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Former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt unloaded on Vice President JD Vance in a YouTube video published this week, zeroing in on Vance's interview on "The View" and pinpointing a key moment when one co-host tore a hole in his lies.

"Here's Vance explaining that you don't understand the Epstein files," said Schmidt. In Vance's reckoning, he said, "it was Donald, like a latter-day Magnum P.I. dropping the dime, narcing on [Epstein], as JD Vance says, communicating to the police the crimes of Epstein. You see, it was Trump that brought Epstein to justice like the Lone Ranger."

Fox News host Mark Levin criticized President Donald Trump's Memorandum of Understanding with Iran across a series of posts on X, with his sharpest break coming over the deal's soft treatment of Hezbollah.

"On top of this, we do the unthinkable," wrote Levin, a longtime Trump defender who has broken with the president over the agreement. "We capitulate to Iran's demand to protect Hezbollah."

The U.S. may have narrowly avoided a Constitutional crisis after insiders in the Trump administration temporarily thwarted a plan to suspend habeas corpus, but the risks don't end there, one legal expert warned on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and President Donald Trump had cooked up an idea to suspend habeas corpus, the right that requires the government to explain why they have detained someone. The idea was to speed up Trump's deportation operations by arguing that illegal immigration constituted an "invasion" that required the president to enact his emergency powers, according to the report.

The Bulwark's editor Jonathan V. Last argues President Donald Trump's deteriorating relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could inadvertently boost Vice President JD Vance's 2028 presidential ambitions.

A potential U.S. and Israel split could reshape the MAGA coalition, positioning Vance to appeal to both pro-war Republicans frustrated with surrender and America First isolationists skeptical of the Israeli relationship, argues Last. He also writes, Israel will become one of the big cleavages in the post-Trump GOP, with younger base members opposing continued American support while establishment MAGA remains pro-Israel.

Jackson Lahmeyer, a candidate in Oklahoma's 1st Congressional District Republican primary, endorsed by President Donald Trump, is reportedly planning to withdraw from the race following a texting scandal.

NOTUS reporter Reese Gorman cited two sources confirming the candidate's withdrawal, but cautioned that he could change his mind.

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) took to X on Wednesday with a nearly five-minute video dripping from start to finish with sarcastic praise for President Donald Trump's deal to end the war against Iran.

"I truly hope that the totally unnecessary Iran war, which is not a war, is truly over and peace is achieved," said Greene. "It's truly incredible that we beat Iran dozens of times, and nearly made peace almost 40 times. It's only cost upwards of $50 billion, probably more, part of which was spent bombing a children's school by the way, and now hundreds of billions more will be spent to build more weapons to replace all the weapons and ammunition that we used in the Iran war that's not a war."

The memorandum of understanding President Donald Trump brokered to negotiate an end to the Iran war is already being harshly panned by many on the right — and some are beginning to set up Vice President JD Vance to take the fall.

This pivot was demonstrated clearly on Fox News Wednesday, as GOP personality Ben Shapiro unloaded on the vice president.

Former GOP operative Steve Schmidt warned the Trump administration's approval of Paramount Skydance's $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery will economically devastate California.

In his podcast, The Warning, Schmidt suggests CEO David Ellison will relocate Paramount from California to Texas, crushing Los Angeles and the state economy altogether. Schmidt characterized the deal as a corrupt act, alleging Paramount's $16 million settlement of President Donald Trump's CBS lawsuit constitutes a bribe to secure Justice Department approval.