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

[phkrause]

Trump’s newest order on birthright citizenship blocked in federal court

A federal judge in Maryland Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump’s second attempt to redefine birthright citizenship. 

https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/09/03/repub/trumps-newest-order-on-birthright-citizenship-blocked-in-federal-court/?

[phkrause]

Trump Admits Real Reason He’s Building Monuments to Himself

The president was shockingly candid about the sad reason he is remodeling much of the capital in his image.

President Donald Trump has made a stunning admission while revealing why he’s obsessed with remodeling Washington.

Trump, 80, has candidly told New York magazine that he is building monuments for himself and slapping his name everywhere because he knows that nobody else will do so when he is gone.

 

Reporter Ben Terris shared with Trump an attack line from Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, who says that Trump’s obsession with vanity projects stems from knowing he is the only person willing to memorialize him.

“That’s true,” Trump responded. “Nobody will do it once I’m gone. When I leave here, nobody will.”

That same report peeled back the curtain on Trump’s fixation with remodeling even as his approval rating craters to record lows, war with Iran has entered its sixth month, and gas and grocery prices remain higher than they were when he took office.

From the White House residence, the president can see the construction site of his new ballroom, which he tore down the entire East Wing for without permission. New York reports that he “often starts and ends his day by gazing out the window to check the progress.”

“He will call me at 9:30 at night and say, ‘I’m going to walk over and check the construction of the new ballroom,’” Eric Trump tells the magazine. Eric also said that his father is having “more fun building this ballroom than I can possibly tell you.”

Trump has also reportedly ordered a helicopter pilot to circle around Hains Point so he could see a golf course he’s planning to redevelop from a bird’s-eye view. These matters appear to be top of mind for Trump, who has brought up the topic of grass during 45 public events this term, or about once every 12 days, according to an Associated Press review last month.

The ballroom is just one of many Trump projects in MAGA 2.0.

At the White House alone, Trump has paved over Jackie Kennedy’s iconic Rose Garden to create a new patio, installed two massive flagpoles to tower over the executive residence, blinged up the Oval Office to rival Saddam Hussein’s palaces, defaced the White House’s iconic colonnade by making it a Presidential Walk of Fame, and even built a granite helipad on the South Lawn.

Elsewhere in D.C., Trump has botched a Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation, shamelessly slapped his name on the Kennedy Center, and intends to build a 250-foot-tall “Arc de Trump.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-admits-real-reason-hes-building-monuments-to-himself/?

[phkrause]

Trump Fires Off Deranged Ultimatum in All-Caps Meltdown

The president threatened to stop trading with some countries if the Fed doesn’t cut interest rates.

Donald Trump’s crusade to cut interest rates took a bizarre new turn on Friday when he threatened to cut off trade with some unnamed countries if the Federal Reserve doesn’t do his bidding.

The president’s ultimatum came after the release of a surprisingly strong jobs report.

His brag about the better-than-expected jobs market on Truth Social quickly morphed into a capital-letter rant about why the United States doesn’t have the world’s lowest interest rates.

“Great jobs number just announced, breaking all estimates (except mine!) by double and triple—And you haven’t seen anything yet! EMPLOYERS ADDED 162,000 JOB IN AUGUST,” he wrote.

“Lower the interest rates because the U.S.A. is a much stronger credit than it was just a short time ago! A STRONG COUNTRY MEANS A LOWER INTEREST RATE—IT’S A BETTER CREDIT…Very simple! We should have the LOWEST RATE of any country in the World, like ‘the old days.’ Without the United States agreeing to allow them their big surpluses, and we could stop that immediately, they would no longer be considered financially ELITE! LOWER THE RATE OR I’LL STOP TRADING WITH COUNTRIES WITH WHICH WE HAVE A DEFICIT, which the U.S. Supreme Court, in its ridiculous and very costly Tariff decision, strongly acknowledged ‘the President’ has an absolute right to do."

Trump ramped up the pressure on his new Fed chair, Kevin Warsh, to act and cut rates.

“IT’S BETTER THAN TARIFFS! The Fed Board, with its great new leader, must get smart—BE PATRIOTS for a change. High interest rates put the U.S.A. at a very unfair disadvantage, and I won’t allow that to happen!”

The countries the U.S. has a deficit with include China, Canada, Mexico, and European Union nations, with the goods-and-services gap widening to its biggest in 16 months in July.

Trump instituted his tariffs to try and close that gap, and hasn’t forgiven the Supreme Court for shutting them down.

Trump finally got his way and replaced Jerome Powell with Warsh, but the Fed has continued to resist the president’s demands for an interest cut, keeping rates steady since last December. Economists suggest the Fed may act as soon as later this month to counteract inflation.

Friday’s jobs report suggests that employers have moved past concerns about the Iran war and AI to grow the workforce.

The Labor Department reported an addition of 162,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate held firm at 4.1 percent, the same as July.

