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

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Stephen Miller’s Wife Schooled on Immigration by NFL Owner

The podcast host didn’t get the answer she may have been expecting.

MAGA wife Katie Miller found herself being educated on the history of immigration in American society by a guest on her own podcast.

Ex-DOGE staffer Miller is married to Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the driving force behind the Trump administration’s deportation campaign who has pushed ICE officers to ramp up migrant arrests.

In the latest episode of The Katie Miller Podcast, the 34-year-old host interviewed Charlotte Jones, co-owner and chief brand officer of the Dallas Cowboys.

Miller asked Jones what she thought of Puerto Rican music superstar Bad Bunny being chosen as the halftime performer at next year’s Super Bowl.

Bad Bunny has 80 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone and is the most-streamed Latin artist worldwide.

“I think it’s awesome,” Jones said. “And I think our Latina fanbase is amazing. When you think about the Super Bowl, you want the No. 1 performer in the world to be there. We’re on a global stage, and we can’t ever forget that. Our game goes out to everybody around the world, and to get the premier entertainer to want to be a part of our game, I think is amazing.”

Jones raised the history of immigration in the U.S. to further her point, while praising how Bad Bunny reflected modern America.

“We have a mixed culture. I mean, our whole society is based on immigrants that have come here and founded our country. And I think we can celebrate that.”

The rapper’s Super Bowl selection in September caused MAGA outrage due to the 31-year-old’s criticisms of Donald Trump’s anti-immigration agenda. The rapper had also told i-D magazine that he did not include dates in the U.S. on his world tour as he was worried about potential immigration raids on his fans.

“Like, f---ing ICE could be outside [my concert],” he said. “And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”

Trump also lashed out at the choice. “I never heard of him, I don’t know who he is, I don’t know why they’re doing it, it’s like, crazy,” Trump said on NewsMax’s Greg Kelly Reports last month.

Miller pressed Jones on whether she thought Bad Bunny’s comments “were divisive as it relates to President Trump,” and if she believed an artist “who maybe didn’t touch politics” would be a better choice for the Super Bowl.

“Yeah, I don’t think our game’s about politics,” Jones said. “I don’t think people tune in to look at politics. We do everything we can to avoid politics. And I think, in that moment that people will be watching the game, they’ll be celebrating music and nobody will be thinking about what comments on the left side, what comments on the right side. This is about bringing people together.”

The podcast host also asked the Cowboys’ co-owner about “the Taylor Swift effect” on the NFL.

The music superstar, whom Trump said he “hated,” is engaged to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

That has led to Swift fans watching NFL games, even if only to get a glimpse of Swift watching Kelce’s team.

“How great is that?” Jones said of Swift’s impact, pointing out that 47 percent of the NFL’s fanbase is female.

“Then now all of a sudden, we have this incredibly amazing female, strong icon that throws herself into the game behind her man, all cheering, all excited, and she brings this incredible culture with her, and all of this unbelievable younger generation that just can’t wait. I’m not sure if they’ve figured out what football is yet, but they want to watch, and now they’re interested.”

Miller prodded to see if cameras filming Swift at NFL games, which has angered some men online, has hurt “legacy” fans of the game.

“I don’t think it’s hurt with legacy fans,” Jones said. “The game is the game. It’s not affecting the product on the field. If you would rather see a replay versus a flash of her in the stands, well, you can watch it also on your handheld and find another shot there.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/stephen-millers-wife-schooled-on-immigration-by-nfl-owner/?

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Newsom Humiliates Trump After Replacing Him at Major Summit

The California governor was the highest-ranking U.S. official at the international gathering.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom ripped into Donald Trump’s failure to lead on a major global issue and accused the president of “doubling down on stupid” during a speech at the world’s biggest climate conference. The administration inadvertently shone an international spotlight on Newsom by skipping the U.N.’s COP30 climate summit in Brazil, making the vocal Trump critic the highest-ranking U.S. official at the global gathering.

During remarks to an at-capacity room of local government representatives in Belem, Brazil, Newsom told the audience that he was representing the “most un-Trump state.”

“He’s trying to roll back progress, the last century. He wants to recreate the 19th century,” Newsom said on Tuesday. “He’s doubling down on stupid as he tries to vandalize our progress.”

Newsom, 58, also called Trump an “invasive species” and a “wrecking-ball president” who doesn’t realize he’s playing into the hands of China’s Xi Jinping by refusing to lead on the energy transition.

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

Trump, 79, has described climate change as “the greatest con job ever perpetrated” and has tried to withhold congressionally approved funding for clean energy projects.

For months, Newsom has trolled Trump on social media with all-caps posts and memes meant to highlight the president’s bizarre communications style.

But at Tuesday’s climate conference, Newsom—fresh off a win against Trump in their national redistricting fight—tried to position California as a stable, long-term climate partner.

Speaking at several packed sessions, the governor, who is weighing a 2028 presidential run, also encouraged attendees to frame climate change in economic terms, focusing on affordability and the cost-of-living crisis.

“It’s not about electric power. It’s about economic power. We, as the state of California, are not going to cede that race to China,” he said, according to The New York Times.

California has the fourth-largest economy in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund’s 2024 World Economic Outlook report, and produces more electricity from renewable energy than any state except Texas.

Other Democratic governors, including New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, were also slated to attend COP30, The Guardian reported.

But as the summit’s most high-profile American official, Newsom was trailed by crowds, according to the Times. He struggled to arrive at his events on time as he stopped to wave to applauding crowds, talk to admirers, and take questions from the media.

While he was at the conference, his press office shared a social media post saying utility costs have risen 11 percent over the last year as Trump has promoted fossil fuels, and tried to roll back Biden-era investments in wind and solar power.

Critics, however, have pointed out that average electricity rates in California shot up 47 percent between 2019 and 2023, according to Inside Climate News. Both the White House and Trump’s Department of Energy have tried to pin the increase on California’s investments in renewables.

Newsom “flew all the way to Brazil to tout the Green New Scam, while Californians are paying some of the highest energy prices in the country.” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told the Times in a statement.

“These Green Dreams are killing other countries, but will not kill ours thanks to President Trump’s commonsense energy agenda,” she added.

In fact, research shows the main culprits behind California’s spike in energy prices are utility spending on wildfire safety and recovery measures, and investments in distribution infrastructure, Inside Climate News reported.

Average utility rates for California’s investor-owned utilities are also more than 50 percent higher than rates for its public municipal utilities, according to a June policy brief from the UCLA School of Law and the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/gavin-newsom-humiliates-donald-trump-after-replacing-him-at-cop30-climate-summit/?

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Jeffrey Epstein Files Are About to Spill Into the Open: Wolff

The reopening of the government and swearing-in of a key Democrat could soon unlock a Pandora’s Box, a Trump biographer said.

The next phase of the long-running battle over the Epstein files is slowly unfolding now that the government is gearing to reopen after the longest shutdown in U.S. history, Donald Trump’s biographer teased Tuesday.

On a new episode of Inside Trump’s Head, author Michael Wolff said the specter of the convicted sex trafficker is once again looming large over the Trump administration as lawmakers prepare to force a vote on the release of federal investigation files on Epstein.

