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

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?? ?? Summit hits Kremlin hurdle

Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios

The White House insists Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky will soon meet for peace talks. The Kremlin seems far less certain, Axios' Dave Lawler and Josephine Walker write. Why it matters: Putin has shown no interest in sitting down with Zelensky through 3½ years of war. President Trump claims that's now changed, and that a presidential meeting is the key to unlocking peace. ? Zoom in: Press secretary Karoline Leavitt declared yesterday that Putin had agreed to move to the "next phase" of the peace process — a bilateral meeting with Zelensky. Trump wants that meeting to take place by the end of August, ideally much sooner. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sang a very different tune yesterday. Any presidential summit should be preceded by a "step-by-step" process of lower-level talks, he told state media. Go deeper: Two big sticking points.

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Smithsonian

President Donald Trump escalated his rhetoric about the Smithsonian Institution on Tuesday, alleging that its museums were too focused on the negative aspects of US history, including “how bad slavery was.” The comments, which he posted on his social media site, came a week after the White House ordered a review of the Smithsonian’s museums and exhibits “to ensure alignment with the President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.” If the Smithsonian refuses to purge materials that conflict with Trump’s political directives, it could suffer a fate similar to the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities. Both organizations lost tens of millions of dollars in federal funding earlier this year, which has affected small museums, libraries, arts programs and research projects across the country.   Trump calls on Federal Reserve official to resign after ally accuses her of mortgage fraud President Donald Trump on Wednesday called on Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook to resign after a member of his administration accused Cook of committing mortgage fraud, the latest example of the Trump administration’s efforts to gain control over the central bank. The Federal Reserve declined to comment on the accusation. Read more.   Judge denies Justice Department request to unseal Epstein grand jury transcripts August 20, 2025 The ruling in Manhattan came after the judge presiding over the case against Jeffrey Epstein's former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell also turned down the government’s request. Read more

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Trump's Fed up

Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photos: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images and Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images. President Trump's new attacks against Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook are part of a sophisticated, multifront war to install loyalists atop the country's central bank, Axios' Neil Irwin writes. ? Catch up fast: The country's top housing finance regulator posted a criminal referral this morning, accusing Cook of mortgage fraud. She allegedly has mortgages on two separate homes, each of which she claims is her primary residence. There's no accusation or evidence that Cook has defaulted on either loan. ? "Cook must resign, now!!!" Trump posted this morning on Truth Social. The president is considering firing Cook for cause, the WSJ reports. The Cook headlines follow claims that Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell lied to Congress and/or violated the law through changes and cost overruns on the Fed's $2.5 billion renovation project. ? Meanwhile, Trump is seeking a lightning-fast Senate confirmation for White House economist Stephen Miran as a Fed governor — in time for him to push for Trump's desired interest rate cuts at an upcoming meeting. The big picture: Trump and his allies are aiming to fire Fed governors for cause so they can install picks who will deliver looser monetary policy — and act with less independence. ? In the meantime, they're making life as unpleasant as possible for Powell, Cook and other Biden appointees. The Trump administration is increasingly lobbing mortgage fraud allegations to target perceived enemies, Axios' Avery Lotz reports. What's next: If Cook is ousted, Trump's appointees would move even closer to operational control of the Fed's powerful Board of Governors. ?️ Cook's term doesn't expire until 2038, so her successful early removal would advance that goal far ahead of what the calendar would normally allow. Go deeper.

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Trump’s Jaw-Dropping Ignorance Exposed During Putin Meet: Author

The president’s comments left his lieutenants “basically helpless,” Trump’s biographer says.

Donald Trump displayed a stunning ignorance of the Cold War during last week’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to his biographer.

Author Michael Wolff told the Daily Beast podcast Inside Trump’s Head on Tuesday that, in the president’s telling of the decades-long 20th century engagement, “it would appear that the U.S. and USSR are on the same side.”

Wolff, who said his sources are “twice removed” from the principals, said Trump began the meeting with “a combination of flattery” and “a combination of things that he’s just pulled out of somewhere...observations, it’s both inconsequential and incoherent.”

When either Special Envoy Steve Witkoff or Secretary of State Marco Rubio interrupted him to lay out an agenda, Wolff said, Trump just talked over them.

“Again, we’re nowhere in this meeting. We’re probably now, you know, 20 minutes in. Nothing is clear about what anyone is doing there except that Putin is totally impassive,” he said.

When Putin did speak, Wolff said, he gave a “history lesson” about ”why [Russia] should conquer Ukraine."

“Trump, not to be outdone, as this is relayed to me, goes into his own history lesson, and this is a history of the Cold War,” he said. “And as this is described to me, in Trump’s history of the Cold War, it would appear that the U.S. and USSR are on the same side.”

In a statement to the Daily Beast, White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung called into question Wolff’s credibility.

“Michael Wolff is a lying sack of s--t and has been proven to be a fraud,” Cheung said. “He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.”

Trump, who has been attacking “woke” history museums for not talking about “the future,” then seemed to go along with Putin’s statement resisting a ceasefire, Wolff said.

“And Trump seems to accept this and seems to agree with this,” according to the author. “Yes, let’s just move on to the peace.”

Witkoff and Rubio, meanwhile, are “basically helpless.”

“They sit there occasionally trying to interject, but you can’t really interject because Trump just talks all the time,” he continued.

“And this is then to... Putin’s advantage, because rather than any discussion of the details of what might happen here, what territory—what are you going to give for that, what are the trade offs—I mean, that level of detail Trump is not interested in, probably not capable of following the logical sequences that would be necessary there.”

What’s important to Trump, Wolff said, “is to keep talking” and “to have people listen to him.”

Trump regarded Friday’s meeting as a “great and very successful day in Alaska!” in a Truth Social post the following morning.

“The meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia went very well, as did a late night phone call with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, and various European Leaders, including the highly respected Secretary General of NATO,” he wrote.

“It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.”

Trump then met with Zelensky and fellow European leaders on Monday to continue talks, which the president applauded as a “very good meeting.” Putin and Zelensky are set to meet next, before a trilateral summit with Trump.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-jaw-dropping-ignorance-exposed-during-putin-meet-author/?

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CNN Data Guru: Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Is the Most Unpopular Legislation in Decades

“Truthfully, JD Vance, good luck to you, buddy,” Harry Enten teased.

CNN’s resident number cruncher Harry Enten reckons Donald Trump’s signature “One Big Beautiful Bill” is the most hated piece of legislation Congress has passed in decades.

“I went back into the archives and looked at every piece of major legislation passed since 1990,” Enten told Erin Burnett on OutFront Tuesday night. “The most unpopular bill that was passed? Guess what it is… It’s the Big Beautiful Bill.”

Burnett, clearly surprised, asked if it was “even worse than Obamacare?” “Even worse,” Enten replied. “At minus 8 points was Obamacare. Look at where the Big Beautiful Bill is: 17 points under. There, simply put, isn’t anything even close to how unpopular the Big Beautiful Bill is.”

The data analyst rolled through the grim polling. CNN, CBS, and Fox News all had the bill at minus 19 to minus 22 in net favorability. Pew clocked in at minus 14, while the Wall Street Journal offered the “best” number—minus 10. “When the best you can do is minus 10 points, you know it’s an unpopular bill,” Enten said.

