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

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Red State Workers Could Lose Out on Disability Benefits as Trump Administration Rewrites Eligibility Rules

It’s never been easy to qualify for Social Security disability benefits. Christopher Tincher knows this firsthand.

https://www.propublica.org/article/social-security-disability-eligibility-trump-red-states?

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Trump Sparks Backlash with False Jan. 6 Claim

President Donald Trump has come under scrutiny for claiming that former President Joe Biden had FBI agents present during the January 6, 2021, insurrection, despite the fact that Trump was in office at the time. Critics have argued the claim wrongly shifts responsibility for the U.S. Capitol attack from Trump’s administration. Analysts warned the misstatement could further legitimize debunked conspiracy theories on the matter. Numerous outlets have fact-checked Trump’s false claim.

https://www.newsbreak.com/news/4323841709316-trump-sparks-backlash-with-false-jan-6-claim?

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Vance Thirsts Over Getting Usha to Desert Her Hindu Faith

The vice president’s interfaith marriage has once again come under the spotlight.

Vice President JD Vance has declared he wanted his wife to convert to Christianity—leading to accusations of hypocrisy and “Hindu-phobia.”

Speaking at a Turning Point USA event in Mississippi, Vance was asked by an audience member about his marriage to Usha Vance, America’s first Second Lady of Hindu faith.

The pair married in an interfaith ceremony in Kentucky in 2014, with a Hindu pandit and a Christian officiant officiating. They now have three children who are being raised as Christians.

“You are raising three kids in an intercultural-racial-religious household,” a woman in the audience asked the Vice President during the event’s question and answer session.

“How are you teaching your kids not to keep your religion ahead of their mother’s religion?”

Vance - who converted to Catholicism in 2019 as he was laying the groundwork for a political career - replied by saying that when he met Usha, “I would consider myself an agnostic or an atheist and that’s what I think she would have considered herself as well.”

“Now, most Sundays, Usha will come with me to church,” he added.

“As I’ve told her, and I’ve said publicly, and I’ll say now in front of 10,000 of my closest friends: Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved in by church? Yeah, I honestly do wish that because I believe in the Christian Gospel, and I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way.”

The vice president added that if Usha decided not to convert “then God says everybody has free will.”

But while Vance’s remarks were met with applause from MAGA Republicans and the Christian conservatives who make up much of Turning Point’s base, he also faced a backlash from other quarters.

The Times of India, the nation’s third biggest newspaper and the world’s largest selling English-language daily, observed that “Vance came across as ‘Hindu-phobic’.”

Former Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwan Sibal also weighed in, saying: “He calls her agnostic. Afraid to admit her Hindu origin. Where has all this talk of religious freedom gone?”

“They have this Congressionally mandated US Commission on International Religious Freedom. Charity should begin at home,” said Sibal, who was also the Indian Ambassador to Turkey, Egypt, France and Russia.

Austin-based tech executive Deep Barot responded with a “laugh out loud” emoji.

“Lol. Usha Vance is Hindu not agnostic,” he wrote on X.

“This is not very hard for you to follow. They even had a Vedic Hindu wedding and one of his kids’ names is Vivek. The biggest hypocrite of them all is JD Vance.”

And another observer referenced the fact that Vance, who once called Donald Trump “America’s Hitler,” was a late convert to Catholicism and had altered his name several times over the years.

“Man who changed his name three times, his religion twice, and changed every political stance he had in eight years is in disbelief someone would stay consistent in their beliefs,” he wrote.

With its origins in ancient India, Hinduism is characterized by its wide range of beliefs and practices and lack of a single founder. Its core beliefs include the concept of cause and effect (karma), the cycle of reincarnation (samsara), and the pursuit of spiritual liberation (moksha).

But Wednesday night’s event was not the first time questions about the religion have been raised at Turning Point, the organization founded by slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Earlier this month, former Republican presidential nominee candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who is now running to be Ohio’s new governor, was also forced to defend his Hindu faith by audience members questioning how he could seek office when he wasn’t a Christian.

“Jesus Christ is God, and there is no other God,” one male student told him.

“How can you represent the constituents of Ohio who are 64 percent Christian if you are not a part of that faith?”

The vice president and the second lady got married in 2014, four years after meeting at Yale Law School, when they joined a discussion group on “social decline in white America.”

A decade later, with Vance now the second in line to the presidency, their union has come under immense scrutiny, including last week when former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki suggested Usha needed to be saved from their marriage.

“I always wonder what’s going on in the mind of his wife,” the former Biden aide joked on the liberal podcast I’ve Had It.

“Like, are you OK? Please blink four times. Come over here, we’ll save you.”

Vance hit back, describing the comments as “disgraceful.”

“I’m very lucky to have a wonderful wife, and I know—at least I hope—that my wife feels the same about me,” he added.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/vance-blasted-as-hindu-phobic-for-wanting-usha-to-swap-religions/?

ps:I can see why she has a problem with the Christianity practiced by Vance!

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Pentagon Pete Purges Decorated Admiral for DOGE Goon, 33

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also pushed out a three-star general.

The highly decorated head of a critical Navy research office has been replaced with a 33-year-old former DOGE employee with no military experience in a new purge of senior officers at the Pentagon under Pete Hegseth.

A three-star general serving on the Joint Staff was also pushed out, according to reports.

The moves are the latest in a series of departures of top officials with decades of experience within the Defense Department in the Trump administration.

Rear Admiral Kurt Rothenhaus was recently removed from his position as chief of naval research at the Office of Naval Research (ONR). That office is charged with critical technical research and doling out billions in funding for the Navy.

His departure was first reported by The Bulwark.

The Navy chief was replaced with 33-year-old former DOGE employee Rachel Riley, who previously worked as a McKinsey consultant and has no previous military service.

Rothenhaus assumed command of ONR in June 2023. Its website still lists him as the head of naval research, and an active duty flag officer has historically led the office.

He is the recipient of the Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal and various unit and sea service awards.

According to the Navy website, Rothenhaus’s operational assignments included serving as the combat systems/C5I officer on USS Harry S. Truman, and chief engineer on USS O’Brien. Additionally, he served on the staff of Destroyer Squadron 15 and on USS Fife, and completed a tour in Baghdad, Iraq.

He served as program manager for the Navy’s Tactical Networks Program Office and commanding officer of Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific. He was also deputy program manager for the Navy Communications and GPS Program Office.

The U.S. Navy confirmed the shake-up with The Daily Beast in a statement in which a spokesperson praised Riley as a Rhodes Scholar who has “led major defense and public-sector transformations as a partner at McKinsey and in senior government advisory roles, delivering measurable efficiency and performance gains.”

The spokesperson declined to share more information on Rothenhaus’s next post but thanked him for his service.

Riley’s LinkedIn profile says she was a partner at McKinsey’s Public Sector and People/Organizational Performance practice. Before that, she completed a PhD in Social Policy and MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.

She describes herself as “a proficient speaker of Mandarin Chinese and was a varsity member of Wofford College’s Lady Terriers Volleyball Team.”

