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

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How Trump Revealed the Weakness That Will Be His Undoing

The president let his guard down and exposed his biggest weak spot.

I have covered Donald Trump’s second term since the day he was inaugurated, and each day, my faith in him and his administration has dwindled a little more.

As a seasoned journalist, I have usually been able to find the positive in the most heinous situations. The courage under fire, the unexpected hospitality, the humor amid sorrow, the stoicism after the most extreme tragedy.

But Trump’s presidency has eaten at my soul. How could a country I love have voted (twice) for a president with so very few redeeming features?

How, indeed, could such a small man be raised to such a big job?

I have been told by those who know him better that in person he exhibits deft and often charming command in his exclusion of all around a table. A few friends of his I’ve spoken to say he can show flashes of personable allure betwixt the boasts and the boorishness.

But, honestly, I leave work in despair most evenings.

And then on Friday night, I saw some hope. Or at least I thought I did.

Like most of my colleagues in the media, I was expecting the same old Trump at the reconstituted White House Correspondents’ Dinner. I was at the dinner in April that was aborted after a gunman’s failed assassination attempt.

It seemed a good sign that Trump wanted to give it another go, and the early signs looked promising. He was clearly catching up with some sleep when he first arrived. Maybe because it wasn’t about him.

But he came alive when the award ceremony began.

He shrugged. He smiled. He smirked. He spoke out of the side of his mouth to Karoline Leavitt with quips and asides that felt to the audience like he was genuinely enjoying himself.

Then he shook all the winners’ hands and told them well done.

And imagine: this respect to reporters from The Wall Street Journal who wrote about his birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein (and he sued!).

Also toward the photographer who caught him posing for the cameras, apparently unconcerned that a man was collapsing behind him in the Oval Office.

His nemesis from CNN that he routinely insults and demeans.

Trump threw up his hands in an unusually modest “aw shucks” manner, and looked out at the audience as if to ask them what he should do. But he was grinning.

He didn’t sit on his hands. He was—and I can hardly believe I am writing this—a good sport.

If there is one thing the president understands, it’s good TV. And he woke up from his table nap to realize that he was the star of some surprisingly hilarious television.

No matter that he was the butt of the joke. He was still the center of attention. And that’s what drives him.

Many have criticized the WHCA and the journalists who turned up to the pared-down dinner.

But the evening began with a video featuring journalists talking about the First Amendment, AI footage of Founding Father James Madison talking about “No Kings,” and footage of Trump calling the media “fake news.”

The elephant in the room was in full view of everyone present, including the president and many members of his Cabinet.

And the awards, handed out by CNN legend Wolf Blitzer, didn’t shy away from criticizing the president. They challenged his authority. They were personal.

“This has not been an easy evening, all these awards,” Trump laughed as he took the microphone. “A lot of people I like, some I don’t like at all,” he added. Importantly, he said he respected them.

If anything, Trump’s speech seemed rather tame. A little boring. The jokes were tired. I was thinking that his speechwriter should be fired.

He targeted Bruce Springsteen (“Bored in the USA”), Chris Christie, Jane Fonda, Bette Midler, Adam Schiff, Rosie O’Donnell. Hardly cutting edge and not very cutting.

Still, it was within roasting territory. This was what a president was supposed to do at these things. Be a little rough. Have some fun.

I had been writing an op-ed suggesting that maybe, just maybe, Trump really did respect the First Amendment and realized that he needed the press as much as they needed him.

Maybe he did have some heart, after all.

But then it got dark. My essay’s thesis no longer held true. Metaphorically, I ripped it up. Deleted it.

The showman in Trump, perhaps, felt like he was losing the room with his lame jokes and needed to get their attention.

One by one, he went back and made unfair and sometimes despicable attacks on the reputations of the award-winning journalists he had shaken hands with and congratulated earlier in the evening.

He doubled back and blasted the award-winning team at The Wall Street Journal, singling out reporter Josh Dawsey, for writing about him. He even took a dig at CBS boss Bari Weiss, who has staked her reputation on siding with his administration.

The goodwill he had won with his benevolent behavior earlier had vanished.

Next, and worst, Trump spewed vile insults at CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, who won an award for her coverage of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s calamitous visit to the Oval Office.

“I want to personally congratulate CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on receiving her award. It was all about me. It was a fake, she shouldn’t get the award, it was a fake. But I didn’t mind. I said, ‘Kaitlan, congratulations.’ But it was fake; there’s no question about it.

“But she’s a young, attractive woman,” Trump added. “She never smiles. I said, ‘Kaitlan, do you ever smile? Smile!’ You have a nice position; you’re at CNN fake news. You should be a happy person. So smile, Kaitlan! Just smile.”

Trump claimed Collins looked like transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who triggered a Bud Light backlash a few years ago when she appeared in an ad for the popular beer.

“I thought Kaitlan had really made it big with a major new sponsorship,” Trump said. “But then I informed her that it wasn’t her on the Bud Light can, it was Dylan Mulvaney.”

It wasn’t at all funny. It was cruel and insulting to both Collins and Mulvaney.

He just couldn’t play nice. He felt he was threatened, and he stung like the scorpion he is. He simply couldn’t help himself.

Remember, this is the president who subpoenaed the families of New York Times journalists to try and discover the source of a story he didn’t want told.

And he is still suing the Journal for $20 billion despite the warm handshakes.

Press freedom is undeniably under threat from Trump and his acolytes like Stephen Miller.

But Trump needs to understand that he needs the press.

“The show must go on,” he told the audience, though he more than likely was directing that at himself.

On some level, he must know that when the camera lights fade away, so does he. And by that time, there will be plenty lining up to make his legacy known—first and foremost, that it just wasn’t a very good show.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-trump-revealed-the-weakness-that-will-be-his-undoing/?

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🔮 What Sam will tell the White House

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman heads to Washington this week to preview the company's most powerful AI yet, pushing for speedy approval of a model that just hacked a real company, Axios CEO Jim VandeHei writes in his weekly Axios C-Suite newsletter. Why it matters: Altman will tout a model powerful enough to solve an 80-year-old math problem, breach another company's system unprompted and begin to make complex work more cost-efficient for U.S. business. 👀 What Sam will show: It does original science. An internal model solved the 80-year-old Erdős unit distance problem, the first prominent open math problem cracked autonomously by AI and verified by outside mathematicians. It allows government and business to unleash swarms of agents, working together, without rest, on complex business areas. Legal, finance and recruiting at OpenAI now run 85%+ of their AI work through agents. It doesn't quit, even when it should. OpenAI revealed its long-horizon model repeatedly circumvented safeguards during internal use, forcing a pause and a rebuilt monitoring system. Then it hacked a real company, Hugging Face. 🧑‍🏫 A new idea: OpenAI will be pushing the idea of "knowledge per dollar" as a fresh concept for measuring the economic power and value of AI. 👉 Lingo: Look for Sam to promote "teams of agentic AI" as the next paradigm shift — all coordinating with each other and working seamlessly while you sleep or go about your business. OpenAI argues these AI teams will change the basic math of how to measure productivity.