June and July job gains were revised up by 55,000.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-fires-off-deranged-ultimatum-in-all-caps-meltdown/?

ps:What a pathetic fool!!!!!

[phkrause]

Trump Is Building More Than a Ballroom—He’s Claiming the White House Forever

He’s making himself permanent.

Big, sore-thumb, a--hole buildings have become Donald Trump’s signature brand, and part and parcel of his public identity. His aesthetic is not just about vulgarity, but an opposing force—so of course he would build in Washington. Of course, he would look to reconfigure the White House! The White House ballroom, however, will not be completed—if it’s completed—until the end of his term. So if he’s not going to be able to get much use out of it, what’s its real use? Just being able to build it, for one thing. Nothing motivates Trump so much as provoking a fight and then winning it (or just prolonging it). His skills here are relentlessness; his true pleasure, nearly in a sexual sense, comes with crushing his opponents, disregarding civility and the rules of the game. Plus, he has additional expertise when it comes to actually building something in the face of people trying to stop him. The more you build, the harder it is to stop you. Doing most of the things that presidents have to do on a daily basis—so boring!—doesn’t give him pleasure. He barely pays attention. But having a big building project restores him. His ballroom will tower over the White House. It will effectively be the White House. The perpetual Trump White House. Will anyone even remember what used to stand in its place?

ps:Just pathetic!!!!!

[phkrause]

Federal judge extends block on Trump executive order seeking to limit mail voting in the midterms

A federal judge on Friday extended her prohibition against the U.S. Postal Service implementing President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to limit mail voting during the midterms, putting another major obstacle in the way of the administration as the first states begin sending out mail ballots.

https://apnews.com/article/election-2026-trump-mail-voting-postal-service-ce207ff2d0533de05cc2d299e91a0198?

US issues sanctions on Turkish bank that it calls a 'critical financial lifeline' for Iran

The Trump administration announced Friday that it has imposed sanctions on a Turkish financial institution as part of its latest effort to sever “critical financial lifelines” for the Iranian government. Read More.

[phkrause]

Trump Makes Jaw-Dropping Insult to the Dead of His Own War

The commander in chief appears to have no respect for those who die because of his orders.

President Donald Trump has dismissed his war in Iran, in which 18 U.S. service members have been killed, as “small potatoes for us.”

The president, 80, was taking questions in the Oval Office on Friday when he was asked how he would describe the conflict with Iran.

The question came after Vice President JD Vance insisted on Thursday it wasn’t a war despite the U.S. carrying out new strikes this week.

“Can you explain to the American people, if this is not a war, what exactly is it?” ABC News’ Rachel Scott asked Trump.

“Well, I’ll tell you what, a lot of people don’t call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it’s, it’s small potatoes for us. It’s not a big thing,” Trump said. “We did Venezuela, and we did this.”

But the president did not stop there. He went on to compare war casualties to back up his claim that the conflict in Iran was “small potatoes.”

“In Venezuela, we lost nobody, and this, we lost 18 people,” Trump said. “In Vietnam you lost 100,000 people, and in other conflicts, you lost tens of thousands of people.”

Trump, who himself received five military draft deferments during the Vietnam War, went on to say that he would call the conflict with Iran “intermittent strikes” and agreed with Vance that it was not a war.

“We’re not fighting right now. There’s no fighting,” Trump rambled.

“We’re taking out a lot of oil. We control the Hormuz Strait. We control it very strongly. We did a hit on certain areas around the Hormuz Strait,” he babbled about the crucial waterway between Iran and Oman.

More than 50,000 U.S. troops are currently serving in the region.

The U.S. carried out a series of new strikes against Iranian military targets on Tuesday, including air defense sites, radar systems, maritime facilities, and mine-laying capabilities, after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attempted to carry out attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and against U.S. service members, according to CENTCOM.

Since the start of Operation Epic Fury on February 28, 18 American service members have been killed. Most recently, Sgt. Michael Swinton was killed on July 19 at Erbil Air Base in Iraq during the disposal of a downed Iranian attack drone.

Trump attended the dignified transfer of the four service members killed in July at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on July 22.

“It’s a military conflict, but it’s very intermittent. I could see somebody not calling it a war,” Trump said Friday.

Scott was quick to push back on his “small potatoes” comment, noting that 18 service members had been killed since the war began.

Trump did not respond to her pushback noting the number of service members killed, but seized on her comment about “record-long deployments” after the USS Lincoln set a record with 286 days at sea without making port before it docked in Thailand this week.

“Why is it record-long? How long were we in Vietnam? How long were we in Vietnam?” Trump shot back.

Scott tried to clarify that she was referencing the USS Lincoln, but the president refused to let her respond and instead spoke over her, arguing about preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon before bringing up those killed.

