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Donald Trump announced a drug deal with Pfizer in the Oval Office several weeks ago in late September. During Q&A with the press, Trump bragged about being a good person. "I have a bigger heart than you do," Trump told reporters. Meanwhile, Trump refuses to fund SNAP amid the ongoing government shutdown, as he's more than willing to starve the American people just to one-up the Democrats.
During his remarks at the White House this week, President Trump admitted that the GOP caused the ongoing government shutdown. Trump stated, "The shutdown was a big factor, negative for Republicans."
Story by Andrew Gumbel

A year out from the 2026 midterms, with Republicans feeling the blows from a string of losses in this week’s elections, Donald Trump and his allies are mounting a multipronged attack on almost every aspect of voting in the United States and raising what experts say are troubling questions about the future of one of the world’s oldest democracies.

While Democratic leaders continue to invest their hopes in a “blue wave” to overturn Republican majorities in the House and Senate next year, Trump and some prominent supporters have sought to discredit the possibility that Republicans could lose in a fair fight and are using that premise to justify demands for a drastically different kind of electoral system.

Related: Republicans want to rig the midterm elections. Will they succeed? | Moira Donegan

This is not the first time Trump has questioned the credibility of US elections – he did it almost as vigorously in 2016 and 2024, when he won his bids for the White House, as he did in 2020, when he did not – but now the president’s confidants are threatening emergency powers to seize control of a process over which presidents ordinarily have no control.

Trump’s former chief political adviser, Steve Bannon, is urging him to get the elections “squared away” even before the voters have a chance to weigh in. Former legal advisers have suggested the electoral system is in itself an emergency justifying extraordinary intervention, possibly including federal agents and the military stationed outside polling stations.
During his remarks from the Senate floor today, Senator Bernie Sanders pulled back the curtain on Trump's reckless healthcare cuts. Sanders asked, "What is the reason for this?"
Federal officials have unsealed an indictment charging former NYPD officer Andrew Nguyen with bribery, drug trafficking, firearms offenses, and robbery.
Story by Sebastian Murdock

President Donald Trump hosted another lavish party at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Friday as the longest federal government shutdown in history continues and millions of Americans go without federal food benefits.

A menu posted online showed guests in Florida dining on filet, scallops and a dessert on the same day that the Supreme Court ruled the SNAP food program that 1 in 8 Americans rely on would not be fully funded amid the shutdown.

Guests at the party were seen wearing tuxedos and gowns and enjoyed a night of opera performances, according to The Daily Beast.
The president got a serious case of the sleepies while Dr. Oz rambled on about how Americans are too fat.
By Elyse Wanshel

Hey, we all tend to doze off while listening to the asinine jabberings of a daytime talk show host like Dr. Mehmet Oz.

But when you make that daytime talk show host the U.S. Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and he’s speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, falling asleep isn’t the best look.

And Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) highlighted exactly that in his latest troll post aimed at President Donald Trump.

On Thursday, Trump was seen with his eyes shut at several points during his administration’s announcement about lowered prices for certain weight loss drugs for Medicare and Medicaid recipients. In a moment, caught by CSPAN, Trump can be seen struggling to fight off the Sandman while listening to Oz spout off fatphobic rhetoric 25 minutes into the White House event.
Trump to Americans let them starve, I’m parting at Mar-a-Lago

Story by Grace Eliza Goodwin

The Trump administration is ordering US states to stop paying full food aid benefits to low-income American families, saying they are "unauthorized".

A memo from the US Department of Agriculture, which runs the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), said states can deliver just 65% of benefits after the Supreme Court allowed the administration to withhold some funding pending further legal hearings.

More than 42 million Americans who rely on the food aid began receiving only partial benefits this month due to the ongoing the US government shutdown.
Story by Zachary Schermele, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – The record-breaking U.S. government shutdown appears headed for its end after more than a month of Washington gridlock caused real pain on main street.

It's welcome news to many in Washington and around the country after the stalemate led to furloughs and firings of hundreds of thousands of federal workers, while millions more Americans were unable to travel, afford food, or send their kids to preschool.

Still, not everyone got what they wanted out of the final deal.

Senate Democrats backed down from their long-held policy demands involving health care. Republicans who want to cut more spending aren't thrilled with President Donald Trump's White House.