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• Trump administration admits grants for clean energy were canceled based on politics
• A forced-labor crackdown or an end-run around Congress? Dissecting Trump’s new tariffs
• Brazil’s government denies visas to US officials over upcoming elections
• Sons of man shot and killed by ICE in Houston demand accountability at congressional hearing
• Trump returns to correspondents’ dinner for a rambling, insult-filled speech 3 months after shooting
• WATCH: Trump alludes to third term at rescheduled White House correspondents' dinner
• Maine Democratic delegates choose Troy Jackson as new nominee to face US Sen. Susan Collins
• Democrats select South Carolina to kick off presidential nominating contest in 2028, leave Iowa out
• Americans rewire their grocery shopping routines while digesting the biggest price jump in 50 years
• Trump orders new signs outside Smithsonian saying some exhibits are inaccurate

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As Trump boosts nuclear power, regulators seek to eliminate a longstanding radiation safety practice

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing to eliminate a foundational safety principle that has for 50 years minimized the radiation people in the United States are exposed to and that has been adopted around the world. Read More.   A forced-labor crackdown or an end-run around Congress? Dissecting Trump's new tariffs The Trump administration has imposed double-digit tariffs on more than 60 countries, using a legal justification that permits the president to levy import taxes and other sanctions against countries found to engage in “unjustifiable,” “unreasonable” or “discriminatory” trade practices. Read More.

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Dissecting Trump’s new tariffs The Trump administration has imposed double-digit tariffs on more than 60 countries that the U.S. says either don't have or don't effectively enforce a forced-labor import ban. But the affected countries, which account for 99% of U.S. imports, have called the Trump administration’s claims unfounded and arbitrary. Read more.

Why this matters: Nations with vastly different records on forced labor received the same tariff level. The U.S. spent four months investigating but gave few details on how it arrived at the tariff rates, which are either 10% or 12.5%.    The new tariffs announced in recent days take effect just as temporary 10% worldwide tariffs expired, and critics say they are less about cracking down on forced labor than they are a way to replace those tariffs.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump is set to defend his economic policies in Michigan, where new Canadian tariffs may sting   Small businesses file lawsuits against Trump’s new sweeping tariffs   Trump says the US will investigate EU trade practices, claiming the bloc unfairly fined tech giants   Trump’s border czar says vetting of ICE officer is under internal review after Maine shooting   As Trump boosts nuclear power, regulators seek to eliminate a longstanding radiation safety practice   Biden drops lawsuit seeking to block release of recordings of his interviews with a ghostwriter

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CNN Fact-Checker Hits Trump With a Brutal Reality Check

The president has been telling “completely made-up” stories that make no sense, according to CNN.

CNN’s resident fact-checker tore into Donald Trump for repeatedly asking Americans to “remember” things that never actually happened.

The 80-year-old president on Thursday trotted out a fake story he’s been telling for years about how people couldn’t watch his June 27, 2024, debate with Joe Biden because “the wind wasn’t blowing,” leading to a widespread TV blackout in areas that use wind power.

The story, however, is completely a figment of his imagination—and its underlying premise makes no sense, reporter Daniel Dale said Sunday.

A whopping 51 million people watched the debate on television alone—including in Texas, which leads the nation in wind power production.

“The president is making stuff up again,” Dale said.

Wind is used as part of a mix of power sources, and batteries store wind-generated power for periods when the wind is blowing.

So not only is the story itself “completely made up,” but the idea behind it is also “completely made up by the president of the United States,” he added.

The president has harbored an irrational hatred of wind turbines ever since the Scottish government approved a wind project off the coast of Aberdeen within sight of his golf course more than a decade ago.

For years, he has pushed bizarre theories about how wind turbines kill whales, cause cancer, and destroy property values, and has tried throughout his second term in office to block offshore wind projects.

But the great fake wind blackout of 2024 is not the only made-up event Trump has encouraged people to “remember.”

Last year, he reminded people to “remember” that he was at his golf club in Scotland the day of the Brexit vote and correctly predicted the outcome. In fact, he was there a day after the vote when the results had already come in, Dale said.

The president also has episodes of “fake history” that he has shared repeatedly throughout his terms in office.

One is a bogus story about President George Washington keeping two side-by-side desks in his study, one for his private business and one for the presidency.

Another is a repeated claim that 38,000 Americans died building the Panama Canal during the early 20th century. In fact, 5,600 people died total building the canal, more than 5,000 of whom were Black workers from the Caribbean who were poorly treated, Dale said.

“So, the president making up numbers, making up anecdotes, and making up things he’s asking people to remember even though he made them up,” Dale said.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/cnn-fact-checker-hits-trump-with-a-brutal-reality-check-over-his-wind-power-story/?

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Trump administration urges Supreme Court to allow order targeting mail-in voting before midterms

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to clear the way for an executive order from President Donald Trump that could dramatically change mail-in voting ahead of November’s midterm elections.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-mail-voting-appeal-executive-order-supreme-court-5482700c21f4945d6991dff24776b525?

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Furious Trump Melts Down Over Republicans Going Back on Vacation

Trump is unhappy with the Senate majority leader for failing to get his bill through Congress.

Donald Trump erupted at Senate Majority Leader John Thune for failing to get his signature bill through Congress as the Senate scrambles to wrap up its priorities before the August recess.

Tensions between the two men have been simmering for weeks but could take an explosive turn as the Senate struggles to move forward with Trump’s agenda because it does not have the votes.

“John Thune should not allow the United States Senate to ‘leave town’ until it passes The Save America Act or, far better still, TERMINATES THE FILIBUSTER, where Republicans can then quickly pass everything they ever dreamed of, including a full and deep throated SAVE AMERICA ACT, the Budget, and the ever looming Debt Ceiling disaster, 1929!” Trump ranted on Truth Social.

Trump, 80, repeated his claim that “Dumocrats will do it on day one,” despite that not having happened when Democrats were in power less than two years ago.