“That is now going to become the next part of this battle,” he told co-host Joanna Coles.

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna earlier introduced a discharge petition that would force the release of the notorious Epstein files. The measure has received broad bipartisan support, putting them on the brink of notching all 218 signatures they need.

The final signature is expected to come from Adelita Grijalva, a newly elected Arizona representative whose swearing-in has been delayed for seven weeks. House Speaker Mike Johnson finally scheduled her induction for Wednesday afternoon, right before lawmakers vote to end the government shutdown.

The measure will also need to clear the Senate, where a similar effort to force a release of the Epstein files failed in September.

Wolff said documents related to Epstein are scattered throughout the U.S. government, from criminal investigations launched by the Justice Department and its multiple arms to other probes of the late financier’s shadowy empire and business relationships.

“So this is all just spread far and wide and it will be sort of up to Congress to define what they’re looking for,” Wolff said. “If an investigation actually begins, if hearings actually happen, then that’s the question: Where is this? What do you know? How do we define this information about this guy?”

But at the end of the day, the contours of the Epstein files will be shaped by the executive branch, helmed by Epstein’s old pal, according to Wolff.

“Within the hands of the executive branch is the ability now to define what that is plus its own, I suspect, confusion about what it is and where it is, and then what they redact and don’t redact,” he said. “So the executive branch, even with a vote in Congress, is still basically in charge of these Epstein files.”

It’s not just Epstein who’s under scrutiny. His former girlfriend, disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, is preparing to ask Trump to commute her 20-year prison sentence, according to documents obtained by House Democrats and reviewed by CBS News.

Trump previously kept the door open to a possible Maxwell pardon, telling reporters in October: “I can say this‚ that I’d have to take a look at it. I would have to take a look.”

Maxwell, 63, is in prison for sex trafficking and conspiracy to recruit underage girls for sex acts. She was moved to a cushier jail after sitting for an hours-long interview with Todd Blanche, the No. 2 at the Justice Department, in what Wolff described as a “cover-up” ultimately aimed at keeping Maxwell quiet.

“So in that respect, the out-in-the-open cover-up will probably succeed. Yes, the Epstein matter will go on. Yes, people will continue to try to get to the bottom of it, including yours truly. But that pivotal witness, Ghislaine Maxwell... will be quiet.”

The White House responded to a request for comment with communications director Steven Cheung’s boilerplate attack on Wolff.

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

The Daily Beast has also reached out to the Justice Department.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/jeffrey-epstein-files-are-about-to-spill-into-the-open-michael-wolff/?

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How Trump Has Exploited Pardons and Clemency to Reward Allies and Supporters

The beneficiaries of President Donald Trump’s mercy in his second term have mostly been people with access to the president or his inner circle. Those who have followed the rules set out by the Department of Justice, meanwhile, are still waiting.

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-pardons-clemency-george-santos-ed-martin?

“Riots Raging”: The Misleading Story Fox News Told About Portland Before Trump Sent Troops

After reviewing coverage from the network and hours of social media videos that preceded Trump’s decision, ProPublica found that Fox’s portrayal of “Portland rioters” routinely instigating violence was misleading.

https://www.propublica.org/article/portland-protests-national-guard-fox-news-coverage?

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Trump Spent Hours With Epstein’s Most Tragic Victim

Moments after explosive new emails reignited the Epstein firestorm, MAGA Republicans named the victim at the heart of them.

Donald Trump spent hours with a sex trafficking victim that Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell recruited from his Mar-a-Lago club and abused for years.Moments after explosive new emails suggested the president may have known more about Epstein’s conduct than he has previously acknowledged, MAGA Republicans identified the victim at the heart of the documents as the late Virginia Giuffre, Epstein’s most high-profile survivor.

In one email to Maxwell, which was dated April 2, 2011, Epstein refers to Trump as “the dog that hasn’t barked” and reveals that a certain victim—whose name was redacted in the files—“spent hours at my house with him.”

The emails form part of a cache of documents provided by Epstein’s estate to Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

However, soon after they were released on Wednesday morning, Republicans on the committee posted on X: “Why did Democrats cover up the name when the Estate didn’t redact it in the redacted documents provided to the committee? It’s because this victim, Virginia Giuffre, publicly said that she never witnessed wrongdoing by President Trump.

“Democrats are trying to create a fake narrative to slander President Trump,” they added. “Shame on them.”

Giuffre, born Virginia Roberts, was one of the earliest and loudest voices calling for criminal charges against Epstein and his enablers.

She lit a fire under the Epstein scandal in 2011, bringing it into the international spotlight when she alleged that she had been sexually assaulted by Prince Andrew as part of Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.

Her astonishing revelations turned the now-ex prince into Britain’s most tarnished royal, and contributed to him losing his royal titles last month.

Before she died by suicide earlier this year, Giuffre had testified that Maxwell hired her as a masseuse for Epstein after meeting her at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, where she worked as a 16-year-old locker room attendant at the resort spa.

Maxwell, a British socialite, spotted Giuffre as she was reading a book about massage therapy. She then offered her a job interview to be a private, traveling masseuse, suggesting it would be a potentially life-changing opportunity.

Giuffre attended the interview at Epstein’s Palm Beach home, where she was introduced to Epstein naked and instructed by Maxwell on how to massage him.

The depraved couple soon made her their sex slave, pressuring her into gratifying not only the disgraced financier but also his friends and associates.

As the firestorm surrounding the Epstein files escalated this year, Trump acknowledged in July that he knew Giuffre from Mar-a-Lago and lamented how Epstein “stole her” from him.

“I think she worked at the spa,” he told reporters at the time. “I think that was one of the people. He stole her.”

“Other people would come and complain, this guy is taking people from the spa,” he added.

“I didn’t know that. And then when I heard about it, I told him, I said: ‘Listen, we don’t want you taking our people—whether it was spa or not spa—I don’t want you to take our people. And he was fine, and then not too long after that, he did it again. And I said: out of here!”

But while the president has long described the Epstein files as a “Democratic hoax,” the new emails raise questions about what he knew and when in relation to Epstein’s sexual conduct.

The documents suggest that Epstein mentioned Trump by name multiple times in private correspondence over the last 15 years.

In another email, written to author Michael Wolff on January 31, 2019, Epstein seems to address Trump’s earlier claim that he asked the sex offender to resign his membership at the president’s Mar-a-Lago Club.

“trump said he asked me to resign,” Epstein wrote, adding, “never a member ever. . of course he knew about the girls as he asked to Ghislaine to stop.”

The president did not receive or send any of the messages, nor has he been accused of any criminal wrongdoing in connection with Epstein or Maxwell.

However, the latest revelations are certain to inflame tensions about the administration’s handling of the Epstein files and the decision by Trump’s Department of Justice to renege on a pledge to fully release them.

House Oversight Committee ranking member Robert Garcia said the emails formed part of about 23,000 documents they received from Epstein’s estate in the last few days, and more would be released later today.

Britt Jacovich, spokesperson for progressive group MoveOn Civic Action, said: “It’s no wonder why Trump and Republicans have spent weeks hiding the Epstein emails and files from the public. This is textbook corruption.