Add it all up and it's Politics 101, which means there are always winners – and losers:
Story by Lesley Abravanel

President Donald Trump went on a Sunday night pardon spree, granting full clemency to at least 77 individuals involved in promoting alternate electors in battleground states after the 2020 election, including former Trump attorneys John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, according to Axios.

Announced by U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, the pardons cover potential federal offenses but exclude Trump himself and do not affect ongoing state prosecutions in Georgia, Arizona, and Michigan.

Others who received pardons include attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, attorney and Acting Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget Jeffrey Clark, and attorney and former Trump strategic advisor Boris Epshteyn.

Legal experts describe the action as largely symbolic, given the absence of federal charges against the recipients, but critics excoriated the pardons on social media.

One wrote on X that this move means the country is "waving goodbye to democracy again."

Chef Courtney Brown wrote that "AmeriKKKa has lost its way! This is an absolute disgrace!"
Story by Amy Coleman

He cleaned up New York, led the city through 9/11, and later stood beside Donald Trump during one of America’s most turbulent elections. Few figures have fallen as far or as publicly as Rudy Giuliani.

His 2024 disbarment was meant to close the book on his career, but it did the opposite. Instead, it opened a larger conversation about politics, power, and the limits of truth. So, what really happened to Rudy Giuliani, and why did President Donald Trump decide to pardon him?

Why was Rudy Giuliani disbarred?
According to the Associated Press, Rudy was disbarred in Washington, D.C. in 2024, after a court ruled that he made false and misleading statements while challenging the 2020 election results. The panel argued that his actions “undermined public trust” and violated the ethical responsibilities of an attorney. He had already been disbarred in New York prior to this ruling.

The disbarment effectively ended a decades-long career that once defined legal and political strength in New York City.
Opinion by Ja'han Jones

The Trump administration’s bigoted assault on historical accuracy — and in particular, history involving Black people — has become an international embarrassment. And some Dutch officials are making it clear they want no part in such a crusade.

Officials in the province of Limburg are rebuking the Trump administration and demanding answers over reports that two informational panels honoring a war hero named George Pruitt and referencing the segregation faced by Black troops were quietly removed from the visitors center at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Martgaarten.

Even as they endured racism from their white peers in the U.S. military, Black soldiers played key roles in liberating the Netherlands from the Nazis.

A spokesperson for the American Battle Monuments Commission, the federal agency that oversees U.S. military cemeteries, previously told Dutch news outlet NRC that the panels were “designed to be rotated regularly throughout the exhibition,” and claimed the Pruitt panel was “currently not on display, but not out of rotation.”

In response, sources told Newsweek's Ellie Cook that local officials in Limburg weren’t notified about the removals, that neither of the panels were on display as of Monday morning, and that the commission’s rationale still doesn’t seem to address the removal of the panel about segregation.
Story by Alexander Willis

A new report from Demand Justice revealed Tuesday that dozens of President Donald Trump-nominated judges had used "nearly identical” language in an attempt to dodge questions on the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol and the results of the 2020 election, with the group's president labeling the findings as a “political loyalty test.”

In the exclusive report, Demand Justice analyzed the responses of 27 of Trump’s nominees to questions from lawmaker that are frequently submitted to nominees after their hearings. All 27 were asked bluntly if Trump lost the 2020 election, as well as whether they would describe the Jan. 6 riot as an attack by a “violent mob.”

“When we looked into these answers, we expected some sort of a dodge, but what we revealed was even more disturbing,” said Demand Justice President Josh Orton, speaking on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Tuesday. Host Jonathan Lemire called Orton's report 'exclusive new findings."

“All of the language here is nearly identical! And all of it preserves their ability to say [they] did not contradict Donald Trump on what we know are the two most third-rail issues to Donald Trump,” Orton said.
Story by Sam Levine

Ethics officials at Fannie Mae were removed from their jobs as they investigated whether a top Trump ally improperly accessed mortgage documents of Letitia James, the New York attorney general, and other Democratic officials, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

William Pulte, a staunch Trump defender and the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), has accused James, Adam Schiff, a California senator, and Lisa Cook, a federal reserve governor, of mortgage fraud. All three have denied the accusations and James was indicted on specious federal charges last month.

Experts have raised questions about all three referrals and see them as a thinly veiled effort by Trump to target political rivals.