“We lost 18 souls, 18 great souls. I was there to greet the families of those people at Dover, and they’re great. I got very friendly with some of the families. They were incredible families, but—and one is too much. But in Vietnam we lost tens of thousands of people. In Afghanistan, we lost a lot,” Trump said.

ps:What a pathetic draft dodger!!!!!

[phkrause]

The all-about-me campaign

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

President Trump is hitting the campaign trail and doing the last thing many Republicans want: making the 59 days to the Nov. 3 midterms a referendum on him, Axios' Marc Caputo reports. Why it matters: Most Republicans are too scared to bluntly tell Trump how unpopular he is. Timidity aside, Republicans need Trump's low-propensity voters to turn out. So they're going along with a Trump-focused strategy that many believe could cost them credibility — along with seats in the House and Senate. "We have no choice. We're stuck on the boat with him whether we like it or not," said a top Republican campaign official who's in contact with Trump's political operation. "Now, a rising tide raises all boats," the official added. "But the only ones who sound sure about the tide rising is the White House." 🐘 Coming attractions: At Trump's urging, the GOP on Wednesday and Thursday will host an unprecedented midterm convention in Dallas, headlined by the president. Trump plans to appear both nights, with Vice President JD Vance as keynote on Wednesday and Trump on Thursday. 📱 Trump is also the star of his political operation's first two TV ads: The first 30-second ad, "Toughest Guy," is all about you-know-who. The second, "Tax Cut Prices," features Trump and would be more conventional for a campaign in which he's on the ballot. 📺 Inside the room: Trump essentially demanded the ads focus on him because midterms are referendums on a president anyway, and he wanted to tout his accomplishments, The Atlantic first reported (gift link). "I'm not on the ballot, but I'm on the ballot," Trump told one confidant who relayed the conversation to Axios. A Trump adviser told Axios: "Our job is to turn Trump voters into midterm voters." 🔎 The intrigue: The ads, however, are a de facto compromise between Trump and his political staff. "This is for the audience of one," Trump's confidant said, referring to the president. "If the boss wants it, he gets it." One Trump adviser said to expect more conventional ads: "We will be stripping the bark off of Democrats and supporting our candidates. ... It's not all Trump-focused ads." 🔎 Between the lines: Trump's message in his tax cut ads is good, Republican strategists say, but their research increasingly shows voters blame him for the war in Iran that's raising gas prices. "Diesel's at an all-time high. Gas is about $4 a gallon. We can't message that away," said another Republican who runs campaigns for a few federal candidates. 🔮 What's next: At a Rose Garden dinner Wednesday with dozens of House Republicans, Trump promised to campaign across the country in 35 races "to see if we can get everyone elected." If Trump wants to campaign for a candidate, it's going to be hard for them to say no, said one of the consultants involved in talks with MAGA Inc., the super PAC that backs Trump. "Say no to Trump, and he could punish you," the consultant said. "Say yes to him, and his presence might not help. This is the world we're in." Convention lineup ...

[phkrause]

Trump administration makes another appeal to the Supreme Court to allow mail ballot restrictions

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Sunday renewed its appeal to the Supreme Court to allow new restrictions on mail ballots in time for the midterms.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-mail-voting-executive-order-lawsuit-65067233db6ebda8dedcdc3f6714a96c?

ps:Pathetic

Midterm mail ballots start to go to voters as litigation over Trump’s order creates uncertainty Statewide mail voting for this year’s midterm elections kicked off Friday amid a churning legal battle over President Donald Trump’s attempts to limit the practice and mounting concern over Postal Service changes that some state officials blame for a rise in rejected ballots. The developments have created a sense of uncertainty about a popular voting method used by one-third of the nation’s voters. North Carolina on Friday became the first state to widely distribute mail ballots for this year’s elections, which will determine the balance of power in Congress for the remainder of Trump’s term. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Breaking: Trump administration makes another appeal to the Supreme Court to allow mail ballot restrictions Supreme Court grants Republican emergency appeal on TV ad rates before midterms A whiplash election year enters its final stretch as Trump holds wild cards After years of defying the odds, California’s David Valadao faces new test as Latinos turn on Trump Trump’s first major midterm money move: A $10M Texas Senate ad blitz New Hampshire’s Tuesday GOP primary features two familiar names from the past, and voters are fine with that Cubans and Afghans deported from US arrive in Guyana Trump administration scrubs data on gender-based bullying from school civil rights survey EPA proposal could leave the public in the dark on data center plans Trump administration stalled a survey of PFAS in wastewater, former EPA officials say Kennedy Center renews call for Trump-backed shutdown after part of a ceiling collapses Watchdog report: Ex-Labor Secretary Chavez-DeRemer oversaw hostile work environment, misused funds Judge clears the way for a lawsuit against former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema under North Carolina’s ‘homewrecker’ law

 

[phkrause]

