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

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🖊 New White House counsel

Longtime Trump aide Will Scharf, now the White House staff secretary, will take over as the next White House counsel on Sept. 1, the White House announced last night.

• Scharf replaces Dave Warrington, who'll leave the administration for the private sector.

Scharf represented Trump in his Supreme Court presidential-immunity case.

• Scharf chairs the National Capital Planning Commission, which has tried to clear the way for Trump's White House ballroom construction. An appellate court halted the project Friday.

Mullin's MAGA backlash

Just 4½ months after replacing Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary, Markwayne Mullin is feeling the heat from President Trump's MAGA enforcers, Axios' Brittany Gibson reports.

• Steve Bannon, a top MAGA podcaster, is among those who've joined the chorus of MAGA figures objecting to Lance Schroyer's nomination to lead ICE. "You can't pick a cop from Oklahoma and think he's going to walk in and be able to do that, right? You're asking too much of somebody," Bannon told Axios.

Keep reading.

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Trump’s immigration crackdown looms over Minnesota’s bruising Senate primary Minnesota’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate on Tuesday features establishment-backed U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and the more progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. The immigration debate is an added schism in a race that otherwise echoes many of the other left-versus-center divides that have played out across the United States this year. Read more.

Why this matters: Craig voted for tighter enforcement soon after President Donald Trump returned to office last year, only to later express regret for her decision after the Republican president sent a surge of agents into Minneapolis. Those votes may turn out to be some of the most fraught of Craig’s eight-year career in Congress, decisions that Flanagan has highlighted while trying to portray her rival as unwilling to fight an unpopular administration in Washington.   Craig flipped a Republican-held seat in 2018, and every two years she overcame millions of dollars of attack ads to win tough reelection campaigns. Until Craig’s Senate run, the heat came from the right. Newly under fire from the other side, the decisions she made as a swing-seat congresswoman have become a liability as a statewide Senate candidate.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Wisconsin primary also features progressive clash with Democratic establishment Congressional Democrats launch probe into efforts to deport US military members and their families Trump announces staff secretary Will Scharf will be his new White House counsel Justice Samuel Alito confirms he’s staying on the Supreme Court for another term Joe Biden’s cancer has spread, his son Hunter says

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Trump Hit by Humiliating Reality Check After AI-ing Golf Photo

The 80-year-old president underwent a remarkable transformation.

Donald Trump has been caught cheating at one of his own golf clubs—although this time not on the course itself.

The 80-year-old president was called out online after posting a photo of himself driving golfing great Gary Player around the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Sunday.

The original picture, taken by freelance photographer Andrew Mordzynski and published by Getty Images, shows Trump as he actually is: a pasty, overweight, slightly disheveled octogenarian.

But in the digitally altered version posted by Trump on his Truth Social account the president appears to have had some kind of magical glow-up: younger, slimmer, and more manly. It’s the version of Trump he’d rather have us see.

In the original picture, Trump, wearing a white and gold cap from his own merchandise line, has puffy eyes and a blotchy, reddish face. His mouth is open.

In the starkly different version of the same photo Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday afternoon, his eyes are wider, his mouth is closed, his skin is tanned, and the back of his hair is neatly trimmed.

His chest area has also been smoothed, and the “TRUMP” logo has been changed from the original, in a square patch, to more visible standalone letters on the shirt.

What appeared to be sweat near his forehead has been removed, with the philtrum between his nose and lip more pronounced.

Other visual indicators of an AI or photoshopping tool being used include the heavily airbrushed skin textures on both men, forsaking realistic pore and hair details.

The background also has a blurred look resembling a painting, with a warm, artificial-looking glow.

Apart from receiving a more tanned look, Player, 90, looks virtually identical in both photos.

X account Patriot Takes shared Trump’s photo with a different picture of the president with his golf buddy on Sunday, adding the caption “Trump’s AI Image vs. Reality…"

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

Also not visible in the photo from Sunday are the bruises of varying sizes spotted on Trump’s forearms, alongside what looked to be a couple of scrapes.

Trump also sported Band-Aids on a couple of fingers of his right hand, which he rested on his knee while squinting forward at the route ahead.

The president’s bruising is usually most notable on his hands, not his arms, which were exposed due to his polo shirt.

He has previously blamed the bruising on his large daily dose of aspirin and excessive handshaking as part of the job.

Trump is no stranger to using AI, regularly filling his social media feed with computer-generated slop.

Last week Trump posted an AI-generated image on Truth Social depicting him alongside generals George S. Patton and Douglas MacArthur, two of the most celebrated U.S. military commanders of World War II.

A previous AI posting spree saw him digitally insert himself next to President John F. Kennedy, as well as cast himself as the star of imaginary science fiction films.

Last October, Trump famously posted an AI video of himself as a king, flying a jet, and dropping a brown substance on No Kings protesters.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-hit-by-humiliating-reality-check-after-ai-ing-golf-photo/?

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Trump’s Secret Nuclear Admission to Aides Is Leaked

The president is telling advisers he may have to abandon the key rationale for his war on Iran.

Donald Trump has privately admitted that he may be forced to end his war on Iran without achieving his main objective, according to a bombshell report.

The conflict began on Feb. 28 when Trump joined Israel in launching massive air strikes that decapitated the leadership of the Islamic regime. The president cycled through several rationales for the war before hitting on keeping Tehran from building a nuclear bomb—and has stuck to that line in the five months since.

That reported retreat would make it harder for the White House to paint any end to the conflict as a victory. Iran’s closure of the waterway, through which a fifth of global oil supply passes, has sent gas prices in the U.S. soaring ahead of midterm elections likely to be dominated by cost-of-living concerns. Democrats hold an almost 8-point lead in the polls, which means the GOP could lose control of both the House and the Senate.

Trump has tried to smooth over any panic among his aides, the Journal reports. He’s told them Iran is unlikely to restart its nuclear program while he’s in office, pointing to American strikes that wrecked three of the country’s main nuclear sites last year, according to the Journal. He also brushed off uranium still buried in the country during July’s NATO summit. “We’ve already got the nuclear material, because it’s so far underground,” he said then.

