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

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Billionaire Takes Trump Suck-Up to Another Level

The Dells say they will dump $250 into the “Trump accounts” of 25 million American children.

Billionaire Michael Dell and his wife, Susan, have committed to pumping billions to fund the so-called “Trump accounts” of 25 million American kids.

The massive gift will supplement legislation passed this summer mandating deposits of $1,000 into tax-deferred accounts for American babies born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028.

The Dells have committed to providing $6.25 billion, enough to fund accounts for every child under 10 who does not qualify for the $1,000 federal benefit. Those who are eligible for the Dells’ gift will receive $250 in “seed money” that their loved ones can add to over the years.

If money is left over, the Dells say they will invest in the accounts of older children, too.

Initially proposed as “Invest America accounts,” their creation was approved as part of the president’s “Big Beautiful Bill” this summer.

Republican lawmakers renamed the accounts in the final version of the bill to champion Trump. Business leaders have not been thrilled with the swap, hoping to revert the name to the politically neutral “530A” accounts instead.

Still, the president has repeatedly claimed credit for the initiative, which Democrats have accused of being a backdoor way to privatize Social Security. The White House has said the measure would not have been approved without Trump.

White House Spokesperson Kush Desai said last month, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but the fact remains: Only President Trump could’ve secured this historic win to help the next generation of Americans build wealth and achieve prosperity.”

Trump, 79, will host Michael Dell, 60, at the White House on Tuesday to celebrate his donation, which The New York Times described as “one of the largest philanthropic gifts ever to go directly to Americans.”

“TWO GREAT PEOPLE,” Trump posted of the Dells on Truth Social, along with a link to a Newsmax article about the gift. “I LOVE DELL!!! President DJT.”

Dell, a longtime Republican donor who gave $250,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2000, says the “Trump accounts” are a bipartisan effort.

“If you look at what we’re doing, I don’t think this is in any way a partisan activity,” Dell told the Times. “It’s certainly not intended to be.”

Dell, the CEO of Dell Technologies, and Susan, his wife of 36 years, did not refer to the accounts by their new Trumpy name in a news release, an announcement video, or in their interview with the Times.

“We’ve always made our focus to getting the support as close to families as possible, and Invest America continues that work,” Susan said. “This is a slightly different way of doing this, but the opportunity now is to do something really major and really touch 25 million children that will really benefit from this in a huge way.”

Dell did, however, refer to the accounts with the Trump name in a June roundtable with the president.

The tech executive, who is worth $148.5 billion according to Forbes, teased at the event that he would make a significant gift by “following your inspiring lead, Mr. President.” Trump has not donated any of his own private funds to the initiative.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/billionaire-michael-dell-makes-biggest-ever-suck-up-to-trump/?

Michael and Susan Dell donate $6.25 billion to encourage families to claim ‘Trump Accounts’

Billionaires Michael and Susan Dell pledged $6.25 billion Tuesday to provide 25 million American children under 10 an incentive to claim the new investment accounts for children created as part of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending legislation. The historic gift has little precedent, with few single charitable commitments in the past 25 years exceeding $1 billion, much less multiple billions. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

Can $1,000 at birth change a child’s future? A Republican proposal aims to find out Anonymous $50M gift will cover some tuition at University of Washington

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Costco Steps In to Join Major Legal Battle Against Trump

The big-box giant joins a growing list of corporations racing to protect themselves as Trump’s tariff gambit faces a skeptical Supreme Court.

A major retailer has jumped into the escalating court fight over Donald Trump’s tariff regime, seeking to protect itself as the president’s signature trade gambit faces a potentially devastating Supreme Court review.

Costco filed suit in the U.S. Court of International Trade, warning it needs to secure its place in line for refunds if the justices strike down the Trump administration’s sweeping duties imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

The move puts the country’s third-largest retailer by revenue alongside a growing roster of industry heavyweights challenging Trump’s fast-moving tariff machine. Revlon Consumer Products Corp. and Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Corp. have lodged similar cases.

The Supreme Court heard arguments last month on Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs, with key justices sounding skeptical of the administration’s justifications.

Lower courts have already ruled against the White House in some early challenges but allowed the tariffs to remain in effect until the high court issues its decision. A ruling before the end of the year is possible, though not guaranteed.

The policies—worth tens of billions of dollars a month—have scrambled supply chains and pressured retailers struggling to hold prices down for consumers still cautious after years of inflation. The administration has urged the justices to issue clarity quickly.

“The economic consequences of the failure to uphold President Trump’s lawful tariffs are enormous, and this suit highlights that fact,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai told The Wall Street Journal.A long list of companies and Democratic-led states have also sued. But if the Court knocks out the tariffs Trump initiated in April, how any previously paid duties might be unwound remains an open question. The justices offered little indication during arguments, and while Congress could theoretically retroactively authorize the tariffs, such a move is considered unlikely.

Costco did not detail in its filing how much it has paid under the duties since Trump’s second term began. The company has said it is selectively adjusting prices to offset the impact—holding steady on staples like pineapples and bananas imported from Central and South America, while raising prices on flowers sourced from the same region.

“We continue to work closely with our suppliers to find ways to mitigate the impact of tariffs, including moving the country of production where it makes sense,” Costco Chief Financial Officer Gary Millerchip said in September, adding that the retailer has also shifted its product assortment when necessary.

The White House and Costco have been approached for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/costco-steps-in-to-join-major-legal-battle-against-trumps-tariffs/?

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Military Officials Rage at Karoline Leavitt’s ‘Bulls**t’ Defense of Pentagon Pete’s ‘Kill’ Order

The White House press secretary is accused of “throwing service members under the bus.”

Top military brass have blasted Karoline Leavitt over what they say is an effort to scapegoat a special operations commander who followed orders from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to carry out what may well have amounted to a war crime.

“This is ‘protect Pete’ bulls–-t,” as one Pentagon official put it to the Washington Post. “It’s throwing us, the service members, under the bus,” another added.

Hegseth is under intense fire after the newspaper reported Friday he’d verbally authorized an elite military force to “kill everybody” on board an alleged Venezuelan drug boat in the Caribbean Sea.

After an initial strike, executed on Sept. 2, had left two survivors clinging to the remains of the vessel, Admiral Frank Bradley is understood to have ordered a second attack in compliance with Hegseth’s demand.

Legal experts now argue the incident constitutes a violation of both domestic and international law, which prohibit “no quarter” orders if the directives amount to the intentional killing of a target once the person is incapacitated.

Amid mounting public outcry and moves to open a congressional investigation into the killings, Leavitt offered up a scripted response during a press conference Monday, insisting on the legality of the strike while highlighting Bradley’s role over Hegseth’s.

“President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have made it clear that presidentially designated narcoterrorist groups are subject to lethal targeting in accordance with the laws of war,” she said, reading from a statement.

“With respect to the strikes in question on September 2, Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes,” she went on. “Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated.”

When pressed by a reporter on whether it was Bradley, head of the Special Operations Command, who gave the order for the second strike, Leavitt nodded and said, “And he was well within his authority to do so.”

Speaking with the Post, military officials said the press secretary’s comments effectively served to tarnish Bradley’s record for the sake of preserving Hegseth’s. “Whether he takes the blame or not, his reputation has been marred by this forever, just by that statement,” one person said.

Nor is Leavitt the only one to have tried shifting the blame over the attack since news of it first broke late last week.

Hegseth himself said in a carefully worded post on X on Monday night that Bradley “is an American hero,” and that “I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made.”

Those efforts have not gone over well on either side of the aisle, with Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy telling CNN the defense secretary is clearly now trying to “pass the buck” over the strikes.

