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

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⚖️ Timeline of the attack

Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for D.C., shows a shotgun carried by suspect Cole Allen. Photo: Kylie Cooper/Reuters This timeline emerged yesterday from new court filings on Saturday's shooting at the White House correspondents' dinner: April 6: Cole Allen, the suspected gunman, reserved a room at the Washington Hilton, the dinner venue. April 21-24: He traveled by train from L.A. to Chicago, then Chicago to D.C., checking into the hotel the day before the event with a reservation for the weekend. Shortly before the attack: Allen scheduled an email to auto-send to family and a former employer, with an attached "Apology and Explanation." He referred to himself as the "Friendly Federal Assassin." Night of the dinner: About 40 minutes after President Trump arrived, Allen "ran through the magnetometer holding a long gun. As he did so, U.S. Secret Service personnel assigned to the checkpoint heard a loud gunshot." The response: A Secret Service agent — struck in the chest but protected by a bulletproof vest — returned fire multiple times. Allen "fell to the ground and suffered minor injuries but was not shot." The charges: Allen, who appeared in court yesterday, faces three federal counts: attempting to assassinate the president, transporting a firearm across state lines with intent to commit a felony, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. He faces up to life in prison if convicted of the assassination count alone. Read the FBI affidavit.

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⚡ Carbon removal's Trumpy turn

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images

The carbon removal industry is reframing its pitch to win support in the Trump era by focusing on energy dominance over climate change, Axios national energy correspondent Amy Harder writes. Why it matters: Billions of dollars have already flowed into a sector built to fight global warming. The shift was on display when two major Biden-era projects got the green light from Trump's Energy Department earlier this month. "Carbon removal can be the next prosperous and competitive American industry," said Giana Amador, founding executive director of the Carbon Removal Alliance, a trade group launched in 2023 to represent the nascent sector. Keep reading ...

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The Trump Administration Aims to Penalize Disabled Adults Who Live With Their Families

Even a glance at Shy’tyra Burton’s life reveals her need for the sort of federal government assistance that helps disabled Americans stay in their homes. Born two months prematurely into a poor family in Philadelphia, unable to breathe or swallow without tubes and largely confined to medical facilities until age 4, Burton was diagnosed with a litany of developmental and intellectual disabilities that left her with an IQ below 70.

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-social-security-ssi-disability-benefits-cuts-parents-children?

ps:Thank you so much for your empathy!!!!!

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Trump Aides Leak Fears of Toxic Stalemate

Insiders are saying the impasse would be “the worst thing” for the president ahead of the midterms.

U.S. officials are sounding the alarm that President Donald Trump’s war on Iran could turn into a drawn-out Cold War-style conflict that would be politically and economically devastating for the administration. The president is reportedly unhappy with Iran’s latest proposal to end the war, which is entering its third month, because it doesn’t address the administration’s “red line” issue: Tehran’s nuclear program. The U.S. wants Iran to hand over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, but the regime is first demanding guarantees that the U.S. won’t start bombing Iranian targets again after Trump agreed to a temporary ceasefire, Reuters reported.

Separately, negotiators would resolve the U.S. Navy’s block of Iran’s sea trade and agree to terms to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow shipping lane that has been a bottleneck for global oil supplies since the war began, before finally tackling the nuclear issue.

With peace talks stalled, the impasse has the president vacillating between launching new military strikes or waiting to see whether Iran will eventually succumb to financial pressure and negotiate an end to its nuclear program, which the country maintains is for civilian energy purposes.

“All [Iran’s leaders] understand is bombs,” Trump told an adviser, who shared the comment with Axios.

“I would describe him as frustrated but realistic,” the adviser said. “He doesn’t want to use force. But he’s not backing down.”

Aides, however, are worried about the president getting drawn into a Cold War-like scenario where there’s no war but no deal, Axios reported.

A stalemate would mean troops remaining in the region and the Strait of Hormuz staying closed for months while both sides wait to see who caves first.

In the meantime, gas prices would remain high as the clock winds down on November’s midterm elections.

“A frozen conflict is the worst thing for Trump politically and economically,” a source told Axios.

The president discussed the Iran proposal with his national security team on Monday, but no decisions were made.

One official told The New York Times that accepting the Iranian proposal would deny Trump a victory.

The president has repeatedly invoked Tehran’s nuclear program as the reason he attacked Iran in the first place.

“The United States will not negotiate through the press—we have been clear about our red lines and the president will only make a deal that’s good for the American people and the world,” White House spokesperson Olivia Wales told the Times in a statement.

The Daily Beast has also reached out for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-aides-leak-fears-of-toxic-stalemate/?

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King to Brutally Shade Trump With One Key Word

The 77-year-old monarch is about to take the least Trumpy tone imaginable.

King Charles III will draw a brutal contrast with President Donald Trump as he plans to call for “reconciliation” in a historic speech to Congress.

The British monarch, 77, is in the U.S. on an official state visit against the backdrop of frayed relations between the political leaders of the two countries over the war with Iran.

Trump has repeatedly fumed at Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for not going all-in on his conflict in the Middle East, with the Brit reluctant to send naval support and initially refusing to allow the U.S. to use its airbases.

Appearing in Congress on Tuesday afternoon, Charles is expected to call for “reconciliation and renewal”—in stark contrast to Trump’s erratic behavior that has seen him threaten to wipe out a “whole civilization” in Iran and start a fight with the pope.

The king, who is head of the Church of England and prayed alongside Pope Leo XIV in a historic first last year, is expected to strike a calming tone as he reminds lawmakers of the “special relationship” between the U.K. and the U.S., saying that despite not always seeing eye to eye, the “two countries have always found ways to come together.”

Aides revealed that the speech to the joint session is expected to last around 20 minutes and will see the king celebrate “one of the greatest alliances in human history,” according to a Buckingham Palace preview cited by the BBC.

The British national broadcaster said he is also expected to spell out the two countries’ commitment to shared values of liberty and equality. Meanwhile, royal sources say he will also refer to the importance of NATO and Ukraine, Politico reports, as well as the trilateral AUKUS alliance.

Starmer angered Trump when the U.K. refused to help blockade the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow shipping lane through which around one-fifth of the world’s oil passes. It has been closed by Iran, straining the global oil economy and causing American voters to pay more at the pump.

After peace talks led by Vice President JD Vance collapsed, Trump announced that allies would help with the blockade.

The U.K. quickly put that talk to bed when a spokesperson for the government said: “We continue to support freedom of navigation and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, which is urgently needed to support the global economy and the cost of living back home.”

“The Strait of Hormuz must not be subject to tolling,” they added.

Earlier in the war, Trump had called on allies to help fight the war with Iran. The U.K., along with the rest of Western Europe, refused.

Speaking at the White House in March, Trump fumed: “We had the U.K. say–this is three weeks ago–‘we’ll send our aircraft carriers,’ which aren’t the best aircraft carriers, by the way. They’re toys compared to what we have. But ‘we’ll send our aircraft carrier when the war is over’. I said: ‘Oh that’s wonderful, thank you very much. Don’t bother. We don’t need it.’”

The president also said Starmer was “no Winston Churchill.”

Trump’s rage at the U.K. has since expanded in its scope.

He helped kick Starmer while he was already down, after his pick for U.S. ambassador, Peter Mandelson, was ousted over his connections to late child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

“Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom acknowledged that he ‘exercised wrong judgment’ when he chose his Ambassador to Washington,” Trump, who knew Epstein for 15 years, said on Truth Social. “I agree, he was a really bad pick.”

Trump has been named thousands of times in the Epstein files, but has denied, and is not accused of, any wrongdoing.

After Starmer’s initial refusal to let Trump use its base in Cyprus, an island in the Eastern Mediterranean, the president also threatened to pull out of a favorable trade deal with the U.K.

In a phone call with Sky News in mid-April, Trump referred to an agreement struck with the U.K. in June in the wake of the far-reaching U.S. tariff policy. “We gave them a good trade deal. Better than I had to. Which can always be changed,” he said. “They’re having a lot of problems.”

Meanwhile, a Pentagon memo leaked to Reuters suggested that Trump’s administration could re-evaluate its view on whether Britain should retain the Falkland Islands, a self-governing British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic, where King Charles is head of state.

