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

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Shameful State of Trump’s Warship Is Finally Revealed

The USS Abraham Lincoln is at port after 286 days at sea.

The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier arrived in Thailand on Wednesday looking rusty and beat up after a nightmare deployment.

The ship is heading back to its home port of San Diego after being replaced by the Japan-based USS George Washington. The ship’s arrival at Laem Chabang Port in Chonburi province comes weeks after concerns were raised about the welfare of the crew of about 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard.

The Abraham Lincoln left San Diego on Nov. 21 last year and has spent almost all of the 286 days since at sea, making only brief stops in Guam in December and in Oman to replenish supplies as President Donald Trump’s war in Iran raged on.

The 1,092-foot warship, which is one of the largest in the world, looked a shadow of its former self as it lumbered into the port near the party destination of Pattaya in the east of Thailand.

Crowds gathered to watch the spectacle after sunrise, with the deterioration of the ship becoming clearer as it edged closer to port. The vessel’s paint has chipped off badly, whilst rust seems to dominate its hull.

It will stay in Laem Chabang Port for a four-day “rest and relaxation” stop before continuing its journey back to the U.S. This is its first full port stop since it was deployed in November.

“Our arrival in Laem Chabang provides a well-deserved opportunity for our sailors and Marines to rest and recharge,” said Rear Adm. Robert E. Loughran, commander of Carrier Strike Group 3. “It also underscores the strong and enduring partnership and alliance between the United States and Thailand.”

Indeed, those excited sailors and Marines were photographed spilling onto the streets of Pattaya, a resort town known as Thailand’s ‘Sin City,’ which has a murky sex-driven illegal underworld. NBC News reported that some 5,000 service members were set to enjoy the seaside destination.

“Please be on your best behavior,” a commanding officer could be heard saying over loudspeaker, according to the aforementioned publication.

The former fishing village has a murky underworld and a reputation as a sex tourism hot spot. Officials were ready for the arrival of the pent-up sailors.

In preparation, over the weekend Thai police conducted a late-night sweep targeting public prostitution along Pattaya’s main beachfront promenade, according to Thai media. Twenty-five people suspected of soliciting in public were detained, including 18 Thais, five Laotians and two Ugandans.

The sailors will be glad to leave the floating nightmare. Family members had spoken out about the gross conditions on the aircraft carrier, whose deployment was originally expected to last seven months before being extended. Conditions reportedly deteriorated after Iran destroyed a U.S. Navy base in Manama, Bahrain, which had served as a vital supply hub for American forces in the region.

Sailors have reportedly been forced to wash in moldy showers, ration their meals and necessities such as soap, toothpaste, and deodorant, while many are working to the point of exhaustion, with some experiencing deteriorating mental health.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-rust-covered-warship-limps-to-port-after-nightmare-voyage/?

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Pentagon in ‘Disarray’ as Hegseth Faces Double Crisis

The defense secretary is under fire for taking a wrecking ball to military leadership in the middle of a war.

Pete Hegseth is accused of setting the military up for potential disaster as the fallout of his ego-driven overhaul of top leadership spills into public view.

The 46-year-old former Fox News host has masterminded a massive purge within the Defense Department that saw Army Secretary Dan Driscoll walk out on Monday, raising fears about a lack of experienced leadership at the top of the military.

It comes as the Pentagon burns through resources—both material and human—in its fight with Iran, which has now dragged on for over six months despite President Trump initially projecting it to last four to five weeks.

The fight is thought to be exacting a heavy toll on the nation’s weapons and munitions stockpiles, which the Center for Strategic and International Studies says will last for the war in Iran, but which pose a threat to the U.S.’s ability to fight future wars. The Associated Press, however, reports that the war has used around 65 percent of Patriot interceptor missiles.

Driscoll said he feared that Hegseth’s leadership of the Defense Department could cause “generational damage,” a person familiar with the close JD Vance ally told the Financial Times.

He “had tried so many different ways and so many different times, but it was just clear that... Hegseth wasn’t willing to listen to the facts or the truth, or the reason, or any of that, because of his personal animosity,” they said.

Reflecting on his exit, Brookings Institution senior fellow Tom Wright told the FT that it was a “revelatory moment, and I think it illustrates that the Pentagon is in disarray.”

Hegseth’s latest act is to block the progression of seven officers tapped by a military committee to become two-star generals, amid a wider crusade that has seen 80 top military leaders either shown the door or have their promotions blocked. Two of the seven were Black, and two were female.

Driscoll reportedly feared that Hegseth’s reimagining of the Defense Department in his image was removing vital experience and harming both morale and the military’s effort to modernize, The New York Times reported.

More than half of Hegseth’s firings have been of Black or female officers, The New York Times reports

Driscoll’s exit follows the ouster of Army chief Gen. Randy George, who served as chief of staff of the United States Army from 2023 to 2026, but who Hegseth showed the door to in April, a year and a half before the typical four-year term would have ended.

The departure of both men means the Army currently has neither a top civilian nor a uniformed boss.

Announcing his departure, Driscoll wrote in a statement on X that, “I had the privilege of working… to modernize and accelerate how the Army mans, trains, and equips the most lethal fighting force on the face of the earth.

“We could not have made the progress we did without the support of Secretary Hegseth.”

To make Hegseth’s headache worse, his acting Army chief of staff, Gen. Christopher LaNeve, is not on track to get the required vote to pass his Senate confirmation hearing, if he were to be officially nominated.

Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Sen. Roger Wicker said in May that he had become aware of “some opposition within the committee” to LaNeve’s appointment, Politico reported at the time.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported that Sen. Joni Ernst is among a group of Republican senators who don’t think LaNeve has enough experience as a four-star general to take over the role if he gets the appointment.

“The opposition... is not about LaNeve himself. It’s about Hegseth, and the anger that is very much still alive on Capitol Hill over General George’s exit and Hegseth running roughshod over the army,” a congressional aide told the FT.

Now concerns have been raised about the two top positions, both empty and in need of the Senate approval process at a time when the Army is engaged in direct operations—particularly in air defense—in the conflict with Iran.

Hegseth’s war is also taking a toll on the Pentagon’s human resources. Sailors and Marines aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln were only last week relieved from their deployment in the Middle East after over 250 days at sea.

They fought in the war from the very beginning in February, amid reports of deteriorating conditions onboard. The Military Times even reported that some sailors had attempted to go overboard.

The war has cost 18 service members their lives and left more than 750 wounded.

It is also feared that the war may have a long term impact on the U.S. presence in the Middle East. The Washington Post cited eight sources who said that the U.S. was considering a diminished presence once the fighting was over, with two saying many of its bases had taken a brutal beating at the hands of Iranian missiles and drones.

Hegseth faces a headache with the Navy too, after Navy Secretary John Phelan stepped down in April.

Trump on Tuesday tapped Acting Navy Secretary and two-time failed congressional candidate Hung Cao to take over the role, pending Senate approval.

“It is unimaginable that Secretary Hegseth is purging the ranks of top military officials at the same time that the U.S. is in an ongoing conflict and as security challenges mount,” said ranking armed services committee member Jeanne Shaheen, according to the FT.

