President Donald Trump's "trolling" about running for a third term seems to be a way for the president to maintain relevancy as he approaches the midterm of his second administration, according to one analyst.
Sabrina Singh, a former Pentagon spokesperson, discussed statements made by Trump and his allies about running for a third term on CNN's "The Arena" with Kasie Hunt on Monday. Her comments come after former presidential advisor Steve Bannon said during an interview with The Economist that there is a "plan" in place to make sure Trump is president in 2028 and beyond.
"It's going to be very, verytough for Donald Trump, as muchas he says it, to be elected fora third term," Singh said. "There are Democratic governors in statesthat are not going to put him onthe ballot. So logistically andby the numbers game, hewouldn't win."
Singh added that Trump's statements about a second term reveal that he may really be seeking relevance instead of another term as president.
"So why would youeven jeopardize that and putyour name on the ballot when youknow you're not goingto have the numbers or in hiswords, you're not going to havethe cards?" Singh said. "So I think...relevancy is a hell of adrug. I think he likes to stayrelevant."
A UFC star who once said he'd "take a bullet" for President Donald Trump now says "he tricked me" — regretting his support for the president, whom he now views as the anti-Christ.
“I don’t support him, I don’t like him, I think he’s a corrupted leader, and it took me a while to come to that conclusion, but I finally am coming to it,” Mitchell said.
“The first thing for me was he didn’t release the Epstein files — they’re even acting like they didn’t exist," he added.
The 31-year-old also described other reasons why he was no longer supporting Trump.
“They’re sending Israel and Ukraine all of our tax dollars, just like the numbnuts before him did,” he added, “putting America last and now he’s blaming the beef farmers for the price of beef.”
He admitted regret and that he was misled.
"I'm not a biased man. He talked a good game. He tricked me. I was fooled. I admit it," Mitchell said.
The fighter, who previously came under fire for praising Hitler, also referenced the Bible and the verse Revelation 13.3, saying he believes Trump fits the description of the anti-Christ.
"He's the only man that fits that description and I'm totally done with the dude. He's done to me. He's a goner. He's compromised," he said.
A former Cook County prosecutor said he had collected a tear gas canister from his own front lawn in a residential Chicago neighborhood and submitted it to a law firm that is preparing a lawsuit over immigration officers’ persistent use of tear gas against residents who object to their raids across the city—including in Old Irving Park this past weekend, where parents and children were getting ready for a Halloween parade when agents wreaked havoc on the neighborhood.
The Chicago Tribune reported that former prosecutor Brian Kolp had been watching news coverage Saturday morning of a temporary restraining order handed down by US District Court Judge Sara Ellis earlier this month barring federal agents from using riot control weapons like tear gas against protesters who do not pose an immediate harm to officers’ safety, when he realized federal agents were on his street in Old Irving Park.
“I could see two fully uniformed agents in military fatigues literally tackling a guy right here in my front lawn,” Kolp told CBS News.
The man the agents detained, Luis Villegas, had been working at a house in the neighborhood, and his brother told reporters he was an undocumented immigrant who came to the US with his family at the age of four.
Neighbors ran out of their houses and filmed and heckled the agents, Block Club Chicago reported, with some shouting, “Get off of him!” Another appeared to call one of the officers a “f---ing Nazi.”
The outlet reported that agents got out of their vehicles moments later, “put on their gas masks, and attacked at least two different people.”
A person on a rapid response team that warns locals when Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agents are in the area told Block Club Chicago that a 67-year-old woman was “knocked to the ground” by masked officers. She and a 70-year-old man were detained, and Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin claimed they were “arrested for assaulting and impeding a federal officer.”
McLaughlin also claimed Villegas was arrested for a previous assault charge, but provided no evidence of his criminal background.
In nearby Avondale, Chicago Tribune reporter Laura N. Rodríguez Presa said another woman was pushed to the ground by an ICE or Customs and Border Protection agent when she approached their vehicle during another anti-immigration operation.
“This appears to be the new normal in Chicago,” said Rodríguez Presa.
A very disturbing video from today’s ICE/CBP operations in Avondale.
An officer pushes a woman to the ground, people get angry and throw -what’s seems to be a rock- towards the moving unmarked vehicle.
In Old Irving Park, the “new normal” for residents on Saturday included federal agents deploying tear gas as parents and costumed children were leaving their homes on their way to a neighborhood Halloween parade.
Resident James Hotchkiss told Block Club Chicago that he was leaving his house with his wife and children at 9:45 a.m. for the parade when he heard whistles ringing out in the neighborhood—a sound Chicagoans have come to recognize as a warning that ICE is nearby.
