Donald Trump has sweeping plans for a second administration. Here’s what he’s proposed

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Trump Goon Who Denied Epstein Ties Was Reportedly in Business With Him

Newly released Epstein files show the commerce secretary was still doing business with Jeffrey Epstein years after claiming he cut ties.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick didn’t just cross paths with Jeffrey Epstein—he signed business deals with him for years after he said he had cut the disgraced financier out of his life.

Newly released documents show Lutnick and Epstein were business partners as recently as 2014, contradicting Lutnick’s long-standing public claims that he severed ties with Epstein in 2005.

The records, first reported by CBS News, show both men signing onto the same business deal in late 2012, granting each a stake in a now-defunct advertising tech company called Adfin.

The signing came just days after the two men met in person, according to emails included in the Epstein files.

“Good morning Howard. Jeffrey wished me to pass along the below to you… Nice seeing you,” Epstein’s assistant wrote to Lutnick.

But the business relationship didn’t end there. In January 2013, Epstein’s assistant forwarded documents to Lutnick related to casino legislation in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein owned Little St. James Island.

Records also show further business-related correspondence connected to Adfin and the venture capital arm of Cantor Fitzgerald—where Lutnick served as Chairman and CEO—continued between Epstein, his associates, and Cantor-linked entities into at least 2014.

The Epstein files also document other points of overlap. In 2017, Epstein agreed to donate $50,000 to a dinner honoring Lutnick, while privately expressing concern about the optics of his involvement.

“Hope pr is ok,” Epstein wrote to one of the event’s organizers.

All of these overlaps, including the Adfin deal, occurred years after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida state court in 2008, following an investigation that exposed allegations of far broader sexual abuse.

Despite that history, the newly released records show Epstein continued to maintain professional and personal access to Lutnick well into the following decade.

The documents also undercut Lutnick’s past public statements distancing himself from Epstein.

In a 2023 interview with The New York Post, Lutnick said he and his wife cut off Epstein entirely after visiting his Manhattan townhouse in 2005, calling him “a disgusting person” and insisting they would “never be in the room with him again.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Commerce dismissed the reporting as a distraction and defended Lutnick’s conduct.

“This is nothing more than a failing attempt by the legacy media to distract from the administration’s accomplishments, including securing trillions of dollars in investment, delivering historic trade deals, and fighting for the American worker,” the spokesperson said.

“Secretary Lutnick had limited interactions with Mr. Epstein in the presence of his wife and has never been accused of wrongdoing.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-goon-howard-lutnick-who-denied-epstein-ties-was-reportedly-in-business-with-him/?

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Military Pressured to See ‘Melania’ Against Their Will

A military group has evidence of troops being ordered into theater—the movie theater.

Thousands of active-duty military personnel may have been “pressured” into seeing the Melania documentary at cinemas around the country, a watchdog has warned.

The $75 million Amazon film opened last week to $7 million at the box office—despite universally terrible reviews.

According to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, those numbers have been artificially inflated by pressure from MAGA-aligned officers leaning on their troops to buy tickets.

“People are scared,” Mikey Weinstein, president and founder of the MRFF, said. Weinstein said he has received letters from members of the U.S. military at eight facilities worldwide, complaining that their superiors encouraged or pressured them to see the film.

He told Business Insider. “They were pressured to see the movie. Your military superior, that’s not your shift manager at Taco Bell or Starbucks. They have complete and total control over you.”

The MRFF, a non-profit founded in 2005 to promote the separation of church and state within the military, has roughly 100,000 members.

“Nobody that I know wanted to go except for those that did not want to get jacked up by our unit commander for not attending,” one of those members told Weinstein in a letter seen by journalist Jonathan Larsen.

 

The unit commander in question is alleged to have worn red MAGA hats in the past and “made it very clear” how he feels about those who do not support the administration’s agenda.

He is also alleged to have made seeing Melania count as one of the three “unit activity events” service members are required to attend each month. Such events are designed to promote bonds within combat units and their families.

The letter said, “…he ‘advised’ our unit members and their families to join him and his wife and children for a showing of that new documentary called ‘Melania’ at an off-base movie theater… When he said ‘advised’, we know what that meant.

“We feel helpless to try to fight against what he is doing here.”

Weinstein said that manipulating troops to spend their leisure time on ideologically driven activities negatively affects unit cohesion.

“It tears it down,” he said. “It’s like injecting cancer into the body of the military unit.”

In a statement to the Daily Beast, the Department of Defense said that there “is no Department of War [sic] directive requiring service members to see this film, though the film is fantastic.”

Trump has given the Department of Defense the secondary title “department of war,” but cannot legally rename it.

Amazon’s extraordinary expenditure on the 100-minute film has made it one of the most expensive documentaries of all time.

$35 million was spent on marketing alone, while $40 million was handed to Melania Trump’s production company for the “rights” to use her image and likeness in the film.

Melania herself is expected to personally pocket $27 million from the Amazon deal, sparking claims that the entire project is, in fact, a massive bribe paid by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos to curry favor with the Trump family.

With increased tariffs on Chinese goods, Amazon is facing potential $6.5 billion in operating losses from Trump’s trade war with the Asian giant.

The film’s director, Brett Ratner, has denied that the film is a bribe, claiming that “three of the best cinematographers in the world” worked on it. It has been reported that two-thirds of the people who worked on the film asked for their names to be removed from the credits.

The movie is Ratner’s first major project since being accused by several women of sexual assault in 2017. He also appears in images released as part of the Epstein files. The Rush Hour director has denied the claims and said he “didn’t know” the late sex-trafficking financier. But he did admit he was in a photograph with Epstein and told YouTuber Piers Morgan that the woman was his fiancée, whom he then said he could not name.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/military-pressured-to-see-melania-whistleblowers-warn/?

ps:So he paid trumps extortion fee! And now he just throws money at the trumps to gain? what? Who knows, but the groveling is unreal!!!!!

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Trump, 79, Uses Bonkers Logic to Defend Massive Taxpayer Ripoff

The president is suing the IRS for $10 billion, and doesn’t think taxpayers will mind footing the bill.

President Donald Trump is seeking a $10 billion payout from the Internal Revenue Service, and can’t imagine why American taxpayers would be bothered by being the ones to foot the bill.

Trump, 79, was asked on Friday about his $10 billion civil suit against the U.S. Treasury and the IRS for not protecting his personal financial information during his first term.

Back then, a former IRS contractor—who is now in prison—accessed Trump’s tax records and leaked them to The New York Times and ProPublica, revealing how little he paid in federal income taxes.

Now, Trump—alongside sons Donald Jr. and Eric Trump and the Trump Organization—are seeking at least $10 billion in damages.

Ultimately, it could be the president’s own Justice Department that has the final say in the case. If successful, American taxpayers would ultimately be the ones to hand over the mammoth settlement. Which Trump doesn’t see as a problem, as he plans to donate it all to charity.

When asked whether it was “fair to ask Americans to pay for that,” Trump suggested it was not a big deal because he plans to give any winnings to charity—and Americans give to charities, too.

“Well, anything I win, I’m going to give 100 percent to charity,” Trump told a reporter on Air Force One.

“But that still takes it from the American people,” the reporter replied.