After Pulte made the referrals, former agency officials and experts told the Guardian they were highly unusual. Individualized mortgage data is highly sensitive and protected. And investigations into mortgage fraud are not typically handled by the FHFA inspector general, an agency watchdog staffed with investigative agents.
Former Arnold Police Chief Eric Doutt is facing six felony counts of felony possession with intent to deliver for allegedly selling cocaine.
During his remarks at the White House in September, President Trump admitted that he wants to make TikTok "100% MAGA related."
Story by Charl Wright

Fox News viewers have blasted Donald Trump, calling him a "village idiot" after he made an embarrassing comment during a press conference yesterday.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, President Trump admitted that he had "no idea what they analyzed" following a recent MRI scan at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland.

Trump revealed last month that he underwent the scan, which the White House claimed was "standard" for routine physicals. Karoline Leavitt, the president's press secretary, alleged that it was part of the 79-year-old's "annual checkup," however, people were quick to point out that it would have been his second one this year.

On Friday, November 14, one reporter asked the president, "Mr President, can you tell us why you needed to get an MRI? I understand that the results were good, but what was it for?"

Trump then responded by saying, "Because it’s part of my physical. Getting an MRI is very standard. What? You think I shouldn’t have it? Other people got it."
Story by BIN

A Florida couple who were captured on video chasing and threatening a Black utility project manager are now facing criminal charges.

According to Newsone, State Attorney Monique Worrell of Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit charged Wiley and Cheryl Ann Pyle with assault with evidence of prejudice, a hate-crime-enhanced offense.

The charges stem from a July incident involving Antavis Johnson, who was going door-to-door in an Orange County neighborhood to notify residents about upcoming utility upgrades. Johnson said the couple became hostile almost immediately after he approached their property, hurling racial slurs, threatening to “hang” him, and pursuing him off their driveway. An officer who responded to the scene told the victim that "no crime was committed."
Story by thedailydigest.com

Epstein: a self-professed intermediary between Trump and Russia
In a dramatic development, newly released emails from the Epstein estate portray the late financier as a self‑professed intermediary between the Trump circle and high‑level Russian officials.

Epstein offered his insight on Trump to Lavrov
According to Politico, in a June 24, 2018, email to former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjorn Jagland, Epstein wrote, “I think you might suggest to Putin that Lavrov can get insight on talking to me,” referring to Trump — just one month before the U.S. president’s high-profile meeting with the Russian leader in July 2018.

One of hundreds of emails uncovered on November 12
The email was uncovered among the hundreds of emails released by congressional investigators on November 12. In the email in question, Epstein added that Russia’s late UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin “was great. He understood Trump after our conversations. It is not complex. He must be seen to get something its that simple.”

Pivotal timing
The timing is striking: the message arrived just weeks before Trump’s July 16, 2018, summit with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. People magazine highlights that the meeting, widely viewed as a foreign-policy pivot point, sparked fierce criticism in the U.S. due to perceptions that Trump appeared deferential to the Russian leader.
USA TODAY domestic security correspondent Josh Meyer examined thousands of Epstein emails. Here are the biggest takeaways involving President Trump.
Alexander Willis

One particular email exchange included in the House Oversight Committee’s recent release of 20,000 pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein has resulted in an online frenzy, with questions circulating as to who a mysterious “Bubba” could be, who, according to the email, is suggested to have performed sexual acts with President Donald Trump.

“What’s your boy Donald up to now?” wrote Mark Epstein, Jeffrey Epstein’s brother, in March of 2018.

“All good. Bannon with me,” Epstein responded, presumably referencing Steve Bannon, Trump’s former White House chief of staff.

“Ask him if [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has the photos of Trump ----ing Bubba?” Mark Epstein wrote back, making reference to oral sex.

“And I thought I had tsuris,” Jeffrey Epstein wrote back, with “tsuris” being a Yiddish word for “troubles” or “woes” according to the Oxford Dictionary.

The internet quickly erupted over the email, demanding to know who the mysterious “Bubba” was, who was being referenced by Epstein’s brother.
Travis Gettys

President Donald Trump's relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein continued into his first term in the White House, so much so that Epstein spent Thanksgiving with Trump while the president was in office, according to newly released emails written by the late financier.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a new batch of emails Wednesday obtained from Epstein's estate, followed by the Republican-led panel's release of 20,000 additional documents, and one of those exchanges shows that he claims to have spent Thanksgiving 2017 – Trump's first as president – at his private Mar-a-Lago resort.