Independent voters were even harsher. Just 30 percent viewed the bill favorably, compared with 69 percent who did not—a staggering 39-point gap. “Elections are won and lost in the center of the electorate,” Enten noted. “If this is what the election is about, you can wave adios, amigos—goodbye to the Republican majority in the House, and you may be able to say it to that Republican majority in the Senate.”

Even within the GOP, Enten said the legislation lags behind Trump’s own popularity. “Good luck to JD Vance trying to sell this bill, that’s all I can say. Look, even among Republican voters, it’s far less popular than Donald Trump is.”

Summing up, Enten said he had never seen a major piece of legislation poll so poorly: “I have not seen a single reputable poll in which this thing is anything more popular than being 10 points underwater. Truthfully, JD Vance, good luck to you, buddy.”

The vice president has been tasked with pitching the Trump administration’s signature policy to a skeptical American public. He has been on the road since late July, discussing the bill’s “benefits for hardworking American families and businesses.” In the latest part of his tour, Vance will be in metro Atlanta on Thursday to sell the bill.

Reflecting a sense of panic, the administration is even trying to find a new name for the legislation. GOP strategists have advised lawmakers to pick a new name using phrases that poll well, such as the “Working Family Tax Cuts” act or even the “Trump Working Family Tax Cuts,” according to NBC.

The White House and representatives for the vice president did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/cnn-data-guru-trumps-big-beautiful-bill-is-the-most-unpopular-legislation-in-decades/?

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Trump Hands Travel-Loving Vance Ultimate Poisoned Chalice

The move is a notable foreign policy challenge for the ambitious vice president.

Donald Trump has given Vice President J.D. Vance an expanded role in coordinating a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, in what could end up being a crucial litmus test ahead of the 2028 election.

In the wake of the historic summits in Alaska and Washington, Trump announced that Vance would work with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the president’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to help resolve the bloody conflict in Europe.

The move is believed to be the first time Vance and Rubio, who are often touted as future Republican contenders for the White House, have been brought into such a major foreign policy challenge together.

But some question whether it could end up being a poisoned chalice depending on success or failure, particularly as doubts remain over Putin’s desire to stop the carnage.

“At least it’s a better assignment than Biden gave Kamala Harris with immigration,” said veteran political analyst Larry Sabato, referencing the former vice president’s early role in trying to tackle the U.S. border crisis.

Vance has been an energetic world traveler, often combining his trips with vacations. Most recently, he and Second Lady Usha Vance went to the U.K. where they met the country’s foreign secretary before heading for the celebrity hotspot of the Cotswolds region of south-west England, then traveled north to Scotland where Vance played at Trump’s Turnberry golf course.

Other foreign trips have included Italy, the Vatican—where he was the last person to meet the late Pope Francis—and India, where his family posed in local clothes and he and his wife went to the Taj Mahal.

Trump announced Vance’s latest role in a Truth Social post on Monday night, after the historic meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and the leaders of France, UK, Germany, Italy, NATO and the European Commission.

The Washington summit was a major breakthrough in a war that began in February 2022 and saw few signs of abating until recently.

It was also a boon for Zelensky and the Europeans, whose combination of flattery and pushback staved off Trump from demanding immediate territorial concessions that Putin wanted in exchange for his cooperation.

The Ukrainian president was also met with a much warmer reception than his last meeting in the Oval Office in February, which resulted in Vance berating Zelensky for not being grateful enough for America’s military aid.

This time, the vice president was notably silent, much to the relief of Zelensky’s supporters in Europe and across social media.

“What a difference it makes when Trump is hemmed in by the adults in the room and J.D. Vance is sitting at the kids’ table instead of trying to ambush Zelensky,” Democratic influencer Majid Padellan posted on X.

Another pro-Trump pundit agreed, writing: “I think they super-glued Vance’s mouth shut. But overall that went better than I expected.”

After the meeting, the president called Putin “and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined.”

“After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat, which would be the two Presidents, plus myself,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“Again, this was a very good, early step for a War that has been going on for almost four years. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, are coordinating with Russia and Ukraine. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

But questions remain about Russia’s willingness to negotiate an end to the war, given its foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, played down the prospect of a direct meeting on Tuesday.

It is also unclear what role America and European countries will have in protecting Ukraine through security guarantees.

Trump on Tuesday ruled out putting U.S. troops in Ukraine as part of any future peace-keeping mission, but the White House remains open to providing air support to Kyiv.

The issue is likely to be a balancing act for Vance, who has previously opposed further U.S. military assistance to Ukraine.

The vice president has been notably quiet since Monday’s summit and his office declined to comment when asked about his coordination efforts and what he hoped to achieve.

He did, however, retweet Trump’s Truth Social Post on Monday night and put out a post on Tuesday praising White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt for rebuking the media for its coverage about Trump’s meetings.

“Karoline Leavitt lighting the American media up for lying about our negotiations with Russia and Ukraine,” he said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-hands-vance-ukraine-peace-deal-he-cant-win/?

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Putin Gave Trump Strict 15-Minute Deadline for Late-Night Call to Kremlin

The Russian president wasn’t ready to wait all night.

Vladimir Putin gave Donald Trump a strict 15-minute window to make a late-night phone call to the Kremlin after White House peace talks with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Laura Ingraham that after his discussions with Zelensky and a host of European leaders on Monday, Trump wanted to call Putin to organize a meeting with the Ukrainian president.

Putin told Trump he was about to go to bed and if he couldn’t call him right away he could contact him the next day instead.

“Look, it was very late in Moscow,” Bessent explained on Fox’s The Ingraham Angle. “President Putin was open to meeting with President Zelensky and as you know President Trump is very persuasive, they had just met.”

Trump had made it clear he was keen to lock in a meeting between Putin and Zelensky after his discussion with European leaders this week on ending Russia’s war on Ukraine.

When asked if Putin was staying up to wait for the call from Trump, Bessent said, “Well, the president gave him the option, ‘I could call or send a message’ and Putin said ‘Well, I will be up for 15 more minutes or you can call tomorrow’. And I think Putin wanted the call that night. So that showed he was eager to hear what the president had to say.”

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that during his pre-bedtime phone call with Trump, Putin agreed to “begin the next phase of the peace process—a meeting between President Putin and President Zelensky.“

However, comments from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggest the meeting has yet to be locked in on Putin’s end. “Any contacts involving top officials must be prepared with the utmost care,” Lavrov said on Tuesday. “We do not refuse any forms of work—neither bilateral nor trilateral.”

On Tuesday, Trump said on Truth Social that the meeting between Putin and Zelensky would happen “at a location to be determined.” The Washington Post suggested the Hungarian capital Budapest could be a possible option. That would be followed by a trilateral meeting of the two presidents joined by Trump.

Bessent told The Ingraham Angle that Trump wants to be a peacemaker.

“He has done six peace deals. He knows how to do this. He went in with a plan, we had a long pre-game in the Oval (Office) beforehand. He had a strategy the whole time,” Bessent said.

“They understand that President Trump is the only person in the world who can stop this conflict,” he added.

In an interview on Tuesday night, Trump said he wanted Putin and Zelensky to meet on their own first to clear the air.