Riley describes herself as a “government leader” and writes that she has been working on “a range of confidential projects since the Inauguration.” She says she has worked as a “Senior Advisor” in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services since January 2025, but multiple reports tied her to DOGE.

A spokesperson for HHS praised Riley’s work with the department in a statement.

“We appreciate the work Rachel Riley did for HHS to improve and right size the agency across its structure, programs, and grants,” said Richard Danker, Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs.

Lt. General Joe McGee, who served as the director of Strategy, Plans, and Policy on the Joint Staff, left his position earlier this month after sustained tension with Hegseth, according to CNN.

The three-star general reportedly pushed back against the TV personality-turned-defense secretary and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Dan Caine, on several issues, including the war in Ukraine and strikes in the Caribbean, sources told the network.

McGee was nominated for the promotion to lieutenant general and assigned as director with the Joint Staff under President Joe Biden.

The Pentagon confirmed to The Daily Beast that McGee was departing but pushed back on the report of tension.

“General McGee is retiring, and the War Department is grateful for his service,” said Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell.

Parnell called CNN’s reporting on it “100% fake news.”

However, as one source put it to the network, McGee ”had a target on his back for a while now.” He was reportedly also seen by some in Hegseth’s office as too close to the “old guard,” including former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley and former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

The Trump administration has made a series of changes and fired numerous top military officials since Hegseth took office. In August, the defense secretary fired Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, who led the Defense Intelligence Agency. In April, the president fired General Timothy Haugh as director of the National Security Agency.

Soon after taking office, the defense secretary also fired Air Force General C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shakeup.

More recently, the defense secretary drew harsh criticism for calling generals and flag officers to Virginia from around the world to rant about the “warrior ethos,” facial hair, and purging “woke” officials from the ranks.

Hegseth told top military brass gathered in Quanitico that if they did not like the direction he was taking the department, they could resign.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pentagon-pete-purges-decorated-admiral-for-doge-goon-33/?

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White House Confuses Two Black Democrats in Wild Post

“Does the intern running the white house page not know Hakeem Jeffries and Cory Booker are different people,” one X user wrote.

The White House is being called out for confusing two Black lawmakers in its attempt to troll Democrats on its official social media account.

The White House shared “Halloween costume inspiration” on X, featuring “costumes” of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance alongside their Democratic rivals, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

The costume depicting Jeffries, 55, shows him wearing a sombrero and includes “one filibuster speech no one remembers.”In July, Jeffries delivered a record-breaking speech on the House floor. But filibusters only exist in the Senate, and officials were likely referring instead to Sen. Cory Booker’s 25-hour speech torching the Trump administration in April, which broke the record for the longest filibuster-like address in history.

Eagle-eyed X users also took notice of the oversight in the meme, which was posted Tuesday.

“Does the intern running the white house page not know Hakeem Jeffries and Cory Booker are different people,” one X replied to the post, which has racked up 1.4 million views as of Thursday morning.

“They do know. It’s intentional,” another replied.

The hat Jeffries sports in the post stems from a “racist” sombrero meme Trump posted earlier this month to troll Jeffries.

The president’s AI-generated video depicted Jeffries and Schumer speaking outside the White House. The video portrayed the House Speaker with a handlebar mustache and a sombrero while mariachi music played in the background.

At the time, Jeffries branded the deepfake as “disgusting,” furiously telling reporters at a press conference on Tuesday: “Mr. President, the next time you have something to say about me, don’t cop out through a racist and fake AI video. When I’m back in the Oval Office, say it to my face.”

Defending the problematic meme, Vance told reporters at the time that the sombrero-wearing images of Jeffries would stop—provided he helped Republicans reopen the government.

“The president’s joking, and we’re having a good time,” Vance told reporters when asked about the meme, which Democrats had branded as bigoted.

The sombrero was referenced twice in the White House’s controversial post. In the costume description for Schumer, 74, it reads: “Includes: your money given to illegals, life subscription to performative outrage. Not included: sombrero, spine.”This isn’t the first time the New Jersey senator has been mistaken for Jeffries. Earlier this year, Democratic Rep. Jonathan Jackson quickly deleted a photo of himself shaking hands with Booker, 56, captioned, “Democrats stand behind Rep. Jeffries.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-house-confuses-two-black-democrats-in-wild-post/?

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ICE Thugs Shot at Protesters After Being Tear Gassed by Other Bungling Goons

Cops say Portland protests got worse after the arrival of federal agents.

Federal officers are alleged to have opened fire with pepper balls on a crowd of protesters and cops after their own bungling colleagues accidentally teargassed them.

Portland police commander Franz Schoening testified in court that protests outside the South Portland ICE headquarters had been “mild” in September—but swelled after Donald Trump announced National Guard troops were headed to the city.

He said violence directed at federal officers remained limited, while agents “sometimes used excessive force,” including the Oct. 18 incident during a No Kings protest when ICE officers accidentally fired a canister that bounced onto the roof of the facility, hitting their own colleagues.

This then led to the armed officers on the roof shooting back into the driveway, striking local police and protesters with pepper balls and tear gas of their own, according to Schoening, Reuters reported.

Schoening’s testimony came as U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, who was appointed by Trump, began a bench trial to decide whether protests at the immigration site amounted to an obstruction that could justify a military deployment.

Troops are currently blocked from Portland under her Oct. 4 temporary restraining order, which found the White House case “untethered to the facts.”

City attorney Caroline Turco argued the gatherings “were not violent” and didn’t warrant troops. DOJ lawyer Eric Hamilton countered that a summer of agitation impeded immigration enforcement.

The picture painted by Portland police matches earlier reporting, which reviewed police logs describing tiny, “low-energy” nights—10 to 20 people, minimal action—before Trump’s order.

After the president’s Sept. 27 directive, crowds swelled and sporadic force followed, according to court-filed summaries and on-the-ground accounts.

Oregon law restricts tear gas unless police face a legally declared “riot”—a threshold Schoening said hadn’t been met since mid-June—making the federal volleys “startling,” and impermissible for local officers, per the Straits Times.The legal fight is Portland’s test case. President Trump and the White House have floated similar justifications in other Democratic-led cities, while Oregon officials insist routine policing was working before troop talk—and say the federal show-ups made things worse.

The Portland trial without jury before Judge Immergut continues.

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

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-thugs-shot-at-national-guard-protesters-in-portland-after-being-tear-gassed-by-bungling-colleagues/?

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Judge Humiliates Trump’s Top Border Patrol Goon With His Own Words on Fox News

Gregory Bovino welcomed the prospect of daily courtroom check-ins, even as DOJ lawyers argued against them.

A judge ripped apart the Trump administration’s argument against her ruling this week by quoting their top goon’s own words directly from a Fox News interview.

U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis said she was stunned to see Donald Trump’s most notorious immigration enforcer boast about how he was looking forward to nightly check-ins in her courtroom—hours before government lawyers argued that the very same check-ins would be “extraordinarily disruptive.”

The judge had demanded on Tuesday that Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino, who has faced legal censure for his team’s heavy-handed tactics, must report to her at 6 p.m. every day.

