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

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Capitol Rioter Pardoned by Trump Busted for Threatening to Kill Top Dem

Christopher Moynihan, 34, is accused of texting plans to kill Jeffries during a speech in New York City.

A Donald Trump-pardoned Jan. 6 rioter was arrested after allegedly making threats to kill top Democrat Hakeem Jeffries.

Christopher Moynihan, 34, is accused of texting plans to kill the House Minority Leader, 55, during a New York City speech on Monday.

According to a court filings, he wrote, “Hakeem Jeffries makes a speech in a few days in NYC I cannot allow this terrorist to live.”

Moynihan, of Clinton, New York—who was pardoned by Trump nine months ago as part of a mass clemency for more than 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants—also allegedly stated, “Even if I am hated, he must be eliminated, I will kill him for the future,” the filing said.

He was taken into custody by New York State Police and charged with making a terroristic threat, a Class D felony, according to a State Police news release.

Moynihan was arraigned and remanded to the Dutchess County Justice and Transition Center on $10,000 cash bail, $30,000 bond or an $80,000 partially-secured bond, with a court date set for Thursday.

Jeffries told the Daily Beast in a statement that he was grateful to state and federal law enforcement for their “swift and decisive action to apprehend a dangerous individual who made a credible death threat against me with every intention to carry it out.”

Moynihan is not the first pardoned Jan. 6 defendant to face new charges since receiving clemency. In May, Zachary Alam, 33, who infamously smashed the Speaker’s Lobby door, was arrested in Virginia on burglary counts weeks after his pardon.

Jeffries said it was “unfortunate” that law enforcement was being “forced to spend their time keeping our communities safe from these violent individuals who should never have been pardoned.”

State Police said the investigation began with a notification from the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. The arrest was handled by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation at Poughkeepsie.

Moynihan was among the first rioters to breach police lines and later stood on the Senate dais on Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors said at the time.

Prosecutors said he was captured on video rifling a notebook on a senator’s desk and saying: “There’s gotta be something in here we can f--king use against these scumbags.” A federal judge found Moynihan guilty in August 2022 of obstructing an official proceeding. He also pleaded guilty to five misdemeanors and, in February 2023, received a 21-month prison sentence, before his 2025 pardon.

The allegations against Moynihan come amid a surge in threats against lawmakers. The U.S. Capitol Police said it is pacing toward roughly 14,000 threat-assessment cases in 2025, up from 9,474 cases in 2024, per Roll Call.

Jeffries said: “It is the honor of my life to serve in Congress during these challenging times. Threats of violence will not stop us from showing up, standing up and speaking up for the American people.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/jan-6-capitol-rioter-pardoned-by-donald-trump-busted-for-threatening-to-kill-top-dem-hakeem-jeffries/?

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Indicted Dem Lawmaker Fights Back With Trump’s Own Immunity Case

Lawyers for Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver argued she was being punished for exercising her duties as a congresswoman.

A Democratic lawmaker accused by Donald Trump’s administration of “forcibly impeding” federal immigration officers outside a New Jersey detention facility has argued the charges against her should be dropped because of the president’s own presidential immunity case.

Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) was indicted by a grand jury in June and faces up to 17 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

On Tuesday she filed to have the case thrown out on grounds of “legislative immunity,” citing the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision that Trump had absolute immunity for “official acts,” Politico’s Playbook reported.

Her lawyers argued that members of Congress should have broad legal protection as they carry out their oversight duties, according to Playbook.

“Putting Congresswoman McIver on trial for exercising her constitutionally and statutorily vested duties … would deter other Members from conducting legitimate oversight,” the lawyers wrote.

The congresswoman—who is the first sitting elected representative to be prosecuted by the Trump administration—is motivated in part to get the charges thrown out before the trial starts because lawmakers are not allowed to accept pro bono legal support, according to Politico.

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

Criminal defense is expensive, and Democrats have argued that unless potentially-charged prosecutions are dismissed before they go to trial, the indictments will have a chilling effect on lawmakers even if the defendants are ultimately found not guilty.

McIver was one of several Democratic lawmakers arrested in New Jersey last summer for trying to enter a detention facility and conduct congressional oversight.

Video captured during a chaotic confrontation outside the center showed McIver pushing back on an agent who was shoving her other members of a crowd.

McIver, who was the only person charged, was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday for oral arguments on whether the judge in the case should dismiss the charges against her.

The 6-3 ruling in Trump’s case involved his criminal prosecution over his attempts to overturn former President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

It didn’t provide a standard for what counts as an “official act” or determine whether any of Trump’s individual actions fell within that category, saying only that the lower courts needed to consider the case in light of the sweeping immunity afforded to the president.

A Milwaukee judge who was arrested in May for allegedly shielding an undocumented immigrant from ICE arrest also argued that she couldn’t be prosecuted under the ruling.

“Immunity is not a defense to the prosecution to be determined later by a jury or court; it is an absolute bar to the prosecution at the outset,” lawyers for Judge Hannah Dugan wrote.

The judge, however, rejected those arguments and set a trial date for December, ABC News reported.

Dugan had told agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement that they needed a warrant to arrest an undocumented immigrant who had appeared in her courtroom on a misdemeanor charge and let him leave the courtroom through her chambers.

The man was ultimately arrested, and Dugan was arrested and charged a week later.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/indicted-dem-lawmaker-lamonica-mciver-fights-back-with-donald-trumps-own-immunity-case/?

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Federal Workers Given Secret Order as Trump Tears Down Part of the White House

The administration doesn’t want federal employees documenting the demolition.

The Trump administration has ordered federal employees not to share photos of the East Wing of the White House being demolished to make way for the president’s $250 million vanity project.

The Treasury Department’s headquarters, which are located next door to the East Wing, look out on the construction site for the 90,000-square-foot ballroom Donald Trump is building with private donor funds.

Treasury employees received an email Monday evening telling them not to document the demolition, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“As construction proceeds on the White House grounds, employees should refrain from taking and sharing photographs of the grounds, to include the East Wing, without prior approval from the Office of Public Affairs,” a Treasury official wrote.

Crews began tearing down the East Wing’s covered entrance on Monday, with dramatic video showing cranes and backhoes smashing up windows and ripping away the façade.

The building has long housed the office of the first lady and is connected through the east colonnade to the Executive Residence, where presidents and their families have traditionally lived.

In a statement to the Daily Beast, a Treasury spokesperson said that employees were encouraged to avoid sharing images “out of an abundance of caution” because they could potentially reveal sensitive items such as security features or confidential structural details.

Trump’s new ballroom was originally billed as a $100 million project but has since ballooned into a $250 million behemoth that will dwarf the existing structures.

The original East Wing, which has existed in its current form since 1942, is 12,000 square feet, while the residence is 50,000 square feet.

The demolition work comes despite Trump insisting during an executive order signing in July that his ballroom renovations wouldn’t “interfere with the current building.”

“It won’t be. It’ll be near it, but not touching it and pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of. It’s my favorite, It’s my favorite place,” Trump said.

That same month, however, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “the necessary construction will take place” to “modernize” the East Wing.

As of September, the White House had not even submitted plans to the National Capital Planning Commission, which by law must approve construction for most federal buildings, the Associated Press reported.

The president and his allies have claimed that Trump doesn’t need approval for the demolition and building.

During a dinner last week attended by some of the ballroom’s donors—which include tech giants, defense companies, and crypto investors who have been requesting carve-outs to the president’s tariff policies and seeking favorable regulatory treatment—Trump bragged that he had been told there were “zero zoning conditions” set for the project.

“I said, ‘How long will it take me?’” he recalled. “‘Sir, you can start tonight, you have no approvals.’ I said, ‘You gotta be kidding.’ They said, ‘Sir, this is the White House, you’re the president of the United States, you can do anything you want.’”

Meanwhile, Trump’s appointed head of the NCPC, Will Scharf, has claimed the commission doesn’t need to approve “demolition and site preparation work,” just vertical construction.

The federal law that governs the NCPC, however, says the commission was created to “preserve the important historical and natural features of the National Capital” and defines it as the government’s “central planning agency.”

Its LinkedIn page says it’s responsible for planning, policymaking, and project review, which would seem to include demolition, but its website has been taken down during the government shutdown.