Trump rejected that notion.

“No, because they give money to charity,” he said, despite that being by choice. “You know, our government gives away $40 billion plus a year to charity, so… Anything I win, I’m giving 100 percent to charity. Really good, very, very good and respected charities,” he said, without naming any specific organizations.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was forced to admit on Thursday that any settlement would come from taxpayers.

“It would come from Treasury,” Bessent told Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego during a Senate hearing.

“Which comes from the general fund?” Gallego followed up.

“The treasury general account,” Bessent acknowledged.

“So, taxpayers,” Gallego pressed.

“Uh, yeah,” Bessent finally replied.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-79-uses-bonkers-logic-to-defend-massive-taxpayer-ripoff/?

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Trump Declares Himself ‘Least Racist President’ Hours After Vile Video Post

“Black voters have been great to me, I’ve been great to them,” the president said while attempting to explain why sharing a video that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes wasn’t racist.

President Donald Trump has said that he is the “least racist president” after posting a racist video depicting former President Barack Obama as a monkey.

On board Air Force One on Friday evening, Trump, 79, touted his criminal justice reforms in a rambling answer to a question about the impact of his post on Republican voting intentions at the upcoming midterm elections.

“I am, by the way, the least racist president you’ve had in a long time, as far as I’m concerned,” Trump said.

“I got the highest vote with male Black voters that they’ve seen in many, many decades,” he continued. “Black voters have been great to me, I’ve been great to them.”

Trump’s claims to have the highest vote among Black voters are true, but only by Republican standards. From 2016 to 2024, his vote share with Black voters climbed from 8 to 15 percent. In the 2024 election, Kamala Harris won 83 percent of the Black vote.

Trump also contradicted previous White House claims that the video in question was posted by a “staffer” to his Truth Social account. He gave a rambling answer when questioned whether or not that “staffer” would be fired.

“No. I looked at it, I saw it, and I just looked at the first part… I didn’t see the whole thing. I guess, during the end of it, there was some kind of a thing that people don’t like. I wouldn’t like it either, but I didn’t see it,” Trump said.

“I gave it to the people who, generally they look at the whole thing, but I guess somebody didn’t, and they posted, and we took it down,” he continued.

The 62-second video Trump posted was mainly on voter fraud conspiracies about the 2020 election, as Trump noted, but included a two-second clip of the racist depiction at the end.

That clip comes from a longer AI creation made by the same troll who created the infamous video of Trump wearing a crown and dropping feces on protesters. It depicts his political rivals as animals dancing to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” bowing down to Trump as a lion.

Asked whether he would apologize for posting the video, which was live for roughly 12 hours before being removed from his account, Trump said he had no reason to.

“No. I didn’t make a mistake. I look at a lot of—thousands of things. I looked at the beginning of it, it was fine,” Trump said.

“Certainly, it was a very strong post in terms of voter fraud, nobody knew that that was at the end. If they would have looked, they would have seen it, and probably they would have had the sense to take it down.”

While Trump’s online behavior frequently draws criticism from his detractors, this is a rare instance in which those who have nailed their colors to the MAGA mast are breaking ranks to call him out.

MAGA Republican Tim Scott, who was shortlisted as a potential VP for Trump in 2024, said that the video is “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.”

Sen. Susan Collins agreed, writing, “Tim is right. This was appalling.” She joined Sen. Roger Wicker, who described it as “totally unacceptable.”

However, Trump said during the press gathering on his way to Florida that he has since spoken with Republicans who have called for him to apologize and that they “understood” his story.

“I spoke to Tim Scott, he was great. Tim is a great guy, he understood that 100 percent,” Trump said.

The portrayal of Black people as monkeys or apes is a deeply racist trope that has its origins in colonial propaganda used to justify the transatlantic slave trade.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has denied that the video is racist.

“Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public,” she said in a statement.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-declares-himself-least-racist-president-hours-after-vile-video-post/?

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Epstein Files Put Two More Top Trump Officials in the Spotlight

Trumpland cannot seem to escape the Epstein files dump.

The Justice Department’s latest Epstein document dump is resurfacing uncomfortable connections—putting two more senior figures in President Donald Trump’s orbit squarely in the frame.

Last Friday, the Department of Justice released more than 3 million pages tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, reigniting scrutiny of the powerful figures who crossed paths with him over the years—including several members of Trump’s inner circle.

Among those named in the latest tranche are Secretary of the Navy John Phelan and Ben Black, Trump’s personal pick to lead the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.

Black, a financier and son of billionaire Apollo Global Management founder Leon Black, was quietly sworn in last December after a narrow 51–47 Senate confirmation vote. The ceremony took place just weeks before the House Oversight Committee released another trove of Epstein-related records.

One document reveals an email exchange between Lesley Groff, Epstein’s longtime executive assistant, and Ben Black and his brother Joshua. The subject line was bluntly titled “Jeffrey Epstein.”

In the message, Groff described Epstein’s interest in commissioning a portrait of the brothers as a gift for their father. “Jeffrey has co-signed an artist at the New York Academy of Art,” she wrote, adding that Epstein hoped the brothers would be open to sitting for the piece. Groff noted that an associate had previously met the artist and suggested the brothers “may have seen the finished work.”

The email also explained that each brother would need to meet the artist at least once, before closing with a polite prompt: “Please let me know if you are interested.”

There is no indication in the file that the portrait was ever commissioned—or that either brother accepted the offer. But the correspondence underscores Epstein’s familiarity with the family.

That connection is not new. Leon Black, Ben’s father, has long faced scrutiny over his ties to Epstein. The billionaire previously acknowledged paying Epstein roughly $170 million for what he described as tax and estate planning services.

While Leon has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s sex trafficking operation, a 2024 settlement with the U.S. Virgin Islands attorney general concluded that some of the funds paid to Epstein were used to “fund [Epstein’s] operations.”

Leon has also moved in Trump-adjacent circles, drawing congressional scrutiny in 2018 during investigations into foreign influence surrounding the 2016 election.

The Daily Beast has reached out to Ben Black through the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation for comment.

Another newly released file places Phelan aboard Epstein’s private plane in 2006. A flight manifest shows Phelan listed among passengers traveling from London to New York on Epstein’s Boeing 727—often referred to as the “Lolita Express.”

Six names remain redacted in the file. One of the visible names listed on the flight document is Jean-Luc Brunel, the French modeling agent later accused of raping minors and trafficking young women. Brunel died in a French prison cell in 2022 while awaiting trial.

A source close to Phelan confirmed to CNN that he was on the flight but said he did not know it was Epstein’s plane until he arrived. The source said Phelan’s interaction with Epstein was virtually nonexistent and described the flight as the only time the two ever crossed paths. According to the source, Phelan was invited aboard by the late Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne, not Epstein himself.

Phelan, a major Republican donor, has been a consistent Trump ally. He helped raise millions for Trump’s campaigns and hosted a high-dollar fundraiser for the then-president-elect ahead of the 2024 election.

White House officials have maintained that Trump does not appear in the newly released DOJ materials. However, the latest dump has surfaced the president’s name in several files, including a complaint that alleged Trump engaged in oral sex with a minor.

The Daily Beast has reached out to both the White House and Phelan for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/epstein-files-put-two-more-top-trump-officials-in-the-spotlight/?