“I thought it would be better if they met without me, just to see. I want to see what goes on,” the president told The Mark Levin Show.

“You know, they had a hard relationship, very bad, very bad relationship. And now we’ll see how they do and, if necessary, and it probably would be, but if necessary, I’ll go and I’ll probably be able to get it closed.”

He added, “I just want to see what happens at the meeting. So they’re in the process of setting it up, and we’re going to see what happens.”

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff claimed on Tuesday that Russia has made “concessions almost immediately” following Trump and Putin’s meeting in Alaska last week.

“We stayed there for quite some time because we actually made progress on how we might get to a peace deal,” Witkoff told Fox News. “The president began to sense in this meeting in Alaska that we had a lot of the precursors agreed to for a peace deal, so why not pursue an entire peace deal?”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/vladimir-putin-gave-donald-trump-strict-15-minute-deadline-for-late-night-ukraine-call/?

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CNN Host Trashes Trump’s Slavery Argument in Emotional Takedown

Abby Phillip torched the president’s announcement that he’s going after the Smithsonian for being “woke.”

CNN host Abby Phillip ripped into President Donald Trump’s claim that the “woke” Smithsonian focuses too much on the evils of slavery.

Trump, 79, made the complaint in a social media post on Tuesday, writing, “Everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been—Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”

He wrote that he had instructed his attorneys to go through the national museums to eliminate “OUT OF CONTROL” wokeness, without specifying which museums he was targeting or which types of exhibits he opposed.

Phillip began that evening’s episode of her show by calling out the president for pushing the same “shocking” argument that a panelist made on NewsNight last week: that museums focus too much on the role of white people who participated in slavery.

“It‘s important to say, objectively slavery was indeed bad. It was evil, the nation’s original sin,” Phillip said. “And it is impossible to understand the true history of this country without fully grappling with slavery’s impact.”

During her introduction, she described how Black men, women, and children were forced onto ships and bound by collars that ripped off their skin—which one victim described as “iron entering our souls”—and then forced to work “by way of the whip.”

They were “starved, sleep-deprived, threatened, tortured physically and psychologically. They were auctioned off, humiliated, fearful and separated from their families and their children,” she continued. “Black women and girls were raped and sexually assaulted. Many were brutally murdered and mutilated.”

The abuse endured for centuries, and even in places where slavery wasn’t legal, institutions such as banks and universities were built on enslaved labor, and even white people who didn’t own slaves benefitted from the caste system it created, she argued.

“When we acknowledge the existence of Black people who operated George Washington‘s Mount Vernon, or the Black hands that built the White House, we are acknowledging the existence, the perseverance, and the contributions of the souls that white supremacy sought to erase,” Phillip said.

True history should include everything—even the horrors—and museums must “protect those stories,” because they inform the present day, she added.

During the panel discussion, the show’s regular conservative commentator Scott Jennings tried to put a positive spin on President Trump’s words.

Jennings emphasized that slavery was a “reprehensible institution” and agreed it was the nation’s original sin it was “a good thing” that Americans fought a war to eradicate it. But what Trump is asking, Jennings claimed, is whether the U.S. will be defined by its worst moment, or by what it has done since then.

“I think he believes there is an effort by some to continue to try to define us from our worst moment, instead of try to focus and define us based on our best moments, which started when we eradicated slavery and began to move forward as the light of the world,” Jennings said.

Another panelist, however, pointed out that the Smithsonian and other museums don’t just describe the horrors of slavery—they also show the resilience of Black Americans, who led the fight for emancipation.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture—which Trump toured and praised when it opened in 2017—tells a fundamentally American story about the quest for democracy, said Leah Wright Rigueur, a professor of history at John Hopkins University.

“For the president, I think, to just simply erase that and push that away… tells us that this is part of a much larger agenda… to erase things that the country is not comfortable with,” she added.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/cnn-host-abby-phillip-trashes-trumps-slavery-argument-in-emotional-takedown/?

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White House Scrambles to Rename Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ as Backlash Rages

Republican strategists say that if they throw in popular phrases such as “working families” and “tax cuts,” voters will embrace the deeply unpopular legislation.

Republicans are hoping that giving President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” a new name will make voters stop hating the president’s signature legislation and allow the GOP to keep control of Congress.

Recent polls from CNN, CBS, and Fox News found the spending bill—which Republicans narrowly passed in July—has a net favorability rating of -19 percent to -22 percent, making it one of the most unpopular pieces of legislation ever to become law, CNN’s polling guru Harry Enten said earlier this month.

Republican lawmakers who have tried to sell the bill to their constituents during in-person town halls have been met with furious voters who booed, jeered and even hurled NSFW insults at their representatives.

In response, the White House is trying to adopt a more concrete message that will appeal to a wider audience, NBC News reported.

GOP strategists have advised lawmakers to pick a new name with some phrases that poll well, such as the “Working Family Tax Cuts” act or even the “Trump Working Family Tax Cuts,” according to NBC.

The name is justified, Republicans say, because the spending bill eliminates taxes on tips and overtime.

The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, however, found the legislation was regressive overall, with most of the benefits going to high-income households. Those earning $460,000 to $1.1 million will see their after-tax incomes rise by more than 4 percent, while households making less than $35,000 will receive just a 1 percent increase, which will be offset by higher health insurance and food costs.

The bill cut about $1 trillion from Medicaid and is projected to add $3.4 trillion to the federal deficit over the next 10 years, which will in turn trigger more than $490 billion in additional Medicare cuts, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

An estimated 10 million people will lose health insurance as a result of the legislation, according to the CBO.

In a statement, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NBC News, “The One Big Beautiful Bill was the largest tax cut for middle class and working families in American history. The White House looks forward to continue working with our friends on Capitol Hill to define what this historic piece of legislation means for Americans across the country.”Trump, for his part, is proud of the alliteration and has no plans to stop calling it the BBB, according to NBC.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-house-scrambles-to-rename-donald-trumps-big-beautiful-bill-as-backlash-rages/?

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What I Witnessed as I Photographed the Disappearances and the Homecomings of My Countrymen

Over the past four months, a photojournalist documented the lives of five families whose sons had been imprisoned in El Salvador, including their long-awaited reunions. CECOT left a mark on the men, their loved ones and Venezuela.

https://www.propublica.org/article/cecot-released-family-reunions-photos?

Trump’s Rollback of Rules for Mental Health Coverage Could Lead More Americans to Go Without Care

During his first term, President Donald Trump frequently turned to the issue of mental health, framing it as a national crisis that demanded action. He linked it to opioid addiction, mass shootings and a surge in veteran suicides — and he later used it to argue against COVID-19 lockdowns and school closures.

https://www.propublica.org/article/mental-health-insurance-trump-rules?

Top Democrat on Oversight Committee Demands Trump Administration Account for Wildland Firefighter Vacancies

The top Democrat on a House committee is demanding that Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins account for discrepancies between her public statements about wildland firefighter staffing and a ProPublica report showing there were thousands of vacancies in the Forest Service’s firefighting workforce as peak wildfire season approached.

https://www.propublica.org/article/forest-service-wildland-firefighters-staffing?

