President Donald Trump announced plans to give an "address to the nation" on Wednesday night but did not explain why.
"My Fellow Americans: I will be giving an ADDRESS TO THE NATION tomorrow night, LIVE FROM THE WHITE HOUSE, at 9 P.M. EST. I look forward to "seeing" you then. It has been a great year for our Country, and THE BEST IS YET TO COME!" the president wrote Tuesday on his Truth Social platform.
The weekend of December 13-14 will be remembered for its horrific violence, from mass shootings at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia and Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island to the killings of iconic actor/director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michelle Reiner in Los Angeles.
Police are still investigating the Brown University attack for possible motivations, while Australian officials are describing the massacre at Bondi Beach — a popular attraction about four miles from the Sydney Central Business District — as an antisemitic terrorist attack. At least 15 people were killed at Bondi Beach, but the attack could have been even deadlier were it not for Ahmed Al Ahmed — a Syrian immigrant and Muslim who fearlessly tackled and disarmed the shooter and is now recovering in a Sydney hospital.
The fact that el Ahmed is a Muslim hasn't received a lot of attention from right-wing media outlets. In an article published on December 16, The New Republic's Aaron Regunberg cites the Bondi Beach shooting as an example of the "MAGA conspiracy machine" distorting major news stories.
"Increasingly, it seems like every high-profile event with potential political ramifications — certainly shootings, but also, climate disasters, elections, and more — gets poisoned by the right’s toxically mendacious content amplification system," Regunberg laments. "This week, it's been occurring on multiple fronts simultaneously, with Grok spreading the lie that the hero in the antisemitic mass shooting at Sydney's Bondi Beach was Christian, despite media confirmation that the man, Ahmed Al Ahmed, was a Muslim immigrant originally from Syria."
Although the Brown University shooting is still being investigated, Regunberg observes, right-wing media outlets are quickly jumping to conclusions.
"The gunman shouted something — students who were present have reported that they don’t know what he said — and then fired more than 40 rounds at the assembled group, injuring nine students and killing two people: Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, an 18-year-old immigrant from Uzbekistan who grew up in Virginia, and Ella Cook, a 19-year-old Alabaman who was vice president of the Brown College Republicans," Regunberg explains. "This is more or less all we know. Right-wingers have filled this void with a baseless narrative that Cook was, as the chairman of the College Republicans put it in a post on X with nearly two million views, 'targeted for her conservative beliefs, hunted, and killed in cold blood.'"
Regunberg adds, "To be clear, there is zero evidence, as of this writing, that Cook was targeted for her conservative beliefs. It's not impossible, but it's just as likely — or significantly more likely, considering that most extremist-related murders are committed by white supremacists — that the shooter targeted Umurzokov for being an immigrant."
The New Republic journalist laments that MAGA distortions are easy to spread because there are so many right-wing media outlets online.
"The right now controls most of the traditional media institutions, the social media platforms, and the algorithms that shape our attentional ecosystem," Regunberg laments. "They have also built up a far larger network of creators than anything the left has at its disposal. How do you beat opponents who have the informational and attentional firepower to impose deceptive conspiracies on the public and, in many cases, make their lies an accepted common truth?"
Criticism of Donald Trump's remarks regarding Rob Reiner's death intensified on Tuesday morning when a prominent conservative columnist questioned the aging president's mental fitness.
In a notably direct column for conservative publication The National Review, Jim Geraghty asserted that Trump's statements suggest "something deeply wrong." He proceeded to question whether "psychopath or sociopath" better characterizes the president's behavior.
Acknowledging the tragedy of Reiner and his wife Michele, who were reportedly killed by their son, Geraghty suggested that Trump's actions reveal long-standing indicators of instability. He characterized the president as consistently "obsessed with grievances; vindictive and prone to posting late-night tirades on social media; uninterested in details; erratic, impulsive, spiteful."
Geraghty argued that Trump lacks the capacity to assess moral character through objective standards. Instead, he wrote, "Donald Trump's entire worldview of whether someone is a good person or a bad person depends entirely on whether that person offers praise or criticism of Trump."