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RFK Jr.’s Bizarre Trip With Epstein and Ghislaine Exposed in Files

The trip took place on a Native reservation where collecting fossils without explicit tribal permission is considered looting.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went hunting for dinosaur bones in the Dakotas with child sex traffickers Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, according to the latest tranche of documents released by the Justice Department.

As the fallout over the Epstein files continues, an email exchange between the two sex predators centers on the now-Trump Cabinet secretary, one of the many prominent people whose friendship the pair cultivated over the years.

The exchange took place in 2012, seven years before Epstein died in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial.

In one email, Epstein writes to Maxwell about a trip involving “dinosaur and fossill hunitng (sic) with jack horner on the ranch, found 90 million year old clams and fossils.”

“Right up your alley,” he adds.

The following day, Maxwell replies: “Love that - didn’t we go fossil hunting with him and Bobby Kennedy in N Dakota?”

“Yes,” Epstein replies.

Maxwell, a former British socialite now serving 20 years for her crimes, also disclosed the fossil hunt during an interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche last year, apparently catching him off guard when she said of Epstein: “Bobby Kennedy knew him.”

“Sorry? Say that again about Bobby Kennedy?” Blanche asked, according to transcripts and audio contained in the files.

“Bobby knew Mr. Epstein,” she replied.

“How do you know that?” asked Blanche, who was previously Trump’s personal attorney.

“Because we went on a trip together,” Maxwell said. “We went… dinosaur bone hunting in the Dakotas.”

The trip actually took place in South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where collecting fossils on reservation land without explicit tribal permission is considered looting.

Kennedy, an avid outdoorsman who once admitted to dumping a bear cub carcass in Manhattan’s Central Park, acknowledged the visit while campaigning as an independent presidential candidate in 2023, when he was grilled about taking plane rides with Epstein.

One of those plane rides, he told NewsNation at the time, took place “in 1993, when I went down to visit my mother in Palm Beach” in Florida. The other, he said, took place two years later.

“We took my kids fossil hunting in Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. That was the extent of anything that I had to do with Jeffrey Epstein’s airplane,” he said.

Kennedy, the scion of one of America’s political dynasties, has never been accused of wrongdoing in relation to Epstein and says he did not know about his crimes.

But the files have nonetheless spotlighted the links Epstein and Maxwell had not just with the president, who was a known associate of Epstein’s for years, but with others in Trump’s orbit.

The latest tranche of documents also shows Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Tesla chief Elon Musk had tried to visit Epstein’s notorious island long after he was known to be a convicted pedophile, with Musk asking which night would have the “wildest party” and talking about wanting to “let loose.”

Epstein’s emails with MAGA kingpin Steve Bannon were also exposed, and Trump himself appears in thousands of references, from uncorroborated tips about sexual abuse, to emails and text messages in which Epstein discusses the president, sometimes referring to him as “Donald.”

Kennedy also came under scrutiny last year after the Daily Beast reported on photos showing him at a New York Academy of Art gala with Epstein in 1994.

Court documents also showed a listing for “Kennedy, Bobby & Mary” in Epstein’s “little black book,” which featured contacts for socialites and politicians, as well as the girls he sexually assaulted.

The Daily Beast has reached out to Kennedy and the White House for comment.

In past interviews, the Health Secretary has insisted that he was never alone with Epstein, and added that the trips occurred about 30 years ago, “before anybody knew about Jeffrey Epstein’s nefarious issues.”

Erik Polyak, executive director of 314 Action, whose group aims to get more elected scientists to Congress, told the Daily Beast that the thought of “Epstein, Maxwell, and RFK Jr. hunting dinosaur bones on Native land is some real Jurassic Park sh--—except the predators weren’t dinosaurs and consent was extinct.“

“Epstein’s pal RFK Jr. can’t escape his past by banning food dye and flipping the food pyramid,” he added, a reference to some of the health secretary’s recent moves.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/rfk-jrs-bizarre-trip-with-jeffrey-epstein-and-ghislaine-maxwell-exposed-in-files/?

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🤳 Trump post amplifies racist imagery

Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images President Trump's post of a video showing former President Obama and Michelle Obama as apes underscores how racist imagery and tropes have become normalized in the Trump era, Axios' Russell Contreras writes. Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he "didn't see the whole thing" before a staffer posted it. The Obama image was at the end of a minute-long video about voter fraud. Trump said he won't apologize: "No, I didn't make a mistake. ... Nobody knew that that was at the end." The White House initially said criticism of the video was "fake outrage." The post was deleted after 12 hours. A White House aide said, insisting on anonymity: "A White House staffer erroneously made the post." During Obama's presidency, such racist tropes often surfaced in fringe political spaces. But when it crossed into the mainstream, it typically resulted in resignations, firings, or campaign collapses. Racist images now spread instantly, often repackaged as "memes" or "satire." Rhetorical guardrails against racism, xenophobia and dehumanization have all but vanished on the American right.

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Epstein Files Reveal Prosecutors’ Announcement Dated Before His Death

The file dump includes multiple draft statements from federal prosecutors about the sex trafficker’s death, one of them dated the day before Epstein died.

Newly released Epstein files include a draft statement attributed to federal prosecutors that is dated the day before Jeffrey Epstein was found dead.

The draft appears among at least 23 documents in the disclosure labeled as statements from the Southern District of New York’s U.S. Attorney’s Office.

A review of the records shows multiple versions of similar statements with inconsistent redactions—some leaving phone numbers or names visible, others blacking out nearly all identifying information.

One draft bears a date of Aug. 9, 2019, the day before Epstein was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

The circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death have been repeatedly scrutinized.

Epstein’s former cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, claimed in a pardon petition filed last summer and recently obtained by the Daily Beast that Epstein was deliberately left unprotected in federal custody.

Tartaglione, a former police officer convicted of multiple murders, alleged that prison officials knowingly housed Epstein with an accused mass murderer despite earlier reports that the disgraced financier had raised concerns about his safety weeks before his death.

The claims were not substantiated, and Epstein’s death was officially ruled a suicide.

Newly released records reviewed by CBS News have intensified questions about what happened inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center on the night before Epstein was found dead.

Justice Department documents show investigators reviewing jail surveillance footage flagged an orange-colored figure moving up a staircase toward the locked tier housing Epstein’s cell at about 10:39 p.m. on Aug. 9, 2019—hours before his body was discovered the next morning.

An observation log described the figure as “possibly an inmate,” while a separate review by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General identified the same image as a corrections officer carrying orange-colored linen or bedding.

CBS reported that independent video analysts said the movement was more consistent with an inmate—or someone wearing an orange prison uniform—than a corrections officer. Prison employees told CBS that escorting an inmate at that hour would have been highly unusual.

The discrepancy stands in contrast to repeated official assertions that no one entered Epstein’s housing tier that night, raising further questions about activity near his cell during the estimated window of his death.

Against that backdrop, a draft statement dated Aug. 9—alongside multiple differently redacted versions attributed to federal prosecutors—has raised new questions about what officials were preparing in the hours before Epstein was found dead.

The Justice Department and U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/epstein-files-reveal-prosecutors-announcement-dated-before-his-death/?