“At that point, I saw a man running towards me followed by two to three officers chasing after him. They tackled him onto a neighbor’s front yard,” he said.
About 10 minutes later, Hotchkiss saw smoke in the air.
“I took my glasses off because my eyes were burning,” he said. “I saw someone pour water on a gas canister that appeared to be on fire.”
Heather Cherone, a senior reporter at WTTW, said the attack on Old Irving Park marked the “third straight day that federal agents have deployed tear gas against Chicagoans and the seventh time in 22 days,” despite the court order.
Border patrol agents deployed tear gas on the 3700 block of North Kildare where residents say a landscape worker, a resident, and a woman on a bike were detained. Video from a resident. pic.twitter.com/cRgcaT4SrE — armando l sanchez (@mandophotos) October 25, 2025
Kolp told Fox 32 that he “didn’t see anybody with a weapon” that would have justified the agents’ use of force.
“So you had folks who were literally out on the street taking their kids to this Halloween parade when this happened,” he said. “I didn’t see anybody make physical contact with these agents. I didn’t see anybody do anything that justified, for instance, taking my 70-year-old neighbor to the ground.”
The agents left the neighborhood after about 30 minutes, and the Halloween parade proceeded—but with many families opting to stay home.
Kolp told CBS News he retrieved a tear gas canister from his yard.
“I knew that piece of evidence would be critical for the judge to understand what the facts are,” he said.
Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino is due in court on Tuesday, Fox 32 reported, to answer questions about agents’ continued use of tear gas against residentsin violation of Ellis’ order.
“I was pretty upset to be honest with you,” Kolp told the outlet. “I am an attorney. I used to work with and in law enforcement, and watching this happen in my front yard was just not something that I ever thought was gonna come to my front door. But you know, here we are.”
An analyst pointed to signs that President Donald Trump will never leave the White House, admitting, "I know this sounds crazy."
Strategist Julie Roginsky tells MSNBC anchor Chris Jansing on Monday that Trump's response that he's not ruling out a third term — which is unconstitutional — and that he "would love to do it" signals he will not leave office.
"Nobody's going to succeedhim. He's going to succeedhimself. Let's just bereal," Roginsky said.
"He's not building thatballroom because he's planningon leaving. He's not goinganywhere, and nobody's going toget him out of there," she added. "And bythe way, the Supreme Court saysyou can't run again. He willjust ignore the courts. And I'mhappy to see Marco Rubiowithout Steve Witkoff as our Secretary of State. So I'mhappy to see that he's appearedand popped up somewhere, buthe's not going to be thenominee. JD Vance is not goingto be the nominee because Donald Trump is not goinganywhere. And I understand thatsounds crazy and wacko, butthink about all the other crazy,wacko things that thispresident has done that wecould not believe he'd ever do.And you see why he's going torun again in 2028. And he's notgoing anywhere unless, you knowthe ravages of time take himaway. He's not leaving that White House."
The 22nd Amendment says that no person can be elected to the presidency more than twice. That includes the vice president, as both the president and the vice president are elected to office.
The Riverside County Sheriff's Department said it was investigating after masked men claiming to be FBI agents invaded a California home and detained a family in Jurupa Valley.
Ring doorbell camera videoposted to social media last week shows three masked men claiming to have a search warrant before barging into the home.
"This happened at 9:48 [p.m.]. Police report has been made. They came and checked our home. The men took my wallet my husbands phone and mother in laws phone. Had them zip tied. They took off when we told them we called 911," the victim said in a Ring community post.
Public Information Officer Sgt. Robert Martinez confirmed that the victims were restrained with zip ties.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a measure last month that barred law enforcement agents from wearing masks.
"To be clear: We will NOT comply with Gavin Newsom's unconstitutional mask ban," the Department of Homeland Security responded in a social media post. "At a time that ICE law enforcement faces a 1,000% increase in assaults and their family members are being doxxed and targeted, the sitting Governor of California signed unconstitutional legislation that strips law enforcement of protections in a disgusting, diabolical fundraising and PR stunt."
Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman thinks that Republicans are trying to catch former special counsel Jack Smith in a perjury trap so they can arrest him for investigating President Donald Trump.
Speaking to MSNBC on Monday morning, Akerman, a former assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, said that it's clear Smith is refusing to speak with Congress unless the testimony is public.
A recent ABC News report revealed that Smith had notes taken by former Vice President Mike Pence "hastily scribbled" on a "day planner" that he intended to use as evidence if the Jan. 6 case had gone to trial.
"It would have been a real 'Perry Mason' moment," Akerman said of the report, a reference to the 1950s TV legal drama.