The columnist raised concerns about Trump's access to nuclear weapons while simultaneously pursuing aggressive military policies globally, suggesting his emotional state presents a national security concern.
Geraghty acknowledged that Trump supporters could defend his policies or express satisfaction with their electoral choices. However, he concluded, "But what you can't say is that Donald Trump is a good and decent human being."
He further contended that Trump's inability to empathize with the Reiners' tragedy mirrors his disconnect from Americans struggling with cost-of-living concerns. "This is why his approval rating on the economy hit 31 percent. There are far-reaching consequences of having a president who is emotionally broken," Geraghty wrote.
You can read more here.
Almost all of President Donald Trump's Cabinet secretaries quickly released statements supporting White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles after she criticized them in an interview with Vanity Fair.
"The article published early this morning is a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history," Wiles wrote Tuesday on X. "None of this will stop our relentless pursuit of Making America Great Again!"
Many of the Cabinet secretaries quoted Wiles in responding.
"Susie is an exceptional Chief of Staff, and her tireless dedication, loyalty, and commitment to the President are beyond reproach. Powerful leadership often works quietly – never seeking credit and always relentlessly driving results. Our Chief exemplifies that," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote. "Our Administration is united under the leadership of President Trump, and Susie's extraordinary attention to detail, diligence, and dedication to our cause is at the center of our efforts."
"These inflammatory and outright false statements will not be tolerated," Energy Secretary Chris Wright agreed. "Susie Wiles isn't just an extraordinary strategist… she's sharp, authentic, and steady under pressure. She is one of the most competent, principled, and courageous leaders I have ever worked with, and I am honored to stand alongside her every day."
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer called Wiles "a great friend, mentor, and the architect behind President Trump's successful first months in office."
Education Secretary Linda McMahon insisted that Wiles was "a force of nature - the shrewdest and most loyal Chief of Staff."
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and FBI Director Kash Patel also expressed support.
"The radical left is at it again, trying to create discord on President Trump's team. It won't work because we know & love @SusieWiles," Duffy wrote.
Vice President J.D. Vance fired back at White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles after she called him a "conspiracy theorist" in an interview with Vanity Fair.
While speaking in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, a reporter from The Washington Post asked Vance about Wiles's remarks.
"Unfortunately, I have to ask a bit of an off-topic question from affordability," the reporter said. "And that is the interviews that White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, gave to Vanity Fair, in which she's quoted as referring to you as, excuse me, and again, not my words, sir, but a conspiracy theorist of a decade, and described your transformation from someone who once opposed President Trump to now his vice president as an act of political expediency."
"Sometimes I am a conspiracy theorist, but I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true," Vance replied. "For example, I believed in the crazy conspiracy theory back in 2020 that it was stupid to mask three-year-olds at the height of the COVID pandemic, that we should actually let them develop some language skills."
"And I believed in the conspiracy theory that Joe Biden was trying to throw his political opponents in jail rather than win an argument against his political opponents," he continued. "So, at least on some of these conspiracy theories, it turns out that a conspiracy theory is just something that was true six months before the media admitted it."
Vance went on to downplay Wiles as a mere "staffer" to the president.
"I've never seen Susie Wiles say something to the president and then go and counteract him or subvert his will behind the scenes," he explained. "And that's what you wanted from a staffer. Because as much as I love Susie, the American people didn't elect any staffer. They elected the President of the United States."
As Vance was speaking, a person in the audience shouted that Democrats were "traitors."
"They are!" the vice president agreed. "And the last thing I'll say is if any of us have learned a lesson from that Vanity Fair article, I hope that the lesson is we should be giving fewer interviews to mainstream media outlets."
The White House had a meltdown on Tuesday after CNN reported on its reaction to President Donald Trump's Chief of Staff Susie Wiles' bombshell Vanity Fair interview.
White House insiders were reportedly managing a clean-up operation over the information Wiles revealed about the reality inside Trump world when a Trump insider texted CNN anchor Dana Bash, who was live on air, telling her to correct a chyron that said "White House aides reeling over Susie Wiles interview."
CNN analyst David Chalian and Bash were discussing how the interview had rocked Washington, D.C..