Midterm mail ballots start to go to voters as litigation over Trump’s order creates uncertainty Statewide mail voting for this year’s midterm elections kicked off Friday amid a churning legal battle over President Donald Trump’s attempts to limit the practice and mounting concern over Postal Service changes that some state officials blame for a rise in rejected ballots. The developments have created a sense of uncertainty about a popular voting method used by one-third of the nation’s voters. North Carolina on Friday became the first state to widely distribute mail ballots for this year’s elections, which will determine the balance of power in Congress for the remainder of Trump’s term. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Breaking: Trump administration makes another appeal to the Supreme Court to allow mail ballot restrictions Supreme Court grants Republican emergency appeal on TV ad rates before midterms A whiplash election year enters its final stretch as Trump holds wild cards After years of defying the odds, California’s David Valadao faces new test as Latinos turn on Trump Trump’s first major midterm money move: A $10M Texas Senate ad blitz New Hampshire’s Tuesday GOP primary features two familiar names from the past, and voters are fine with that Cubans and Afghans deported from US arrive in Guyana Trump administration scrubs data on gender-based bullying from school civil rights survey EPA proposal could leave the public in the dark on data center plans Trump administration stalled a survey of PFAS in wastewater, former EPA officials say Kennedy Center renews call for Trump-backed shutdown after part of a ceiling collapses Watchdog report: Ex-Labor Secretary Chavez-DeRemer oversaw hostile work environment, misused funds Judge clears the way for a lawsuit against former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema under North Carolina’s ‘homewrecker’ law

[phkrause]

Heavily Armed Republican Attacks Dem Candidate in MAGA Heartland

An armed man attacked Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton at an Ohio fair on Sunday.

A heavily armed man attacked Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton at a fair in Ohio’s MAGA heartland on Sunday afternoon.

The man “lunged at Dr. Acton, injuring multiple people” while Acton, 60, was attending the Canfield Fair in northeastern Ohio, a campaign spokesperson said in a statement.

“Dr. Acton and [her husband] Eric are grateful for the swift and decisive action of law enforcement and are praying for the recovery of those injured. This kind of violence has no place in Ohio,” the spokesperson said.

The suspect who attacked Acton has been identified as 38-year-old Patrick Havas, a registered Republican.

Havas barged into the Mahoning County Democratic Party’s tent and shoved his way through the crowd, knocking two people to the ground as he made his way to the front, officials on the scene told WFMJ.

WFMJ said he was carrying two firearms.

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine later said that Acton was unhurt and condemned political violence in an X post.

Havas has been arrested and has been charged with two counts of assault and one count of disorderly conduct, according to the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office inmate list.

A graduate of Youngstown State University, Havas is a licensed nurse and lives in Canfield, according to public records the Daily Beast reviewed.

The Daily Beast has reached out to Acton for comment.

This isn’t the first time the Havas family has had a brush with the law: Patrick Havas’ brother, Andrew Havas, was charged with sexual misconduct with a minor following a 2008 incident involving a 15-year-old in Mahoning County, according to court records reviewed by NBC News.

Andrew, who was 22 at the time, was accused of knowing that the minor was older than 13 but younger than 16 and of being reckless about the minor’s age.

As part of a plea deal, the sexual-misconduct charge was reduced to a single misdemeanor assault count.

Andrew pleaded guilty to the reduced charge in 2009 and was sentenced to 90 days in jail, ordered to pay a fine, and barred from having contact with the minor.

Andrew later served as a volunteer Franklin County campaign chair for Republican Ohio Sen. Jon Husted. He resigned in July after NBC News contacted the campaign about the case.

Husted’s campaign said Andrew had not disclosed his criminal history and that it immediately accepted his resignation after learning about it.

Patrick Havas’ alleged attack on Acton drew condemnation from both sides of the aisle.

In his X post, DeWine wrote, “We are grateful for the quick work of the Ohio State Highway Patrol and other law enforcement on the scene at the Canfield Fair today when a man tried to forcefully push himself toward Dr. Acton as she was speaking and injured other attendees at the Mahoning County Democrat booth.”

He added, “Violence or the threat of violence at political or public events is always unacceptable. This case is now in the hands of law enforcement and will be investigated thoroughly.”

The attack also drew condemnation from Acton’s Republican opponent, former DOGE boss co-chair Ramaswamy.

“Candidates should be able to meet with voters without having to worry about threats or violence. What happened today is completely unacceptable and has no place in politics, and we hope that no one was hurt,” his spokesperson said.

The Ohio gubernatorial contest is razor-thin, with Ramaswamy edging Acton by 2 percentage points in a Fox News poll conducted last month.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/heavily-armed-man-attacks-dem-candidate-in-maga-heartland/?

[phkrause]

Trump Rebrands State in Bonkers Posting Spree

80-year-old Trump floated his plans to give the map of the U.S. a very MAGA makeover.