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

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-secret-admission-to-aides-that-he-may-be-willing-to-walk-away-without-iran-nuclear-deal-is-leaked/?

ps:Something we never should've been involved with in the first place!

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Republican Senators Fear Trump Is About to Make a New Midterm Nightmare

The president’s long-running obsession with election integrity has his party on edge.

Senate Republicans are panicking that Donald Trump will spend the rest of the summer publicly hammering them over a voting bill they have little to no chance of passing.

The SAVE America Act, which the 80-year-old president has ranked above everything else on his agenda, would force Americans to produce citizenship paperwork when they register and show photo ID at the polls.

Trump has repeatedly claimed the act is essential because millions of noncitizens keep participating in elections to stop him from winning them. Studies, even by the MAGA-aligned D.C. think tank the Heritage Foundation, have shown time and again that cases of noncitizen voting are vanishingly rare.

The House approved the bill in February almost entirely along party lines. Republicans hold 53 Senate seats. They need 60 to pass what Trump has cast as the party’s insurance policy for November, telling GOP representatives in March that the measures would all but “guarantee the midterms.”

Sen. Mike Rounds, 71, told Politico on Monday that an August offensive from the president would shock nobody. “That would be consistent with his approach,” he said. “We also know the votes aren’t there.”

Senators cleared out of Washington for the summer recess on Saturday with no version of the legislation advanced. They will not sit again until Sept. 14. That leaves them just three weeks of floor time, before they scatter for October and the midterms, for a vote they’ve already failed to pass six times. Majority Leader John Thune, 65, whom Trump has threatened to have ousted from leadership over the debacle, called up a narrower photo ID measure early Saturday morning, written by Ohio Sen. Jon Husted. Every Republican who voted backed it. The move still fell eight votes short, at 52-46.

One GOP senator, speaking anonymously, told Politico that Thune’s calculation was simple. “He thinks it will give us cover with the president,” they said. “I think he’s wrong,” they went on, adding their colleagues were “not factoring in the president’s reaction.”

Sen. Thom Tillis, 65, was blunter about the math. “At the end of the day, all Republicans need to start getting satisfied with everybody pretty quickly, so that we can get the voters to be satisfied with us, and we maintain our majority at least in the Senate,” he told the publication.

“I look at political data almost every day of the week,” he went on. “I don’t see [the SAVE America Act] as one of the major factors that are going to get [voters] out to the polls.”

The Daily Beast contacted the White House for comment on this story. “The American people overwhelmingly support election integrity and the SAVE America Act,” spokesperson Lauren Bis said.

“Republicans must use reconciliation to pay our troops, support our farmers, secure our elections and thwart Democrats’ obstructionist tactics.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/republican-senators-fear-trump-is-about-to-make-a-new-midterm-nightmare-with-election-threat-obsession/?

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Trump’s Staggering Vanity Project Cash Grab Exposed

Leaked records show $423 million routed to the president’s D.C. projects this year.

President Donald Trump is pouring an astonishing $423 million into his crusade to remake the nation’s capital in his own image.

The president, 80, has spent much of his second term rebuilding in D.C., ordering a ballroom at the White House, a South Lawn helipad, a 250-foot “Triumphal Arch,” and an overhaul of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The list goes on—and the National Park Service spreadsheets behind it just revealed the massive dent it’s making in public coffers.

This year’s allotment for the White House grounds tops $323 million, according to internal Interior Department documents obtained by former CBS News justice correspondent Scott MacFarlane, who now publishes on Substack. Work on the National Mall ahead of America’s 250th birthday drew close to a further $100 million.The combined $423 million is more than twenty times the $20 million the two sites drew under the Joe Biden administration in 2024. “The National Park Service is being used as a piggy bank for Trump’s vanity projects,” said Tim Whitehouse, who leads the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.Trump’s Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, 70, has cut millions of dollars in funding for Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon. Jobs still waiting in the queue include tree work at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, an emergency fix to a wastewater plant at Death Valley National Park, California, and new roofs at Mission San Jose in San Antonio, Texas.The workforce has thinned, too. Roughly 2,000 employees left the park service in the year to May after DOGE cuts and other reductions, according to the records obtained by MacFarlane. One employee said anonymously that colleagues were being “forced to prioritize Trump’s vanity projects over our own needs.”Trump’s building spree gathers pace as his standing with voters collapses. The president sank to 32 percent approval in a Quinnipac poll released last month—the worst showing of his political career, and below even his ratings in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol Building.

Sixty-eight percent of voters told that pollster that Trump is not focused enough on the problems facing everyday Americans. His own advisers say he’s in denial, and that he’s fixating on “the hobbies that distract from his terrible polling numbers.”

The New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman estimates his construction projects consume about 70 percent of his attention, even as the president insists that voters are disillusioned with the GOP, and that “they’re not angry with me.”

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

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-staggering-vanity-project-cash-grab-exposed-as-white-house-takes-423m-in-federal-funding/?

ps:It's not just staggering it's absolutely pathetic!!!!!

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Trump signs order calling for spacing out childhood vaccines, against medical groups’ guidance

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order calling for revamped childhood vaccine recommendations that promote his long-held but discredited theory that childhood shots should be spaced out into separate medical visits.

https://apnews.com/article/vaccine-research-autism-trump-kennedy-rfk-d10f81f221c4ae9f5b2f83dd0ee98b29?

 

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Betting Big

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When Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2025, he was nursing grudges and claiming a mandate. The institutions he saw as his enemies—in politics, business, and education—faced a dilemma about how to respond.

A few concluded that they should resist the president’s demands of fealty and collaboration. Another group tried appeasement, seeking accommodation that would allow them to otherwise operate as usual. And some looked at the landscape and concluded that something fundamental had shifted in American politics. They saw the MAGA movement as a lasting change, and decided that their best move was to make their own radical shift to adjust.

