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

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Judge temporarily blocks the Trump administration from firing workers during the government shutdown

President Donald Trump’s administration for now must stop firing workers during the government shutdown, a federal judge in San Francisco ordered on Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston issued the emergency order after federal agencies on Friday started issuing layoff notices aimed at reducing the size of the federal government. The layoff notices are part of an effort by Trump’s Republican administration to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

Democrats say they won’t be intimidated by Trump’s threats as the shutdown enters a third week Government shutdown delays release of critically important inflation figures Judge dismisses young climate activists’ lawsuit challenging Trump on fossil fuels

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Court blocks Trump's shutdown firings

Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios

A federal judge today temporarily blocked the White House's plans to fire scores of federal workers during the government shutdown. The order sets up another high-stakes legal battle over President Trump's authority. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston — a Clinton appointee — said the White House has "taken advantage of" the shutdown to embark on an "illegal" reduction-in-force campaign. Unions representing federal workers challenged the mass layoffs before they had technically even begun, arguing that a shutdown does not provide a legal opening to fire people. ✂️ The other side: The Trump administration was doubling down on its plans. More than 10,000 workers may ultimately be fired during the shutdown, White House budget director Russ Vought said today on "The Charlie Kirk Show" broadcast from the White House. That's more than double the 4,000 firings the administration had discussed in court documents just last week, Axios' Emily Peck reports. "I think it'll get much higher," he added. "I think we'll probably end up being somewhere north of 10,000." ? Vought also said he has largely halted the work of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. "We don't have anyone working there except our Republican appointees and a few careers that are doing statutory responsibilities while we close down the agency," he said on the podcast. The conservative Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, co-authored by Vought, calls for the agency's elimination.

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?? The Trump administration secretly authorized the CIA to conduct covert action, which could include lethal force, in Venezuela, The New York Times reports. (gift link)

ps:So he calls himself a "no War" president, but yet he picks on this puny country to make himself look like some tough guy!! So where is that with Russia?????

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?️ Trump hosts donors for White House ballroom

President Trump welcomed nearly 130 donors, allies and representatives of major companies to an East Room dinner last night to reward them for pledges to help fund a massive new White House ballroom, AP reports.

• The ballroom, with an estimated $250 million price tag, is the most significant renovation that Trump, a former real estate mogul, is undertaking during his second term at the White House.

All four sides of the ballroom — which Trump said will be grand enough to hold a presidential inauguration — will be made of bulletproof glass, with the color, window shape and molding in character with the White House.

• The 90,000-square-foot ballroom is planned for the area where the East Wing is located. The White House has said it'll have a 650-person capacity, but Trump last night said it'll hold up to 999.
• Trump said there are no zoning requirements for him as the president, and he can do what he wants with the construction.

✅ Among the companies represented at the "Ballroom Dinner," according to the White House, were Amazon, Apple, Booz Allen Hamilton, Coinbase, Comcast, Google, Lockheed Martin, Meta and T-Mobile. The Adelson Family Foundation, founded by GOP megadonors Miriam Adelson and her late husband Sheldon, was also represented.

• Oil billionaire Harold Hamm, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, SBA chief Kelly Loeffler and husband Jeff Sprecher, and crypto entrepreneurs Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss were all on the guest list.

Also attending were Chris LaCivita, co-manager of Trump's 2024 campaign; Reince Priebus, a White House chief of staff during Trump's first term; and Jason Miller, a longtime political adviser.

? At the dinner, Trump formally unveiled another project: an Independence Arch that will stand on the Virginia side of the Arlington Memorial Bridge, which crosses the Potomac River and connects Virginia and D.C.

• The president showed off miniature models, with Lady Liberty on top, in three sizes. Trump said the largest is his favorite.

More from The Wall Street Journal on the dinner to "Establish the Magnificent White House Ballroom" (gift link).

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Judge halts Trump’s planned layoffs of federal workers during government shutdown, calling them unlawful

A federal judge in San Francisco has ordered the Trump administration to immediately halt its efforts to lay off roughly 4,100 federal workers during the government shutdown, saying the move is unlawful.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/15/politics/federal-worker-layoffs-shutdown-judge-unlawful?

Drug smuggling

President Trump said Wednesday he has authorized the CIA to operate inside Venezuela to clamp down on illegal flows of migrants and drugs from the South American nation. The president tied the authorization to his efforts to go after drug smuggling. "We have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela, and a lot of the Venezuelan drugs come in through the sea ... but we're going to stop them by land also," Trump said in the Oval Office. The comments came a day after Trump announced the US military conducted yet another strike on a boat alleged to be trafficking drugs off the coast of Venezuela, killing six people on board.

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Pentagon Pete Will Be First Big Scalp of Trump 2.0

The Daily Beast’s Washington bureau chief issued a fearless forecast for the ever-embattled defense secretary.

Pete Hegseth’s job may be safe for now, but the clock is ticking on his already tenuous tenure as Pentagon chief, the Daily Beast’s Washington bureau chief predicted Wednesday.

David Gardner issued a fearless forecast for Hegseth’s future in an episode of The Daily Beast Podcast following uproar over the Pentagon’s new policy heavily restricting press freedom at the Defense Department.

“We were told early on that Trump did not want a repeat of his first administration, where it was kind of chaos. He was firing people, hiring people, it was a lot of unrest within the administration,” he told host Joanna Coles.

“We were told he was going to give his Cabinet—most of his leading Cabinet members—a year, so there wasn’t this kind of constant departure thing. So my guess is, watch out for January and Pete Hegseth, because I don’t think he’s going to last much longer than that first year.”

Daily Beast political reporter Sarah Ewall-Wice said the year-long trial period may actually be part of a broader strategy.

“If you say your cabinet members are not going to be long-term choices from the get-go, then you put them in this competition from the get-go to basically fight it out and prove who’s the most loyal to the president,” she said. “So it’s really a fight for the president’s attention and support more than it is a fight for the job and the department.”

Sought for comment, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson attacked the Daily Beast and said that Hegseth’s position is “far more secure” than those of the publication’s staffers.