“He sort of sees the freight train that is coming, right, that both Republicans and Democrats are coming to the conclusion that this was an illegal, wildly immoral act,” he said. “And he is shifting the blame. It’s the opposite of ‘The buck stops here.’ And boy, it’s a chilling signal in the chain of command that the secretary of defense does not have your back.”

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and Department of Defense for comment on this story.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/military-officials-rage-at-karoline-leavitts-bullst-defense-of-pentagon-pete-hegseths-kill-order/?

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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth defends second boat strike, citing ‘fog of war’

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Tuesday defended the secondary strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea, citing the “fog of war” as reason for his not seeing any survivors in the water when the strike was ordered and launched.

https://apnews.com/live/trump-news-updates-12-02-2025?

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Federal review finds 44% of US trucking schools don’t comply with government rules

Nearly 44% of the 16,000 truck driving programs listed nationwide by the government may be forced to close if they lose their students after a review by the federal Transportation Department found they may not be complying with government requirements. Separately, the Department of Homeland Security is auditing trucking firms owned by immigrants to verify whether their drivers are qualified to hold a commercial license. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

Trump says he doesn’t want Somalis in the US, urges them to go back to their homeland and fix it Hegseth cites ‘fog of war’ in defending follow-on strike in scrutinized attack on alleged drug boat Supreme Court likely to rule in favor of abortion opponents in challenge to state investigation Canada joins EU defense fund as the country pivots away from the US Schumer says three of his New York offices were targeted with bomb threats

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? All the president's posts

Data: Roll Call FactBase; Chart: Jacque Schrag/Axios President Trump made nearly one post per minute over a three-hour Truth Social spree late yesterday, Axios' April Rubin reports. Trump made 158 posts and reposts from 9 p.m. ET to midnight, by Axios' count. ? The president's posts started with criticism of political opponents, including former Attorney General Eric Holder and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.). ?️ He also posted about President Biden's autopen use and today's special election in Tennessee. ?? Several other posts concerned Minnesota's Somali community, some of which baselessly questioned Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-Minn.) citizenship. He also shared a conspiracy theory that Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) planned the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. One video, posted at least three times, celebrated First Lady Melania Trump. ?Another post, which included a clip of Trump's cameo in "Home Alone 2," said "Christmas is officially GREAT again." Go deeper.

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The Last Avenue

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Even today, nearly five years later, listening to Donald Trump’s call is shocking.

“So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes,” he told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and a few aides on January 2, 2021. Trump warned Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, that if he didn’t act, he would face prosecution: “That’s a criminal, that’s a criminal offense. And you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer.” And to underscore that he was asking Raffensperger to subvert the election results, he added, “So what are we going to do here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.”

The Washington Post obtained the call and published it on January 3. Three days later, a crowd of Trump supporters, whipped into a frenzy by the president, marched on the Capitol, attacked police, and sacked the building in an attempt to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. In the days, weeks, and years to follow, much more would be revealed: a long-running campaign, as dedicated as it was sloppy, to steal the 2020 election.

Trump and several associates were charged for their roles in the scheme in a splashy Georgia indictment, but the case’s dismissal last week, on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday, received less attention. A judge acted at the request of Peter Skandalakis, the prosecutor appointed to handle the case after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who obtained the indictment, was disqualified from overseeing it. Skandalakis made both legal and practical arguments against the racketeering case, deeming the charges against some of the defendants weak. (The racketeering law allowed Willis to charge many people at once but created a sprawling case.) As for Trump, Skandalakis wrote, “There is no realistic prospect that a sitting President will be compelled to appear in Georgia to stand trial on the allegations in this indictment.” By the time he leaves office, “eight years will have elapsed since the phone call at issue.”

The Georgia case was the last remaining criminal case against Trump, and the last legal or political avenue to hold him accountable for the 2020-election plot. (It was also important because Trump cannot pardon himself or others if convicted in state court.) A federal election-subversion case against him was dismissed after he won reelection last November. State prosecutions against fake electors have not made much headway. And last month, Trump issued pardons to dozens of people implicated in the attempted subversion. In short, Trump has gotten away with his attempt to subvert the election: If the criminal-justice system is incapable of prosecuting attempts to steal an election, then stealing an election is de facto legal.

Each of these cases had its own wrinkles and reasons for failing. In the Georgia case, for example, Willis made grievous errors in judgment, intertwining her personal life and work by hiring a dubiously qualified special prosecutor with whom she was in a romantic relationship. Her racketeering charge was also ambitious but risky, as Skandalakis argued; the collapse of her case against the rapper Young Thug’s YSL group shows how such cases can go wrong.

The federal prosecution was set up for failure by Attorney General Merrick Garland’s decision to slow-walk prosecuting Trump to appear nonpartisan; the result was that by the time Special Counsel Jack Smith took over, he had little time to work. The Supreme Court used much of that time deliberating a challenge from Trump before issuing a startling opinion that gives presidents immunity for a huge range of “official” acts.

Political remedies haven’t worked either. The House voted to impeach Trump for his actions, but the Senate, under the influence of the GOP leader Mitch McConnell, failed to convict him. Republicans fell back on both legalistic claims—they argued that they couldn’t convict Trump once he was no longer president—and a misplaced belief that Trump would never be able to mount a political comeback. And when states tried to disqualify Trump from appearing on the 2024 ballot under the Fourteenth Amendment (a legally questionable approach), the Supreme Court blocked them.

All that remains are a few cases against the fake electors who allegedly formed alternative pro-Trump slates. A case in Michigan was dismissed. Wisconsin’s case is creeping forward. A case in Nevada was quashed by a trial judge on procedural grounds but resuscitated by the state supreme court; something similar happened in Arizona, where the attorney general has asked the state supreme court to revive a case. (That one also involves a few Trump allies.) Even if some of these cases succeed, though, they will punish the lowest-level participants while allowing the big fish—Trump chief among them—to swim free.

Trump’s pardon order guarantees that some of the high-profile figures will never face federal charges related to the 2020 election, including the lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro, Boris Epshteyn, John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, and Jenna Ellis, as well as former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. (Trump’s order explicitly ruled himself out; he has previously said that he has the power to self-pardon, but many legal scholars disagree.) Giuliani and Eastman have lost their law license, and Clark may as well, but that’s hardly proportional punishment.

Notwithstanding the various prosecutors’ miscalculations that led to this point, it is possible that no effective legal path existed to hold Trump and his minions accountable. Despite their bumbling, their scheme was vague and diffuse enough that prosecuting them was tricky. This does not make election-subversion attempts acceptable, though; it means that lawmakers should write laws that would allow authorities to punish the kind of behavior that occurred after the 2020 election. Unfortunately, there is little prospect of that at the federal level or in potential key states. And as I wrote in The Atlantic’s December cover story, the president and his allies are already working to interfere in the 2026 election.

When moving to dismiss the Georgia charges, Skandalakis lamented the sordid aftermath of the election: “Never before, and hopefully never again, will our country face circumstances such as these.” The failure to punish the major figures, however, all but guarantees a repeat.

Related:

• Donald Trump’s plan to subvert the midterms is already under way.
• North Carolina is the canary in the election coal mine.