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Desperate Keystone Kash Ordered Agents to Stop Investigating ICE Killing

Within hours of Renee Good being fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, an order came down to stop what should have been a routine civil rights investigation.

Within hours of Renee Good being fatally shot by an ICE agent on a Minneapolis street last month, federal prosecutors in Minnesota began to prepare for a routine civil rights investigation into the use of force.

A senior prosecutor obtained a warrant to search Good’s SUV for evidence, and the FBI prepared to execute it. Then an order came down to stop.

Senior Trump administration officials—including FBI Director Kash Patel—intervened and instructed agents to stand down, halting the probe just as it was set to begin, according to a new report from The New York Times.

The move came amid internal concern in Washington that a civil rights investigation would clash with President Donald Trump’s public narrative blaming Good for the shooting.

Agents were reportedly told to abandon the standard investigative approach and pursue alternative legal theories—a shift that several career prosecutors blasted as legally dubious and politically driven.

One such approach was to seek new warrants framed around whether Good had assaulted the ICE agent or, in another controversial twist, to direct attention toward Good’s partner—a pivot that many in the office saw as inappropriate and unrelated to the shooting itself, according to several anonymous sources who spoke to The New York Times.

That shift ignited an internal revolt, with at least six federal prosecutors resigning from the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s office rather than comply with what they viewed as politicized interference in a routine inquiry.

The departures have increased in the weeks since, with additional attorneys leaving the office amid ongoing tension, according to the Associated Press.

The mass exodus has left the office scrambling to keep up with a surge of cases tied to the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement push in Minnesota, including other use-of-force incidents and civil suits challenging detentions and enforcement actions.

Local officials warned that shutting down an independent review risked deepening public distrust.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told The New York Times that without a neutral investigation, fatal encounters involving federal agents would inevitably raise suspicions.

“In the absence of an independent use-of-force investigation, you lead the public to believe that there must be something to hide,” O’Hara said

Even the ICE agent’s own legal counsel supported a civil rights review.

The Times reported that Chris Madel, a Minnesota defense attorney who advised the agent after the shooting, said such investigations are a standard mechanism for resolving disputed uses of force and protecting all parties involved.

The episode has drawn renewed scrutiny of Washington’s role in shaping sensitive law-enforcement decisions, particularly where investigations risk contradicting the president’s public statements.

The FBI declined to comment.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/desperate-keystone-kash-patel-ordered-agents-to-stop-investigating-ice-killing/?

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Kid Rock’s MAGA Tour Stop Nixed After Artist Exodus

A Kid Rock-backed concert in South Carolina won’t go ahead thanks to dwindling artist interest.

South Carolina might love country music, but it doesn’t love MAGA division.

Kid Rock’s third annual Rock the Country festival tour won’t be making a stop in Anderson, South Carolina, in July after too many artists backed out of the controversial event.

Rock the Country, founded by the MAGA country rock singer in 2024, was set for a two-day stopover in Anderson, but has now been canceled after weeks of backlash around the “patriotic” event.

Co-headliners Shinedown were the latest artists to reject the event’s messaging, announcing their exit from the bill in a public statement just hours before the plug was pulled on the whole show.

“SHINEDOWN is everyone’s band,” the group said in a statement. “Our band’s purpose is to unite, not divide.”

“We do not want to participate in something we believe will create further division,” they continued.

Prior to the rock band’s departure, Ludacris became the first artist on the bill to decide they weren’t comfortable with the overtly right-wing overtones and “MAGA fest” optics of the event.

 

Facing backlash from fans, the rapper bowed out and was quickly followed by Carter Faith and Morgan Wade. ’90s Christian rock band and MAGA favorite Creed, who were also headlining the July 25-27 event, were removed from the festival’s website ahead of the tour stop’s cancellation.

The festival, which bills itself as a “celebration of community, tradition, and the spirit that’s carried America through 250 years,” is so far set to continue at its remaining seven dates.

In addition to Kid Rock, artists on the lineup who have stuck with the festival include Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton, Jelly Roll, and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

The cancellation comes after Kid Rock emerged as the headliner of Turning Point USA’s “All-American” alternative Superbowl Halftime Show, a protest against the performance of Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny at Sunday’s game.

Kid Rock, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, transitioned from performing hip-hop in his native Michigan to performing rap-rock and country music in the ’90s.

The festival collapse comes on the back of another recent controversy involving Kid Rock and underage girls.

In a resurfaced 2001 Saturday Night Live appearance that has made the rounds on social media, Kid Rock expressed his sick lust for then 14-year-olds, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

“Why is every guy in America waiting for these chicks to turn 18? I mean, you know what I’m saying? If there’s grass on the field, play ball!” the musician said at the time.

Under further scrutiny following the Turning Point appointment, historic lyrics from the MAGA favorite have also come under negative reappraisal.

“Young ladies, young ladies, I like ‘em underage, see,” Kid Rock raps in his 2001 song, “Cool, Daddy, Cool.” “Some say that’s statutory, but I say it’s mandatory.”

The song in question was put to Vice President JD Vance after he celebrated the “fantastic” addition of the musician to the Turning Point USA alternative halftime show. Vance did not respond to the criticisms.

Rock the Country was initially billed as “eight massive shows, eight small towns,” but has quietly updated its branding to reflect the new numbers in the wake of the cancellation.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/kid-rocks-maga-tour-stop-nixed-after-artist-exodus/?

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Trump’s Newest Vanity Ploy Called Out as ‘Absolute Lie’

The president reportedly asked for Penn Station and Dulles Airport to be renamed after him in exchange for infrastructure funding.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is hitting back after the president’s latest attempts to rename major institutions after himself.

President Donald Trump claimed the New York senator offered to rename New York’s Penn Station and Washington, D.C’s Dulles International Airport after the president during a press gaggle on Friday. The New York senator refuted Trump’s claims in an X post almost immediately.

“Absolute lie,” Schumer wrote. “He knows it. Everyone knows it. Only one man can restart the project and he can restart it with the snap of his fingers.”

Various outlets reported that the White House proposed the naming scheme in exchange for funding the Gateway Program in New York.

“Chuck Schumer suggested that to me, about changing the name of Penn Station to Trump Station,” Trump said aboard Air Force One on Friday.

“Dulles Airport is really separate. Dulles Airport is really not too involved with Congress,” the president continued. “It’s a separate kind of a deal, as you know. But it was suggested to me by numerous people, unions, Democrats, Republicans, a lot of people suggested. Nothing’s been done on that.”

The Trump Administration previously suspended $18 billion in funds for New York City infrastructure projects last October amid the government shutdown. White House budget director Russell Vought had said at the time that the move was to “ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles.” Vought added that this would specifically impact Gateway’s Hudson Tunnel Project, which will create nine miles of new passenger rail tracks between New York and New Jersey.

Despite the Gateway’s efforts to cooperate with federal requirements, its representatives said the funding has not been released. The Gateway Development Commission filed a lawsuit against the federal government on Feb. 2, alleging breach of contract.

On Friday, the program announced the temporary suspension of the Hudson Tunnel Project, which is sustained primarily with federal grants and funds. This pause will result in the immediate loss of nearly 1,000 jobs, the development commission said.