Donald Trump has announced his latest in a string of plans to rename key markers of geography and history.

The 80-year-old president embarked on yet another Truth Social rampage on Sunday. In one afternoon post, Trump shared a crudely altered map proposing a new name for the entire state of New Mexico.

With ‘Mexico’ crossed out, Trump floated his idea: ‘New America.’

Democratic New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham responded to Trump’s post on X: “New Mexico’s name isn’t up for debate — it’s been ours since before the United States existed,” Grisham wrote. “While the President tries to distract Americans from his disastrous war in Iran, the price of gas —and everything else — keeps rising. Under Democratic leadership here in New Mexico, we’re providing families with free childcare and college, protecting access to health care and investing in housing. While the White House wastes time coloring on maps, Nuevo México is busy doing the work.”

On Sunday evening, Trump made another Truth Social post on the topic, stating “Many people suggested changing the name of New Mexico, one of the great vote cheating states of all time, to NEW AMERICA. So much more prestigious and beautiful for the people of that potentially incredible State. Wow, I Love It!!!”

The post also included an AI slop video of Trump putting “America” over a “Welcome to New Mexico” sign, before doing his trademark dance to the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.”

Elsewhere on X, viewers of the naming proposal seemed torn between fury and incredulity.

“Why stop there? New York should also be New America. New Jersey and New Hampshire, too. Pennsylvania could be Americasylvania. you should call all dogs America, and all cats, too. rename the periodic table the America Table, and call Oxygen Americagen,” one person mocked.

A second slammed: “Bro stop renaming things and fix the economy.”

Trump certainly has a penchant for rechristening landmarks with more MAGA-coded names.

The president kicked things off at the beginning of his second term in January 2025, when he signed the executive order “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness.”

As part of this order, he infamously renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.

Last month Trump was at it again, when he officially changed the name of Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America,’ with Apple Maps bowing down to the change after Trump reportedly urged the company to make the change.

The move followed rising trade tensions with Canada, but was met with clear resistance in the form of a sign declaring that Lake Ontario’s name would never change.

“Just in case President Trump or anyone else forgets, we’ve set up this sign to remind them. It’s Lake Ontario, now and forever,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said as the sign was unveiled.

Trump has also suggested renaming the Strait of Hormuz after himself. Even place names unrelated to other nations have been swept up in the president’s narcissistic renaming streak.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on March 30 signed legislation to allow the renaming of Palm Beach International Airport to the President Donald J. Trump International Airport.

The president has also made demands for Washington Dulles International Airport and New York’s Penn Station to be named after him, following the legal challenges to the attempted renaming of the Kennedy Center.

While Trump’s latest social media spree—which included an AI fantasy of himself as a McDonald’s worker—is overall bizarre, experts have warned that it might be worth reading between the lines.

A psychiatrist has suggested that Trump’s Truth Social flights of fancy could be signs of mental illness or fatigue, as speculation about the president’s health reaches a fever pitch.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-rebrands-state-in-bonkers-posting-spree/?

ps:Absolutely pathetic!!!!!!

[phkrause]

Keystone Kash Mocked for Boast About Five-Person Crime Wave

Patel’s findings appear to run contrary to Trump’s assertion that millions of noncitizens are voting.

FBI Director Kash Patel’s latest boast about his apparent crime bust is not going over well.

Patel, the conspiracy theorist turned FBI boss, said his agency charged five people in three states for casting ballots illegally over the past two election cycles. The FBI claims that four noncitizens voted illegally in either the 2022 or 2024 election, and one U.S. citizen has been charged with allegedly aiding his wife’s illegal voting.

“Election integrity is a top priority for this FBI. We will investigate every credible allegation of election fraud and illegal voting, following the facts wherever they lead,” Patel wrote on X.

President Donald Trump has been fixated on the 2020 election, which he lost but has been obsessing over for nearly six years now. The president has claimed repeatedly, and falsely, that the election was stolen from him due to voting irregularities, which his legal team at the time could never prove in court nor present to the public.

Even so, nearly every chance he gets, Trump repeats his lies that election irregularities made the results of the 2020 election fraudulent, including in a recent primetime address in which he rambled again about nonexistent voter interference in that election.

He has filled his entire administration with only loyalists who believe his election claims.

The second Trump administration has been fixated on the idea of noncitizens voting, even though, as proven by the FBI’s latest “bust,” cases of noncitizen voting are extremely rare and are not happening en masse as the Trump administration portrays.

Patel was widely mocked for hailing this five-person arrest as some kind of proof of widespread voter fraud.

“Five people across three states spanning two whole election cycles—you really cracked the code on ‘widespread voter fraud,’” one user wrote sarcastically. “At this rate, you’ll hit double digits by 2040. Pack it up, folks, the 160 million other votes were just a distraction.”

“But Trump claimed millions of illegals voted in our elections. You got five?” another wrote.