Host Ana Cabrera pivoted to Smith, asking if the administration would weaponize the Justice Department to go after the former special counsel next.
"There's not much to stop it," Akerman said, but added that Smith is doing everything correctly to protect himself.
Akerman explained that Smith sent a letter to the DOJ asking what he could testify to "so that he doesn't violate grand jury secrecy and other matters that are still confidential."
He continued, saying that Smith is "being very careful about it."
"What they're trying to do is set him up for a perjury crime," Akerman said. "If they put him behind closed doors, [and] ask him a bunch of questions, they'll do what they did to Jim Comey," referring to the former FBI director who is now under indictment for allegedly lying to Congress.
"They pick and choose certain selective pieces of testimony and claim it's perjurious," Akerman said. "That's what they're looking to do, so that's why Jack Smith is very smart in asking that it all be done in public."
Newsmax legal analyst Andrew Napolitano suggested President Donald Trump was not telling the truth when he claimed that a billionaire's $130 million donation could be used to pay military troops during the government shutdown.
Speaking on Monday, Napolitano reacted to the $130 donation by Timothy Mellon, which Trump promised would "make sure that the military got paid."
"Well, look, he's obviously a very charitable person," the legal analyst said. "However, the government can't spend that money because the Constitution says no money shall be spent from the public treasury but that which has been authorized by Congress."
"And Congress, in furtherance of that constitutional language, wrote legislation, which is signed into law, which says the Defense Department can't spend money that are gifts," he continued. "So the money is probably sitting somewhere, but the government can't spend it."
"I don't know what they can do with that money," Napolitano added. "They can't spend it under this legislation."
Napolitano, however, was curious about what the government did with the donation.
"If we have a reporter with Treasury Secretary Bessent in the Far East, please ask him, where is that cash?" he remarked.
President Donald Trump revealed Monday that he had undergone an MRI scan during a recent checkup at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center but has remained tight-lipped about what prompted the examination, leading to one medical expert raising serious questions as to the president’s health.
“It's not part of a routine screening examination,” said Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a CNN medical analyst who’s certified in interventional cardiology and internal medicine, speaking on the network Monday.
“There's been really a lack of candor coming from the White House about this," Reiner added. "When they announced that the president would visit Walter Reed at the beginning of this month, they initially said it was for his annual checkup, but when they were reminded that that's not due until April, they said 'okay, it's for a routine semi-annual checkup.'”
Trump revealed the surprise medical visit while aboard Air Force One on his way to Japan and called the MRI scan he received “perfect.” At 79 years old, Trump is the second-oldest president to ever hold office – behind only former President Joe Biden – with questions having been raised about his health after photographs of his hands and ankles have shown bruising and swelling, respectively.
Trump’s most recent visit and MRI scan was done on Oct. 10, his second exam since taking office in January. While the White House described the visit as routine, Reiner said there was nothing routine about receiving an MRI scan, adding that Trump's refusal to elaborate on the visit only degraded trust among Americans.
“The big question is what prompted his MRI?" Reiner said. "What symptoms were they concerned about, what particular type of MRI was performed? Was it a brain MRI, was it a cardiac MRI, was it an MRI of the spine, of his prostate... what prompted the concern that would take him in a relatively unscheduled way to Walter Reed for this testing?”
“Why won't they tell us exactly what was tested, why the testing was performed, and the results?" the physician added. "I think without that, there's really no trust. Just tell the public what's going on with the president!”
Reiner also noted that the White House has its own “prodigious testing capacity,” and that the only reason Trump would seek care outside the White House would be to receive more advanced treatment such as a CT scan or an MRI, something he again noted was not “routine,” contrary to the White House’s statement.
Over a week ago, the president warned, “I will tell you that’s one of the most important cases in the history of our country because if we don’t win that case, we will be a weakened, troubled, financial mess for many, many years to come.”
Pointing to Trump’s knee-jerk response to an ad coming out of Canada featuring conservative icon Ronald Reagan opposing the use of tariffs in trade wars, “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough suggested the Supreme Court would likely look less kindly on ruling in the president’s latest power grab.
Co-host Jonathan Lemire set the stage by pointing out, “You hit the nail right on the head at the top of the hour here: The president's team will be arguing before the Supreme Court that these tariffs, that he has the authority to employ to impose tariffs. Usually that's done by Congress. He's doing it because it's a national emergency, and yet it couldn't be clearer here that he's doing it because his feelings were hurt because of an ad put together by the province of Ontario.”
“Well, exactly,” Scarborough agreed, "and, again, good luck going even before this Supreme Court and arguing that these are based on emergencies.”