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The power of real reporting

Photo illustration: Maura Kearns/Axios; Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

President Trump came into office promising to decapitate mainstream media. He bullied and sued media companies, blocked or curtailed access for reporters, and elevated nontraditional news sources. Yet mainstream media ends the year as dominant as ever in capturing Trump's attention and setting Washington's agenda, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column. Why it matters: Trump remains a voracious consumer of so-called legacy news and takes more calls from more reporters than any president in our lifetime. His days are often filled with responses — not to MAGA media or X influencers, but to conventional stories from conventional reporters at conventional media publications. Trump administration efforts to restrict the proximity of some White House reporters, or boot them from Pentagon workspace, have done little to slow the flow of leaks to legacy media from inside those buildings. Yes, his lawsuits against the big networks and others have a chilling effect on coverage, reporters at those networks tell us. And, yes, some legacy voices — notably the opinion section of The Washington Post — are drifting rightward in the age of Trump. And what the Pentagon calls its "brand new" press corps of Trump-friendly outlets (including MAGA provocateur Laura Loomer) was welcomed into the building this week for exclusive briefings after traditional news organizations refused to sign a new press policy. But it's hard to argue legacy media has been defanged when the president himself spends his days engaging with it and reacting to deeply reported stories that clearly hit a nerve. ?️ The big picture: The era of Big News is over — the days of networks and newspapers and traditional media alone setting the agenda are long past. Influencers, podcasters, social media stars and independent thinkers and journalists are often just as powerful as old-line media in shaping how most people see reality day to day. But these newer players often feast on old-fashioned reporting to provide their daily buffet of content on new platforms. The media dynamic in Washington has changed less than we expected in 2025. At the beginning of the year, both X and MAGA media were ascendant, even dominant, in shaping the national conversation. X remains a force, especially for Republicans, the tech world and the media. But MAGA has been mired in months of infighting, often about personality or identity disputes. That said, we're clearly in the post-news era, in which people are forming views and realities based on numerous inputs. Yet even in this post-news era, news still matters. A lot. Case in point: Look at how The Washington Post drove days of coverage and social-media posts — and sent the Trump administration scrambling — with last week's report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered commanders to kill those aboard alleged drug-smuggling boats off South America. The reporting kicked even Trump-friendly Republican committee chairs into oversight action. (Hegseth said yesterday he "did not personally see survivors" and cited the "fog of war" in defending the follow-on strike in a September attack on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean.) Or look at how the most powerful people in technology rallied to defend White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks after The New York Times this week ran a five-byline investigation into his holdings in realms where he shapes policies. If The New York Times is unreliable and irrelevant, why did Elon Musk, Marc Andreessen, Marc Benioff and other big-name execs feel obligated to publicly defend Sacks? Or look at the way a beat reporter, Axios global affairs correspondent Barak Ravid, has dominated coverage of Israel and Middle East peace talks. Trump himself has been doing interviews with Ravid to discuss his views. The bottom line: For all his anti-media rhetoric, Trump remains the most accessible president of modern times to many mainstream reporters. We're not diminishing the damage Trump has done with lawsuits and constant claims of "fake news." It's real. Lawsuits drain money, time and attention. But as we've seen at Axios this past year, interest in clinical, serious, credible reporting has never been higher — including inside this White House.

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? Billionaires bankroll Trump's presidency

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Private wealth has become an operational arm of the Trump presidency, bankrolling pet projects and policies on a scale unmatched by any previous administration, Axios' Zachary Basu writes. Why it matters: The generosity of America's billionaires can't be divorced from the tax incentives and privileged access that come from orbiting — or serving in — the wealthiest administration in U.S. history. While some donations are earmarked for the public good — like Michael Dell's historic $6.25 billion gift yesterday for "Trump accounts" for kids — many flow into the president's personal ecosystem. ? Zoom in: Like any private philanthropy, Dell's massive donation — which will seed 25 million child investment accounts with $250 — is ultimately dwarfed by the $7 trillion federal budget. But its power lies in its ability to bypass congressional gridlock, allowing Trump to broaden a popular benefit — $1,000 for newborns starting next year — far beyond what lawmakers were willing or able to authorize. The same dynamic applied to GOP megadonor Timothy Mellon's $130 million contribution to backstop troop salaries during the government shutdown, which worked out to about $100 per service member. ? Zoom out: Many wealthy donors have chosen to support projects insulated from the federal balance sheet. In Trump's world, that often means financing the spaces and spectacles he values most. Inauguration: Unburdened by campaign-finance limits, Trump's 2025 inaugural committee raised a record-shattering $245 million — nearly triple his 2017 total and four times President Biden's 2021 haul. Military parade: Sponsors of Trump's 250th-anniversary Army parade in June included corporations with deep financial or political ties to the president, including Palantir, Coinbase and Oracle. White House ballroom: Trump has broken ground on a 90,000-square-foot ballroom replacing part of the East Wing. So far, the White House has disclosed a list of 37 corporate and individual contributors, including major tech companies, defense contractors, crypto firms and longtime Trump allies. Some have remained anonymous. White House Deputy Press Secretary Kush Desai told Axios in a statement: "Thanks to President Trump's leadership, America's richest billionaires are giving away their money to Make America Great Again — from investing in Trump Accounts for our children's future to supporting our troops." Keep reading.

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Science funding squeeze

Data: The New York Times. Chart: Axios Visuals Trump administration policies have pushed the NIH and NSF to "make far fewer competitive awards" to fund medical and science research than in past years, according to a New York Times review of over 300,000 grants. Why it matters: Fewer grants means less research was funded "in areas such as aging, diabetes, strokes, cancer and mental health." The NIH, the world's largest funder of biomedical research, has quietly started to pay more money upfront — meaning its research funds are divided into fewer projects, instead of a larger number of diversified scientific bets. Keep reading (gift link — no subscription required).

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Keystone Kash Cornered on Humiliating Tantrum Revealed in Bombshell FBI Dossier

The FBI director put his own spin on claims he threw a hissy fit in the midst of the Charlie Kirk investigation.

FBI Director Kash Patel lashed out at a group of active-duty and retired FBI agents who compiled a dossier blasting his “dismal” leadership and accusing him of being more focused on his image than doing his job.

The report, which was leaked Monday to the New York Post, recounted an embarrassing scene that took place on Sept. 11, a day after far-right activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated in Utah, leading to a 33-hour manhunt.

After the FBI jet touched down in Provo, Utah, Patel refused to disembark until agents who were busy trying to find Kirk’s killer had tracked down a size medium FBI raid jacket for him to wear.

“Patel apparently did not have his own FBI raid jacket with him and refused to step from the plane without wearing one,” the report’s authors said.

A raid jacket in his size was finally located and brought to Patel, but he then wasn’t satisfied with the lack of proper patches on the sleeves, so he wouldn’t disembark until members of an FBI SWAT team “took patches off their uniforms and ran those patches over to FBI Director Kash Patel at the airport.”

During an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham on The Ingraham Angle late Tuesday, Patel accused the dossier’s authors, an anonymous group of retired and active-duty agents who call themselves “the Alliance,” of lying and cratering the public’s trust in the FBI. He also said the jacket story was “100 percent false.”

He appeared to put his own spin on the story. “One of my agents handed me a jacket and said, ‘Hey, boss, you should probably wear this. We are going into the command center.’ I said, ‘I would be honored to wear that.’ And then another one handed me the SWAT team badge of the unit that was protecting the area where Charlie was assassinated. I wore that with pride,” he said.

He then insisted that his FBI was “succeeding in ways that no FBI has ever done so before.”

“The institutionalists and the anonymous reporters from the swamp D.C. bureaucracy are the ones we are crushing. And that’s how I know we are winning,” he declared.

He ended his monologue by taking another swipe at California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, recycling his own joke about Christine Fang, also known as “Fang Fang,” a Chinese woman who volunteered on Swalwell’s 2014 re-election campaign before it was publicly revealed in 2020 that she was a suspected Chinese spy.

U.S. officials said they found no evidence she obtained any classified information from Swalwell, who cut contact with her after an FBI briefing in 2015.

“If Eric Swalwell wants to come online and talk about what jacket size I wear, I’m happy to send him a women’s medium so he and Fang Fang can go out again,” Patel told Ingraham, who laughed obligingly.