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Leavitt Admits ‘Fixing’ D.C. Crime Stats Amid DOJ Probe

Crime rates in the nation’s capital have been hotly contested since Trump’s federal takeover.

Donald Trump’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has admitted that the White House “reconfigured” crime statistics to back up the President’s claims of lawlessness in Washington.

Despite the Department of Justice probing D.C. officials for allegedly manipulating crime data, Leavitt told reporters the administration had in fact reconstructed their own statistics in response to “false” media reports about the president’s crackdown.

“I believe it was The Washington Post who put out a map claiming it to be fact-based when it was just based on, I don’t know, accounts that they’ve heard on the street, not actual statistics and data,” she told reporters at the White House.

“So we went and reconfigured the numbers and as I said, half, nearly half of all the non-illegal alien related arrests have occurred in wards seven and eight in the District of Columbia, where we know there’s the highest rate of crime. So we’ll continue to do that.”

Crime rates in the nation’s capital have been hotly contested in recent weeks as the president moved to federalize the D.C. police and bring in the National Guard to tackle what he has depicted as a city of lawlessness.

In another escalation of the debate, the Department of Justice is also investigating allegations that D.C. officials had manipulated crime data to make the nation’s capital seem safer than it is.Alarm bells rang out last month when a Metropolitan Police Department commander was suspended for allegedly making changes to crime statistics in his district.

The commander, Michael Pulliam, was placed on paid administrative leave in mid-May—one week after he reportedly filed an equal employment opportunity complaint against an assistant chief. He has denied wrongdoing.

But the DOJ investigation, which is reportedly being run out of the office of U.S. Attorney for D.C., Jeanine Pirro, is believed to be broader, examining other police and city officials for possible wrongdoing.

Trump referenced the probe on Monday, when he put out a post declaring that “D.C. gave Fake Crime numbers in order to create a false illusion of safety. This is a very bad and dangerous thing to do, and they are under serious investigation for doing so!”

He also made the same claims last week, and even suggested he would release his own crime stats to counter D.C.’s official figures.

According to the White House, 465 arrests have been made since the start of Trump’s operation on Thursday, August 7, to Tuesday.

On Monday night, 52 people were arrested, including “an illegal alien MS-13 gang member with convictions for DWI and drug possession.”

“The press says, ‘He’s a dictator, he’s trying to take over.’ No, all I want is security for our people,” Trump said on Monday during an Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“But people who haven’t gone out to dinner in Washington, D.C., in two years are going out to dinner, and the restaurants the last two days were busier than they’ve been in a long time.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/leavitt-admits-fixing-dc-crime-stats-amid-doj-crime-probe/?

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Judge Jeanine Pirro Blows a Hole in Trump’s Crime Crackdown

A policy shift from the DOJ undermines the president’s “crime emergency” in D.C.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said rifle and shotgun carriers in D.C. may now avoid being charged with felonies, in a shift that undermines Donald Trump’s tough-on-crime campaign in the nation’s capital.

In an email reviewed by The Washington Post and in her own remarks, the former Fox News host said federal prosecutors in D.C. have been ordered not to pursue felony charges against people caught carrying rifles or shotguns, no matter how strong the evidence. The new marching orders, crafted by the Justice Department and its solicitor general, mark a sharp reversal from years of practice.

The timing is brutal for the White House, which has declared a “crime emergency” in D.C.

Pirro, who left Fox News in May and was confirmed to her new role as D.C.’s top federal prosecutor two weeks ago, insisted the change was required by the Constitution.

In a statement to the Post, she said the District’s ban on carrying rifles or shotguns “is clearly a violation of the Supreme Court’s holdings” in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) and N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022). Both rulings expanded gun rights and narrowed the scope of permissible firearm restrictions.

“Without question, President Donald Trump and I are committed to prosecuting gun crime,” Pirro said in a statement. “This unprecedented number of gun case prosecutions in both federal and local court is only done consistent with the constitution and the laws of the land.”

Pirro said her office would continue to charge crimes of violence or gun trafficking involving shotguns or rifles.

Prosecutors are likely to keep bringing cases involving the illegal possession of handguns, which make up most firearm offenses in the District, according to the Post.

Pirro added: “Nothing in this memo from the Department of Justice and the Office of Solicitor General precludes the United States Attorney’s Office from charging a felon with the possession of a firearm, which includes a rifle, shotgun, and attendant large capacity magazine pursuant to DC Code 22-4503. What it does preclude is a separate charge of possession of a registered rifle or shotgun.”

Trump this month claimed that crime in the nation’s capital was “out of control,” despite police data showing that violent crime in Washington dropped to a three-decade low last year.

On Truth Social last week, Trump insisted, “The White House is in charge.” His administration bragged Tuesday morning that 68 guns had already been seized as part of the crackdown.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and Pirro’s office for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/judge-jeanine-pirro-blows-a-hole-in-trumps-crime-crackdown/?

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White House Melts Down at Newsom’s Trump Trolling With a Spectacular Self-Own

A Trump spokesperson tried to riff on a popular Mad Men-inspired meme, and failed.

The White House attempted to brush off Gavin Newsom’s trolling by insisting Trump “never thinks” about the California governor—before posting a meme about him that ended up as a spectacular self-own.

Newsom’s press team has switched up its messaging, turning to memeified all-caps taunts and AI-spun parodies to troll President Trump’s administration. It appears to have worked.

White House communications director Steven Cheung has rage-posted about the account, and deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson called Newsom’s posts “very weird and not at all funny.”

She also replied to a request from Politico’s Playbook using a homemade meme that literally name-checks Newsom while also suggesting that the Trump administration “never thinks” about him.

“Thank you for your attention to this matter!” she quipped, quoting Trump’s signature Truth Social sign-off.

The image riffed on Mad Men, where Jon Hamm’s Don Draper tells Ben Feldman’s Michael Ginsberg, “I don’t think about you at all.” In the White House version, Draper’s face was replaced with a smug-looking Trump, while Ginsberg was swapped out for Newsom’s press account and the California bear motif.

The meme, sent by Jackson, suggests that the White House “never thinks” about Newsom, even though one of its lackeys has spent time creating an image that mentions the governor.

By Wednesday morning, Newsom’s press team had responded. Sharing the image on X, Governor Newsom Press Office wrote: “The White House: ‘We don’t think about Gavin Newsom.’ Also the White House: *sends Politico (REAL NEWS!) a MEME about Gavin Newsom.* Triggered. Weak. SAD!”

MAGA commentator Gunther Eagleman responded to the post, saying: “It’s called TROLLING! LOL, RENT FREE IN YOUR MINDS. Dorks.”

“Says the guy in our comments lol,” Newsom’s press office shot back.

The Daily Beast asked the White House for comment on its meme attacking Newsom. Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson replied with another meme, showing a crying man with a bicycle fixed to his head. The words “ding ding” come from a bell on the handlebars.

“dOeS ThE MeME mAkE sEnSe????????” Jackson said.

It comes as Steve Bannon told Playbook that Newsom’s play is an attempt to “mimic” Trump for political gain. He said, “He’s no Trump, but if you look at the Democratic Party, he’s at least getting up there, and he’s trying to imitate a Trumpian vision of fighting, right? He looks like the only person in the Democratic Party who is organizing a fight that they feel they can win.”