The White House did not return a request for comment.

This week, longtime defense reporters from various media outlets across the political spectrum had their badges confiscated after they roundly rejected Hegseth’s unprecedented new restrictions on journalists, which the Pentagon Press Association has described as “vague new policies that, on their face, appear to violate the First Amendment.”

Under Hegseth’s new rules, reporters get stripped of their press credentials if they refuse to sign compliance forms pledging to protect unauthorized material, even if the information is unclassified.

Over a dozen outlets have declined to sign off on the new policy, from legacy media including The New York Times and The Washington Post, to networks such as Newsmax and Fox News.

The press policy debacle followed a catastrophic first few months for Hegseth, who stirred controversy when he accidentally leaked information about a military strike to a journalist, summoned top military brass from all over the world for a bizarre pep talk in Quantico, and axed several high-ranking defense officials.

“So he’s bottom of the list in terms of efficiency and top of the list in terms of suck ups,” Gardner said.

Gardner said Hegseth has been “taking very much a back step to the whole procedure” as Secretary of State Marco Rubio takes on a more central role.

“I don’t think he’s trusting him,” he said of Trump and Hegseth. “I seem to remember the last meeting in the Middle East, he was put on a separate plane from the others, Hegseth. Again, sending a message perhaps.”

Trump’s first administration was beset by a revolving door of officials. Most notably, Anthony Scaramucci served only 11 days as White House communications director.

The president has so far defied the trend in his second term, but White House insiders have already cast their bets on which Cabinet members could soon face the boot.

Presidential advisers polled by WIRED magazine said Attorney General Pam Bondi and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick were the least liked Cabinet members in Trump’s White House.

“Worst, Bondi,” one source who was asked to rank Cabinet secretaries told the outlet. “2/ Bondi. 3/ Bondi. 4/ Bondi. 5/ HegsethRFKTulsiNoem.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pentagon-pete-will-be-first-big-scalp-of-trump-20/?

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Trump Hatches New Plot to Attack His Political Enemies

A government agency is being reshaped as an instrument of presidential payback.

The Trump administration is overhauling the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation division, making it easier to launch probes into Democratic groups and donors, and compiling a list of potential targets.

The overhaul includes installing President Donald Trump’s allies at the IRS-CI and weakening the role of IRS lawyers assisting agents with cases, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Gary Shapley, an adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, has told staff he plans to replace the IRS-CI’s long-time chief Guy Ficco, and that has he has put together a list of investigation targets that includes Democratic donor George Soros and his affiliated groups, sources told the Journal.

The move comes after Trump has said in interviews that Soros “should be in jail,” and posted on social media that Soros and his son Alex should face federal charges under the RICO Act.

A senior Justice Department official has also urged several U.S. attorneys’ offices to investigate Soros’s Open Society Foundations, according to the Journal.

The administration claims its goal is to crack down on “left-wing violence.”

This week, Bessent told MAGA pundit Andrew Kolvet, who took over murdered conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s eponymous show, that Kirk’s death was “like a domestic 9/11” and that his department was involved in an “ongoing process” of dismantling financial networks that supposedly support violent radical-left groups.

There is no evidence, however, that Kirk’s shooter, who grew up in a conservative Mormon home, was involved with any liberal groups. Trump’s own officials have admitted that the vast majority of political violence over the past 30 years was committed by people who leaned to the political right.

A spokesperson for the Open Society Foundations told the Daily Beast in a statement that its activity is peaceful and lawful, and that it stands by its work dedicated to strengthening democracy and upholding constitutional freedoms.

“These… are politically motivated attacks on civil society, meant to silence speech the administration disagrees with and undermine the First Amendment right to free speech,” the statement said. “When power is abused to take away the rights of some people, it puts the rights of all people at risk.”

Federal law also makes it a felony for anyone in the White House, executive office of the president, or Cabinet (excluding the attorney general) to directly or indirectly request an investigation into a specific taxpayer.

That includes the president or an executive office employee instructing a third party to request or interfere with an audit, according to The Tax Law Center at New York University.

Congress passed many of the tax code’s protections in response to former President Richard Nixon’s failed attempts to use the IRS to investigate, audit, and harass his political enemies, according to The Tax Law Center.

One of the abuses of power in the articles of impeachment drafted against Nixon was his attempt to use the IRS to initiate tax audits and obtain confidential tax information for political purposes.

Lawmakers took the issue so seriously that any IRS officer or employee who receives such a request must report it to the inspector general, or else they’re also committing a crime and could face jail time, according to The Tax Law Center.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the IRS for comment.

The Trump administration nevertheless zeroed in on using the IRS-CI after hitting a wall during its attempt to strip Harvard University of its tax-exempt status, according to the Journal.

The agency’s lawyers warned that revoking Harvard’s 501(c)3 status would take years.

Shapley—who previously served 72 whole hours as the IRS’s acting commissioner—then proposed restructuring the criminal investigations division, including reducing the role that IRS lawyers play in criminal investigations.

The current policy requires lawyers to work with IRS-CI agents as they conduct search warrants and bring cases to the Justice Department for potential prosecution.

Sensitive cases—including those involving federal elected officials and non-profits—are also subject to additional steps that Shapley plans to eliminate.

Bessent confirmed during his interview with Kolvet that the Treasury department was moving ahead with a list of left-wing targets.

“We have started to compile lists of the other networks, and there’s a long record here,” he said. “This is mission-critical for us now… We are operationalizing this here at Treasury.”

He made no mention of investigating right-wing violence. In any case, the Treasury secretary is one of those Cabinet members who are legally barred from ordering tax audits.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-plots-major-irs-overhaul-to-ramp-up-probes-of-his-enemies/?

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Keystone Kash Warns Trump Revenge Arrests Are Tip of the Iceberg

The FBI director’s warning came moments after Trump told him to investigate his enemies for “political crime.”

FBI director Kash Patel has revealed that Donald Trump’s retribution campaign is only just getting started, vowing that “many” indictments against the president’s political enemies would come by the end of the year.