In a court filing on Wednesday evening, lawyers for the Trump administration appealed the ruling and said forcing Bovino, 55, to check in daily would cause “irreparable harm” to immigration enforcement efforts.

But their claims had already been undermined by Bovino, who gave an interview to Fox News earlier that day to “answer his critics,” telling host Harris Faulkner: “If [the judge] wants to meet with me every day… I look forward to meeting with that judge to show her exactly what’s happening.”

Ellis told government lawyers on Wednesday evening that she’d been “surprised” to watch the segment given what she had just been told.

The Obama-appointed judge noted Bovino had stated “that he was excited to come to court and that this would not impede his activities,” per the Chicago Sun-Times.

She noted that the DOJ’s stance had been “directly contradicted” by Bovino, and that his words undercut the government’s position.

“I did see Mr. Bovino’s interview on Fox News, where he did state that he was excited to come to court and that this would not impede his activities or his ability to manage the operation at all,” Ellis said during the hearing.

“So I was a little surprised just to see that the government’s position… was directly contradicted by Mr. Bovino.”

A Seventh Circuit panel had paused Ellis’ order requiring Bovino to appear before her every weeknight for the duration of “Operation Midway Blitz” in Illinois, but left the door open for further briefing.

Plaintiffs echoed Ellis in filings: “Bovino himself has stated publicly that the reporting requirement… poses no obstacle,” they told the court.

Ellis is overseeing a suit from media groups over agents’ treatment of protesters and journalists, and has ordered bodycam compliance and use-of-force reports dating to Sept. 2.

DOJ has called nightly meetings “extraordinarily disruptive”—a claim now blunted by Bovino’s televised assurances.

It’s just the latest controversy to hit Bovino, the divisive and controversial Border Patrol commander now leading operations in Illinois. Bovino was accused last week of breaching a court order when he was filmed throwing tear-gas at protesters, which was partly why he had been hauled into court in the first place.His Border Patrol “Green Army” is in the ascendancy over ICE in the ongoing drive by the Department of Homeland Security to hit its 3,000-a-day deportation target, but it has been criticised for its heavy-handed dragnet tactics.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem this week, asking for all immigration operations to be halted over Halloween weekend.

His plea came after a kids’ Halloween parade in the city last Saturday was cancelled due to immigration officers clashing with protestors, during which a 67-year-old American allegedly suffered six broken ribs.

Noem refused and said she planned to increase the number of officers on the ground.

On the same day Bovino was ordered to report to court, DHS released a promo that critics said appeared to style Bovino in SS-adjacent clothing.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/judge-humiliates-donald-trumps-top-immigration-goon-gregory-bovino-with-his-own-words-on-fox-news/?

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MTG Unleashes on ‘Pathetic Republican Men’

The MAGA lawmaker blasts those who believe she should be “seen but not heard.”

MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has lashed out at “pathetic Republican men” criticizing her ahead of an upcoming media blitz.

Greene, who has risen from fringe QAnon supporting conspiracy theorist to an unlikely voice of reason within the GOP, is scheduled to appear on ABC News’ The View on Tuesday and HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday.

The Georgia lawmaker’s appearances come as the Trump loyalist has become increasingly critical of her own party’s leadership on foreign policy, the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files saga, and the government shutdown.

“There are pathetic Republican men (mostly paid social media influencers) attacking me for going on Bill Maher’s show and The View,” Greene posted on X.

Her post included a screenshot showing her 100 percent “Liberty Score”—a grading system from Conservative Review based on whether lawmakers’ voting record supports conservative positions.

“Here is my voting card and nothing has changed about me, I’m 1,000,000% America ONLY,” Greene wrote. “Sorry I’m not sorry I don’t obey Republican men’s demands that I, as a woman, remain seen but not heard.”

The View host Whoopi Goldberg announced Thursday that Greene will join the show during its Election Day coverage on Nov. 4, when several races—including the New York mayoral election—will be happening across the country.

Greene did not name which “pathetic” men attacked her, but the news drew significant MAGA pushback.

Xaviaer DuRousseau, a conservative social media influencer, posted to his 282,000 X followers, “This may cost us the midterms and I’m not even kidding.”

Red Eagle Politics, a pro-Trump political YouTuber spotted a conspiracy. “MTG trashes Trump, and gets to be the first conservative to be allowed on The View in years. Are people not paying attention to the psyop here?”

During her heel turn against the GOP, Greene has fired multiple shots at House Speaker Mike Johnson for his handling of the government shutdown and failure to devise a plan to prevent subsidies under the Affordable Care Act from expiring. If Congress does not renew Affordable Care Act premium tax credits by Nov. 1, millions of Americans could face steep increases in health-care costs.

She has also teamed up with long-time GOP rebel and Trump nemesis Rep. Thomas Massie to try to force the Department of Justice to release all the files on Epstein, the billionaire sex offender who died in federal custody in 2019.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mtg-unleashes-on-pathetic-republican-men/?

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Trump Makes New Power Grab in Terrifying All-Caps Rant

The president said the move would give him and the Republican Party “Great Strength.”

President Donald Trump was back on U.S. soil for less than 24 hours before he resumed issuing seismic political edicts via late-night Truth Social post.

In a lengthy message on Thursday, not long after the president and first lady Melania Trump handed out candy to White House trick-or-treaters, Trump called on Republicans to play their “trump card” and “go for what is called the nuclear option,” eliminating the filibuster rule.

He said the move would imbue him and the Republican party with “Great Strength.”

Trump’s call to action is an attempt by the president to eliminate the Senate rule Democrats are currently using to block government funding plans.

The filibuster rule in the Senate means 60 votes are required to bring legislation up for a vote. Republicans hold a majority of 53 to the Democrats’ 47. Changing filibuster rules and requiring only a simple majority in the Senate would overturn two centuries of the upper chamber providing a powerful check on the party in power.

The president is right to say that previous Democratic presidents have also dreamed of stripping out this impediment.

“Just a short while ago, the Democrats, while in power, fought for three years to do this, but were unable to pull it off because of Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Never have the Democrats fought so hard to do something because they knew the tremendous strength that terminating the Filibuster would give them,” he wrote.

He continued, “Well, now WE are in power, and if we did what we should be doing, it would IMMEDIATELY end this ridiculous, Country destroying ‘SHUT DOWN.‘” If the Democrats ever came back into power, which would be made easier for them if the Republicans are not using the Great Strength and Policies made available to us by ending the Filibuster, the Democrats will exercise their rights, and it will be done in the first day they take office, regardless of whether or not we do it.“This was a concept from years ago of then President Barack Hussein Obama and former Majority Leader Harry Reid in order to take advantage of the Republicans. Now I want to do it in order to take advantage of the Democrats.”

He also posted a shorter version of his edict for those with limited attention spans, writing (this time in all caps), “….BECAUSE OF THE FACT THAT THE DEMOCRATS HAVE GONE STONE COLD ‘CRAZY,’ THE CHOICE IS CLEAR—INITIATE THE ‘NUCLEAR OPTION,’ GET RID OF THE FILIBUSTER AND, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

The government shutdown began on Oct. 1 as a result of the Senate’s failure to pass government funding. It is now the second-longest shutdown in U.S. history, surpassed only by the shutdown that occurred during Trump’s first term.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune dismissed suggestions Republicans were considering changes to the filibuster rule earlier this month, telling reporters that he had not been told by the White House to do so.