Websites for other agencies that are closed during the shutdown are still intact, but the NCPC’s site now redirects visitors to the Office of Personnel Management.

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

On Monday, images of sections of the “People’s House” being torn down to accommodate a ballroom funded by megadonors infuriated the president’s critics.

“Seeing the White House torn apart is really emblematic of the times we’re in,” Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) wrote on social media.

“Ripping apart the White House just like he’s ripping apart the Constitution,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote in a post.

The White House’s official RapidResponse47 X account called out the outcry “FAKE OUTRAGE” and pointed out that President Barack Obama had converted the tennis court to a basketball court in 2009.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/federal-workers-given-secret-order-as-donald-trump-tears-down-the-white-houses-east-wing/?

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Trump’s Big Meeting With Putin Has Been Canceled

The White House confirms that there are no plans for the two presidents to meet in the “immediate future.”

President Donald Trump will not meet with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in the “immediate future,” the White House said.

The president has been vying for bilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, Hungary, stating on October 16 that he hoped they would take place within “two weeks.”

After speaking with Putin on the phone, Trump said it had been “agreed that there will be a meeting of our high level advisors, next week,” as a prelude.

“The United States’ initial meetings will be led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, together with various other people, to be designated,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, would also be in attendance.

The pair is understood to have had a phone call on Monday to discuss “next steps.”

In a statement to The Daily Beast, the White House said Secretary Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov had a “productive call,” making further in-person talks unnecessary and ruling out any immediate meeting between Trump and Putin.

CNN also reported that sources familiar with the matter say the pre-meeting has been tabled. The network said the claims come from sources inside the White House.

One stated that the two men had different expectations for the meeting, although the exact cause of the breakdown remains unknown.

Russia never committed to timespans for the meeting between Trump and Putin.

Lavrov has pushed back. He called the CNN report “unscrupulous,” adding, “I want to officially confirm: Russia has not changed its position compared to the understandings that were reached during the Alaska summit.”

He said he had told Rubio the same thing on the call, Reuters reports.

A State Department readout of that conversation claims Rubio “emphasized the importance of upcoming engagements as an opportunity for Moscow and Washington to collaborate on advancing a durable resolution of the Russia-Ukraine war, in line with President Trump’s vision.”

Meanwhile, Kremlin Spokesperson, Dimitri Peskov said, “Listen, we have an understanding of the presidents, but we cannot postpone what has not been finalized.”

Trump made brokering a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia a key promise before his inauguration.

Since then, commentators have observed Putin toying with him, leading him on only to launch more waves of brutality on Ukraine.

Among these incidents was the two-man Alaska summit in August, at which Trump rolled out the red carpet for the former KGB man.

Less than two weeks later, Russia rolled out a massive aerial attack on Kyiv using drones and missiles that claimed the lives of 18 people.

It comes against the backdrop of a turbulent relationship with Kyiv.

Following reports of another disastrous meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week, pressure is rising.

The two men met in the White House on Friday, a day after Trump spoke with Putin on the phone. However, The Financial Times reports that the meeting descended into acrimony on multiple occasions.

The newspaper said the two had more than one “shouting match” with Trump, “cursing all the time.”

He told Zelensky to accept Russia’s demands, which would include surrendering all of the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine.

It also saw Trump refuse to give Ukraine Tomahawk missiles.

Speaking on Sunday, Trump made clear his stance on giving the territory to Russia while reiterating his desire for peace.

“It’s cut up right now,” he told reporters on Air Force One. “Leave it the way it is right now.”

According to The Guardian, he added, “They can negotiate something later on down the line,” adding he wanted them for now at least to “stop at the battle line—go home, stop fighting, stop killing people.”

The collapse of the pre-meeting is a bitter blow for Trump.

In a post on Truth Social on October 16 about his hopes for it, Trump said, “President Putin and I will then meet in an agreed upon location, Budapest, Hungary, to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end. President Zelensky and I will be meeting tomorrow, in the Oval Office, where we will discuss my conversation with President Putin, and much more.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-big-meeting-with-putin-has-already-hit-a-major-snag/?

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Gabbard Launches Secret Goon Squad to Target Trump’s Enemies

The Interagency Weaponization Working Group has been meeting for months.

Top Trump goon Tulsi Gabbard has quietly assembled a secretive network of officials tasked with enforcing the president’s demand for MAGA retribution.

The team, formally called the Interagency Weaponization Working Group, has been meeting at the director of national intelligence’s behest since at least April and now includes dozens of officials from across the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement community, according to records reviewed by Reuters.

Participants have come from the White House, the CIA, FBI, Justice Department, Defense Department, Homeland Security, the IRS, and the Federal Communications Commission. According to Reuters, their task is to help “steer President Donald Trump’s drive for retribution against his perceived enemies.”

News of the group’s activities comes after the Trump Justice Department indicted former FBI chief James Comey and goes after other opponents of the president, like New York Attorney General Letitia James.

James, who had previously sued Trump for civil fraud, is now facing charges of mortgage fraud, which her lawyers have described as “baseless” and driven by the president’s “desire for revenge.”

The DOJ has also indicted the president’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, on 18 counts of illegally handling classified materials. Bolton has been one of Trump’s fiercest critics since he was dismissed in 2019, and has similarly slammed the allegations against him.

He has described himself as the “latest target in weaponizing the Justice Department to charge those [Trump] deems to be his enemies.”

Fox News reported that Gabbard’s group meets biweekly to “share information, coordinate, and execute.” Officials told the outlet that Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, initiated the working group in April to streamline communication among agencies as part of Trump’s broader plan to “deweaponize” the federal government.

An official said that there is “no targeting of any individual person for retribution.” However, one source familiar with the group’s work said its mission is “basically to go after ‘the Deep State.’”

When Trump officials rant about the “Deep State,” they refer to a group of entrenched, unelected officials they think are embedded in the U.S. government, determined to undermine or resist the president’s agenda.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Gabbard ranted about the Biden administration. “The American people made a clear choice when they elected President Trump—to stop the Biden administration’s prolific and dangerous weaponization of government agencies against the American people and the Constitution,” she said, adding that she would “deliver accountability.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi, who leads her own version of the initiative inside the Justice Department, called the working group “essential” to reversing what she described as years of politically motivated enforcement.

“Joe Biden’s Department of Justice targeted President Trump and anyone close to him, prosecuted pro-life advocates, treated parents at school board meetings as domestic terrorists, and destroyed public trust in federal law enforcement,” Bondi said.

She reiterated the need to “end weaponization and restore one tier of justice for all.”

FBI Director Kash Patel echoed that sentiment. “For years, Biden’s DOJ turned federal law enforcement into a political weapon,” Patel said. “Under President Trump, we’ve ripped that agenda out by the roots.”

But inside the government, the scale and purpose of Gabbard’s goon squad remain murky. Reuters identified 39 officials involved in the interagency effort, including several who have pushed false claims that the 2020 election was stolen or that vaccine mandates were part of a government conspiracy.

The effort stems from an executive order Trump signed on his first day back in office, instructing the attorney general to coordinate with other agencies to “correct past misconduct by the federal government.” Officials said the IWWG is central to carrying out that mandate.

Government records reviewed by Reuters suggest that the working group’s discussions have touched on figures including Comey, former infectious diseases chief Anthony Fauci, and military officials who oversaw COVID-19 vaccination mandates. Other topics reportedly discussed include the prosecutions of Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro and the handling of the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection—though senior intelligence officials have denied that such cases are being reviewed.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/gabbard-launches-secret-goon-squad-to-target-trumps-enemies/?

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Trump doesn’t want ‘wasted meeting’ with Putin as he confirms talks on Ukraine war are off for now

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday his plan for a swift meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin was on hold because he didn’t want it to be a “waste of time.” It was the latest twist in Trump’s stop-and-go effort to resolve the war in Ukraine.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-putin-trump-1f22a02dda9adff079383370ee69f95c?

ps:Of course it would be a waste! He thought Velenski would be a push over!!

