a smear campaign against a longtime FEMA employee, OK! can reveal.

According to court documents obtained by OK!, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick determined that Musk, Noem, and other senior officials knowingly spread false accusations against former Federal Emergency Management Agency Chief Financial Officer Mary Comans after she was abruptly fired in February 2025.

Elon Musk's 'Criminal' Claim Backfires
The judge described the government's conduct as "outrageous" and concluded that officials had launched a coordinated campaign to destroy the reputation of a career public servant.

The controversy erupted after Comans was accused of improperly directing millions of dollars toward luxury New York City hotels housing migrants.

On February 11, 2025, Musk reposted Comans' photograph on X alongside allegations that she had funneled $58 million toward migrant accommodations, calling her supposed conduct a "criminal action."

But Fitzpatrick determined those allegations were entirely false, finding Musk knew the information was inaccurate when he circulated it.
Opinion by Greg Palast

Rodney Ellis forged 750,000 ballots in an attempt to steal the election away from Donald Trump — or so say the MAGA-nauts.

Ellis supposedly did this dastardly deed all while running Harris County, which includes Houston.

I asked the alleged perp himself, County Commissioner Ellis, how he could possibly forge three-quarters of a million absentee ballots. At eight seconds per signature, it would take a normal human about 200 years to sign them all.

The commissioner, an attorney, said, “I’m too lazy to sign hundreds of thousands of ballots. I'd be nuts."

The ridiculous accusation would all be a laugh, except for an attempted murder and vigilantes armed with AR-15s who appeared at his daughter’s pajama party. It would be a laugh if not for the untold number of Black and Hispanic voters terrorized at ballot dropboxes. A laugh if not for Ken Paxton and his Ku-Kluxxing of the vote.
Story by OK! Staff

President Donald Trump’s taxpayer-funded television campaign has received an abrupt cancellation notice, and a constitutional scholar says Americans should never have been forced to finance it.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon ordered the administration Sunday night to cancel any remaining commercials paid for with public money. Her temporary restraining order will remain in effect for two weeks.

Judge Blocks the $20 Million Campaign
Rochon sided with a coalition that includes the nonpartisan watchdog Common Cause, which alleged that the ads represent an illegal misuse of congressionally appropriated funds.

The Department of Homeland Security tapped $20 million for the campaign. Senior DHS official Holly Mehringer said the money came from funding available for “commemorating efforts and events related to border security.”
Story by Sarah Ewall-Wice

Donald Trump has reportedly ordered the White House counsel to investigate allegations against his former director at the Kennedy Center.

According to a bombshell Axios report, Trump’s former attorney Alina Habba accused former Ambassador Ric Grenell of failing to deposit a multimillion-dollar donation her husband made to the center a year ago.

The report was based on four senior administration officials and three insiders briefed on the matter.

The allegations were reportedly relayed to the president in the Oval Office on Friday, with the donation valued at nearly $6 million, according to Habba, White House sources told Axios.

A senior administration official emphasized that they were only allegations and that it was unclear whether they were true or a “misunderstanding,” but the allegations appear to expose a feud at the top of the MAGA ranks.

“POTUS doesn’t want to deal with this. Of course, he’s concerned. But if there is missing money, this is a big, big problem,” another official told Axios.
Story by David Kurtz

What Election Officials Have Long Feared
In a major escalation of its multi-prong attempts to interfere in the midterm elections, the Trump DOJ has given California 48 hours to take steps to prevent an unknown number of alleged noncitizen voters in Los Angeles County from voting — or face legal action, Reuters exclusively reports.

This new Trump DOJ initiative is different from its earlier, largely unsuccessful efforts to obtain voter information from various states. Instead, it is now demanding that Los Angeles County take affirmative steps to prevent the counting of ballots cast by people on a list provided by DOJ who it alleges are “likely noncitizen voters” who received mail-in ballots.

The Trump DOJ’s demands came in the form of a threat letter Tuesday to California Secretary ‌of State Shirley Weber from acting Deputy Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter — an extraordinary intervention by the department’s No. 2 official.

The existence of the letter was confirmed by the Justice Department. It’s not clear how DOJ came up with its list, which was provided to Los Angeles County on a “password-protected thumb drive.” Past attempts by the Trump administration to identify noncitizens who are allegedly registered to vote have been deeply flawed and wildly inaccurate.
Story by Leigh Kimmins

President Donald Trump has said leakers of sensitive data “should be shot.”

The 80-year-old has sought to create a watertight administration after his first stab at the presidency was beset by leaks and whistleblowing. However, if Trump’s words are any indication, it hasn’t worked—and he’s frustrated.

“Leakers should be, in my opinion, leakers should be shot,” Trump said at a campaign rally on Wednesday.

The crowd in Bullhead City, Arizona, agreed. Cheers, shouts of “Yeah!” and scattered applause followed the president’s jaw-dropping statement.

He continued, “They should be shot. In the old days, we used to shoot leakers, you know, when they leak what time you’re going to attack a country… leakers should be dealt with very, very strongly. To me, they’re the scum of the earth.”

Trump appeared to be talking about a leak about the start time of Operation Midnight Hammer, the joint effort between the U.S. and Israel to hit Iran with a flurry of airstrikes in June 2025.

“Somebody leaked, some sleazebag. They ought to go to jail or be shot. For the rest of their life, they should be in jail, but they leaked that we were leaving at 12:07 from Missouri, and it was in The New York Times, CNN.”
Story by Reanna Smith

Donald Trump has been branded a "sociopath" after calling his own supporters "collateral damage" while boasting about how his doctors would not help anyone who became sick at his rallies during a foul-mouthed rambling speech.

The 80-year-old president made the bizarre remarks while bragging about taking multiple cognitive tests.

"Remember, I'm the only one who took the test, you know I took the aptitude test or whatever the hell they call it, I took it. Every time I do a physical I take a mental test, and I've aced it," Trump told the crowd during a rally in Bullhead City, Arizona, on Wednesday.

It comes after Trump was deemed 'grotesque' for his behavior with aide Natalie Harp and new press secretary Katie Zacharia.

The tests Trump has taken do not measure aptitude or intelligence, they are used to detect whether someone has mild cognitive impairment or early signs of dementia.
Story by Jack Crosbie

The general theory of economics is a simple one: some numbers you want to go up, other numbers you want to go down. A businessman like Donald Trump knows this - but unfortunately, during his second term, many of the wrong kinds of numbers have been going up, up, up.

Case in point: a new Consumer Price Index report issued today by the Department of Labor showed that prices and inflation are up in September, and are significantly higher than they were last year. In September alone, prices rose 0.6 percent, the highest monthly increase in several months, showing that the damage caused by Trump's economic policies is only increasing. Those prices are, overall, 3.7 percent higher than they were last year.

Even single-digit percentage changes have big impacts on Americans' lives, especially when some of the most vital stuff we buy has been hit the hardest. Gas prices alone rose 9.1 percent in September, accounting for almost half of the overall price increase. Fuel oil, what most people use to heat their houses, also shot up 15.3 percent. That's the biggest increase since March, shortly after the beginning of the Iran war, which is still very much unresolved.

"Oil right now is much cheaper than it was under sleepy Joe Biden," Trump said recently. This is technically true for at least one point in time - the price of a barrel of crude briefly spiked to almost $140 in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine - but fails to note that even after that world-historic event, prices for consumers largely stabilized. Gas, for instance, leveled out around $3.20 per gallon by the end of 2022, and stayed there till Trump took office. The national average today is $4.33.
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