“You found a total of FIVE people and that’s a win? You’re basically telling us Trump was lying about his election fraud claims then,” another noted.

Trump and his MAGA supporters have invoked voter fraud while pushing the SAVE America Act, which would require voters to present photo identification when voting and documentary proof of citizenship when registering..

U.S. citizenship is already a requirement to vote, and cases of noncitizen voting, as evidenced by Patel’s not-so-big bust, are very rare.

The bill does not appear to have the 60 Senate votes needed to overcome a filibuster, despite Trump furiously pressuring Senate Majority Leader John Thune to just blow up the filibuster to get it passed.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/keystone-kash-patel-mocked-for-boast-about-five-person-crime-wave/?

[phkrause]

Dark Twist Emerges as Armed Republican Attacks Dem Candidate

The Havas family has a history with the authorities.

The brother of an armed man alleged to have attacked Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton on Sunday is a Republican political volunteer who was fired after the discovery of his sexual misconduct with a minor.

The suspect behind the attack on Acton at a fair in Ohio has been identified as 38-year-old Patrick Havas, a registered Republican.

The man “lunged at Dr. Acton, injuring multiple people” while Acton, 60, was attending the Canfield Fair in northeastern Ohio, a campaign spokesperson said in a statement. Acton was not injured and the suspect was quickly detained.

Canfield is in Ohio’s 6th congressional district, which Trump won by 33 points in the 2024 election.

Patrick Havas’ brother, Andrew Havas, spent time in jail after being charged with sexual misconduct with a minor after an incident in 2008 involving a 15-year-old in Mahoning County, according to court records reviewed by NBC News in July.

Andrew Havas was 22 at the time of the incident and was accused of knowing that the minor was older than 13 but younger than 16 and also of being reckless about the minor’s age. The sexual misconduct charge was reduced to a single misdemeanor assault count as part of a plea deal.

After pleading guilty to the reduced charge in 2009, he was sentenced to 90 days in jail and ordered to pay a fine.

He served his sentence in the Mahoning County jail from May to August 2009, according to records provided to NBC by the county sheriff’s office.

In July, Havas resigned from his volunteer role with Republican Ohio Sen. Jon Husted’s re-election campaign after NBC News contacted the campaign about the case.

He was named a county campaign chair in Franklin County by Husted’s campaign in December. Husted’s campaign said Andrew had not disclosed his criminal history and that it immediately accepted his resignation after learning about it.

NBC reported that Havas introduced Husted at a Christmas party last December, addressing a crowd alongside the Republican and shaking his hand. He attended at least two events as part of Husted’s campaign in June.

During Sunday’s attack, the Columbus Dispatch reported that Patrick Havas reportedly pushed through the crowd, knocking over at least two older adults.

Police found two pistols and a taser in the suspect’s possession, and he was booked on charges of disorderly conduct and two counts of assault.

The Dispatch reported that after Havas was detained, Acton jumped into the crowd to help injured volunteers.

Campbell City Council member Mary Janek overheard Acton telling those gathered, “We are sick of the hatred.”

Acton is facing Republican Vivek Ramaswamy in the contest to replace outgoing Republican Gov. MikeDeWine, who is term-limited.

Ramaswamy did not personally address the attack but issued a statement through a spokesperson.

“Candidates should be able to meet with voters without having to worry about threats or violence. What happened today is completely unacceptable and has no place in politics, and we hope that no one was hurt,” Connie Luck, communications director for Ramaswamy’s campaign, said in the statement.

DeWine posted about the attack on X, “Violence or the threat of violence at political or public events is always unacceptable. This case is now in the hands of law enforcement and will be investigated thoroughly.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/twist-to-dem-candidate-amy-actons-accused-republican-attacker-patrick-andrew-havas/?

[phkrause]

Trump’s Big Brag Blows Up in Humiliating Reality Check

The president’s boasts about the war in Iran are quickly being destroyed.

Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz shipping route is at its lowest level in months, even as Donald Trump desperately tries to claim otherwise.

Data from analytics firm Kpler, reviewed by Reuters, found that an average of 10 commodity ships were moving through the vital shipping lane per day over the past 10 days, the lowest rate since May.

The 10-day moving average was down from more than 15 on Friday and nearly 13 on Saturday, as the U.S. and Iran resumed tit-for-tat attacks in a conflict that has continued for more than six months.

On Saturday, U.S. forces said they had struck vessels, including one off Kharg Island—the Iranian oil export hub that handled around 90 percent of the country’s oil exports before the war broke out—after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attacked U.S. warships in the region.

As the fighting resumed, just two vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz, with only six moving through on Sunday.

The worrying drop in the number of ships passing through the narrow passage, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passed before the war began on Feb. 28, came as the 80-year-old president insisted that the “Strait is open.”