“The premise that the Department is in disarray is completely baseless and an insult to every dedicated professional and warfighter in this building who comes to work every day to defend this nation,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told Axios.

He also said that the U.S. “maintains a deep, ready arsenal.”

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly denied that there was any shortage of munitions and said Trump has “complete trust” in Hegseth.

In a statement to the Daily Beast, she also blamed the previous administration for Hegseth’s overhaul of the military, saying: “After Joe Biden’s Pentagon prioritized DEI and woke ideology, President Trump and Secretary Hegseth quickly reversed course and restored a Department of War that is focused on readiness, lethality, and supporting our warfighters.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pentagon-in-disarray-as-hegseth-faces-double-crisis/?

ps:Oh man are these guys pathetic or what?????

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Trump Humiliated as Republicans Skip His Big Day En Masse

The president cannot even get his own lawmakers to care about his midterm convention.

Republicans are rolling out the excuses to skip Donald Trump’s midterm convention, which the president has organized in a desperate attempt to give the GOP a much-needed election boost.

Trump is set to headline the second day of the televised event in Dallas next week in an attempt to galvanize voters amid continuing expectations that the GOP is going to suffer an electoral wipeout in November’s crucial elections.

However, at least 45 Republican candidates and members have told Politico they will skip the Sept. 9-10 event, dubbed “Trumpapalooza,” with dozens still unsure whether they will bother to attend.

The lawmakers have come up with an array of excuses, from wanting to remain in their districts to campaign, prior arrangements, the eye-watering $25,000 entrance fee, and a desire to distance themselves from the deeply unpopular president to boost their election hopes. One House Republican said they are not attending the event because it will be a “waste of time.”

“You shouldn’t be having to rally your base at this point,” the House Republican told Politico. “You should be trying to convince independents. Independents are not attending nor watching the midterm convention.”

Rep. Tom Barrett, who is fighting to retain his competitive Michigan seat in November, said he will not be attending Trump’s convention because he feels he would be “more useful in my district.”

“I travel a lot for this job and if I can be back home and see my family and do the job back home as well, then that’s sort of what I lean toward doing,” he said. House Republicans are well aware that intense voter backlash to Trump’s second term—including the war in Iran and rising gas and food prices—could affect their chances in the midterms.

Some are also concerned that, rather than using the convention to boost Republicans’ election hopes, Trump will waste his headline appearance by rambling on about his personal obsessions, such as his White House ballroom, or dismissing the affordability concerns faced by tens of millions of Americans.

“I can’t control what the president’s going to say at the convention, but I can control where I’m at, what I’m doing,” Rep. Barrett said.

Several other House members said they cannot come to Dallas because of prior family or campaign engagements.

Reps. Chris Smith of New Jersey and Andrew Garbarino of New York said they will remain in their districts to take part in events related to the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole said he will be going to a dove-hunting event in Oklahoma rather than attending Trump’s convention.

House Speaker Mike Johnson will be at the convention and still expects a decent attendance in Dallas. However, he admitted at a Tuesday news conference that many House Republicans will want to remain in their districts because “it’s a critical time right before early voting begins nationwide.”

There is also the issue of who will actually want to watch the event on television. Both nights of the convention will coincide with the first two games of the NFL season, which are guaranteed to draw a bigger primetime audience.

“It raises the question of whether the timing is somewhere between ill-conceived or just not conceived at all,” Joshua Blank, research director for the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, told The Hill. “It seems more like a reaction to concerns about enthusiasm among Republican voters. It’s more of a reaction than it is a clear plan.”

The White House referred a request for comment to the Republican National Committee.

“The outreach and enthusiasm to attend, participate, and speak at this historic midterm convention has been incredible, from members of Congress to Republican candidates to everyday Americans,” RNC National Press Secretary Natalie Baldassarre said.

“Republicans across the country are rallying behind President Trump’s America First agenda that’s brought lower drug prices, lower taxes, and a secure border, and this convention will provide the momentum needed to expand our majorities in November.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-humiliated-as-republicans-skip-his-big-day-en-masse/?

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Trump Administration Sets Grim New Poll Record

An astounding nine in 10 Americans now believe corruption is widespread in the U.S. government—a figure that has spiked under Trump.

More Americans than ever now believe corruption is widespread across the U.S. government.

A new Gallup poll found that nearly nine in 10 Americans now believe corruption is prevalent across the government—a 10-point increase from the same survey last year, in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term.

Those figures mean the United States has the highest level of perceived government corruption among countries with advanced economies, according to Gallup, which polled 1,000 Americans in May and June.

The increase has been particularly pronounced among Democrats, whose views have shifted sharply since Trump returned to the White House.

In 2024, during Joe Biden’s presidency, 57 percent of Democrats said corruption was widespread. That figure increased to 76 percent in 2025, Trump’s first year back in office, and reached 91 percent this year, according to Gallup.

Republican views, by contrast, have changed comparatively little over the same period. This year, 83 percent of Republicans said corruption was widespread, compared with 90 percent of independents.

In response, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told the Daily Beast: “President Trump has launched an all-out war on fraud across the entire federal government, holding criminals accountable and saving taxpayers billions of dollars. The Democrats in Congress have refused to do anything to stop waste, fraud, and abuse in our government.”

Polls point to a likely brutal midterms for Republicans, with perceptions of corruption within the Trump administration likely a factor in the grim GOP outlook. A recent Emerson College poll has Democrats leading Republicans by eight points on the generic congressional ballot.

Democrats have increasingly focused their criticism on what they describe as potential conflicts of interest and “self-dealing” within the Trump administration. The allegations include scrutiny of a proposed $1.8 billion compensation fund for administration allies who said they had been unfairly investigated, as well as no-bid contracts awarded to individuals and firms with ties to Trump allies.

The issue has also drawn attention to Trump’s personal financial activity while serving as president.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Robert Garcia sent Trump a 17-page letter last month demanding an explanation for the more than 21,000 stock trades made in his name in 2025, followed by another 3,500 in the first three months of 2026. The transactions generated more than $2.2 billion in revenue last year, according to The New York Times.

Warren and Garcia characterized the activity as extraordinary, writing: “The sheer volume of stock trading by a sitting president is unprecedented. You—or the entities responsible for your accounts—made an average of approximately 50 trades every day markets were open during the first quarter of 2026.”

The lawmakers also pointed to 15 transactions they argued could present potential conflicts of interest. One involved Trump’s purchase of Nvidia and AMD stock on Jan. 6, shortly before the administration announced policy changes that would make it easier for the companies to sell chips to China.

Trump has said he does not participate in the decisions underlying his investments. White House officials have likewise claimed that the president and his relatives have not, and would not, engage in conflicts of interest.

Congressional Democrats are also expanding their scrutiny to members of Trump’s family.

House Democrats announced last week that they had launched an investigation into Donald Trump Jr. and 1789 Capital, the venture capital firm he joined after his father returned to the White House.

In a letter obtained by MS NOW, Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, asked whether 1789 Capital’s investment decisions since January 2025 benefited from access to the Trump administration.

“There is a broad base consensus for the fact that something is broken in Washington,” David Szakonyi, a political science professor at George Washington University, told The Washington Post.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-administration-sets-grim-new-poll-record/?