Days after former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James were charged by Trump’s Justice Department, Patel said that the bureau was looking at criminal leads against numerous other past administration officials, “and we’re not going to stop until every single one of those is fully exposed.”

“We are looking at so many different leads by those who were in positions of power,” he said.

“These indictments that you’ve seen and the ones that you’re going to see coming up in the near future are just the beginning… Look at the work the men and women of the FBI have done so far in these seven, eight months—and just imagine what we’re going to do come the year end.”

Patel’s warning, made during an interview with conservative network Real America’s Voice, was issued moments after he attended an Oval Office press conference with the president and Attorney General Pam Bondi, in which Trump made it clear he wanted the pair to keep going after people who had pursued him over the years.

The president also cited a list of people he wanted to target, including Democrat Senator Adam Schiff (who helped lead the first impeachment against Trump); former government attorney Andrew Weissman (who was the lead counsel for the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election) and former deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco (who oversaw Trump’s alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election, his handling of classified documents, and the January 6th attack on the Capitol).

“I hope they’re looking at political crime, because there’s never been so much political crime against a political opponent as to what I had to go through,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

Patel’s comments come as Trump’s DOJ also began presenting evidence this week to a grand jury against his former National Security Adviser, John Bolton, whose home was raided by the FBI earlier this year for allegedly transmitting classified documents.

The comments were notable because Patel claimed under oath during his Senate confirmation hearing that “there will be no politicization at the FBI; there will be no retributive actions taken”—a statement that was met with deep skepticism by Democrats on the committee at the time.

The MAGA acolyte also explicitly denied having an “enemies list” that Senators referenced from his 2023 book, which contains a lengthy appendix of former government officials he says are part of the so-called “deep state.”

“The only thing that will matter if I’m confirmed as a director of the FBI is a de-weaponized, de-politicized system of law enforcement completely devoted to rigorous obedience to the Constitution and a singular standard of justice,” Patel said during the January hearing.

This week, however, the FBI director was singing a different tune, singling out “Comey and his band of miscreants” for criticizing Trump’s weaponization of the justice system, “when they’re the ones that authored and penned the biggest U.S. criminal conspiracy in U.S. history, which was Russiagate.”

Comey, who has long been critical of the president, pleaded not guilty to charges that he lied to Congress, which center around a testimony he gave to the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2020.

The charges came shortly after Trump posted a note to Attorney General Pam Bondi on his Truth Social platform, demanding an indictment and complaining about the then top prosecutor overseeing the Comey case, Erik Siebert.

After pushing out Siebert, the president last month appointed former beauty pageant contestant Lindsey Halligan, his former personal lawyer, as the top federal prosecutor in Virginia’s eastern district to bring charges against the former FBI director.

Last week, James, who successfully sued Trump for civil fraud, was also charged by the Department of Justice for alleged bank fraud and lying to a financial institution.

She has also denied the allegations.

“We see powerful voices trying to silence truth, punish dissent, and, yes, weaponize justice for political gain,” James told supporters on Monday, adding that she would not “break” or “bend.”

“This, my friends, is a defining moment in our history. Let us stand together to defend our rights, to protect every safeguard, every institution, every immigrant, every norm, and every rule of law.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/keystone-kash-warns-trump-revenge-arrests-are-tip-of-the-iceberg/?

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Vance’s Hot Take on Political Persecution Comes Back to Haunt Him

The vice president has spoken before about “weaponization of the IRS.”

Comments made by up-and-coming JD Vance slamming Joe Biden’s policies are being dragged back into the spotlight as the Trump administration develops its own priorities.

The then-Sen. JD Vance claimed in 2023 that the Biden-era Internal Revenue Service targeted conservatives, but now his message looks eerily on-script with the Trump administration’s current playbook.

During an appearance on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle in November 2023, the fresh-faced Ohio Senator warned about what he called the “weaponization of the IRS.” He said, “The IRS is basically trying to send a signal that if you are doing effective work on behalf of the conservative movement, you gotta have your head on a swivel, you gotta be looking over your shoulder to make sure the IRS isn’t going to come after you.”

He went further, calling such tactics “fundamentally an assault on people’s First Amendment rights,” and adding that, “It’s another example of using the government to target political opponents as opposed to effectively administering the laws of the country.”

Vance, 41, labeled the situation “dangerous” and said, “We have to call it out.” He argued the problem transcended partisan politics, stating, “This is not about left vs right, this is about whether we have a functioning constitutional government in this country. If the IRS can go after you because of what you think or what you believe or what you do, we no longer live in a free country.”

Those comments are now circulating widely online as the Trump administration implements changes that appear to mirror exactly what Vance warned against.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the IRS Criminal Investigative unit is undergoing an overhaul, including installing Trump allies in leadership roles and weakening the role of IRS lawyers assisting agents.

Gary Shapley, an adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, is reportedly planning to replace the division’s long-time chief, Guy Ficco, and has compiled a list of investigation targets that includes Democratic donor George Soros and his affiliated organizations.

The administration claims the goal is to crack down on “left-wing violence.” Critics point out that Trump has previously said Soros “should be in jail,” and suggested on social media that Soros and his son Alex should face federal charges under the RICO Act.

A senior Justice Department official has also reportedly urged several U.S. attorneys’ offices to investigate Soros’s Open Society Foundations.

Vance’s prior warnings about IRS overreach appear pointedly relevant. In 2023, he said, “No Democrat is willing to stand up and say, ‘enough is enough.’”

The comments are being framed online as an example of political hypocrisy, as Vance has not publicly criticized the current administration’s IRS actions, instead, he has boasted of them.

Speaking on The Charlie Kirk Show on Wednesday, he said, “We have to train the investigatory and law enforcement powers of the government to focus on’ so-called left-wing political violence.

This is not the first high-profile Vance flip-flop. In the past, he acknowledged the existence of a climate problem, even investing in green technology ventures. However, as he aligned more closely with Trumpism, his stance changed. By 2024, he was calling it “weird science.”

Vance has also shifted his position on abortion, which eventually conveniently lined up with his counterpart on the 2024 ticket, Donald Trump. But, he told the Daily Beast in 2022 that he was “pro-choice.”