“Just as Trump promised on the campaign trail, the American people deserve to know who enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s abuses and his victims deserve justice. Release the Epstein files.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described the latest Esptein firestorm as a “hoax” designed to distract from the president’s achievements.

“The Democrats selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump. The ‘unnamed victim’ referenced in these emails is the late Virginia Giuffre, who repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever and “couldn’t have been friendlier” to her in their limited interactions,” she said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-spent-hours-with-epsteins-most-tragic-victim/?

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Freaked-Out Trump Aides Trying to Stop Him Pushing His Favorite Delusion

The president believes that polls showing the financial anxiety of voters are “fake.”

Panicked advisers to Donald Trump are reportedly urging the president to stop dismissing Americans’ financial anxieties and insisting there is no cost-of-living crisis.

White House officials have advised Trump not to brush off voter concerns about inflation and rising food costs, and instead pivot his messaging to assure Americans that he is working to address these issues, administration officials told CNN.

The backlash to Trump’s handling of the economy was evident on Nov. 4, when GOP and Trump-endorsed candidates suffered humiliating defeats in races across the country. The White House now fears the GOP could face crushing losses in the 2026 midterms if Trump continues to bury his head in the sand about voters’ economic fears.

“You can’t convince people that their experience, what they’re feeling at home, isn’t reality,” one official told CNN.

Trump, whose net worth is estimated at around $6.6 billion, has repeatedly rejected any suggestion that tens of millions of Americans are still struggling financially under his administration.

In an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham broadcast Monday, Trump dismissed reports of a struggling economy as a “con job” pushed by Democrats and the media.

When Ingraham pressed him on why polls consistently show Americans feel “anxious” about the economy, Trump replied: “I don’t know that they are saying that. I think polls are fake. We have the greatest economy we’ve ever had.”

In a damning outburst in the Oval Office after the Election Day wipeout, Trump reportedly declared, “I don’t want to hear about affordability,” while pushing the misleading claim that a Thanksgiving dinner will be cheaper this year.

“The only problem is the Republicans don’t talk about it,” Trump added.

The issue for Trump, however, is that not only are many people struggling financially, but a majority of them blame him for their situation.

A CNN/SSRS poll published last week, on the eve of the GOP’s disastrous election showing, found that 72 percent of Americans describe the economy as “somewhat” or “very” poor. Sixty-one percent said Trump’s policies, such as his sweeping tariffs, had made conditions worse.

Trump is reportedly aware that voters have concerns about the economy, but believes his messaging on policies like new tax breaks is not getting through. One White House official told CNN the president is “frustrated he’s not getting credit for what he’s doing.”

One proposal being floated by the administration is to send Trump on a national tour where he can deliver economy-focused speeches, CNN reported. It is believed that ramping up his domestic travel will also help quell concerns that Trump is too focused on foreign policy during his second term and is not addressing economic issues that affect Americans more.

“The President’s pro-growth policies of deregulation and energy independence are bringing down gas prices, food prices, and inflation—and Americans will continue to benefit,“ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN. ”Trust in Trump—he created the greatest economy in his first term and he is doing it again in his second term.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/freaked-out-donald-trump-aides-trying-to-stop-him-pushing-his-favorite-delusion/?

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House Republicans Claim They Were Blindsided by MAGA Senators’ Cash Grab

Senators could sue the government for up to $500,000.

House Republicans are fuming after discovering a provision buried in the government funding deal that could hand certain GOP senators a six-figure payday.

Oklahoma Republican Rep. Tom Cole told reporters he was “surprised” to learn the shutdown deal included language allowing senators to sue the federal government for secretly accessing their phone or email records.

“Did I know about this provision in the bill? No,” Cole, who is also House Appropriations Chair, said. “Do I think it needs to be in a funding bill? Not particularly.”Georgia Rep. Austin Scott echoed the frustration, saying Senate leaders had kept the House in the dark. “I don’t think that Senate leadership shared with the leadership of the House what they were doing,” he said.

The controversial clause, tucked into the legislative branch funding bill the Senate passed Monday, would let senators collect up to $500,000 in damages if their data was searched without notice—a perk that applies retroactively to 2022, Politico reported.

That timing conveniently covers Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, during which the FBI reportedly obtained the phone records of nine Republican lawmakers. Those affected could include Sens. Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, Tommy Tuberville, Ron Johnson, and others. Rep. Mike Kelly was also among the group, though as a House member, he wouldn’t qualify for the payout.

Eight Democrats—Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, Dick Durbin, John Fetterman, Maggie Hassan, Tim Kaine, Angus King, Jacky Rosen, and Jeanne Shaheen—joined Republicans in approving the measure to end the shutdown.

The new rule makes it a legal violation if a senator’s data is accessed without notice, though a delay is allowed if the senator is a target of a criminal probe. It also allows successful plaintiffs to recover attorney’s fees and other litigation costs.

“Any Senator whose Senate data… has been acquired, subpoenaed, searched, accessed, or disclosed in violation of this section may bring a civil action against the United States,” the provision reads.

The measure appears aimed squarely at Smith’s team, which lawmakers claim secretly seized their phone data as part of “Arctic Frost,” the special counsel’s investigation into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Graham and others have accused the Biden administration of “spying” on conservatives.

Lawyers for Smith have denied any wrongdoing, saying the subpoenas were lawful and necessary.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/house-republicans-claim-they-were-blindsided-by-maga-senators-cash-grab/?

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? White House takes on Dulles people movers

Dulles International Airport's people movers. Photo: Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images The Trump administration is setting its sights on one of the D.C. area's most charming/annoying quirks: Dulles International Airport's people movers. While other airports use moving walkways or underground trains to move customers between terminals, Dulles still uses the same vehicles — the airport calls them "mobile lounges," which is awfully generous — that it introduced in 1962. ✈️ "The nation's capital deserves a world-class airport facility. But our international port of entry is stuck in the past," Trent Morse, a Trump nominee for the commission that oversees Washington-area airports, told The Washington Post in an interview (gift link). White House spokesperson Kush Desai also criticized "the notorious 'people movers'" after one of them crashed into a building on Monday. The collision sent 18 people to the hospital, all with non-life-threatening injuries. ⏱️ Some travelers enjoy the oddity and nostalgia of the people movers, but many complain that the process — essentially waiting for and then riding a bus — adds an unnecessary delay to their travels.

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President Trump signs government funding bill, ending shutdown after a record 43-day disruption

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed a government funding bill Wednesday night, ending a record 43-day shutdown that caused financial stress for federal workers who went without paychecks, stranded scores of travelers at airports and generated long lines at some food banks.

https://apnews.com/article/government-shutdown-reopen-update-house-returns-5771f2befb15f4ab45e327369f2e98d9?

? Trump whiffs on Epstein

The GOP's last-ditch effort to block the Epstein files discharge petition fell flat today, setting up a vote next week that pits swing district Republicans between their voters and their president.

Why it matters: Trump's ironclad grip on the House GOP looks weaker after four Republicans defied his demands to back away from the petition.

• Johnson had urged his conference to stay clear of the petition, saying the Oversight Committee's probe would ultimately yield more information.
• In public, Trump said only "very bad, or stupid" Republicans would fall into the Democrats' "trap" of the "Jeffrey Epstein Hoax."

