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Raw Story
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[l] at 6/20/25 8:05pm
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and President Donald Trump's Homeland Security Advisor, just won't get off the phone, according to a new report.The Wall Street Journal reported Friday night that Trump 2.0 has Miller's fingerprints all over it, with Miller "emerg[ing] as a singular figure in the second Trump administration, wielding more power than almost any other White House staffer in recent memory—and eager to circumvent legal limitations on his agenda."Miller has drafted or edited each of Trump's signed executive orders, according to the report, giving him considerable influence over Trump's second term. This comes after the president refused to give him a leading role at the Department of Homeland Security, reportedly telling aides he didn't see Miller as leadership material, according to the report.Also of note — Miller appears to be getting under the skin of GOP aides on Capitol Hill who say they can't get him off the phone. "Congressional aides fielded lengthy calls from Miller about illegal immigration, often without any specific requests. One likened him to a grandmother who wouldn’t stop talking and said his calls were akin to listening to a podcast. Others said he would call to scold aides about how they had framed a social-media post on a particular issue or criticizing the way they had worded a press release," the Journal reported.
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[l] at 6/20/25 7:54pm
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass fired back at Vice President JD Vance for his remarks during a news conference on Friday.During the press conference, Vance misidentified Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) as "Jose Padilla." Vance's press secretary later said Vance "must have mixed up two people who have broken the law," a not-so-subtle jab at Padilla's detention during a press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last week. Bass expressed outrage at Vance's gaffe."Mr. Vice President, how dare you disrespect our Senator?" Bass said. "You don't know his name, but yet you served with him before you were Vice President, and you continue to serve with him today." "The last time I checked, the Vice President of the United States is the President of the Senate," Bass continued. "You serve with him today, so how dare you disrespect him and call him 'Jose.' But I guess he just looks like anybody to you."Vance's comments set off a firestorm online, with social media commentators calling Vance a "racist piece of trash" and a "dumb---."Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) also weighed in on Vance's comments, saying that "calling him 'Jose Padilla' is not an accident." Misinformation has swirled around Padilla's detention last week. Shortly after it happened, Noem claimed on Fox News that Padilla didn't identify himself while he was in the room. Video of the incident contradicted that claim, as Padilla could clearly be heard identifying himself as a U.S. senator.Padilla pushed back on some of the misinformation in an op-ed for The New York Times and described what's happening in Los Angeles as "a warning shot."
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[l] at 6/20/25 7:54pm
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass fired back at Vice President JD Vance for his remarks during a news conference on Friday.During the press conference, Vance misidentified Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) as "Jose Padilla." Vance's press secretary later said Vance "must have mixed up two people who have broken the law," a not-so-subtle jab at Padilla's detention during a press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last week. Bass expressed outrage at Vance's gaffe."Mr. Vice President, how dare you disrespect our Senator?" Bass said. "You don't know his name, but yet you served with him before you were Vice President, and you continue to serve with him today." "The last time I checked, the Vice President of the United States is the President of the Senate," Bass continued. "You serve with him today, so how dare you disrespect him and call him 'Jose.' But I guess he just looks like anybody to you."Vance's comments set off a firestorm online, with social media commentators calling Vance a "racist piece of trash" and a "dumb---."Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) also weighed in on Vance's comments, saying that "calling him 'Jose Padilla' is not an accident." Misinformation has swirled around Padilla's detention last week. Shortly after it happened, Noem claimed on Fox News that Padilla didn't identify himself while he was in the room. Video of the incident contradicted that claim, as Padilla could clearly be heard identifying himself as a U.S. senator.Padilla pushed back on some of the misinformation in an op-ed for The New York Times and described what's happening in Los Angeles as "a warning shot."
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[l] at 6/20/25 7:44pm
Vice President JD Vance came under fire on Friday for referring to Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) as "Jose Padilla" during a speech in California — mixing up the name of the senator with a notorious terrorist convicted of planning a radiological bomb attack.Vance's press secretary, Taylor Van Kirk, then fanned the flames in response to the criticism.“He must have mixed up two people who have broken the law," Van Kirk said, according to Daily Wire White House correspondent Mary Margaret Olohan.Her flippant response didn't sit well with one prominent immigration attorney."What a despicable comment from his press secretary. Jose Padilla is a convicted terrorist," wrote American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick.Padilla was thrust into the national spotlight earlier this month when he was tackled and arrested by federal agents in the middle of trying to ask questions at a news conference being held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. This followed the Trump administration's decision to send in the military to put down protests in Los Angeles against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids of local workplaces."Over the course of several weeks several of my colleagues have been asking the Department of Homeland Security for more information ... and we've gotten little to no information in response to our inquiries," Padilla stated at the time, shortly after being released following the incident.