He took aim at top Senate Republicans, claiming Democrats “can’t believe how lucky they got with this Senate leadership” and declared, “Remember, stupidity always brings LOSING & DEATH!”

The Senate is in this week and next week before heading out for a summer recess through mid-September. The House headed out for five weeks of August recess last week, and will only return for one week at the end of next month before skipping out again until after Labor Day.

House Republicans recently included provisions of the SAVE America Act in a larger legislative package before leaving town, but the effort has no path forward in the Senate.

Republicans do not have the votes to even pass the SAVE America Act with a simple majority, never mind the necessary 60 votes to pass legislation without being blocked by the filibuster through regular order.

Trump’s post on Monday came after he also demanded Senate Republicans terminate the filibuster in an unhinged posting spree over the weekend.

Some Senate Republicans are threatening civil war as senators head back to Washington, D.C. on Monday over the president’s voting legislation.

On Sunday, Sen. Mike Lee said he would object to any effort for the Senate to recess in August until the Senate passes the SAVE America Act.

A single senator has the power to object to the Senate adjourning for a longer recess and can force a roll-call vote on it, slowing the Senate’s ability to head out.

“Do not assume you have my consent,” he wrote, tagging Thune on X. “You do not.”

He was joined by Sen. Rick Scott, who said that he stood with Lee and would vote to keep the Senate in session until the passage of MAGA voting legislation.

“The American people expect us to deliver,” Scott wrote on X. “They deserve secure elections.”

It comes after Thune fired back at White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday for venting frustration over Trump’s stalled agenda.

Leavitt, 28, complained that the Senate needed to do its job and warned that patience is running out with Senate Republicans at her press briefing, which led to a rare direct rebuke from Thune on Capitol Hill.

“Maybe she or somebody else ought to get on the phone and get the votes. Right? It’s 50 around here,” the Senate majority leader fired back while speaking to a group of reporters.

Republicans have 53 seats in the Senate while Democrats hold 47 seats, but Senator Mitch McConnell has been out for more than five weeks since being hospitalized on June 14.

Other Republicans, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Thom Tillis, have been critical of the SAVE America Act and efforts to rush it through before the midterms.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/furious-trump-melts-down-over-republicans-going-back-on-vacation/?

ps:Good for Thune!!

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Trump Hit by Brutal Verdict on His Signature Project

Many Americans are unaware of what is in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

President Donald Trump’s signature legislative achievement is facing a brutal new reality check, with a new poll showing many Americans are either unaware of what is in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act or believe it benefits the wealthy more than working families.Signed into law on July 4, the sweeping package extends key parts of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts while adding new breaks, including temporary deductions for tips and overtime pay, an expanded child tax credit, senior tax deductions, auto loan interest relief, and government-backed “Trump Accounts” for children.

Republicans have promoted the bill as a major tax victory for working Americans.

“Putting more money in Americans’ pockets. Helping them seize opportunities to get ahead, and creating new pathways to success,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said during remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday.

“That is the Working Families Tax Cuts at work.”

But Democrats and outside analysts argue it will disproportionately benefit higher earners and add to the national deficit.

The Congressional Budget Office has projected the law will significantly increase deficits over the next decade.

A new Politico poll of 2,061 U.S. adults conducted July 12-15 found the law has yet to win over a majority of Americans.

Nearly half of voters said they either cannot explain the bill or know little about what it contains. Just 11 percent said they could explain the law in detail, while 39 percent said they had heard of it but could not explain its features.

The confusion cuts across party lines, with Trump voters and Kamala Harris voters equally likely to say they know of the bill but cannot explain it, at 40 percent each.

And for many Americans, the bill has not translated into a noticeable financial boost. One in five voters said they did not know whether the law had helped their personal finances, while another quarter said it had made no difference.

Instead, many Americans believe the benefits are tilted toward the wealthy. Just 14 percent said the bill provides substantial tax relief for working-class Americans.

Another 34 percent said it offers some relief but hides larger tax cuts for the wealthy, including 35 percent of Republicans. Twenty-one percent said it does not provide working-class Americans with tax breaks at all.

The poll also found wealthier Americans are more likely to say they have benefited. More than 40 percent of voters earning over $100,000 said the law had helped them financially—more than double the share among those earning less.

Overall, one-third of Americans said the massive tax and spending package had hurt their bottom line, a warning sign for Republicans heading into the midterm elections, where the cost of living is expected to be a defining issue.

White House spokesman Davis Ingle told the Daily Beast: “No other President in history has accomplished more for the American people than President Trump, who is working tirelessly to create jobs, cool inflation, increase housing affordability, and more. The President has already made historic progress not only in America but around the world, and this is just the beginning as his agenda continues taking effect.”

The challenge comes as voters continue to feel squeezed by rising prices amid Trump’s war in Iran, which has seen gas prices rise above $5 a gallon.

The Politico poll showed that more than half of Americans say Trump’s war in Iran has made things more expensive.

Meanwhile, wage growth has not been keeping up with inflation, which soared after Trump decided to go to war with Iran

In June, wages rose 3.5 percent from a year earlier—the same rate as inflation—leaving workers with virtually no gain in purchasing power, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-hit-by-brutal-verdict-on-the-one-big-beautiful-bill-act/?

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🇮🇱 Diminished Bibi arrives in D.C.

Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo: Ilia Yefimovich/AFP via Getty Images

Benjamin Netanyahu will meet President Trump in the Oval Office today for the eighth time since Trump returned to office. Bibi arrives weaker and less influential than the previous seven times, Axios' Barak Ravid writes. Why it matters: On Feb. 28, when Trump and Netanyahu went to war together, it looked like there was no daylight between them. Exactly five months later, their interests have diverged. Bad blood and frustration have deepened as they've grown suspicious of each other's intentions. 🔎 Behind the scenes: In the first few months of the war, Trump and Netanyahu spoke almost every day to coordinate and exchange views. In recent weeks, their phone calls have become increasingly infrequent. Netanyahu started leaning more on Secretary of State Marco Rubio for updates on Trump's thinking, sources say. Netanyahu even struggled to get on Trump's schedule for today's sit-down. Bibi wanted to come to the White House last week but couldn't get an appointment. 👓 Between the lines: Netanyahu is deeply unpopular in Washington these days — among Democrats, Trump's close circle and the MAGA base. In public, Trump says his relationship with Netanyahu is still very good. In private, though, Trump has expressed frustration with the Israeli leader. Many senior officials in Trump's inner circle have come to view Netanyahu with disdain, arguing he was consistently wrong about the war. Numerous U.S. officials, including Vance, have accused Netanyahu of making rosy predictions that didn't pan out. ps:I agree that he made those rosy predictions that didn't pan out, but who were the fools listening and doing his bidding?????