Speaking to reporters on Aug. 27, after signing an executive order to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” Trump bragged that the U.S. was in control of the Strait of Hormuz because 24 boats had managed to pass through it.

“We have control and we have the blockade. Iran’s not getting anything; nothing is going through, not one ship has gotten through,” Trump said.

“The Strait is open; we’re taking a lot of boats—millions and millions of barrels of oil are coming out of the Strait every day. Other countries recognize that,” he added.

The president has been so confident that the U.S. is in control of the shipping route that he has suggested the unwise decision of trying to rename it the “Trump Strait.”

Despite the president’s claims, the Middle East conflict is still having disastrous effects on the world’s gas and energy supply.

On Friday, the average cost of a gallon of diesel reached an all-time high of $5.85, according to the American Automobile Association, breaking the previous record set in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Trump’s second term has also been plagued by rising gas prices across the U.S. as a result of the Iran war, further exacerbating the financial hardships of tens of millions of Americans.

The current national average is $4.15, already slightly above the record-high gas price ever recorded by AAA for Labor Day weekend.

The Daily Beast has approached the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-big-strait-of-hormuz-brag-blows-up-in-humiliating-reality-check/?

ps:So pathetic!!!!!

[phkrause]

MAGA Merch Retailers Admit They’re Doomed by Trump’s Economy

Nobody wants to buy those red hats anymore.

Vendors who made a fortune hawking Donald Trump’s tacky MAGA merch are lamenting a collapse in sales during his flailing second term as president.

Donald “Whitey” Taylor, 76, told the Wall Street Journal that the president’s return to the White House has sent profits plummeting at his Trump Town USA store in Boones Mill, Virginia.

“You get used to good money, and you still want to make it,” he said. “Today, the economy is just not worth a c--p anymore.”

Taylor could rake in north of $15,000 on any given day throughout 2024, which he told the newspaper marked his store’s best pace of business since he set up shop more than a decade ago.

Now, he says that daily rate has dropped 90 percent to just $1,500, as a direct result of pain at the pump sparked by 80-year-old Trump’s war of choice with Iran. The president’s persistent failure to tackle inflation, along with his miserable approval ratings, hasn’t helped either.

Taylor isn’t alone. The Journal spoke with a raft of other vendors in the MAGA merchandising world, all of whom said they’re feeling the squeeze.

The lack of enthusiasm among the MAGA base has even forced some outlets to shutter altogether. An employee at the Trump Store in Manchester, Tennessee, told the newspaper that even massive discounts failed to clear its remaining inventory, drawing only 12 customers on each of the three days before it finally closed.

Suppliers, many of whom buy their goods from manufacturers in China, are now scrambling to adjust to the sales slump. Quan Ngo, who works with a souvenir wholesaler out of Washington, D.C., said the outlet has scaled right back on Trump merch.

“We don’t make decisions off of emotions, we make them off of certainty and whether there is a demand,” Ngo told the Journal. “We’ve ordered less Trump merchandise because demand is down.”

Independent vendor Lisa Hall, of Syracuse, New York, says the collapse started about six months ago. Demand for MAGA-branded clothing began to slacken after Trump retook office, then crashed hard after he kicked off the war on Iran at the end of February.

“I used to be hearing from them; my phone would be exploding,” she said of her clients. “Now, that’s not happening.”

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

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-merch-retailers-admit-theyre-doomed-by-trumps-economy-and-war-with-iran/?

[phkrause]

White House Roasted After Trump’s New Rebrand Attempt Flops

The White House’s attempt to brag about the president’s narcissistic renaming streak backfired instantly.

The White House is being ridiculed for trying to turn Donald Trump’s latest geographic-renaming obsession into a bragging point.

The 80-year-old president returned to his favorite cartographic hobby on Truth Social Sunday, posting a crudely altered map proposing a new name for the state of New Mexico: “New America.”

Trump, who went on an AI slop posting spree on Sunday afternoon, later doubled down with another post taking aim at the state, which he has never won in an election.

“Many people suggested changing the name of New Mexico, one of the great vote cheating states of all time, to NEW AMERICA. So much more prestigious and beautiful for the people of that potentially incredible State. Wow, I Love It!!!” he wrote.

The commander-in-chief attached an AI slop video of himself putting “America” over a “Welcome to New Mexico” sign, before doing his trademark dance to the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.”

But the White House’s attempt to promote the president’s bonkers idea on its official X account backfired when critics turned it into ammunition against the president, who is facing mounting troubles as the midterms loom.

Comments underneath the post were critical of the president and the administration, with one user posting a meme claiming the rebrands are an attempt to distract from the Epstein files, while another called it a “toddler tantrum.”

The anti-Trump PAC the Lincoln Project responded on X with, “Trump’s approval rating with independents has dropped to 24%, by the way,” citing an NBC News poll.