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[l] at 6/20/25 7:34pm
President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” may be headed for collapseSen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is warning that sweeping Republican health care legislation included in the bill is in serious jeopardy, calling the prospect of sending it to a conference committee a “nightmare scenario,” Axios reported Friday.Hawley is urging Senate leaders to fix it fast.“I just think the idea of having now to go to a conference committee with the House because they say, well, we can’t pass this... I mean, good lord, that’s just a nightmare scenario,” Hawley told Axios.The Missouri senator, who has emerged as the most vocal Republican critic of Medicaid cuts, is outraged that the Senate bill goes beyond the House version in slashing Medicaid spending.He's pressing leaders to remove or revise the new provisions before they derail the entire effort.“It seems to me that now we’re in a place where this provision is threatening the entire bill, and we just don’t have time for that,” he told Axios.Trump reportedly wants the bill signed into law by July 4, and that deadline was reiterated to GOP senators this week by White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.But friction between the two chambers of Congress is casting doubt on whether the plan can even survive, per the report.Revisions to Medicaid and the state and local tax deduction (SALT) cap are a particular concern. Several House Republicans believe the current version simply can’t pass.House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) team has privately said he wasn’t consulted on the Senate changes, according to reporting from Punchbowl News.While Hawley opposes the Senate’s Medicaid cuts, he’s expressed openness to a compromise.He’s said he would support the House’s approach to the Medicaid provider tax, which would freeze it at 6%.Earlier this week, he told reporters he’s been sharing alternative ideas with leadership — particularly aimed at shielding rural hospitals, which many Republicans worry would be hit hardest under the Senate proposal.
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[l] at 6/20/25 7:18pm
The New York Times editorial board did not mince words on Friday in an op-ed about President Donald Trump's response to recent political violence. The board wrote that while Trump has been targeted by violence, "he also deserves particular responsibility for our angry culture.""He uses threatening language in ways that no other modern president has," the editorial said. The board noted that Trump has praised those who "commit violence in his name," pointing to Jan. 6 rioters he eventually pardoned. "He sometimes seems incapable of extending basic decency to Democrats," the editorial board wrote, referring to Trump's refusal to call Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) following the assassination of former Minnesota state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband. Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were also shot, but survived. "The new culture of political violence is being reinforced," the editorial board continued. "When we move on too quickly from an attack against our society’s organizing ideas, we normalize it. The next shooter, the next extremist, sees a society that accepts violence. Forgetting is dangerous. It encourages repetition."The editorial was printed at a time when debates about political violence have dominated Capitol Hill. Following the Minnesota shootings, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) blamed the event on "Marxists" who "didn't get their way" in a since-deleted post on X. The post caused Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) to confront Lee over the post. Smith told NBC News that she was "glad' to see the post taken down, though Lee had not yet apologized for the posts. Last week, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) was detained while attending a press conference held by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The senator was forced to the ground and handcuffed before being removed from the briefing. Multiple Democratic lawmakers have also been either detained or arrested while protesting mass deportation operations conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
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[l] at 6/20/25 6:55pm
The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board tore into Kari Lake, President Donald Trump's senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, for shutting down a key information lifeline America uses to send its message to the Iranian people.Lake, a multiple-time failed candidate for statewide office in Arizona, has worked to dismantle Radio Free Europe and Voice of America, the state-sponsored media services for people outside the country. This comes as Trump is on the brink of potentially ordering military strikes against Iran."In the days since Israel began bombing nuclear sites, Iranians have needed access to news and information that can counter Iran’s state propaganda. One of the first places they turned to was RFE’s Persian language service, Radio Farda," wrote the board. "In the first days of the conflict between Iran and Israel, Iranians flocked to Radio Farda and its platform. Traffic surged 344% on the group’s Instagram account with 62.5 million video views while website traffic rose 77%, according to RFE. Viewership also spiked in the Middle East and North Africa."Despite all of this, however, the board continued, on Lake's watch, "Radio Farda has cut freelancers, furloughed staff and allowed podcasts and social-media accounts to lapse. It has also cut back on broadcasts through Kuwaiti transmitters that supported short-wave radio broadcasts in Iran. This old technology remains a critical source of information in times of crisis or social upheaval, such as today."All of this comes as Iran puts massive new censorship on the internet, and orders people to delete apps like Telegram and WhatsApp that could help them communicate with the outside world — leaving radio broadcasts the only way people could hear counterprogramming to the regime."Mr. Trump knows more than most about the power of social media to drive social change," the board concluded. "As the war unfolds and in its aftermath, Iranians may have a chance to forge a new political destiny. They need truth to counter the regime’s lies, and Radio Farda and U.S. communications technology can help them get it."