In Chicago, an immense show of force signals a sharp escalation in White House immigration crackdown

A raid last month at a Chicago apartment building has signaled a sharp escalation in the White House’s immigration crackdown and ratcheted up tensions in a city already on edge. Dozens of agents stormed the building, with their guns drawn. Authorities said they were targeting the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, but only two of the 37 immigrants arrested were gang members. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

Trump-Putin summit planned for Budapest is on hold after Rubio spoke with Lavrov, US official says A timeline of US attacks in the Caribbean and what Congress has had to say Man pardoned after storming Capitol is charged with threatening to kill Hakeem Jeffries

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Trump sought $230M from Justice Dept.

Before his reelection, Donald Trump wanted the Justice Department to pay him as much as $230 million in damages for past investigations — a demand that was going nowhere until Trump blurted out a vague reference to it last week, top officials tell Axios' Marc Caputo.

• Now its fate is uncertain.

Why it matters: The New York Times, which first reported Trump's demand, pointed out that "any settlement might ultimately be approved by senior department officials who defended him or those in his orbit."

Now, of course, the Justice Department is stacked top to bottom with Trump loyalists. But there'd been no internal conversation about the matter since the inauguration, until Trump himself reopened it while talking to the press in the Oval Office last week, a senior administration official told us.

• Trump said, without explanation, that he'd brought "a great lawsuit" based on past investigations of him, but added that it now "sort of looks bad — I'm suing myself, right?"

The senior administration official told us there had been "no conversation about this at any level since Inauguration Day. It's like it didn't even exist."

• "But then the president said what he said, and here we are," the official added. "Beyond that, there has been no communication or movement on this whatsoever. It's not a thing. At least, it's not a thing right now."

Behind the scenes: The officials told Axios that the claims, filed when Trump was out of office, came up internally during the transition, but haven't been pursued since the election. The officials didn't confirm the total amount.

• A source from the transition, between Trump's reelection and inauguration, said: "This came up during the transition and at first we thought: 'Oh, no. He's going to sue himself?' Then when we realized it was filed against the Biden Justice Department, the word was that it was just dropped."

The Times says that when Trump was out of office, he submitted complaints through an administrative claim process that's often the precursor to lawsuits:

1. The first claim, in late 2023, seeks damages for the FBI and special counsel investigation into Russian election tampering and possible connections to his 2016 campaign.
2. The second claim, in summer 2024, accuses the FBI of violating Trump's privacy by searching Mar-a-Lago for classified documents in 2022. That complaint also accuses the Justice Department of malicious prosecution in charging him with mishandling sensitive records.

Trump himself reopened the issue during an appearance in the Oval Office last week with Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, while he was discussing the FBI's 2022 raid on Mar-a-Lago.

• "I have a lawsuit that was doing very well. And when I became president, I said: I'm sort of suing myself," he said.
• "How do you settle the lawsuit? I'll say: 'Give me X dollars,' right? And I don't know what to do with the lawsuit — it's a great lawsuit. And now I won. It sort of looks bad — I'm suing myself, right? So, I don't know. But that was a lawsuit that was very strong, very powerful."

ps:So this is how he will make up the money it will take to build  or rebuild what he's doing to the WH?? How about using the monies he's gotten from the billionaires who all forked over billions to this man??

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Anthropic's Trump charm offensive

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Anthropic is trying to reinforce its relationship with the Trump administration in the wake of criticism from White House AI czar David Sacks, Axios' Maria Curi reports. In a blog post today, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei emphasized that the company publicly backed President Trump's AI action plan, has hired former Trump officials and has contracts with the federal government. Amodei quoted Vice President Vance, saying his recent statement about maximizing the benefits of AI "perfectly captures our view." ? Where it stands: Sacks last week said on X that "Anthropic is running a sophisticated regulatory capture strategy based on fear-mongering." He also said, "t has been Anthropic's government affairs and media strategy to position itself consistently as a foe of the Trump administration." ? Between the lines: Anthropic is at odds with Sacks on the question of state vs. federal AI regulation, and the company hasn't changed its position — but AI companies have a lot to lose if they're not in the West Wing's good graces.

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Trump pick to lead federal watchdog agency withdraws after offensive text messages were revealed

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump ’s pick to lead a federal watchdog agency withdrew from consideration Tuesday evening, after his offensive text messages were made public and GOP senators revolted.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-special-counsel-ingrassia-texts-d11db9dc83767040f56a16766a3c240b?

Ballroom Bulldozing Begins

The White House began demolition this week to prepare for its $250M, 90,000-square-foot ballroom. Parts of the East Wing's outer walls have been bulldozed, with staffers instructed not to take photographs at President Donald Trump’s request.  Trump announced plans for the White House Ballroom in July and aims to complete the project by the end of his term. The space is expected to seat up to 900 people—over four times the capacity of the East Room, the White House’s largest event space. Trump said he is privately funding the project alongside other donors. That reportedly includes corporate contributions from Apple, Amazon, Google, Palantir, and Coinbase, among others. The space will include gilded Corinthian columns, gold and crystal chandeliers, and a checkered marble floor. See renderings here. As president, Trump has broad authority to make updates to the White House complex; construction is typically also overseen by federal agencies. See a history of White House renovation projects here.

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? Most Americans say U.S. on wrong track

Data: PRRI. Chart: Axios Visuals Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction, fueled by dissatisfaction with President Trump's impact on the economy, immigration, race relations and the nation's global standing, Axios' Russell Contreras writes from a new poll with a big, broad sample. Even among Republicans, a significant share — nearly 30% — gave Trump low marks on the economy and how the government is functioning. Why it matters: The survey offers a snapshot of the nation's sour mood just more than a year before the 2026 midterms — and suggests that anger could rewire political alliances and test the durability of Trump's support. ? Between the lines: The 16th annual American Values Survey, by Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), is worth studying because it tracks religion, values and mood, with a vast sample across racial and religious lines. The poll has been a reliable pre-election barometer. The findings are similar to other major polls: An AP-NORC poll out this week found 69% of Americans thought the nation was headed in the wrong direction. A Gallup Poll last month found 67% of Americans are dissatisfied with how things are going. ? By the numbers: In the PRRI poll, taken in partnership with the Brookings Institution, 62% say the country is going the wrong direction, led by Democrats (92%) and independents (71%). 24% of Republicans said the nation was heading in the wrong direction, the poll found. The 68-point gap between Republicans and Democrats on that question is the widest ever recorded in PRRI's 16 years of surveys on religion and politics. More data: Economy, race relations, deportations, health care & more.

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'I will execute on day 1': Man arrested for vowing to behead Trump 'on the South lawn' if he stays in office another term

A 66-year-old man from West Virginia has been arrested over accusations that he threatened to kill Donald Trump, promising to "execute" the president on White House grounds if he attempted to remain in office after his second term.

https://local.newsbreak.com/west-virginia-state/4306918664882-i-will-execute-on-day-1-man-arrested-for-vowing-to-behead-trump-on-the-south-lawn-if-he-stays-in-office-another-term?

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Karoline Leavitt Gives Wild Defense of Trump Destroying the White House

Construction is underway on Donald Trump’s massive $250 million ballroom.

Karoline Leavitt thinks Democrats are just jealous that Donald Trump is building a swanky $250 million ballroom at the White House.

The White House press secretary says that’s the only way to explain the “fake outrage” after part of the White House’s iconic East Wing was demolished to make way for the 90,000-square-foot structure.

The Trump administration has received widespread backlash for starting work on the event space that will eventually dwarf the White House itself. “It’s not his house. It’s your house. And he’s destroying it,” former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton posted on X.

But Trump officials have attempted to convince the public that it’s what presidents, administrations, and White House staff have longed for, for 150 years.

“Are the Democrats jealous that Trump is building this big beautiful ballroom?” Fox News host Jesse Watters asked Leavitt on Tuesday.

Leavitt replied that it “certainly appears that way.”

“I believe there’s a lot of fake outrage right now because nearly every single president who has lived in this beautiful White House behind me has made modernizations and renovations of their own,” she added.

She fawned over Trump, a former real estate developer, calling him “the builder-in-chief” who was re-elected for a second term as president “because he’s good at building things.”

“He has done it his entire life, his entire career. Construction is a process; at the end, the East Wing, which is an entirely separate structure from the executive mansion you see behind me, will be more modern and beautiful than ever,” Leavitt said.