“My mamaw, until very late in life, she was pro-choice,” Vance said. He added that his views were “absolutely” shaped by his “mamaw’s.”

However, Vance has also suggested that “two wrongs don’t make a right” when it comes to rape and incest survivors seeking abortions.

Representatives for Vance have been asked to comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/vances-hot-take-on-political-persecution-comes-back-to-haunt-him/?

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Trump’s Empire Rakes in Over $1B in Colossal Crypto Cash Grab

President Donald Trump and his family have reaped more than $1 billion in crypto cash over the past year, thanks to an industry boom fueled by the administration’s own crypto-friendly policies.

And that’s just the realized profits.

On paper, Trump’s cryptocurrency ventures have boosted his net worth by billions of dollars, according to the Financial Times, which attempted to untangle the family’s vast web of opaque and largely unregulated ventures.

The Trump holdings include digital trading cards featuring images of Trump wearing a superhero cape, memecoins whose value is based purely on speculation, stablecoins pegged to the U.S. dollar, tokens, and a decentralized finance platform called World Liberty Financial that was co-founded by Trump’s sons Eric and Don Jr.

The ventures all promote their close ties to Trump—who campaigned on a promise to become the “first crypto president”—and his family.

The FT calculated that the WLFI token had raked in $550 million, while the $TRUMP meme coin brought in $362 million, the $MELANIA coin earned $65 million, and USD1 brought in $42 million.

Asked whether the calculations were accurate, Eric Trump told the FT the real figure was “probably more.”

The investors include foreign billionaires, funds tied to nation-states, and at least one person who was formerly investigated by U.S. authorities.

In the meantime, Trump has mandated the creation of a national bitcoin reserve and installed crypto-friendly leaders at key regulatory agencies—including the Securities and Exchange Commission—who have dropped the government’s investigations into large crypto companies.

He also instructed the Department of Justice to spend less time investigating crypto companies, signed an order allowing Americans to invest a portion of their retirement savings in crypto, and rolled back restrictions on mainstream banks’ involvement with the sector.

Several of the companies that were previously under investigation—Coinbase, Ripple Labs, and Consensys—donated to Trump’s presidential inauguration.

The president has also raked in millions of dollars’ worth of donations to his PAC with crypto industry fundraisers.

White House spokesperson Kush Desai told the FT that Trump had already built his business empire before entering politics.

“His sole motivation to leave behind his life of luxury to run for office was to save our country and people,” he said.

The Daily Beast has also reached out for comment.

Experts, however, told the newspaper that Trump’s conflicts of interest were unprecedented in modern history, especially since his policies have directly fueled the market’s resurgence.

Trump Media & Technology Group, the company that owns the president’s Truth Social platform, lost $401 million last year before pivoting to crypto this year.

The company—which the president has a 53-percent stake in—has since raised billions of dollars to buy tokens and has generated more than $3 billion in cash.

The president’s business interests are held in a revocable trust managed by Don Jr.

Most presidents since the 1970s have put their assets in a blind trust—which prevents the benefactor from knowing how the investments are being managed—or in Treasury bonds, but Trump’s revocable trust doesn’t carry the same protections, The Washington Post reported in August.

As the sole beneficiary, Trump could tap into the trust the moment he leaves office, according to the FT.

Trump voters, however, are largely in the dark about the president’s crypto dealings. A poll commissioned by the newspaper found that more than 40 percent said they had not heard of Trump’s memecoin or the family crypto platform.

More than half believed the president had made less than $100 million since returning to office, while almost a third thought he had not benefited from the presidency at all.

This, despite Eric and Don Jr. having flown around the world publicly promoting the family’s ventures. In May, Don Jr. told the audience of a bitcoin conference in Las Vegas that the people making crypto laws were now “invested in [crypto] themselves.”

“That’s going to bode very well for the community,” he said.

As a sign of the industry’s gratitude to Trump, in just the first half of 2025, crypto players donated at least $41 million to Trump’s political action committee to help him support congressional midterm candidates who are loyal to his crypto agenda.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-empire-rakes-in-over-1b-in-colossal-crypto-cash-grab/?

ps:But yet he needs donations to build his WH Ball Room??

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A Year Before Trump’s Crime Rhetoric, Dallas Voted to Increase Police. The City Is Wrestling With the Consequences.

The year before President Donald Trump announced he was sending National Guard troops and federal agents into major cities like Washington, D.C., and Chicago, declaring crime out of control, a Dallas nonprofit made a similar case for putting more police on the streets.

https://www.propublica.org/article/police-dallas-hero-crime-proposition?

Students With Hearing and Vision Loss Get Funding Back Despite Trump’s Anti-DEI Campaign

Following public outcry, the U.S. Department of Education has restored funding for students who have both hearing and vision loss, about a month after cutting it.

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-education-department-deafblind-students-funding-reversal?

Trump says he’ll meet with Putin in Hungary. He first meets Friday with Zelenskyy at the White House

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is redoubling his efforts to end the war in Ukraine, announcing a second meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin one day before sitting down with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-zelenskyy-putin-russia-ukraine-e3a1d62d2a24f459aa6dbbfa940e1067?

ps:That should help a lot!!!!!

Trump warns Hamas ‘we will have no choice but to go in and kill them’ if bloodshed persists in Gaza

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday warned Hamas “we will have no choice but to go in and kill them” if internal bloodshed persists in Gaza.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-middle-east-wars-gaza-israel-hamas-cfa0bad6105c216ff1b063a4eb1c58ba?

He Tweeted Charlie Kirk “Won’t Be Remembered as a Hero.” The State Dept. Revoked His Visa.

As part of the Trump administration’s drive to lionize the late Charlie Kirk and chill criticism of his politics, the State Department announced on Tuesday that it had revoked visas for a half-dozen noncitizens who had “celebrated” his assassination in recent weeks online.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/15/state-department-charlie-kirk-visa-social-media-censorship/?

Trump Fabricates Story of Hand-to-Hand Combat Between Troops and Child Gangsters in D.C.