Argentina and the U.K. went to war in 1982 when Argentinian forces invaded the island in a doomed bid to retake the archipelago for Buenos Aires. The king’s younger brother, Andrew, served as a helicopter pilot in the conflict.

According to The New York Times, officials have said they hope the King’s words might soothe tensions between London and D.C.

His four-day visit comes in the aftermath of a gunman attacking the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, which saw Trump evacuated and questions asked about security measures. The King is also expected to offer sympathy for the incident in his speech.

The aides’ preview also suggested Charles will call on lawmakers to exercise “generosity of spirit and a duty to foster compassion, to promote peace, to deepen mutual understanding and to value people of all faiths and none.”

Queen Camilla is also across the pond, which coincides with America’s 250th anniversary celebrations and is set to spill across Virginia, Washington D.C., and New York.

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

https://www.thedailybeast.com/king-charles-subtle-response-to-trumps-insults-revealed/?

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Trump Hit by Devastating Poll as Voters Say They’re Getting Poorer

The number of Americans who say their personal finances are deteriorating is at a record high.

More Americans say they are getting poorer than at any point over the past 25 years, in a warning sign for President Donald Trump and the Republicans ahead of the midterms.Trump has promised to usher in a new “golden age” for the U.S. economy. But according to a new Gallup poll, conducted April 1–15 among 1,000 people, an ever-growing number of Americans say their personal finances are deteriorating.

In the survey, 55 percent of respondents said their financial situation is getting worse—up from 53 percent last year and 47 percent the year before.

The figure marks the highest level recorded since Gallup started the survey in 2001, surpassing even periods of economic strain during the pandemic and the global financial crisis.

It also represents the fifth straight year in which the number of Americans who say they’re getting poorer has risen.

White House spokesman Kush Desai told the Daily Beast: “President Trump created an economic boom in his first term with historic job, wage, and investment growth along with the first decline in wealth inequality in decades. In his second term, President Trump is again implementing his proven, first-term economic agenda of tax cuts, deregulation, and energy abundance.

“As cargo traffic in the Strait of Hormuz begins to normalize again and the disruptions of Operation Epic Fury begin to subside, Americans can rest assured that the best is yet to come.”

The findings underscore a growing political risk for Trump and Republicans ahead of the midterms, where affordability is expected to dominate the agenda—particularly as 31 percent of voters identify the cost of living as their top financial concern.

Trump has continued to argue that his economic agenda is boosting Americans’ finances, repeatedly pointing to claims of growth and increased investment.

Earlier this year, he predicted 2026 would be “even better” than his first year back in office, adding: “There are factories and plants and thousands of businesses being built all over the country. I just spoke to President Xi [Jinping] of China. Nobody has ever seen anything like what’s happening right now in America.”

However, rising oil and gas costs due to Trump’s deeply unpopular war in Iran have complicated that message.

Gas prices have climbed to an average of $4.11 per gallon, according to AAA, up from under $3 before the conflict with Iran began on Feb. 28.

Public concern is reflecting that shift. The latest Gallup data shows 13 percent of Americans now cite energy costs as their top financial issue—up 10 percentage points from last year and the highest level since 2008.

Other surveys suggest many households are cutting back, with a recent CNBC poll finding nearly 80 percent of Americans have taken steps to cope with higher fuel prices, including reducing spending and relying more on credit.

As a result, former White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short told CNN in March that affordability will become a “growing challenge” for Republicans in midterm elections.

“The reality is that prices are going to continue to go up. This is going to continue to ripple through. And I agree with Ana [Navarro]. It’s to say this is a short-term pain really sets an expectation for a lot of Americans that if it’s not, it’s going to create a bigger and bigger problem come November,” he said.

“And so, I do think that affordability was one of the primary issues that he was elected on,” Short said of President Trump. “I think it’s going to be a growing, growing challenge for Republicans in the midterms this November.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-hit-by-devastating-poll-as-voters-say-theyre-getting-poorer/?

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Rothkopf argues that the real “lone wolf” isn’t Saturday night’s would-be assassin, but Trump himself.

Donald Trump can’t escape controversy because he is a “lone wolf whack job,” one foreign policy analyst says.

David Rothkopf, appearing on The Daily Beast Podcast, said that the attempted assassination of the president at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner ultimately won’t change much.

“I think this weekend’s story is going to get a lot of play because there were so many journalists there for whom this was a big event. They can talk about it in a first-person sense, but it was actually meaningless,” Rothkopf, the Daily Beast’s chief global affairs columnist, told host Joanna Coles.“It won’t change the subject, and tomorrow or next week, when you and I get together for this conversation again, what’s going to happen? We’ll be talking about Iran. We’ll be talking about Epstein. We’ll be talking about Trump’s corruption. We’ll be talking about his mismanagement of the government. We’ll be talking about the next unexpected crisis that is caused by the fact that he is a lone wolf whack job,” Rothkopf said. “The momentary grace that he gets out of, you know, ‘Butler 2.0,’—the mini version—is just not going to last."

On Monday afternoon, less than 48 hours after the shooting, Trump welcomed to the White House King Charles III and Queen Camilla, who are making a four-day state visit. Though the visit is intended to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it may cause renewed questions about Trump’s relationship to Epstein, Rothkopf said.

“One of the things that the King is bringing over in his luggage is his brother and the Epstein scandal,” he said.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Charles’s disgraced brother and a former Epstein associate, is the subject of an investigation by British authorities into alleged misconduct in public office.

“King Charles will not get within 10 feet of a reporter who does not want to ask him a question about Epstein, and there will be a hundred stories about Epstein because of the Prince Andrew connection and because of the Mandelson connection that will follow this visit,” he said, referring to how Peter Mandelson, the former British ambassador to the U.S., is also under investigation for alleged misconduct in public office related to his Epstein ties.

“It will once again prove that no matter what Donald Trump does to try to change the subject, he can’t,” Rothkopf said. “Epstein’s not going away.”

When reached for comment, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told the Daily Beast that Rothkopf “is a s--- human being who pretends he’s a relevant commentator of foreign policy, but in reality he’s a chronic sufferer of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has warped his ability to think reasonably.”

Also helping keep Epstein in the news is what Cole Tomas Allen, the alleged shooter at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, reportedly included in his manifesto. Allen, 31, allegedly wrote he was “no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.”

Trump, 79, immediately grew angry when asked about that Sunday on 60 Minutes, insisting he is “not a pedophile.”

“Your friends on the other side of the plate are the ones that were involved with, let’s say, Epstein or other things,” Trump raged.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-donald-trump-is-always-caught-in-crisis-political-guru-david-rothkopf/?

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Why This Is the Tragedy About the WHCD Shooting We Can’t Ignore

The Beast’s political correspondent witnessed the shooting firsthand. This is what we must learn from it.

A few years ago, I left behind the comfort and security of my life in Australia–where politics can be brutal but rarely bloody–to chase something bigger in Washington: the messy, electrifying center of global power, where journalism feels urgent, and democracy feels alive.

And there I was on Saturday night, at the White House Correspondents’ dinner, hiding under a table as gunshots rang out.

As I peeked over my chair to start recording on my phone, three things raced through my mind. One: Where’s the shooter? Two: Am I about to get my head blown off? And three: America, I love you ... but this is not normal.

Except increasingly, it is.

The chaos was immediate and surreal. Plates scraping. Chairs falling. Secret Service agents flooding the room, rifles drawn, getting the president and the first lady to safety. And a few meters away: a gunman intent on reaching the Hilton ballroom to inflict mass carnage, taken down before he could get inside.

One agent was hit, saved by a bulletproof vest, but it could have been so much worse. That’s become the bar in America: not “safe” but “not as catastrophic as it might’ve been.”

And then, almost as quickly as it began, the machinery kicked in. Statements. Spin. Sides. Because that’s the other thing that happens here now, almost as reflexively as people diving under tables: the blame game begins before the dust settles.Pick your lane. If the shooter’s manifesto leans one way, it’s proof of that side’s moral rot. If it leans another, same deal. Everybody becomes a pundit; no one becomes part of a solution.

Whether it’s a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde or the killing of a right-wing activist in Utah, the victims are reduced to talking points before the adrenaline has even worn off.