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🚘 Trump's GM tour

President Trump visited GM's sprawling Milford Proving Ground in Michigan yesterday to promote his tariffs and their impact on auto manufacturing.

• The visit included a tour and a trio of drag races with muscle cars and luxury vehicles, including the Corvette Z06, Cadillac Escalade V and EV Hummer.
• Go deeper.

 

⚖️ "Self-deportation" push ramps up

President Trump's controversial "self-deportation" program, which pays unauthorized immigrants to leave the U.S., is on pace to account for more than 200,000 departures, according to internal data shared with Axios' Brittany Gibson.

• Why it matters: Launched last year alongside a multimillion-dollar ad campaign, the initiative is virtually the only carrot in an aggressive immigration crackdown that has been long on sticks.

Through July 16, the nearly $600 million program — dubbed Project Homecoming by the Department of Homeland Security — has helped about 132,000 people exit the U.S.

• Roughly 70,000 more have signed up and are on track to leave, according to the data.

🖼️ The big picture: The self-deportation program is a key part of the administration's push to remove 1 million unauthorized immigrants from the U.S. each year.

• The idea was to offer unauthorized immigrants free travel and $1,000 to leave voluntarily rather than risk arrest and detention. The stipend has increased to $2,600.

Keep reading.

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💰 U.S. officials: Sanctions could hurt Iran more than bombs

Vessels in the Strait of Hormuz yesterday near a beach in Bandar Abbas, Iran. Photo: Razieh Poudat/ISNA via Reuters President Trump's economic assault on Iran has drawn a fraction of the attention devoted to his bombing campaign, even as senior U.S. officials believe it may ultimately do more damage to the regime in Tehran, Axios' Marc Caputo writes. Why it matters: U.S. intelligence and open-source media reports point to a deepening economic crisis inside Iran, including gasoline shortages in one of the world's most oil-rich countries. A senior administration official told us: "The Iranians want to stop being bombed and they want money. But that's almost in reverse order. They really want the money first." "Intelligence is picking up that the Iranians are complaining they can't pay their fighters," that official said. "Why? Because of the financial pressures. Because of Treasury." A second U.S. official acknowledged that sanctions and the U.S. naval blockade will take longer to force Tehran to the table than a full-scale bombing campaign, which Trump has so far declined to authorize. Keep reading.

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Trump administration asks Supreme Court to allow order targeting mail-in voting before midterms The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to clear the way for an executive order that could dramatically change mail-in voting ahead of November’s midterm elections. Read more.

Why this matters: The president ordered the government in March to create a “state citizenship list” of eligible voters and deliver mail ballots only to people on that list. Democratic officials in 23 states and the District of Columbia sued, saying the Constitution gives states and Congress the authority to set election rules, not the president.   Using mail ballots has become increasingly popular with voters of both parties, with about 30% of all ballots cast that way during the 2024 presidential election, according to federal data. The process also is secure. A 2025 Brookings Institution study found only about four cases of fraud out of every 10 million mail ballots cast.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump demands Senate cancel August break until it passes voting bill   Republicans decry a new Democratic Socialists of America platform as Dem primaries split the party   US looks to boost anti-China spending worldwide by hundreds of millions, documents say    Federal judge dismisses a lawsuit over makeup of Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission   Trump defends his sweeping tariffs and watches ‘America First’ drag races during Michigan stop   McConnell remains in rehab and says he’ll miss key Kentucky political event   Kamala Harris endorses Democrat Troy Jackson, in Maine’s US Senate race after last-minute nomination    Ex-Olympian charged with damaging Reflecting Pool sees ‘irregularities’ in grand jury proceedings

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Trump’s Tribute to Lindsey Graham Immediately Goes Off the Rails

There were a few awkward moments when the president called into Fox & Friends to discuss the legacy of his former golfing pal.

Donald Trump began an awkward tribute to the late Lindsey Graham by trashing the MAGA Senator’s golf game.As memorial services for Graham began on Tuesday, the president called into Fox & Friends to discuss the legacy of his former golfing pal.

But things immediately went slightly off the rails when co-host Steve Doocy asked Trump to tell viewers about what it was like teeing off with the 71-year-old senator, who died suddenly earlier this month with heart complications.

Trump began by saying Graham “loved golf”, “worked hard at it”, and was “getting better all the time.”

But the 80-year-old added: “Let me put it this way. He loved it—but he wasn’t born to be a golfer.”

The president then went on to talk about Graham’s bloodlust, declaring that the Senator “never met a war he didn’t like.”

“I’d say: you’re a nice guy, how come you like war so much?” Trump recalled. “He was very much into that.”

But this, too, became somewhat awkward when co-host Ainsley Earhardt pointed out that Graham’s sister, Darline, had said the opposite during an interview with Sean Hannity last week.

“She said he didn’t love war,” Earhardt, who is dating Hannity, told the president.

“He loves peace and he loves the end of the war, but sometimes war is necessary.”

The interview kicked off two days’ worth of services honoring Graham, starting on Tuesday morning with a ceremony with his casket in the Capitol Rotunda, followed by a funeral at the Washington Cathedral.

The services will continue on Wednesday in Graham’s home state, South Carolina.

Trump is expected to deliver remarks on Tuesday afternoon at the funeral of his longtime ally, which will also be attended by congressional and military leaders.

Among them are Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, two world leaders who Graham consistently supported.

Indeed, the MAGA Senator had just returned from his 10th trip to Ukraine hours before he died overnight July 11, not long after emergency personnel responded to a report of cardiac arrest at his Washington, D.C., home.

The sudden death sent shockwaves across Trumpland as major MAGA figures raised questions about its apparently suspicious timing, so soon after Graham’s visit to Ukraine to publicize his drive to step up sanctions on Russian oil and gas sales.

Almost instantly, wild theories began surfacing across the internet, fueled a few hours later by a post by FBI director Kash Patel declaring that “the FBI is assisting local authorities and has made every necessary resource available.”

However, a medical examiner subsequently ruled that the cause of death was an aortic dissection resulting from cardiovascular disease.

Graham’s sister Darline was appointed to fill the vacancy in his South Carolina seat, and intends to run for a full term after Trump’s endorsement.

“There would be nobody better to honor the legacy of her beloved brother, Lindsey,” he wrote in a Truth Social post.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-tribute-to-lindsey-graham-immediately-goes-off-the-rails/?