As I wrote last week, predictions of a Trump-driven realignment of the electorate now look extremely shaky. The groups that he was able to attract to the Republican ticket two years ago—young voters, especially men; Hispanic voters; and Black men—have turned solidly against him and against GOP candidates in polls ahead of the midterms. Voters who were unimpressed with Joe Biden or Kamala Harris and who heard Trump’s promise of stopping inflation are now angry about the president’s shrugging at higher prices and inflationary war in Iran. With some distance, the 2024 election looks less like a decisive turning point and more like a fluke. But that realization has come too late for those who reshaped themselves for a reality that has proved ephemeral.

David Ellison, who, along with his father, Larry, is a friend of Trump’s, decided to use the new Trump administration as an opportunity to build a huge media conglomerate. First, his company Skydance merged with Paramount. Taking control of CBS News, he installed Bari Weiss as editor in chief, seeking a leader who would appeal more to both the White House and to conservative viewers. But Weiss’s makeover has so far looked like a flop: 60 Minutes has hemorrhaged staffers, and the Evening News has hemorrhaged viewers. Her proposition was that a slightly more conservative version of the mainstream media would bring the audience back to a struggling network, but that doesn’t appear to actually be appealing to either MAGA viewers or legacy CBS watchers.

Ellison has already moved on to an attempted merger with Warner Bros., reportedly promising administration officials deep political changes at CNN if the deal was approved by federal regulators. Ellison got approval, but now that deal is in trouble anyway. Facing an antitrust lawsuit led by the attorney general of California, Paramount agreed to pause the merger until a trial next year. Experts are divided on how likely Paramount is to prevail, but if the merger doesn’t close by September 30, the company will owe Warner Bros. shareholders $7 million every day until it does. In a New York Times column last week, Ellison complained that people are drawing incorrect inferences about his politics, but his private views are beside the point: What is public is Ellison’s willingness to play to the Trump administration’s politics to build an empire.

CBS News is not the only media interest to discover that courting MAGA news consumers is not a guarantee of success or growth. The Times also reported recently on how a range of right-wing influencers has seen audiences shrink drastically. Their travails appear to reflect Trump’s own difficulty in keeping his 2024 coalition together: The most pro-Trump figures have seen some of the biggest drops, amid ideological battles inside the MAGA coalition over Israel and the war in Iran, while more Trump-critical figures on the right have sometimes gained.

Other corporate leaders also bet on Trump. Elon Musk attempted to become something like an unelected deputy president at the start of Trump’s second term. That experiment ended acrimoniously, and the men’s relationship has been on and off ever since, but Musk’s reputation is now inextricably connected with Trump’s. X has shed users. Tesla sales have struggled, in part because anti-Trump consumers have turned against Musk and also because Musk has been distracted by other ventures, such as SpaceX.

These decisions to throw in with Trump were notable because many institutions treated his 2016 win as an accident of chance, and were happy to publicly resist him. In doing so, though, they seem to have opened the door to more direct corporate involvement in politics—and with it, greater vulnerability to political pressure. The idea that corporations had gone “woke” by embracing DEI and other progressive causes in 2020 and 2021 was to some extent a marketing ploy by the companies, but it infuriated Republicans and made them targets for Trump’s second administration. Trying to protect themselves, corporate leaders now may have overcorrected, mistakenly assuming a lasting MAGA regime.

Within right-wing politics, many individuals and organizations also leapt into Trumpism. The venerable Heritage Foundation reworked itself and lost or pushed out many long-standing scholars and staffers. Now it finds itself in an identity crisis—and also shut out of the White House because Trump is still sore about the attention and credit that Project 2025 won for driving his agenda. Many mainstream Republicans remade themselves as MAGA Republicans, but the results have not always been good. Just ask Senator John Cornyn, who lost his primary to an even-more-MAGA challenger this May.

Earlier this month, Politico’s Kathy Gilsinan reported on the broken pipeline for bringing new foot soldiers into conservative government and nonprofit organizations. “Everyone knows what the problem is: The organizations that bring young staffers to Washington, D.C. have spent the last decade prioritizing blind ideological loyalty instead of competence or intelligence,” a senior GOP congressional staffer told her. “We have a generation of rabid, incompetent idiots.”

This is the risk of betting big on a long-term realignment: If you wager wrong, politics overall will snap back quickly, but you will be stuck with the consequences of your decision for much longer.

Related:

• Americans are turning on Trump.
• What if 2016 was a fluke? (From 2020)

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Trump officials propose new requirements for food additives and ingredients

U.S. health officials on Monday proposed a rule change that would require food manufacturers to notify regulators before introducing new ingredients or additives into processed or packaged foods. Read More.

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Trump scoffs at Iran’s demand for war reparations Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei stressed that Iran will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the U.S. meets its conditions. This includes compensation for war damage, a demand President Donald Trump said Tehran’s negotiators hadn’t raised until now. Read more.

What to know: Trump responded that he is now demanding “compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts.” The U.S. government has blamed Iran-backed militants for the deaths and injuries of hundreds of Americans over several decades, including more than 600 U.S. troops killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2011.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump used elaborate ruse to fly out of Turkey following summit because of Iran threat, report says What to watch Tuesday: Primaries in Wisconsin and Minnesota showcase Democratic divide Washington grapples with a National Guard deployment extended until 2029 Trump media company announces a massive loss and new turnaround effort Deadline passes for Rep. Max Miller to be replaced on Ohio ballot as he faces domestic abuse claims Ocasio-Cortez says she’s freezing her eggs as she decides her next political moves

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Fuming TV Addict Trump, 80, Erupts as His $1.7B Failure Is Exposed

The president vowed to take legal action in a deranged name-calling rant.

Donald Trump went on a furious rant after a liberal think tank said the president’s costly National Guard deployments in cities did not reduce violent crime.

Analysis from the Center for American Progress found that the Trump administration’s crime crackdown in cities such as Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., cost American taxpayers more than $1.7 billion but had little effect.

A report from CAP published in July suggested that Trump tried to portray his troop-deployment efforts as a success by “exploiting” the fact that violent crime and murder were already declining in the cities his administration targeted with its “extreme interventions.”