President Donald Trump claims that U.S. troops have engaged in hand-to-hand combat with young members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua on the streets of Washington, D.C. But Joint Task Force–District of Columbia, the umbrella organization for the military occupation of the nation’s capital, says it never happened.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/15/trump-lie-national-guard-dc-tren-de-aragua/?

The tiny African nation of Lesotho had victories in its HIV fight. Then, the US aid cuts came

This Lesotho was unimaginable months ago, residents, health workers and experts say. The small landlocked nation in southern Africa long had the world’s second-highest rate of HIV infections. But over years, with nearly $1 billion in aid from the United States, Lesotho patched together a health network efficient enough to slow the spread of the epidemic, one of the deadliest in modern history.

https://apnews.com/projects/Lesotho-usaid-cuts-africa-HIV-aids-pepfar/?

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Ex-Trump national security adviser Bolton charged with storing and sharing classified information

GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — John Bolton, who served as national security adviser to President Donald Trump during his first term and later became a vocal critic of the Republican leader, was charged Thursday with storing top secret records at home and sharing with relatives diary-like notes about his time in government that contained classified information.

https://apnews.com/article/john-bolton-indictment-classified-information-1e21da0591d1195fbf58c0df28d57c9f?

Judge calls for federal agents to use body cameras during Chicago protests

A federal judge on Thursday said she wants federal agents in Illinois to turn on their body cameras during encounters with immigration protesters, multiple outlets reported.

https://www.axios.com/2025/10/16/chicago-ice-protests-immigration-body-cameras?

Harvard posts biggest operating loss in 14 years as Trump cuts bite

Harvard University ended its most recent fiscal year with an operating deficit, despite increased giving, according to an annual report released on Thursday.

https://www.axios.com/2025/10/16/trump-harvard-funding-operating-loss?

U.S. Chamber of Commerce sues to block Trump H-1B visa changes

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Thursday sued to block the Trump administration's plan to charge a $100,000 fee for H-1B visas, a move businesses say could deprive them of skilled foreign workers.

https://www.axios.com/2025/10/16/trump-h-1b-visa-immigration-chamber-lawsuit?

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Trump's next peace push

Photo Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios. Photos: Getty Images

President Trump said he plans to meet in person with Russian leader Vladimir Putin within the next few weeks, as he tries to broker a deal to end the war in Ukraine. "Great progress was made" today in a two-hour phone call with Putin, Trump said on Truth Social. ?? The announcement came as a surprise to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his team, who had just landed at Andrews Air Force Base for a meeting with Trump tomorrow at the White House. Zelensky's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, told Axios' Barak Ravid that Zelensky plans to press Trump for commitments to provide Tomahawk missiles. Ukraine needs the missiles to hit drone and missile factories deep inside Russian territory, Zelensky's chief of staff told us. "We need a U.S. political decision that we will be able to buy any weapons, which we need without any restrictions," Yermak said. Go deeper.

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Turning down funds

MIT, Brown and the University of Pennsylvania have declined an offer from the Trump administration to join a compact that could link federal funding to changes in school policy. A letter outlining the proposal was sent to nine institutions earlier this month.

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Race to the Bottom (Stefani Reynolds / Getty)

View in browser Sometimes just a few news items over a couple of days can capture an entire zeitgeist. Here are several that caught my eye this week: The Supreme Court is poised to weaken or destroy one of the last remaining pillars of the Voting Rights Act. A group of Young Republicans exchanged texts in which they casually dropped the N-word, called Black people “monkeys” and “the watermelon people,” and said “I love Hitler.” The Trump administration is considering turning the American refugee system into one that prioritizes “English speakers, white South Africans and Europeans who oppose migration.” Rounding things out, Border Patrol circulated a video with an anti-Semitic slur, and a congressional staffer appeared in a video meeting with a swastika-defaced U.S. flag behind him. These stories are not directly connected. The Court, for example, has been working to weaken the VRA for almost 15 years (or longer, in the case of Chief Justice John Roberts personally). But as an important late-20th-century work of philosophy noted, “There’s this, like, lattice of coincidence that lays on top of everything.” Together, these developments show a powerful tide of racism in American life, lifting up white people at the expense of all others. And plenty of indirect connections link the various stories. Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign of racial grievance enabled him to shift the Court rightward with three new appointments. Trump himself has a long history of bigoted remarks, yet he has seized on bigoted comments by Black South Africans to justify inviting white South Africans to seek refuge in the United States. The ability to use offensive language without social sanction is a core appeal of the MAGA movement for some supporters. In January, an attendee at a Trump-inauguration party told New York’s Brock Colyar that “he wanted the freedom to say ‘faggot’ and ‘retarded.’” Trump’s attacks on “political correctness” were couched in defenses of free speech, but anyone paying attention has noticed Trump’s longtime hostility toward the concept spanning many years, and his policies have demonstrated plainly that he has no interest in the First Amendment itself. In recent weeks, his administration pressured ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel, and Trump said that negative coverage about him was “really illegal.” As Philip Klein writes in National Review, an organ of the more genteel (though not necessarily racially enlightened) old right, the Young Republicans chat shows that “to a portion of the young right, the actual substance of what provocateurs have been saying has been worth celebrating—not just their right to say it.” Apparently these budding politicians were wise enough to know they couldn’t (yet) say these things publicly. Their most prominent defender has been Vice President J. D. Vance, who described the members of the group chat as “kids” and “young boys.” This is nonsense: These were politically active people, mostly in their mid-to-late 20s. (Vance himself is a good counterpoint. By his late 20s, he’d served in Iraq and was at Yale Law School, where his own leaked emails showed genuine nuance and thoughtfulness.) Vance also argued that they were just telling edgy jokes privately. This might be more reassuring if not for the fact that the same people and the same views are making their way into the halls and policies of the government in which Vance serves. Nate Hochman, a rising conservative political figure who was a National Review writer, was canned from Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign after posting a video with a Nazi symbol; he once praised the self-identified Hitler fan Nick Fuentes. Now Hochman has resurfaced working for Missouri U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt, who is delivering ethnonationalist speeches. Paul Ingrassia, another young right-winger who runs in anti-Semitic circles, is nominated to lead the Office of Special Counsel, which oversees government personnel practices (Ingrassia has been accused of sexual harassment; he denies wrongdoing). Kingsley Wilson became a Pentagon spokesperson after creating a long trail of anti-Semitic claims. And then there’s the video, reposted and then deleted from the Border Patrol Instagram account earlier this week, that painstakingly edited in a snippet of a Michael Jackson song that goes, “Jew me, sue me, everybody do me / Kick me, kike me, don’t you black or white me.” It’s not a dog whistle if everyone can hear it. This attitude at ICE (echoing previous postings) extends from the broader immigration agenda of creating a whiter, more right-wing American populace. The administration wants to reduce not just illegal immigration but legal immigration, and is conducting mass deportations, along with Supreme Court–sanctioned racial profiling, yet it also sees refugee policy as a way to bring in politically like-minded individuals. As The New York Times reports, this might include members of the far-right political party Alternative for Germany, or AfD. On the surface, it might seem ironic for the U.S. to try to attract migrants who it says are being persecuted at home for opposing migration, but in fact there is no discrepancy—only agreement about which kinds of people are desirable: white, Christian ones. This also makes a mockery of the point of refugee programs, implying that the challenges facing right-leaning Germans are worse than those of the people Trump has sought to exclude who are in what he sees as “shithole countries.” Bringing in migrants with right-wing views is a funhouse-mirror version of the “Great Replacement” theory that prominent MAGA figures have adopted, which holds that the left is seeking to bring in Black and brown people to dilute white political power. A flood of AfD members or Afrikaners would help Republicans, but they have other ways of reducing the power of liberals and nonwhite voters. Section 2 of the VRA provides for the creation of majority-minority districts, to ensure Black representation. Black voters in the South are heavily Democratic, but in Louisiana (33 percent Black), Mississippi (38 percent Black), and Alabama (27 percent Black), Democrats might be shut out of the House entirely, effectively disenfranchising these voters in Congress and presidential races. (The election analyst Nate Cohn, writing in the Times, calculates that if the justices get rid of Section 2, Republicans could gain nine seats in the House.) When Roberts wrote the majority decision in 2013’s Shelby County v. Holder, which defanged Section 5 of the VRA, he paid lip service to the law’s importance in remedying historical racism, but he dismissed the need for anything like it in the modern era. “Our country has changed,” he declared, with self-satisfaction. The headlines this week, however, beg to differ. Related: America is the land of opportunity—for white South Africans. An oral history of Trump’s bigotry (From 2019)