Trump struck a notably restrained tone in the aftermath, calling for the nation to unite.

“We have to resolve our differences,” he told reporters who had raced to the White House still dressed in their evening gowns.

But within 24 hours, the president was lashing out at 60 Minutes host Norah O’Donnell for asking about the shooter’s manifesto, bristling at references to language apparently describing the president as a “rapist“ and a “pedophile.”

“You’re a disgrace,” he told her, turning her question into a familiar grievance about “the other side.”

The same gravitational pull towards division reasserted itself. It always does.

The shooting at this year’s White House Correspondents’ dinner wasn’t an aberration. It was a continuation.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s husband bludgeoned with a hammer in his own home. The killing of Charlie Kirk. Former Minnesota Democrat speaker Melissa Homan slain alongside her husband and her dog. Multiple assassination attempts against Trump himself.

Each time: shock and sadness, followed by outrage, followed by the same ritualized descent into partisan points scoring.

And each time, nothing changes.

That’s the hardest part to explain to people back home. Not the violence itself—as awful as it is—but the normalization of it.

The way a shooting at one of the most high-profile events in the country can almost be absorbed into the rhythm of the news cycle.

There was even talk, briefly, of continuing the dinner. Trump, ever the showman, is always searching for those made-for-TV moments.

There’s also a kind of American fatalism that has taken hold—a sense that this is simply the cost of doing politics here; that the combination of guns, grievance and spectacle is too deeply embedded to untangle. So instead, the country litigates each incident as a proxy war for everything else.

It’s easier than confronting the uncomfortable reality that political violence is no longer as shocking as it should be; it’s structural. Easier than admitting a system designed to amplify outrage might, eventually, produce people willing to act on it.

It’s easier that way—but it shouldn’t be.

I still love this country. That’s the inconvenient truth of it. I love the energy, the ambition, the promise it brings. But I’m also increasingly aware of the cost.

Friends back in Australia always message me after events like this—half joking, half serious–asking when I’m coming home to somewhere safer, saner, more stable.

This is my home now, I tell them.

But for the first time, crouched under that table on Saturday night, I understood the grim reality of what that means.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-this-is-the-tragedy-about-the-whcd-shooting-we-cant-ignore/?

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I Get Why People Call the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Shooting Staged. I Was There

It was the first thing I said as I lay on the floor. Here’s what I now believe.

At 8.34 p.m. on Saturday night, just seconds after the pop-pop-pop-pop-pop of shots that seemed to come from directly behind me, I pressed record on my iPhone. The video is shaky because I was down on the floor, pointing my phone up. But the crash of plates and glasses as people dived to the ground, and the repeated shouts of “get down” are unmistakeable.

Then I can hear my own voice. “It’s a stunt,” I say more than once to my colleague Nico Hines, who was on the floor beside me. “It’s a stunt.”

It’s now more than 36 hours since a man armed with a shotgun ran past a security barrier, towards the Washington Hilton ballroom where President Donald Trump, much of the entire line of succession, many more of his senior aides, and 2,500 journalists, senators, congressmen, MAGA influencers, media executives, husbands, wives, dates, students whose work was to be honored, and scores of hotel staff, were gathered.

Cole Tomas Allen, the alleged shooter, did not get into the room, but he was perilously close before he was brought down.

In its immediate aftermath, I wrote about the jaw-dropping security blunder I had literally walked into: Allen had slept in the room next to mine the night before. He had allegedly brought his shotgun, handgun, and knives into the hotel unchecked. He wrote his manifesto on the other side of the wall from me in his room, 10237.

The responses from the rest of America have been very similar to my initial reaction: This did not seem real.

After I began to report on the events, one disturbed poster on X suggested I was an accomplice. Another man emailed to challenge a detail that I had written, that I saw agents with “fingers on triggers.” Even when I sent a photo I had taken, which made clear where their fingers were, he refused to believe me.

I’ve been accused of being in the pay of Trump, or being part of a Democratic hoax, called a “dupe,” and told I’m part of a “psy-op.”

A passenger on the train from D.C. to New York on Sunday approached Nico, the colleague who had been crouched beside me in the ballroom, and whispered that she thought the whole thing was a hoax.

One word dominates the responses: “Staged.”

It is now impossible to ignore the fact that tens of millions of people—perhaps even more—do not believe what happened in the Washington Hilton was either real, or true. Even Trump himself has been forced to address it, angrily, on 60 Minutes.

That is why I want to say: I get it. I said it myself, just seconds after the shots were fired. And there are lots of ways in which—at first glance—what happened at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner seems impossible to believe could be real.

To believe that the WHCA shooting was real, you have to believe that:

A man can waltz into a hotel with a shotgun and ammunition, and other weapons, a day before the president and two-thirds of the line of succession are known to be coming to dinner;

The man can sprint past Secret Service-controlled magnetometers before he is stopped;

Multiple shots are fired but nobody, including the shotgun-wielding shooter, is wounded;

The president continues to take part in a routine with Oz the Mentalist while people shout “get down,” and plates crash to the ground;

JD Vance—not Trump—is taken first from the stage, and the president apparently either falls, or stops to inspect what is going on;

Law enforcement have so little clue about what is going on that about an hour after Trump and his cabinet have fled, an announcement is made, “Could any members of Congress come to the stage?” while officers wander the tables, asking if anyone has seen representatives or senators;

The president musters a press conference, laughs and jokes at what has happened, and his base—in apparently perfect lockstep—amplifies his demand for a ballroom, all within two and a half hours of the shooting;

The Secret Service is revealed to have given the event a lower security classification than similar events where a president and much of the line of succession are in one place, even though it is taking place in a hotel where a president was previously almost assassinated.That is not even an exhaustive list of what it takes to believe that the WHCA shooting was real. It does not cover the outlandish facts that Karoline Leavitt claimed “shots will be fired,” just before they literally were; that some guests kept eating while others sheltered on the floor; that cabinet members slowly trailed out in the same direction as the shooting had been; that Oz the Mentalist went to the microphone and said the program would resume; and that members of the media elite appeared to keep chatting and drinking in the ballroom after the shooting for well over an hour.

That all seems like a compelling case that something is not right—and it comes after the attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024, which people in MAGA now feel they need to ask questions about, and whisper the word “staged.” Any discussion on Butler now centers around the strange lack of scarring on Trump’s allegedly wounded ear, and not the dead father in the crowd behind Trump.

And to those asking me after this article was first published, why did I think it was a “stunt” in those first few moments, my answer is this: because it seemed emotionally true. This is the sort of thing Trump does. Maybe some fake gunfire to troll the mainstream media. That was my thought.

And yet, the more I thought about what I’d seen and heard, and more importantly, the more that I and my colleagues reported on what happened, spoke to multiple sources, researched the scene, and learned more facts, the more this “staged” narrative ceased to make sense.

It will be impossible to prove to some people that what happened was true, and not staged. But let me set out my case for why it was neither faked nor staged.

No stunt would be so sloppy, amateurish, and chaotic. No stunt would leave Trump and those around him looking weak, old, and—some of them—terrified. No stunt orchestrated by Trump insiders would end in backbiting and recrimination inside his inner circle.

The Secret Service has for decades dealt with threats and attempts to assassinate current and former presidents. John F. Kennedy was assassinated; Ronald Reagan came very close at the same hotel; Gerald Ford was targeted twice inside 17 days; a MAGA pipe-bomber is serving decades in prison for sending devices to Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Nobody suggests they were “staged;” they argue over the truth about Kennedy’s death, not that it was entirely faked.

When the pop-pop-pop-pop-pop was heard, the slow realization rippled from the back of the room to the front that gunshots had been fired. I was on the ground before people at the sides.

On the stage, television footage shows the awkward removal of Trump, a 79-year-old man. If this was a stunt he masterminded, why would he want to look old, stumbling and weak?

In the well of the ballroom, it seemed like an eternity as security details rushed towards their protectees.

No staged event would see agents wildly jump from table to table to grab men in their 60s and 70s.

No stunt would be so weird. If this was a stunt, would Karoline Leavitt be posting crass red carpet photos from before it?