On Monday, Chandler Hall, the associate director for public safety at CAP, discussed the analysis of whether there “actually was a change in the pre-existing trends” before Trump deployed troops to the cities during an interview on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal.

“We looked at what were the effects of the National Guard deployments, not just in D.C., but in all cities in which the National Guard were deployed,” Hall said. “What we find is that across multiple cities, multiple data sets, and multiple time windows, we find no effect that violent crime actually did change post the National Guard deployments in any of the cities.”

In a rambling Truth Social post of 190 words, Trump lashed out at Hall while also threatening to sue CAP for exposing his unnecessary $1.7 billion crackdown.’

“Chandler Hall, representing, on Television, the foolish Center for American Lack of Progress, stated that adding the National Guard to Cities, including our now Great Again, Washington, D.C., had ‘NO impact on Crime.’ How crazy is that,” Trump posted.“Hall was met with furious dissent. The report is just another Radical Left SCAM, as are the people who fund this gaggle of Lunatics, including George Soros, Bill and Melinda Gates, Google, Apple, Visa, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, WellsFargo, Bank of America, Walmart, Toyota, T-Mobile, and NBC Universal. Foreign support includes the Embassy of Japan, the Korea Foundation, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (Taiwan), and the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates,” he continued. “The Dumocrats love it, and are against anything ‘TRUMP.’ These people, and others like them, are so bad for our Country. Their stated course is anything to hate or demean ‘TRUMP.’

The 80-year-old president also threatened that CAP would be “met with a lawsuit,” which is apparently being drawn up now.

“I am also strongly considering adding some of the contributors to this Fake Organization. Crime is way down since I took Office, and they know it. Liars, at this level, must be held accountable! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

Trump, who spends an extraordinary amount of time watching cable news television as president, had his meltdown after managing to catch Hall on the relatively obscure Washington Journal program hosted on the C-SPAN television network.

Hall’s appearance on the show began at 9:25 a.m. ET on Monday morning, a period in which Trump’s public White House schedule listed him as taking part in “Executive Time.”

Analysis from the Daily Beast found that the 80-year-old president was only seen in public three times in Washington, D.C., before 11 a.m. during the entire month of June. On most of these days, Trump’s mornings were taken up with so-called “Executive Time.”

Trump’s post was shared alongside a clip of border czar Tom Homan praising the crackdown in D.C. during a Monday appearance on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show.

“I’ve lived in D.C. at least 15 years, and I wouldn’t walk the streets of D.C. without a concealed weapon,” Homan said. “President Trump has made Washington D.C. an example for the whole world. Over 16,000 arrests, almost 2,000 firearms taken off the street. Three dozen murder suspects taken off the street.”

In his Washington Journal appearance, Hall did state “in the interest of fairness” that the deployment of troops in areas like D.C. did result in a fall in “opportunistic property crime,” such as theft or vandalism.

Hall also noted that the nonpartisan D.C.-based think tank Niskanen Center issued a report in June revealing that Trump’s deployment of troops to the capital had no measurable effect on reducing violent crime.

Instead, the crackdown was merely a “blunt and expensive” stunt, as the troops’ presence in tourist areas only resulted in a 24-percent reduction in crimes such as theft and vandalism rather than violent crimes.

The Daily Beast has contacted the Center for American Progress for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/fuming-trump-80-erupts-as-his-17b-failure-is-exposed/?

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Trump Faces Bombshell Probe Over ICE Raids on Troops’ Families

Lawmakers demand answers after ICE detained more than 50 spouses and parents of active-duty troops.

An investigation into the roundup of American service members’ relatives by Donald Trump’s immigration agents has been launched by scores of lawmakers.The probe comes after the Associated Press found more than 50 spouses and parents of active-duty troops have been swept up in the president’s immigration crackdown. The Daily Beast previously reported on the detentions, which have led to at least six family members being deported.

In a letter sent Sunday evening to the Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, more than 60 Democrats vowed to establish whether the agencies are teaming up to expel troops’ family members.

They warned in the letter, provided to the Associated Press: “These efforts imperil military readiness, weaken service members’ morale, and betray America’s promises to the people who put their lives on the line for our nation.”

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, 77, is spearheading the investigation alongside Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, 80, Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, 58, and a group of House Democrats. “Donald Trump is breaking our country’s promises to service members by tearing apart dozens of military families who were promised immigration protections,” Warren said. “That’s just plain cruel, and it’s hurting our military readiness and morale.”

Troops’ parents and spouses were shielded from removal for decades under presidents of both parties. The AP found those safeguards have been stripped away as part of Trump’s mass deportation drive. Some service members have had to postpone deployments to care for their children after a spouse was seized. The lawmakers also demanded to know why military recruiters continue to dangle immigration protections as a perk of signing up.

“This report is appalling and shows the unbelievable cruelty at the center of the Trump immigration agenda,” said Blumenthal, the senior Democrat on the Senate veterans’ affairs committee. “We will be demanding answers and accountability.”

The letter landed days after Trump, 80, created the Military Spouse Commission—chaired by Jennifer Rauchet, wife of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, 46—to improve life for troops’ partners. In an Aug. 6 letter in the Federal Register, the president wrote that military spouses are “intrinsically linked to the good order, readiness, and retention of our military.”

The Pentagon told the AP it would “reply directly to the authors of the letter,” while DHS said, “U.S. military service alone does not automatically grant lawful immigration status, or exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.”

The VA, the White House, and Republican Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Jerry Moran of Kansas, who chair the Senate committees on armed services and veterans’ affairs, did not respond to the AP.

Danitza James, president of Repatriate Our Patriots, which supports military families and veterans facing deportation, told the outlet: “They trust our government to take care of their families, and they’re not doing that.”

The Daily Beast contacted the White House, DHS, the Pentagon, and the VA for comment. The White House referred us to DHS.

A DHS spokesperson said in a statement: “DHS and ICE value the contributions of all those who have served in the U.S. military. U.S. military service alone does not automatically grant lawful immigration status, or exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.