“There’s always a lot of swirl out there, as you know, from social media, etc. But no, I have not had that conversation,” Thune said.

That situation has clearly now changed.

While some Republicans, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Sen. Bernie Moreno, have floated the idea of eliminating the rule, others have spoken out in favor of keeping it, arguing that it benefits Republicans and serves as a safeguard against the risk of Democrats exercising unchecked power next time they have a majority.

Speaker Mike Johnson also cautioned against eliminating the rule, telling reporters, “Is it possible? Yes… Is it wise? A lot of people would tell you it’s not.“

“I mean, on the Republican side, I would be deeply concerned if the Democrats had a bare majority in the Senate right now.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/peace-president-donald-trump-urges-gop-to-initiate-nuclear-option-in-all-caps-rant/?

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Scary News for Trump as Halloween Candy Price Rockets

Trick or treaters will find Trump’s tariffs have been anything but sweet.

Candy prices have risen devilishly, partly thanks to Donald Trump’s tariffs, new research says. Americans stocking up on sweet treats for spooky season can expect to pay 10.8 percent more than they did last year. The gruesome data comes from research conducted by think tanks Groundwork Collaborative and The Century Foundation. Family favorites such as Tootsie Roll Lollipops and Hershey’s chocolate have experienced some of the sharpest price increases. Tootsie’s offering is expected to cost 34 percent more compared to last year, while Hershey’s variety packs have leapt 22 percent. Mars variety packs are also up 12 percent. Researchers say the hikes are “a direct result of Trump’s tariffs, which are hitting key ingredients that candy makers rely on.” Chocolate has had the scariest spike. Tariff hikes between 15 percent and 39 percent have affected the supply chain on which the U.S. relies. Approximately 70 percent of cocoa imports originate from West Africa, while around 30 percent are processed in Europe. Decorations are also primarily made in China, where Trump tariffs can spike U.S. prices.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/scary-news-for-trump-as-halloween-candy-price-rockets-thanks-to-tariffs/?

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Portland Oregon Pastor Condemns National Guard Occupation in Open Letter

In September, the current U.S Administration announced the need to deploy the national guard to Portland, Oregon in response to their “wartorn” violence. The basis for this decision was from Fox News footage, a conservative American news outlet, shot in July 2020, during the height of protest against police violence sparked by George Floyd’s death. Believing the footage was current, the National Guard was deployed to address potential crime or violence, as well as collect any undocumented individuals. 

Portland did not respond well to the militarization and expressed confusion towards the deployment. Mayor Keith Wilson, Portland City Councilors, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley denounced the federal deployment. 

“Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said the deployment was “not acceptable” and did not meet the legal necessary requirements, since there is no invasion and no insurrection. On Oct. 5, U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut blocked the deployment of troops in Portland from the Oregon National Guard, the California National Guard, or any other National Guard.”

Nevertheless, U.S troops occupied Portland, Oregon and were met with peaceful protests from citizens unwilling to normalize the overreach of power. Some portlanders were arrested at these peaceful protests, and the military presence caused unrest and incited violence against its citizens, such as the deployment of teargas and tackling those sitting in protest against ICE facilities. 

Pastor Reginald Richardson Jr. of the Your Bible Speaks Community Seventh-day Adventist Church was disturbed by escalation of violence in the name of lawfulness and sent an open letter to the United States President. In a Facebook post, he linked the full letter and stated:

“This is not about politics. It is about faith. As followers of Christ, we believe the church must speak when injustice harms the vulnerable, silences communities, and undermines human dignity.

This letter calls our nation’s leaders to repentance, justice, and mercy, values deeply rooted in Scripture. We share it publicly because silence in the face of injustice is not an option for God’s people.”

In the two page letter, the pastor condemns the deployment of the National Guard and the violence they caused, stating that it “represents not strength, but the very kind of coercive power against which the Word of God warns.” Throughout the letter he cites verses like Revelation 13, Leviticus 19:34, Isaiah 10:1-2, Genesis 18:25, and others. Richardson than queries:

“When will your use of force be enough? Must we expect, even by writing this letter, to have a National Guard presence in front of our own church building? You are not making us safer. You are not making America great again. You are making America resemble the very beasts of Revelation. And God knows how to handle them. Babylon does fall.” 

Apparently, ICE and the National Guard have already negatively impacted their congregation. Richardson cites the church’s efforts to have a Spanish speaking sermons series as a place of refuge for worshippers afraid of being profiled and kidnapped, however many Hispanic congregants were too afraid to attend. The pastor also mentions congregants negatively affected by the “Big Beautiful Bill” passed in July which cut $1 trillion from health programs, causing a dramatic surge in health insurance premiums, leading to a double in cost, and cuts of “$120 billion from SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps), reducing food assistance for low-income families,” the latter two will go into effect on November 1. This paired with staggering inflation for basic goods and services, means congregants are already struggling according to Richardson’s letter. 

The pastor concludes with a bulleted list of how to change course:

• End the deployment and brutalization of citizens exerting their first amendment rights through peaceful protest.
• Cease the dehumanization and discrimination against those seeking asylum through breaking up families and denying due process. 
• Then implores for the repentance of the current administration for their abuse of the poor, elderly, and the vulnerable. 

These items, according to the letter, are “heaven’s mandates,” citing Jeremiah 22:3 and Micah 6:8 in God’s requirement that “rulers execute justice to defend the cause of the poor and needy, to show mercy.” Richardson concludes the letter with an olive branch, expressing a willingness to respectful dialogue, stating “true leadership is not found in domination, but in humility, in listening, and in courage to change course when confronted with the truth.”

Other verses to consider:

Exodus 22:21 “Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt. 

Psalm 146:9 “The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow,  but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.”

Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

https://atoday.org/portland-oregon-pastor-condemns-national-guard-occupation-in-open-letter/

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Judges order Trump administration to use emergency reserves for SNAP payments during the shutdown

BOSTON (AP) — Two federal judges ruled nearly simultaneously on Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration must continue to pay for SNAP, the nation’s biggest food aid program, using emergency reserve funds during the government shutdown.

https://apnews.com/article/snap-shutdown-lawsuits-deadline-4af8b0dec6cd31cddd023cc99c131b73?

Live updates: Trump administration must fund SNAP payments during the shutdown, judges rule

Two federal judges ruled nearly simultaneously on Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration must continue to fund SNAP, the nation’s biggest food aid program, using contingency funds during the government shutdown. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

Government shutdown offers schools a glimpse of life without an Education Department Republican leaders reject Trump’s demands to scrap the Senate filibuster to end the shutdown What’s the filibuster and why does Trump want to get rid of it during the shutdown?