And as those cabinet officials and others were rushed up the center of the ballroom, towards where the shots had come from, I could see their faces. They were not game faces. Some of them looked horrified, and terrified.

It was hardly to Trump’s advantage to see his strongman cabinet from central casting looking confused, and rushed out of a ballroom in blurry pictures.

Some of the things which have fueled conspiracy thinking are easily explained, thanks to our, and other outlets’, reporting. Allen was naked and wrapped in foil because it is protocol to strip an attacker of this type naked, in case he is armed with a suicide device. The foil is because he was naked and needed covered; we saw multiple law enforcement medics who carry foil blankets in their packs. Why was he not shot and killed? We don’t know the answer yet, but the video does not show him being brought down, so it seems entirely possible he was tackled from behind, brought to the ground and subdued.

JD Vance was moved first because—and this is not good for Trump—he is younger, and fitter, than the president. He can move; the president needs to be moved.

The ballroom was not evacuated, not because it was staged, but because it was the only place that had actually been checked for explosives before the event. Why do we know so much about the alleged shooter and so little about Thomas Crooks, the Pennsylvania assassin? Quite simple: Allen had his life—a pretty normal life of college, career, posting on social media—on the internet like most of us do. Crooks had been isolated from his early teenage years, grew up in a reclusive family, and his life on the internet was one he had made sure was untraceable.

Yes, Trump has benefitted before from an assassination attempt. It essentially put him in the White House. Yes, Trump has relentlessly merchandised that picture from Butler at the same time as showing zero self-reflection on being shot at. But that proves one thing alone: That Trump is a world-class opportunist. His brazen reaction to events has no peer—and that is not a compliment. But he is also not a planner. Nothing is more prevalent in this administration than chaos, because planning is not the point. Just look at Iran, for starters.

Here is what I am sure is the truth: This was not staged. It was the act of a man with a gun. It was the result of an appalling series of blunders in the protection not just of the president, but as many as 3,000 citizens, in a confined place which is essentially below ground. It was the sort of gun terror which children in schools are—heartbreakingly—drilled to be prepared to experience. It was an act of political violence.

The truth of what happened at the WHCA dinner is that this country is living in a toxic present of guns, gunmen, political division and violence, set in a chaotic and often failing governing class, topped off with years of good reason to be cynical about everything the current president says.

Nobody needs to “stage” this. It is not—to use my own words—a stunt. It was simply one moment when that toxic combination could be seen in all its ugly colors.

That’s not a conspiracy. It’s a condemnation.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/i-get-why-people-call-the-white-house-correspondents-dinner-shooting-staged-i-was-there/?

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How ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ Exposed Trump’s Morally Bottomless Thirst

This is how one man’s demented plan became another man’s political treasure.

Cole Tomas Allen’s failed attempt to storm the White House Correspondents’ Dinner did so much to boost President Trump’s political fortunes that some people were left to wonder if that was the actual intent of the demented self-described “Friendly Federal Assassin.” And Trump was so quick in capitalizing on the moment that this misapprehension was joined by a paranoid fantasy that the assassination attempt had been staged. The gunshots yards from the entrance to the ballroom at the Washington Hilton caused everybody inside to share the instant danger with the Great Divider. Trump was thereby able to speak about the beauty of the unity in the immediate aftermath.“We have to resolve our differences,” Trump said in a White House press briefing following the shooting. “I will say, you had Republicans, Democrats, independents, conservatives, liberals, and progressives. Those words are interchangeable, perhaps, but maybe they’re not. But yet everybody in that room, big crowd, record-setting crowd, there was a record-setting group of people, and there was a tremendous amount of love and coming together. I watched, I watched, and I was very, very impressed by that.”Trump had said much the same in a speech in the week after the 2024 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, when his ear was nicked by a bullet, and he rose bloody-faced, an outsized American flag in the background.“The discord and division in our society must be healed. We must heal it quickly,” Trump said six days later in a speech at the Republican National Convention accepting the nomination. “As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together. Or we fall apart.”That did not last even to the end of the speech, when he said the Democrats had “used COVID to cheat” in the 2020 election and in “that horrible result,” President Joe Biden had done “unthinkable” things to the country.

What did last was the image from Butler, so perfect that it got him elected to a second term. Some people imagined it had been staged, much as they did after Saturday night’s shooting at the Hilton.

And that illusion was fortiied when Trump immediately used the hotel ballroom attack as a reason to complete the construction of the gratuitously grandiose $400 million White House “grand ballroom” that Trump made room for by tearing down the East Wing. A federal judge has halted the project pending congressional approval.

“I didn’t want to say this but this is why we have to have all of the attributes of what we’re planning at the White House,” he said at the White House press briefing. “It’s actually a larger room, and it’s much more secure.”

The proposed White House ballroom is projected to be 22,000 to 25,000 square feet, actually slightly smaller than the 29,000-square-foot one at the Hilton. But Trump’s ballroom, as planned, does have a higher ceiling, 40 feet as opposed to 30. And the design of the White House venue calls for both bulletproof windows and a drone-proof roof.

Trump continued, “We need the ballroom. That’s why Secret Service, that’s why the military are demanding it.”

He added, “They wanted the ballroom for 150 years for lots of different reasons, but today is a little bit different because today we need levels of security that nobody has ever seen before.”

He kept pressing the issue with a Sunday post on Truth Social.

“This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House,” he wrote. ”It cannot be built fast enough!”

Also on Sunday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche posted on social media a letter to the lawyer representing the National Trust for Historic Preservation, pressing the organization to drop its “frivolous lawsuit” to halt the ballroom construction.

Blanche alluded to the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan at the Washington Hilton, saying, “As history proves, that venue is demonstrably unsafe for the President of the United States because its size presents international security challenges.”

In fact, Reagan was shot outside the hotel by a gunman who sidled into a press pen where nobody checked for his credentials, as a high-ranking NYPD chief had for journalists when Reagan visited New York a few days before.

But Blanche had a point he wanted to make.

“Yesterday’s assassination attempt on President Trump proves yet again, that the White House ballroom is essential for the safety and security of the President, his family, his cabinet and his staff. When the White House ballroom is complete, President Trump and his successors will no longer have to venture beyond the safety of the White House perimeter to attend large gatherings at the Washington Hilton ballroom. The White House ballroom will ensure the safety and security of the President for decades to come and prevent future assassination attempts on the President at the Washington Hilton.”

The letter continues, “Put simply, your lawsuit puts the lives of the president, his family, and his staff at grave risk. I hope yesterday’s narrow miss will help you finally realize the folly of a lawsuit that literally serves no purpose except to stop President Trump no matter what the cost.”

The letter gave the organization until 9 a.m. Monday to dismiss the lawsuit. The DOJ would otherwise “move to dissolve the injunction and dismiss the case in light of last night’s extraordinary events.”

The letter declares: ”Enough is enough.”

That is exactly what gun control advocates have said again and again and again as one shooting horror followed another and another and another. But when Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan asked Blanche on Sunday how the unhinged gunman from the latest Washington Hilton shooting was able to transport multiple weapons, he responded, “This isn’t about in my mind changing the law, or making the laws more restrictive around possession of firearms.”

Brennan inquired, “I’m asking about crossing state lines with that firearm.”

Blanche shrugged, ”I don’t think that’s something we should be focused on.”

A new bulletproof White House ballroom or not, the president will still periodically have to venture forth into a country where the right to bear arms has translated to 120 guns for every 100 people. The enabling Second Amendment is rooted in the British attempt to seize arms from colonists back in 1775, thereby sparking the American Revolution. Britain presently has fewer than five guns per 100 people.

As it happens, the current King of England arrived in Washington D.C. on Monday to begin a state visit, which is going ahead despite the Hilton ballroom shooting, and despite Trump’s thirst for a ballroom of his own still hitting a blockade.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-friendly-federal-assassin-cole-tomas-allen-exposed-trumps-morally-bottomless-thirst/?

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• 👑 President Trump and King Charles III greeted each other warmly at the White House today as the monarch began a day of diplomacy in Washington, including a planned address to Congress. Get the latest.
• 🇮🇷 Trump claimed today that Iran told the U.S. it is "in a state of collapse" and wants to open the Strait of Hormuz "as soon as possible." It's unclear what Trump was basing his comments on. More from Barak Ravid.