Epstein exchanged emails on Thanksgiving morning, Nov. 23, 2017, with Manhattan modeling management guru Faith Kates, who asked where he was spending the holiday.
David Badash

Despite his own CIA’s investigation that found that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the operation that resulted in the brutal murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, President Donald Trump defended MBS and sharply criticized a reporter asking the crown prince about the killing.

“He’s done a phenomenal job,” President Trump told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce when she asked about the murder.

“You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial,” Trump said of Khashoggi, whose gruesome 2018 killing was investigated by the CIA in a report declassified in February 2021, just after President Joe Biden took office.

“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him,” Trump said.
New filings from New York Attorney General Letitia James' legal team are raising major doubts about the fraud case brought against her.
Story by bmetzger@insider.com (Bryan Metzger)

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that ABC News should have its broadcast license revoked after one of the network's reporters asked him about the Jeffrey Epstein files.

"I think the license should be taken away from ABC," Trump said in the Oval Office, seated beside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. "Because your news is so fake, and it's so wrong."

He added that Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr should "look at" revoking ABC's license because the network is "97% negative to Trump" and is "not credible."

Trump's comments came after the reporter asked him why he would not order his administration to release the Epstein files, even as he's called on members of Congress to vote for a bill that would compel his administration to release those same documents.

Earlier, that same reporter had also asked Trump about his family's business dealings in Saudi Arabia, and had asked the country's crown prince about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
Melissa Murray, NYU Law Professor and Sam Stein, Managing Editor of The Bulwark joins Nicolle Wallace on Deadline White House to discuss how Donald Trump has begun to lose his grip on the party that he has commanded for nearly a decade, and how continued political losses during the month of November point to him looking like a lame duck President earlier than previously anticipated.
Story by Joe Coughlan

The release of 20,000 documents relating to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein has led to renewed speculation over the links between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.

As Congress prepares to vote on the release of another tranche of Epstein files, experts say the documents indicate Russia may have obtained material to use to blackmail the US President.

The release by the US House of Representatives Oversight Committee last week included implications that the late financier sought to advise Russian politicians on how to understand Trump.

One email from June 2018, a month before the US President met Putin at a summit in Helsinki, indicated that Epstein had spoken about Trump with Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, before the latter’s death in 2017.

“[Churkin] understood Trump after our conversations,” said the email from Epstein, sent to former Norwegian prime minister Thorbjorn Jagland.

“It is not complex. He must be seen to get something, it’s that simple.”

He added: “I think you might suggest to Putin that Lavrov can get insight on talking to me,” apparently referring to Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister.
Published on: November 19, 2025 at 10:40 AM ETGoogle News IconFollow Us On Google News
Turkish national arrested after violent ICE struggle in New York.
Written By Pramila Tripathi, Edited By Divya Verma

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE agents recently stated that a Turkish national accused of attacking immigration officers and attempting to grab a weapon during a confrontation in Western New York has been taken into custody.

In a statement released on Tuesday, ICE agents revealed that the suspect has been identified as Saim Irgi, a 39-year-old Turkish citizen who is allegedly in the U.S. illegally. Arresting officers further mentioned that the accused violently resisted arrest and shouted the Arabic phrase “Allahu akbar,” which means “God is great,” as officers struggled to restrain him.

The incident occurred in Tonawanda, just outside Buffalo, when ICE officers were conducting a targeted operation. They spotted a vehicle leaving a home connected to their investigation and decided to follow it. The driver, later confirmed to be Irgi, was pulled over by the officers. His immigration status was eventually discovered, which led to the altercation.
Alexander Willis

Steve Bannon, MAGA influencer and former White House chief of staff to President Donald Trump, promised to shield Jeffrey Epstein from prosecution just months before his death in prison, newly unearthed text messages suggested Monday.

The text messages – highlighted by author and academic Karen Piper Monday – were part of a document dump of 20,000 pages of files from Epstein’s estate that were released by the House Oversight Committee last week.

“If either one of us, in different investigations will need to testify publicly, it would be preferred to do it with two nostrils instead of one,” wrote Epstein in a text dated Dec. 5, 2018 to a person who, while their name was redacted, is believed to be Bannon based on “contextual clues,” The Guardian and other media outlets have reported.