In private, Trump's team pressured Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) to pull her name from the petition.

• Boebert met today with Justice Department and FBI officials who tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade her to withdraw her name, a source familiar with the meeting told us.
• Trump also played phone tag over the last 24 hours with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), but they didn't speak directly before the petition reached 218 signatures, a source familiar told us.

Now the deadline's passed: As soon as she was sworn in, Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) provided the decisive signature on the petition.

• Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who isn't seeking reelection, told us today he plans to support it.
• One GOP lawmaker said they'd been told that many members "in swing districts are going to support it."
• Even Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), who's called the petition "moot" in light of his own investigation, didn't rule out voting for it next week.

Between the lines: Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) tried to pass the petition by unanimous consent tonight but was blocked.

• Democrats objected because they want to put Republicans on the record, a Democratic leadership aide and a senior House Democrat told us.
• "They just wanted a voice vote," the senior lawmaker told us, "so they didn't want their members to have to commit."

Go deeper

— Kate Santaliz and Andrew Solender

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? Heated talks on House floor

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) shocked and dismayed colleagues today with a rogue effort to condemn retiring Rep. Chuy García (D-Ill.).

Why it matters: It resulted in a heated exchange between Gluesenkamp Perez and House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.).

• "Everybody has been trying to say to her, 'Why today?' We have really focused, important work to do today," one House Democrat who was on the floor at the time told us.
• Clark "was trying to ... say [to Gluesenkamp Perez], 'You don't need to do this right now,'" the lawmaker said.

Zoom in: García, who had been expected to run for reelection, unexpectedly announced just before Illinois' filing deadline last week that he would instead retire.

• García's chief of staff, Patty Garcia, was the only other person who had gathered enough signatures to run.

What they're saying: García's "stated reasons for retirement are honorable, but his decision to anoint an heir is fundamentally undemocratic," Gluesenkamp Perez said in a statement provided to Axios.

• Her resolution must be voted on by next Tuesday unless she withdraws it.

— Åndrew Solender

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Fiasco of Trump's own making

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

Four months ago, President Trump blocked the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Yesterday's disclosure of thousands of Epstein emails showed why, Axios' Marc Caputo writes. Why it matters: The emails contained no real smoking gun. But they shed new light on the relationship between the two men, with gossipy, unflattering descriptions of Trump by Epstein. Trump was put into a defensive crouch as the news dominated conversation on Capitol Hill, television and social media. The tranche of emails released by the House Oversight Committee all but ensured the GOP-run chamber would bend to public pressure and vote for a measure to release the investigative records Trump has tried to keep hidden. The White House lobbied two key Republicans yesterday to drop their support for the effort, to no avail. Trump got personally involved: He called Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) early Tuesday and reached out by phone to Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), the N.Y. Times reports. Trump and Mace were playing phone tag, a source told Axios. ?️ The big picture: Trump's reaction to the Epstein scandal is a window into how he handles major controversies that invite criticism about his leadership. Whether it's the current affordability crisis, COVID in 2020 or the Russia probe in 2017, he has a penchant for pushing back against attacks by calling them Democratic hoaxes or con jobs. He then tries to kill the controversy with such a heavy hand that it helps keep the story alive. Email released yesterday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. Image: Reuters One confidant told us: "The minute he thinks it's unfair to him and it's a personal attack, he just goes into fight mode. No one wants to ask him what's going on here [with Epstein] because he just gets angry." ? Zoom out: The Epstein files are an issue now because Trump and his top allies — from Vice President Vance to FBI director Kash Patel to Attorney General Pam Bondi — had promised to release the investigative files before Trump won the 2024 presidential election. That promise energized Trump's conspiracy-thirsty MAGA base, which saw the files involving Epstein — a convicted sex trafficker who died in prison in 2019 — as a chance to expose crimes among the rich and powerful. Then in July, six months after taking office, Trump reversed course and forbade the release of the files. "He told Pam [Bondi] not to release the files. We don't exactly know why," said another Trump insider. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Democrats "selectively leaked emails" to "create a fake narrative to smear President Trump": "The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for being a creep to his female employees." Via Truth Social ? What's next: House leaders say they expect scores of Republicans may join Democrats next week in voting to release the Epstein files, despite Trump's lobbying. The measure is likely to die in the Senate, where it takes 60 votes to approve legislation and Republicans hold 53 of the 100 seats. ? Keep reading ... Emails released by GOP ... Emails released by Dems.

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43rd day is the charm

President Trump signed a bill last night to reopen the government and officially end the 43-day shutdown — the longest in American history, Axios' Kate Santaliz and Andrew Solender write.

• Why it matters: The shutdown left thousands of federal workers without pay and disrupted services across the country for nearly seven weeks.

The package funds the government through Jan. 30, reverses federal layoffs that happened after Oct. 1 and funds key agencies through the rest of the fiscal year.

• Eight Senate Democrats broke with their party in support of a bipartisan deal to reopen the government.
• The package then passed 222-209 in the House, with two Republicans (Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Greg Steube of Florida) voting against it and six Democrats — Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine), Adam Gray (D-Calif.), Don Davis (D-N.C.), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.), Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) and Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) — voting in favor.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks outside the Capitol yesterday before a vote to end the government shutdown. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

? Between the lines: The Senate deal rests on the promise of a vote on extending Affordable Care Act subsidies next month — but it faces an uphill climb in the Senate and isn't likely to be voted on in the House.

• That has left many Democrats furious, with some calling on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to step down.

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Epstein Warned Trump Was ‘Evil Beyond Belief’ and ‘Mad’ After Mental Health Scrutiny

Emails show the late pedophile raging that Trump could “crack” after being sent a Daily Beast article on the president’s psychological state.

Jeffrey Epstein branded Donald Trump “evil beyond belief” and “mad” in an email sent hours after he was forwarded a Daily Beast piece questioning the president’s mental stability.

The message, released this week by the House Oversight Committee, captures the disgraced pedophile financier—who died in jail in 2019 aged 66—reacting to a Beast opinion article “How Close Is Donald Trump to a Psychiatric Breakdown?”

The op-ed drew on mental health experts who said Trump displayed signs of mania and posed an “imminent danger” to the public as legal and political pressure mounted around him. It was published the same weekend as porn star Stormy Daniels’ blockbuster 60 Minutes interview, which detailed her alleged affair with Trump and a hush-money deal at the center of his criminal case.

In the March 24, 2018, exchange with then–New York Times reporter Landon Thomas Jr. that included a link to the piece, Thomas told Epstein that Trump, now 79, was “scaring the s--t” out of him and warned the president “could well tank [the] global economy,” urging Epstein to try to speak to him.

Hours later, Epstein replied: “he feels alone. and is nuts !!! , I told everyone from day one. evil beyond belief. mad, and most thought i was speaking metaphorically. its obvious he could crack.”

He added, “stormy daniels. ? lies after lies after lies.” It is not clear if Epstein was suggesting Trump, or Daniels, was being misleading in their account of what went on between the pair.

The reference to Daniels came more than six years before the 2024 New York criminal case which saw Trump convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records over a 2016 campaign hush-money payment to the actress, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. Trump is appealing the verdict.