The Daily Beast reached out to the FBI for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/keystone-kash-says-humiliating-fbi-dossier-proves-hes-winning/?

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Epstein’s Grim Warning About Trump Is Coming True: Wolff

The convicted sex trafficker predicted that Trump would exploit a key presidential power, according to Michael Wolff.

Jeffrey Epstein once warned that Donald Trump would exploit a key presidential power if he should win the White House, according to author Michael Wolff.

Wolff argued on the Inside Trump’s Head podcast that the convicted sex trafficker’s prediction about his former friend’s conduct in office has come unnervingly true.

“Jeffrey Epstein had a kind of riff about this,” Wolff told co-host Joanna Coles, explaining that even before Trump was elected, Epstein would talk about how the real estate mogul could wield the pardon power as president.

The Trump biographer, whose correspondence with Epstein raised eyebrows last month after some of their emails were released, said the disgraced financier believed Trump would misuse the presidential power because he revels in holding leverage over others.

According to Wolff, Epstein told him, “He loves having this kind of thing. He loves showing the power that he has.” Epstein, who died in jail in 2019, predicted that Trump would use his powers “in a childlike way,” Wolff said.

The 79-year-old president began his second term by pardoning more than 1,500 people convicted in the Jan 6. Capitol attack. He has since handed out what Coles called a “string of unfathomable pardons” to high-profile allies who back his agenda—and have the resources to lobby for clemency.

Trump has even left the door open to pardoning Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, leading to speculation that he had cut some kind of deal with her to protect himself.On Monday, Trump granted clemency to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez—marking what is perhaps his most controversial pardon to date.

Hernandez, 57, was sentenced to 45 years in prison last year after he was convicted of drug trafficking and firearms offenses.

The Justice Department, under then-President Joe Biden, said Hernandez had “abused his power to support one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world,” helping heavily armed traffickers smuggle as much as 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S.

Wolff said Trump’s decision to pardon Hernandez stands out because “this is not a white-collar crime.”

“This is a criminal who is not only an egregious drug smuggler, but it’s an administration that’s full of pride about its ability to stop drug smuggling,” he said.

Trump has justified letting Hernandez walk free by saying that “many people of Honduras” told him “it was a Biden setup.”

Presidents typically grant clemency to people who demonstrate some “anomaly” in the process of their conviction, Wolff noted.

But “in the case of Trump’s pardons,” he said, “that’s seldom the case.”

“These people have done the deed and Trump has decided for a variety of reasons—it was a political prosecution—some fig leaf rationale,” he said. “The real reason is that these people become part of his structural support base.”

Securing a pardon from the president involves “knowing people who know people who know Trump, with an amount of money that has been passed along the line,” Wolff said. “There are no free pardons here.”

In October, Trump pardoned money-laundering crypto billionaire Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, after his company, Binance, helped enrich the Trump family and hired at least two lobbying firms to push for Zhao’s pardon.

Coles noted that the “opportunity cost” of Trump’s approach to pardons is that those who lack access to the president’s circle, but are “in jail wrongly,” are passed over.

When reached for comment, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told the Daily Beast in a statement, “Michael Wolff is a lying sack of s--t and has been proven to be a fraud. He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.”

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson later followed up to add, “Why isn’t the Daily Beast concerned with their own employee—Michael Wolff—closely corresponding with, and even offering advice to Jeffrey Epstein?”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/jeffrey-epsteins-grim-warning-about-trump-is-coming-true-michael-wolff/?

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Trump administration halts immigration applications for migrants from 19 nations The Trump administration is pausing all immigration applications, such as requests for green cards for people from the 19 countries banned from travel earlier this year, as part of sweeping immigration changes in the wake of the shooting of two National Guard troops. Read more.

What to know: The pause puts on hold a wide range of immigration-related decisions, such as green card applications or naturalizations for immigrants. It’s up to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services director Joseph Edlow on when to lift the pause, the memo said. The administration in June banned travel to the U.S. by citizens of 12 countries and restricted access for those from seven others, citing national security concerns.   Days before the National Guard shooting, USCIS said in a separate memo that the administration would review the cases of all refugees who entered the U.S. during the Biden administration. Critics have said that the Trump administration’s actions have amounted to collective punishment for immigrants.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Man charged in National Guard shooting pleads not guilty during court appearance from hospital bed   Federal authorities plan operation in Minnesota focusing on Somali immigrants, AP source says   Doodling, drowsiness and a conspicuous misspelling highlight Trump’s last Cabinet meeting of 2025   Trump says National Guard will be sent to New Orleans   Venezuela to continue accepting deported migrants despite Trump’s airspace closure assertion   With ‘Trump Accounts,’ your baby could qualify for $1,000. Here’s what to know   Costco becomes biggest company yet to demand refund of Trump tariffs   Chances dwindling for renewal of health care subsidies, risking premium spikes for millions   Trump administration threatens to withhold SNAP management funds from states that don’t share data   Justice Department expands legal action against states that have refused its demands for voter data   Some friendly, some on-the-news questions at first briefing for new Pentagon press corps   Sabrina Carpenter and Franklin the Turtle publisher condemn Trump administration’s use of their work

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Trump pardons Texas Democratic Rep. Cuellar in bribery and conspiracy case

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump pardoned Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife in a federal bribery and conspiracy case on Wednesday, citing what he called a “weaponized” justice system.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-pardon-cuellar-45a47bc329bec820cd19c087b20fca19?

Pete Hegseth faces deepening scrutiny from Congress over boat strikes

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth barely squeaked through his Senate confirmation process at the start of the year. And lawmakers have been uneasy about the lack of information flowing from the Pentagon to Congress. Now, lawmakers have announced an investigation into a military strike on a boat in the Caribbean that some have said raises questions of potential war crimes. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

Republicans brace for tough midterms after Tennessee special election Trump pardons Texas Democratic Rep. Cuellar in bribery and conspiracy case What to know about Somalia as Trump wants Somalis in the US to leave Federal agents launch immigration crackdown in New Orleans Progressive group targets Senate Democrats for backing Trump’s judicial nominees   Delayed care to 2 Black pregnant women highlights maternal health disparities  Two pregnant Black women nearly 1,000 miles apart were ready to do what many do every day: welcome new bundles of joy, and just before the start of the holiday season. Instead, the health of both women and their babies was put at risk after hospital staff did not immediately provide the needed care. Read more. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ WATCH: Black mother delivers baby on expressway after being discharged from Indiana hospital What to know about the hepatitis B shot — and why Trump officials are targeting it

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Trump targets Biden's gas rules

Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios President Trump's new fuel economy standards would roll back tougher Biden-era rules meant to cut emissions and promote electric cars, Axios' Joann Muller reports. Trump's proposal would require automakers to hit an average of 34.5 mpg across their fleets by 2031. That's significantly lower than the Biden-era target of 50 mpg, which would require lots of EV sales. ? The big picture: Trump has been tearing up Biden-era policies he believes were intended to force EVs on Americans. "Today, we're taking one more step to kill the green new scam," Trump said at a White House event this afternoon, referencing the Green New Deal. "It's a quest to end the gasoline-powered car. This is what they wanted to do. Even though we have more gasoline than any other country by far, and people want the gasoline car." ? Trump's plan would slash the average price of a new car by $1,000 compared to the Biden-era rules, the White House claims. ? The average new vehicle now costs over $50,000, a record amount. ⛽️ Yet better fuel efficiency also means less money spent on gas. ?‍? Automakers praised Trump's policies as more realistic than Biden's. "We appreciate President Trump's leadership in aligning fuel economy standards with market realities," said Ford CEO Jim Farley, who appeared alongside Trump today with other auto execs. ? Environmental and clean-energy groups condemned the move. "The only thing this does is make it easier for manufacturers to sell us less efficient cars that require more gas — and more money to fill up," Bob Keefe, executive director of the environmental business group E2, said in a statement. Go deeper.