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• ⚓ The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier docked in Thailand today after its grueling Middle East deployment sparked concerns about sailors' mental health and living conditions. Today is the first full port stop in more than nine months — a deployment Trump said last month wasn't "nearly long enough." Go deeper.

• 💰 The U.S. Mint began selling gold-colored $1 coins featuring an image of Trump today. The coins can be used as legal tender, but that doesn't guarantee every store will accept them, Axios' Herb Scribner reports.

🇨🇦 Trump's beef with Canada is irking Americans. More than 6 in 10 (63%) oppose Trump's executive order to rename Lake Ontario "Lake America," per a recent Reuters-Ipsos poll. Americans also expressed wariness over the renewed U.S.-Canada trade war, Axios' Avery Lotz reports.

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Some Bets Are Off (Alex Kent / The Washington Post / Getty)

View in browser The day before Donald Trump’s second State of the Union address, the former Representative George Santos shared a video of himself saying, in no uncertain terms, that he was “going to be there.” The next day, he didn’t show up. According to the prediction-market company Kalshi, that was the plan—the firm alleged that he made roughly $17,000 by betting on the platform that he wouldn’t appear at the speech. Kalshi flagged the wager to federal authorities, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the agency that regulates prediction markets, fined Santos over it in July. On Monday, Kalshi doubled down, levying a fine of its own and giving him the platform’s first-ever lifetime ban.   Prediction-market companies, which let users make bets on the outcomes of all sorts of real-world events, have fully entered the mainstream over the past few years. You can find their logos at major sporting events, on cable-news broadcasts, and at awards shows. They’re easy to access and, thanks to a recent advertising blitz, essentially ubiquitous. Trading volumes on Kalshi and Polymarket, the two market leaders, have exceeded $200 billion and $100 billion this year, respectively. But these companies have strenuously resisted the idea that they should be thought of as gambling platforms. “I just don’t really know what this has to do with gambling,” Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said of his company last year. (By avoiding this classification, prediction markets have also been able to operate in states where sports betting is banned.) Instead, Kalshi and Polymarket have suggested that their platforms are digital oracles: potent indicators of what the future might hold, fueled by the wisdom of the crowd.   In recent months, a nascent crackdown on insider trading has been exposing a fundamental tension in these companies’ guiding principles. If the goal is to create fair markets and not get targeted by the government, then they must enforce a ban on insider trading, as U.S. regulators already do. But if the goal is forecasting—aligning these markets’ odds with what’s really going to happen in the world—then allowing bettors to trade on inside information could actually benefit these platforms. This, at least, was once the thinking of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, who described his platform last year as “the most accurate thing we have as mankind right now, until someone else creates some sort of a super crystal ball.” In response to a question about his approach to preventing insider trading, he said in November that Polymarket “creates this financial incentive for people to go and divulge the information to the market”—theoretically creating more accurate projections.   This may help explain why Polymarket has taken so long to clamp down on insider trading. The company didn’t explicitly ban the practice until March, nearly six years after its founding. Kalshi took a different tack: When I reached out to the company in January, its representatives stressed that insider trading was unambiguously prohibited. (But the question of which offenders are penalized—and what those punishments look like—still seems to be decided on a case-by-case basis.)   This year, both companies have been ramping up their enforcement efforts. The shift began back in January, when The Wall Street Journal reported that, in the lead-up to the U.S. capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, an unknown trader had made more than $400,000 betting that Maduro would soon be out of power. To many observers, it certainly looked like insider trading—and lawmakers from both parties began pushing for stricter regulation. A few months later, Polymarket notified the Department of Justice that one of the soldiers involved in the operation had allegedly placed the wager, and the agency indicted him for trading on nonpublic information (he has pleaded not guilty).   According to a spokesperson for Polymarket, the company’s insider-trading investigations have led to “nearly 100 referrals to law enforcement,” and its work on the Maduro bets and on a separate case involving a Google employee resulted in the “first and second prediction markets insider trading cases charged in the United States.” This week, in addition to the Santos ban, Kalshi announced several new settlements with public figures accused of insider trading on its platform, including a North Carolinian candidate for the House who has admitted to betting on her own race. (“I bet on myself,” she wrote in an emailed statement. “It was a dumb mistake, and as soon as I learned there was an issue, I worked to make it right.”) And this past weekend, Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator paid $172,000 to settle the CFTC’s claims that he was betting on the individual words that the president would use in his speeches—claims first made by Kalshi.   Regulators don’t have a unified approach to this sector. As The New York Times points out, 20 states are now waging legal battles over whether these companies should be subject to the same laws as online sportsbooks. In an apparent defense of the industry, the CFTC has sued some of the states suing prediction-market companies for infringing on federal jurisdiction. Polymarket’s international platform, which runs on the blockchain, is off-limits to U.S. traders and isn’t bound by the CFTC’s rules on insider trading.   But even as major legal questions remain unresolved, what’s indisputable is that insider trading is a red line for U.S regulators. Polymarket’s and Kalshi’s stricter enforcement of those rules may help keep them in the federal government’s good graces, and the appearance of fairness may also prevent people from betting elsewhere. But in taking these steps, these businesses will have to reckon with how they present themselves. They can cling to the idea that they’re not gambling platforms—but regulators may not always see it that way.   Related: A technology for a low-trust society Insider trading is going to get people killed.

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☎️ Pic du jour

Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times President Trump has a new Oval Office phone that says "The President," with a golden image of the White House and a scripted "Donald J. Trump." The phone has "45" and "47" branding for Trump, the 45th and 47th president. When asked about it yesterday by Fox News' Peter Doocy, Trump cracked: "You know who gave this to me? The phone company." The phone bears the logo of Cisco, the technology giant. See a close-up. Photo: Kylie Cooper/Reuters The U.S. Mint yesterday began selling golden $1 coins featuring Trump's portrait. Go deeper.

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A judge blocks Trump’s new bid to curb birthright citizenship, citing Supreme Court precedent U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman on Wednesday issued a preliminary injunction against an executive order that the administration said would target “birth tourism,” until a class-action lawsuit brought by immigrant families and advocacy groups is resolved. Read more.

Why this matters: President Donald Trump has long wanted to end birthright citizenship, issuing a previous executive order declaring that children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens. The Supreme Court struck down that attempt in June. “The Supreme Court has spoken: Children in the certified class are ‘citizens at birth,’” Boardman, appointed by President Joe Biden, wrote in the ruling. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Immigrant rights group seeks to block use of federal databases it says could purge legal voters FACT FOCUS: Texans listed as ‘suspense voters’ can still cast a ballot if they confirm their address Trump promises to campaign for Republicans and says they have a winning midterm message Here’s a look at ‘reach’ election races where Democrats hope to pull off House upsets Trump’s plan for a fence at Lafayette Park near White House gets review by federal panel Apple changes Lake Ontario name to ‘Lake America’ for US users of its Maps, following Trump’s order Kennedy Center disassembles Blue sculpture from its grounds Heads or tails? $1 coin with Trump’s face and gold finish goes on sale

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Heads or tails? $1 coin with Trump's face and gold finish to go on sale

The $1 coin designed to celebrate America's 250th birthday — and seemingly President Donald Trump, whose face gazes from one side of the gold finish — will go on sale Wednesday, according to the U.S. Mint. Read More.