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[l] at 6/20/25 6:49pm
President Donald Trump is close to securing a much-desired trade deal with the European Union, but that deal doesn't address a couple of key priorities, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The trade deal only includes non-tariff related issues like deforestation, shipbuilding, carbon-based border tariffs, and more, the Journal reported, citing people with knowledge of the text. However, it does not address the tariffs that Trump has threatened to impose on the EU. The Journal reported that tariffs could be addressed in a separate deal. Trump has threatened to impose a range of tariffs on the EU, like the 20% reciprocal tariff he threatened in April, to higher tariffs on automobiles, steel, and other goods. Those tariffs are scheduled to go into effect on July 17 if no agreement is reached. The trade deal also opens the doors to a couple of policies that are important to U.S. firms. One is the enforcement of the EU's Digital Markets Act, a bill that has been used to prosecute American tech companies like Apple and Meta Platforms. The Journal said that Trump has proposed exempting U.S. businesses from the law, which would largely "defang" it. The two countries would also work together to establish a carbon border adjustment mechanism, a tariff that would be charged based on the amount of carbon a good includes. Under the proposed agreement, the U.S. would be exempt from the tariff for one year. U.S. energy exports to the EU would also be exempted.
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[l] at 6/20/25 6:31pm
President Donald Trump's demand that NATO countries increase their defense spending to 5% of their GDP appears to be a rule for other countries and not the United States.The comments come at a time when Trump is scheduled to meet with NATO allies next week in The Hague. Spain's prime minister recently said his country won't abide by the spending increase and asked for an exemption. “I don’t think we should, but I think they should,” he said during a news conference in Morristown, New Jersey, on Friday. “We’ve been supporting NATO so long…So I don’t think we should, but I think that the NATO countries should, absolutely,” Trump continued.Trump has long tried to get NATO countries to increase their defense spending to 5% of GDP. NATO chief Mark Rutte said recently that all NATO countries will meet the current 2% goal this year, and many have a plan to increase that spending to 3.5% by 2030. Currently, the United States spends about 3.4% of its GDP on NATO defense, according to data from the alliance. There are only four countries that currently meet the 5% defense spending target. Those are Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.The proposed increase in defense spending has also become a point of contention among the 32 NATO countries. "We have to find a realistic compromise between what is necessary and what is possible, really, to spend,” Germany’s defense minister, Boris Pistorius, told The New York Times earlier this month.
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[l] at 6/20/25 6:17pm
Republicans on Capitol Hill expressed disappointment on Friday that President Donald Trump one again punted on enforcing a ban on TikTok.This week marked the third deadline extension Trump has granted for TikTok's sale or ban since returning to office. The most recent action pushed the deadline to Sept. 17.Last year, Congress passed a law requiring the popular social media platform to be sold by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, or face a ban in the United States. Lawmakers have expressed serious national security concerns. The law allowed for one 90-day extension under certain conditions. Republican lawmakers this week expressed displeasure over the move, with Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) telling Politico, "Not my favorite thing."Hawley, in March 2024, cheered after the House overwhelmingly passed the legislation. His office called him a "leader" against TikTok, which he said is linked to the Chinese Communist Party. Hawley previously introduced legislation to ban TikTok on all American devices, but his No TikTok on American Devices Act was repeatedly blocked in the Senate. He has repeatedly called TikTok a "spy app for the Chinese Communist Government" and criticized it for hosting antisemitic and pro-Hamas content. Additionally, Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL), a member of the House Intelligence and China committees, told Politico that his "national security concerns and vulnerabilities are still there, and they have not gone away.""I would argue they’ve almost become more enhanced in many ways," he warned.Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA), meanwhile, told the outlet, “No more extensions. It’s time to follow through.” Nunn sits on the House China Committee.He was joined by fellow committee member Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA), who wrote on X, “I was proud to support the ban of TikTok and believe the law should be implemented as written.”