The March 23, 2018, Beast article by Gail Sheehy and Rosemary Sword reported that prominent psychiatrists had broken with the American Psychiatric Association’s “Goldwater rule” to warn that Trump appeared dangerously unstable, citing concerns he was in a manic state as the Mueller investigation closed in and ahead of Daniels’ upcoming interview.

The “evil beyond belief” email is part of a 20,000-page trove from Epstein’s estate that House Democrats say exposes how closely he tracked Trump’s presidency—and how alarmed he claimed to be.

In other messages, Epstein described Trump as a “maniac” showing signs of “early dementia,” and warned former Obama White House lawyer Kathryn Ruemmler that treating Trump like a mafia boss underestimated the “great dangerous power” of a sitting commander in chief.

Epstein also told Emirati businessman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem in 2018 that “Donald is close to no one… He tells each one something different,” echoing comments he made about Trump on tapes obtained and published by the Daily Beast last year.

The documents shed new light on a long, awkward relationship between the two men. Trump and Epstein moved in the same New York and Palm Beach circles for years.

In 2002, Trump told New York magazine he had “known Jeff for 15 years” and called him a “terrific guy,” adding that “he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

They socialized in the 1990s and early 2000s at Palm Beach, Florida, parties and at Trump’s private members club Mar-a-Lago. Flight logs later showed Trump, then a real estate mogul, flew on Epstein’s private plane several times in the 1990s.

Their relationship is widely reported to have cooled after a 2004 fight over a Florida mansion and claims that Trump later barred Epstein from Mar-a-Lago.

By 2019, after Epstein was arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges, Trump claimed the pair had fallen out years earlier and insisted he had “not spoken to him in 15 years” and was “not a fan,” comments at odds with his earlier praise. Trump has denied knowing about his abuse of girls. He has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing in Epstein’s abuse of minors and has also always denied any wrongdoing related to the convicted sex offender.

The newly released emails come amid a political fight over the files. Trump has urged supporters to stop pressing him to declassify every record, even as lawmakers from both parties demand full disclosure and have subpoenaed Epstein materials from the Justice Department and his estate.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and Landon Thomas Jr. for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/jeffrey-epstein-warned-donald-trump-was-evil-beyond-belief-and-mad-after-mental-health-scrutiny/?

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Trump Already Screwing Over Dems on Key Shutdown Concession

The GOP’s majority whip has revealed a crucial omission from the Democrats’ deal.

The Trump administration has already flipped on one key Democrat condition for ending the government shutdown.

Seven rogue Democrats and one Independent sided with Republicans in a Senate vote this week to pass a compromise deal to reopen the government, which has been shut since Oct. 1.

The House of Representatives approved the bill on Wednesday night, which was then sent to the White House for President Donald Trump’s sign-off. However, one critical component is set to be missing.

The deal struck with the Democrats included extending government funding through Jan. 30 next year, as well as stopping the Trump administration’s mass firings of federal workers and guaranteeing back pay for staff who worked through the shutdown.

It also stated that thousands of federal staff terminated during the shutdown would get their jobs back.

In a new interview conducted on Wednesday before the House approved the bill, a key GOP player admitted the job cuts will not be reversed.

Tom Emmer, the majority whip in the United States House of Representatives, revealed the revised plans following a lunch meeting he had with Trump last week.

“He’s not going to bring back the people that they fired,” Emmer said of Trump. “They were unnecessary; otherwise, they’d still be there. So, they’re not coming back.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

Emmer, 64, was speaking on the MAGA-friendly radio show and podcast Hot Talk With the Ox. He did confirm that government employees furloughed during the shutdown “are going to come back to work and they will be paid. They will get their back pay... to the 40 days.”

During the interview, Emmer told Ox he expected the government reopening would happen “tonight or tomorrow.”

He posted on X on Wednesday night the bill had just been sent to Trump’s desk, claiming the GOP “did what’s best for the American people by voting—once again—to fund the government and end the needless Democrat shutdown.“

“While our colleagues on the other side of the aisle seem intent on continuing their futile political games,” Emmer added, “we look forward to continuing to deliver on the America First agenda.”

At the start of the shutdown, Trump, 79, claimed it was an “unprecedented opportunity” to cull government jobs.

“I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Oct. 2.

“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity.”

Vought, who is known as the “Grim Reaper,” announced the mass firings on Oct. 10.

He posted “The RIFs have begun,” on his X page, meaning reductions in force.

Around 4000 federal workers, many of whom had been furloughed, were terminated from jobs at Homeland Security, the Departments of Education, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and the Treasury.

During the interview, Ox asked Emmer “So some of the Russ Vought stuff will stick?”

Emmer replied, “All of the stuff they’ve done is sticking.”

He them slammed the Democrats: “They claim it’s about ‘Oh, we want to reinstate all of these federal employees.’ I mean, it’s like they’re advocating for the waste, fraud and abuse that Donald Trump has eliminated. It’s crazy.”

Emmer stuck to the usual script of blaming the shutdown on the Democrats, stating, “I don’t know why the American people had to suffer through this and I know that they are going to figure out who did it to them.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-already-backtracking-on-key-dem-shutdown-deal-concession/?

ps:That was a no brainer or at least it should've been!!!!!

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Catholic Bishops Take Rare Step to Slam Trump’s Deportations

MAGA has provoked the church’s first special statement in 12 years.

America’s Roman Catholic bishops issued a rare statement condemning the Trump administration’s “indiscriminate mass deportation.”

The bishops issued a special message on immigration from the Plenary Assembly in Baltimore, where they advocated for “meaningful reform of our nation’s immigration laws.”

The move comes after the Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV made a separate appeal to U.S. immigration authorities.

The bishops’ special message is a rare pastoral document that reflects current issues and can only be issued by bishops at their annual meeting.

“We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement,” Wednesday’s statement read.

“We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care.”

Its previous statement was released in 2013, where they opposed the contraceptive coverage mandate of the Affordable Care Act under President Barack Obama.

The message addressed the ongoing ICE raids across America that are tearing families apart.

The Department of Homeland Security announced last month it had carried out over 527,000 deportations this year and said another 1.6 million people had self-deported.

“We are grieved when we meet parents who fear being detained when taking their children to school and when we try to console family members who have already been separated from their loved ones,” the statement read.

The bishops said they felt compelled to speak out in the current environment “to raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity.”

They noted that many of their clergy “already accompany and assist immigrants” to receive their basic human needs, then urged “all people of good will” to continue doing so.

“We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people. We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement. We pray that the Lord may guide the leaders of our nation, and we are grateful for past and present opportunities to dialogue with public and elected officials.”

The statement added, “In this dialogue, we will continue to advocate for meaningful immigration reform.”

The message did not address Trump by name and passed with support from more than 95 percent of the American bishops who voted. It received 216 votes in favor, just five against, and three abstentions.

In a statement to The Daily Beast, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, “President Trump was elected as the president of the United States based on the many promises he made to the American people, including his promise to deport criminal illegal aliens. He is keeping his promise to the American people.”