“And then on top of that, the White House is going to have a big beautiful ballroom for generations of Americans to come—and the best part of it all, it’s not a dime of the taxpayers’ money.”

Leavitt said presidents for decades have quipped about how they wish they had a larger event space at the White House “that can hold hundreds more people than the current East Room and State Dining Rooms can.”

“In fact, President Obama notably complained that during his tenure, he had to hold a state visit on the South Lawn and get a very expensive tent,” Leavitt said. “So while many presidents have privately dreamt about this, it’s President Trump who is actually doing something about it.”

Obama did host a state visit for the Indian prime minister in 2009 in a tent on the South Lawn. “As we all know, in India some of life’s most treasured moments are often celebrated under the cover of a beautiful tent. It’s a little like tonight,” Obama said during his toast remarks at the time. It’s not clear what purported complaint Leavitt was referring to.

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

Since returning to the White House, Trump has embarked on an architectural mission. Besides the ballroom, he has already gilded the Oval Office with Rococo mirrors, gold medallions, and eagle figurines, paved over the Rose Garden with a concrete patio, and erected oversized flagpoles on the grounds.

Last week, the president unveiled his plans to build an arch on the other side of the Potomac River that could rival the Lincoln Memorial in scale.

At a lavish White House dinner for his billionaire backers, Trump showcased multiple proposed versions of an enormous triumphal arch he hopes to erect across from the Lincoln Memorial, awkwardly holding up miniature models for his guests to inspect.

Demolition of the East Wing began on Monday to kickstart Trump’s ballroom project.

“I am pleased to announce that ground has been broken on the White House grounds to build the new, big, beautiful White House Ballroom,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday evening. “Completely separate from the White House itself, the East Wing is being fully modernized as part of this process, and will be more beautiful than ever when it is complete!”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/karoline-leavitt-wildly-claims-outrage-about-trumps-white-house-demolition-is-fake/?

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Trump’s assault on independent agencies endangers us all

The first six months of the second Trump administration have been characterized by a haphazard yet comprehensive evisceration of basic government institutions. From the mass firing of federal workers to the effective shuttering of entire agencies, Trump and his billionaire allies have pillaged public-serving institutions while giving themselves cover by claiming to promote “efficiency” (Gangitano 2025; Shao and Wu 2025; Rubin 2025).

https://www.epi.org/publication/trumps-assault-on-independent-agencies-endangers-us-all/?

Scottish Government Demands Millions Over Trump’s Golf Trip

Scotland said it wants its money back.

Raging Scottish politicians are demanding their money back after forking out millions to host President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance this summer. Scotland’s finance secretary is asking for a $37.3 million reimbursement from the U.K. government following the pair’s jaunts across the pond. In July, Trump visited his golf courses in Ayrshire and Aberdeenshire for four days. Vance then came the following month, also for around four days. Britain’s central government in London has refused to give the money back, saying it was “not official U.K. Government business.” It also reminded Scotland that it is responsible for the cost of its own policing. Now, Scottish Finance Secretary Shona Robison has written to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, demanding “full reimbursement.” She bemoaned the “substantial operational and financial burdens on Scottish public services, particularly Police Scotland.” Policing Trump’s visit pulled in 4,000 officers a day and cost the equivalent of $26.6 million, she said. Vance’s visit cost a further $8 million. While both men’s trips were private, she claimed they were “diplomatically significant,” The Independent reports. She also added that they were “not initiated by the Scottish Government.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/scottish-government-demands-millions-over-trumps-golf-trip/?

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Leavitt Blames White House Bulldozers on Former President in Baffling Defense

The White House press secretary did not back up her suggestion that the former president “complained” about how he hosted state dinners.

Karoline Leavitt appeared to put words into Barack Obama’s mouth while defending Donald Trump’s demolition of the East Wing of the White House to build his gaudy new ballroom.

The White House press secretary dismissed the anger and concern over the destruction of the historic building for Trump’s $250 million vanity project, calling it “fake outrage” during an appearance on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime.

Leavitt claimed that previous presidents had also sought more space to host lavish gatherings at the White House, before making a disputed claim about Obama to support her point.

“President Obama notably complained that during his tenure, he had to hold a state visit on the South Lawn and get a very expensive tent,” Leavitt said Tuesday.

The Obama administration did, in fact, pitch a large tent on the South Lawn of the White House in November 2009 and October 2016 to host state visits for the prime ministers of India and Italy, respectively. However, there is no evidence that Obama ever complained about doing so.

In fact, Obama praised the tent during his 2009 state dinner speech for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“As we all know, in India some of life’s most treasured moments are often celebrated under the cover of a beautiful tent. It’s a little like tonight,” Obama said in 2009. “We have incredible food and music and are surrounded by great friends.”

ABC News reported at the time that White House aides viewed the tent as a symbol of the Obama administration’s “openness,” since it could accommodate far more guests than the traditional East Room or State Dining Room.

The large white tent returned in October 2016, when Obama hosted his final state visit to welcome Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

One person who did complain about Obama’s use of the tent was, unsurprisingly, Trump. Speaking on The Rush Limbaugh Show in 2011, Trump claimed that he personally called the White House to offer to build a ballroom after seeing what he described as the “old, rotten tent” used for the Indian state visit.

“I called up the White House. I said, ‘Listen, I’m really good at this stuff. I will build you a magnificent ballroom. We’ll go through committees,’” Trump said.

“‘I will build the White House a ballroom so when the head of India comes to town we can give him a five-star dinner in a magnificent ballroom befitting this country and the White House.’ They never got back to me. It’s a hundred-million-dollar gift. They never got back to me.”

The 2009 state visit was also notable for Virginia couple Michaele and Tareq Salah somehow managing to blag their way into the occasion and rub shoulders with the world leaders. The gatecrashing pair were aspiring reality TV stars hoping to be part of The Real Housewives of Washington, D.C., at the time of the incident.

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

https://www.thedailybeast.com/leavitt-blames-white-house-bulldozers-on-former-president-in-baffling-defense/?

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MAGA Beauty Queen’s Threat to Prosecute Her Own Prosecutors

Trump’s top prosecutor for Virginia competed in a Miss Colorado pageant with Charlie Kirk’s wife ..... 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.

Donald Trump’s new favorite Mean Girl, one-time beauty contestant Lindsey Halligan, shares more than just a friendship with Karoline Leavitt. At 36, the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia was remarkably unqualified for the job heading up the “Rocket Docket”, the fastest federal trials court in the country. Age certainly hasn’t hindered Leavitt, 28, whose “machine gun lips” have made her invaluable as the president’s attack dog press secretary.

But while Leavitt has been sure-footed in her role in the administration’s first nine months, Halligan has been busy shooting herself in the foot.

The latest misstep is a threat to launch a leak investigation into her own prosecutors. According to MSNBC, Halligan has nagged her “rattled” leadership team to bring a quick prosecution against a Democratic state lawmaker after indicting two of Trump’s top targets—New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey. When asked by MSNBC for her comments, Halligan responded in a way that is hardly going to endear her to worried departmental attorneys by threatening her own staff. “EDVA enforces a strict zero-tolerance policy on the unauthorized disclosure of information concerning ongoing investigations or cases,” she said. “Such leaks will be investigated to the maximum extent permitted by law.”

On Tuesday, Halligan’s rookie dealings with journalists were revealed after she tried to claim a series of text messages she shared with Lawfare senior editor Anna Bower were “off the record” after the fact. The embarrassing debacle only fueled speculation in her office that Halligan is out of her depth. Until she was appointed last month, Halligan had never prosecuted a case, and her first job was as an insurance lawyer before she was plucked from obscurity to become one of Trump’s personal attorneys. She was raised in Broomfield, Colorado, and went to the Jesuit Regis University in Denver and the University of Miami, but a clue to her relatively fast rise through the legal ranks may lie in her attempts to win the Miss Colorado USA pageant, reaching the semi-final in 2009 and third-place the following year.

The Swamp is told that Halligan became friends at Regis University with Erika Frantzve, who went on to become Miss Arizona and then Mrs. Charlie Kirk. Erika now runs Kirk’s Turning Point USA organization. Frantzve came fourth to Halligan’s third in the Miss Colorado pageant in 2010.