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Trump Goons Issue Bonkers New Threat in Smithsonian War

The president is bent on molding the museum’s presentation of history to his liking.

The Trump administration has escalated its attempt to micromanage the Smithsonian’s curation of American history by threatening to withhold support from federal agencies.

In a letter Friday to the institution’s Board of Regents, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and White House Domestic Policy Council Director Vince Haley griped about “an ideological agenda that seeks to transform both the Smithsonian and the country,” saying administration officials “cannot in good conscience continue to support the Smithsonian under current leadership” by “loaning artifacts for exhibits, enabling procurement processes, and making discretionary grants.”

Burgum and Haley take issue with the National Museum of American History’s Interpretive Plan, which they say “illustrates how Smithsonian and NMAH leadership has sanctioned a radical institutional ideology to permeate NMAH operations.”

“The Interpretive Plan instructs Museum staff to, ‘whatever the topic,’ tie everything to ‘the core issues of our time,’ namely, ‘race and identity,’ ‘gender and sexuality,’ ‘environmental change,’ ‘immigration and migrations,’ ‘economic inequality,’ ‘technological change,’ and ‘nationalism and globalism,’ stating that ‘To do anything less is to shirk our commitment to relevance,’” they write.

That is “alarming,” they claim, and is reflected in educational materials, exhibit language, and “sending Museum staff to Mexico to interview deported illegal aliens,” for instance.

The Daily Beast has contacted the Smithsonian, the White House and Interior Department for comment. A Smithsonian spokesperson declined to comment to The Washington Post.

The White House sent the Daily Beast a lengthy statement from Haley.

“Very few Americans want the Smithsonian National Museum of American History to be used, in the words of its director, as a ‘prime tool of social justice’ and as an instrument of ideological activism and advocacy,” it reads. “Unfortunately, the Saving America’s Story report demonstrates, using the statements of Museum leadership and the interpretive guidelines adopted by the Museum, that this is exactly what the Smithsonian’s flagship museum has become.”

It continued, “During this 250th anniversary year of our heroic founding, the least our citizens are owed is an honest and inspiring account of American history. It should begin by telling the story of our Founding Fathers — who they were, what they did, and what they built. It is our hope and expectation that the Smithsonian will eventually rise once again to that noble obligation—to tell America’s story for our children, the world, and future generations of Americans.”

The administration’s threat is the latest in a series of attacks on the Smithsonian that began last March, when Trump signed an executive order with the stated goal of “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”

In July, the White House released a 162-page report titled “Saving America’s Story,” in which it accused the “radical activists” in charge of the Smithsonian of moving “from straightforward historical education and scholarship toward an extreme political activism that seeks to transform our country.” It pointed to alleged “anti-White activism,” “illegal alien activism,” and “transgender activism.”

Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch, 73, rejected the report’s characterization.

The White House’s report “is not a fair characterization of the work and totality of the National Museum of American History,” Bunch told staffers in an email obtained by the Washington Post. “At the Smithsonian, our work is driven by scholarship, accuracy, and an uncompromising commitment to tell the fullness of America’s story.”

A spokesperson for the institution later told the Daily Beast in a statement, “For more than 180 years, the Smithsonian has served the American public with nonpartisan and independent scholarship, and we remain committed to doing so.”

The Organization of American Historians issued a more biting statement, saying the report was “part of an ongoing and multi-pronged assault by the Trump administration against accurate and evidence-based history in American public life.”

Last August, Trump raged on Truth Social that the Smithsonian was “out of control.”

“The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE,’” he wrote. “Everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been—Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”

He didn’t explain how history museums should go about exhibiting “the future.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-goons-issue-bonkers-new-threat-in-smithsonian-war/?

ps:Can't get anymore pathetic!

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Trump Makes Desperate Move as Republicans Snub His Big Event

The president is pulling out all the stops to keep his midterm convention from flopping.

Donald Trump will now speak on both nights of his midterm convention as he desperately tries to drum up enthusiasm.

The president, 80, was originally supposed to headline only the second night of the two-day televised party convention in Dallas next week. The event was organized to try to give the GOP a much-needed election boost and mobilize Trump’s MAGA base, even though his name will not be on the ballot in November.

However, with scores of Republicans already confirming their intentions to skip the Sept. 9-10 event—amid concern that viewers at home would much rather watch the opening games of the NFL season airing at the same time—Trump will now deliver a speech on Wednesday and Thursday night.

“President Trump wants to set the tone for the entire convention,” a party official told Reuters about the plan.

Dozens of Republican lawmakers have confirmed that they have no intention of attending the so-called “Trumpapalooza” event in Dallas, giving an array of excuses.

These include deciding their time could be better spent campaigning in their home districts, prior engagements, and concerns about the eye-watering $25,000 entrance fee.

Others have decided it might be wise to distance themselves from the increasingly unpopular president, who is facing dire approval ratings over the Iran war and voter backlash over his handling of the economy, in order to improve their election chances.

Even Max Miller, the embattled Ohio congressman accused of domestic abuse against his ex-wife and of harming their 2-year-old daughter, has decided that not attending the convention would be better for his re-election hopes.

“I was invited, but staying home to campaign and spend time with family,” he told The New York Times.

One House Republican also told Politico they are not attending the event because it will be a “waste of time.” The lawmaker questioned why Trump and the Republican National Committee are putting on an event that only interests those already planning to support the GOP in November.

“You shouldn’t be having to rally your base at this point,” the House Republican said. “You should be trying to convince independents. Independents are not attending nor watching the midterm convention.”

Other Republicans have expressed concern about who will even watch the convention. The opening night, which will now feature the ratings-obsessed Trump, will coincide with the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks playing in a primetime rematch of this year’s Super Bowl.

On Thursday night, the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams will play in Melbourne, Australia, in a game streaming exclusively on Netflix.

A Republican operative familiar with the event told Reuters he had heard suggestions the convention would allow more regular people to attend because organizers had not been able to find enough Republican officials and donors to fill the seats. The White House and Trump’s team are also said to be stepping up efforts to convince Republicans to attend the convention.

Trump appearing on both nights of the midterm convention doubles the chances that he will deliver one of his typical rambling, incoherent speeches.

Some Republicans fear that, rather than using the convention to boost their election hopes, he will waste his headline appearances discussing obsessions such as his White House ballroom or damage their re-election campaigns by dismissing the affordability concerns faced by tens of millions of Americans as a “hoax.”

“I can’t control what the president’s going to say at the convention, but I can control where I’m at, what I’m doing,” Rep. Tom Barrett, a non-attendee fighting to retain his competitive Michigan seat in November, told Politico.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Republican National Committee for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-makes-desperate-move-as-republicans-snub-his-big-midterm-event/?

ps:I guess I was wrong! He can!!

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Elon Musk Named in Bombshell Election Meddling Claim

We know Musk is powerful. But how much does he influence our elections, exactly?

Elon Musk appeared unusually certain about the outcome of the 2024 presidential election before the results came in, according to a new documentary.