Some key Trump administration figures are Catholic, including border czar Tom Homan, who helped devise the deportation policy, as well as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who met Pope Leo with Vice President JD Vance in May.

Last week, Pope Leo XIV appealed to American immigration authorities after migrants held at an Illinois facility were blocked from receiving communion.

“Many people who have lived for years and years and years, never causing problems, have been deeply affected by what’s going on right now,” the pope told reporters.

“The spiritual rights of people who have been detained should also be considered, and I would certainly invite the authorities to allow pastoral workers to attend to the needs of those people.”

The pope also slammed Trump’s “inhuman” treatment of immigrants last month.

“Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion’ but is in favor of the death penalty is not really pro-life,” the pope said of Trump. “Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion, but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants who are in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”

Some key Trump administration figures are Catholic, including border czar Tom Homan, who helped devise the deportation policy, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who met Pope Leo with Vice President JD Vance in May.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/catholic-bishops-slam-trumps-indiscriminate-ice-raids/?

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More MAGA Reps Break Ranks to Rally Behind Epstein Files Release

The House vote on whether or not to release the Epstein files will come as soon as next week, Speaker Mike Johnson said.

More and more Republican lawmakers are defecting to throw their weight behind the release of the Epstein files.

Reps. Warren Davidson of Ohio, Eli Crane of Arizona, Don Bacon of Nebraska, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, and Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania have all signaled an intent to vote in favor of a measure to release federal investigation documents related to the notorious sex offender, according to CNN and Politico.

That vote will come as soon as next week, according to Speaker Mike Johnson, after 218 lawmakers signed on to a discharge petition forcing the House to confront the Epstein files. The final signature came on Wednesday after Arizona Rep. Adelita Grijalva was sworn in.

The fresh wave of Republican support for the release of the Epstein files came the same day that Democrats on the House Oversight Committee unloaded another tranche of documents related to the late pedophile.

The latest release centered around a massive trove of emails written for and by Epstein—including one where he tells his former girlfriend and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell that Donald Trump “knew about the girls.”

“I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump,” Epstein wrote in 2011. “[Redacted victim name] spent hours at my house with him. He has never once been mentioned.”

“I have been thinking about that,” Maxwell responded.

The newly uncovered emails sent President Trump into a Truth Social meltdown.

“The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects,” he wrote. “Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap.”

All 214 Democrats in the House backed the discharge petition to force a vote on the Epstein files. They were joined by only four GOP lawmakers: Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who led the effort along with Democrat Ro Khanna, as well as Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

The petition succeeded even after Trump, once a close Epstein pal, called up the MAGA renegades in a last-ditch attempt to get them to pull their signatures.

The president called up Boebert on Tuesday and met with her at the White House on Wednesday, The New York Times reported. He also reportedly played phone tag with Mace, but both lawmakers ultimately kept their signatures on the discharge petition.

“The deal for Republicans on this vote is that Trump will protect you if you vote the wrong way,” Massie told CNN on Wednesday. “In other words, if you vote to cover up for pedophiles, you’ve got cover in a Republican primary. But I would remind my colleagues that this vote is going to be on your record for longer than Trump is going to be president.”

Bacon cautioned, however, that the Epstein files crusade will still have to overcome the Senate and ultimately land on Trump’s desk.

“I get it, people want to see this discharge petition,” he told MSNBC. “I think it’s a little bit of a false hope that it’s going to provide these great results. It’s still got to work its way through the Senate and the president, but we’re already getting a lot of results.”

The Nebraska representative also described the Epstein debacle as “a self-inflicted wound by the White House.”

“I think they’ve dug themselves a hole,” he said. “But in the end, I’m for transparency.”

The White House did not immediately return a request for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/more-maga-reps-break-ranks-to-rally-behind-epstein-files-release/?

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“I Lost Everything”: Venezuelans Were Rounded Up in a Dramatic Midnight Raid but Never Charged With a Crime

On the night of the raid, heavily armed federal agents zip-tied Jhonny Manuel Caicedo Fereira’s hands behind his back, marched him out of his Chicago apartment building and put him against a wall to question him.

https://www.propublica.org/article/chicago-venezuela-immigration-ice-fbi-raids-no-criminal-charges?

“Riots Raging”: The Misleading Story Fox News Told About Portland Before Trump Sent Troops

After reviewing coverage from the network and hours of social media videos that preceded Trump’s decision, ProPublica found that Fox’s portrayal of “Portland rioters” routinely instigating violence was misleading.

https://www.propublica.org/article/portland-protests-national-guard-fox-news-coverage?

Airborne Imperialism

Veronica and Charity Bowers, a young Christian missionary and her daughter, are killed when the Peruvian Air Force shoots down a small passenger plane in 2001. The plane had been mistaken for a drug smuggling plane and was shot down as part of a joint anti-drug agreement between the CIA and the Colombian and Peruvian governments.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/12/collateral-damage-episode-six-airborne-imperalism/?

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Trump’s Military Occupations of U.S. Cities Cost $473 Million and Rising

President Donald Trump’s military occupations of U.S. cities have cost nearly half a billion dollars, according to an expert estimate provided exclusively to The Intercept.

https://theintercept.com/2025/11/11/cost-trump-national-guard-military-occupation/?

19 rumors about Trump's relationship with Epstein, fact-checked

House Democrats have released a trove of new documents that they believe sheds light on the president's connection to the convicted sex offender.

https://www.snopes.com/collections/trump-epstein-rumors-collection/?

BBC formally apologizes to President Trump for documentary edit

The BBC formally apologized to President Trump after criticism over how a documentary edited his Jan. 6 speech, and said it does not plan to rebroadcast the program.

https://www.axios.com/2025/11/13/trump-bbc-apology-panorama?

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Lauren Boebert Raises Eyebrows With Post After Trump Pressure on Epstein Files Vote

The president had reportedly asked Boebert to help him block the release of the Epstein files.

MAGA Rep. Lauren Boebert is sending mixed messages about whether President Donald Trump pressured her to withdraw her support from an effort to force a vote on the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Boebert, 38, is one of four House Republicans who joined Democrats in signing a discharge petition to override party leadership and bring a vote on a bill that would release the Department of Justice’s investigative file.

The president called her on Tuesday to discuss her support for the petition, and on Wednesday she attended a White House meeting about the late sex offender’s case, according to reporting from multiple outlets.

The White House meeting was also attended by Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, but Boebert nevertheless declined to remove her name from the petition.

After the meeting, she told the conservative Daily Caller that “there was no pressure” on her and that “everybody was great and worked well with me.” Later that night, though, she shared a social media post that hinted the president might have pressured her after all.

The post features a video of reporter Kyle Clark from NBC affiliate 9News in Denver, Colorado, calling Boebert “brave” for apparently refusing to help Trump bury the Epstein files.

“By all appearances, Boebert did defy the president, despite the pressure and the reported threats,” he said. “Stood firm against the wishes of her party and her president.”

“Regardless of how viewers feel about Boebert’s politics, anyone who cares about children, accountability, and transparency owes her their thanks,” he added.

The congresswoman shared the video along with an emoji of two wide-open eyes typically used to draw attention to something.

Boebert, who is a grandmother, was forced to confront child abuse allegations within her own family in July 2025 after her 20-year-old son, Tyler, received a citation for “criminal negligence” involving his toddler son.