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• ⚜️ DHS is aiming for 5,000 arrests in "Operation Catahoula Crunch," its new immigration blitz in New Orleans. It's the Trump administration's latest crackdown in Democratic-led cities. Go deeper.
• ? President Trump is granting a "full and unconditional PARDON" to Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), who was indicted last year on conspiracy and bribery charges, which he denied. Go deeper.

? Trump burns Johnson

For the second time in a few weeks, President Trump has undercut the same House Republicans he may have to rely on to save him from possible impeachment in 2027.

Why it matters: Trump didn't just pardon Rep. Henry Cuellar today — he praised him, calling the Texas Democrat "highly respected" and "beloved."

• And he didn't just have a cordial meeting with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Nov. 21 — he heaped levels of flattery on the democratic socialist that will complicate the House GOP's goal of casting Mamdani as a national villain.

Zoom in: Trump blindsided House GOP leaders with his "full and unconditional PARDON" for Cuellar, which he announced on Truth Social this morning.

• Speaker Mike Johnson "didn't know anything about it," he told us this afternoon. "I think he had talked about that since last spring. It shouldn't be a huge surprise to anyone. But no, I didn't discuss it with him."
• Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told us he found out about Trump's pardon on X. The pardon "certainly makes it tougher" for the GOP to flip Cuellar's South Texas seat, Hudson said.
• Trump told reporters today it "didn't matter" if his pardon helped Cuellar in 2026.

Between the lines: Trump accused the Biden administration of "weaponizing the Justice System" and prosecuting Cuellar because he "bravely spoke out against … the Biden Border 'Catastrophe.'"

• Ten days ago, the NRCC blasted Cuellar's legal troubles. "House Democrats including 'Leader' Hakeem Jeffries are still bankrolling criminally-charged Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar," the NRCC posted on X.
• NRCC communications director Will Kiley, in a statement to us, called the White House "an indispensable partner." He added, "We're laser-focused on holding the House and delivering the governing majority the President needs to execute his full agenda."

The bottom line: Cuellar thanked Trump for the pardon on X but told reporters he will run for reelection as a Democrat and is not considering switching parties.

• Earlier this year, Democrats were privately concerned that Cuellar, a conservative Democrat, might reconstitute himself as a Republican if a presidential pardon were in the offing.
• Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told us he thinks the pardon solidifies Cuellar's reelection, though he added Cuellar would have probably survived anyway.
• Last May, federal prosecutors charged Cuellar and his wife with accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes in exchange for influencing U.S. foreign policy in favor of Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank.

— Kate Santaliz and Hans Nichols

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Boat Strike Suit

A Colombian family yesterday filed the first legal challenge against US airstrikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific with an inter-American human rights watchdog.  Alejandro Andres Carranza Medina, a 42-year-old fisherman, was among over 80 people killed in 21 confirmed airstrikes carried out by the Trump administration since September. Carranza's wife and four children insist he was on a fishing expedition and not carrying drugs when his boat was struck Sept. 15. Their complaint alleges Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the strike without knowing who was aboard, violating Carranza's right to due process and a fair trial. Hegseth is also facing scrutiny from US lawmakers over a follow-up strike on another alleged drug boat days earlier that killed two survivors of the first strike.  Separately, the Pentagon’s internal watchdog determined Hegseth endangered US troops earlier this year when he shared details about military operations in Yemen via a private Signal group chat.   New Orleans, Minnesota Crackdown Federal agents began immigration enforcement efforts yesterday in New Orleans, Louisiana, and two Minnesota cities: Minneapolis and St. Paul. The crackdown follows similar endeavors in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, and Memphis. Federal officials specifically named 10 people in Louisiana for arrest and deportation: men from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Jordan, and Vietnam who had been arrested for crimes including child endangerment, robbery, and domestic abuse. The Department of Homeland Security says the men had been inappropriately released from custody due to New Orleans' sanctuary city laws. Federal agents are separately targeting unauthorized Somali immigrants in Minnesota, according to reports. The crackdown comes after President Donald Trump used derogatory language to refer to Somalis and Somali-born Rep. Ilhan Omar (D, MN-5). It is not clear to what extent officials will arrest people without criminal records. Out of more than 370 unauthorized immigrants arrested in North Carolina, federal officials say at least 44 had criminal records.    Immigration The Trump administration's immigration crackdown is spreading to more states, with operations now underway in Minnesota and Louisiana. The sweeps are targeting the "worst of the worst," or the most violent criminals, according to administration officials — but local leaders say the raids have led to arrests of many people who have no criminal history. Sources tell CNN that agents in Minnesota are targeting Somali immigrants after Trump on Tuesday referred to Somalis in the state as "garbage" who should "go back to where they came from." The Department of Homeland Security also said it intends to make at least 5,000 arrests "or beyond" in Louisiana.

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✈️ Scoop: Trump's comeback travel

President Trump, staring down criticism that he's prioritized global issues over pocketbook worries, next week will kick off a year of heavy stateside travel that's focused on selling his economic agenda ahead of the midterms, Axios' Alex Isenstadt reports.

Why it matters: Trump's approval rating has sunk as he has pursued peace deals around the globe and "narco-terrorists" in the Caribbean, while Americans have become more pessimistic about affording a better life.

• With Republicans in danger of losing control of the House next November, Trump needs to be a lift — not a drag — in tough districts if the GOP is to defy powerful historic trends and keep its majority.

Trump's new push begins Tuesday in the vital battleground of northeastern Pennsylvania.

• We're told the president will aggressively push back against criticism over the cost of everyday essentials — an issue that helped propel him to victory over Kamala Harris last year.

The president's growing irritation over how voters view his economic agenda has been bubbling over in his public remarks. He has repeatedly insisted prices are coming down, and has called Democrats' focus on affordability a "hoax" and "con job."

• Trump is expected to use Tuesday's event to highlight what he's done to help the economy during his second term in office. But aides privately acknowledge that there's more to be done to address cost-of-living concerns.

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⚡ New data: Inside ICE arrest surge

Data: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via UC Berkeley. (Arrests were counted even if they didn't lead to detainment. Multiple arrests of the same individual were counted separately.) Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals The Trump administration is making headway on the key first step toward mass deportations: ICE arrests have soared since the start of President Trump's second term, Axios' Brittany Gibson writes from data released this week. Why it matters: This year's arrest pace is well short of the administration's goal of 3,000 a day. But President Trump has moved the numbers way up compared to former President Biden. ICE's main unit for removing immigration law violators — Enforcement and Removal Operations — has been arresting roughly 1,100 people per day in recent weeks, according to government data released via a Freedom of Information Act request from the Deportation Data Project. ? Between the lines: Fueling the larger arrest numbers is ICE's decision to also target people without criminal convictions or charges. Under President Biden, people who hadn't committed another crime weren't prioritized for arrest and deportation. Agents now have a broader mandate and have been encouraged to make more "collateral arrests."

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Pentagon knew boat attack left survivors but still launched a follow-on strike, AP sources say The Pentagon knew there were survivors after a September attack on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea and the U.S. military still carried out a follow-up strike, according to two people familiar with the matter. Read more.