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Federal judge rules Trump can’t require citizenship proof on the federal voting form

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s request to add a documentary proof of citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form cannot be enforced, a federal judge ruled Friday.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-elections-executive-order-democrats-citizenship-034a4d552a978a8f647d95bd3cf38ac0?

Judges order USDA to keep funding SNAP

Data: Axios research. Map: Axios Visuals Two federal judges today ordered the Trump administration to continue funding SNAP benefits during the government shutdown. In separate cases, the judges said the USDA must tap contingency funds to keep benefits available, at least temporarily. Payments were set to freeze beginning tomorrow. ⚖️ The rulings could provide some support and reassurance to the millions of families who rely on food stamps — and, in the process, make it easier for Democrats to keep holding out rather than quickly voting to end the shutdown. But if the Justice Department can successfully appeal those orders — as it has with any number of other court orders — the stop-start-stop of critical benefits could create significant confusion for low-income Americans. ? The USDA had said it could not legally tap a $5 billion contingency fund to pay for SNAP benefits. Not only can it do so — it's required to, Judge Indira Talwani said in the Massachusetts case. ? What we're watching: Several states — including California, New York and Virginia — have either declared emergencies or otherwise redirected funds to keep SNAP benefits flowing, at least temporarily, Axios' Jason Lalljee reports.

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Under the government shutdown, NLRB cases are on hold and the future of the agency remains uncertain

Despite claiming to be pro-worker, President Trump has consistently put forward policies that benefit employers over workers. If the Trump administration really cared about workers, they would sufficiently fund worker protection agencies.

https://www.epi.org/blog/under-the-government-shutdown-nlrb-cases-are-on-hold-and-the-future-of-the-agency-remains-uncertain/?

ps:He has never been for workers and will never be!

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Presidents’ Performances

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Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan briefly crossed paths last week. The Canadian province of Ontario arranged the encounter. As the Toronto Blue Jays opened the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night, an anti-tariff advertisement from the provincial government ran during the game, featuring clips from a 1987 Reagan radio address. The ad reordered Reagan’s words but did not necessarily change their drift: Reagan, a late-20th-century Republican, favored free trade. Trump, the self-described “Tariff Man,” did not appreciate the reminder. He suggested that the spot had been generated by AI and later called it a “fraud” when announcing an additional 10 percent in duties on Canadian goods.

At first glance, Trump and Reagan belong to the same lineage. Both are talismanic figures in the Republican Party and national politics who achieved their stature by translating the skills honed in one media world into the next. Reagan, a studio-film actor and spokesman, seamlessly adapted to the presidency by turning it into a series of televised scenes. Trump, the tabloid caricature and reality-TV star, has taken an almost unbreakable hold of Americans’ attention by transforming the presidency into an endless scroll of outrage and provocation.

And yet, the media environments in which both thrived could not be more different. They reward radically different tones, rhythms, and understandings of what political authority looks like. The conflict over the Ontario advertisement, then, is not simply about how the Republican Party has shifted on trade. It lays bare how our media environment has remade the performance of the presidency itself.

Late in his second term, Reagan said something on ABC that he’d often said in private: “There have been times in this office when I’ve wondered how you could do the job if you hadn’t been an actor.” Indeed, Reagan’s background on the screen informed his administration’s entire approach to public relations in an era when, as one aide put it, “people get their news and form their judgments based largely on what they see on television.” Where John F. Kennedy, the first telegenic president, had a sparse PR team, Reagan reportedly had a team of almost 40. Ahead of public appearances, he and his aides scripted his lines and blocked his moves in the language of movie scenes. Many press conferences involved two days of preparation, including careful planning for how Reagan would enter the room and rehearsals for every possible question he might face.

Reagan himself was known to blend stories from TV and movies with actual events. Reflecting in 1988 on a summit with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, he told the press that the experience had felt something like one of Cecil B. DeMille’s “great historical spectacles.” Meeting Gorbachev three years earlier, in 1985, he had wondered if humans would forget their differences and unite in the event of an alien invasion—a scenario that Colin Powell, then an aide to Reagan’s defense secretary, suspected had come from the 1951 science-fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still.

The sensibilities of that older media milieu—wholesome, affirming, a little bit soft-focus—informed an approach to the presidency that prioritized a shared national narrative. In the broadcast monoculture of the late 20th century, before politically segmented cable news, tens of millions of Americans watched the same evening newscasts and prime-time shows. To Reagan’s opponents, his sunny projections of national consensus were maddening because they worked so well. His presentation of a harmonious whole smoothed out the very real dislocations of American life in the 1980s, pushing deindustrialization, homelessness, racial inequality, and the AIDS crisis out of the frame. This mythical vision of America—the comfortable home of the Gipper speech—could gloss over the hard edges of his administration’s domestic policies.

Perhaps this is why the Canadian ad provoked Trump so much. Where Reagan blurred conflict in order to project unity, Trump heightens it. The hard edges are the point. The Ontario advertisement was about trade, but it may also touch on something deeper. Reagan’s words—calm, confident, and delivered with his preternatural ease in public performance—risk being convincing. The radio address itself was a minor weekend chore at Camp David, prompted by rumblings of protectionism by congressional Democrats. But in the video recording, Reagan reads the script fluidly, a pro’s pro in that medium as well.

To Trump, and to the media environment in which he thrives, Reagan’s composed performance, with its affirmation of consensus, is almost intolerable. It must be discredited not because it is inaccurate but because it represents an entirely different model of what presidential authority looks like—online and in the reality-TV drama of Trump’s Cabinet meetings and Oval Office confrontations. His social-media presidency—rewards a different set of political instincts entirely. Earlier this month, the president posted a video of himself dropping slop of the excrement variety on American citizens on the day of the recent “No Kings” protests. Such communication makes sense in a world in which policy wins come not by staging consensus but by stoking division. Never mind that the MAGA slogan promises a return to the kind of America that Reagan represents. The rewards of targeting domestic enemies, ridiculing opponents, and shaming others are simply too great.

In January 1986, after the Challenger explosion claimed the lives of seven crew members, Reagan sat at the Resolute Desk for a brief televised address to the nation. It is a small masterpiece of presidential communication. Watching now, it feels like a transmission from another planet. In just under five minutes, Reagan expresses shock and grief, and empathy for the families of the crew. He speaks directly to the millions of schoolchildren who watched the tragedy unfold, assuring them that the astronauts died in pursuit of something larger than themselves. He closes with a flourish borrowed from a 1941 poem. They “slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God,” he says, before the camera fades to black. Tip O’Neill, then the Democratic speaker of the House, admitted that the speech made him weep. Reagan, he said, was the best public speaker he had ever seen.

The laws of gravity that created such experiences of unity and collective grief no longer apply. In a world dominated by endless scrolling and ever more slop, all of the forces are pulling us outward, away from one another. We, too, are slipping the surly bonds of Earth.

Related:

• Anne Applebaum: Why Trump turned to the sewer
• Franklin Foer: Donald Trump’s war on reality

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Canadian PM Carney apologises to Trump over anti-tariff Reagan ad run by Ontario premier

The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, said he had apologised to the US president, Donald Trump, over an anti-tariff political advertisement and had told the Ontario premier, Doug Ford, not to run it.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/01/canadian-pm-carney-apologises-to-trump-over-anti-tariff-reagan-ad-run-by-ontario-premier

ps:Apologise for what? For doing the right thing??