“Having a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate our nation’s laws. Military service by an immediate relative does not automatically grant parole, lawful status, or immunity from immigration enforcement; if you are in the United States illegally, you are subject to enforcement. Programs like Military Parole in Place (MIL-PIP) are NOT automatic—ICE will not ignore the immigration laws of our country.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-faces-bombshell-probe-over-ice-raids-on-troops-families/?

ps:Pathetic!!

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Project 2025 Goon Secretly Installed in Ultra-Sensitive Role

Right-winger chosen to make sure Reflecting Pool fiasco doesn’t reflect badly on the president.

Donald Trump is planning to put one of his most reliably right-wing goons in charge of any eventual investigation into his botched renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

The 80-year-old president personally oversaw the $16 million project to refurbish the D.C. landmark, only to watch as the waters turned slimy green and the pool lining split. He quickly blamed the damage on vandalism, even though his handpicked D.C. prosecutor couldn’t make any charges stick and passed the blame to Doug Burgum’s Interior Department, which was in charge of the refurb.

Now, Trump has nominated Dennis Kirk, a Project 2025 author and former adviser to Tulsi Gabbard, to run the Interior Department’s inspector general office—the watchdog that will oversee any investigation.

Kirk, whose contributions to Project 2025 as associate director included a training video and an essay on the consequences of “progressive ideology” in the federal workforce, had senior roles in the Office of Personnel Management during Trump’s first term, The Washington Post reported.

In the next administration, President Joe Biden withdrew Kirk’s nomination to the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, an executive branch agency that aims “to protect Federal merit systems against partisan political” practices.

Earlier in Trump’s second term, Kirk was an adviser to then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Yet at the same time, according the Post, Kirk was working in the office of the intelligence community’s inspector general—drawing criticism from Democrats and ethics groups.

Among those attacking Kirk’s nomination to the Interior Department IG job was Rep. Jared Huffman, the House Natural Resources Committee’s highest-ranking Democrat, who called Kirk a “fake and fraudulent watchdog.”

“Each and every thing this political puppet does will be in service of Donald Trump,” he said in a statement.

He went on: “This man helped write the Project 2025 playbook for seizing control of the federal workforce. Now he sits inside the office charged with rooting out corruption at Interior, the department that manages our national parks, public lands, Tribal programs, and now under Trump, gold-slathered statues and a botched Reflecting Pool renovation.

“That same office is weighing serious ethics investigations into senior officials in this administration. It’s no surprise the White House suddenly wants its own man inside the one place that Trump’s cronies still have reason to fear.”

In a statement, the Center for Western Priorities Executive Director Aaron Weiss referred to the firing last year of the Interior Department’s previous inspector general, Mark Lee Greenblatt.

“Interior’s watchdog was fired, left vacant for eighteen months, and is now hosting one of the architects of Project 2025,” Weiss said. “At least five investigation requests from members of Congress are sitting in that office right now, and its integrity has been compromised. Congress cannot outsource its constitutional oversight duty to an inspector general’s office taken over by the White House.”

One investigation request Weiss mentioned concerned reporting from Politico that Interior Department staffers would routinely shred official documents and use disappearing Signal messages.

Greenblatt himself was also critical of Kirk’s nomination, telling The Hill that “the chilling effect on whistleblowers is real.”

“Who would jeopardize their careers by submitting a complaint about an administration official to an IG who is avowedly aligned with the administration?”

White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told the Post in a statement that “Kirk has consistently demonstrated loyalty to the rule of law during his long career within government.”

The Daily Beast has reached out to the Interior Department for comment.

The White House said in a statement, “Dennis Kirk has a long career within government demonstrating a loyalty to the rule of law. We look forward to Mr. Kirk being confirmed as the next Inspector General at Interior.”

ps:Isn't that interesting!

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Trump Melts Down as His Suck-Up Pal Faces Humiliating Crisis

FIFA boss Gianni Infantino is facing intense calls to resign over his wild plans to sell the World Cup.

President Donald Trump has come out swinging for his under-fire FIFA shill, Gianni Infantino.

The Swiss soccer administrator finds himself in a sticky spot after it was revealed that he spearheaded a move to sell off a hefty chunk of the rights to the organization’s competitions, including the World Cup, the crown jewel of FIFA, soccer’s world governing body.

The idea, called the FIFA Forward Enterprise, was revealed by the Times of London about a week after the World Cup final. It was immediately, and ferociously, panned by the football world, including regional associations under FIFA.

The blowback to the idea has been so intense that it has been scrapped and Infantino, 56, looks to be clinging onto power, with not many allies rushing to his aid. However, perhaps because of his jaw-dropping charm offensive on Trump—for whom he created the FIFA Peace Prize last year—he still has one powerful backer.

“FIFA would be making a terrible mistake if, for any reason, they even considered replacing President Gianni Infantino,” the 80-year-old wrote on Truth Social on Monday evening, breaking his silence on the matter and throwing his weight behind his friend.

“He is fantastic, having just presided over the most successful World Cup, by four times, ever presented. If he is gone, it will never be as successful or profitable again!”

Infatino earns $6 million a year in his position and, as The Times put it, the job—along with flying on a private jet and hanging out with celebrities and world leaders—has “become his sole identity.” He would have got a $30 million salary if his plan went through, according to reports.

It comes after Infantino received yet another blow from the soccer world when the presidents and general secretaries of European governing body UEFA, North & Central American and Caribbean governing body CONCACAF, and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) called for his resignation in an open letter on Monday.

“Leadership in football is not a possession. It is not about holding—or demanding—power to be held. It is a duty of service to the football family that entrusts it,” the letter read.

“When trust is broken through deception, when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, that duty has been abandoned.”

The blowback started when UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, threatened to pull all European nations from FIFA competitions. Soon after, CONCACAF, the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, joined its European counterparts in boycotting; then the Asian federations said it “stood with” the other two.