“Sports and pageants taught me confidence, discipline, and how to handle pressure—on the court, on the field, on the stage, in the courtroom, and now in the White House,” Halligan told the Washington Post. The Miss Colorado pageant was a feeder for Trump’s Miss Universe, and Halligan, then a lawyer, met him at Mar-a-Lago in 2021, the Post reported. The president has made no secret of his penchant for beauty queens. Still, Halligan’s not winning any Miss Congeniality contests. But maybe the president can seek her views on world peace.

The Human Autopens Behind Trump’s Truths

The Swamp can reveal the answer to a running White House mystery: who has access to Donald Trump’s social media accounts? While the former president is said to spend hours scrolling his own Truth Social platform, not every post that bears his name necessarily comes straight from his raging thumbs.

Only two other trusted aides have the dubious honor of helping the president craft his “Truths.” The Human Autopens.

The first is Dan Scavino, the longtime MAGA acolyte who has worked for Trump ever since he was hired in 2004 as an assistant manager of Trump’s National Golf Club in Westchester. Known as the digital whisperer, Scavino is the White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of the Presidential Personnel Office, which is tasked with vetting new appointees. “How many times, if you had to guess, have you typed out ‘Thank You For Your Attention To This Matter’?” presidential daughter-in-law Lara Trump asked Scavino last week in a not-so-probing interview for her Fox News Channel program My View. Scavino noted: “Wow! Uh well that started a few months ago, um, I would say I have probably—I mean, he does some on his own, too—um, I would say I have probably anywhere in the range of between 100 and 110 times maybe…so thank you for your attention to this matter.”

The president’s other social media spinner is the lesser known Natalie Harp, a former One America News personality who travels with Trump almost everywhere. Harp, 34, is so devoted to the president she once wrote him a series of doting letters, including one that said: “You are all that matters to me.” She’s also been known to follow him around with a portable printer and a battery pack to charge it, so she could hand him information in hard copy paper, which he prefers (the president’s habits are often stuck in the 1980s, after all). Thus one of the Human Autopens already had a nickname—“The Human Printer.” But while Trump reportedly views Harp like a daughter, her devotion has nonetheless raised a few eyebrows from Washington to West Palm Beach. Together, Scavino and Harp appear to act like Trump’s autopens. But they are doing much more than just signing his signature.

The Vice President Does a Nice Thing

The Swamp can be snarky at times, we admit. But we are absolutely not going to be cynical about JD Vance ambushing a bride and groom on the street outside St Mary’s in Kentucky and having his picture taken with the bridal party. They all look just so goshdarned excited about it. Vance even sent a note and a bottle of Blanton’s bourbon to Mr and Mrs William Joshua Head at their reception that evening. The vice president did a nice thing. Sure, it’s a white, heterosexual couple, but we would like to hope that had nothing to do with it. Here’s hoping for more stories like this.

Kevin Rudd’s Pride Party Blues.

Poor Kevin Rudd just can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to Donald Trump. On Monday, the Australian Ambassador to the U.S. was faced with the awkward reality of being admonished by the president in real time, after Trump discovered Rudd had once said some rather nasty things about him (namely that he was a “traitor to the West”; the “most destructive president in history”; and just plain “nuts”). But two days before their high-stakes meeting alongside Australian PM Anthony Albanese, the shadow of Trump also loomed large at the ambassador’s private DC residence, where hundreds of people had gathered for his annual LGBTQ Pride party. Since Rudd and his wife Thérèse Rein moved into the “White Oaks” residence two years ago, their Pride parties have been the envy of the diplomatic community: raucous shindigs filled with home grown Aussie DJs, Washington’s most flamboyant drag queens, generous spreads of Australian food and wine, and even the occasional Eurovision performance (last year featured Electric Fields, fresh from their debut at the global song contest). This year’s party, however, was the first since Trump returned to power and enacted his War on Woke in Washington—and it’s fair to say it was a much less festive affair. There were no drag queens or DJs, no DEI-laced speeches from the ambassador, and no giant rainbow colored balloons or swanky Pride merch. Indeed, much to the chagrin of guests, the Tasmanian cuvee even ran out more than an hour before the end of the party. Maybe Rudd had to tighten the purse strings after racking up a taxpayer funded party bill of $103,000 over the past two years. But insiders say the move was also about balancing diplomacy in the era of Trump: where the messaging for such events must be more “community engagement” and less “drag queen nightclub.” Whether Rudd will be around to host another party next year is an open question, given Trump is now aware of the nasty things he once said. “I don’t like you either,” the president told him on Monday, “and I probably never will.”

Tenor Hits a High Note for Trump

Andrea Bocelli paid a discreet visit to the White House this week and as Trump was playing one of his classics over the Sonos system (or hifi!), the Italian tenor joined in to give the president a private concert in the Oval Office. Trump’s special assistant Margo Martin posted a clip online. The song was Con te partirò or Time to Say Goodbye. Too hopeful perhaps?

Bibi Bro Bails Out the Trump Whisperer

The American most responsible for the Middle East peace deal between Israel and Hamas has not been mentioned by Donald Trump and scarcely features in any reports about the U.S. president’s breakthrough to negotiate the return of the October 7 hostages.

Ron Dermer, the football-playing son of a Miami Beach Mayor, was educated at Wharton and Oxford, and has been described as a cross between George Stephanopoulos and Karl Rove.

While Donald Trump’s golfing buddy Steve Witkoff has taken much of the credit for the uneasy peace in Gaza, it is Dermer’s partnership with Jared Kushner—a relationship forged creating the one enduring legacy of Trump’s first term, the Abraham Accords—that really cemented the peace plan, sources told The Swamp.

Fiercely competitive, Israel’s “Strategic Affairs Minister” is the prime minister’s closest confidante. “Bibi scarcely blinks without checking in with Ron first,” said an insider. The American-born fixer was Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S. from 2013 to 2021, taking in all of Trump’s first Oval Office go around. Dermer was especially driven to produce results as he had led Israel’s negotiating team for the return of the October 7 hostages since February, and his lack of results was beginning to raise questions. Dermer’s first job out of college was for flip-flopping pollster Frank Luntz, who once rented a room to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Dermer also was quarterback in three World Cups for Israel’s flag-football team. Rising swiftly through the power ranks in Tel Aviv, he became close to Benjamin Netanyahu, who also lived in the States as a boy—in New York and Pennsylvania—and graduated from MIT. With the peace deal looking fragile this week, there’s no doubt who will be more important in holding it together between the Trump Whisperer and the Bibi Bro.

Alex Karp’s Oval-Office Cameo

It’s not unusual these days for random guests to pop into the Oval Office while the president takes questions from the White House pool. Last Wednesday, Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo caught the president’s eye as she stood quietly with the pool ahead of a scheduled one-on-one interview with Trump. So too did former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and his wife Callista, who was recently confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein. But a blurry cameo by Palantir’s CEO Alex Karp was somewhat more mysterious, raising renewed questions about the growing influence of the controversial tech firm within the Trump White House. Karp was spotted by reporters quietly standing in the back of the Oval Office during a press conference with FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi. Palantir—which Karp co-founded in 2003 alongside JD Vance’s mega-donor Peter Thiel—is deeply embedded in the government’s data-sharing architecture, working, for example, with the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration on major data-fusion initiatives. Palantir also recently scored a $10 billion, 10-year enterprise agreement with the US Army to streamline data and software needs and a $30 million contract to help ICE use AI and data mining to deport illegal immigrants. The company often claims it’s simply a data integration and analysis platform. But its closeness to power, breadth of access, and the lack of transparency begs the question: are we watching a tech firm not just service the government, but also shape it?

Trump Starts His 2026 Campaign … With Golf

Perhaps no one has tied themselves up in more knots to get behind Donald Trump than Sen. Lindsey Graham. And is it any wonder? The South Carolina Republican got booed in his own home state at Trump’s primary victory party last year. But Trump is repaying a favor to those most loyal to him. The president will help fundraise for Graham at the third annual “Trump Graham Classic” golf tournament next month as the lawmaker faces a primary challenge from the right. Graham is still sweating 2020 where Democrats raised millions to challenge him and left him begging for cash. While the concern was unnecessary with him soundly winning his reelection, Graham said he needs to keep his guard up. The senator has a massive $14.5 million war chest ready despite being in a ruby red state. Still, money could run out fast if things get ugly during the primary. Earlier this year, Graham chirped about his big win at the Trump International Spring Member-Guest Tournament in March. Other winners that day included golfer Gary Player, former Congressman Trey Gowdy, and–no surprise here–Trump.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-beauty-queens-threat-to-prosecute-her-own-prosecutors/?