The bombshell claim comes from the mother of one of Elon Musk’s (many) children, Ashley St. Clair, who alleged in a forthcoming documentary that the Tesla tycoon had a “degree of certainty” about the 2024 election results before they came in that “I had never seen before.”

“He had told me [before the election] he was going to unleash the ‘anomaly in the matrix,’ ” St. Clair says in championed documentarist Alex Gibney’s film, Musk, which was previewed by The Hollywood Reporter.

According to the outlet, the film shows a text exchange between Musk, 55, and St. Clair, 28, onscreen, backing up her claims.

“I have ten thousand lasers in space,” the SpaceX founder allegedly wrote. A spokesperson for SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.

In the documentary, an off-camera Gibney can be heard asking St. Clair if Musk was referring to Starlink in their conversation, to which she replies, “I mean, I don’t know where else he has space lasers.”

Musk made no secret of his involvement in the 2024 presidential election, funneling more than $290 million into Donald Trump’s last presidential campaign and hosting town halls in swing states. He famously gave away a $1 million check to a rallygoer selected at random after they signed a petition to support a PAC he created.

However, questions about his obscure data-collecting efforts and the role he plans to take in forthcoming elections remain unclear. In his documentary, Gibney hammers home that Musk’s brief stint at the helm of an army of twentysomething men known as the “DOGE” squad involved more than what was publicly known. In addition to carelessly slashing federal government jobs and stripping USAID from countries around the world, the X owner gained access to the data of tens of millions of Americans.

What, exactly, he does with that information is unknown. But combined with the data he’s already obtained through his control of X, it makes him an undeniable and inescapable force in American politics.

The documentary comes as Musk has reentered the MAGA movement, following his explosive public feud with Trump, 80, after his exit as head of the Department of Government Efficiency.

St. Clair, for her part, has publicly denounced the hard right after years of championing its causes.

Musk, who is the father of at least 14 children with four different women, publicly questioned whether St. Clair’s second child, Romulus, was his, as she claimed after he was born in September 2024.

Then, after St. Clair expressed solidarity with Musk’s 20-year-old daughter, Vivian Wilson, who is transgender, Musk responded: “I will be filing for full custody today, given her statements implying she might transition a one-year-old boy.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-named-in-bombshell-election-meddling-claim-in-alex-gibney-documentary/?

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ICE Whistleblower Exposes Chilling Truth of Trump’s Recruitment Blitz

The agency rushed scores of potentially dangerous and underqualified applicants through its hiring process last year.

The Trump administration put lives at risk by failing to properly vet people seeking to become ICE agents during a frantic hiring spree, a whistleblower has alleged.

An official who oversaw the vetting of thousands of ICE recruits said the Department of Homeland Security could have broken the law and exposed the country to “grave national security risks” by cutting corners during last summer’s hiring spree, The New York Times reported.

Among the major concerns about the lax vetting process was that waves of dangerously unqualified candidates were being fast-tracked into ICE ranks so they could carry out Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies.

The whistleblower, a unit chief and 17-year ICE veteran before retiring from the agency in July, cited other “unprecedented” reductions in vetting standards, including ICE applicants receiving job offers before passing basic fingerprint, identity, or credit checks.

“We chose as an agency to be more convenient rather than thorough,” the whistleblower told the Times. “By doing so, there was a potential to put lives at risk and to jeopardize national security.”

The actions of masked ICE agents and the training they undergo have come under increased scrutiny following the killings of multiple U.S. civilians.

Last year’s questionable hiring practices, overseen by then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi “ICE Barbie” Noem, were placed under the microscope earlier this year when an agent shot and killed Joan Sebastian Guerrero in front of Guerrero’s 3-year-old daughter in Biddeford, Maine.

It was later revealed that the two ex-wives of David Brouillette, the ICE agent involved in the shooting, had accused him of having a troubling mental health history, including allegations of domestic abuse. A relative also told The Portland Press Herald that Brouillette was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after being trained to become a “killing monster” for his military deployment to Afghanistan.

Before becoming an ICE agent, Brouillette applied for jobs with the Hallowell Police Department in 2024 but was denied because there were “too many red flags.”

Rather than relaying his concerns about the ICE vetting process to his superiors, the unit chief filed a formal whistleblower complaint with the DHS Office of Inspector General.

The complaint, obtained via a public records request, described how much of the preliminary vetting process had been scrapped during last year’s hiring spree to churn out new ICE agents and rapidly increase migrant detentions.

Vetting officials were told to determine whether an applicant would be suitable to become an ICE agent without even seeing the security form, their fingerprints, or the results of any polygraph testing. The whistleblower said this meant candidates were rushed into becoming armed ICE agents without their criminal histories and other basic information being checked and verified.

The training program was also drastically reduced from around 10 weeks to six, meaning some agents were starting in their roles while their full background checks were still pending.

Former ICE lawyer Ryan Schwank had warned that the agency’s training program had become “deficient, defective and broken” while testifying before Congress in February.

“We were concerned about ICE recruiting a loose cannon or somebody who was just mentally unfit for the role,” Schwank told the Times. “We knew that kind of person would get through. But the thing that I think kept some of the other instructors up at night was the possibility of organized crime getting access to the agency or penetrating the agency.”

An ICE spokesperson said there is “no credible evidence” that any of its trainees were linked to a common criminal gang.

The spokesperson added to the Daily Beast: “DHS does not comment on matters regarding personnel who are no longer with the agency.

“The ICE Office of Professional Responsibility diligently applies the proper personnel vetting regulations, including guidelines for national security, and evaluates all available information for every applicant based on these factors.

“As we have said all along, ICE training does not end when recruits graduate from the academy. New hires take what they learn at Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers and apply it to real-life scenarios while on duty, preserving ICE’s reputation as one of the most elite law enforcement agencies not only in the U.S., but the entire world.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-whistleblower-exposes-chilling-truth-of-trumps-recruitment-blitz/?

ps:It's not chilling at all? This is how trump administrations do things!!!!!

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Trump’s Secret Plea to Resigning Army Boss Is Leaked

The abrupt exit caps months of behind-the-scenes friction.

President Donald Trump made a secret plea to his departing Army secretary, who clashed with self-styled “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth, according to insiders.

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told Trump that he intended to step down, people familiar with the conversation told The Washington Post. Trump, 80, then urged him to stick around at least through the midterm elections, according to people familiar with the meeting.

A White House official, speaking to the Daily Beast, disputed this version of events.

Driscoll refused and reportedly used the same meeting to warn the president that Hegseth was damaging the Army, according to the insiders who spoke to the Post.

Driscoll formally submitted his resignation on Monday. As the Post and other outlets have previously reported, he had repeated disagreements with firebrand Hegseth, who has fired several of the Army’s generals, halted the advancement of other top officers and stymied some of Driscoll’s top Army modernization initiatives.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell declined to comment on whether Hegseth had pushed Driscoll out, dismissing any suggestion that the former Fox & Friends Weekend host was hampering modernization as “a total fabrication.”

“The premise that the Department is in disarray is completely baseless and an insult to every dedicated professional and warfighter in this building,” Parnell said. “This is what reform looks like.”

It remains unclear why Trump asked Driscoll to stay, or why Driscoll chose to leave now. The president has generally given Hegseth wide latitude to reshape military leadership and has backed his defense secretary through previous departures.