What to know: What remains unclear was who ordered the strikes and whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was involved, one of the people said. The details are becoming crucial as lawmakers have launched investigations and are seeking to determine whether the U.S. acted lawfully during its military operations. The Pentagon did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment about the reported new details about the Sept. 2 attack.   The rationale for the second strike was that it was needed to sink the vessel, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss it publicly.   Hegseth is under growing scrutiny over the department’s strikes on alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, and in particular the follow-on strike that reportedly killed survivors. Some legal experts and lawmakers say that the strike would have violated peacetime laws and those governing armed conflict.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Pentagon watchdog finds Hegseth’s use of Signal posed risk to US personnel, AP sources say   Lawmakers to hear from Navy admiral who ordered attack that killed boat strike survivors   A vocal Jeffrey Epstein accuser is urging judges to unseal his court records   Affordable Care Act premiums are set to spike. A new poll shows enrollees are already struggling   A dozen former FDA leaders lambaste claims by the agency’s current vaccine chief   Safety volunteer charged in the fatal shooting of a Utah ‘No Kings’ protester   Bessent says Federal Reserve Board could ‘veto’ future regional presidents   Longest US government shutdown cost Delta Air Lines $200 million   Trump is fighting the Institute of Peace in court. Now, his name is on the building   Ex-Honduras president Hernández thanks Trump in first message since release   Arkansas attorney general says pardoned nursing home operator should serve state sentence   NY attorney general challenges authority of acting US attorney investigating her Trump lawsuits   Wisconsin Supreme Court to decide whether local jails can hold immigrants for ICE   WATCH: Can tariffs eventually replace federal income taxes, as Trump claims?   White House tours resume in time for Christmas, but they’re different than before

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Trump Makes Panicked Move as Affordability Crisis Shatters His Polls

The president will go on a national tour to insist there is nothing wrong with the economy.

Donald Trump is preparing a national public-appearance blitz amid concerns that he is ignoring the financial anxiety of tens of millions of Americans.

The president will appear in the key swing state of Pennsylvania on Tuesday to try to convince voters that his economic plans are working, with additional events expected this month and into the new year across the country, Axios reports.

The nationwide push comes as Trump faces mounting criticism that he is too focused on foreign policy during his second term and increasingly out of touch with how Americans are struggling in a cost-of-living crisis.

On Thursday, a devastating Politico poll found that nearly half (46 percent) of U.S. adults say the cost of living is the “worst they can ever remember it being,” including 37 percent of voters who supported Trump in 2024.

The survey also found that 56 percent of Americans said affordability is their top priority, with 46 percent blaming Trump specifically for their financial woes.

The backlash against the 79-year-old—who made lowering the cost of food one of his central 2024 campaign pledges—has contributed to record-low approval ratings and fears within the GOP that it could result in an electoral wipeout in next year’s midterms.

Trump has also taken the potentially disastrous stance of insisting that polls showing Americans are increasingly worried about the economy and their own finances are “fake” and a “hoax” pushed by Democrats.

He repeated this head-in-the-sand approach while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

“This whole thing is they use the word affordability. It’s a Democrat hoax. They’re the ones that drove the prices up, and all they do is say ‘affordability,’” Trump said during a lengthy tirade. “When they use the word affordability, they never say anything else. ‘This election is about affordability,’ and then they go into the next subject. It’s a con job.”

A late November Gallup survey—which shows Trump with a second-term low approval rating of 36 percent—suggests that concerns about affordability have “damaged Trump’s standing” with the American people.

Axios reports that he will use a string of national media appearances to “aggressively” push back against criticism over the rising cost of everyday essentials, with the White House believing the president is the best person to highlight the apparent economic progress he has enacted.

A White House spokesperson told the Daily Beast that Trump will use the tour to show how he and the administration “continue to focus on delivering on his Day One priority of ending Joe Biden’s inflation crisis.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is one of the high-profile Republicans who has accused Trump of abandoning his America First agenda and of ignoring issues affecting Americans. Trump’s own aides have also expressed concern that he’s not focused enough on domestic issues, while the president has repeatedly intervened in international matters while demanding that he be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize (even while threatening to attack Venezuela).

The national tour to push his economic proposals also arrived after the White House had been rattled by a New York Times report detailing that Trump’s public appearances in his second term have fallen by 39 percent compared to his first, amid concerns about the 79-year-old’s mental and physical health.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-makes-panicked-move-as-affordability-crisis-shatters-his-polls/?

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Trump Makes Embarrassing Confession About Putin as Peace Push Flops

Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner have been attempting to bag a peace deal.

Donald Trump made an embarrassing admission about peace talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, after they ended yet again in failure.

“I don’t know what the Kremlin is doing,” the 79-year-old president told reporters in the Oval Office, the day after his special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner had what Trump called a “reasonably good meeting” with the Russian dictator to negotiate an end to his illegal war in Ukraine.

After the five-hour meeting in the Kremlin, the U.S. negotiators said they believed Putin “would like to end the war”—a message they relayed to Trump on Tuesday evening.

But Trump, who promised to end the year on day one of his presidency, admitted Wednesday he did not know what was going on. He said, “I can tell you that they had a reasonably good meeting with President Putin. We’re going to find out. It’s a war that should have never been started.”

Putin, meanwhile, said the meeting had been a slog. Speaking to the India Today TV channel ahead of a visit to New Delhi on Thursday, he said the talks were “necessary” and “useful” but also “difficult work.”

“What comes out of that meeting? I can’t tell you, because it does take two to tango,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

“He would like to end the war,” he said of his Russian counterpart. “That was their [Witkoff and Kushner’s] impression. Now, whether or not you know that was their impression, you know their impression was that they’d like to see—he would like to see—the war ended.”

He then claimed that one of Putin’s main concerns is reopening economic channels to the U.S. “I think he’d like to get back to dealing a more normal life. I think he’d like to be trading with the United States of America, frankly, instead of, you know, losing thousands of soldiers a week. But their impression was very strongly that he’d like to make a deal,” he said.

Moscow has said that there are some provisions in the U.S. peace plan—drafted without Ukraine—that they are more willing to discuss than others. Territorial lines remain a sticking point.

A senior U.S. administration official said peace talks will continue in Miami on Thursday, with Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov due to visit.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky canceled planned talks in Brussels with Trump’s envoys.

For the past two weeks, Trump has bragged about his 28-point peace deal as the latest reason why he should have won the Nobel Peace Prize.

“They just divided these 28, I think 27, points into four packages,” Putin was quoted as saying. “And they proposed that we discuss these four packages. But essentially, they are the same (provisions).”

His aide Yuri Ushakov also appeared unimpressed. “At first there was one version, then this version was revised, and instead of one document, a few more appeared,” he said.

Kyiv has also reportedly rejected a revised 19-point deal.

Putin also jabbed at the American negotiating style, saying the U.S. is engaged in “shuttle diplomacy.”

“They spoke to the Europeans, then came to us, then they have another meeting with the Ukrainians and the Europeans,” he said.

Meanwhile, Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities continued into Thursday, with a ballistic missile hitting Kryvyi Rih overnight and injuring six people, including a 3-year-old girl, according to local official Oleksandr Vilkul.

He said more than 40 homes, a school, and gas lines were damaged in the attack on President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown. In Kherson, a 6-year-old girl died after being wounded in Russian shelling the previous day.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-makes-embarrassing-confession-about-putin-as-peace-push-flops/?

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Feds Probe Stunning Twist in D.C. National Guard Murder

U.S. intelligence is pursuing leads in the shooter’s native country, our must-read newsletter The Swamp reveals.

Donald Trump wants to crush The Swamp. The leaks, the sneaks, and the secrets are all there. Our writers, David Gardner, Farrah Tomazin, and Sarah Ewall-Wice, are sifting through the ooze so you don’t have to. Don’t miss out.