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Trump Administration Admits It Doesn’t Know Who Exactly It’s Killing in Boat Strikes

The Trump administration has made a series of startling admissions about the people it is killing in its undeclared war against suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Trump officials acknowledged in separate briefings provided to lawmakers and staffers on Thursday that they do not know the identities of the victims of their strikes, and that the War Department cannot meet the evidentiary burden necessary to hold or try survivors of the attacks. Such victims who find themselves in the water are now deemed “unprivileged belligerents,” a murky designation under international humanitarian law.

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/31/trump-venezuela-boat-strikes-unprivileged-belligerants/?

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Trump Warns Nigeria

President Donald Trump threatened to end all aid to Nigeria Saturday and ordered the Pentagon to prepare for possible military action. The warning comes as Trump accuses the country of failing to protect its Christian population. Since 2009, Islamist insurgency group Boko Haram has killed more than 35,000 civilians, largely in the country’s Muslim-majority north (see maps and data). An ISIS-affiliated breakaway group has killed thousands more. While it is not publicly known what percentage of the groups’ victims are Christian, a 2012 estimate put the figure at one-third. In 2020, the Trump administration designated Nigeria a country of concern over religious freedom violations, a decision the Biden administration reversed. Trump redesignated Nigeria last week as the group continues to carry out attacks from its base in the Lake Chad region. The US historically gives roughly $1B annually to Nigeria. Explore more here (w/graphs).   Foreign policy President Trump said Sunday that he was "not really considering" sending US Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine to aid in its war against Russia. His comments follow repeated attempts by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to secure the long-range weapons to expand his country's striking distance. This comes just days after the Pentagon gave the White House the green light to provide Ukraine with the weapons after assessing that it would not negatively impact US stockpiles. Separately, Trump over the weekend said that he ordered the Defense Department to prepare for possible military action in Nigeria as he accuses the nation of allowing widespread persecution against Christians — an accusation Nigeria has repeatedly denied.

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?️ Trump's "most important case ever"

Photo illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios. Photo: Jeff Swenson/Getty Images

The Supreme Court will hear a case Wednesday that will decide the fate of President Trump's signature economic policy: the tariffs he has leveraged to reshape the global order, Axios Macro co-author Courtenay Brown writes. Why it matters: It is the latest instance of the high court deciding the fate of Trump's agenda, but this time with consequences that transcend the containers full of toys and electronics at the nation's ports. "The stakes of this case reach far beyond trade policy," Elizabeth Goitein, a senior director at the nonpartisan Brennan Center, wrote. The "decision could shape whether the use of emergency powers to bypass Congress becomes a tool of routine governance." ? The big picture: Trump calls it "[t]he most important case ever." A loss could hugely curb his powers in imposing tariffs. It could set off a potentially chaotic tariff refund process, result in a loss of revenue that has somewhat brightened the nation's fiscal outlook, and possibly undermine key trade deals. President Trump talks to the pilots of Marine One after landing on the South Lawn last night at the end of a trip to Mar-a-Lago. Photo: Allison Robbert/AFP via Getty Images ? Zoom in: The lion's share of Trump's global tariffs were imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. At issue is whether the 50-year-old law, which has never before been used to impose import taxes, justifies the levies. An appellate court struck down the tariffs in August. The rulings reveal the complexity of what might come next.

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Trump's poll numbers

Washington is bracing for a pivotal week, with key elections across the country set to gauge how Americans feel about President Donald Trump and his second term. This comes as a new CNN poll shows Trump's approval rating stands at 37%. It's the worst of his second term in CNN polling and roughly equivalent to his 36% approval rating at this point in his first term. Americans are also broadly unhappy with the state of the country, with 68% saying things are going badly. Dissatisfaction is even higher with the economy, with 72% rating it in poor shape — and 47% naming the economy and the cost of living as the top issues facing the US.

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Government shutdown could become longest ever as Trump says he ‘won’t be extorted’ by Democrats The government shutdown is poised to become the longest ever this week as the impasse between Democrats and Republicans has dragged into a new month. Millions of people could lose food aid benefits, health care subsidies are set to expire and there are few real talks between the parties over how to end it. Read more.

Why this matters: With the two parties at a standstill, the shutdown, now in its 33rd day, appears likely to become the longest in history. The previous record was set in 2019, when Trump demanded that Congress give him money for a U.S.-Mexico border wall.   President Donald Trump said in an interview aired on Sunday that he “won’t be extorted” by Democrats who are demanding negotiations to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire at the end of the year for millions of Americans. Echoing congressional Republicans, the president said on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he will only negotiate when the government is reopened.   Senate Democrats have now voted 13 times against reopening the government, insisting that they need Trump and Republicans to negotiate with them first. “We want to sit down with (Senate Majority Leader John) Thune, with (House Speaker Mike) Johnson, with Trump, and negotiate a way to address this horrible health care crisis,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said last week.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump administration faces a deadline to tell judges whether it will use contingency funds for SNAP   SNAP benefits cut off during shutdown, driving long lines at food pantries   The end of federal food aid could hit Black Americans hardest   SNAP has provided grocery help for 60-plus years; here’s how it works   Flight delays persist as government shutdown leads to air traffic controller shortages   Some Head Start preschools shutter as government shutdown continues   Judge again bars Trump administration from deploying troops to Portland   WATCH: Video shows immigration agent punching restrained man after car collision turns into confrontation   East Wing ballroom donations by corporate owners create awkward moments for news outlets   Trump’s testing plans for US nuclear weapons won’t include explosions, energy secretary says   FDA’s top drug regulator resigns after federal officials probe ‘serious concerns’   FDA restricts use of kids’ fluoride supplements citing emerging health risks   California law to protect Jewish students faces challenge over free speech concerns   What’s on the ballot in the first general election since Donald Trump became president   Obama blasts Trump ahead of Election Day in Virginia and New Jersey. Republicans keep it local   AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Texas on Election Day   AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Maine on Election Day

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CBS Cuts Trump’s Corruption Tantrum From ‘60 Minutes’ Edit

The moment Trump got testy was missing from Sunday night’s interview.

President Donald Trump’s angry response to corruption questions at the end of his 60 Minutes interview was cut from the show’s TV and online edits.

CBS aired a 28-minute version of the Trump interview on television, and then released a 73-minute extended cut online, which was also shared by the White House’s RapidResponse 47 X account. Neither contained Trump losing his cool over questions about the billionaire he pardoned after a $2 billion crypto deal was struck with the Trump family.

The MAGA social media account claimed it was the “FULL” Trump interview that came “without the network’s edits and cuts.” An editor’s note on 60 Minutes’ YouTube upload of the extended interview said it was “condensed for clarity.”

However, the full tense exchange over crypto corruption with interviewer Norah O’Donnell, which can be seen in the transcript on the 60 Minutes Overtime site, did not appear in either the TV or the extended online video version.