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US strikes two more alleged drug-carrying boats, this time in the Pacific Ocean

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military on Wednesday launched its ninth strike against an alleged drug-carrying vessel, killing three people in the eastern Pacific Ocean, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, expanding the Trump administration’s campaign against drug trafficking in South America.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-cartels-drug-boat-strike-ffb1b720fa018336316238463924b78a?

Trump levies new sanctions on Russian oil giants in a push on Putin to end Ukraine war

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration announced Wednesday new “massive sanctions” against Russia’s oil industry that are aimed at moving Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and bringing an end to Moscow’s brutal war on Ukraine.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-drones-war-putin-trump-2cf465171be371a29e24aa600293b691?

ps:Like that's going to work!! Well I guess we'll have to see!!

? The entire East Wing of the White House will be demolished — perhaps as soon as this weekend — to make room for President Trump's new ballroom, The New York Times reports (gift link).

Vance calls Israel’s parliament vote on West Bank annexation an ‘insult’

JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Thursday criticized a symbolic vote in Israel’s parliament the previous day about annexing the occupied West Bank, saying that it amounted to an “insult” and went against the Trump administration policies.

https://apnews.com/article/jd-vance-israel-hamas-marco-rubio-ceasefire-press-gaza-26c272b2182c3d0accdfc5e1e3339a34?

Trump tariffs hit Port Canaveral for more than $800K

Port Canaveral officials celebrated record revenue this week after running through its fiscal year numbers, but President Donald Trump’s tariffs cost the port more than $800,000 that wasn’t in the planned budget.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/10/23/trump-tariffs-hit-port-canaverals-new-crane-walkway-more-than-800k/?

Trump pardons Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, high-profile cryptocurrency figure

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who created the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and served prison time for failing to stop criminals from using the platform to move money connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-pardon-binance-changpeng-zhao-crypto-exchange-e1cb3fe516bc42b4c7ce5c107a280dc7?

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? The deficit is shrinking

Data: Treasury Department analysis; Chart: Axios Visuals The Trump administration says government spending is slowing in ways that will help shrink the nation's massive deficit, Axios' Courtenay Brown writes. A new Treasury Department analysis shows that government outlays in the third quarter of this year were negative compared to the year before. On the other side of the ledger, the U.S. is collecting hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue from Trump's tariffs. ? Zoom out: The nation's budget deficit was roughly $1.8 trillion for fiscal year 2025, which ended in September — about $41 billion below the prior year. It's the first time the annual deficit dipped since 2022, when the expiration of pandemic-era relief programs brought government spending down. ⚡️ Yes, but: The Congressional Budget Office and independent analysts project that Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act will shrink federal revenues and thus increase deficits.

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Read Receipts (Samuel Corum / Bloomberg / Getty)

View in browser With each new communication medium comes new opportunities for politicians to get themselves into trouble. Congress demanded that letters from envoys to the French government be turned over in the XYZ Affair, thwarting President John Adams’s desire to maintain a tenuous peace with France. The leak of the Zimmermann telegram helped push the U.S. into World War I—the opposite of what its German author intended. And the tapes that President Richard Nixon used to record conversations in the Oval Office helped drive him out of it. We live in what my colleague Faith Hill has pronounced the Age of the Group Chat, and so naturally enough, that’s where this generation’s politicos are stepping in it—particularly those in the MAGAverse. Yesterday, Paul Ingrassia—President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead a whistleblower-protection office—withdrew from consideration following Politico’s disclosure of texts to a group in which he used a racial slur and wrote, “I do have a Nazi streak in me from time to time.” (Ingrassia’s lawyer didn’t outright deny the messages’ authenticity, but suggested they could have been manipulated; he also said if they were real, they were “satirical.”) That came just days after another Politico article about messages in which Young Republican officials cracked wise about “gas chambers” and used the N-word. Meanwhile, Lindsey Halligan, an interim U.S. attorney overseeing politically motivated prosecutions, sent unsolicited texts to a Lawfare reporter in which she discussed grand-jury matters. As astonishing as these all are, none of them rises to the level of the Signal chat that top Trump-administration officials used to discuss a bombing of Yemen—casually sharing highly sensitive information, and inadvertently including The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. Reporting since then indicates that this was not the only instance of Defense officials using Signal—which, though encrypted, is not a totally secure platform—to discuss sensitive information; it’s just the only one that included a journalist. The basic problem here is a foolishness about what one puts in writing. These leaks show hubris about the reliability of communications systems: In the fateful chat on Signal, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote, “We are currently clean on OPSEC.” They were not, and that is, as experts told The Atlantic, a serious security risk for the country. When you’re texting about your admiration for Hitler, the danger is less about national security and more about job security. There’s no good place to call yourself a Nazi, but there are less risky ones. If you’re doing it in person with your edgelord friends, at least you’re not leaving a paper trail. Doing it where someone can easily screenshot your messages and send them to a reporter (two members of the Young Republican chat blamed internal rivalries for the leak) is much dumber. During the first Trump administration, my colleague Adam Serwer wrote about the Stringer Bell rule—don’t take notes on a criminal conspiracy—and these ill-advised chats are a cousin: not illegal, but politically perilous. Lots of people in politics, like the rest of us, say or write stupid things, so what is it about the specific combination of MAGA folks and group chats that keeps resulting in fiascos? I think one problem is that group chats aren’t just a neutral medium—they’re a style of conversation that fosters an eagerness to outdo one’s friends. If what you and your friends are into is bigotry, as is evidently the case in these circles, you might try to say the most howlingly offensive thing. Also to blame in these cases are immaturity and incompetence. In another text-message-related flap last week, a reporter asked White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt who it was that selected Budapest for a planned meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. (The summit has since been called off.) “Your mom did,” Leavitt, 28, replied. This is a joke—or it has the shape of a joke, even if it’s not really funny—but the way you communicate with your friends is not especially useful for running the government, which Trump’s inexperienced staffers find themselves in the unlikely position of doing. Ingrassia is 30 years old—old enough to know right from wrong, but not seasoned enough to lead the Office of Special Counsel. Many of the people involved in the Signalgate chat are also far less qualified for their roles than typical holders (though Mike Waltz, the national security adviser who inadvertently added Goldberg, was one of the more traditionally qualified of the group). Halligan had never prosecuted a case when she was named to lead a very important U.S. Attorney’s Office. Officials who are less experienced are more prone to sloppy mistakes. Then again, how great are the risks? The Young Republicans chat led to a state senator’s resignation and the end of two state chapters of the organization, but such accountability is the exception. Ingrassia was forced to withdraw, but his nomination was already in trouble, and as of now, he continues to hold a job at the White House as liaison to the Department of Homeland Security. (Having a “Nazi streak” is not a deal-breaker in this administration. The texts Politico reported are only barely more outrageous than what was already public, including Ingrassia’s connections to the unabashed racist Nick Fuentes.) Or consider Waltz, who took “full responsibility” for the Signal fiasco. He was ousted as national security adviser, though apparently not over the breach, but rather because the president found him too hawkish. He was then nominated as ambassador to the United Nations and, amazingly, confirmed by the Senate. Republican figures are texting as though they have impunity because by many measures, they do. Perversely, these stories may simply reinforce for some of them that everyone is texting the same things they are, and that they won’t face major consequences for doing so. If they get caught, they don’t need to apologize or change careers. They can just tap out a simple “lol, oops” and then return to what they were doing. Related: Group-chat culture is out of control. (From 2023) Signalgate, Trump, and The Atlantic

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? Progressive clergy push back

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Getty Images

A diverse coalition of moderate and progressive Christians has opted to jump off the pulpit and challenge President Trump around immigration, civil rights and poverty, Axios' Russell Contreras writes. Why it matters: Trump commands fierce loyalty from conservative evangelicals backing his immigration raids and National Guard deployments. But "faith isn't owned by the Right," the Rev. Eddie Anderson tells Axios. "And God isn't a dirty word. God is the word." The contrast exposes a widening and overlooked rift within U.S. Christianity — often called the "God gap" — that could reshape how faith, power and politics intersect heading into 2026. ? The big picture: Moderate faith leaders are escorting immigrants to court hearings, blasting "rapid response" text alerts on sightings of ICE agents. They pray with ICE agents and National Guard troops to try to ease tension while also giving "know your rights" workshops to immigrants. They welcome LGBTQ members, bless gang members and denounce the deportations of fellow Christians who fled violence and poverty. Keep reading.