In a public statement posted to X, Driscoll credited Hegseth for his role in Army modernization and called serving as Army secretary “the honor of a lifetime.” The White House said his last day is Thursday.

Trump’s request that Driscoll remain reflected the Army secretary’s standing in the West Wing, according to people familiar with the matter, who told the Post that Driscoll was at one point floated as a possible replacement for Hegseth after the defense secretary’s rocky start alarmed some officials close to the president.

Driscoll has kept a direct line to the White House through his friendship with Vice President JD Vance, forged when the two Iraq War veterans crossed paths at Yale Law School. Two people familiar with the matter told the Post that Driscoll hopes to be involved in a future Vance presidential campaign.

His departure lands at a fraught moment for the Army, which has tens of thousands of troops deployed across the Middle East amid ongoing hostilities with Iran. Driscoll was frustrated that many of his modernization initiatives had been reassigned to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, two people familiar with the matter told the newspaper.

Hegseth, who served as an Army National Guard officer, has upended the military’s traditionally independent promotion process since taking office, halting the advancement of numerous officers and purging the ranks of those seen as at odds with the Trump administration. Many of those targeted have been women and minorities.

In recent weeks, Hegseth removed seven of the 18 Army one-star generals slated for promotion to major general, according to a U.S. official, as reported first by NBC News.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican whose home state of North Carolina hosts a large Army presence, torched Hegseth’s leadership in a social media post.

“I have never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country,” the retiring and increasingly outspoken Tillis said.

The senator actually cast the deciding vote to confirm Hegseth last year but has since said he regrets it, and urged Trump to name a new defense secretary.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly, in a statement earlier this week, credited Driscoll with “providing outstanding leadership during historic military operations” and “assisting with negotiations between Russia and Ukraine,” adding, “The United States Army is more powerful than ever thanks to his work alongside the Commander-in-Chief and Secretary of War.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House to request an updated statement.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-secret-plea-to-resigning-army-boss-dan-driscoll-is-leaked/?

ps:What a pathetic administration!!

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Trump Bootlicker Forced Into Humiliating Apology for War Dead Insult

The president also put out a panicked message.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been forced to publicly apologize for wrongly claiming that no Americans have been killed in President Trump’s war on Iran.

Lutnick made the shocking false assertion during an appearance on CNBC while defending his boss’ approach to the conflict. “The way the president is playing Iran, there haven’t been American deaths; it’s really just an economic choke-out,” Lutnick said.

There have, in fact, been American deaths.

Defense Department figures show 18 U.S. service members have been killed and more than 750 wounded since the United States and Israel launched their attack on Iran on Feb. 28.

“While speaking yesterday at the G20 innovation summit about AI, I answered a question about the military actions in Iran, I misspoke,” Lutnick wrote in an X post Thursday morning.

“18 members of our military have died, and to those families my heart breaks and I am so very sorry for their loss. I was thinking about the Venezuelan military operation where no service members died.”

Lutnick’s post at 8:13 a.m. ET came an hour after Trump put out his own statement about the matter on Truth Social.

“Sec. Lutnick had Venezuela on his mind when he said nobody was killed. 18 people were killed in Iran!” Trump wrote.

The operation in Venezuela that Lutnick and Trump used in their excuse involved U.S. forces capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Roughly 80 Venezuelan and Cuban military personnel and civilians were killed in the operation, while seven American soldiers were wounded. None died.

Iran has been a dramatically different story.

Thousands have been killed and tens of thousands wounded across Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, and the wider Persian Gulf region since the conflict began.

Among the 18 American dead is 19-year-old Army Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, who enlisted shortly after graduating high school. She was killed in July alongside 25-year-old First Lt. Tyler James Feehan in an Iranian missile barrage targeting a U.S. Army base in Jordan.

The deaths came after a June cease-fire between Iran and the United States collapsed, sending tensions soaring and triggering a fresh wave of airstrikes.

The latest American fatality was Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, who died July 19 while disposing of a downed Iranian attack drone at Erbil Air Base in Iraq.

Trump has faced mounting criticism over how he has discussed those deaths.

After Swinton’s death, Trump posted a grim comparison of casualties from America’s wars, writing in a Truth Social post: “Afghanistan War: 20 years, 2,000 DEAD. Iraq War: 9 years, 4,600 DEAD. Vietnam War: 19 years and 5 months, 58,220 DEAD. Korean War: 3 years and 1 month, 36,574 DEAD. Venezuela War: 1 day, 0 DEAD. Iran Military Conflict: 4 months, 18 DEAD.”

Former MAGA ally Marjorie Taylor Greene accused Trump of “bragging about killing 18 US soldiers.”

“The ‘peace president’ went to war and is killing and wounding our troops,” she added.

Trump, who has previously been heavily criticized for making insulting remarks about fallen soldiers, has also come under scrutiny during the Iran war for the way his administration has recorded deaths of American service members—especially following the removal of four deaths from a Pentagon website in July.

Trump’s blunt attitude toward U.S. casualties dates to the first deaths of the conflict, when he said: “Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That’s the way it is.”

The remarks are a far cry from Trump’s 2024 campaign promise to avoid “new wars.”

He also initially claimed the Iran conflict would last four or five weeks. It has now dragged into its seventh month, with no clear end in sight.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-bootlicker-howard-lutnick-forced-into-humiliating-apology-for-war-dead-insult/?

ps:Pathetic!!!!!

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RFK Jr. Accused of Shock Plot to Cover Up Measles Death

A leaked account of internal CDC deliberations has heaped pressure on President Trump’s health secretary.

The Trump administration’s top health official pushed his newly installed CDC director to strip two confirmed measles deaths from the agency’s public tally, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who had publicly questioned whether measles actually contributed to the deaths even after Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staffers had already accepted the state of Pennsylvania’s own determination that it did, urged CDC Director Erica Schwartz to do it, Reuters reported.

Schwartz, who was only confirmed to the role in early August, agreed with Kennedy’s directive and carried it out without objection, the three sources said.

In a statement, an HHS spokesperson called Reuters’ reporting “false and misleading.”

“The decision regarding the Pennsylvania deaths in CDC’s national measles reporting was made by CDC,” they said.

“CDC has a responsibility to ensure its reporting accurately distinguishes between what is known and what remains unconfirmed. The information currently posted reflects the best available information and our commitment to transparency and telling the American people the truth—a foundational principle of the Trump administration.”

The reported dispute erupted into a public spat between Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, with each accusing the other of politicizing the state’s outbreak. Pennsylvania has reported 540 measles cases this year.

Georges Benjamin, chief executive of the American Public Health Association and Maryland’s former secretary of health, called the CDC’s move highly unusual. “The secretary had no business interfering in the normal process,” Benjamin said. “He has an anti-vaccine agenda and he’s using this to play out his anti-vaccine agenda.”

A Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson, Grace Davis Jamison, told Reuters the agency had simply “requested details necessary to determine whether measles caused or contributed to the deaths,” citing conflicting reports between county and state officials. She declined to address Kennedy’s or Schwartz’s specific roles.

Pennsylvania notified the CDC of the two measles-associated deaths, saying only that both individuals were unvaccinated.