“You don't have to worry personally because I'm sending u somewhere beyond extradition,” wrote back the responder believed to be Bannon less than two minutes later.
Story by Salvador Rizzo, Jeremy Roebuck

Justice Department lawyers acknowledged Wednesday that a full grand jury never reviewed the final indictment against former FBI director James B. Comey, a remarkable admission that could threaten the viability of the case.

The revelation came during a court hearing in which U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff quizzed prosecutors over what appeared to be a missing portion of the transcript of the grand jury proceedings.

The grand jurors had rejected an early version of an indictment charging Comey with three counts. Hours later, the grand jury foreperson signed off on a two-count indictment charging Comey with making false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding. The foreperson said at the time that a majority of the panel had approved those two counts.

Prosecutors acknowledged Wednesday that they revised the indictment to delete the rejected count. But, in a remarkable concession, they told Nachmanoff that they never presented that revised indictment to the full grand jury for approval. Instead, they said, they had the foreperson sign the new version before presenting it to a judge, while a deputy foreperson was also in the room.

That means “there is no indictment Mr. Comey is facing,” defense lawyer Michael R. Dreeben said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney N. Tyler Lemons sought to downplay the error, arguing that the revised indictment was changed only to remove the count that the grand jury rejected.

“The new indictment wasn’t a new indictment,” he said.

Nachmanoff said little during Wednesday’s two-hour hearing about how he viewed the significance of the issue. The hearing had been called to consider Comey’s arguments that the case should be dismissed on the grounds that he is only being prosecuted because of President Donald Trump’s vindictiveness.

The judge also did not immediately rule on the vindictive prosecution motion, saying the issues were “too weighty and too complex” for a quick decision. Comey’s attorneys have already signaled they intend to file a separate challenge to the case based on grand jury irregularities.

Another email from the release, sent in 2019, appeared to show Epstein telling a journalist that Trump “knew about the girls”, although it was unclear what this referred to.
Story by Robert Davis

Another one of PresidentDonald Trump's government officials may be using Signal to conduct official business at the Department of Justice, according to a watchdog group.

American Oversight sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday, arguing that Ed Martin, who leads the DOJ's Weaponization of Government group, appears to be auto-deleting files using an app such as Signal. The watchdog group argued that Martin may be violating the Federal Records Act if this is the case.
Story by AP

MIAMI (AP) — U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida has been indicted on charges accusing her of stealing $5 million in federal disaster funds and using some of the money to aid her 2021 campaign, the Justice Department said Wednesday.

The Democrat is accused of stealing Federal Emergency Management Agency overpayments that her family health care company had received through a federally funded COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract, federal prosecutors said. A portion of the money was then funneled to support her campaign through candidate contributions, prosecutors allege.

“Using disaster relief funds for self-enrichment is a particularly selfish, cynical crime,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “No one is above the law, least of all powerful people who rob taxpayers for personal gain. We will follow the facts in this case and deliver justice.”
Story by Jordan King

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) has changed the language of a new policy regarding the display of hate symbols including swastikas and nooses after it was revealed it had planned to describe them as “potentially divisive.”

The USCG used this phrase for the first time earlier this month, The Washington Post revealed, shifting from a 2019 policy stating that the symbols were “widely identified with oppression or hatred,” meaning their display would be “a potential hate incident.”
Story by Stephen Sorace

The leader of an Eastern European neo-Nazi group pleaded guilty in New York to recruiting others to carry out violent attacks against Jews and racial minorities — including a plot to dress as Santa Claus and hand out poisoned candy to children.

Michail Chkhikvishvili, 22, of the Republic of Georgia, who goes by "Commander Butcher," admitted Monday in Brooklyn federal court to soliciting hate crimes and sharing instructions for making bombs and ricin.

Federal prosecutors say Chkhikvishvili led the Maniac Murder Cult, an extremist group advocating violence to spark a racial and religious war. He was extradited from Moldova to the Eastern District of New York in May.

"With today’s guilty plea, this defendant admits to a horrific plot targeting Jewish people and racial minorities and even planned to poison children with candy around the holidays," FBI Director Kash Patel said in a DOJ press release.

Chkhikvishvili traveled to Brooklyn in June 2022 and soon began urging others — mainly via the encrypted app Telegram — to commit violent hate crimes for the group. He repeatedly solicited mass‑violence attacks from someone who turned out to be an undercover FBI employee, prosecutors said.