 

Ex-FBI Director Comey indicted in probe over online post officials say constituted Trump threat

Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted on Tuesday in an investigation over a social media photo of seashells arranged on a beach that officials said constituted a threat against President Donald Trump, according to a person familiar with the matter. It’s the second criminal case the Justice Department has brought against the longtime Trump foe. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

Trump and Charles greet each other warmly as the king begins a day of diplomacy in Washington Former Fauci adviser indicted for allegedly concealing communications related to COVID-19 research Reporters covered the correspondents’ dinner shooting in real time. Conspiracy theories still spread  Supreme Court seems likely to grant tech giant Cisco’s bid to shut down Falun Gong suit GM expects $500 million refund from the Trump tariffs struck down by Supreme Court Agents armed with search warrants keep focus on Minnesota in public fraud probe

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Won’t Get Fooled Again (Caryn Levy / PGA Tour / Getty)

View in browser Seven years ago, during a marginally more innocent time, the Trump administration announced plans to hold the 2020 G7 summit at Donald Trump’s resort in Doral, Florida. The backlash was fierce, and somehow the then–Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney’s dismissive attitude—“Get over it”—failed to quell concerns, including among Republicans. Two days later, Trump gave up and moved the event to Camp David. (In the end, it was canceled because of COVID.) Things are different in Trump’s second term. Later this year, the United States will host the G20 summit—an offshoot of the G7 that includes approximately 20 leaders of the world’s largest economies—and the president has selected Trump National Doral as the location. A few days ago, The Washington Post reported that Trump even intends to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin, a global pariah, to the meeting. But the Doral G20 has gotten nowhere near the same amount of attention, and much less backlash. The way the two summits have been received feels like a case study in the differences between the first and second Trump presidencies. In 2019, neither the press nor the public was yet so fatigued by news and numb to outrage, as New York magazine observed this week, nor were they yet accustomed to a president using his position to openly enrich himself. (The Atlantic’s headline about the G7 announcement was “Trump’s Most Shameless Act of Profiteering.” How young we were!) The Republican Party also had more leaders who were willing to criticize the president, either publicly or privately. Finally, although Trump has never seemed especially vulnerable to shame, the president and his aides could still be swayed by sufficient embarrassment back then. The phrase shameless corruption gets used a lot, but Trump’s second term embodies it. Although the first Trump administration created a fire hose of news, the country has been going at this pace now for 10 years, and the public is getting tired. Trump’s announcement of the location for the G20 back in early September, was overshadowed by larger stories, particularly the Epstein files; days later, Charlie Kirk was assassinated, briefly blotting out all other coverage. The G20 summit may also seem less relevant than other global events, especially given that Trump is currently shaking or breaking the world order through different means. (He has also already disinvited South Africa from the summit for largely imagined offenses against Afrikaners.) Perhaps most important, the idea of Trump grubbing a few dollars out of hosting a meeting at one of his properties seems positively quaint today. During the first Trump term, I covered a succession of egregious choices: Trump refusing to financially disentangle himself from his companies; diverting Mike Pence to his Irish resort for a stopover; charging the Secret Service exorbitant rates to stay at Mar-a-Lago while protecting him; and making his hotel in Washington, D.C., a physical affront to the Constitution’s emoluments clause. To say that these actions now look like nickel-and-diming is not to forgive them but to acknowledge the much larger scale on which Trump and his family are working now. The president’s government is signing off on big payouts to former aides, including Michael Flynn ($1.25 million for a case in which Flynn pleaded guilty) and Carter Page (another $1.25 million, even though courts twice dismissed his lawsuit). The government has not yet made deals with people convicted for their involvement in the January 6, 2021, riot, but their lawyers are hopeful. Trump has handed out clemency to a slew of people who have donated money to his campaign or his other efforts, which looks a great deal like selling pardons. Trump’s family business, the Trump Organization, has signed lucrative deals in cities around the world where his administration is also conducting foreign policy. His son-in-law Jared Kushner, too, is making business deals in some of the same countries with which he is negotiating on behalf of the president, even though he has no government role. Trump’s media company has jumped into cryptocurrency and prediction markets, a clear conflict of interest given the federal government’s role in setting crypto policy. The New York Times recently reported on how a Syrian billionaire had sought to get sanctions removed on his country with a charm offensive that included an offer to open a Trump-branded golf course. He was egged on by a Republican member of Congress. (The sanctions have been removed, but the Trump Organization says that no deal to build a golf course is in the offing.) Last summer, David Kirkpatrick of The New Yorker attempted to quantify how much Trump and his immediate family had made off the presidency and came up with a rough figure of $3.4 billion. By late January, Kirkpatrick estimated that the total was up to $4 billion. And it will continue to grow. Trump is even suing his own government, hoping to get the Justice Department—led for now by his former personal attorney—to pay him $230 million for investigating him, and the IRS to pay him $10 billion for mishandling his tax information. I worry that summarizing so many examples so briefly only contributes to the same fatigue that has enabled them. If one death is a tragedy and 1 million deaths are a statistic, perhaps it is also true that charging the Secret Service thousands of dollars on hotel rooms is corruption, but raking in billions is simply a new paradigm. Yet these examples pop up regularly. The Trump administration has realized that its profiteering no longer produces the same public fury it once did, that nearly all Republican officeholders will stay quiet, and that it can grit out or ignore any residual shame. The result is on a dollar basis, and perhaps on any basis, the most corrupt administration in American history. Related: America has never seen corruption like Trump’s. The Trump presidency’s world-historical heist

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Free speech

The FCC is taking the remarkable step of challenging ABC's station licenses as President Donald Trump again called on the network to take action against late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over a joke. Separately, the administration secured an indictment against former FBI Director James Comey over conduct that appears likely to be protected speech. Analysts say the moves could be seen as renewed attempts to punish foes after previous efforts failed. Read more.   Passports The US will soon begin issuing passports featuring an image of President Trump inside. It appears to be the most prominent use yet of Trump's likeness in items tied to the 250th anniversary of America's independence, some analysts say. Unlike a commemorative coin or national park pass bearing the president's image — some of which are already in circulation — a US passport is an internationally recognized form of identification that is typically valid for 10 years. Read more. ps:Seriously?????

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ICE Agent Who Shot Dead Unarmed Mom Quietly Reassigned as FBI Probe Stalls

DHS officials tell PunchUp the FBI needs to “s--t or get off the pot.”

The ICE agent who fatally shot unarmed mom Renee Nicole Good has been quietly relocated to a different state and allowed to resume work, according to an exclusive new report by PunchUp.

Senior Department of Homeland Security officials have told the Daily Beast’s new sister investigations outlet—launched earlier this month by this correspondent—that agent Jonathan Ross, 43, has effectively been shielded from ICE’s own accountability process because the FBI investigation into Good’s killing has stalled.

Ross is now performing administrative and investigative duties three months after he shot Good, 37, in the arm, breast, and head as she tried to drive away from an ICE operation on January 7. On his own cellphone video, the agent can be heard muttering “f---ing b---h” as Good’s Honda Pilot crashed into a parked car with her dying inside.

Seventeen days after Good was killed, Border Patrol agents shot dead VA ICU nurse Alex Pretti, 37, during the same Minneapolis operation. The killings triggered global outrage, mass protests across U.S. cities, and a political crisis that swallowed ousted DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, 54, who was replaced by Markwayne Mullin, 48.

With whistleblowers and Senate Democrats alleging the federal probe into Good’s killing was deliberately shut down at the top, Ross was placed on administrative leave for just three days before being quietly moved out of state, PunchUp has learned. No further action has been taken against him.

DHS officials speaking to the outlet also flagged a glaring contradiction in the official record. The Department of Justice had told Fox News Digital that ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility was running its own internal review parallel to the FBI investigation, “as with any officer-involved shooting.”

But senior officials told PunchUp that’s not what is happening—and that ICE’s internal affairs division cannot begin its administrative review until the FBI probe concludes, freezing the agency’s accountability process for Ross, potentially indefinitely.

The slow pace has fueled mounting fury inside the agency, with one senior ICE official telling PunchUp the FBI needs to “s--t or get off the pot.”