Officials took note, too. “New Mexico’s name isn’t up for debate — it’s been ours since before the United States existed. What is up for debate? Who’s showing up for working families,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham responded on X.

Trump has devoted a significant amount of his time in office trying to rename buildings, landmarks, and places, even as voters say the economy and the cost of living is their top concern. Michelle Lujan Grisham/X

“While the President tries to distract Americans from his disastrous war in Iran, gas prices keep soaring. Americans are also spending more at the grocery store, losing access to health care and wondering if they’ll ever be able to afford a home.”

New Mexico Sen. Ben Ray Luján chimed in, “It’s New Mexico, always has been and always will be.”

“Just like how you’ll always be a sinvergüenza and corrupt,” he added, using a Spanish insult that translates roughly to “shameless person” or “scoundrel.”

California Rep. Ted Lieu ominously wrote, “November is coming.”

“Average gas prices hit the highest monthly levels in history in August. Diesel prices hit an all time record high in September,” he continued. “What are trump and Republicans focused on? Changing the name of New Mexico to New America.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump has devoted a significant amount of his time in office trying to rename buildings, landmarks, and places, even as voters say the economy and the cost of living is their top concern.

He officially changed the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America” last week after negotiations with Canada over his tariffs collapsed.

But even Trump-voting podcaster Joe Rogan argued that the real reason the president made the move is to “distract you from the fact that we’re in a war that we can’t win in Iran.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-house-roasted-after-trumps-new-rebrand-attempt-flops/?

[phkrause]

Trump Official Ripped Over Labor Day Gas Price Fail

The Trump White House has yet another broken promise to explain.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s big boast about gas prices is coming back to bite him.

Bessent promised in July that “inflation is going to come back down” and that gas prices would “maybe” return to $3 by Labor Day. Now that the holiday has arrived, MS NOW has the receipts that prove Bessent’s prediction was way off.

The network aired the months-old clip of Bessent on Monday before cutting back to host Peter Alexander, who said with a smirk, “It is Labor Day.”

“Gas prices, as you are well aware, are nowhere closer to $3 than they were a month ago,” he continued. “Right now, the national average is $4.15 per gallon—that’s not three bucks. It’s way higher than prior to the Iran war, when they were sitting below $3 a gallon.”

AAA reports that the average gallon of gas in the United States was $3.83 on July 2, the day Bessent made his claim in an interview with CBS News. Instead of gas decreasing by at least 83 cents, as Bessent promised, the average gallon has become 32 cents more expensive since then.

At $4.15 a gallon, AAA reports the price is a record high for Labor Day. The previous high of $3.83 per gallon was reached in 2012, when tensions in the Middle East also disrupted supply.

Experts tell CNN that gas prices could climb even higher if the wars in Iran and Ukraine continue to roil global energy markets. Patrick De Haan, a petroleum analyst at GasBuddy, told MS NOW that even more expensive months are on the way.“We’ll probably see our most expensive September, October and November, until something shifts with these geopolitical tensions,” he said.

Vice President JD Vance was confronted with Bessent’s failed promise during a press briefing this week. He pointed out that Bessent hedged his prediction by saying “maybe” by Labor Day, which offers little solace to Americans who are grappling with higher prices in nearly every facet of their everyday lives.

MS NOW highlighted AAA figures that show domestic flights are up 20 percent from this time last year, while hotels are nine percent more expensive.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-treasury-secretary-scott-bessent-ripped-over-labor-day-gas-price-fail/?

ps:That's why you don't take anything with these guys as being honest! This administration are the biggest liars ever, and if people didn't realize that from this man's first 4 years, they need extra help!!

[phkrause]

Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on $20 billion worth of US goods take effect Canada struck back at President Donald Trump on Tuesday with tariffs in an escalating trade war with the U.S. The tariffs hit hundreds of American products, including steel, aluminum, cheese, appliances, clothing, cosmetics and farm equipment, at rates of 15%, 25% or 50%. Read more.

What to know: The current trade war began after Trump returned to office and imposed a series of tariffs on Canadian goods despite having negotiated and repeatedly praised the North American trade agreement during his first term. Many of those tariffs violate the pact.   The outcome could resonate far beyond Canada, showing other governments whether a smaller U.S. ally can withstand Trump’s economic pressure. RBC Economics, the research arm of the Royal Bank of Canada, said the measures were unlikely to dent U.S. growth overall but could hit some businesses hard.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ US tourism groups want to win Canadian visitors back. A testy trade war isn’t helping  The US tariff on Canadian imports could send already soaring hockey gear prices even higher  Trump wants voters to pretend he’s on the ballot. The Republican Party is going along for the ride  The GOP was confident about keeping its Senate majority. Now the fight for control is wide open  What to watch as Republicans gather in Dallas for Trump’s unusual midterm convention  New Hampshire voters pick nominees as Sen. Shaheen’s exit sparks a scramble for key seats