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[l] at 6/20/25 6:05pm
One of President Donald Trump's judicial nominees for a federal seat in Florida was lobbying the Senate for a nomination at the same time he ruled in favor of Trump in a defamation case in state court, Politico reported on Friday."Ed Artau ... met with staff in the office of Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott to angle for the nomination less than two weeks after Trump’s election last fall, according to a new Senate disclosure obtained by POLITICO. In the midst of his interviews, Artau was part of a panel of judges that ruled in Trump’s favor in the president’s case against members of the Pulitzer Prize Board," said the report. Two weeks after that opinion went out, "he interviewed with the White House Counsel’s Office. In May, Trump announced his nomination to the federal judiciary."Trump sued the Pulitzer board for granting awards to reporting about Russian interference on Trump's behalf in the 2016 presidential election, which the president has repeatedly maintained was fake, even though a special counsel report documented it extensively.Artau has stated in his questionnaire to the Senate that no one involved with his nomination “discussed with [him] any currently pending or specific case, legal issue or question in a manner that could reasonably be interpreted as seeking any express or implied assurances concerning [his] position on such case, issue, or question.”Nonetheless, experts were alarmed at the timing of these decisions, with Indiana University law professor Charles Geyh saying, “Coming across as an archpartisan is now perceived as something that can help your cause with President Trump. The idea that you would have a judge thinking you know, it’s a good idea to go on the warpath in support of the President, is really a new development.”In the court ruling that allowed the lawsuit to proceed, Artau explicitly called for the Supreme Court to revisit New York Times v. Sullivan, the landmark case that required public figures to have evidence of "actual malice" to sue the press for defamation. That ruling put an end to an extensive regime of intimidation in which Southern politicians used the threat of legal action to stop journalists from reporting on the injustice of Jim Crow laws, and established limits on powerful figures bullying opponents into silence.Trump himself has repeatedly called for abolishing that standard, saying the United States should "open up libel laws" to make defamation cases against the press easier to file.For now, there appears to be little support by the Supreme Court for undoing these protections, although Justice Clarence Thomas — who himself has been the subject of numerous reports on controversial gifts from wealthy benefactors with business before the court — has suggested he would like to do so.
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[l] at 6/20/25 5:52pm
The internet erupted Friday evening after Vice President JD Vance misidentified Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) during a news conference in Los Angeles. Vance's comments were in response to a question from a reporter asking for comment about the numerous instances where Democratic lawmakers have been detained or arrested by ICE agents at protests and in immigration courts. The reporter asked whether those instances are evidence of whether President Donald Trump's administration is "cracking down on Democrats.""Well, I wish Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question, but unfortunately, I think he decided not to show up because there wasn't a theatre," Vance retorted, referring to the instance when Padilla was handcuffed at a news conference held by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Social media erupted following Vance's gaffe, with several people offering takedowns of the vice president. "Shocked that @JDVance acting like a smug little p---- would backfire on him," wrote Tommy Vietor, a former National Security Council member from the Obama administration, on X."That's SENATOR Alex Padilla. As he clearly identified himself as at the moment in question," former Deputy White House Cabinet Secretary Dan Koh posted on X. "JD Vance just referred to Senator Alex Padilla as 'Jose Padilla.' Vance is a racist piece of trash. What a disgusting thing to say," progressive political influencer Harry Sisson wrote on X. "Vance served in the Senate for several years with Alex Padilla. There's only 100 of them, so you'd think he'd remember his first name," another commentator posted on X. "After landing in LA, Creep Veep and Cabbage Patch Kid JD Vance called Sen. Alex Padilla Jose Padilla, either because he's a dumb--- or just a lowbrow racist," one commenter posted on Bluesky. "Vance was speaking to the official (cess)pool of spineless reporters who will lick any boot for a paycheck. Real journalists weren't allowed."The popular X account Call to Activism wrote, "MAJOR BREAKING: In a staggeringly racist and disgusting moment, JD Vance refers to Senator Alex Padilla as 'José Padilla.' JD Vance is a complete embarrassment."Watch the clip below or at this link.Vance: I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question but unfortunately I guess he decided not show up because there wasn’t the theater. We ought to laugh them out of the building. pic.twitter.com/el8wLL7YJg— Acyn (@Acyn) June 20, 2025