According to a Pennsylvania official close to Shapiro, the CDC initially raised no objections and even supported the state’s response.

Kennedy called Shapiro directly to offer federal help, and Shapiro said he thanked him while noting the state already had an aggressive response underway. Shapiro also told Kennedy that his past rhetoric had spread misinformation with “a negative impact on communities across America.”

The following day, Kennedy went on social media to accuse Shapiro of stonewalling the CDC and suggested the deaths may have been “altogether fabricated by one of the Governor’s hopeful staffers.”

He later claimed the Lancaster County coroner had no record of any measles deaths, despite state law requiring such reporting.

When the CDC finally updated its measles data page days later, the Pennsylvania deaths were missing. In their place was a new asterisk reading, “At this time, available information does not establish whether measles caused or contributed to the [Pennsylvania] deaths or whether the individuals died from other causes while infected with measles.”

Pennsylvania’s health department says it has “provided all required epidemiological data to the CDC.” The agency, meanwhile, has not said what additional evidence it needs, and it is not coordinating with the state on any further investigation.

Kennedy has spent years arguing vaccines pose more danger than the diseases they prevent, contradicting decades of research showing the measles, mumps, and rubella shot provides 97 percent protection against infection. Measles cases nationwide are now at their highest point in more than three decades.

The CDC and HHS have been contacted for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/rfk-jr-accused-of-shock-plot-to-cover-up-measles-death/?

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Pentagon Pete Launches Desperate Cover-Up After Bombshell Leak

The defense secretary is apparently cracking down hard after a leak revealed top commanders pushing back against him.

The Pentagon has scrubbed internal documents after an explosive report was leaked that revealed pushback against Pete Hegseth’s orders.

The Washington Post had sparked an uproar with its report detailing concerns from top military leaders about the war, prompting a furious response from Pentagon officials, including the defense secretary.

In response, the Defense Department removed documents associated with the Secretary of Defense Orders Book (SDOB), which had been kept on the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet), sources told the Post.

The SDOB was at the center of the Post’s reporting on top commanders voicing their disagreement with Hegseth’s order for some troops in the Middle East to stay there longer amid the prospect of prolonged military operations against Iran.

The Navy’s top admiral, along with leaders of the U.S. European Command, the U.S. Pacific Command, and the U.S. Southern Command, were said to have responded to the troops’ extension in the Middle East with “non-concurs” in the SDOB, which was seen by unnamed sources who revealed the internal disagreement to the Post.

It remains unclear how the removal of such documents could impact military planning.

A former defense official who routinely viewed these documents told the Post that purging the SDOB will “dramatically reduce the number of people who have direct access to it,” which could constrain urgent planning needs.

Commanders and their staff who rely on the SDOB to make time-sensitive decisions can still rely on the database, the official said, but added that it is now “certainly more difficult.”

Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, did not deny that the documents were removed.

“As we have previously stated, the Department of War does not publicly discuss internal operational deliberative processes,” he told the Post, adding, “The success of our servicemembers is Secretary Hegseth’s top priority, and for that reason, decisions regarding operational processes, force posture, and deliberative staffing are managed through appropriate security channels to ensure mission security and operational integrity.”

The move comes after Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigned this week after repeatedly butting heads with Hegseth, reportedly warning President Donald Trump on his way out that Hegseth was causing “generational damage” with his moves in the military.

The Pentagon under Hegseth has attempted to crack down on leaks coming from within the DOD to the press and has severely restricted press access within the physical building.

In 2025, the Pentagon implemented new policies that revoked long-standing workspaces and credentials to fill the Pentagon with pro-Trump right-wing news organizations.

The DOD later went even further by revoking press credentials from all journalists unless they signed onto a contract that forbade them from gathering or soliciting any information–a basic tenet of journalism.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pentagon-pete-launches-desperate-cover-up-after-bombshell-leak/?

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Republican Panic Over Trump’s Missing Midterm Millions Explodes

GOP officials fear the president’s $400 million war chest may sit unused until it’s too late to matter.

Republican anxiety over President Donald Trump’s stockpiled campaign cash has boiled over, with early voting looming for competitive midterm races while hundreds of millions of dollars sit untouched.

Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., had more than $400 million in the bank as of July 31. But with the main campaign season about to begin after Labor Day, Republican leaders are increasingly worried the money will arrive too late to spend effectively, and some suspect Trump plans to keep much of it for himself, according to The Washington Post.

Trump’s political advisers have told worried allies the group will spend heavily once the season kicks into gear, the Post reported. Trump, who must personally approve the spending, has not said what he intends to do with the cash, and his advisers have repeatedly said they will not tell reporters.

A person familiar with internal discussions told the Post that some people close to Trump now believe he has little interest in spending most of the money on this year’s midterms.

The president could funnel it to a chosen successor to preserve his influence in the next presidential race, or save it for legal bills, travel, events, and personal projects such as his Miami presidential library, which is expected to cost at least $1 billion.

The person familiar with the discussions said Trump’s team believes the flood of money into his political operation will likely dry up after the midterms, giving him further incentive to hold onto what he already has.

Some donors have already started pulling back from giving more to MAGA Inc. while it sits on its existing cash, people familiar with the matter told the newspaper.

Privately, Republican operatives complain the group has already missed chances to buy cheap television advertising and introduce candidates to voters before opinions harden.

A nonprofit arm of Trump’s operation, Securing American Greatness, has launched its first midterm ads, spending just under $1 million on spots touting tax cuts and lower prices for eggs and prescription drugs, according to AdImpact. One ad features Trump’s friend Dana White, chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

“Like, they think he’s popular or something. He’s not,” a Republican ad maker told the Post after seeing the videos.

In multiple polls, Trump’s approval rating is stuck in the mid-30 percent range, putting him at or near historic lows for a president heading into the midterm elections.

Elon Musk’s America PAC, meanwhile, has already begun advertising in Senate battlegrounds including Texas, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Maine, according to Meta’s ad disclosures.

Skeptics point to Trump’s long history of treating political money as effectively his own. MAGA Inc. has spent less than $900,000 supporting one senator’s primary in South Carolina and less than $20,000 on text messages for one House member in Georgia this year, records show.

“I’m not affected by the election,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I’m not running. But my party is running, and I’m going to help my party.” At a Rose Garden event on Wednesday, he vowed to spend his final 30 days traveling and giving speeches, but made no mention of his super PAC’s money.

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

https://www.thedailybeast.com/republican-panic-over-trumps-missing-midterm-millions-explodes/?

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Trump Melts Down at Rising Dem Star in Weird Vomit Rant

The president’s gross remark came while his White House guests were visiting Washington for dinner.

Donald Trump has gone on a bizarre rant about meat, vomit, and a rising star of the Democratic Party.

The 80-year-old president took a swing at Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico on Wednesday, claiming he does not eat meat—a supposed death knell in the state of Texas.

“Because in Texas, if you don’t eat meat, you’re in deep trouble,” Trump rambled. “It’s not a good thing not to be able to not eat meat. He was wearing a mask six months ago. He had a mask on. When someone wears a mask six months ago, you’re in deep trouble.”