“For more than two years the hardworking men and women building the Hudson Tunnel Project have not missed a day of work,” Gateway Development Commission CEO Tom Prendergast said in a press release. “That will change today, because the federal Administration continues to withhold funding for this vital investment in our nation’s rail infrastructure. After spending more than $1 billion, and countless hours of hard work, on this project, we will be left with empty construction sites in New York and New Jersey.”

The Gateway Development Commission declined to comment on Trump’s reported renaming ultimatum.

This alleged quid pro quo that the White House suggested is the latest attempt by Trump to rename significant places after himself. Last year, the president stuck his name on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, despite not getting approval from Congress. It was also recently revealed that the president originally wanted to rechristen the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of Trump.

A bill proposing that Dulles Airport be renamed to Donald J. Trump International Airport was also introduced by GOP Rep. Addison McDowell in January. It has not yet moved forward to a House vote.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-newest-vanity-ploy-called-out-as-absolute-lie/?

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🇺🇦 Zelensky: Trump wants peace before midterms

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Getty Images Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the U.S. wants a Russia–Ukraine peace deal by the summer, before President Trump shifts his focus to the midterms, Axios' Barak Ravid reports. Zelensky told reporters that the U.S. wants "to achieve everything by June, and they will do everything possible to ensure the war ends that way." That's ambitious: Wide gaps between Russia and Ukraine remain, and any deal will need Ukrainian voters' approval. 🪖 The main sticking point: Russia's demand that Ukraine withdraw from parts of Donbas it still controls. For the first time, Russia agreed to discuss a U.S. proposal to establish an economic zone in Donbas, Zelensky said. 🇺🇸 What's next: The U.S. side proposed that Ukrainian and Russian negotiators meet stateside — likely in Miami — in a week to keep talking, Zelensky said. Go deeper. ps:This would be all over if they put pressure on Putin!!!!!

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💊 Many TrumpRx drugs are cheaper elsewhere

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios More than half of the drugs listed on the new TrumpRx website have cheaper generic versions available elsewhere, Axios' Maya Goldman reports. Pristiq, a Pfizer antidepressant, costs about $200 with a TrumpRx coupon for a 30-day supply. But a comparable generic goes for less than $30 on GoodRx and for just $16.65 on Mark Cuban's CostPlusDrugs. 🧮 By the numbers: 26 of the 43 drugs listed on TrumpRx at launch have generic alternatives, per Anna Kaltenboeck, a drug pricing expert. A White House spokesperson tells Axios cheaper alternatives may exist for some products, but the site's value lies in providing the lowest-cost option for branded products.

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Republicans rarely criticize Trump in his second term. A racist post briefly changed that President Donald Trump received rare blowback from Republican lawmakers over a video posted to social media that included a racist image of former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, depicted as primates. Since Trump’s return to the White House, Republican lawmakers have treaded carefully when disagreeing with the president, often communicating their concerns in private for fear of suffering his wrath. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Congressional Black Caucus chair says Trump’s post on the Obamas shows a ‘bigoted and racist regime’ Voters are worried about the cost of housing. But Trump wants home prices to keep climbing Trump praises Nexstar-Tegna broadcast television deal he once opposed Appeals court affirms Trump policy of jailing immigrants without bond ps:It should make every person outraged at this lower than low president!!!!!   White House takes down racist meme of Obamas posted on Trump social media WASHINGTON — The White House on Friday pulled down a social media post depicting former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama as monkeys after members of Congress from both political parties expressed dismay and called it racist. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/02/06/repub/white-house-takes-down-meme-of-obamas-posted-on-trump-social-media-and-slammed-as-racist/? ps:Kicking and screaming no doubt!!!!!

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Trump's crypto revolt

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Trillions have vaporized from global crypto markets since October, plunging an ascendant industry championed by President Trump into a new bout of turmoil, Axios' Zachary Basu writes. Why it matters: Crypto joins a growing number of segments of the Trump coalition — from Epstein-focused populists to farmers to Latino men — now questioning whether his return to power has delivered as promised. 🔎 Zoom in: The hyper-online, male-dominated crypto space embraced Trump's crypto Golden Age vision. Many crypto leaders swallowed their discomfort last year after Trump-branded meme coins generated massive profits for insiders — and left retail traders holding tokens that plummeted in value. The Trump family's crypto venture raked in hundreds of millions — including a secret investment by an Emirati royal who was lobbying the U.S. government for access to advanced AI chips. Those conflicts were largely waved off amid a steady stream of pro-crypto signals from Trump, including the creation of a strategic bitcoin reserve and vows to make the U.S. the "crypto capital of the world." But industry-friendly legislation has stalled, in part because the White House rejected Democrats' demands to limit the Trump family's crypto profiteering. Then came last week's crash. Bitcoin erased all gains since Trump's election, going from $70,000 when he won to over $125,000 late last year, and now back around $70,000. Despite multiple factors driving bitcoin's downturn, the president once hailed as crypto's greatest ally has now become one of its most visible scapegoats. Data: CoinGecko. Chart: Axios Visuals 🖼️ The big picture: The backlash captures a deeper problem for Trump: Niche constituencies he courted in 2024 are growing disillusioned. Podcast populists: The Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files and aggressive immigration enforcement has alienated some anti-establishment podcasters who helped shape his appeal to young men, including Joe Rogan and comedian Andrew Schulz. Nonwhite voters: Trump's support among Black and Latino Americans has slipped after he made major gains in 2024, as cost-of-living pressures squeeze these voters. Farmers: Even after Trump rolled out a $12 billion "bridge payment" to offset tariff-related losses, agricultural leaders warned last week of potential "widespread collapse" if Congress fails to act.

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‘Take the vaccine, please,’ a top US health official says in an appeal as measles cases rise Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, on Sunday urged people to get inoculated against the measles at a time of outbreaks across several states and as the United States is at risk of losing its measles elimination status. Read more.

Why this matters: An outbreak in South Carolina in the hundreds has surpassed the recorded case count in Texas’ 2025 outbreak, and there is also one on the Utah-Arizona border. Multiple other states have had confirmed cases this year.   “Take the vaccine, please,” said Oz, whose boss, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has raised suspicion about the safety and importance of vaccines. “Not all illnesses are equally dangerous and not all people are equally susceptible to those illnesses,” Oz told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But measles is one you should get your vaccine.”   The outbreaks have mostly impacted children and have come as infectious disease experts warn that rising public distrust of vaccines generally may be contributing to the spread of a disease once declared eradicated by public health officials.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Health costs are fueling voter stress and powering Democratic campaigns   US births dropped last year, suggesting the 2024 uptick was short-lived   Leadership changes in Minnesota follow tensions among agencies over immigration enforcement tactics   Immigrant whose skull was broken in eight places during ICE arrest says beating was unprovoked   Police arrest protesters at Minneapolis federal building on 1-month anniversary of woman’s death   Judge orders return of 3 deported families protected by family separation settlement   Government must reach agreement on right to counsel for people at Minnesota ICE facility, judge says   Judge orders Trump administration to restore funding for rail tunnel between New York and New Jersey   Trump administration approves weed killer dicamba for two common genetically modified crops   ‘Melania’ falls steeply on a quiet weekend in theaters

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Hypocrite Trump Busted Showing Bad Bunny’s Show at His Own Super Bowl Party

The president apparently preferred the act he viciously trashed to MAGA star Kid Rock’s lip-syncing.