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[l] at 6/20/25 5:34pm
Sen. Jim Justice (R-WV) defended the GOP's planned deep cuts to Medicaid that could kick over 10 million low-income people off health insurance.According to The Independent's D.C. bureau chief Eric Michael Garcia, when confronted over the plan in President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" to force states to institute work requirements for Medicaid, Justice said, "Biblically, we are supposed to work.""We have taken the dignity and the hope and the belief away from a lot of people where they are hopeless, they think they can't," he said.Under Trump's previous term, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services allowed individual states to experiment with work requirements. The program failed, having no discernible impact on employment and leading to thousands of people, including some who were working, to be thrown off coverage. Ultimately, these programs were shot down as illegal in federal court.The Senate bill's version of the work requirements is even more draconian than those in the House, also applying to parents of children over age 14. This would affect up to 380,000 more people.In addition, the Senate plans to sharply curtail the amount of provider taxes states can use to get matching funds for their Medicaid programs, which could devastate rural hospitals so badly that the GOP is considering including a fund to bail them out.Justice, who inherited a coal mining business and was a billionaire before his net worth was wiped out by extensive debt, has nonetheless warned his fellow senators that other aspects of the bill's cuts could be going too far, including a proposal to force states to pay more of the cost of the food stamp program.
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[l] at 6/20/25 5:27pm
First Lady Melania Trump’s renovation of Jackie Kennedy’s iconic Rose Garden during Donald Trump’s first term drew widespread criticism. Now, President Trump is renovating that space once again—this time transforming it into a Mar-a-Lago-style patio—sparking a fresh wave of backlash from critics.President Trump defended what Newsweek described as “bulldozing” part of the Rose Garden, saying the change was intended to make the space more accessible for women wearing high heels, according to The Daily Beast. The renovations also involve removing several trees, including a saucer magnolia reportedly planted to honor President John F. Kennedy.“It’s supposed to have events,” Trump said of the Rose Garden. “Every event you have it’s soaking wet,” he complained.“The women with the high heels, it’s just too much… the grass, it doesn’t work. We use it for press conferences. It doesn’t work.”The White House has done little to inform the American people about the construction, leaving critics to ask questions including who is paying for the construction, and is there a federal agency or commission that approves changes to the White House, given its centuries-long history.“The White House is a national symbol and not the personal property of any president. Permanent changes should be reviewed by preservation experts and consider public sentiment, not be made unilaterally for vanity or political messaging,” wrote Molly Ploofkins, a social media user whose bio says she is a retired Army medic.“We’ve got money to bulldoze the White House Rose Garden and turn it into a Mar-a-Lago-style patio, but we can’t pay for cancer research for kids or make sure veterans aren’t living off food stamps,” remarked Democratic strategist and former Harris senior advisor Mike Nellis.“I love how people keep pointing out that private donations paid for it—not the government. I don’t give a s—,” Nellis added later. “The issue is this administration’s priorities. Trump thinks it’s fine to bulldoze the Rose Garden to build a patio so he can relax outside, while doing nothing to improve your life. That’s the criticism. He’s enriching himself, screwing everyone else, and not lifting a goddamn finger to help you. That’s the problem.”Journalist Jane Coaston remarked, “I am increasingly of the view that Trump wants to ‘be president’ so he can watch musicals and manage the rose garden and he just lets other people be co-president for periods of time so he has more time for musicals and rose garden management.”“RIP to the White House Rose Garden,” observed former Obama White House photographer Pete Souza. “Today the Rose Garden is being ripped apart as construction begins to pave over the entire grass area. A sad, and unnecessary, day for what used to be the People’s House.”“The White House rose garden was established in 1913,” noted WAMU’s Esther Ciammachilli, before lamenting, “Trump has just paved paradise and put up a parking lot. This is not his house. It belongs to the American people. He is just a tenant. Nothing is sacred anymore.”