By his own admission, Newsom has “changed.” He told Fox News Tuesday, “I’ve changed. The facts have changed; we [Democrats] need to change.”

Stefan Smith, a digital strategist who was online engagement director on Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 campaign, said the switch-up is paying off.

“The man was political roadkill a few months ago, but, with a shift in strategy, he’s become a cause célèbre of the Resistance 2.0. No doubt the rest of the 2028 shadow primary entrants are taking notes,” he said.

Newsom, meanwhile, has said that the new social media strategy is a response to how “we’ve allowed the normalization of his [Trump’s] tweets and social posts over the last many years to go without similar scrutiny.”

The Trump administration’s online antics are well-known. The president’s social team cranks out AI-edited memes on a regular basis—Trump as a lightsaber-swinging Jedi, or Trump in papal robes labeled “Pope Trump.”

It has also posted a so-called ASMR video that showed ICE agents chaining undocumented migrants ahead of a deportation flight.

Trump and his team have also taken to calling Newsom “Newscum,” on social media and in TV interviews. “I hope it’s a wake-up call for the president of the United States,” the California governor said last week.

Representatives for Newsom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-house-melts-down-at-gavin-newsoms-trump-trolling-with-a-spectacular-self-own/?

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‘Draft-Dodger’ Trump Calls Himself a ‘War Hero’ for Ordering Bombings

The president has never served in the military and got deferred from Vietnam War draft five times.

Donald Trump declared himself a war hero while lamenting that he does not get enough credit for ordering bombings on Iran.

The president, who never served in the military and avoided the Vietnam draft due to a bone spur diagnosis, made the claim while speaking to conservative radio and Fox News host Mark Levin on Tuesday.

Trump discussed working with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure the release of hostages held by Palestinian militant group Hamas, praising the Israeli leader—who is currently facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged war crimes—as a “good man.”

“He’s in there fighting, they’re trying to put him in jail on top of everything else, how about that?” Trump said on Levin’s radio show Tuesday, referring to Netanyahu’s unrelated corruption trial in Israel. “He’s a war hero, because we worked together. He’s a war hero. I guess I am too.”

“Nobody cares, but I am too. I sent those planes,” he added, in reference to U.S. airstrikes targeting three Iranian nuclear facilities in June.

Trump never served in a war after receiving five deferments from the Vietnam draft, according to the New York Times. Four came while he was a college student, and a fifth was granted in 1968 following a diagnosis of bone spurs—a calcium buildup—in his heels.

Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans who served on the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, called Trump’s war hero claim “nuts.”

“You can like what he’s done. That’s fine. I hope he gets a resolution in Ukraine. But to put himself on the same level of people that have actually gone out and served this country, not claimed bone spurs, is an offense to anybody who served,” Kinzinger, an Air Force veteran, told CNN.

In 2018, The New York Times examined whether the doctor who diagnosed Trump with bone spurs, podiatrist Larry Braunstein, who died in 2007, did so as a favor to Trump’s father, Fred Trump, from whom Braunstein rented office space in a Queens building.

“I know it was a favor,” the doctor’s daughter, Elysa Braunstein, told the Times. “What he got was access to Fred Trump. If there was anything wrong in the building, my dad would call and Trump would take care of it immediately. That was the small favor that he got.”

Trump has long faced backlash for disparaging actual war heroes. In 2015, he suggested that Republican Arizona Senator John McCain was not one because: “I like people that weren’t captured.” McCain spent more than five years being tortured at the notorious “Hanoi Hilton” POW camp after his plane was shot down during the Vietnam War.

He was also accused in 2018 of saying he did not want to visit a cemetery in France where American soldiers are buried because it was “filled with losers” and “suckers” who had died in combat, a claim the president has repeatedly denied. John Kelly, who served as Trump’s White House chief of staff in his first term, said Trump did make the remarks.

In 2024, former president Joe Biden’s campaign released a video of military veterans condemning Trump for belittling war heroes while never serving himself.

“He’s a draft dodger, simple as that,” Army veteran Ed McCabe said of Trump in the clip.

Trump, who is desperately seeking a Nobel Peace Prize and claims to have ended several conflicts during his second term, has frequently tried to portray himself as a brave fighter on par with veterans.

During an August 7 ceremony handing out Purple Hearts to injured service members, Trump compared his own minor ear injury from last year’s assassination attempt in Pennsylvania to their sacrifices, saying: “It wasn’t that easy for me either.”

In June, he floated reviving the long-abolished title of “Secretary of War” for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, because “we feel like warriors.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/draft-dodger-donald-trump-calls-himself-a-war-hero-for-ordering-bombings/?

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Trump's unlikely enforcers

A housing regulator, a prosecutor rejected by the Senate and a former Democrat have emerged as the unlikely faces of President Trump's "weaponization" crusade, Axios' Zachary Basu writes.

• Why it matters: In a sea of Trump loyalists, these three officials — Bill Pulte, Ed Martin and Tulsi Gabbard — stand out for how aggressively they've shattered norms in pursuit of the president's enemies.

1. Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has used his 3 million followers on X to reinvent the sleepy mortgage regulator as a platform for political combat.

• Pulte has elevated allegations of mortgage fraud against two of Trump's top antagonists, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). Both are now under criminal investigation.
• Pulte also has led the campaign to oust Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell, calling for him to resign — or be fired — over cost overruns in the Fed's $2.5 billion headquarters renovation.
• Yesterday, Pulte escalated Trump's war on the central bank by accusing Fed governor Lisa Cook of mortgage fraud. Trump responded by calling for Cook to resign. Cook said she has "no intention of being bullied to step down."

2. Martin, a conservative activist who defended Jan. 6 rioters, was named the Justice Department's weaponization czar after his nomination to be U.S. attorney for D.C. collapsed in the Senate.

• In his brief time as acting U.S. attorney, Martin demoted prosecutors who had worked on Jan. 6 cases, vowed to pursue legal action against critics of Elon Musk's DOGE initiative, and attempted to launch an investigation into Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Now leading the DOJ's probe of James, Martin stunned ethics experts by showing up outside the New York attorney general's Brooklyn home in a trench coat and posing for tabloid photos.

Via X

3. Gabbard, Trump's director of national intelligence, sent shockwaves through the intel community by accusing former Obama officials of a "treasonous conspiracy" stemming from the 2016 Russia probe. Her allegations have electrified Trump's base.

• Gabbard went further this week, revoking the security clearances of 37 current and former national security officials she claimed had manipulated or leaked classified intelligence.
• Then yesterday, she approved plans to slash ODNI's staff by 40%.

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DC

President Trump’s declaration of a crime emergency in Washington, DC, and his decision to federalize the city’s police force were meant to restore order in the nation’s capital. “I’m deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order and public safety in Washington, DC, and they’re going to be allowed to do their job properly,” Trump said. So, how do the city's residents feel? According to a new Washington Post-Schar School poll, 61% said they feel less safe now. Roughly 8 in 10 residents oppose Trump’s crime crackdown as well as his deployment of the National Guard and FBI to patrol the city. About half of residents said DC Mayor Muriel Bowser should be doing more to oppose Trump, and 71% said DC police should not help the federal government much or at all to deport undocumented immigrants.