Donald Trump has been caught red-handed screening Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show after roundly insisting he wanted nothing to do with it.

Footage circulating online from what appears to be the president’s watch party at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, shows the Latin star’s performance blaring from several screens at the venue. Trump himself is seen in the clip, sitting at a table with Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Real name Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, Bad Bunny headlined the NFL’s biggest annual event Sunday. A steadfast Trump critic, he sang mostly in Spanish throughout a performance that served to celebrate Latin culture and the Latin-American community, which the president has targeted as part of his immigration crackdown since assuming office again last year.

Trump refused to attend Sunday’s match in person. “I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice,” he said of the NFL’s decision to bill both Bad Bunny and anti-MAGA punk act Green Day. He added he would not be attending the event because it was, according to him, “just too far away.”

His supporters have similarly raged against those artists. Late conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s organization, Turning Point USA, even went so far as to put on an alternative showing, featuring pro-Trump rapper Kid Rock.

That performance attracted only an estimated 5 million viewers against Bad Bunny’s 135 million, which has otherwise served to mark the Latin musician’s performance as the most watched NFL halftime show in history.

“I think the president would much prefer a Kid Rock performance over Bad Bunny,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters last week.

It is not clear if Trump also screened Kid Rock’s set at his golf course Sunday. The performance has been roundly mocked given that the MAGA rapper appeared to lip sync most, if not all, of his songs.

The president’s Truth Social posts in the aftermath of the show reveal where his attention may have been directed.

“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER!” he wrote.

“It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence,” he added. “Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the U.S.A., and all over the World.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Trump Organization for comment on this story.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/hypocrite-donald-trump-busted-playing-bad-bunnys-nfl-halftime-show-at-his-own-super-bowl-party/?

ps:What a hypocrite!!

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Billionaire Trump Boasts About His Economy While Normal People Panic

Two-thirds of Americans say they’re “very concerned” about the price of housing, food, and consumer goods.

President Donald Trump said he’s “very proud” of the economy and claimed to have “fixed” the affordability crisis—even as huge numbers of Americans struggle to pay for food and other basics. “The one thing that they don’t say anymore is ‘affordability,’ because I fixed the problem that they created,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News that aired before the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Throughout much of his first year back in office, Trump blamed poor inflation and weak jobs numbers on the “mess” he claimed to have inherited from former President Joe Biden.

But in Sunday’s interview, which was recorded at the White House last Wednesday, he told NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas that the country has finally entered the Trump economy.

“I’m very proud of it,” he said. “You know we have a GDP of 5.6 [percent].”

Gross domestic product is projected to grow by 2.3 percent for 2025, not 5.6 percent, the consulting firm EY reported in late January.

A White House official told the Daily Beast in a statement that the president had been referring to the AtlantaFed’s GDP Now forecast for Q4 GDP growth, which originally forecast as high as 5.4 percent in January before being revised down to 4.2 percent this month.

Last year’s growth was driven largely by AI-related investment, strong exports, and steady consumer spending, with the caveat that consumer spending is “heavily reliant” on increased borrowing and drawdowns of savings, according to EY.

Under Trump, household debt has reached an all-time high, even higher than during the COVID-19 pandemic, and planned layoffs have reached their highest levels since the Great Recession.

A Pew Research Center survey released this month found that 71 percent of Americans were “very concerned” about healthcare costs, and 66 percent were “very concerned” about the price of food and consumer goods.

The price of housing and electricity was also a worry, with 62 percent and 51 percent of respondents reporting they were “very concerned” about the respective costs.

More than half of respondents, or 52 percent, said the country was worse off thanks to Trump’s economic policies, while 19 percent said the president’s policies had “not had much effect” when it came to taming economic headwinds.

The White House declined to comment on those concerns.

“Q3 GDP growth came in at a full point higher than expectations, proof that President Trump has a stellar track record of proving the experts wrong,” the official said.

Speaking to NBC, Trump said the economy in 2026 would “be even better.”

“You know, we have hundreds of billions of dollars pouring into our country, actually trillions,” he said. “$18 trillion being invested in our country as we speak, and their factories and plants, and thousands of businesses being built all over the country.”

The president has repeatedly claimed that he wielded the threat of tariffs to secure unprecedented investments in the U.S., though the conservative Cato Institute describes the brag as an “$18 trillion hoax.”

“Not one of the several hundred economists in the White House and Cabinet agencies has even tried to explain what the number is supposed to measure or how it was fabricated,” economist Alan Reynolds wrote this month. “What could it possibly mean to say that Trump ‘brought in’ $18 trillion? That number is nearly as big as China’s GDP in an entire year. Where did it come from? Where has it gone?”

Trump’s economy, however, is paying dividends for at least one group. In 2025, Trump’s policies fueled a surge in billionaires’ wealth, which reached record levels.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/billionaire-donald-trump-boasts-about-his-economy-while-normal-people-panic/?

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The Children of Dilley

Fourteen-year-old Ariana Velasquez had been held at the immigrant detention center in Dilley, Texas, with her mother for some 45 days when I managed to get inside to meet her. The staff brought everyone in the visiting room a boxed lunch from the cafeteria: a cup of yellowish stew and a hamburger patty in a plain bun. Ariana’s long black curls hung loosely around her face and she was wearing a government-issued gray sweatsuit. At first, she sat looking blankly down at the table. She poked at her food with a plastic fork and let her mother do most of the talking.

https://www.propublica.org/article/life-inside-ice-dilley-children?

“I Have Been Here Too Long”: Read Letters from the Children Detained at ICE’s Dilley Facility

A rainbow, a family portrait, a heart. These are the drawings found in handwritten letters from children detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas.

https://www.propublica.org/article/ice-dilley-children-letters?

Grant Guidelines for Libraries and Museums Take “Chilling” Political Turn Under Trump

A library in rural Alaska needed help providing free Wi-Fi and getting kids to read. A children’s museum in Washington wanted to expand its Little Science Lab. And a World War I museum in Missouri had a raft of historic documents it needed to digitize. They received funding from a little-known federal agency before the Trump administration unsuccessfully tried to dismantle it last year.

https://www.propublica.org/article/institute-of-museum-and-library-services-grant-guidelines-donald-trump?

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Humiliated Trump Tries to Steal Super Bowl Spotlight

The president wasn’t in California for the highly anticipated event.

President Donald Trump touted the supposed strength of America on Super Bowl Sunday—as he watched the game from the comfort of his Mar-a-Lago estate.

“Enjoy the Super Bowl, America! Our Country is stronger, bigger, and better than ever before and, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!” he wrote in a Truth Social post on Sunday.

Trump, who has been booed at myriad sporting events—including last year’s Super Bowl—wasn’t at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Instead, he attended a watch party at his private Mar-a-Lago golf club in Palm Beach, Florida.

The president had previously said he wanted to attend the game but that it was “just too far away.”

“I would go if, you know, it was a little bit shorter,” he added.

But Zeteo learned that Trump’s officials and advisers were privately concerned about Trump getting booed at the biggest television event of the year. Last year’s event drew an estimated 127.7 million viewers, Nielsen reported, with similar numbers expected this year.