Referring to him as “Tala-creep-o,” Trump added, “Now he says he loves meat. You know what he does? He eats meat, and he goes outside, and he throws up all over the place.”

Trump was speaking during a dinner at the White House’s paved-over Rose Garden with at-risk Republican lawmakers. Talarico, 37, is facing off against the controversy-riddled, Trump-backed Ken Paxton in the November midterms.

Talarico has been attacked for supposedly being a vegan and saying that eating meat poses an “existential” threat to humanity. His team has denied the claims, even sharing images of him eating barbecue, but that did not stop Trump.

Trump was not particularly complimentary to Paxton at Wednesday’s event either. Despite endorsing him over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the primaries, he poked at his dress sense and media training. “You might not like the way he dresses,” Trump said of Paxton. “It’s so insulting to him, but I might as well say it. You might not like the way he looks. You might not love his look. You might not love his television interviews.

“But he was the best attorney general in the country, perhaps. He was one of the best in the entire country, and that speaks a lot louder than the suit he’s wearing that doesn’t look so great, or than anything, frankly.”

Criticisms of the 63-year-old Paxton’s campaign strategy have emerged on the right, with Cornyn even saying he does not intend to give him a bump by campaigning on his behalf because “he’s lazy and doesn’t raise money.”

Talarico, meanwhile, has been voracious, having raised $68,555,930 through the end of June, compared to Paxton’s $9,248,698.

Speaking to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Fox News host Martha MacCallum said that “Talarico is everywhere. He’s got $21 million versus Ken Paxton’s, I think, one or two million.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-melts-down-at-rising-dem-star-james-talarico-in-weird-vomit-rant/?

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Trump again appeals to Supreme Court on mail-voting restrictions with midterm elections looming

BOSTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to reject an order by a federal judge that halts it from implementing a new rule regulating mail ballots, hours after being unable to tell that judge whether the computer system that would govern the entire project was operational yet.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-mail-voting-executive-order-lawsuit-63899f738d28d161b629054a314f161a?

ps:They need to put an end to this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trump administration stalled a survey of PFAS in wastewater, former EPA officials say

The Trump administration has stalled a study that would help regulators understand which industries dump harmful forever chemicals with their wastewater, according to two former agency officials who were involved in its development. Read More.

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Venezuela’s Vicious Cycle (Maryorin Mendez / AFP / Getty)

View in browser By the time he retired from the Marine Corps, in 1931, Major General Smedley Butler had served in Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, the Philippines, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and China. It was the golden age of American imperialism, and Butler was one of its golden boys, among the most decorated fighters in U.S. history. But over time, Butler began to have doubts about what he was doing. “I spent 33 years and 4 months in active service,” he wrote in 1935. “During that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer; a gangster for capitalism.” The costs of these excursions, he wrote, were paid in taxpayer money and soldiers’ lives. The wars that Butler fought also left scars around the world, as the journalist Jonathan M. Katz wrote in a 2022 biography. Little remembered in the United States, these interventions were formative for the populations they affected, fueling enduring anti-Americanism. The Trump administration seems determined to re-create the cycle in Venezuela today: military action, puppet government, exploitation of oil reserves, and almost certainly more resentment, fueling further conflict in the future. In January, U.S. troops descended on Venezuela and seized President Nicolás Maduro. Although President Trump offered federal drug-trafficking charges against Maduro as window dressing, he made no secret of the real reason for the incursion: He wanted to seize the country’s huge oil reserves. This week, the president claimed that he would refill the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve with Venezuelan oil, “a Gift from Venezuela to the People of the United States.” The Trump administration has, as usual, offered few concrete details, but as my colleague Jonathan Chait writes, this is less a “deal” than “a payment by Venezuela of tribute at gunpoint.” The Venezuelan people are in no position to consent to handing over the country’s most valuable natural resource to a richer regional superpower for free, because Venezuela has not had fair elections in years. After deposing Maduro, the United States did not clear away his government or try to install the pro-democracy dissident (and Nobel Peace Prize laureate) María Corina Machado; in fact, it has created barriers to her return. Instead, it has enlisted a former Maduro lieutenant as president, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio oversees her as a sort of viceroy. Besides, nothing in international relations is as simple as a gift. The current arrangement involves Alejandro Betancourt López, a Venezuelan oil oligarch who has been under investigation in several countries. Betancourt managed to maintain connections with both Maduro’s regime and the U.S. government, and to dodge some charges thanks to help from Rudy Giuliani. Chevron is expanding its footprint in Venezuela, although other oil companies have been reluctant. Investors from other sectors, including crypto, are also getting involved. Although much money stands to be made, whether and how much ordinary Americans will actually benefit is less clear. Rebuilding Venezuelan production will take years, and the country’s oil is heavy and difficult to refine. That means no near-term relief at gas pumps and years before the U.S. reserve is refilled. Venezuelan oil and U.S. interests have a long and rocky history. American oil companies invested heavily in the country after World War II, but in 1976, the Venezuelan government nationalized the oil industry. In the early ’90s, the government once again opened to private companies. But Hugo Chávez, who portrayed himself as an anti-colonial hero and liked to use “Gringos go home!” as a slogan, became president in 1999. In 2007, he expropriated foreign assets once more, in what his energy minister called “an act of sovereignty for our country, for our people.” Trump cited the expropriation this year as another reason for U.S. intervention. Chávez’s approach, maintained under his protégé Maduro, failed. The oil industry, along with the rest of the national economy, has atrophied. In an article last year, my colleague Gisela Salim-Peyer eloquently recounted how Venezuela slid into authoritarianism under Chávez and Maduro. International observers described the 2018 presidential election as rigged, and evidence gathered by Machado convincingly showed that her party had won the 2025 race. A huge number of people fleeing Venezuela have flocked to the United States. For now, under the rump Chávez-Maduro regime, Venezuelans don’t have much say, but guessing how this might play out doesn’t require a great deal of creativity—just a working knowledge of history. Trump’s expropriation of Venezuelan oil won’t be well received by most people, nor will a Trump-driven gold rush by American businesses, no matter how much Venezuela needs assistance standing up its oil industry. Railing against the deal and foreign oil interests will be an easy populist stance for future Venezuelan politicians; perhaps one will even feel moved to nationalize assets once more—and so the cycle can begin again. You don’t have to be an anti-colonial peacenik to worry about the risks of Trump’s oil raid. You can just grasp that having hostile demagogues in power in the hemisphere is bad for U.S. interests, driving global instability as well as the kind of mass migration that Trump has described as a crisis. Such downsides help explain why anti-interventionism had become popular among Republicans over the past decade. Until the Venezuela raid, Trump portrayed himself as “America first,” but the foremost voice was J. D. Vance, who cited his experience deployed in Iraq in his speech accepting the GOP nomination for vice president. “As always, America’s ruling class wrote the checks. Communities like mine paid the price,” he said, sounding much like his fellow Marine Smedley Butler. “For decades, that divide between the few, with their power and comfort in Washington, and the rest of us only widened.” Yet now the Trump administration has embarked on just the sort of adventure Butler led and then decried. Wealthy Americans will benefit today, ordinary Americans will see little immediate reward, and the United States will face the blowback for decades to come. Related: The hostile corporate takeover of an entire country America can have the oil.