“Tyler has been doing a great job getting his life on track as a father and citizen over the past year,” Boebert said. “Unfortunately, this event stems from a miscommunication on monitoring my young grandson that recently led to him getting out of our house.”

Trump was good friends for more than a decade with Epstein, who died in 2019 in a jail cell while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking. For months, the president has tried to block proposed legislation to release hundreds of thousands of new documents in the case.

During her daily press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt tried to frame the meeting as a positive, saying it was evidence of the Trump administration’s transparency.

That same day, newly sworn-in Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona provided the decisive 218^th signature on the discharge petition.

Trump had also tried to convince other MAGA defectors to withdraw their support for the petition, including Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

The effort was co-sponsored by Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California and Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who has been a thorn in Trump’s side all year.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said a vote would be held next week as five more members of his caucus said they backed the files’ disclosure. The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/lauren-boebert-raises-eyebrows-with-post-after-donald-trump-pressure-on-jeffrey-epstein-petition/?

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MAGA Backs Trump on Epstein but Is Raging at Him Over Something Else

Top MAGA names seem more concerned about who’s getting jobs.

As Trump allies downplay the latest Epstein document release, MAGA conservatives are instead erupting over something far less salacious.H-1B visas and Chinese students have become the trending lightning rods for criticism, rather than the president’s name featuring in a batch of files related to the Jeffrey Epstein saga.

Conservative outrage over the president’s pro-visa stance has dominated MAGA social media since his Fox News interview with Laura Ingraham.

What was meant to be a friendly sit-down turned into a tense affair after Trump defended foreign student programs and spoke warmly about allowing more Chinese nationals to stay in the U.S. after graduation.

The reaction was swift. Fox News host Will Cain ripped H-1B visas to shreds on-air in a segment that went viral among conservative influencers. On Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, the backlash took over. Bannon and his regulars sounded less like Trump loyalists and more like disillusioned revolutionaries.

“All he had to do was smash the oligarchy. He’s become the oligarchy,” fumed Rasmussen Reports pollster Mark Mitchell. “All Trump has done this week is shilled for the government and big business.”

That sentiment was echoed across the movement. War Room correspondent Natalie Winters recalled a post from Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk calling for an end to H-1B visas—a stance once synonymous with Trumpism. “I thought that was what I voted for,” she said. “But it seems with every passing day we’re moving further and further away from that.”

“I was appalled,” said John Fredericks, a conservative talk show host and chair of Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns in Virginia.

“I agree with the president and everything he’s done on just about every single issue, and he’s been the greatest president in history in my view for what he’s doing and what he’s done, but these are two issues where I adamantly oppose both,” he said.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has been publicly butting heads with the president of late, said in an X post she was “solidly” against U.S. workers “being replaced by foreign labor, like with H1Bs.”

The discontent spilled across right-wing media channels. Commentator Jack Posobiec admitted bluntly, “We’re seeing anger on the right.”

The issue has cracked open a familiar divide inside MAGA—populists and business conservatives. Trump’s latest comments—portraying H-1Bs as necessary for American competitiveness—don’t appear to align with the America First movement that carried him to power.

Meanwhile, the Epstein files that dropped Wednesday—usually the kind of story to set MAGA ablaze—barely made a ripple in the same circles, perhaps by design. “The president firmly believes this is nothing but a distraction tactic ginned up by Democrats who didn’t care about this one bit until a couple of months ago,” offered Scott Jennings on CNN, Wednesday, in an attempt to deflect.

“They didn’t care about it when Joe Biden was the president. Now they care about it, to try to tie up this presidency. He’s lived through these things before, these kinds of wild goose chases.”

Sean Hannity, over on Fox News, tried his best not to be dragged into a debate about the files when he was verbally set upon by progressive radio host Stephanie Miller.

“You know the funniest thing about this story is Trump’s all over the Epstein files, and I wonder if they’re going to release that after the big bombshell!” she said on Hannity after the host tried to bury Miller with a photo of her kissing a Democratic politician’s shoes. “I didn’t see anything about that on Fox News today.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-backs-trump-on-epstein-but-is-raging-at-him-over-something-else/?

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Trump’s FIFA Boss Bestie Is Getting the Kennedy Center for Free to Present Made-Up Peace Prize

FIFA President Gianni Infantino cooked up his new award as the MAGA leader was licking his wounds.

Donald Trump’s soccer pal will use the Kennedy Center free of charge to present a new peace prize cooked up after the MAGA president was snubbed for the Nobel Peace Prize, according to The Washington Post.

FIFA, soccer’s worldwide ruling body, has had rental fees for using the venue waived, the outlet reported, ahead of staging the 2026 World Cup Draw there early next month.

FIFA is expected to take over a swathe of the Kennedy Center’s performance spaces for a period of three weeks, significantly disrupting other scheduled events, with several concerts being relocated or postponed.

Trump has cultivated an unusually close relationship with Infantino ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which is set to be co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

It’s further understood that at the draw, which determines which teams play in which groups during the first stage of next year’s tournament, FIFA will present the winner of its new Peace Prize, intended to “reward individuals who have taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace and by doing so have united people across the world.”

The award, the first of its kind in FIFA’s 121-year history, was announced by FIFA president Gianni Infantino ahead of his meeting with President Donald Trump last week.

While Trump is expected to attend next month’s draw, and therefore the award ceremony, there has been no public indication as to whether he may be among the prospective recipients of the prize.

Infantino’s announcement of FIFA’s new award was made as Trump reeled from not being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, despite his high-profile self-promotion campaign to try to persuade the Nobel committee he was worthy.

The snub, in turn, followed a highly public lobbying campaign by the president and his allies to secure him that award, buoyed in part by Trump’s highly dubious and thoroughly disputed claims to have solved between six and nine of the world’s most intractable conflicts.

The prize eventually went instead to Venezuela’s exiled opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado. In its official statement on this year’s honor, the Nobel Committee praised her for keeping “the flame of democracy burning amidst a growing darkness” in what many commentators took as a jab at Trump’s newfound authoritarianism.

 

The Daily Beast has reached out to FIFA, the White House, and the Kennedy Center for comment on this story.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/president-donald-trumps-fifa-bestie-gianni-infantino-to-use-kennedy-center-for-free-in-peace-prize-ceremony/?

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Damning Poll Reveals Sharp Rise in Republican Opposition to Trump

The president’s vicious campaign to lay shutdown blame at Democrats’ feet would not appear to have paid off.

Republican voters increasingly think Donald Trump can’t get the basic business of running the U.S. government right, a poll shows.

There is mounting dissatisfaction within the base over the president’s handling of the federal government amid what became the longest shutdown on record, the new survey found.

According to the poll, Republican backing for Trump’s management of the government has slipped by a whopping 13 points, from 81 percent in March down to just 68 percent as of the start of this month.There’s also been a sharp decline in independents who assume a positive view on that front, dropping from 38 to 25 percent over the same period. Democratic approval has similarly inched down from an already-tiny nine to five percent. The poll’s timing is salient. Trump and his allies have sought to firmly blame their opponents across the aisle for the six-week shutdown—the longest in U.S. history. It is estimated to have cost the U.S. economy up to $14 billion for each week it has lasted so far.