“It’s just hanging out there,” they said, adding the limbo had prevented ICE from speaking publicly about the killing or attempting to rebuild public confidence.

The FBI investigation has been clouded by controversy from day one, reports PunchUp. On January 23, FBI supervisor Tracee Mergen resigned from the bureau’s Minneapolis field office after she said she was pressured to reclassify her civil rights inquiry into Ross as a probe of an alleged assault on a federal officer by Good herself, CBS first reported.

Whistleblower accounts later obtained by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Dick Durbin described FBI Director Kash Patel as directing agents to reframe warrant language to portray Good as a suspect rather than a victim.

Multiple senior DHS officials told PunchUp that the decision to freeze out Minnesota state investigators from federal evidence and the crime scene was directed by the White House. Career officials believed a joint federal-state review—the standard practice cited in Minnesota’s March 24 lawsuit against the DOJ and DHS—would have produced a more credible outcome but were never consulted.

“We let some states in and not others,” one top official said. “It makes us look like idiots.”

Last Wednesday, outgoing ICE Director Todd Lyons was asked directly by a House subcommittee whether he would apologize to Good’s family for the way she had been publicly characterized. “I welcome the opportunity to speak to the family in private,” Lyons told lawmakers, “but I’m not going to comment on any active investigation.”

Hours later, his resignation was announced, effective May 31.

Jonathan Ross remains on active duty.

A DHS spokesperson told the Daily Beast that the incident “remains under investigation,” adding: “All shootings are initially reviewed by an appropriate law enforcement agency. Following a review of the incident by the appropriate investigative agency, ICE and CBP conduct an independent review of the critical incident.”

A DOJ spokesperson told the Beast there was “an ongoing investigation into the event by DHS-OIG,” and that the U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI were “providing physical evidence and support to assist their investigation.” They declined to comment on the status of the investigation.

*Read the full investigation at PunchUp

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-agent-jonathan-ross-who-shot-dead-umarmed-mom-renee-good-quietly-reassigned-as-fbi-probe-stalls/?

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Trump Voters Regret Backing ‘Horror Movie’ Presidency

Nine out of 12 Trump voters told a “New York Times” focus group that they wish they had not voted for the president.

A focus group of Trump voters has delivered a savage verdict on his second term, with one branding it a “horror movie” and nine of 12 saying they regret backing him.

The dozen disillusioned voters were assembled by The New York Times for the latest installment of its “America in Focus” series. The results, which landed on Monday, come as the president’s approval ratings have collapsed to the worst point of either of his terms amid the unpopular war in Iran, surging prices, and the never-ending Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

Asked to grade President Donald Trump’s second term, not a single participant gave him an A or a B. One handed out a C, eight gave him a D, and three flunked him with an F.

“It’s turned out to be a horror movie. I was so wrong with the vote for him,” said Jose, 62, a Latino employment specialist from Florida who told moderators he no longer watches the news because it leaves him depressed. His 17-year-old daughter, Jose said, regularly asks him, “Why did you vote for him, Dad?”—adding, “That breaks my heart every time she does that.”

Several participants saved their fiercest criticism for Trump’s immigration crackdown—the policy that has come to define his second term.

Alla, 51, a white Republican portfolio manager from Alabama, said she had backed the president’s pledge to fix immigration but quickly recoiled at the execution. “How ICE was treating people. This is not the way to do it,” she said.

Franceska, 26, a mixed-race independent deckhand from Washington state, told the panel her Mexican-looking boyfriend had been pulled over by ICE agents who scrutinized his ID—convincing her the dragnet was racially targeted. Asked to sum up her feelings about the administration in a word, she chose: “Betrayed.”

Michelle, 45, a Latina Republican from Maryland, said she felt “foolish” for having stood her ground in a family of Democrats. “I looked dumb as hell believing in fairy tales and wishy-washy promises,” she said.

Pamela, 65, a white Republican small-business owner from Tennessee, went further: “I’m embarrassed for our whole country that this is what we’re dealing with daily now.”

Perhaps the most withering verdict came from Kitty, 36, an Asian independent student from Pennsylvania, who told the moderators of her vote: “It’s like, now we have a dictator.”

Asked what she wished she could tell her 2024 self at the ballot box, she said the second term had turned out “completely un-American. Completely the opposite of what you’d hope for.”

The focus group’s findings track with a brutal stretch of polling for Trump that the Beast has covered in recent weeks. An NBC News survey published on April 19 put Trump’s approval at 37 percent, the worst of his second term, while a humiliating Fox News poll released last week showed just 28 percent of voters approve of his handling of inflation.

White voters without a college degree—the heart of his 2024 winning coalition—have also turned on him, with the latest YouGov/CBS data showing him underwater with the group for the first time.

Asked by the Times what the focus group members wish they could have told themselves on the way to the polling booth in 2024, Pamela said: “Think carefully. When people show you who they are, believe them.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-voters-regret-backing-horror-movie-presidency/?

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MAGA Civil War Breaks Out Over Plot to Fund Trump’s Ballroom

A push to hand taxpayers a $400 million bill for the White House ballroom has cracked open a fault line inside the Republican Party.

The GOP has descended into civil war over who should pay the bill for President Trump’s ballroom.

Trump plugged the need for the 90,000-square-foot addition to the White House in the wake of a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, which authorities have since said targeted him. “We need the ballroom,” the president said at a press conference after the incident on Saturday.

His closest aides agree, but not everyone in the GOP ranks is convinced that Congress should bankroll the project, creating a schism in the party, according to NBC News.

A fault line cracked open after Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Katie Britt of Alabama, and Eric Schmitt of Missouri introduced legislation to provide $400 million in federal funding for it.

Graham framed the project as a matter of national security rather than presidential luxury. “This is not about Trump. It’s about the presidency of the United States,” he told reporters. “It’s about the person who occupies that office not being put at risk if they choose to go off campus.”

He said the facility would include “military stuff” and a “Secret Service annex” beneath it, and that private donations could cover furnishings. “Private donations can be used, but I think they should be used for buying china and stuff like that,” he said.

Fellow Republicans were unconvinced. Senator Rick Scott of Florida, a Trump ally and spending hawk, questioned the need for public money at all. “I don’t know why you would do it with taxpayer money if it’s all funded,” he said. “We have $39 trillion in debt. Maybe we ought to stop spending money.”

Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri said he preferred private funding and flagged a separate legal question about whether Congress needs to vote to authorize major reconstruction on White House grounds. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was similarly resistant. “He already has the money,” Paul said. “I’m not for funding the whole $500 million. I think he’s already raised the money through private means.”

Graham, asked to respond to his Republican colleagues, was unbothered. “Just vote no. All I ask you to do is vote. I don’t care how you vote. I want a vote,” he told NBC News. He added, “There are people out there just one click away from picking up a gun or something else and trying to make America better by killing. It’s not a private donation event—it’s a national security event.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-civil-war-breaks-out-over-plot-to-fund-trumps-ballroom/?

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🛢️ Scoop: Trump quizzes oil CEOs on war

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

President Trump summoned oil and gas execs to the White House yesterday to gauge how energy markets would react under various scenarios for the Iran war, including dragging on or heating up, Axios' Alex Isenstadt and Ben Geman have learned. Among the attendees was Chevron CEO Mike Wirth. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner also attended, per a source familiar with the meeting. Topics included domestic production, progress in Venezuela, oil futures, natural gas and shipping, a White House official told us. Keep reading.