CBS also took Trump’s suggestion to cut a section of the interview in which the president boasted about the payout their parent company paid him earlier this year. “And actually 60 Minutes paid me a lotta money. And you don’t have to put this on, because I don’t wanna embarrass you,“ he said. The comment did not appear in either of the videos.

At the end of the interview, which was conducted at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, O’Donnell asks Trump if she can ask two more questions, according to the transcript.

During the interview she had frequently mentioned she was conscious of time and occasionally interrupted some of Trump’s longer answers.

“That means they’ll treat me more fairly if I do,” Trump, 79, said, as per the CBS transcript. “I want to get.... Now is good. OK. Uh, oh. These might be the ones I didn’t want. I don’t know. OK, go ahead.”

O’Donnell, 51, then asks Trump about people he has pardoned, focusing on the crypto billionaire Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who was let out of jail in September after pleading guilty to money-laundering violations.

Parts of Trump’s answers were included in the truncated version of the interview, which aired on TV. 60 Minutes averaged just over 8.5 million linear television viewers per show last season.

The moment the president claimed he had “no idea” who the man he had pardoned was—before immediately contradicting himself—was included but not his blow-up afterwards.

“I don’t know who he is,” Trump can be seen claiming of CZ. “I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that, and I heard it was a Biden witch hunt.”

CZ made his fortune as the founder of crypto exchange Binance. The Wall Street Journal claimed CZ had previously struck a $2 billion deal with the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial.

In the aired interview, O’Donnell asks Trump, “How do you address the appearance of pay-for -play?” To which he responded, “Well, here’s the thing, I know nothing about…”

However, when O’Donnell again asked if Trump was “concerned about the appearance of corruption” over pardoning CZ due to the links to his family, the transcript revealed the president became annoyed.

“I can’t say, because—I can’t say—I’m not concerned. I don’t—I’d rather not have you ask the question. But I let you ask it. You just came to me and you said, ‘Can I ask another question?’ And I said, yeah. This is the question... ”

O’Donnell cut in to say “And you answered—” as the president continued on to say, “I don’t mind. Did I let you do it? I coulda walked away. I didn’t have to answer this question. I’m proud to answer the question. You know why? We’ve taken crypto—”

O’Donnell interrupted Trump, presumably to repeat her question, and Trump said “Excuse me... ” before continuing his presidential crypto sales pitch without directly addressing the corruption angle.

“We’re No. 1 in crypto in the whole world,” Trump said. “Other people wanna be. They’re fighting like hell to be. But we’re No. 1 in crypto because I’m the president... We are No. 1 in crypto and that’s the only thing I care about. I don’t want China or anybody else to take it away. It’s a massive industry.”

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

A voiceover from O’Donnell noted in the aired 60 Minutes broadcast that World Liberty Financial has denied any involvement in the pardon.

60 Minutes also did not air on TV a moment where Trump bragged about his $16 million lawsuit victory over Paramount, which owns CBS, over what the president believed was deceptive editing of a Kamala Harris interview.

Trump launched a $20 billion lawsuit claiming Harris’ interview had been edited to “tip the scales in favor of the Democratic Party” ahead of the election.

The case was settled in July, ahead of Paramount needing FCC approval for their $8 billion merger with media company Skydance.

Trump did not mention Harris by name Sunday, but said “the press got behind her. Oh, they were so behind her. But, eventually, she failed because she couldn’t speak. She wasn’t a very intelligent person, in my opinion. But she couldn’t speak properly. She could not speak.”

The president then noted, “And actually 60 Minutes paid me a lotta money. And you don’t have to put this on, because I don’t wanna embarrass you.“

The Daily Beast has contacted Harris’ office for comment.

Appearing to speak of CBS’s new MAGA-curious editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, he continued, “I think you have a great, new leader, frankly, who’s the young woman that’s leading your whole enterprise is a great—from what I know. I don’t know her, but I hear she’s a great person.”

He continued, “But 60 Minutes was forced to pay me—a lot of money because they took her answer out that was so bad, it was election-changing, two nights before the election. And they put a new answer in. And they paid me a lot of money for that. You can’t have fake news. You’ve gotta have legit news. And I think that it’s happening."

As part of the Paramount settlement, while they were not required to apologize to Trump, they agreed that “in the future, 60 Minutes will release transcripts of interviews with eligible U.S. presidential candidates after such interviews have aired, subject to redactions as required for legal or national security concerns.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/cbs-cuts-donald-trumps-crypto-corruption-tantrum-from-60-minutes-edit/?

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Raging Trump Sends All-Caps Demand to Republicans in Unhinged Power Grab

The president is getting increasingly angry about the government shutdown.

President Donald Trump spent Sunday night demanding that Senate Republicans blow up a centuries-old legislative check on the party in power.

After his calls last week to end the government shutdown by making use of the “nuclear option” largely fell on deaf ears, Trump is once again demanding that Republicans eliminate the filibuster.

“TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, NOT JUST FOR THE SHUTDOWN, BUT FOR EVERYTHING ELSE. WE WILL GET ALL OF OUR COMMON SENSE POLICIES APPROVED (VOTER ID, ANYONE?) AND MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he wrote in a post on Truth Social. The president is increasingly angry that Democrats haven’t caved to his demands to pass a seven-week continuing resolution to fund the government at current levels.

Democrats are calling for any budget plan to roll back GOP cuts to Medicaid and extend tax credits to stop health insurance premiums from skyrocketing next year.

Instead, Republicans have let thousands of federal workers go without pay, eviscerated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and signaled they’ll let Americans go hungry by refusing to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which 42 million Americans depend on.

Trump reportedly thought the government shutdown would last about 10 days at the most.

Now that it’s dragged on for more than a month, he’s becoming increasingly anxious for Republicans to eliminate the filibuster rule requiring 60 senators to agree to bring legislation up for a vote.

During an interview with 60 Minutes that aired Sunday, he repeated his demands for the “nuclear option.” So far, however, Republicans have resisted.

Last week, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader John Thune told CBS News that the South Dakota Republican, who has previously rejected calls to change the filibuster rule, still opposed the move.

“I like John Thune, I think he’s terrific, but I disagree with him on this point,” Trump told CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell during the 60 Minutes interview.

Speaker Mike Johnson has also cautioned against eliminating the rule, telling reporters, “Is it possible? Yes… Is it wise? A lot of people would tell you it’s not.”

“I mean, on the Republican side, I would be deeply concerned if the Democrats had a bare majority in the Senate right now,” he added.

The filibuster has existed in various forms since the 1780s and was adopted as an official rule in 1917, according to the U.S. Senate.

Trump, however, has been trying to convince his party members that Democrats will eventually kill the filibuster if Republicans don’t.

“REMEMBER, THE DEMOCRATS WILL DO IT IMMEDIATELY, AS SOON AS THEY GET THE CHANCE. OUR DOING IT WILL NOT GIVE THEM THE CHANCE. REPUBLICANS, BE TOUGH AND SMART! THE DEMS ARE CRAZED LUNATICS, THEY WILL NOT OPEN UP OUR COUNTRY NO MATTER HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE IRREPARABLY HARMED!” he wrote.