Viral clips of the president being loudly booed by tens of thousands of spectators would be “another thing we don’t want right now,” one Trump adviser told the outlet. But even from thousands of miles away, the president still managed to court controversy as the Seattle Seahawks defeated the New England Patriots, 29-13.

For months, MAGA had been in full-on meltdown mode over the NFL’s choice of Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, 31, to headline the Super Bowl halftime performance.

Born Benito Martinez Ocasio, Bad Bunny was Spotify’s most-streamed artist of 2025 and made history at this year’s Grammy Awards when he won album of the year for his Spanish-language Debí Tirar Mas Fotos.

His halftime performance pulled from the Debí Tirar Mas Fotos world tour and celebrated Latin American culture beneath a billboard that read, “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”

Trump called the performance a “slap in the face to our country.”

“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER!” he complained in a Truth Social post. “It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence.”

But unlike his speech at the Grammy’s, Bad Bunny’s performance didn’t explicitly denounce the president’s immigration policy.

Instead, he invited the audience to rejoice in the pan-American culture the Trump administration has demonized and even drove home his point about love and unity with an actual wedding.

Some of the president’s own supporters worried about him taking such an aggressive stand against the show, considering the administration is hemorrhaging support among Latinos, Politico reported.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/humiliated-trump-tries-to-steal-super-bowl-spotlight/?

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Republicans Secretly Fuming With Trump as Midterm Disaster Looms

However, sources said the president quite simply “seems not to care.”

Republicans are secretly angry with President Donald Trump because he sounds “detached and noncommittal” ahead of a potential midterm election disaster, according to White House insiders who spoke to the Washington Post. Republicans hold an anxiety-inducing ultra-slim majority in the House. This, coupled with the lack of direction from Trump, his slumping approval ratings and signs of a Democratic rally in performance, has rankled some in the West Wing, sources told the Post.

The sources said this has not yet translated to public condemnation, but some on Trump’s team are privately bristling.

The reported angst comes from the fact that Trump, 79, has a $300 million-plus war chest, but has yet to approve a spending plan, nor has he endorsed GOP challengers in some key battleground states.

Because of the latter, donors have had to bankroll expensive primaries in states like Texas and Georgia. When challenged, Trump “can sound detached and noncommittal,” one insider told the Post. Another source close to the White House said that, on some days, the president quite simply “seems not to care.”

One official said that losing the House majority doesn’t ruffle him as much because he has already faced a Democrat-led impeachment process twice, in 2019 and 2021. But this laissez-faire attitude doesn’t translate to his team, the Post reported, citing weary aides.

As a result of Trump’s reluctance to endorse, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas has been drawn into a nasty, and expensive, primary challenge with MAGA fave Ken Paxton. In September last year, Team Cornyn rolled out an ad campaign coloring his scandal-prone fellow Republican as crooked. Months later, and Trump has not endorsed Cornyn or the Texas attorney general who is hoping to oust him.

“There’s only one person in the world who’s going to make that decision and we can’t wait,” Cornyn told the Post.

If Paxton were the Republican nominee, it would take a lot more money than usual to keep that Texas Senate seat. People involved in the race estimate it would cost about $100 million extra, because Paxton would need heavy advertising to stay competitive.

Internal polling, the Post reported, showed Cornyn leading Paxton. Paxton, crucially, is also lagging behind Texas state Rep. James Talarico and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett on the Democratic side. Talarico or Crockett winning a general election would be a costly misstep caused by Trump’s inaction, if it were to come to fruition.

And, despite a $50 million cash injection, Cornyn has established no definitive lead over either Paxton or GOP Rep. Wesley Hunt in the three-way battle.

Republican Senatorial Committee chair Tim Scott of South Carolina tried to warn his colleagues at the Republican Senate caucus on Tuesday that disaster could be looming, the Post reported. He presented Fox News polling that suggested the Dems have a 6-point advantage in House races. This would leave all nine Senate battlegrounds open, compounded by the Democratic Party’s fruitful fundraising charge. Voting opens later this month, with the primary in early March. A runoff election will be held on May 26 if no candidate receives a majority.

Senate leader John Thune has come closest to showing exasperation with Trump’s sloth-like approach to endorsing. “I’ve had many conversations about why I think that makes the most sense to get behind John Cornyn,” he told reporters last week. “I don’t have any inside knowledge of when or what that might look like or when it might happen.”

Senator Thom Tillis, who has recently “gone rogue” by attacking Trump sycophants, was more direct. “I do think it’s a real problem when Senate Leadership Fund is on record supporting Cornyn and Cassidy, and President Trump is either silent or in opposition,” Tillis said, referring to the main super PAC supporting Senate Republicans.

“We’re literally going to have Republican-on-Republican money being spent and that makes no sense leading up to a general [election] where we’re going to have headwinds.”

Last month, Trump recruited and endorsed a challenger to Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana. A White House official who spoke to the Post said this was a petty swipe based on the fact that Cassidy voted to impeach him after the Jan. 6 attacks in 2021.

Despite the concern, a spokesman for Trump’s main super PAC, MAGA Inc., said the president will spend in waves. “MAGA Inc. will have the resources to help candidates who support President Trump’s America First agenda,” Alex Pfeiffer said.

The White House pointed to Trump’s upcoming bumper domestic itinerary as evidence that he is focused on kitchen-table issues.

In response to a request for comment, White House spokesman Kush Desai told the Daily Beast: “Last week, President Trump launched TrumpRx.gov to deliver unprecedented drug pricing relief for American patients, announced details of a historic trade deal with India, and did two national media interviews that reached millions of Americans.”

“The president will be on the road later in the coming days to highlight this and the other work he’s doing for the American people,” Desai added.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/republicans-secretly-fuming-with-trump-as-midterm-disaster-looms/?

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Crypto Bros Rage at Trump as Market Collapses

The president and his family have reportedly made billions from their own crypto ventures.

Crypto bros have turned on President Donald Trump after billions of dollars were wiped out of the volatile cryptocurrency market.

As noted by Axios, the male-dominated world of crypto investing is the latest group to rage against the president during his erratic second term, with many regretting supporting the 79-year-old.

Before returning to office, Trump vowed to make the U.S. “the crypto capital of the world,” a promise that sent the price of flagship cryptocurrency bitcoin surging after the 2024 election and eventually to record highs late last year.

Those gains have since been obliterated. Bitcoin is now hovering around $68,000, down sharply from roughly $125,000 in October 2025. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, has also been hammered, losing more than 35 percent of its value in just the past month.

A growing number of crypto bros are now venting their fury at Trump as it becomes increasingly clear that his much-hyped crypto strategy is failing. The backlash has coincided with viral reports that Trump-aligned crypto venture World Liberty Financial quietly sold $5 million worth of bitcoin last week, helping send prices tumbling even further.

“I voted for the first time in 2024 as a single-issue voter. Crypto president? How can I not vote for that! Sounds great!” one crypto user posted to his 169,000 followers on X. “Not even a year later & he has destroyed the single issue I cared about. F--- you Trump.”

Crypto influencer Carl Runefelt also conceded in a reply to one of his 1.5 million followers that Trump was “bad for crypto” and a “big mistake” to have as president.