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🚨 Trump's red-meat retribution

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images

The Trump administration moved yesterday against three enemies of the MAGA coalition: Jimmy Kimmel, a former Anthony Fauci adviser and Somali-run daycare centers in Minneapolis, Axios' Zachary Basu writes. A fourth, former FBI director James Comey, was indicted for a second time after a federal judge dismissed the Justice Department's case against him last year. Why it matters: The retribution campaign at the heart of President Trump's second term is escalating, not easing, as gas prices climb, the Iran war grinds past 60 days and his approval rating sinks to record lows. Much of the activity has come in the 26 days since acting Attorney General Todd Blanche assumed leadership of the Justice Department following the ouster of Pam Bondi. 🔭 Zoom in: Each of yesterday's actions channels federal power against a long-running MAGA grievance. 1. COVID: The Justice Department indicted David Morens, a former senior Fauci adviser at the National Institutes of Health, on charges of using a personal email to evade public records laws and hide communications about COVID's origins. Fauci is a foundational MAGA villain, blamed by Trump's base for COVID lockdowns, school closures, vaccine mandates and an alleged cover-up of the virus' origins in a Chinese lab. 2. Minneapolis: Federal authorities executed 22 search warrants in the Twin Cities, almost all at Somali-run childcare centers suspected of bilking taxpayer-funded programs. Alleged fraud in Minnesota's Somali community has become a MAGA obsession, ignited by a viral video last year from YouTuber Nick Shirley that drew the White House's attention. 3. Liberal late-night: The FCC ordered Disney to file early license renewals for its eight owned-and-operated ABC stations in major markets, citing an ongoing probe into the company's DEI programs. The move comes amid fresh outrage over late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who joked that first lady Melania Trump "had the glow of an expectant widow" two days before a gunman allegedly tried to assassinate Trump at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. 4. Comey Round 2: The Justice Department indicted Comey again, this time charging him with making threats against the president over a 2025 social media post showing seashells arranged to read "86 47" — which prosecutors allege was "a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States." Comey, who led the FBI before Trump fired him in 2017, has been a fixture of MAGA grievance for nearly a decade.

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🇬🇧 King of comedy

King Charles III packed plenty of jokes for his trip to Washington — defusing tensions in the special relationship with quasi-comedic routines at the White House and on Capitol Hill yesterday.

• Why it matters: The charm offensive had a purpose. Charles wrapped warnings about Ukraine, NATO and global engagement in self-deprecating wit.

During last night's state dinner at the White House:

• The ballroom: "I'm sorry to say that we British made our own small attempt at real estate redevelopment of the White House in 1814."
• Boston Tea Party: "Thank you, Mr. President and Mrs. Trump, for your splendid dinner this evening — which, may I say, is a very considerable improvement on the Boston Tea Party."
• Europe: "You recently commented, Mr. President, that if it were not for the United States, European countries would be speaking German. Dare I say that if it wasn't for us, you'd be speaking French."

From his address to Congress:

• American independence: "Two hundred and fifty years ago — or, as we say in the United Kingdom, just the other day — they declared independence."
• His royal predecessor: "King George never set foot in America and, please rest assured, I am not here as part of some cunning rearguard action."
• Quoting Oscar Wilde: "We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language."

👓 Above: First lady Melania Trump sports Meta AI glasses while chatting with Queen Camilla and two students on the White House tennis court. Go deeper.

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👀 Scoop: White House eyes Anthropic return

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images

The White House is developing guidance that would allow agencies to get around Anthropic's supply chain risk designation and onboard new models, including Mythos — its most powerful yet, Axios' Maria Curi and Ashley Gold write. Why it matters: The Trump administration appears to be performing a 180 on a company it previously claimed was such a grave security risk that it had to be ripped out of the federal government. A draft executive action in the works could, among other steps related to the government's use of AI, give the administration a way to dial down the Anthropic fight, two sources said. One source described the White House efforts as a way to "save face and bring 'em back in." 🔬 Between the lines: Multiple sources have told Axios that while key players at the Pentagon are dug in on this issue, others in the administration believe the fight has been counterproductive and are ready to find an off-ramp. Keep reading.

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📘 1 for the road: MAGA passports

Renderings: State Department

The State Department plans to release a limited number of passports featuring President Trump's image on the inside cover "to commemorate the 250th anniversary of American independence." The passports will be available only for those who apply in person at the D.C. passport office starting shortly before July 4. ps:What the King Solomon have to say about this man??

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Manic Trump, 79, Shares Deranged War Fantasy in 4AM Rage Post

The president cast himself as an action hero in his new meltdown.

Donald Trump posted an unhinged early morning threat against Iran, complete with a deranged war fantasy involving himself.

In a Truth Social post shared just after 4 a.m. ET, the 79-year-old president ranted that the Middle East country “can’t get their act together. They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon!”

Trump’s social media post also contained an AI-generated image of himself in a black suit and Aviator-style sunglasses, holding a rifle, standing in front of multiple explosions in an area appearing to resemble Iran’s mountains.

The image also had the words “No More Mr. Nice Guy!” above the president.

Donald Trump shared the post just after 4 a.m. on Wednesday. Truth Social/Donald Trump

The pre-sunrise post is just the latest in a string of nocturnal social media sessions from the president. Last week, the Daily Best reported how Trump, who has appeared to nod off at public events, could have only slept for a maximum of four hours and 48 minutes between late-night and early-morning Truth Social rants.

Trump’s threat against Iran arrives as negotiations between Washington, D.C., and Tehran to end the conflict have largely stalled.

Iran is said to have offered a proposal that would allow the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz—the vital shipping route through which one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes— on the basis that Trump would lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports, and discussions surrounding Iran’s nuclear capabilities would be held at a later date.

Trump has insisted the war in Iran was justified to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. The president has frequently stated that ending Iran’s nuclear weapons program is a key red line for the U.S. in any negotiations about ending the now two-month conflict.

Trump, who has frequently suggested that the war will end any day now, claimed in a Tuesday Truth Social post that Iran informed the U.S. that the country is in a “State of Collapse” and that they want to come to a deal “as soon as possible.” The president did not offer any evidence to back up his claims.

The 79-year-old also insisted that Britain’s King Charles III agrees with him that Iran should never be allowed nuclear weapons.

“We’re doing a little Middle East work right now and we’re doing very well,” Trump said at Tuesday’s White House state dinner honoring the visiting monarch.

“We have militarily defeated that particular opponent, and we’re never going to let that opponent ever—Charles agrees with me even more than I do—we’re never going to let that opponent have a nuclear weapon.”

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “The King is naturally mindful of his Government’s long-standing and well-known position on the prevention of nuclear proliferation.”

The president held a Situation Room meeting on Monday with his top security and foreign advisors to discuss the proposal offered by Iran.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissed Iran’s suggestion to end the war while pushing back on any nuclear talks, telling Fox News that the issue of the country’s nuclear program “is the reason why we’re in this in the first place.”

“There’s no doubt in my mind that at some point in the future, if this radical clerical regime remain in charge in Iran, they will decide they want a nuclear weapon,” Rubio said. “That fundamental issue still has to be confronted. That still remains the core issue here.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/manic-trump-79-shares-deranged-war-fantasy-in-4am-rage-post/?

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Trump’s King Boast Blown Up by Royal Reality Check

Buckingham Palace addressed a big claim that Trump made in his speech.

President Donald Trump’s boast that King Charles backs him wholeheartedly on Iran has been blown up by Buckingham Palace.

At the White House state dinner on Tuesday evening, Trump, 79, delivered a part-scripted, part freewheeling speech. He congratulated the king on his speech to Congress, patted himself on the back for his real estate chops, gave a shout-out to Irish golfer Rory McIlroy, and declared victory over Iran.

After claiming that the U.S. had “militarily defeated” Iran, the president dropped Charles into it. “We are never going to let that opponent ever—Charles agrees with me, even more than I do—we’re never going to let that opponent have a nuclear weapon,” he said. Early on Wednesday morning, Buckingham Palace went into clean-up mode, releasing a statement about Trump’s remarks. A spokesperson told the BBC: “The King is naturally mindful of his Government’s long-standing and well-known position on the prevention of nuclear proliferation.”

The statement was a hasty attempt to suggest that the king did not offer his personal opinion, but rather reflected the U.K. government’s established policy. The statement promotes neutrality and avoids endorsing Trump’s position.

The king’s visit, which ends on Thursday, April 30, was ostensibly one to mark America’s 250th birthday. However, commentators and insiders have framed it as an attempt to fix the ailing “special relationship” between the U.S. and the U.K.

That fraying of relations was largely down to the U.K.’s reluctance to back Trump in his war on Iran. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was caught in the middle of the issue, earning stern public rebukes from Trump.

But the well-timed charm offensive from the royals appears to have worked, at least in the short term. “Americans have had no closer friends than the British,” Trump said on Tuesday. “We speak the same language, we hold the same values, and together, our warriors have defended the same extraordinary civilization under twin banners of red, white, and blue.”