UEFA, fellow FIFA administrators and even the new prime minister of the United Kingdom, Andy Burnham, publicly heaped scorn on Infantino. But he is clinging on. On Saturday, the organization hit back, crying foul over a “concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine FIFA and its President.”

That came after reporting turned personal. The Daily Telegraph in London reported last week that married Infantino had an affair with a junior employee while he was the general secretary of UEFA, and his alleged lover was paid “a six-figure sum” when she left the organization.

Infantino does have some support, with CONMEBOL (South America) and CAF (Africa) on his side. Mexico has broken ranks with its administration, CONCACAF, to back him, too.

But now he has perhaps his most powerful backer yet.

Trump has a vested interest in the Enterprise. Joshua Kushner, whose brother Jared Kushner is the president’s son-in-law, was slated to invest in the enterprise through his company, Thrive Eternal.

Infantino spent months leading up to the World Cup lavishing Trump with shiny gold gifts and furnishing him with compliments.

He also created a Peace Prize and awarded it to the president, opened a FIFA office in Trump Tower in New York, and allowed the Club World Cup trophy to be displayed in the Oval Office. He also laughed along during Trump’s inauguration speech as the president threatened World Cup co-hosts Canada and Mexico.

Last week, Infantino appeared to borrow directly from Trump’s rhetorical playbook, describing critics of the World Cup’s organization as being “so consumed by hate and criticism.”

Infantino, who was first elected in 2016 and ran unopposed in 2019 and 2023, reportedly scrambled to the Trump administration when his plan unraveled. The New York Post reported last week that he had repeatedly tried and failed to reach Trump by phone after the deal collapsed, and instead scheduled a call with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-melts-down-as-his-suck-up-pal-faces-humiliating-crisis/?

ps:How pathetic are these people?????

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Trump’s vaccine order explained

President Donald Trump signs an executive order about vaccines on Monday. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday that recommends US children receive fewer vaccinations spread out over a longer period of time, despite little scientific evidence supporting such changes.

While the Trump administration says the shift is meant to give families more flexibility in deciding when to vaccinate their kids, many doctors say the president’s approach could instead create greater uncertainty and confusion.

For now, though, as millions of children head back to school, not much will change. Health experts say any shifts to the shots available or the CDC’s recommended schedule could take months or years — if they happen at all. The order will now likely be challenged in court. At stake is how far Trump’s power can reach in reshaping vaccine policy, particularly when his approach is at odds with established scientific guidance.

+ Read more: What Trump’s order means for vaccinations this fall

+ Video: Erin Burnett debunks Trump’s claim that childhood vaccine is ‘size of a bottle of soda’ (2:19)

+ Fact check: Trump makes numerous false and misleading claims about vaccines and autism

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Bad Loser Trump Confesses Sinister Election Power Grab

With his declining popularity weighing on GOP candidates heading into the midterms, the president made another ominous threat.

Donald Trump has refused to rule out declaring a national security emergency over the 2026 elections, in his latest sinister threat to interfere with November’s midterms.

Amid growing GOP fears that Democrats could regain control of Congress, paving the way for the president to be investigated and potentially impeached, Trump has hinted that he could invoke extraordinary powers to meddle in the process.

The threat came during a post-midnight interview on right-wing network Real America’s Voice, when host and conspiracy theorist Wayne Allyn Root told Trump he had the “right” to declare a national security emergency if the Senate can’t pass his signature election bill, the SAVE Act.

The Act, which remains stalled in the Senate, would impose new identification restrictions on voting and curb mail-in ballots, but critics view it as another attempt at voter suppression.

“If they never get the SAVE America Act done, you have the right to declare a national security emergency for elections,” Root told Trump, citing a 1983 Supreme Court ruling that he claimed would make it hard for such a move to be overturned without a two-thirds vote in Congress.

“If you do this in the next month, we will get photo ID, proof of citizenship, and a limit to mail-in ballots.”

Trump, who still believes the 2020 election was rigged, replied ominously.

“Let me just say, stranger things have happened,” the 80-year-old said. “I’ll leave it at that.”

The U.S. Constitution makes clear that states administer elections and any attempt to expand federal control would certainly be challenged in the courts.

But the exchange, which is not the first time Trump and his allies have mused about invoking an emergency declaration over the polls, nonetheless revived concerns about how far he might be prepared to go to reshape the election.

GOP strategists have told the Daily Beast that fears of a Democratic “blue wave” have been particularly potent in recent months as Trump’s declining popularity over issues such as the war and affordability become a drag on candidates heading into November’s midterms.

Trump himself acknowledged last week that voters were “angry at Republicans,” but insisted, despite polls showing otherwise, “they’re not angry at me.”

“The question is, will they vote because a lot of them are very angry at Republicans,” he told PunchBowl News, acknowledging the impact this could have on turnout.

To hold on to power—both this year and at the next presidential election in 2028—Trump has previously made a series of other wild threats, such as canceling midterms altogether or running for an unconstitutional third term.

At one point, he even questioned whether he should stay on for a fourth term, even though the U.S. Constitution bans Americans from being elected as president more than twice.

In February, a 17-page draft proposal circulated among Trump allies also contemplated invoking a national emergency over alleged foreign interference in American elections and using it to give the federal government sweeping powers over voting.

The document envisioned measures such as voter identification requirements and hand-counting of ballots. Trump at the time said he was not considering the proposal, but in his latest interview he goes much further, not ruling it out as he continues to obsess about the SAVE Act.

Among other things, the Act would require Americans to prove their citizenship upon registering and to show photo ID to vote in federal elections. But it remains stalled in the U.S. Senate, where it lacks the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/bad-loser-trump-confesses-sinister-election-power-grab/?

ps:Pathetic!!

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Trump’s Tacky Gold Gift Explodes Into ‘Cartoonish Bribe’ Scandal

They said it fits a “deeply troubling pattern” of gifts being exchanged for perks.

Democrats have ripped a jewelry firm, saying their gift to President Donald Trump could have amounted to a “cartoonish bribe.”