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MAGA Loses It Over New Cracker Barrel Logo

Looks like Don Jr. won’t be visiting the chain any time soon.

Southern-flavored restaurant chain Cracker Barrel has changed its logo—and furious MAGA mouthpieces simply cannot stomach it.

This week, Cracker Barrel unveiled a new logo that loses the image of an old man and a barrel while keeping just the name of the chain, still with the familiar gold and brown color tones. The typeface has also been modernized. The company had described the image of the man as “representing the old country store experience where folks would gather around and share stories.”

While the Trump administration and its supporters are absolutely fine with changing the names of military bases, ships and even the Gulf of Mexico, Cracker Barrel’s ditching of the barrel man for the first time since 1977 has crossed a MAGA line.

Nashville designer Bill Holley created the logo featuring an old-timer wearing overalls in 1977 to evoke a sense of nostalgia. The logo has actually been tweaked five times over the years, including putting “Old Country Store” in capitals, increasing the size of the man and capitalizing the ‘R’ in “Barrel” for one update. The new iteration is the first time it features text only since the restaurant chain opened in 1969.

A press release from the company claims the 2025 logo “is now rooted even more closely to the iconic barrel shape and word mark that started it all.”

However, not every one was convinced about the new imagery minus the old timer and the barrel, including Donald Trump Jr. who posted on X, “WTF is wrong with Cracker Barrel?”

Right-wing YouTuber Benny Johnson was also in a flap, posting, “Cracker Barrel completely changed their iconic logo for the first time in 47 years... and it’s absolutely horrible. When will they learn?”

Utah Republican Mike Lee posted on X “Which logo change is worse—(a) Cracker Barrel or (b) Land O Lakes?” Dairy brand Land O Lakes removed an image of a Native American woman from their butter packaging in 2020.

The MAGA outrage also featured on ultra conservative X account Woke War Room, which Trump Jr. reposted. They claimed Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Felss Masino, who has been in the role for two years, has “scrapped a beloved American aesthetic and replaced it with sterile, soulless branding.”

As well as posting the company’s pro-LGBTQ+ policies, Woke War Room took offense at Masino keeping a DEI regime that promises to “identify, recruit, and advance” hires by race. Their caption states Masino should “resign and be replaced with leadership that will restore Cracker Barrel’s tradition.”

Former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner posted on X on Wednesday, “People can’t afford housing, groceries, and are going bankrupt if they get cancer. So naturally, conservatives are mad about Cracker Barrel’s logo.”

The Daily Beast has contacted Cracker Barrel for comment.

The Cracker Barrel Instagram account has also been inundated with unhappy customers, who want the barrel and “grandpa” back on the logo.

There are around 660 company-owned Cracker Barrel locations in 43 states.

In August last year, the chain began remodeling store interiors, switching out the dark Southern vibe for a modern farmhouse aesthetic, annoying some customers online who missed the previous look.

Masino said last year the changes to the stores and menu were happening as the chain was “not as relevant as we once were.”

The company are supporting the new makeover. “We believe in the goodness of country hospitality, a spirit that has always defined us. Our story hasn’t changed. Our values haven’t changed,” CMO Sarah Moore said in a press release, claiming the chain was “honoring our legacy while bringing fresh energy, thoughtful craftsmanship and heartfelt hospitality to our guests.”

The chain has also hired country singer Jordan Davis to appear in commercials as part of their rebranding.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-loses-it-over-new-cracker-barrel-logo/?

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Trump’s Meme-Machine Quits as White House TikTok Flops

The White House uses his memes to promote its most controversial policies.

Donald Trump’s chief meme-maker has left the role just as the White House’s attempt to launch a TikTok account blew up in its face, and Democrats found their internet attack dog.

Billy McLaughlin, who joined the White House as Director of Digital Content following Trump’s inauguration in January, announced his departure from the role in an op-ed for Fox News.

While it’s unclear when exactly he left the role—his LinkedIn lists him as being in the role until July—many were quick to point out that the White House had just tried to launch a new TikTok account the previous day, only to receive a substantial amount of criticism and trolling from users in response.

Progessive podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen posted a collage of screenshots of comments left on the White House’s TikTok videos alongside a screenshot of McLaughlin’s X post, writing, “Wow. It looks like the White House just booted their “director of digital content” after they launched a TikTok page that got flooded with thousands of comments calling for Trump to release the Epstein files.”

In his article for Fox News, McLaughlin wrote that, “Serving as director of digital content for President Donald Trump was the most meaningful and intense chapter of my professional life.

“From the moment we rebooted the administration’s online presence on Inauguration Day, the mission was clear: speak in a voice that resonated with real Americans and make sure our MAGA message could not be ignored.”

It is only in the last couple of weeks that Democrats have found away to fire back in meme world. California Governor Gavin Newsom has published a raft of high-profile memes and social posts slamming White House policies.Newsom’s office account went on a Trump-style rampage, calling out “woke” Tomi Lahren, labelling Kristi Noem as “Commander Cosplay,” and posting parody memes of Kid Rock and JD Vance.

The Trump administration’s use of memes to promote and celebrate controversial policies like the establishment of ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ and the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants drew significant criticism, particularly from Democrats, who called one AI-generated image of an ICE officer arresting a crying woman offensive and disrespectful.

As McLaughlin describes in his farewell piece, “This was not entertainment for entertainment’s sake. Our meme-heavy, content-first strategy was aligned with the president’s priorities. Digital was not a sideshow. It was a frontline tool for shaping narratives, building momentum, and applying pressure.”

Until this week, the Trump administration focused its social media efforts on other platforms, but it launched a new account on TikTok on Tuesday despite Trump previously calling the app a threat to national security.

TikTok users were quick to highlight the hypocrisy, with one comment on the account’s first video reading, “I thought TikTok was a national security threat? At least that’s what Trump said in in August 6, 2020, executive order to ban it. Now they have an official White House account. This just proves it was never about security. They just want to control it.”

In addition, many of the account’s videos have been flooded with comments about the Epstein files. One comment that consists of an AI-generated image of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein in drag has received over 32,000 likes, while another depicting Trump and Epstein as the couple caught up in the Coldplay kiss cam scandal has received over 24,000.

“I’m shocked they don’t have comments disabled,” one person joked.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-chief-meme-machine-quits-as-new-white-house-tiktok-account-flops/?

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Fox Host Jessica Tarlov Blasts Karoline Leavitt Over Trump Hot Mic Moment

Not everyone is losing their mind over the peacemaker president, including Jessica Tarlov.

Fox News co-host Jessica Tarlov has trolled White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt for gushing over Donald Trump’s peacemaking skills.

On Tuesday, Leavitt told reporters at the White House that Trump was “the peace president” and insisted that “American leadership is back on the world stage.”

Talking about European leaders including Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky coming to the U.S. for conflict resolution negotiations, Leavitt said, “While previous presidents have traveled halfway around the world to apologize for America, President Trump stands up for America and he has firmly restored America’s status as the undisputed leader of the free world.”

Tarlov, The Five’s resident liberal, posted on her X account on Wednesday, “I’m sure next to standing up for America in the dictionary it reads, ‘Putin wants to make a deal for me.’”