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Trump foe Letitia James blasts 'revenge' prosecution, trial set for Jan. 26

New York Attorney General Letitia James on Friday pleaded not guilty to federal charges in a fraud case tied to mortgage records she signed in 2020.

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/10/24/letitia-james-mortgage-fraud-trump.html

Letitia James signals plan to challenge Lindsey Halligan’s appointment in mortgage fraud case

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) signaled Thursday that she intends to challenge the appointment of a prosecutor handpicked by President Trump to seek charges against his foes in a bid to throw out her mortgage fraud case.

https://local.newsbreak.com/south-carolina-state/4310647438773-letitia-james-signals-plan-to-challenge-lindsey-halligans-appointment-in-mortgage-fraud-case?

Trump “National Police Force” Built on ICE Partnerships With Local Agencies Like… Wildlife Commissions?

In addition to deploying tens of thousands of federal agents from across the federal government to carry out his deportation agenda, President Donald Trump is rapidly expanding the network of state and local police going after immigrants through partnerships with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/20/trump-national-police-force-ice-287g/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=The Intercept Newsletter

David Brooks Is the Last Person We Should Be Listening to Right Now

Writing in The Atlantic last week, the columnist David Brooks — the kind of Whiggish moderate conservative rendered politically homeless and functionally irrelevant by Donald Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party — explained that he is very worried indeed.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/21/david-brooks-atlantic-trump-protests/?

Trump said new White House ballroom construction wouldn't 'interfere with the current building'

Claim:

U.S. President Donald Trump said of the construction plan for a new White House ballroom, "It won't interfere with the current building. It'll be near it but not touching it."

Rating:

Correct Attribution

In late October 2025, internet users shared a quote attributed to U.S. President Donald Trump that appeared to directly contradict the reality of the ongoing construction of a new $200 million ballroom at the White House. Allegedly, Trump said the new building "won't interfere with the current building," but rather, it would "be near it but not touching it."

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-white-house-ballroom-construction/?

 

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Trump’s Cognitive Collapse Is Clear: Psychologist

The 79-year-old president’s nonsensical speeches and mental lapses are flashing signs of his “immense cognitive decline,” according to Dr. John Gartner.

Donald Trump is exhibiting a “massive increase” in “clinical signs of dementia,” exacerbating the president’s “malignant narcissism,” a psychologist has warned.

Dr. John Gartner told The Daily Beast Podcast that the 79-year-old’s nonsensical speeches, repeated confusion, and frequent lapses in memory are flashing signs of his “immense cognitive decline.”

The former Johns Hopkins professor said the president’s deterioration is only disinhibiting his “grandiosity” and “paranoia” and warned that, with the nuclear football in Trump’s possession, “It really would be impossible to overstate the grave risk that all of us are at right now.”

Gartner presented Trump’s address to top military brass last month as Exhibit One of how “disordered” the commander-in-chief’s thinking is, noting his similarity to dementia patients who “pick up on one concrete physical detail” and then “free-associate” away from the original topic.

Trump’s speech at one point veered abruptly from discussing Marine morale to “Biden’s autopen,” before finally landing on a wandering tangent about “gorgeous paper.”

“When I have a general and I have to sign for a general because we have beautiful paper, the gorgeous paper. I said, ‘Throw a little more gold on it, they deserve it.’ Give me—I want the A paper, not the D paper. We used to sign a piece of garbage,” he said, proceeding to gush about his own signature.

“Everyone loves my signature,” he told the nation’s 800 top generals.

Gartner told host Joanna Coles that “because of his cognitive decline, [Trump] is focusing on things like the [White House] ballroom and the paper that he writes things on.”

“We’re seeing a stone skipping along the water. He’s going from one association to another, but it doesn’t make any linear sense,” the co-host of the podcast Shrinking Trump said.

Trump has become prone to a speech phenomenon called “phonemic paraphasia,” where words are left incomplete and finished with a nonsense ending, Gartner argued.

Last week, Trump claimed that he had halted a “nuclear” war between Iran and Pakistan, repeatedly mixing up Iran and India without noticing the mistake.

“It’s one thing to get a name wrong, maybe even to reverse it,” Gartner said. “But he’s actually confusing the countries themselves.”

Trump, the oldest person ever inaugurated as president, conjured up several other fake conflicts in his self-absorbed and ultimately fruitless bid for the Nobel Peace Prize.

He insisted he had “solved” an imaginary conflict between Cambodia and Armenia—two nations 4,000 miles apart, just days after bragging he’d stopped a showdown between Azerbaijan and Albania, apparently meaning Armenia.

“People don’t make those kinds of phonemic paraphasias if they’re tired or if they’re aging,” Gartner said. “It’s something very specific that is linked to dementia and organic, cognitive decline.”

According to Gartner, Trump’s “clearly demented memory loss” was evident when he forgot House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ name just a day after meeting with him last month to discuss averting a government shutdown.

Speaking to reporters, Trump discussed his talks with “Chuck Schumer, who was here yesterday, along with... uhh, the, a very nice gentleman who I didn’t really know. You know who I’m talking about.”

Gartner observed, “This is like when you go to visit your mother in the nursing home and you bring your sister and she goes, ‘Who’s that nice lady that you brought with you?’... I mean, it’s that level of non-recognition that we’re talking about.”

Trump has previously confused Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi, invented bogus governor Kristi Whitman, and lost track of important milestones in his life.

The psychologist said he believes that Trump displays “malignant narcissism,” a rare and severe personality disorder marked by paranoia and sadism that has been used to describe dictators such as Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, and Saddam Hussein.

Trump, who declared “I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them” at Charlie Kirk’s memorial, posted an AI video over the weekend depicting him bombing “No Kings” protesters with feces.

“The idea that he really just wants to s--t on everyone who disagrees with him, that’s literally how he feels because of the personality disorder,” Gartner said, explaining that in people with dementia, personality disorders tend to get “more disinhibited, more grossly raw.”

He predicted that as Trump advances in age and tenure, he would exercise his power in ways that are more “irrational” and “destructive.”

“This is really someone who could wake up and—in a state of complete confusion and erratic irritation—do something catastrophic,” Gartner said of the president, who has also faced mounting questions over his physical health due to his bruised hands and swollen ankles.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-cognitive-collapse-is-clear-psychologist/?

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Trump’s Latest Daylight Robbery Makes the Louvre Jewelry Heist Look Like Chump Change

Why stop at a few chokers and tiaras when you can just empty out Fort Knox?

The theft of priceless French crown jewels from the Louvre turns out not to have been the most brazen, outrageous heist attempted this week. That honor goes instead to the president of the United States, who has confirmed he is considering instructing the Department of Justice to pay him $230 million in compensation for its (wholly legal and completely justifiable) investigations into him, Russia, and the mishandling of national secrets.

Experts have called the fact that President Trump is even considering seeking the monies given his current role a “travesty.” One group, the non-profit advocacy organization and government watchdog Public Citizen, asserted that “this wannabe dictator is drunk on power and no amount of money will ever be enough to satisfy him.”

Were Trump to direct his DOJ to open the doors of the U.S. Treasury for him, the precedent set would open up new frontiers in corruption—even for an administration that is already the acknowledged all-time leader in the field.

But such an action ties with other recent Trumpworld developments in providing telling insights into just how traumatic the legal investigations have been for him. Apparently, the prospect of spending his twilight years in a six-by-eight cell rather than, say, swanning around with his buddies in the ornate 90,000 square foot ballroom he’s currently tearing down part of the White House to build, really got to our president. Do you blame him? If he were in the slammer there would be no one to host next year’s UFC battles on the South Lawn.