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Rare Earths Standoff

China clarified its new export restrictions on rare earths yesterday, saying the measures are aimed at preventing the illegal export of critical minerals for military use, particularly in weapons of mass destruction, rather than imposing a full ban. China said civilian exports will continue under license, rejecting President Donald Trump's claim that the move violates a trade truce. In response, Trump has threatened 100% tariffs on Chinese imports. China's restrictions, applying to all countries, will take effect in stages beginning Nov. 8. China dominates the rare earths industry, controlling roughly 70% of mining, 90% of processing, and 93% of magnet manufacturing. The $6.4B global market—projected to nearly double by 2035—underpins production of semiconductors, electric vehicles, industrial robots, and other technologies. They are also critical for US defense systems, including F-35 jets, drones, and radar. The move comes before Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet in South Korea later this month.

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America First globalist

Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch. Photos: Getty Images

There's a shutdown in D.C., clashes in Chicago, and economic worries bubbling up nationwide. But President Trump seems more focused on Gaza, Ukraine and Venezuela, Axios' Marc Caputo reports. Why it matters: Trump's foreign policy focus — and the peace deals he has secured — is the stuff of presidential legacy building. But the globetrotting risks blurring his "America First" brand. ? "Voters reward winners and Trump is a winner," said one Trump adviser. "But I'd be lying if I said none of us wish he would talk a little more about the economy and things back home." Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) was more blunt. "It's a revolving door at the White House of foreign leaders when Americans are, you know, screaming from their lungs," MTG, who has increasingly grown estranged from Trump, told Axios' Kate Santaliz. ✈️ Driving the news: This was Trump's biggest foreign policy week, starting with his departure for Israel on Sunday after sealing the Gaza deal. Monday: Addressed Israel's Knesset, then flew to Egypt to sign the historic peace agreement. Tuesday: Arrived back in D.C. and met with Argentina's president to discuss a $20 billion currency bailout, then announced the U.S. military had destroyed another alleged drug-running boat off of Venezuela, killing six people. Wednesday: Confirmed he'd authorized covert action in Venezuela. Thursday: Spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin for more than two hours, and announced he'd soon meet him in person to discuss the path to peace in Ukraine. Friday: He'll meet Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, at the White House. What's next: Later this month, Trump will travel to South Korea to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, and likely to Budapest to meet Putin. ?️ The big picture: Presidents often pivot to foreign policy in their second terms, though several current and former Trump advisers told Axios he was just as engaged globally the first time around. Then as now, there was a regime change push in Venezuela, a hugely provocative attack involving Iran, a trade war with China, and a major diplomatic push in the Middle East. "In Trump 1, he didn't have the team," said a foreign policy adviser from Trump's first term who still speaks with the president. "He didn't know the ropes. All of that is different now." Another first-term adviser said: "This is a continuation of the first term, but with two big exceptions: the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. He inherited that mess. He had no choice but to clean it up." A third person who worked in Trump's first term and still advises administration officials said: "No matter what he says, Trump is still thinking about a Nobel Prize. Being TIME Magazine's Man of the Year still matters to him." Friction point: Most in the MAGA movement cheered Trump's Gaza deal. But some aspects of his foreign policy have riled influential supporters, particularly his decisions to bomb Iran and to open America's checkbook to arm Israel and bail out Argentina. But many of Trump's allies think demonstrating American might overseas plays well back home, and note that it hasn't kept him from pursuing a very aggressive domestic agenda. ? Steve Bannon told Axios, referring to the America First movement: "We're not isolationist, we're non-interventionist." Bannon gushed over the images from the Gaza peace conference: "Every guy wanted to touch him, wanted to be in a shot with him."