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Green Slime Pool Case Witness Makes Bombshell Admission

The government’s own witness called its case against a former Olympian into question.

A key witness in the case against a former Olympian charged with vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool admitted that the landmark was already damaged—and would have needed thousands of dollars’ worth of repairs anyway.

The president spent months hyping his renovations of the famed monument, only for the $16 million “repairs” to result in peeling blue sealant and a record-breaking algal bloom that turned the water slime green.

Instead of blaming the companies that received no-bid contracts to complete the work, Trump claimed the damage was the work of vandals and ordered a law-enforcement blitz at the site.

Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn was arrested and charged with felony destruction of property—a charge that carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison—after he stopped at the Reflecting Pool during a bike ride and put his hand in the water.

But during the grand jury proceedings that led to his indictment, the sole government witness who testified about the damage Hearn allegedly caused “could not quantify any loss” attributable to Hearn’s conduct, according to a new court filing from Hearn’s legal team.

The witness, who was not identified, testified the property was already damaged before Hearn touched it, and that about $6,000 to $15,000 was needed to fix the immediate area.

Those repairs would have still been necessary “before the defendant interacted with the pool,” according to the witness, who could not answer a grand juror’s question about the difference in estimated costs before and after Hearn’s actions, according to the filing.

“Simply put, the government’s witness could not identify any additional cost caused by Mr. Hearn’s alleged conduct,” the filing said. “Indeed, the witness did not even say or suggest that the alleged conduct had compromised the liner at all.”

The testimony was included in partial grand jury transcripts provided to the defense, which is now seeking the full transcripts and legal instructions provided to the grand jurors.

The witness’ answers raised questions about whether the grand jury was properly instructed about elements of the case—including the fact that the felony charge required Hearn to have caused more than $1,000 in damages, Hearn’s lawyers argued.

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

The case was brought by the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia, which is headed by former Fox News host and staunch Trump ally Jeanine Pirro.

Over the past several months, federal judges have found that prosecutors with Trump’s DOJ engaged in—and at times tried to cover up—grand jury misconduct, including improperly speaking to jurors outside the courtroom, coaching them on the evidence presented, and dismissing grand jurors who refused to indict defendants.

In asking for the release of the full transcripts, Hearn’s lawyers argued that the historic “presumption of regularity” afforded by courts to the DOJ “has been thoroughly eroded by current Department leadership, including in the District of Columbia.” The DOJ has previously said that reported cases of jury misconduct were isolated incidents that did not reflect on the department’s overall record.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/witness-in-david-hearns-lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool-case-makes-bombshell-admission/?

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Trump Costs America Billions as Canadians Snub the U.S.

Canadian visitors spent $2.3 billion less in the U.S. in 2025.

President Donald Trump is costing America billions as Canadians increasingly turn their backs on the U.S., according to new data.

A report released by the Canadian government last week shows that Canadian visitors spent $2.3 billion less in the U.S. in 2025 as travel across the border plunged.

According to the report, total spending by Canadians on U.S. trips dropped to C$18.8 billion ($12.8 billion), down from C$22.1 billion ($15.6 billion) the year before, as Canadian travel to the U.S. dropped by 25 percent.

The decline in Canadian travel to the U.S. marked an unprecedented shift, with return trips falling year over year for 11 straight months in 2025—the longest sustained drop outside the pandemic era since records began in 1972.

That is a huge blow for the Trump administration, with Canada traditionally sending the most tourists to the U.S.

But Trump’s recent antics have upset his closest neighbors, according to the report.

So now Canadians are opting to travel domestically or to go to other countries outside of the U.S, taking roughly 5 million more domestic trips within Canada and 1.3 million additional trips overseas.

It comes after Trump slapped tariffs on Canadian-made goods, ramped up immigration enforcement, and repeatedly threatened to swallow Canada as America’s “51st state.”

“Following the change in the U.S. administration in early 2025 and the implementation of America First policies, Canadian travel sentiment shifted abruptly,” the report says.

Similar research by the University of Toronto from May also found that visits by Canadians to major U.S. cities, including San Francisco, Houston and Grand Rapids, have crashed by a staggering 42 percent during Trump’s second term.

The president’s trade war with Canada has also been blamed for a sharp drop in Canadian tourism to Las Vegas, a city where Canadian visitors typically make up a major share of international travel.

After Trump imposed tariffs on Canada last year, visits from Canadians fell by 17 percent, contributing to a 7.5 percent overall decline in tourism, Politico reported.

But it’s not just Canadians who are snubbing the U.S.

A CNN report from May showed that the U.S. had roughly 4 million fewer international visitors in 2025 than the year before, marking a 5.5 percent decline in overseas tourism, with foreign visitor spending falling by more than $8 billion.

Visitor numbers declined from several countries, including Germany, India, France, Australia, Chile, and China, but the largest drop came from Canada.

Aside from the collapse in travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, it represents the sharpest annual drop in international tourism in roughly 20 years.

The decline in U.S. tourism stands out globally. International travel increased sharply globally in 2025, with roughly 80 million more people traveling abroad than the year before.

But people are opting to travel elsewhere other than the U.S.

And that is a concerning trend, according to Juliette Kayyem, faculty chair of the Homeland Security Project at the Harvard Kennedy School.

“We used to be a country that others wanted to emulate. That narrative no longer exists,” Kayyem told CNN.

“The long-term harm is that the world will not know America… the narrative of the United States is now a country that is at best, not to be respected, and at worst, a democracy that is floundering.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-costs-america-billions-as-canadians-snub-the-us/?

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Trump’s Oval Office Humiliation of RFK Jr. Is Leaked

The president is pressuring his health secretary to prove a debunked claim surrounding vaccines.

An irate Donald Trump told Robert F. Kennedy Jr. he would be considered a failure if he could not prove a long-debunked link between vaccines and autism, according to a report.

During an Oval Office meeting in June, the president chastised the health and human services secretary for not doing enough to prove an alleged connection between childhood vaccines and autism, and felt he should have accomplished more over the past year and a half leading the Department of Health and Human Services, sources told The Wall Street Journal.

Trump had also pointedly asked Kennedy why he wasn’t doing more to investigate the alleged connection between vaccines and autism during a lunch at the president’s golf course in Virginia in May. Trump accused the health secretary of getting the “yips” for not investigating the issue more aggressively.

Kennedy was said to be taken aback by the pressure from Trump. The White House had previously urged the health secretary to tone down his public distrust of vaccines, fearing it could hurt Republicans in November’s midterm elections.