Results of the survey, and others over the past few weeks, suggest those efforts have backfired. Another poll late last month found more than half think the GOP is responsible, compared to just 33 percent who blame Democrats.

The survey by AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs also found the president’s overall approval ratings now stand at just 36 percent, only two points above the lowest ever score, recorded in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, which Trump was later accused and acquitted of instigating.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for a response on the new findings.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/damning-poll-reveals-sharp-rise-in-republican-opposition-to-donald-trump/?

ps:Well I'd say the jury is still out on that!!

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Twenty Times (DOW response / Wikipedia)

View in browser The bulletins come every few days now. On Tuesday, a U.S. strike in the Caribbean Sea killed four people. On Sunday, two strikes in the Pacific Ocean killed six, and two people died in a November 4 strike. The MO rarely changes: a bellicose announcement from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Claims that the dead were involved in drug trafficking, though never much evidence to back it up. Usually a grainy image of the attack—an enormous explosion engulfing a small boat, sometimes with small figures visible on board, until they’re not. Since the first of these strikes, in early September, there have been 19 more that we know of. The pace has increased since last month—15 of them have come in that time. When the strikes began, each one got lots of attention, but the Trump administration has adopted its usual strategy of doing things over and over until the public is lulled into a sense that this is normal. News is, definitionally, something fresh; when an event happens 20 times, it loses its novelty. But repetition has not made these strikes any less troubling or any more legal, and the more the public learns about how they’re conducted, the shakier the arguments for them look. Hegseth portrays the situation as simple. “To all narco-terrorists who threaten our homeland: if you want to stay alive, stop trafficking drugs,” he wrote on X last week. “If you keep trafficking deadly drugs—we will kill you.” Nearly every part of this statement demands skepticism. First, the Pentagon has not generally provided evidence for its claims, other than to cite “intelligence,” and the administration’s pattern of misleading and outright lying makes it hard to give it the benefit of the doubt. Second, even if the intelligence is correct, these people have not been convicted in any court, which makes their deaths extrajudicial killings. There’s another, more common term for that: murder, as Rachel VanLandingham, a law professor and retired judge advocate in the Air Force, recently told CNN. (The administration doesn’t seem confident about its chances at a conviction: When two men survived a strike last month, the United States handed them over to their home countries rather than attempting to try them.) Third, even if they had been found guilty, no federal law establishes the death penalty for drug trafficking. Donald Trump has previously called for instituting capital punishment for drug dealing, though he has also used his clemency power to pardon people convicted of that crime. In the absence of a clear criminal-justice rationale, the White House is playing a slippery game. On the one hand, officials argue that involving the military, which doesn’t otherwise have a law-enforcement role, in these boat strikes is necessary, because drug shipments pose a direct threat to the United States; the Trump administration calls those killed “unlawful combatants.” On the other hand, the administration has also said that Congress has no authority to intervene under the War Powers Act, because these strikes don’t rise to the level of hostilities—no U.S. troops are in danger. The result is absurd: As Brian Finucane, a former State Department legal adviser, told The Washington Post, “What they’re saying is anytime the president uses drones or any standoff weapon against someone who cannot shoot back, it’s not hostilities.” Other warning lights are flashing. Admiral Alvin Holsey abruptly announced his resignation last month as head of the U.S. Southern Command—which oversees the strikes—less than a year into his posting. Although Holsey has not made any public comment about the strikes, The New York Times reports that he privately raised questions about them. Reuters reported last month that military officials involved in operations in Latin America are being asked to sign unusual nondisclosure agreements, even though national-security secrets are already restricted. And CNN reported this week that British officials have decided to stop sharing intelligence about suspected drug trafficking in the Caribbean because they believe the boat strikes are illegal. Even as the strikes become more routine, more reservations among people close to them are emerging. One useful way to understand the boat strikes might be to compare them to threatened or executed National Guard deployments in several U.S. cities. When Trump first called up Guard troops in Washington, D.C., he contended that they were needed to fight street crime—even though the Guard generally isn’t trained in law enforcement and has limits on policing powers. What has become clear since is that the real goal is aggressive enforcement of immigration laws. Similarly, drug interdiction may just be an excuse for broader actions in Latin America. As my colleague Nick Miroff has reported, the administration has used fentanyl as a justification for military deployments, but the Coast Guard doesn’t actually encounter fentanyl in the Caribbean. Instead, the boat strikes seem to be a cover for a huge military deployment designed to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, as The Atlantic reports. If this is all a prelude to regime change in Caracas, that’s another reason to treat the strikes as anything but normal. Related: The boat strikes are just the beginning. Why Venezuela?

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? Scoop: Trump officials re-engage on foreign arms sales

The Trump administration is ramping up its engagements with Congress on foreign military sales and plans to provide more classified briefings on military operations, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Why it matters: The administration's moves come amid mounting frustration from lawmakers over a lack of briefings on alleged drug boat strikes and the slowdown in the approval process for foreign military sales.

• On weapons sales, the administration cited staffing shortages caused by the government shutdown.
• More than $5 billion in U.S. weapon exports to support NATO allies and Ukraine were delayed during the shutdown, according to a State Department estimate.

Driving the news: This week, the State Department sent nearly two dozen draft notifications for foreign weapons sales to Congress, totaling tens of billions of dollars, according to another person familiar with the matter.

• The new military notifications were sent while the government was officially still closed.
• But there's still a backlog of approvals for weapons sales. For sales to NATO allies, the ultimate destination of the exports is often Ukraine.

Zoom out: On Capitol Hill, lawmakers and aides have complained that briefings from State and Defense officials became less frequent. And administration witnesses for hearings were difficult to schedule, they said.

• Trump caught wind of Congress' frustration, especially over military strikes of suspected Venezuelan drug boats. He ordered more briefings for lawmakers.
• "I keep getting calls about this from congressmen," Trump explained in a recent meeting with top officials, we reported this month.

— Hans Nichols

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? Tariff tweaks for cheaper groceries

Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios

The Trump administration insists Americans don't bear the costs of tariffs and that grocery prices haven't gone up this year, Axios' Ben Berkowitz writes. But it just cut trade deals with four Latin American countries that include relief for coffee, bananas and other products not grown domestically. The New York Times reports the White House could make even more significant tariff changes soon to lower prices. Why it matters: President Trump's tariff policy was always in tension with domestic economic policy — the risk of higher costs versus the promise of lower prices — but as long as inflation remained under control, the tariffs mostly won out. With questions of domestic affordability now threatening the president politically, at least some tariffs are fair game. ?️ The big picture: The Trump administration is feeling a pressure point that the Biden administration knew well. Inflation rates don't matter, price levels do — and you can't easily convince people your policies are working when they're paying 15% more for a hamburger or 20% more for a cup of coffee. The president's economic team has been all over the airwaves assuring Americans that high prices are a Biden legacy that will come down by next year. Between the lines: The move acknowledges that Americans pay at least some of the cost of tariffs, that tariffs have affected food prices, and that changing trade policy is one way to help fix the problem. N.Y. Times gift link ...