How do we know this? Because retribution against those who prosecuted him and related efforts to undo, erase and push back on prosecutions of those related to his cases has become, to an astonishing degree, a clear priority for the president and his team of bent Keebler Elves working inside the administration’s morally and ethically hollow tree.

A major effort is underway to not just recast the January 6, 2021 insurrection that Trump led as an act of “patriotism,” but to pardon the vast majority of members of the mob who attacked the Capitol—and win compensation for them. Trump’s DOJ is now vindictively prosecuting or looking into going after multiple figures tied to high-profile Trump cases, former FBI Director James Comey, NY Attorney General Leticia James, and former Special Counsel Jack Smith among them. Other portions of the U.S. government that investigate crimes (and a broad array of other white collar misdeeds) like those Trump and his cronies have been accused of are being shut down, defunded or told to redirect their focus to other issues. These include offices associated with criminal prosecution of tax cases to those investigated securities-related abuses.

He has shut down independent inspector generals in departments across his cabinet and run campaigns against whistle blowers across the government. When he sees other like-minded world leaders or allies accused of crimes like his, he casts the cases against them in exactly the terminology he used to characterize his own—calling them “witch hunts,” politically motivated and unfair.

Perhaps most notably, he has erased any hint of DOJ independence on, well, virtually any matter. Indeed, even in the case of his claims against the department he acknowledged that he would have the final word on the matter saying, “It’s interesting, because I’m the one who makes the decision.”

In modern France, those jewel thieves are the subjects of a nationwide manhunt. The country’s leaders who break the law are held to account, as in the case of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy who reported to prison this week to start a five year sentence for a campaign finance violation.

Trump seems committed to a different French model. Between his efforts to turn the White House into an all-American Versailles and his “I am the state” philosophy of government, he is harkening back to the country’s 18th century ancien regime.

But Trump needs to be careful. One of last weekend’s No Kings demonstrations took place at the site of France’s Bastille, a flashpoint in the uprising that ended rather unhappily—and certainly abruptly—for one French monarch and his wife just down the street from Louvre (at what was then called the Place de la Revolution.) Apparently building palaces while ignoring the needs of the people has consequences. Even for kings.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-daylight-robbery-makes-the-louvre-jewelry-heist-look-like-chump-change/?

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Hundreds of Cubans living in South Florida for years are being quietly deported to Mexico

The Trump administration is quietly sending hundreds of Cubans and other immigrants with significant criminal records in buses across the border to Mexico, in an expansion of third-country deportations.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/10/23/hundreds-of-cubans-living-in-south-florida-for-years-are-being-quietly-deported-to-mexico/?

ps:I'd say probably 99.9% of Cubans voted for him and this is how he repays them!!

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Devastating Poll Reveals How Much Americans Hate Trump’s White House Teardown

The self-described salesman extraordinaire is struggling to sell the idea of his renovations to the American public.

President Donald Trump’s project to obliterate the East Wing of the White House and replace it with a gaudy ballroom is polling appallingly with Americans.

Stark images showing heavy machinery chipping away at the extension have reverberated around the globe, causing dismay among many. “He’s destroying it,” Hilary Clinton, who ran against Trump for the presidency in 2016, lamented.

But, Trump says, the changes are long overdue. “We’re building a ballroom. They’ve wanted a ballroom for 150 years, and I’m giving that honor to this wonderful place,” he declared on Monday.

However, everyday Americans don’t agree, according to a damning new poll. A YouGov America survey shows that 50 percent disapprove of the overall White House refurb, as opposed to just 33 percent who declare that they are in favor.

Some 53 percent are against the East Wing being torn down, while just 24 percent of the 2,000 people polled favor Trump’s redesign of the extension, originally constructed in 1902.

GOP voters, perhaps predictably, are hot on Trump’s redesign, which follows his gold-washed makeover of the Oval Office.

Some 63 percent among the party’s voters are keen on a White House makeover, while less than half, 45 percent, like his East Wing redesign. Eighteen percent of Republican voters don’t like his White House makeover and a 28 percent cohort join Democrats in lamenting his activity on the East Wing.

Democrats mostly hate Trump’s cosmetic efforts. A huge 77 percent reject his redesign of the White House generally, with the same amount vexed by his East Wing demolition job. Independents join the Dems in their dismay, 55 and 54 respectively reject Trump’s makeover.

Further polling reveals that most U.S. adults, 35 percent, report that they think the sprawling 90,000-square-foot ballroom will have a negative impact.

The project is also legally contentious. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit created by Congress to help preserve irreplaceable historic buildings and monuments, sent a letter to the three agencies overseeing the project on Tuesday and urged them to pause the demolition until the plans go through “legally required public review processes.”

“Doing so will help ensure that the project both honors the exceptional historic significance of the White House and acknowledges the investment that the American people have in the preservation of this beloved place,” the trust’s CEO Carol Quillen wrote to the National Capital Planning Commission.

The plea is likely to fall on deaf ears, however, as the commission was quietly stacked with Trump loyalists days before the ballroom plans were unveiled in July.

The cost of Trump’s project, meanwhile, has skyrocketed to $300 million, up threefold from projections in February. And despite the tide of criticism barreling Trump’s way, he insists everything is fine and continues showing off his plans for the new entertainment space.

“It’ll be one of the great ballrooms anywhere in the world. It’s about $300 million. It’s set to do many, many things, including meetings of foreign leaders,” the president said, showing reporters images of what the ballroom interior would look like. “I think there’ll be nothing like it,” he added.

The White House has not responded to a request for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/devastating-poll-reveals-how-much-americans-hate-trumps-white-house-teardown/?

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Lawmaker Warns Trump May Pay Himself $230M DOJ Damages in Secret

A Democrat-led review says the process could allow an initial payout without disclosure.

The $230 million in compensation President Donald Trump is demanding from his own Justice Department could be paid to him in secret, a senior Democratic lawmaker has warned.

Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin, who is investigating the matter as ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told The New Republic that his staff’s research suggests a payout could be kept confidential initially, with Trump’s former lawyer, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, among the people deciding its legitimacy. Trump is seeking the money to compensate him for the federal investigations into him, according to the New York Times.

Ethics experts and lawmakers point to a line of laws and conflicts of interest that could derail the compensation bid, but may not.

“Our reading is that, even though this is a private settlement, it doesn’t have to be disclosed anywhere until there is an accounting of where all the money has gone at the end of the year,” Raskin told the New Republic.

A spokesperson for House Judiciary Committee Democrats told the outlet that’s because Trump is pursuing the payments through an internal DOJ claims process which is usually confidential. While the payments would eventually be made public in a report to Congress, the transaction could take place long before the Justice Department publicly discloses it.

Dan Weiner, of NYU’s Brennan Center, also told The New Republic: “I’m not aware of any reason this would automatically be made public at the time it happened.”

Raskin added that he will request “the entire paper trail” between the White House and DOJ. “If we had subpoena power, we would be going after that,” he said.

Trump, 79, has filed administrative claims seeking “damages” tied to the 2016 Russia probe and a 2024 search of Mar-a-Lago, his Florida home.

He has argued he was “damaged very greatly” by the investigations and claimed he would donate any money to charity or use it to fund the new ballroom under construction at the White House.

Highlighting a significant potential conflict of interest in the process, Trump told reporters on Tuesday that the decision would go “across my desk,” before admitting, “It’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself.”

Ethics concerns center on Blanche, 51—Trump’s former defense lawyer—who would be among officials weighing the claim under Attorney General Pam Bondi, 59.

“It goes without saying that anybody in the Trump administration who violates the law is now expecting a pardon from Donald Trump,” Raskin told The New Republic. “If you want the protection of the president, you need to comply with his every wish.”

Raskin also cited constitutional issues, pointing to the Domestic Emoluments Clause. This bars a sitting president from getting any payment or benefit from the U.S. or any state beyond his fixed salary. “This means he cannot be ordering government officials to write checks to the president,” Raskin said.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Department of Justice for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/jamie-raskin-warns-donald-trump-may-pay-himself-230m-department-of-justice-damages-in-secret/?

ps:A warning? We don't need a warning, because that's exactly what he'll do!! And no one will say a word!!!!!