Since at least 2021, he had circulated a manifesto, the "Hater’s Handbook," which encourages mass violence, including school shootings.
Story by Thomas Kika

ICE and its agents incurred the wrath of a federal judge following extensive reviews of body camera footage and “impossible to believe” statements relating to the recent enforcement operations in Chicago.

In recent months, Chicago has emerged as one the epicenters of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, with ICE launching a major enforcement effort in September dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz.”

Judge Sara L. Ellis, of the Northern District of Illinois, issued a 233-page opinion concluded that ICE leadership and agents had systematically lied about everything from the nature of certain enforcement efforts and the severity of tactics deployed. Throughout the opinion, Ellis highlighted instances in which the claims made by ICE in court were disproven by video evidence.
Jen Psaki reports on the U.S. Coast Guard reclassifying swastikas and nooses from hate symbols to "potentially divisive," while at the same time, a former FBI employee is suing for being fired for displaying a pride flag.
Story by Matthew Chapman

President Donald Trump just lobbed death threats at a group of Democratic military veteran lawmakers for reminding the troops they are required to refuse illegal orders — but then a series of courts hit him in the face with precisely the reason that reminder was necessary, former Trump administration Homeland Security staffer Miles Taylor wrote for his "Defiance" Substack on Friday.

The Democrats in question, which include Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), and Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), put out a video this week, stating that the Uniform Code of Military Justice requires illegal orders — like an order to shoot unarmed civilians — to be disobeyed. Trump hit back on Truth Social by first demanding they be arrested, then writing, "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!" then retweeting another user who said George Washington would have hanged them all.

Despite this, wrote Taylor, "Rather than unify in repudiating the vile remarks from the president, Republicans immediately echoed Trump, daring Democrats to 'name one' illegal order anyone in Trump’s government had been asked to carry out. Some similarly accused Democrats of 'sedition,' despite the lawmakers merely telling government workers to comply with the law."
Moody's Analytics identifies states with farming and light manufacturing economies as most vulnerable to contraction. Federal job cuts in Washington D.C. have created the deepest regional downturn.
Democrats are calling for additional security for the lawmakers.
Trump faced mounting losses this week in court on numerous fronts, both personal and presidential. An appeals court rejected Trump’s efforts to revive his defamation suit against CNN, a federal judge ruled against his deployment of National Guard troops to Washington, DC, and another judge ruled he likely violated the law when trying to cut millions in funding to local governments unless they followed conditions related to immigration enforcement. Former White House lawyer during Trump’s first term, Ty Cobb, joins “The Weekend” to discuss.
Story by Jack Revell

Elon Musk’s social media site X has rolled out a new feature in an effort to increase transparency—and unwittingly revealed that many of the site’s top MAGA influencers are actually foreign actors.

The new “About This Account” feature, which became available to X users on Friday, allows others to see where an account is based, when they joined the platform, how often they have changed their username, and how they downloaded the X app.

Upon rollout, rival factions began to inspect just where their online adversaries were really based on the combative social platform—with dozens of major MAGA and right-wing influencer accounts revealed to be originating from overseas.

“This is easily one of the greatest days on this platform,” wrote Democratic influencer Harry Sisson.

“Seeing all of these MAGA accounts get exposed as foreign actors trying to destroy the United States is a complete vindication of Democrats, like myself and many on here, who have been warning about this”.
Story by David McAfee

A large number of MAGA social media influencers were exposed over the weekend as being being based in other countries.

Podcaster Matt Binder posted screenshots showing that Charlie’s Voice Rising, a popular Charlie Kirk fan account, is based in Eastern Europe (non-EU).

One popular influencer wrote "wait this is crazy" along with a screenshot showing that Defiant Ls, a MAGA account that has 1.6 million followers, is from Japan.

Dem influencer DreamLeaf wrote, "This one is great," along with evidence that a MAGA account called "Americaman" is actually based in Indonesia.

PatriotTakes, which is dedicated to research monitoring and exposing right-wing extremism and other threats to democracy, drew attention to post Trump himself had shared.

"Trump just boosted a MAGA account based in 'South Asia' #AmericaFirst," he wrote, before Brian Tyler Cohen said, "Perhaps it would be easier to identify which MAGA accounts are actually based *inside* the United States."
Story by Simon Marks

If it weren’t so pathetically predictable, the weekend’s developments in Washington pertaining to President Donald Trump’s 28-point peace plan for Ukraine would stretch credulity. It turns out the document is not – in fact – Trump’s 28-point peace plan, but mostly a Russian document that US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff or one of his colleagues may simply have run through an online translation app before giving it the White House seal of approval.