In a lengthy X post, another disillusioned crypto bro wrote: “The crypto market is in freefall right now, and while broader macro factors like tariff threats, geopolitical uncertainty, and deleveraging play a role, a significant chunk of the damage—and the eroded trust—stems directly from patterns tied to Trump himself.”

“He pioneered market-moving tweets long ago, perfectly timing negative statements to tank sentiment and allow insiders (and potentially himself) to buy the dip cheaply, then switching to positive hype to pump euphoria and sell into retail FOMO. Rinse and repeat,” they added.

Trump—whose own memecoin has lost nearly all its value since its launch last January—has not been hit nearly as hard by the crypto crash. World Liberty Financial has earned Trump and his family around $1.2 billion in cash since its launch, along with an additional $2.25 billion from various crypto holdings, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Analysis from Bloomberg in January also estimated that cryptocurrency ventures have added $1.4 billion to the Trump family’s wealth over the past year.

The White House said in a statement to the Daily Beast that the Trump administration was committed to crypto.

“Volatility in a free market in which the government does not set prices is not going to change the Trump administration’s commitment to ensuring American dominance in cryptocurrency and other cutting-edge technologies of the future,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/crypto-bros-rage-at-donald-trump-as-market-collapses/?

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Trump’s Border Czar Raised Major Consequence of ICE Tactics

Tom Homan predicted that the administration’s aggressive immigration policies would backfire.

Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, warned of the American public turning on the administration’s hardline deportation policies if they were not focused on criminals.

In a June 2025 interview with NBC News reporter Julia Ainsley for her upcoming book, Homan said the administration would need to prioritize targeting migrants who had committed crimes beyond being in the U.S. illegally in order to “keep the faith of the American people.”

The comments from last year are being reported as polling shows Trump is facing growing backlash over his heavy-handed immigration policies, particularly in the wake of the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. Data from the Department of Homeland Security also suggests ICE is not arresting the “worst of the worst” in its raids, instead detaining people accused of nonviolent offenses or with no convictions at all.

“I think the vast majority of the American people think criminal illegal aliens need to leave. And if we stick to that prioritization, I think we keep the faith of the American people,” Homan told NBC News on June 16. “And I think the more we do that, the more the American people will support what President Trump’s doing. We got to do it and we’ve got to do it in a humane manner.”

Homan was deployed last month to lead on-the-ground immigration enforcement in Minneapolis, effectively replacing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi “ICE Barbie” Noem and top Border Patrol goon Gregory Bovino following their disastrous handling of operations in the city.

Homan’s remarks last June came as Bovino was overseeing large-scale immigration raids in Los Angeles, including operations targeting nonviolent migrants at their places of work. The backlash to those sweeps prompted Trump to deploy the National Guard and Marines to control protests in the Democratic city.

Homan warned at the time that Bovino’s aggressive tactics risked sweeping up migrants who had legally entered the U.S. to seek asylum instead of hardened criminals.

“I think the more stories like that, people are going to question what we’re doing more,” Homan said.

The White House border czar official, who served as a Homeland Security official under both the Obama and Trump administrations, argued that prioritizing criminal migrants would not signal that authorities were turning a blind eye to others in the country illegally.

“When I say prioritize public safety threats, they’re just a priority. I’ve said it many times: If you’re in the country illegally, you’re not off the table. If we find you while we’re out there looking, you’re going to be arrested,” Homan told NBC News.In a statement to NBC News, DHS insisted it is focusing on hardened criminals in its immigration raids, and there are no differences of opinion within the administration when it comes to immigration enforcement.

“As Border Czar Homan and Secretary Noem have both said numerous times, ICE conducts targeted operations to remove public safety threats from this country—any individual illegally in the country is on the table,” a DHS spokesperson said. “There is only one page: the President’s page. Everyone’s on the same page.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for further comment.

Editor’s note: The Daily Beast has updated this article to correctly attribute the reason for the interview with Homan.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-border-czar-tom-homan-raised-major-consequence-of-ice-tactics/?

ps:One of the few in this administration with a few brain cells that actually work!!!!!

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Secret ICE Arrest Data Blows Up Trump’s ‘Worst of the Worst’ Claim

Four in 10 people detained by masked goons since last January have never even been charged with a crime.

Fewer than one in seven of those arrested by ICE since Donald Trump returned to office had charges or convictions for violent criminal offenses, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s own data.

A previously undisclosed document, obtained by CBS News, shows that only a small fraction of the nearly 400,000 migrants detained by ICE since last January are violent offenders, undermining the administration’s vow to target only “the worst of the worst” immigrants as part of its hardline mass deportation campaign.

The data also shows that 42 percent of the 392,619 ICE arrests between Jan. 21, 2025, and Jan. 31, 2026 involved people with no prior criminal charges or convictions. Nearly 40 percent were accused only of civil immigration offenses, such as living in the U.S. illegally, with around 11,000 accused of allegations such as interfering with ICE’s operations.The Trump administration has been widely condemned for the aggressive tactics of masked ICE agents in U.S. cities as they carry out immigration raids. The president and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi “ICE Barbie” Noem have repeatedly rejected the criticism by claiming officers are removing “murderers, pedophiles, rapists, gang members, and terrorists” from the U.S.However, the official statistics from DHS’s own internal document cast doubt on how effectively the sweeping immigration crackdown is targeting violent criminals involved in drugs, organized crime, or murder.

The data shows that just 0.5 percent of the nearly 393,000 ICE arrests involved people accused or convicted of homicide, amounting to around 2,100 individuals. There were similarly low numbers for those accused or convicted of sexual assault (1.4 percent), weapons offenses (1.6 percent), or dangerous drug charges (5.7 percent). Just 2 percent of those taken into ICE custody were accused of being gang members.

According to an analysis by CBS News just 13.9 percent of those arrested had been charged with or arrested for violent crimes.

The most common offenses connected to ICE detainees were the 118,000 accused of “other” crimes, such as entering the U.S. illegally or reentering the country after being deported, the network reported.

Other analyses have similarly suggested that ICE is not rounding up the “worst of the worst” at the scale it claims while defending its deportation push.

In December, the Daily Beast found that multiple immigrants labeled on a DHS website as the “worst criminal aliens arrested” were accused only of minor offenses such as traffic violations or marijuana possession, which is not even a crime in many states.

A review of ICE data by the Cato Institute found that as of October 2025, 73 percent of people booked into ICE custody had no criminal conviction, while nearly half had neither a conviction nor pending charges. Just 5 percent of migrants detained by ICE had a violent conviction, according to the institute.

The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Homeland Security and the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/secret-ice-arrest-data-blows-up-donald-trumps-worst-of-the-worst-claim/?

ps:He's not interested in the worst of the worst! He wants everyone who's not white out of the country or not coming into the country!!

[phkrause]

Masks emerge as symbol of Trump’s ICE crackdown and a flashpoint in Congress

Beyond the car windows being smashed, people tackled on city streets — or even a little child with a floppy bunny ears snowcap detained — the images of masked federal officers has become a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations. Whether to ban the masks has emerged as a central question in the debate in Congress over funding Homeland Security ahead of Friday’s midnight deadline, when it faces a partial agency shutdown. Read more.

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