Trump was handed a “watch-sized” 18-karat gold ring bejeweled with 321 diamonds, 56 sapphires, 13 emeralds, and six rubies, completed with the numbers 45 and 47, by the Belgian diamond industry’s primary lobbying organization to honor his two terms in office.

The gift, reported by the Associated Press to be worth between $25,000 and $35,000, has rankled Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal, who on Monday wrote a strongly worded letter to the president and founder of the Antwerp World Diamond Center, Isidore Mörsel and David Gotlib.

In the letter, they drew a link between the gift and the Belgian diamond industry’s subsequent exclusion from a new round of tariffs implemented on European countries.

The new round was introduced in July and is the latest workaround in Trump’s bid to levy charges without congressional oversight after the Supreme Court ruled his previous IEEPA project unlawful in February. The new plan sees rates ranging from 10 to 12.5 percent placed on 80 countries.

“We write regarding our concerns about the watch-sized, 18-karat gold ring encrusted with 321 diamonds and 75 gemstones that the Antwerp World Diamond Center (AWDC) gifted to President Trump, just weeks before the Administration announced it was exempting European diamonds from its chaotic tariffs,” Warren and Blumenthal said.

“We have previously raised concerns about ‘the President’s record of doling out special treatment to CEOs who are able to woo him with flattery, payoffs, or both,’ and the circumstances surrounding the European diamond industry’s exemptions raise troubling new questions about foreign corporate interests potentially buying special favors from President Trump with lavish gifts—or in the case of the gold ring, what appears to be a cartoonish bribe.”

In their message, they also laid out how the ring came into U.S. possession, revealing it was passed to the ambassador to Belgium during an America 250 event.

“On June 28, 2026, at an America 250 celebration in Brussels, Mr. Mörsel presented U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Bill White with the aforementioned ring for delivery to President Trump. Custom-crafted by Mr. Gotlib, the watch-sized, 18-karat gold ring features 321 diamonds, 56 sapphires, 13 emeralds, six rubies, two diamond ‘T’ emblems, Superman-style ’45′ and ’47′ logos, the Presidential Seal, and an interior engraving reading: ‘Crafted in Antwerp for Donald John Trump.’

“Mr. Mörsel explicitly linked the gift to trade issues, stating that AWDC commissioned the ring to “celebrate that enduring relationship” with the Antwerp diamond sector’s “most important trading partner for generations.”

According to the U.S. embassy in Brussels, cited by MS Now, a video of Trump was played at the celebration, where he said, “A very special thank you to my friends from Antwerp for the magnificent Freedom 250 ring.”

The senators then noted that despite Trump not being able to keep the ring under congressional anti-corruption laws, “presenting a gift of this magnitude could still play directly into President Trump’s well-established affinity for shiny gifts.”

The senators from Massachusetts and Connecticut then alleged that the “return on your ‘ostentatious’ gift appears to have been swift and substantial,” because “the administration officially exempted European natural diamonds from the new Section 301 tariffs, restoring the Belgian diamond industry’s zero-percent tariff access to the U.S. market.”

They added that it “fits a deeply troubling pattern of corporate executives using flattery and gifts to obtain lucrative exemptions to the administration’s tariff rules.”

They then asked AWDC to answer a list of questions about the events that led to the gifting of the ring and warned that their actions could “raise serious legal questions under federal criminal law.”

They gave them until August 24 to respond.

The White House denied that Trump issued a favorable ruling with Europe because of the gift.

“The Trump administration agreed to provide preferential tariff treatment for diamonds as part of our historic trade deal with the European Union that was agreed to last summer. The exemption of diamonds in the Forced Labor Section 301 tariffs reflects how the Administration continues upholding our end of the deal. The only special interest guiding the Trump administration’s decision-making is the best interest of the American people,” Spokesman Kush Desai told the Daily Beast.

The Daily Beast has contacted the Antwerp World Diamond Center for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-tacky-gold-gift-explodes-into-cartoonish-bribe-scandal/?

ps:Pathetic!!!!!

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• ✈️ New photos are emerging from President Trump's flight out of Turkey last month, when he reportedly used a catering container to secretly switch planes to dodge an Iranian threat. The smaller plane Trump is said to have boarded, an Air Force C-32A, is seen here behind the Boeing 747 that's been the traditional presidential plane. That plane flew on, with reporters thinking Trump was aboard. Get the latest.

Judge again bars Trump administration from implementing order that sought to limit mail voting

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday ruled against President Donald Trump’s executive order that sought to create a federal voter list and directly involve the U.S. Postal Service in election operations in a way that would limit mail voting.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-executive-order-elections-midterms-voting-rights-159c192e48670a8740a6a378c683cb61?

Government fights trade judge’s order for tariff refunds to all importers

Government lawyers said a Court of International Trade judge overstepped his authority by ordering the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol to issue refunds to all companies that paid tariffs that were deemed illegal in February, even those that didn't file a lawsuit in trade court. Read More.

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One Battle After Another

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Over the past few days, the president has continued his crusade against one of the supposed vandals of the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool. In a lengthy post on Truth Social on Sunday, he alleged that “a National Park Service career employee, a highly credible witness,” had caught the former Olympic canoeist David Hearn in the act of “ripping and tugging at the Pool’s somewhat delicate coating.”

The problem is that the Department of Justice’s case against Hearn is already effectively over. More than a week earlier, federal prosecutors dropped the charges against him, citing information from the Department of the Interior; the damage to the Reflecting Pool was “the result of a botched installation and not vandalism,” the government’s motion to dismiss reads. That evidence—and the judgment of DOJ—has done little to stop Donald Trump from pursuing this debunked theory over and over again. In recent weeks, the president has repeatedly returned to the same few vendettas and personal obsessions, trying to push them forward no matter the evidence against them. His strategy is summed up by a self-assessment that he gave CNN more than a decade ago: “I am the most fabulous whiner,” he said. “I keep whining and whining until I win.”