At the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, was pictured in deep conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. As they discussed the crisis sparked by Trump’s demand that the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accept the American-backed plan by Thursday, or else face an immediate and complete cut in US military assistance, even the three European leaders may not have fully understood the scale of Trump’s sell-out to Moscow.

The architect of the latest Kremlin moves to secure a peace that dismembers Ukraine and is entirely favourable only to Vladimir Putin, is one of the Russian leader’s most prominent advisers. Harvard-educated Kirill Dmitriev has shuttled back and forth between Moscow and various cities in the United States for meetings with Witkoff, Trump’s fellow property magnate who has become America’s de facto “Mr Fixit”.
Story by Associated Press

Lawmakers critical of President Donald Trump’s approach to ending the Russia-Ukraine war said Saturday they spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio who told them that the peace plan Trump is pushing Kyiv to accept is a “wish list” of the Russians and not the actual proposal offering Washington’s positions.

A State Department spokesperson denied their account, calling it “blatantly false.”

Rubio himself then took the extraordinary step of suggesting online that the senators were mistaken, even though they said he was their source for the information. The secretary of state doubled down on the assertion that Washington was responsible for a proposal that had surprised many from the beginning for being so favorable to Moscow.

It all added up to a confusing — and potentially embarrassing — turn of events for a Trump administration-blessed peace plan that already faced a potentially rocky future.

The widely leaked 28-point US-backed peace plan was, according to the White House, the result of a month of work between Rubio and Trump envoy Steve Witkoff along with input from what it said was both Ukrainians and Russians. The plan acquiesces to many Russian demands that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has categorically rejected on dozens of occasions, including giving up large pieces of territory. Trump says he wants Ukraine to accept the plan by late next week.
Story by Holmes Lybrand, Devan Cole, CNN

A federal judge dismissed the indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday.

The judge found that the appointment of interim US Attorney Lindsey Halligan in Alexandria, Virginia, was invalid.

Trump handpicked Halligan for the role amid increasing pressure to bring criminal cases against his political enemies, including Comey and James.

“The Attorney General’s attempt to install Ms. Halligan as Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was invalid,” Judge Cameron McGowan Currie wrote in her Monday order.

According to Currie, “all actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment” including the indictments against Comey and James “were unlawful exercises of executive power and are hereby set aside.”

The judge tossed out the cases “without prejudice,” leaving open the possibility that the cases against Comey and James can be brought again alleging the same conduct.
Story by Marisa Laudadio

Newly surfaced emails from predators Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell discussing their old friend Donald Trump are sending shockwaves through Washington — and raising more questions about what the president really knew.

In the messages, Epstein mentions Trump multiple times — sparking renewed interest in a story the White House has unsuccessfully tried to move past for months.

What Rep. Garcia said
Representative Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, called the correspondence eye-opening as it fuels "glaring questions" about what officials may be hiding.

"The more Donald Trump tries to cover up the Epstein files, the more we uncover," the California representative said in a press release.
Opinion by Lesley Abravanel

President Donald Trump’s "wrecking-ball approach to America has a precedent: the MAGA evangelical perversion of Jesus’s message of radical love to one of hate and aggression," writes The Guardian's Bill McKibben.

McKibben notes that Trump's " most revealing and defining moments – not its most important, nor cruelest, nor most dangerous, nor stupidest, but perhaps its most illuminating," came when he started postingplans of his gilded ballroom and then posted an AI video dumping feces on American cities.

"He has done things 10,000 times as bad – the current estimate of deaths from his cuts to USAID is 600,000 and rising, and this week a study predicted his fossil fuel policies would kill another 1.3 million. But nothing as definitional," McKibben says.

But "no one – not Richard Nixon, not Andrew Jackson, not Warren Harding, not anyone – would have imagined boasting about defecating on the American citizenry," he notes.

"Trump has managed to turn America’s idea of itself entirely upside down. And he has done it with the active consent of an entire political party," McKibben adds.

McKibben says that those, including himself, raised as "mainline Protestant Christians" should not be surprised by any of this.

"We have watched over the years as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we grew up with into exactly the opposite of who we understood him to be," he writes.
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