The White House also shared the Truth Social post on X lest any members of the president’s caucus miss it on his other platform.

Democrats changed the filibuster rules in 2013 to make it easier to confirm President Barack Obama’s nominees.

Former Senate leader Mitch McConnell further rolled back the filibuster in 2017 to force through Trump’s Supreme Court nominees after refusing to hold hearings on Obama’s pick to fill the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat. During President Joe Biden’s term, some Democrats advocated for ending the filibuster to protect voting rights and adopt a federal right to abortion after the fall of Roe v. Wade, but the idea didn’t have enough support within the party.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/raging-donald-trump-sends-all-caps-demand-to-republicans-in-unhinged-power-grab-rant/?

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Trump Hit With Instant Fact Check About His Retribution Campaign

The president asked about his adversaries getting indicted during his “60 Minutes” interview.

Donald Trump was instantly fact-checked by 60 Minutes after claiming he is not pressuring the Department of Justice to target his enemies.

CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell asked Trump whether he instructed the DOJ to “go after” and indict former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and former national security adviser John Bolton during the interview broadcast Sunday.

“Not in any way, shape, or form,” Trump said. “You don’t have to instruct them, because they were so dirty, they were so crooked, they were so corrupt that the honest people we have—[Attorney General] Pam Bondi is doing a very good job, [FBI Director] Kash Patel is doing a very good job—the honest people that we have go after them automatically.”

After Trump dismissed the idea that he is using the DOJ as part of a revenge campaign, 60 Minutes then brought up on screen a September Truth Social post Trump shared publicly, which was allegedly meant to be a private message to Bondi.

In a voice-over, O’Donnell described how an irate Trump accused Comey and James of being “guilty as hell” and said that “justice must be served.”

“I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, ‘same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done,’” Trump wrote in the post addressed to “Pam.”

Five days after Trump sent the post, Comey was indicted on disputed charges of lying to Congress over leaks about the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election during Senate testimony in 2020.

Weeks later, James—who successfully prosecuted Trump for filing fraudulent financial statements—was indicted on federal bank fraud charges. Bolton, a prominent critic of the president, was also charged in October with allegedly mishandling classified documents.

O’Donnell then asked Trump if the charges against the longtime critics and officials who investigated him amounted to “retribution.”

“It’s the opposite. I think I’ve been very mild-mannered,” Trump said. “You’re looking at a man who was indicted many times, and I had to beat the rap, otherwise I couldn’t run for president. They tried to get me not to run for president by going after me and by indicting me.”

Comey, James, and Bolton have all denied the charges against them and accuse their cases of being motivated by Trump’s revenge plot.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-hit-with-instant-fact-check-about-his-retribution-campaign/?

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Employee of Trump-Supporting Superstore Fired for Filming Brutal Immigration Raid

A security guard says he was fired from a megadonor’s chain in revenge for busting agents’ actions.

A security guard working at a superstore owned by an ally of Donald Trump was fired after filming a brutal Department of Homeland Security immigration raid in its parking lot.

Ricardo Mendez was positioned at the door of Menards—a Midwestern chain of home-improvement stores whose billionaire owner, John Menard Jr., is a GOP megadonor—in the Chicago suburb of Cicero, Illinois, when agents deployed by DHS arrived on Tuesday afternoon.

Like so many in the city since “Operation Midway Blitz” began in September, Mendez had been “on the lookout” since federal immigration officers “started taking over,” he told the Daily Beast.

When he saw the masked officers in unmarked vehicles drive into the lot, Mendez decided to pull out his cameraphone and start recording—“to do my part,” he said—as Illinois governor JB Pritzker has repeatedly asked people.

What came next was brutal, as the Puerto Rican security guard filmed two Border Patrol agents smashing the window of a white Ford pickup with their batons.

“The poor guy was surrounded by agents, workers, and customers,” said Mendez, 27, who added that the incident was so dramatic and shocking that other store staff also came out to film.

The officers then pulled out a Hispanic man before handcuffing him, and bundling him into an unmarked red vehicle.

After the man was detained, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in a separate unmarked blue Chevy Tahoe threatened to tear-gas anyone who intervened, Mendez says, before they all drove out of the lot as one ICE officer can be seen in his video flipping him the bird.

But despite Mendez having done what he believed any good citizen should have, he says a supervisor “sent me home” after Mendez objected to his superior’s demands to stop filming and go back to his position at the shop door.

Mendez, who claims that Menards’ bosses demanded store staff who had filmed the episode delete their footage, was then fired altogether the same day, according to a termination notice obtained by the Beast.

The letter from security contractor O’Brien & Associates—which provides security staff to Menards—cites “insubordination” and claims Mendez left his “designated post,” argued with an “ICE employee,” and “almost [got] pepper-sprayed.”

It states that he then returned to the lot twice against instructions, and when sent home, he told his site manager, “Make me.”

The letter says: “You are terminated as of Tuesday October 28th, 2025.”

Mendez disputes some of what his former company says, claiming managers had previously insisted the lot was private property and off-limits to immigration operations.

Having worked at the store for two years and now seeking a new job, he was unrepentant. “Would I do it again? Yes, I would,” Mendez said.

Menards is owned by John Menard Jr., a long-time Republican donor who has bankrolled conservative causes and worked with Donald Trump to advise on economic reopening in 2020, according to Urban Milwaukee and the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign’s summary of his giving to GOP-aligned groups. Federal contribution records show that Menards-linked donations flow overwhelmingly to Republicans, according to OpenSecrets.

Since September, “Operation Midway Blitz” has seen the growth of hard-edged Border Patrol actions in and around Chicago, which have increasingly overshadowed ICE’s presence in the city, as the Trump administration escalates more widespread raids to increase deportation tallies.

Their actions have drawn blistering judicial scrutiny following tear-gas and pepper-ball deployments in residential areas and at a children’s Halloween parade. Agents allegedly broke a 67-year-old man’s ribs during the fracas.

Last week, a federal judge ordered Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino to appear in court every evening and turn over use-of-force files, although this has been paused pending appeal. Barack Obama-appointed Sara Ellis also told Bovino he must wear a body camera.

The Daily Beast contacted Menards and O’Brien & Associates for comment twice on Thursday. Neither had responded by the time of publication.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the arrest had been part of a “targeted immigration enforcement operation,” which led to the arrest of Santos Mena-Flores, “a criminal illegal alien from Mexico with previous arrests for domestic battery, aggravated DUI, and violating a restraining order for assault.”

She said that Mena-Flores had “refused to comply with lawful commands to open his door during the operation, agitators started surrounding the vehicle, yelling profanities at agents and blowing whistles.

“Mena-Flores then started backing up his vehicles and officers fearing they would be run over, broke the vehicle’s window and placed him under arrest.”

McLaughlin added that Border Patrol “did not deploy any crowd control measures.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ricardo-mendez-employee-of-trump-supporting-superstore-menards-fired-for-filming-brutal-dhs-raid-in-cicero/?