Trump, 80, is not a vaccine skeptic on the same level as the 72-year-old Kennedy. During his first term in office he advised people to get the COVID-19 vaccine and publicly revealed that he received a booster shot.

The president has also frequently complained that he does not get enough credit for the rollout of Operation Warp Speed, the first Trump administration’s effort to rapidly accelerate vaccine development in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, Trump has long been skeptical about vaccinating children, including questioning whether there is a link between vaccines and autism—a claim that has no scientific basis.The Journal reported that Trump is so obsessed with the issue that he “steers nearly every conversation” he has with Kennedy back to investigating the claim.

In May, Trump signed an executive order to drastically reduce the number of vaccines administered to American children. The order backed an HHS report recommending reducing the number of routine childhood vaccinations from 17 to 11.

Trump has also considered changing the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine by splitting it into three separate shots. This is despite there being no scientific justification for doing so and multiple studies showing there is no connection between the MMR vaccine and autism.

In a statement to the Journal, White House spokesman Kush Desai said concerns from parents about “America’s skyrocketing autism rates have long been ignored if not mocked,” and that Trump is now changing this.

“The Trump administration is committed to leaving no stone unturned to finally address these concerns with Gold Standard Science,” Desai said.

A HHS spokesperson said they would not comment on purported private discussions between Kennedy and Trump.

“Secretary Kennedy and President Trump are aligned in their commitment to confronting the chronic disease epidemic affecting America’s children through rigorous, gold-standard science,” the spokesperson told the Daily Beast.

“HHS will continue to pursue evidence-based research to identify the root causes of autism and other chronic diseases, advance prevention strategies, and improve the health of the American people.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-oval-office-humiliation-of-rfk-jr-is-leaked/?

ps:How pathetic!!

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Moment of Truth

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In a court filing earlier this month, a government lawyer did something radical: He laid out the truth in plain English.

The surprise was not just the honesty from a chronically dishonest administration but also the substance: The Trump administration admitted that it had withheld federal money in retaliation against its political rivals. The disclosure, first reported by The New York Times on Friday, is part of a lawsuit from a group of researchers in California whose grants were canceled. In lieu of turning over documents to the plaintiffs in discovery, an Energy Department attorney acknowledged in a filing that decisions about which grants might be terminated had been “based solely” on a goal of political retribution. “With one exception, the 284 terminated grants had a recipient location and/or at least one place of performance in a state that awarded its electoral votes to Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and has two Democratic-caucusing Senators (‘Blue State’ grants),” the filing stated, contradicting previous public statements by officials.

Every administration has its own policy agenda and preferences, but this goes beyond that, subjugating science to partisanship and holding research and infrastructure money hostage throughout much of the country. If the United States is to remain legally and civically coherent—and scientifically dynamic—the rules have to apply consistently.

Even before Donald Trump returned to office, the country was in some ways pulling apart into two different policy worlds: one governed by Democrats and one by Republicans, as the journalist Ronald Brownstein wrote in The Atlantic in 2022. This was being driven largely by decisions at the state level, producing widely varying economic, health, and social outcomes. Trump is now using the power of the federal government to drive the two sections further apart, a glaring act of division as the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary. (Punishing states that lean Democratic also punishes many Republican voters. More Californians cast a ballot for Trump in 2024 than voters in Alabama, Indiana, Kansas, and Tennessee did combined.)

In some ways, the retaliation acknowledged in the suit is in step with other Trump-administration actions. Trump is not coy about his desire for political retribution, especially against high-profile critics, or his sense that he is president to only those who voted for him. This is not his first example of using federal funds to reward red states while punishing blue ones. Earlier this year, Politico calculated that in his first 14 months in office, Trump approved 89 percent of requests for disaster assistance from GOP-led states but just 23 percent of those from Democrat-led states. Yet when asked about the disparity, the White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson denied any political motive, saying, “There is no politicization to the president’s decisions on disaster aid.”

Jackson faced no legal penalty for such an obvious falsehood—which is one reason courts remain a vital bulwark against Trump’s abuse of power. I wrote during Trump’s first presidency that many depositions demonstrated a huge gulf between the president’s public bluster and balderdash and his meeker, franker statements made when under oath. The same has been true of attorneys representing his second administration. In several high-profile cases, they have been forced to admit in court that public claims by officials were false. Last year, for example, the official White House line was that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was a dangerous MS-13 gang member who had been rightly shipped to a Salvadoran prison. In court, however, lawyers acknowledged that his deportation had been the result of an “administrative error.”

This past spring, charges against a group of people arrested at a protest near Chicago fell apart after federal prosecutors conceded a series of major mistakes to a judge: They impermissibly vouched personally for the credibility of evidence before a grand jury, spoke with grand jurors outside a courtroom, and, after failing to obtain an indictment, excused grand jurors who’d voted against charges and tried again. They then redacted transcripts to try to hide this from the judge. And last week, the Department of Justice dropped subpoenas issued to Times reporters after prosecutors admitted to a judge that they had not followed either DOJ policy or court precedent by not exhausting other options first.

(In some other instances, a related but inverted dynamic has emerged in which it’s not court statements that contradict the public ones, but the other way around: Government lawyers attempt to argue that administration decisions were made deliberately and without regard to politics, only for judges to point to public statements by the president that appear to reveal the true, improper motivations for the actions.)

Statements by government lawyers that contradict the official White House line are not merely the results of pangs of conscience. Attorneys understand that they can face sanctions, including disbarment, for lying in court. Earlier this month, a federal judge overseeing the lawsuit that produced Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund for political allies blasted Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche for testimony that was “at best, misleading and, at worst, disingenuous.” She also referred Blanche, who faces a confirmation vote on his elevation to permanent status, to the New York State Bar Association.

An Energy Department filing could put Energy Secretary Chris Wright in a tight spot too. Last month, he told a House panel, “No decisions were made on politics.” The Times reported that, according to a department spokesperson, Wright had been “making a distinction between that review process and the timing of when certain cancellations were announced.” Was he trying to mislead, or was he himself kept in the dark, and which would be more troubling? Trump sees his time in office as a chance to settle political scores, and aides who pretend otherwise risk making themselves look like fools—or worse.

Related:

• The “presumption of regularity” is evaporating.
• America is growing apart, possibly for good.

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🎤 Trump's new war pressure

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Axios' Barak Ravid last night that he asked President Trump for an emergency "winter package" of Patriot interceptors to help thwart Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.