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Ahead of Zelenskyy meeting, Trump shows signs he might not be ready to send Kyiv Tomahawk missiles President Donald Trump is set to host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for talks at the White House on Friday, with the U.S. leader signaling he’s not ready to agree to sell Kyiv a long-range missile system that the Ukrainians say they desperately need. Read more.

Why this matters: In recent days, Trump had shown openness to selling Ukraine long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles, even as Putin warned that such a move would further strain the U.S.-Russian relationship. But following Thursday’s call with Putin, Trump appeared to downplay the prospects of Ukraine getting the missiles.   Zelenskyy had been seeking the weapons that would allow Ukrainian forces to strike deep into Russian territory and target key military sites, energy facilities and critical infrastructure. Zelenskyy has argued such strikes would help compel Putin to take Trump’s calls for direct negotiations to end the war more seriously.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ A look at the Tomahawk, a US cruise missile that could come into play in the Ukraine war   The EU unveils a plan to be ready within 5 years to fend off any Russian attack   Russia convicts 15 captured Ukrainian soldiers on terrorism charges

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The Shadow President

From the wholesale gutting of federal agencies to the ongoing government shutdown, Russell Vought has drawn the road map for Trump’s second term. Vought has consolidated power to an extent that insiders say they feel like “he is the commander in chief.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/russ-vought-trump-shadow-president-omb?

Who Is Russell Vought? How a Little-Known D.C. Insider Became Trump’s Dismantler-in-Chief

Reporter Andy Kroll explains Vought’s rise from a congressional staffer to the man piloting everything from Trump's layoffs and agency closings to his shutdown strategy, controlling the fate of trillions of dollars and millions of federal workers.

https://www.propublica.org/article/video-who-is-russell-vought-trump-omb-shutdown?

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US has seized survivors after strike on suspected drug-carrying vessel in Caribbean, AP sources say

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States took survivors into custody after the military struck a suspected drug-carrying vessel in the Caribbean, a defense official and another person familiar with the matter said Friday.

https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-drug-smuggling-pentagon-strike-12820c173da3de80c1a7a559c252c743?

After Zelenskyy meeting, Trump calls on Ukraine and Russia to ‘stop where they are’ and end the war

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday called on Kyiv and Moscow to “stop where they are” and end their brutal war following a lengthy White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-zelenskyy-putin-ukraine-tomahawks-ce697e5eda6ce9793b4343499d105a8c?

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TACO Trump Cozies Up to China and Admits 100 Percent Tariff Is Unsustainable

The pivot comes days after Trump supercharged a trade war between the world’s largest economies.

President Donald Trump has admitted that his proposed 100 percent tariff hike on goods from China is not sustainable, merely days after he sent markets tumbling by making the threat.

And despite saying last week there was no point meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping because Beijing was “becoming very hostile” over trade, Trump now appears set to do exactly that at a gathering of Asia-Pacific leaders this month.

The pivot comes days after Trump supercharged a trade war between the world’s largest economies by announcing he would impose 100 percent retaliatory tariffs on China from November 1, as well as new export controls on “critical software.”

However, asked on Friday whether the additional tariff on China could continue, and what such a spike might do to the economy, Trump replied: “It’s not sustainable,” later adding: “They forced me to do that.”

“China has ripped us off from day one,” Trump said during the interview with Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo. “We have a very strong adversary, and they only respect strength.”

But the president then went on to say the U.S. was “going to do fine with China” and touted his “great” relationship with Xi.

Both leaders are now expected to meet on the sidelines of the APEC summit in South Korea, where rare-earth minerals, export controls and American soybeans will be on the agenda.

“He’s a very strong leader, an amazing man,” Trump added.

“His life is an amazing story; it’s a story for a great movie. I think we’re going to be fine with China, but we have to have a fair deal. It’s going to be fair.”

Trump’s on-again-off-again tariff threats have earned him the nickname “TACO” on Wall Street—short for “Trump Always Chickens Out.”

However, the tariffs have raked in billions of dollars in revenue since he took office, with the U.S. bringing in about $194 billion in tariff revenue since the start of the year, according to tracking by the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Tensions with China escalated this month after the country, which dominates the global supply of rare earth elements, announced tighter export controls on these rare earth minerals.

These are vital for many high-tech industries, including manufacturing for semiconductors, electric vehicles, and defense equipment.

The administration viewed China’s actions as an aggressive move designed to disrupt global supply chains and exert leverage in trade negotiations.

“This affects ALL Countries, without exception, and was obviously a plan devised by them years ago,” Trump wrote of China’s actions last week. “It is absolutely unheard of in International Trade, and a moral disgrace in dealing with other Nations.”

The upcoming APEC meeting was particularly important because Trump had vowed to use it to confront Xi over Beijing’s refusal to buy American soybeans, which has put the squeeze on farmers in the MAGA heartland.

While China has historically been a top buyer of U.S. soybeans, American tariffs have led the country to place a retaliatory tariff on the U.S., with Beijing now increasingly turning to South America for its produce.

But American farmers have warned that the lack of purchases could be devastating for them, particularly at a time when fertilizer and other goods have become more expensive, potentially even leading to bankruptcies and foreclosures.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/taco-trump-cozies-up-to-china-and-admits-100-percent-tariff-is-unsustainable/?

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Marjorie Taylor Greene Rips Trump’s ‘America Last’ Moves

MTG, a one-time loyalist of President Donald Trump, has spoken out against her own party again.

MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has gone scorched-earth on her own party again, lambasting the GOP for falling short of its “America First” motto.

The Georgia Republican is known as one of President Donald Trump’s most visible MAGA allies, but she has been left suddenly questioning whether the movement is faltering.

In an interview with Axios published Friday, Greene went as far as calling the party’s concerns “America Last.”

“It’s a revolving door at the White House of foreign leaders when Americans are, you know, screaming from their lungs,” Greene said. “If me saying those things are considered breaking with my party, then what is the Republican Party? I thought we were America First?”