The 41-year-old was referring to the moment Trump was caught on a hot mic, where he told French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, “I think he wants to make a deal for me. Do you understand that? As crazy as it sounds.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

Trump is in the process of trying to negotiate a one-on-meeting between Putin and Zelensky, so the leaders can clear the air.

“I thought it would be better if they met without me, just to see. I want to see what goes on,” the president told The Mark Levin Show on Tuesday.

“You know, they had a hard relationship, very bad, very bad relationship. And now we’ll see how they do and, if necessary, and it probably would be, but if necessary, I’ll go and I’ll probably be able to get it closed.”

He added, “I just want to see what happens at the meeting. So they’re in the process of setting it up, and we’re going to see what happens.”

Leavitt has accused the media of “actively rooting” against Trump and his attempts at peacemaking with the European leaders.

“All weekend, following those historic U.S.-Russia bilateral talks, we listened to clueless pundits on television trying, but failing, to claim that the president had failed,” Leavitt said on Tuesday.

“The so-called experts in the foreign policy establishment, whose record is nothing but endless wars, trillions of wasted taxpayer dollars and dead Americans, have the nerve to try and lecture President Trump, who has solved seven global conflicts in seven months, about peace.”

On Monday, Leavitt also raised eyebrows when she was photographed seating in a gold armchair in front of the Oval Office fireplace during the Ukraine peace summit.

She made herself comfortable in a seat usually reserved for heads of state including Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, while Trump had previously been seated there for his one-on-one with president Volodymyr Zelensky.

As a political strategist for the Democrats, Tarlov’s role on The Five is to provide a balance to the conservative opinions. Last month, she called the Trump administration’s attacks on Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama “preposterous”.

“No, I actually don’t think that anybody is sweating any piece of this,” Tarlov said, referencing the order that gives former presidents protection from prosecution thanks to the Supreme Court.

“Barack Obama now has immunity for every single thing that he ever did because that is how Trump wanted it, and the same thing will apply to him. So, end of story,” Tarlov said.

She also found herself in a battle with Stephen Miller and MAGA on X on Wednesday, after Tarlov criticized footage of agents detaining a man in Washington, D.C. When Miller bit back that Tarlov was defending a “criminal illegal alien invader charged with sexually assaulting a child,” Tarlov quickly backtracked, much to MAGA’s delight.

“I didn’t know he was - the DHS memo on him came out hours after the video,” Tarlov responded. “Wouldn’t ever defend such a person! Hopefully you guys will only go after these types versus hardworking folks that have committed no crimes! Will delete my original tweet.

According to News4, the man was arrested in Fairfax County Jan. 30, 2024 and was charged with aggravated sexual battery against a minor under 13 and felony indecent liberties. Prosecutors dropped the charges in August that year, ICE told News4.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-host-jessica-tarlov-blasts-karoline-leavitt-over-trump-hot-mic-moment/?

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ICE Barbie Wants Masked Goons to Run First-Ever ‘ICE Air’

The homeland security secretary reportedly wants hundreds of millions to develop a deportation airline owned and operated by ICE.

ICE Barbie Kristi Noem reportedly wants to spend billions to send her masked goons to the skies as the operators of the first Immigration and Customs Enforcement airline.

Sources told NBC News that Noem wants a fleet of around 30 passenger planes to step up ICE’s deportation flights in order to reach President Donald Trump’s goal of 1 million removals of undocumented immigrants per year.

At an estimated cost of around $80 million to $400 million per plane, the agency is looking at a price tag of up to $12 billion, NBC News reported. Adding to that would be the cost of maintenance, staffing and fuel compared to the roughly $25,000 per hour the agency currently pays to charter flights through third-party airlines. That cost includes the pilot and supporting staff.

“If the goal is to get to 30 to 35,000 removals a month, you would need to double the number of planes,” said Jason Houser, who served as ICE chief of staff from 2022 to 2023.

Houser claimed he also considered ICE operating its own planes during the Biden administration, but ultimately did not have the funding to do so. He said the agency charted around 13 to 14 planes at a time “because of the amount of money and resources.”

On the contrary, President Trump dolled out over $75 billion for ICE’s operations in his Big Beautiful Bill, which could fuel ICE Barbie’s deportation operations, and then some. NBC News data reports that ICE has deported an estimated 150,000 undocumented immigrants, including self-deportations, in Trump’s first six months in office.ICE owning and operating it’s own fleet of planes could also eliminate the blowback airlines have received from working with the agency.

Avelo Airlines, a low-cost airline based out of Houston, Texas, has been hit with outrage and boycotts by protesters rebuking the airline as “ICE Air” over it’s charter flight contracts with ICE.

The airline announced in July that it would shutter its west coast operations by mid-August, Los Angeles 4 reported. According to the airline, protests over its deportation flights were not a factor.

The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Homeland security for confirmation of its plan to operate it’s own fleet of planes.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-barbie-kristi-noem-wants-masked-goons-to-run-first-ever-ice-air/?

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How This Mobbed-Up Don Taught That Don His Entire Playbook

Trump learned how to extract tribute at the feet of a crooked union boss. Now he’s doing it from the Oval.

As he squeezes concessions, cash and even part government ownership from some of America’s most prominent entities, President Donald Trump is channeling a deceased union thug to whom he himself often bent a knee.

Trump was 33 in 1979 when John Cody, the mob-linked president of Local 282 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, called for a citywide strike in New York. The lone job site that remained open was that of Trump Tower. And whatever Cody may have received in return, a beautiful Texas divorcee of whom he was very fond ended up with two triplex apartments directly below Trump’s penthouse.

The divorcee was Austrian-born Verina Hixon. Cody stayed in her new residence often enough to have qualified as Trump’s downstairs neighbor. Cody informed Trump that Hixon wanted a swimming pool in one of her apartments. Trump grumbled at something the architects had not envisioned, but proceeded to make whatever structural alterations were necessary.

As summarized by his son, Michael Cody, the union boss operated with a simple principle.

“It’s, ‘I can say whatever I want and do whatever I want… and you’re gonna have to listen to me, or else there’s consequences,’” the son told the Daily Beast on Wednesday.

That approach to power is all too familiar for people who have been following Trump’s current efforts to implement policy through extortion. But of Trump in those earlier days, Cody’s son said, “I don’t think he was that way before, you know, when he was just starting out, but I think he learned that.”

Michael Cody added, “My father was tough. He was tough and he wasn’t nice. I almost think sometimes Trump got lessons from my father.”

One lesson came when Trump’s then wife, Ivana, hired a painting contractor, apparently for their apartment.

“My father found out,” Michael Cody recalls. “He said, ‘No, no, you don’t do that.’ They had to hire who my father told them to hire.”

Mike Cody recalls the younger Trump as “a guy who would talk tough, but as soon as you confronted him, he would cry like a little girl. He was all talk, no action.”

“My father walked all over him,” the son added. “Any time Trump didn’t do what he was told, my father would shut down his job for the day. No deliveries; 400 guys sitting around.”

Michael says he was with his father one time when Trump called, desperate to have a job reopened. He says Trump ended by telling him, “Whatever you say, John…”

On more than one occasion, the Trump of years past spoke to Cody as many people in the White House speak to President Trump now: “Anything for you.”