Today, The Wall Street Journal reported that White House officials have asked the Justice Department to consider prosecuting Hearn a second time. By doubling down on his vandalism thesis, Trump is sending a strong message to one of his most ardent supporters, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, whom he already castigated last week for dropping the charges. “I guess she choked,” he told reporters at the time.

The rulings of the Supreme Court don’t seem to sway the president either. On Thursday, he doubled down on another mission of personal importance—limiting birthright citizenship—despite the Court’s recent decision to strike down a previous executive order on the subject. Trump has now issued two new orders that are narrower in scope. One seeks to expand the category of children whom the government can deny automatic citizenship, and the other targets “birth tourism,” a phenomenon in which people travel to the United States “for the purpose of giving birth on American soil”—something that the law already prohibits. These new attempts to upend more than a century of precedent are likely to face significant legal challenges. This tactic wasn’t Trump’s only option: Drawing on Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s June opinion, the president could potentially urge Congress to amend a particular statute or enact new legislation to limit birthright citizenship (although this legislation would be unlikely to pass). Instead, he chose to use the same tool in the hope of getting a different result.

Trump is also forging ahead on his attempts to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. Nearly a year ago, the president tried to fire her over allegations of mortgage fraud. In June, the Court ruled that she couldn’t be fired, in part because the White House hadn’t given her a chance to contest the allegations. Last week, Trump’s longtime aide Dan Scavino sent Cook a letter warning her that she may still be removed and telling her in no uncertain terms that “this is your opportunity to respond.” In this case, Trump appears to be cooperating with the Court, although it’s uncertain whether this procedure will be enough to satisfy it. The note makes clear that the president isn’t letting up in his quest to oust Cook.

Trump’s tenacity in pursuing his own agenda is nothing new. Take, for example, his eight-year attempt to brand former FBI Director James Comey as a criminal, despite a lack of evidence; when, in the fall, the first set of charges against him didn’t stick, Trump’s Justice Department simply tried again. As David A. Graham wrote in his story last week about the birthright-citizenship orders, the president’s recent actions invoke a kind of déjà vu. The commitment to doubling down has become a one-size-fits-all strategy: Trump’s desire to fight back doesn’t necessarily correlate with the odds of victory in a given situation. My colleague Tom Nichols recently noted that the president’s push to prosecute Hearn has only emphasized “just how immune to evidence and logic his beliefs have become.” Trump’s fixation on the Reflecting Pool is also directing his focus away from the issues that midterm voters care about most, such as affordability.

Meanwhile, new setbacks are arriving all the time. On Friday, after an appeals court upheld the block on Trump’s attempts to build a new ballroom for the White House, the president promised to make his case to the Supreme Court. That fight, like so many others, is not over until Trump says it is.

Related:

• Trump’s déjà vu moment on birthright citizenship
• Tom Nichols: Trump’s irrationality is dangerous.

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Trump says Secret Service and the military wanted him off Air Force One in Turkey due to threat

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he slipped away from Air Force One after a trip last month in Turkey because the Secret Service and military wanted him on a “different plane” due to a threat that he insisted didn’t scare him.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-secret-flight-turkey-iran-threats-d23a6454d1410cc8461368007db6ca25?

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Kennedy Center's future

The Kennedy Center, seen from the Washington Monument on Monday. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images Earlier this month, Kennedy Center budget planners sketched out three options for its two-year renovation, including ways to keep the National Symphony Orchestra performing during construction, Axios D.C.'s Cuneyt Dil has learned. Why it matters: The early plans — ahead of a board meeting tomorrow — offer a glimpse at how President Trump's allies are contemplating undertaking a controversial two-year closure. One scenario envisions the renowned 96-year-old orchestra — a fixture at the Kennedy Center — performing at "offsite alternate venues," according to a slide deck of budget plans obtained by Axios. Another scenario is more logistically complex. It'd keep the NSO performing inside the Kennedy Center — with a "phased" construction approach that could stretch beyond two years. A third, slimmed-down option appears to pause NSO programs. 👂 What we're hearing: Financial projections for the two-year renovation reveal keeping the NSO running costs $25 million annually. The forecasts are separate from the $250 million Trump anticipates spending on the renovation. Keep reading ...

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Trump says Secret Service and the military wanted him off Air Force One in Turkey due to threat President Donald Trump downplayed the extraordinary nature of the subterfuge involved in his flight, which saw him stow away in an airport catering container to sneak onto another plane while Air Force One was sent into the sky, essentially as a decoy. Read more.

Why this matters: “They wanted me to go on a different flight, different plane,” Trump said Tuesday, saying he had little choice in the matter. His comments confirmed a report that first appeared in The Washington Post saying Trump, following a NATO summit last month, was spirited onto a different plane because of a credible threat from Iran, which he insisted didn't scare him. The action was kept secret for weeks until the newspaper’s story. Concealing Trump’s whereabouts at the time and for weeks afterward is believed to be unprecedented.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ WATCH: Elaborate ruse to fly Trump out of Turkey explained FACT FOCUS: Trump makes false claims as he signs order urging revisions around childhood vaccines Trump administration faces lawsuit over its targeting of the International Criminal Court

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Kennedy Center's future

The Kennedy Center, seen from the Washington Monument on Monday. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images Earlier this month, Kennedy Center budget planners sketched out three options for its two-year renovation, including ways to keep the National Symphony Orchestra performing during construction, Axios D.C.'s Cuneyt Dil has learned. Why it matters: The early plans — ahead of a board meeting tomorrow — offer a glimpse at how President Trump's allies are contemplating undertaking a controversial two-year closure. One scenario envisions the renowned 96-year-old orchestra — a fixture at the Kennedy Center — performing at "offsite alternate venues," according to a slide deck of budget plans obtained by Axios. Another scenario is more logistically complex. It'd keep the NSO performing inside the Kennedy Center — with a "phased" construction approach that could stretch beyond two years. A third, slimmed-down option appears to pause NSO programs. 👂 What we're hearing: Financial projections for the two-year renovation reveal keeping the NSO running costs $25 million annually. The forecasts are separate from the $250 million Trump anticipates spending on the renovation. Keep reading ...