Greene insisted she still supports Trump—saying he’s done “a great job in a lot of places”—but said his administration’s renewed focus on global conflicts has irked her.

Inflation and rising health-care costs, she warned, are hammering voters while Republicans ignore domestic priorities.

“Inflation skyrocketed under the Biden administration. But it’s like, okay, well, now we’re in charge, and when are we working on this?” she said.

Greene has also clashed with GOP leadership on health care, siding with Democrats in calling for action on expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies.

“Republicans have no plan,” she said. “[House Speaker] Mike Johnson has not had a single conference meeting about any sort of plan to deal with the ACA tax credits expiring.”

That comment comes after she lashed out at the House speaker for dodging questions about a Republican lawmaker accused of harassing his former girlfriend, in an Axios article published Thursday. Earlier this week, in an interview with The Washington Post, Greene raged against “weak Republican men” in Congress.

The congresswoman also slammed the administration’s $40 billion bailout of Argentina as “America Last,” arguing it puts U.S. farmers “on the verge of bankruptcy.” She also criticized erratic tariff policies, saying producers “don’t know if the tariff policy is going to change with a Truth Social post.”

While Greene says she still supports Trump’s broad trade agenda—“made in America” and “reciprocity in trade”—she warned that instability is killing confidence among farmers and manufacturers.

Despite her growing frustration with both parties, Greene said she’s not planning to go independent.

“The extreme division in our country is extraordinarily alarming and sad,” she told Axios. “It’s embedded in the two-party system. Democrats have to hate Republicans to gin up fundraising—and the same thing happens on our side. Everyday Americans are so sick of it.”

As for backlash from her own party, Greene shrugged it off. “It doesn’t faze me at all,” she said, reminding Axios that 11 of her GOP colleagues voted to kick her off committees in 2021.

The White House has been contacted for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-rips-trumps-america-last-moves/?

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Trump Suddenly Doesn’t Want to Be a King as Massive Protests Loom

“They’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king,” the president insisted, walking back on previous grandiose rhetoric.

President Donald Trump insists he’s no monarch—just hours before thousands of protesters plan to remind him of that fact.

In a clip aired Friday on Mornings With Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business, the president rejected claims that the ongoing government shutdown was timed to coincide with the “No Kings” rallies scheduled for this weekend.

“No. I mean, some people say they want to delay it for that,” Trump said. “A king... this is not a king. You know, they’re saying, they’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king.”

The full interview will air Sunday on Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo.

More than 2,600 “No Kings Day” protests are set to take place nationwide on Saturday. The movement, aimed at pushing back against Trump’s perceived authoritarian drift, builds on a June 14 demonstration that drew millions across all 50 states. That event coincided with Trump’s 79th birthday and an Army parade in Washington.

The president’s latest remarks are a sharp turn from his earlier royal self-styling. In February, celebrating his decision to kill New York City’s congestion pricing plan, Trump triumphantly posted on Truth Social: “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!”

The White House account echoed the sentiment, posting a mock Time magazine cover depicting Trump in a crown.

The administration later moved to “terminate” federal approval for Manhattan’s congestion pricing program, which had been designed to raise funds for the city’s subway system by charging drivers $9 to enter below 60th Street.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul hit back at the move—and Trump’s grandiose rhetoric. “We are a nation of laws, not ruled by a king,” she said at the time.

The president has since wavered between embracing and disowning his regal reputation. At a June press conference ahead of the last “No Kings” rally, Trump joked: “I don’t feel like a king, I have to go through hell to get stuff approved. A king would say, ‘I’m not going to get this.’”

Earlier this summer, following the death of Pope Francis, Trump also raised eyebrows when he quipped to reporters, “I’d like to be pope,” before sharing an AI-generated image of himself in papal robes.

The White House has been contacted for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-suddenly-doesnt-want-to-be-a-king-as-massive-protests-loom/?

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Trump administration changes to immigration policy leaving many in limbo

An immigration and constitutional law expert said the Trump administration's changes to federal policies are leaving many immigrants who believed they were safe from deportation in limbo.

https://local.newsbreak.com/hanover-park-il/4298417402829-trump-administration-changes-to-immigration-policy-leaving-many-in-limbo?

Nearly half a million women have left their jobs so far this year. Here’s why, in their own words

More than 450,000 women have dropped out of the US labor market since January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Outside of the pandemic, it’s one of the steepest declines on record.

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2025/10/business/women-leaving-workforce-unemployment-vis/index.html

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to allow deployment of National Guard in Chicago area

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to allow the deployment of National Guard troops in the Chicago area, escalating President Donald Trump’s conflict with Democratic governors over using the military on U.S. soil.

https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-national-guard-trump-913ecce44b6bcc5d0cba1b252dfd34ce?

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? Trump's kingmaker reminder

Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photo: Samuel Corum/Getty Images

President Trump sent wayward Republicans a loud message last week: Cross me at your own peril. Why it matters: Trump's eleventh-hour decision to endorse Republican Matt Van Epps in a contested Tennessee House primary — which vaulted Van Epps to a lopsided win — showed he has the power to decide GOP primaries with a single post on his Truth Social account. ✅ The president endorsed Van Epps just four days before the primary — a risky move, given that his advisers had just reviewed polling showing Van Epps trailing rival Republican Jody Barrett by 4 percentage points. It paid off. Van Epps ended up winning by 26 points after Trump's endorsement became the centerpiece of his final days of campaigning. ? A pro-Van Epps super PAC began running a TV ad promoting Trump's endorsement the day after the president announced it. The intrigue: Trump's decision to wade into the primary shows he is willing to engage in seriously contested GOP nomination fights. So far, the president has only announced his opposition to one Republican member of Congress — Rep. Thomas Massie. The Kentucky lawmaker is soliciting signatures on a discharge petition to unseal files related to the government's Jeffrey Epstein probe. But with filing deadlines still open, Trump could conceivably jump into other primaries and punish Republicans who defy him. — Alex Isenstadt