Even as Trump submitted, he must have wished he could dominate. And Cody was not the only gangster Trump had to do business with at the nexus of construction and organized crime.

“I think the dealings with wise guys, you know, made him a wannabe,” Michael Cody said. “There’s a lot of wannabes out there, and Trump was one... He’s a wannabe Mafia don.”

The Donald is now bigger than any don, but remains liable to revert to the Trump of old when faced with making good on grand pronouncements. He earned the nickname TACO Trump because he backed off so many tariffs. And he abandoned his insistence on the urgent necessity of a ceasefire in Ukraine after a few minutes with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I mean, how much more powerful could a person be?” Mike Cody said of our president. “Why do you always cave in?”

But many entities do cave in to Trump before he can cave in to them. Columbia University double caved, striking a deal on policy with Trump only for him to suddenly say he also wanted $200 million.

When it comes to Harvard University, Trump could have been Gambino crime family boss John Gotti himself as he said he wants more cash from the institution whenever it defies him.

“Every time they fight, they lose another $250 million,” Trump said of Harvard during a White House press conference in May.

Harvard also seems likely to give in.

Others who have caved to Trump demands for policy changes include eight major law firms, among them Skadden, Arps, and Paul, Weiss.

In the corporate realm, Apple CEO Tim Cook agreed to pledge $100 billion in U.S. investments and was as submissive during an Oval Office Office visit with President Trump as young Trump had been with John Cody. And the computer chip company Intel seems ready to go along with a plan to give up 10 percent of the company in a business arrangement melding the private sector that seems more in the ways of communist China than of capitalist America.

When it comes to all these dealings, Mike Cody offers the advice of someone who sees Trump’s inner wannabe.

“If they show weakness, he’ll pounce on them,” Mike Cody said. “If they stand up, there’s a good chance he’s gonna back off.”

John Cody died of Alzheimer’s disease in 2001, at 79, the same age Trump is now. The son was asked what he thought his father might say now The Donald is bigger than any don in history.

“He’d be calling Trump up, telling him what to do, you know what I mean?” Michael Cody said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-the-wannabe-mafia-don-is-now-boss-of-bosses/?

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The Monsters Behind Ghislaine Maxwell’s Missing Millions

The secret deal to keep Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice in her life of luxury ..... our must-read newsletter The Swamp reveals.

Donald Trump wants to crush The Swamp. The leaks, the sneaks, and the secrets are all there. Our writers, David Gardner, Farrah Tomazin, and Sarah Ewall-Wice, are sifting through the ooze so you don’t have to. Don’t miss out. Read this exclusive extract from the latest edition of The Swamp—then subscribe to keep up to date with the news they don’t want you to know.

They weren’t married, had no children, and dated for less than three years before their relationship took an altogether darker turn. Still, Jeffrey Epstein was sufficiently enamored with Ghislaine Maxwell to buy her a fancy five-story $13 million Beaux Arts-style New York townhouse. Eh, voila! The brokea-s heiress was suddenly the proud owner of Maxwell’s House. Just add money. Instant wealth. Located on 65th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues, the 7,000-square-foot home had eight wood-burning fireplaces and a servants’ entrance. Maxwell also owned a $2 million mews house in London (where Prince Andrew was allegedly snapped with Virginia Giuffre in 2001) and a hideaway 156-acre estate in New Hampshire, bought for $1.5 million through a mysterious LLC in December 2019.

She’s since sold the New York manse for $15 million, and the Live Free or Die state retreat is up for grabs at $2.5 million and includes a master bedroom with a stone fireplace, walk-in closet, and a large soaking tub.

Financial documents filed in Manhattan Federal Court showed that transfers totaling more than $20 million were made from Epstein’s bank accounts to Maxwell’s and vice versa.

So, where did Ghislaine get all this cash? And what has she done with it?

The answer, according to sources once close to Ghislaine, lies with the other domineering, scandal-plagued man in her life; Maxwell’s late father. These sources suggest shamed media baron Robert Maxwell’s ill-gotten millions were laundered by Epstein and filtered through to his favorite daughter. (He even named his superyacht the Lady Ghislaine).

Overweight and overleveraged, Maxwell Sr. fell off the side of his yacht in the Canary Islands in 1991 and drowned. It was never known for sure whether it was suicide, an accident, or murder, but his business affairs quickly unraveled, and it emerged that he had robbed the pension fund of the Mirror newspaper group he owned in the UK to the tune of $460 million. According to a British documentary, Ghislaine was on board the yacht when her father died and immediately ordered the crew to shred all paperwork linking him to Epstein.

“I was in the City [of London] and I had some friends who worked on Wall Street during that time, and they heard that Jeffrey Epstein and Robert Maxwell had entered into an agreement before Robert Maxwell’s death, whereby certain funds had been syphoned off,” said a former friend of Ghislaine. “That is what Jeffrey Epstein was doing at the time, he was helping very rich people park their money offshore, to avoid tax.”

Her father was a crook, and her boyfriend was a pedophile. Both destroyed lives while conniving to make Ghislaine rich.

Prosecutors uncovered more than 15 different bank accounts associated with Ghislaine, and it wasn’t small change. The balances ranged from hundreds of thousands of dollars to over $20 million.

How did she get it? Only two other people truly know. And dead men don’t tell tales.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-monsters-behind-ghislaine-maxwells-missing-millions/?

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How Deeply Trump Has Cut Federal Health Agencies

When the Trump administration announced massive cuts to federal health agencies earlier this year, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he was getting rid of excess administrators who were larding the government with bureaucratic bloat.

https://projects.propublica.org/federal-health-worker-cuts-rfk-trump-administration/?

US sanctions more ICC judges, prosecutors for probes into alleged American, Israeli war crimes The State Department on Wednesday announced new sanctions on four International Criminal Court officials, including two judges and two prosecutors, saying they had been instrumental in efforts to prosecute Americans and Israelis. As a result of the sanctions, any assets that the targets hold in U.S. jurisdictions are frozen. Read more.

Why this matters: The Trump administration is ramping up pressure on the International Criminal Court for pursuing investigations into U.S. and Israeli officials for alleged war crimes. The sanctions were immediately denounced by both the ICC and the United Nations, while Israel welcomed the move. announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.   The U.S., which is not a member of the court, has already imposed penalties on the ICC’s former chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, who stepped aside in May pending an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, and four other tribunal judges.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ US State Department employee fired after questioning talking points on Israel and Gaza   Huckabee blames Europe for stalled Gaza talks, highlighting a growing Western divide   Microsoft employee protests lead to 18 arrests as company reviews its work with Israel’s military

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Trump administration reviewing all 55M people with US visas for potential deportable violations August 21, 2025 The State Department says visas that allow people to stay in the United States are revoked any time if there are “indicators of overstays, criminal activity, threats to public safety, engaging in any form of terrorist activity, or providing support to a terrorist organization.”

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Judge says former Trump lawyer Alina Habba has been unlawfully serving as US attorney in New Jersey August 21, 2025 The court held that Alina Habba’s term as the interim U.S. attorney ended on July 26, and the Trump administration’s maneuvers to effectively keep her in the role without getting confirmation from the U.S. Senate didn’t follow procedures required by federal law.

Read more