In this week’s news from the ooze: Melania Trump, Miranda Devine, Lt. General William Jones, R.C. Maxwell, Kash Patel, Don Lamothe, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, Laura Loomer, Michael and Susan Dell, Pete Hegseth, Todd Starnes, Cam Digby, Karoline Leavitt, Sarah Beckstrom, and Andrew Wolfe.

The Washington Shooter and a Deadly Offer He Could Not Refuse

The former Afghan fighter who killed one National Guard member and left a second critically injured just two blocks from the White House may have been blackmailed into carrying out the shooting, The Swamp has learned.

U.S. intelligence is investigating information that a Taliban hit squad threatened to murder Rahmanullah Lakanwal’s family in Afghanistan unless he opened fire on American troops in the nation’s capital.

Donald Trump and his MAGA acolytes, including FBI Director Kash Patel, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, and “War” Secretary Pete Hegseth, have described the 29-year-old married father-of-five as a “monster” and a “terrorist” and insisted he would likely face the death penalty.

But investigators are asking themselves why a man who was vetted by two administrations, and with no criminal record and no history of extremism, should drive across the country on an apparent suicide mission to shoot at heavily armed U.S. military personnel with a revolver.

One line of inquiry they are seriously pursuing, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation, is that Lakanwal was made an offer he could not refuse. Either he accepted the mission, or his family in Afghanistan would be beaten, murdered, and possibly beheaded.

Lakanwal was a member of the Afghan Scorpion Forces working closely with the CIA as a GPS tracking specialist. He helped the U.S. military escape from Kabul in the shambolic retreat from Afghanistan in August 2021. Between August 14 and 30, more than 123,000 people were airlifted from Kabul Airport. The Afghan fighter joined one of the last flights because he served the United States and due to the danger he would be in if he were left behind.

About 700 Scorpion Forces members are understood to be detained in Afghanistan because they worked with America and its allies.

In the five years since the U.S. evacuation, a Taliban military unit—called Yarmouk 60—has devoted itself to tracking down, and, in some instances, killing Afghans who worked with the West.

Earlier this year, a member of the “Afghan Triples,” an elite special forces unit that was set up, trained, and funded by the U.K. to combat the Taliban, managed to leave the country and get to Germany, hoping his family could follow on later. In retaliation, Yarmouk 60 killed his wife and father and four of his children, including two little girls who were beheaded, the source told The Swamp.

“It is by no means our only line of inquiry,” said an intelligence source who has worked closely with the authorities trying to help Afghans with a target on their backs because of their work with the West. “People in this country have no idea about the level of stress these people are under. Most of them have families back home, and if the Taliban cannot get to them, they are making it very clear that they will go after their families.”

Lakanwal was said to be worried about money and concerned that the Trump administration would block his Green Card application and force him to return home. Trump has blamed the Biden administration for allowing Lakanwal into the country, but it was Trump’s own administration which granted him asylum in April 2025.

Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died in the attack last Wednesday. Her colleague, Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, was critically injured and remains hospitalized. Lakanwal was also wounded in the shootout and is under armed guard in the hospital. He has been charged with first degree murder and his attorney indicated he would plead not guilty. The Pentagon has been contacted for comment.

Who Gives a F*** About the White House Christmas Decor?

It’s the time of year the Christmas decorations come down from the attic, and you decide that you really, really must buy some new ones … next year. One would have thought Melania Trump could send her staff down to Michaels to get some new baubles. Then again, the First Lady is famously ambivalent toward the festive season. Remember when she was surreptitiously recorded in 2018, saying, “Who gives a f–k about the Christmas stuff and decorations?” Perhaps that’s why she dug out her old Xmas trimmings from 2018, including white balls emblazoned with “BE BEST,” and recycled them for this year’s display.

A Presidential Plug No Longer Holds Water

Has the Trump bump turned into a Trump slump? On November 28 at 2:30 AM, President Trump took to Truth Social to deliver an important message: “Twilight’s Last Gleaming, Can America Be Saved” (YES!), by the Great Todd Starnes. A fantastic NEW BOOK. Get it now!!! President DJT.” Now ”Twilight’s Last Gleaming” dropped in March, 2024 so it’s not a “NEW BOOK.” In fact, the NewsMax host has published another book since then so it’s not even Todd Starnes’s LATEST BOOK. Although Trump’s shill-y post racked up 18.8K likes and 3.61K retruths, followers did not exactly heed his call to race to Jeff Bezos’s Amazon to “GET IT NOW!!!” The sales rank of Starnes’ book spiked on the first day to around 17,000 which translates, per an online Amazon book sales calculator, to a one-day sale of 16 books. By November 30, that number had in fact fallen to around 24,000 which translates to a sale of 12 books. The ebook ranking was far worse, hovering around 150K or ONE book sold in the past day. Starnes set up shop at NewsMax after being let go from Fox News in 2019 after he suggested that Democrats do not worship the God of Christianity. “Apparently,” Starnes mused, “the god they worship is the pagan god of the Old Testament, Moloch, who allowed for child sacrifice.” And speaking of child sacrifice, why won’t Trump release the unredacted Epstein files?

And Speaking of Amazon…

Olivia Nuzzi (pronounced “newsy” according to former lover Keith Olbermann) added book author to her resume as American Canto hit the shelves. Maybe fans are rushing to their local book stores to purchase the memoir, but over at Amazon at 2:17 PM on her pub date, Nuzzi’s hardcover has a sales rank of #12,763 and a nearly identical kindle rank of #12,338. It appears that former Nuzzi fiance Ryan Lizza’s work is done.

Ding, Dong, Dell… You Read It Here First

As revealed in The Swamp back in April, Donald Trump is pressing ahead with his plan to give $1,000 to every baby born while he is president, helped, no doubt, by Tuesday’s announcement that tech billionaire Michael Dell, 60, and his wife, Susan, (age unavailable but estimated at 56) will put $250 into investment accounts for 25 million children at a cost to them of $6.25 billion. Details of the plan are still being worked out, but the federal government will create a $1,000 “Trump Account” for babies born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028. If you’re worried about the Dell’s four kids taking a hit to their inheritance, keep in mind that Forbes pegs Michael Dell’s fortune at $148 billion. The kids will be fine.

What Miranda Learned from Hunter

The New York Post’s Miranda Devine has started a MAGA civil war with an article revealing a 115-page report flaming Kash Patel and Dan Bongino as unfit to lead the FBI because they are social media-thirsty, paranoid, status-obsessed clowns running a circus. Her Monday article in the Post quotes a report from a group she calls “A National Alliance of Retired and Active-Duty FBI Special Agents and Analysts.” Who could this group, which an enraged Bongino has dubbed “the deep state,” be? It may be that only Devine herself knows—and she certainly isn’t naming names. The “Alliance’s” other three public appearances were (1) in October 2023, in a 112-page report complaining about DEI at the FBI; (2) in July 2024 with a 229-page report complaining about then FBI boss Chris Wray; (3) and in October 2024 endorsing Trump. Each time, their findings were announced by Devine via Twitter and in the pages of the NY Post. Nobody else appears to have ever spoken to the “Alliance.”

Devine is hardly known for her intense scrutiny of MAGA figures; her biggest calling card until now had been her book Laptop From Hell about Hunter Biden and his electronic trail of wrecked lives, drugs, prostitutes and (at least in MAGA’s view) corruption. What is clear is that she and her “Alliance” have learned some techniques from Hunter’s security failures. Their reports are only available on the document site Scribd where they have been uploaded by someone with the account “NYP” and carefully scrubbed of any metadata. The other documents uploaded by the account can all be found in stories by Devine. Now if only there was an anti-deep state journalist who could blow open this mystery…

My Lai Lesson to Donald Trump and His Claims of Treason

Donald Trump and his Secretary of Warrior may like to check their military histories under My Lai to see what happens when troops carry out an illegal order. On March 16, 1968, American soldiers from Charlie Company, 11th Brigade, Americal Division, entered the village of My Lai in Vietnam. “This is what you’ve been waiting for—search and destroy—and you’ve got it," the men were told by their superior officers. And the killing began. By the time the smoke had cleared, more than 300 unarmed men, women and children were dead.