• Why it matters: Ukraine's stockpile of the interceptors is almost depleted, and without them, the country can't defend against ballistic missiles.

While the front line remains at a stalemate, Ukraine has gained momentum with drone and missile strikes deep inside Russia, hitting oil facilities and other critical infrastructure.

• Zelensky said the changing war dynamic has helped his standing with Trump: "Our relations are much better and more constructive. Not so emotional like it was. And I think that it's good that it's better."

Today's New York Post cover.

👀 What to watch: The Ukrainian president said he thinks Putin is moving toward further escalation and could try to provoke other countries in the region to have "a more simple victory to sell to his audience."

• Zelensky claimed Russia still receives weapons from Iran and is building infrastructure for 30,000 more North Korean troops to fight in Ukraine.

More from the interview.

ps:Sen Graham has always been one of the few senators that always used to do the right thing! Than trump came along! But one thing he never let trump do was con him about Russia and putin!! He stood up for Ukraine and its people from the beginning!!!

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US and Saudi Arabia launch strikes against militias in Iraq Jordan’s air defenses intercepted five missiles launched from Iran early Wednesday, the country's military said, hours after the U.S. military said it had knocked down an Iranian missile barrage launched against American forces in the Middle East, shattering a brief pause in fighting. Read more.

What to know: The U.S. Central Command said its forces worked with Saudi Arabia’s forces to strike sites in Iraq that Tehran-backed militias have used to launch attacks in recent days. The United States and Iran had experienced a period of calm, during which neither announced attacks for about three days following weeks of escalation over the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Pentagon ties new casualty category for renewed US-Iran fighting to the end of ‘Operation Epic Fury’   Recent fighting with Iran further draws down key US air defense stockpiles, analysis says   Netanyahu praises first meeting with Trump since launching the Iran war   Zelenskyy has a ‘good meeting’ with Trump at the White House as he seeks more cooperation with US

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✈️ Trump's next reno target: Dulles Airport

Dulles' "people mover" shuttles. Photo: Allison Robbert/AP President Trump is expected this afternoon to unveil his plans to remake Washington Dulles International Airport. He'll propose a $22 billion rebuilding effort, sources told Reuters. The big picture: Trump has repeatedly criticized Dulles, one of two major airports serving the Washington, D.C., area. His renovation efforts are part of a broader push to reimagine Washington in his own image — an effort that also includes the Kennedy Center, the Reflecting Pool, the planned "Triumphal Arch" and more. CBS News reports that Trump "preferred the new Dulles design preserve the iconic sloped-roof main terminal, designed by Eero Saarinen, but would refurbish the interior with an open foyer and new ticket kiosks for the airlines." The Washington Post adds: "Under his plan, the current underground train would be fully built out to take passengers to their terminals — rather than relying on the airport's shuttles, nicknamed 'people movers' — and five terminals would be built to replace the four existing ones." "The Trump-approved design also calls for large glass windows and gold accents throughout the airport, such as high, gold-mirrored ceilings." Go deeper.

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Trump Explodes With Obscene Threat as His Crisis Spirals

Hours after a surprise attack on U.S. forces, the 80-year-old president offered one of his most profane public threats yet.

A furious Donald Trump has reportedly vowed to “beat the f--king s--t” out of Iran in retaliation for a surprise attack targeting U.S. forces in the Middle East. Hours after Tehran launched a surprise ballistic missile attack against American forces in Jordan, the 80-year-old president was said to have offered one of his most profane public threats yet as the conflict spirals.

“We are going to beat the f--king s--t out of them,” he is said to have told Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst.

“We’ll be hitting them hard. They’re going to get a beating.”

Iran’s surprise attack took place after a short pause in hostilities.

Centcom said in a post on X that the attack originated from Iran, but all missiles were intercepted.

According to Trump, U.S. forces only had minutes to react before the incoming missiles reached their targets. He told Fox he had personally reviewed video of the operation, describing how American personnel tracked the incoming missiles in real time and successfully intercepted them before they could hit.

But the president did not hold back in his message of retaliation, sending oil prices soaring at a time when many observers had hoped peace talks could finally pick up speed.

With the midterm elections in just 97 days, the escalation also lands at a politically perilous moment for Republicans.

While many GOP lawmakers have rallied behind the president’s hardline approach to Iran, an ongoing regional conflict risks deepening MAGA divisions within the party.

Democrats are also likely to seize on a prolonged war, rising costs and the growing death toll.

Since launching the war on February 28, at least 18 U.S. service members have been killed along with countless innocent Iranian civilians, while gas prices have soared due to the standoff in the Strait of Hormuz.

However, the administration does not appear to have an endgame, constantly oscillating between seeking peace and vowing to escalate.

“Trump alternates each hour from “they’re begging for a deal and I think we’re getting close” to “we are going to end their civilization” with mass bombings on civilian infrastructure,” said former Republican turned MeidasTouch editor Ron Filipkowski.

Trump told Fox on Wednesday that the U.S. had carried out coordinated airstrikes with Saudi Arabia against Iran-backed militias, which he described as “a cancer on the world.”

He also addressed his meeting in the Oval Office on Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, insisting the talks went well despite recent strains between the two leaders over strategy in confronting Iran and the broader regional conflict.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-explodes-with-obscene-threat-as-his-crisis-spirals/?

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Trump’s Nepo Baby Spy Chief Makes Desperate Bid to Keep His Job

Bill Pulte is begging Trump to allow him to keep the role he has no experience for.

Donald Trump’s acting director of national intelligence is reportedly lobbying the president to let him stay in the job—even after the Senate confirmed his replacement.Bill Pulte, the billionaire homebuilding heir who was tapped in May despite having no intelligence or national security background, is urging Trump to delay the swearing in of newly confirmed intelligence chief Jay Clayton, according to Politico’s Playbook.Pulte, 38, the grandson of billionaire William J. Pulte, was elevated to the role after intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard stepped down, citing her husband’s cancer diagnosis. His surprise appointment bypassed Gabbard’s deputy, Aaron Lukas, and drew criticism from both intelligence officials and some Republicans.

His nomination also complicated GOP efforts to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with lawmakers expressing concern about placing sweeping surveillance powers in the hands of someone without traditional intelligence experience.

Among the skeptics was Sen. Kevin Cramer, an early Trump ally, who called the appointment “a funny pick.”

“I think it’s a funny pick, to say the least. It seems like a funny pick. It’s interim for now, I guess—we’ll see. But I think it’s an odd pick,” the North Dakota Republican said in early June.