“Everything is an emergency this term with Donald Trump and, you know, an emergency because of an ad that quotes Ronald Reagan accurately and his views on tariffs — that's an emergency? No, I don't think so,” Scarborough predicted.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's latest move to restrict press access to the Pentagon shows he seems to be "growing even more paranoid," and that could cause him to make "all kinds of mistakes," according to two analysts.
Eric Edelman and Eliot A. Cohen, co-hosts of the "Shield of the Republic" podcast, discussed Hegseth's new press rules, including one requiring reporters to publish only information approved for release by the Department of Defense. The discussion comes at a time when major news outlets like the Associated Press, New York Times, and Washington Post no longer have press access at the Pentagon, but right-wing outlets like Alex Jones' InfoWars do.
"The idea that journalists are going to roll over and play dead or that people are not going to leak to them, that's crazy," Cohen said.
"I'm sure Hegseth, in his own way, thinks [he has] the kind of control he could exercise over many of his privates," Cohen added. "But with the general officer corps, no. He may not understand how much he's damaged his own standing and that he should care about that because that will affect his ability to implement things."
"The coterie around Hegseth is even more paranoid...They will suspect everybody [of leaking]," he continued. "There's plenty of paranoia in a normal administration in the Pentagon about who's leaking against me and all that. But in this case, I think it'll just be pervasive and that paralyzes you, that causes you to make all kinds of mistakes."
A pair of political analysts were stunned on Sunday after they saw President Donald Trump's response to an advertisement created by the Canadian government about his signature tariff policies.
The Canadian government's ad features video of former President Ronald Reagan arguing against tariffs in a speech, saying "American jobs and growth are at stake. In response, Trump issued a threatening statement increasing tariffs on Canadian goods and cut off trade negotiations with the country, according to reports. The Canadian government has since agreed to pull the ad.
"Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts, and hostile act, I am increasing the Tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Sam Stein, managing editor of The Bulwark, and Will Saletan, a writer at the outlet, discussed Trump's response in a new episode of "Bulwark Takes" on Sunday.
"When I saw that Trump had done it, I did a double-take," Stein said. "You are literally going to raise tariffs on an entire country because you saw an ad and you didn't like it. This is just the most childish crap. I cannot believe it happened. And yet, I can believe it."
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended Trump's response during an interview on Meet the Press, calling the Canadian ad "propaganda." Trump had also accused the Canadian government of trying to influence a case before the Supreme Court about his legal authority to impose tariffs.
Saletan seemed taken aback by Bessent's argument.
"It's not propaganda," Saletan said. "It's the truth, and they're simply telling Americans, 'Your own conservative president said this.'"
A political analyst warned on Sunday that President Donald Trump's decision not to backfill the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program with money the administration used to pay for military salaries during the government shutdown could harm a "tremendous" number of Trump voters and cause Republicans to "pay" at the polls in 2026.
Shaniqua McClendon, the vice president of politics at Crooked Media, discussed the impact Trump's decision could have on Republicans during a new broadcast of MSNBC's "Alex Witt Reports" on Sunday. She said Republicans have gone along with Trump's plan because "they don't want to" help poor people afford food.
"Donald Trump has said on many occasions that he is going to go after Democratic programs and programs that benefit people who vote for Democrats," McClendon said. "The problem is that you can't pick and choose who participates in a federal program based on their political affiliation."
"There are actually a tremendous number of Donald Trump supporters and voters who stand to see their healthcare premiums increase if these subsidies are not expanded," she added, referring to the Affordable Care Act subsidies that Democrats are pushing to extend as part of the government funding bill.
"They stand not to see access to SNAP benefits if they don't find the money for it," McClendon added. "I think Republicans are really going to pay for this during the midterm if they don't find money for this."
"From his perch as a long-time global currency trader on Wall Street, Bessent also invested $25 million in Midwest land, which he leases out to actual farmers. He is not a 'soybean farmer.'"
Some users even asked Elon Musk's AI chatbot, Grok, about the validity of the statement. The bot replied, "No, Scott Bessent doesn't literally farm soybeans himself—he's a hedge fund manager turned Treasury Secretary who owns up to $25 million in North Dakota farmland producing soybeans and corn."
"This ownership stake exposes him to trade policy impacts, which he referenced when calling himself a 'soybean farmer' on ABC. It's more investor than hands-on operator," it added.
Hedge fund analyst Karen Braun said, "Bessent owns up to $25M worth of North Dakota land, bringing $100k-$1M in yearly rental income. He was supposed to divest these assets but did not meet the deadline."