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[l] at 6/20/25 5:00pm
The GOP met a procedural roadblock on Friday in their quest to shutter the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Senate parliamentarian said the Senate Banking Committee violated procedural rules in its effort to approve zeroing out the $6.4 billion in funding the bureau receives each year. The measure is part of President Donald Trump's 1,000-page "One Big, Beautiful Bill Act," his signature piece of legislation that Democrats have fought for over a month. Known as the Byrd Rule, the provision effectively prohibits policy matters from being discussed during the reconciliation process. Violating the rule could require the GOP to pass the bill with a 60-vote threshold in the Senate, where the party has a 53-47 majority. While the Senate parliamentarian's recommendations are advisory in nature, they are also rarely ignored. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) said in a Friday statement that the GOP will continue to find ways to "cut wasteful spending" and work with the parliamentarian to rectify the procedural issues. But Democrats struck a much different tone. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who helped create the bureau before she was elected to Congress, said in a statement that the GOP's efforts are a "reckless, dangerous attack on consumers." If the provision passes, Warren warned that it would "put the stability of our entire financial system at risk–all to hand out tax breaks to billionaires.”
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[l] at 6/20/25 4:54pm
President Donald Trump proclaimed that his own director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was "wrong" about Iran in an exchange with reporters on a New Jersey tarmac on Friday after it was pointed out to him that she had said the intelligence community currently has no evidence Iran posesses or is building a nuclear weapon.Less than an hour after this exchange, Gabbard took to X to claim the media was making things up and she had never actually contradicted Trump on Iran at all."The dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division," wrote Gabbard. "America has intelligence that Iran is at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months, if they decide to finalize the assembly. President Trump has been clear that can’t happen, and I agree."In the clip she posted, Gabbard said, "the IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon, and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003. The IC continues to monitor closely if Tehran decides to reauthorize its nuclear weapons program. In the past year we've seen an erosion of a decades-long taboo in Iran on discussing nuclear weapons in public, likely emboldening nuclear weapons advocates within Iran's decisionmaking apparatus. Iran's enriched uranium stockpiles are at its highest levels, and is unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons."While Gabbard's assessment does warn Iran has the resources to manufacture nuclear weapons relatively quickly if they so choose, she also definitively stated they are not currently trying to build one — which is what Trump was specifically asked to comment on, and what he claimed was "wrong."Trump has reportedly already approved a theoretical military attack plan against Iran to destroy their nuclear facilities, but has not yet decided to go ahead with it, saying he'll give it two weeks.
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[l] at 6/20/25 4:45pm
President Donald Trump on Friday afternoon touted a "wonderful" new treaty to end a violent conflict between two African countries, even as he again bemoaned that he'll receive no Nobel Peace Prize for his effort. "I am very happy to report that I have arranged, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a wonderful Treaty between the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Republic of Rwanda, in their War, which was known for violent bloodshed and death, more so even than most other Wars, and has gone on for decades," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda are not officially at war, but have been engaged in a deadly proxy war. Rwanda accused Congo of backing a rebel group that has fought its government forces and seized key territory. Trump said representatives from the two countries will be in Washington, D.C. on Monday to sign documents. "This is a Great Day for Africa and, quite frankly, a Great Day for the World!" he proclaimed.Trump, who earlier Friday whined that he'll never receive a Nobel Peace Prize because, in his words, "they only give it to liberals," again bemoaned that he'll receive no recognition for his latest deal."I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for this, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for stopping the War between India and Pakistan, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for stopping the War between Serbia and Kosovo, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for keeping Peace between Egypt and Ethiopia (A massive Ethiopian built dam, stupidly financed by the United States of America, substantially reduces the water flowing into The Nile River), and I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for doing the Abraham Accords in the Middle East which, if all goes well, will be loaded to the brim with additional Countries signing on, and will unify the Middle East for the first time in 'The Ages!' No, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do, including Russia/Ukraine, and Israel/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be, but the people know, and that’s all that matters to me!" he railed.
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[l] at 6/20/25 4:32pm
Chief Judge James Boasberg of the D.C. Circuit Court issued a stern rebuke on Friday of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's record retention efforts related to "Signalgate."The scandal erupted after former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz added Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, to a group chat about a strike on Yemen's Houthi rebels. The group chat also included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.American Oversight, a nonprofit government watchdog, sued Hegseth and other government officials in March, claiming that the involved agencies were not following federal records retention laws. Boasberg seemed to largely agree with that premise and said in a memorandum opinion that the messages transmitted via Signal would likely be "lost forever to history.""Even if an injunction may not guarantee soon-to-be-deleted messages’ preservation, Plaintiff has established that absent such an injunction, the messages will likely be permanently lost," the opinion reads in part. The government argued that abiding by federal records retention would be financially burdensome. While Boasberg was skeptical of this claim, the judge ruled that American Oversight could not force the government to retain the soon-to-be-deleted records in question. Instead, they could only prevent similar instances from occurring in the future. "While American Oversight seeks to preserve the Signal messages in this case so that it can later obtain them through FOIA requests, the [Administrative Procedures Act] does not create an independent right to access documents, nor does it typically support prospective remedies like document preservation," Boasberg wrote.