Pulte’s time in the role now appears to be nearing an end after the Senate confirmed Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, as director of national intelligence on Tuesday.

Announcing the appointment on Truth Social, Trump praised Clayton, writing: “Jay is outstanding in every way, and will do a spectacular job as Director!”

But according to a White House official quoted by Playbook, Pulte is trying to persuade Trump to postpone the transition.

Pulte, who has served as the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since 2025, is asking Trump “to delay Clayton’s swearing-in, or at least trying to stay in the job longer,” a White House official told Playbook.

The official said Pulte is arguing that he needs more time to complete unfinished work, telling the president: “He’s doing things nobody else will do, and that’s why he needs to stay in the job longer.”

The effort has reportedly found little support inside the administration. The same official said colleagues “definitely do not want” Pulte to remain at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, adding: “That’s the deal that we made with the Hill. We want to honor that.”

Even so, multiple people close to the White House told Playbook that Trump and Pulte remain close.

“The president really loves him,” one official said, raising the possibility that Pulte could land another Cabinet-level role in the future.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

Pulte is expected to continue leading the Federal Housing Finance Agency, where he has sparked controversy by pursuing mortgage fraud allegations against several prominent Trump critics, including New York state Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff, and Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook.

He also was reportedly the first person to show Trump an AI-generated image portraying the president as Jesus Christ, which Trump later shared publicly.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-nepo-baby-spy-chief-bill-pulte-makes-desperate-bid-to-keep-his-job/?

ps:All of his appointees have no clue what they're doing! They're only there to do his bidding and destroy the departments they're in charge of!!!!!

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Comey’s ‘86 47′ Trump Seashell Case Gets Even Weirder

The 65-year-old became the subject of a Trump administration witch hunt after posting a photo of some shells on a beach.

Former FBI Director James Comey has filed a motion to dismiss President Donald Trump’s case against him for an Instagram post, exposing wild new details about how the investigation was conducted.Comey, 65, was indicted in April over a post he shared on the platform last May that officials said threatened violence against the 80-year-old president. The post, captioned “Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” showed seashells arranged to spell out “86 47.” In slang, the number 86 can mean tossing something out or getting rid of it. Critics took the post to imply Comey thinks Trump should be killed, given that he is the 47th president. Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced an investigation into Comey over the post, which she alleged “called for the assassination” of Trump.

On Tuesday, Comey’s team filed a motion to dismiss the indictment, and the documents attached to that filing revealed a string of bizarre details about the case.

His lawyers argued he was only being pursued because he had criticized the president, and that Comey had established actual “prosecutorial vindictiveness,” since Trump had already set his Justice Department on him once before.

Last September, the department accused Comey of lying to Congress over press leaks, a case that was thrown out after a judge determined that Trump’s attack dog in the matter, Lindsey Halligan, a federal attorney with no prosecutorial experience, had been illegally appointed. “The President harbors genuine animus toward Mr. Comey,” the new filing states.

That animus is nothing new. Trump fired Comey in 2017 over the Russia election interference investigation, and Comey has been a fierce critic of the president ever since. Former Attorney General Pam Bondi failed to make a case against him stick, but the effort appears to have been revived under acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer.

Comey’s lawyers say the White House was so fixated on the initial Secret Service investigation that top officials demanded updates while Trump was flying home from Europe. Law enforcement, they argue, went to extreme lengths to track him down.

According to the documents, federal agents used emergency phone-tracking to follow Comey as he drove from North Carolina to northern Virginia shortly after the post went up. That kind of warrant-free location tracking is supposed to be reserved for true emergencies, requiring law enforcement to claim there is “an imminent threat to life or limb,” one Secret Service official noted in the filings.

Except there was no emergency. When the Secret Service first reached out, Comey declined to share his exact whereabouts but agreed to sit down with investigators in Washington, D.C., the next day. Internal records show agents knew they were crossing a line. One unnamed Secret Service official admitted in a memo, “we did not believe that anyone’s life was in immediate danger and legally it was a bad idea to ping the phone.”

The filings also reveal that, in an effort to prove “86” meant murder, the Justice Department interviewed Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, a former mobster who has admitted involvement in more than a dozen killings. He was one of John Gotti’s closest associates and was his underboss in the Gambino crime family.

Comey’s team pointed out that in those interviews, Gravano said real mobsters wouldn’t even use the term, since it’s too obvious. He said law enforcement officials would likely know its macabre connotations, but offered nothing to suggest he believed Comey did. Comey, for his part, deleted the post shortly after sharing it and said he had no idea of its hidden meaning, explaining that he “didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence.”

Search warrant affidavits also cite an unnamed Comey associate, interviewed by the FBI in April, who said they told Comey’s wife, Patricia, about the term’s meaning soon after the post went live, and then contacted the Secret Service, arguing Comey would have known what the numbers meant.

But that associate’s belief was reportedly based on having listened to a Rudy Giuliani podcast, in which the former New York City mayor suggested that Comey’s law enforcement background meant he’d have known the term’s origins. Comey’s lawyers argued that none of his cases ever involved the word, and noted the associate is estranged from him.

Gravano, ironically, ended up helping Comey’s case further when he suggested FBI agents contact longtime prosecutor John Gleeson for his take. “The claim that ’86′ is mafia jargon for ‘kill’ is preposterous,” Gleeson wrote, citing thousands of hours of debriefings and conversations with mafia members in which the term was never used that way.

In an FBI affidavit seeking Comey’s Apple iCloud records, agents even pointed to his May 20, 2025, appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he discussed the seashell post. To justify searching his account, the investigating agent cited a Slate interview with Scandal actress Darby Stanchfield, who described going through “pre-interviews” ahead of late-night appearances, and used her comments to infer that Comey had likely discussed the seashells during his own prep sessions.

Comey’s defense team filed its motion to dismiss on Monday with U.S. District Court Judge Louise Flanagan, arguing that the “86-47” image fails to meet Supreme Court precedent for a “true threat” and that the charges violate his First Amendment rights. Flanagan, a George W. Bush appointee, has set an October 21 trial date for the former FBI director.

The White House has been approached for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/james-comeys-86-47-trump-seashell-case-gets-even-weirder/?

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Trump floats pulling Blanche’s nomination for attorney general to avoid conceding to GOP demands

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday he may pull acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination for the full-time post to avoid conceding to Senate Republicans’ demands over a sweeping tax audit immunity deal benefiting the president and members of his family.

https://apnews.com/article/congress-blanche-attorney-general-nomination-trump-2b7240c1844c1efd298257fbb5771ad3?