In the awful aftermath, as full details of the massacre emerged, the U.S. top brass deemed it necessary to better educate service members about the military legal system. Lt. General William Jones, commander of the Fleet Marine Force in the Pacific, sent a letter on August 15, 1972, along with a booklet to the Marines as an attempt to provide a “ready reference on the legal system for the individual Marine,” and urged those under his command to ask questions.

The booklet was disseminated after the height of the Vietnam War but months before the U.S. withdrawal the following year. Chapter Six focused on the legality of orders. It outlined that obedience to orders is a “fundamental concept” of the Marine Corps, but noted “the order given must be a legal one.”

“1. Am I required to obey legal orders? A. No, you are not,” it states in bold. “2. Suppose someone gives me an illegal order, I obey it, and I am subsequently charged with an offense because of my obeying that illegal order? Can I use obedience to orders as a valid defense to the charge? A. No, you cannot. Since you are not required to obey an illegal order, your compliance with it is not a defense.”

But the guidance to Marines stationed in the Pacific (FMFPAC) did not stop there.

“3. How can I tell if an order is legal or illegal? A. It’s not as hard as it sounds. Most of the cases wherein this issue has been raised involved killings of humans under circumstances such that compliance with the order to kill would clearly be murder. If you rely on common sense and judgement, you should be all right.”

The specific example in the booklet of one such illegal order given to Marines was shooting a prisoner who was subdued or did not pose an immediate threat.

“4. What should I do if I receive an order which I consider to be illegal? A. Advise the individual giving the order that you consider the order to be illegal and that you are not going to comply for that reason.”

So why was it so wrong for six Democratic Party lawmakers to urge troops not to obey unlawful orders?

More to the point, should Admiral Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley have followed the order reportedly given by Pete Hegseth to leave no one alive in the narco boat strike in the Caribbean on September 2?

Sharing the Post at the Pentagon

And speaking of Pete, the MAGA Pentagon Propagandists, sorry, the, eh, Pentagon Press Corps, has officially moved in after the longtime national security reporters got the boot for not sucking up enough. The fake press corps is already disseminating questionable content. Laura Loomer posted a photo claiming she was now occupying the former Washington Post desk. But so did two other journalists, RedState’s R.C. Maxwell and Cam Higby, of Fearless Media, who signed away their journalistic ethics for a (shiny MAGA red) press pass.

It appears they all have a secret crush on Dan Lamothe, although only Loomer was actually sitting at the Post veteran’s old desk. The other two couldn’t even get that right. “By my count, I’ve got at least two or three desks left at the Pentagon. Lost count,” Lamothe posted on X, along with photos of his admirers. “Y’all are going to have to work this one out for yourselves,” he added. We guess that’s what happens when the new occupants spend more energy dunking on proper reporters rather than raising questions about, say, potential war crimes.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/fed-probe-stunning-twist-in-dc-national-guard-murder/?

[phkrause]

Entire Chain of Command Could Be Held Liable for Killing Boat Strike Survivors, Sources Say

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is under increasing fire for a double-tap strike, first reported by The Intercept in early September, in which the U.S. military killed two survivors of the Trump administration’s initial boat strike in the Caribbean on September 2.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/02/hegseth-boat-strikes-war-crime-venezuela/?

Trump Frees Ex-President of Honduras, Right-Wing “Narco-Dictator” Convicted of Drug Trafficking

In a 26th floor courtroom overlooking Manhattan’s frigid winter skyline, dozens of immigrants sat in on the trial of their former president, the once untouchable symbol of a “narco-dictatorship” that reorganized of the government’s judicial, police, and military leadership to collude with drug traffickers.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/01/honduras-hernandez-pardon-trump-venezuela-drugs/?

Trump Wants to Make African Countries Share Abortion Data to Get AIDS Funding

The Trump administration plans to condition global health assistance on foreign countries sharing significant amounts of health data with the United States, including on abortion, according to a template for an aid agreement obtained by The Intercept.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/01/pepfar-hiv-abortion-health-data-trump/?

“Real” America Is Turning Against Trump’s Mass Deportation Regime

On a chilly evening in mid-November, about 135 people gathered along a highway in Boone, North Carolina, a small Appalachian college town not known as a hotbed of leftist protest. They held signs reading “Nazis were just following orders too” and “Time to melt the ICE,” and chanted profane rebukes at Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents rumored to be in the area. “They came here thinking they wouldn’t be bothered,” one Appalachian State University student told The Appalachian at the impromptu rally. “Boone is a small, southern, white, mountain town. We need to let them know they’ll be bothered anywhere they go.” In a region often stereotyped as silently conservative, this flash of defiance was a startling sign that the battle lines of American politics are shifting in unexpected ways.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/03/appalachia-nc-ice-protest-immigrants/?

Trump Gutted AIDS Health Care at the Worst Possible Time

On World AIDS Day 2025, humanity should be celebrating that there is a new shot available which offers six months of protection against the transmission of HIV, the virus which has already infected approximately 40 million living people and taken the lives of 44 million more.

https://theintercept.com/2025/12/01/world-aids-hiv-trump-cuts-unemployment-lgbtq/?

Legalizing Cocaine Is the Only Way to End the Drug War

I was never that into cocaine — preferring the euphoria promised by MDMA or the relaxation offered by cannabis — but back in 2015, a cocaine-serving lounge bar, Route 36, in La Paz, Bolivia, was the talk of the backpacking circuit, and the scarcely-believable novelty of the place was alluring.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/30/legalize-cocaine-trump-boat-strikes/?

[phkrause]

Melania Sucks Up to Putin After He Humiliates Her Husband

The first lady hailed “progress” in Russia returning abducted Ukrainian kids even as her husband’s attempts to reach a deal with Moscow became a farce.

Melania Trump praised Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “leadership” on child reunifications, even as President Donald Trump’s latest peace push fell apart in spectacular fashion.

The first lady, 55, issued a White House statement on Thursday announcing that seven Ukrainian children—six boys and one girl—taken during Russia’s invasion have been returned to their families after quiet talks with Moscow.

Melania praised Russia’s “leadership and persistent diplomacy,” adding that her “dedication to guaranteeing the safe return of children to their families in this region is unwavering.”

“I commend the leadership and persistent diplomacy of Russia and Ukraine in the pursuit of the reunification of children and families,” she said.

“Their bridge-building has created a tangible collaborative environment—an anchor for optimism. This cooperation will continue to drive the process forward through the next phase."

Melania’s upbeat tone came hours after Trump, 79, told reporters: “I don’t know what the Kremlin is doing.” His startling admission came days after U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner briefed him on a “reasonably good meeting” with Putin, 73, that still produced no deal.

On Wednesday, the peace effort was left in tatters, with key U.S. ally, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, saying everyone knew Putin wasn’t serious about negotiations.

Melania’s nod to Putin is perhaps not surprising. In October, she announced from the White House that she had been in “ongoing” direct contact with Putin since sending him a letter in August, and she said back-channel meetings had followed.

“Since then, President Putin and I have had an open channel of communications regarding the welfare of these children,” she said.

Trump has repeatedly elevated Putin in his Ukraine push, even rolling out the red carpet for him in Alaska in August, but leaving with nothing tangible.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Kremlin for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/melania-trump-sucks-up-to-russian-president-vladimir-putin-after-he-humiliates-her-husband-donald-trump/?