He said the two countries share a “cherished friendship” and that “nobody fought better than us.”

King Charles even managed to squeeze in a mention of Starmer during his address to Congress. “As my prime minister said last month, ‘Ours is an indispensable partnership,’” he said.

“‘We must not disregard everything that has sustained us for the last 80 years. Instead, we must build on it.’”

The monarch also made pointed references to Ukraine and NATO during the address. “America’s words carry weight and meaning, as they have since independence. The actions of this great nation matter even more,” he said, in what read like a veiled plea to Trump.

Trump appears to have largely abandoned his attempts to broker peace between Ukraine and Russia. In response, King Charles urged “unyielding resolve” in the cause of “Ukraine and her most courageous people” in order to “secure a truly just and lasting peace.”

He also touched on Trump’s repeated attacks against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, an alliance which the president has poured scorn on for its members’ failure to help with “Operation Epic Fury.”

“NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN,” he ranted on Truth Social earlier this month.

Charles was keen to spell out the importance of the alliance, of which the U.S. is a founding member.

“The commitment and expertise of the United States armed forces and its allies lie at the heart of NATO, pledged to each other’s defense, protecting our citizens and interests, keeping North Americans and Europeans safe from our common adversaries,” he said.

On Tuesday, Trump tried to use Iran’s nuclear capabilities to justify his war after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Tehran was “humiliating” the U.S.

Trump responded on Truth Social, claiming that Merz “thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.” Merz, leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, had criticized the apparent lack of strategy and the floundering negotiations rather than backing Iran.

Trump used a similar playbook against the pope after Leo XIV criticized the war. “The pope made a statement. He says Iran can have a nuclear weapon. I say Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” he declared. In fact, the pontiff has advocated heavily for nuclear non-proliferation.

Trump was clearly touched by the royal visit, saying he was “honored” to host the royals, but the charm soon wore off, and he was up to his old tricks again on Truth Social. Early on Wednesday morning, nukes were on his mind again.

“They don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon!” he said of Iran in a Truth Social post that also contained an AI-generated image of himself holding a rifle, above the written message: “No More Mr. Nice Guy!”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-king-boast-blown-up-by-royal-reality-check/?

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MAGA-Coded CBS Anchor Hit With ‘Trainwreck’ Ratings Downfall

Tony Dokoupil’s show is now regularly slipping under 4 million views.

CBS Evening News’ MAGA-coded anchor Tony Dokoupil is recording dire ratings as audiences desert the Trump-friendly network.

Nielsen ratings, obtained by Status, show that the week beginning April 20 was the lowest-rated stretch of viewership since Dokoupil was promoted to the evening news slot by CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss in January.

CBS Evening News is now averaging just 3.7 million viewers, with the 4-million mark previously considered a low enough level to set off alarm bells for the network. In the all-important 25–54 demographic prized by advertisers, the show averaged just 467,000 viewers.

Veteran television news executives have raised concerns about how bad things could get for CBS News and its once-prestigious Evening News broadcast, and are placing the blame on Weiss’ leadership. “This isn’t what a turnaround looks like. This is what a train wreck looks like,” one executive told Status.

Whereas 4 million viewers was once considered the bare minimum for Evening News, the program has now recorded three consecutive weeks below that mark under Dokoupil’s tenure.

Overall, this month ranks as the second-lowest-rated April for CBS Evening News this century, and the lowest ever in the key 25–54 demographic.

Despite Weiss’ attempt to attract a younger audience, Dokoupil’s show has recorded 12 straight weeks with fewer than 600,000 viewers in the 25–54 age range.

One veteran television news executive said they were stunned that Weiss’ network is struggling to attract viewers during President Donald Trump providing a constant news blitz, suggesting audiences are put off by her “brand of faux centrism.”

“Her decisions have turned off even more of their shrinking audience,” the executive added. “These declines are part of a larger and deeper crisis at CBS News.”

A second veteran executive said there is enough evidence to suggest Weiss’ “first major move as a television executive did not work,” while a third described the situation at the network as “a sinking ship.”CBS News has already carried out mass layoffs and seen the departure of its star anchor Anderson Cooper since Weiss was parachuted into the editor-in-chief role by David Ellison, CEO of Paramount Skydance and son of Trump donor Larry Ellison.

Experts have expressed fears about the future of CBS News, as a dwindling audience is likely to hit its bottom line and advertising revenue.

“It’s clear they have no idea what they are doing—and one has to wonder what will be left of CBS News once the merger goes through and the Ellisons are done having to placate Trump,” the third executive told Status.

A spokesperson for CBS News told the Daily Beast that ratings for CBS Evening News are up 2 percent in April 2026 compared to April 2025, and that it is “not fair” to blame the current numbers on Dokoupil and Weiss’ performance.

“Tony Dokoupil is an exceptional talent and experienced journalist who continues to build a program designed to reach audiences wherever they consume the news,” the spokesperson added.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-coded-cbs-anchor-tony-dokoupil-hit-with-trainwreck-ratings-downfall/?

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MAGA Stars Brutally Mocked to Their Faces at WHCD

“It’s like black-tie January 6th.”

Prominent MAGA figures were taken down a peg or two by an unlikely figure as they arrived at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

The Daily Show enlisted the dog puppet, voiced by comedian and Saturday Night Live alum Robert Smigel, to confront the likes of Pete Hegseth, Karoline Leavitt, Marco Rubio, and RFK Jr. ahead of the event, which was later derailed by a suspected gunman storming the venue.

As major Cabinet players and invited journalists spoke to the press, Triumph shared his thoughts with each of them.

He started by calling Fox News’ Peter Doocy a “catch,” even eliciting some laughs from the White House correspondent.

He then got a hold of Dr. Mehmet Oz, who told him, “I love dogs.” The puppet then asked, “Let me ask you about The Mentalist. Are you worried that if he pulls a rabbit out of his hat, will RFK Jr. try to eat it?” Oz responded, “I don’t know, but it’s an interesting thought.”

Triumph went through what he described as a “crazy” lineup of faces, calling this year’s press dinner “black-tie January 6th.”

Finding Markwayne Mullin, Kristi Noem’s replacement at the DHS, Triumph said, “I have to tell you, I’m a little resentful of you guys. I was snooping a Mexican hairless, and she was picked up by ICE.”

“I don’t know if that’s funny or not,” responded Mullin.

The dog puppet had a lengthy conversation with UFC head Dana White, who appeared entertained throughout. “I think people need to stop complaining about Kash Patel drinking so much. If you know a better way to come down from how much cocaine he’s doing, I’d like to hear it,” Triumph told White in jest.

“I don’t know if Kash Patel is a cocaine party guy,” responded White nervously.

To Cheryl Hines, the Curb Your Enthusiasm actress and wife of health secretary RFK Jr., Triumph received a less enthusiastic response. “Cheryl, what’s special about this night, other than it’s the only celebrity party you’re invited to anymore?” asked the puppet. Hines smiled and nodded along, “OK.”

The comic figure didn’t get face time with everyone, but managed to hurl insults from the sidelines at the likes of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Triumph, now a celebrity in his own right, was interviewed by USA Today, whose reporter asked, “What brings you to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner?” The puppet responded, “Are you kidding? This is a wonderful night. We’re honoring the First Amendment with Donald Trump. It’s kind of like having Kanye come for Passover.”

The big finish came with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who jokingly tried to hit Triumph and told colleagues, “This dog is a pain in the a--.” Rubio did take an interview from Triumph, who said, “I’m down on my luck, Marco. Please, just one question. Just tell me which country you’re attacking next. I’m trying to win some money on Polymarket. I’m trying to win some money on Polymarket, man! Just give me a wink if it’s Kazakhstan.”

“It’s illegal for dogs to gamble,” the Trump senior official retorted.

Triumph shared his insights after the chaotic event with Daily Show host Jon Stewart on Monday night’s episode.

Donald Trump attended this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner for the first time during his presidency. The event was cut short after a gunman allegedly attempted to storm the Washington Hilton ballroom, where the president, his senior aides, and thousands of journalists, media executives, and guests were present.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/maga-stars-brutally-mocked-to-their-faces-at-whcd/?