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[l] at 6/20/25 4:22pm
President Donald Trump launched a tirade at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell late on Friday, calling on Powell to immediately lower interest rates. "'Too Late' Powell complains about costs, much of which were produced by the Biden Fake 'Government,' but he could do the biggest and best job for our Country by helping to lower Interest Rates and, if he reduced them to the number they should be, 1% to 2%, that 'numbskull' would be saving the United States of America up to $1 Trillion Dollars per year," Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. "I fully understand that my strong criticism of him makes it more difficult for him to do what he should be doing, lowering Rates, but I’ve tried it all different ways. I’ve been nice, I’ve been neutral, and I’ve been nasty, and nice and neutral didn’t work! He’s a dumb guy, and an obvious Trump Hater, who should have never been there, I listened to someone that I shouldn’t have listened to, and Biden shouldn’t have reappointed him," Trump continued. Tensions between Trump and Powell have been escalating for months. After boasting of surging tariff income and factories being built nationwide, "better than it has ever done before," he continued laying into the Fed chair."If he was concerned about Inflation or anything else, then all he has to do is bring the Rate down, so we can benefit on Interest Costs, and raise it in the future when and if these 'other elements' happen (which I doubt they will!). Don’t say that you think there will be Inflation sometime in the future, because there isn’t now but, if there is, raise the Rates! We should be at the TOP of the attached List, not the bottom. I don’t know why the Board doesn’t override this Total and Complete Moron!" he raged.He concluded that he may "have to change my mind about firing him?" Powell's term ends in May 2026.
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[l] at 6/20/25 4:03pm
President Donald Trump's budget chief has a scheme to simply declare certain funding passed by Congress as canceled — but some Senate Republicans are pushing back, decrying this plan as illegal and a violation of the separation of powers, Politico reported Friday.Specifically, Office of Management and Budget chief Russ Vought, the architect of the Project 2025 agenda, calls this plan a "pocket rescission.""To hear Vought tell it, a 'pocket rescission' is a legitimate tool at the executive branch’s disposal. In such a scenario, President Donald Trump would issue a formal request to claw back funding, similar to the $9.4 billion package he sent lawmakers this month to cancel congressionally approved funding for public broadcasting and foreign aid," said the report. "But in this case, the memo would land on Capitol Hill less than 45 days before the new fiscal year is set to begin Oct. 1. By withholding the cash for that full timeframe — regardless of action by Congress — the White House would treat the funding as expired when the current fiscal year ends on Sept. 30."However, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are not happy with this end-run around their authority to direct the power of the purse.“Pocket rescissions are illegal, in my judgment, and contradict the will of Congress and the constitutional authority of Congress to appropriate funds,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.Congress has previously passed legislation clarifying that the president doesn't have the authority to simply cancel funding they authorized for federal programs, most notably in the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, which Vought has argued is unconstitutional.Already this year, the Trump administration has been accused of violating this law, including a scathing report from the Government Accountability Office on Trump's move to freeze federal funding for libraries and museums.
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[l] at 6/20/25 3:56pm
President Donald Trump's White House rejected the Pentagon's choice to oversee the National Security Agency, a pick who had the support of embattled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to a report.Hegseth has appeared to have fallen out of favor with Trump in recent weeks, with reports indicating he was sidelined and shut out from Trump’s inner circle from critical war planning, especially on Iran. Hegseth’s influence has diminished following "Signalgate," in which he reportedly leaked imminent attack plans in a group chat that mistakenly included a journalist. On Friday, Politico reported that the Defense Department’s recommendation to nominate Army Lt. Gen. Richard Angle to head up the nation's top spy agency was met with a cold shoulder from the White House. Angle's recommendation had Hegseth's support, as well as fellow embattled Cabinet member Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's director of national intelligence, according to the report.Politico noted it wasn't immediately clear why the White House rejected Angle, but his name has been withdrawn from consideration.

As of 6/21/25 2:25am. Last new 6/20/25 9:12pm.

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