"There are sort of earthquakes in politics and then there are moments like this. And it is because Susie Wiles is so restrained, so strategic, so well respected and what this is, is Susie Wiles unfiltered, on politics, on personality and on real-time policy decisions," Bash said. "And I would add, so loyal, and I'm not sure this changes here."
Chalian said CNN's phones were exploding early Tuesday.
"This electrified everyone because it was so unexpected and I don't think, and I think we have no reporting to indicate that she went into these interviews in any way to try and be anything but strategic and loyal to the president that she serves and serves with such a grip on power and flow of information inside this second Trump term," Chalian said.
"What is astounding, as you said, is the unfiltered nature of it. The other thing that I would note in her pushback, Dana, nowhere does Susie Wiles say she didn't say these things..."
Wiles has called the story "a hit piece" and said her words were taken out of context. But Chalian argued it revealed even more about the current state of the Republican party and MAGA movement.
"Policy point after policy point, she pulls back the curtain and gives the reader a real sense of what is going on inside the chief of staff's thinking on those things," Chalian said.
Bash then added that Trump insiders were texting her during the broadcast.
"What they are doing is circling the wagons and sort of cleaning this up in defense of Susie Wiles," Chalian said.
Inside the White House, people see her as "a straight shooter" and "solid," Bash added.
Bash pointed to an "intriguing" topic, including the Epstein files and the new Trump followers — not the MAGA base — that Wiles described.
"This is so telling, David, because this is all about where the GOP is right now and Susie Wiles is already there, looking ahead. How do we get from what is the Trump party right now, beyond that, and keep those people in the fold for when he is no longer on the ballot."
Chalian described how Wiles is considering the future.
"We've seen the fraying of the coalition that got him to where he is in a second term, and that is precisely the folks that Susie Wiles is talking about here, about the larger Republican project, about how to keep that coalition together for beyond Donald Trump's tenure," he added.
Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick was fiercely scolded Tuesday over his financial ties to Rumble, the video platform popular among the far-right and a hotbed of conspiracy theories, including some that “demean” the memory of Lutnick’s own brother who was killed in 9/11.
Lutnick was the CEO of the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald until his appointment in the Trump administration earlier this year when he handed off the company to his sons. Lutnick has continued to promote projects that financially benefit Cantor Fitzgerald, which has deep business ties to Tether Limited, a financial technology company.
Tether Limited, in turn, has invested $775 million in Rumble, which regularly promotes disproven conspiracy theories on topics like vaccines and the Holocaust. Another popular topic on the platform is the 9/11 attacks, with some videos on the topic promoting the idea that Jewish people had advanced knowledge of the attacks — videos that were explicitly promoted by the platform.
Lutnick’s own brother, Gary Lutnick, was among the 2,977 people killed on 9/11, as were 658 employees at Lutnick’s company, Cantor Fitzgerald. And, with Cantor Fitzgerald having a “direct stake” in Rumble, political author and ex-State Department official Kristofer Harrison hammered the Commerce secretary for his “large financial stake” in a company disparaging his own brother’s memory.
“A company in which Howard Lutnick has a large financial stake, makes money by pushing propaganda that not only demeans the murder of 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees – and even Lutnick’s own brother – by pushing gross theories about Jews receiving advanced knowledge of 9/11,” Harrison wrote in an analysis published Tuesday on his Substack dekleptocracy.
“It also lets the true authors of this horror off the hook. Lutnick, to the best of our knowledge, has never objected.”
Cantor Fitzgerald saw its most profitable year in history since Lutnick was appointed to Trump’s cabinet, largely around its investments in cryptocurrency.
Harrison, who’s also the founder of Dekleptocracy Alliance – an organization which aims to “accelerate transparency and anti-corruption organizations” – also went as far as to accuse Rumble of having “killed Americans,” and “a lot of Americans” due to its promotion of COVID-19 misinformation, including one debunked documentary viewed more than 18 million times that claimed vaccines were part of a “global elite” plot to depopulate the earth.Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) faces significant challenges in her bid for the South Carolina governorship, struggling to secure endorsements from state GOP establishment figures despite her high name recognition.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Mace's volatile personality and history of public confrontations have created reluctance among local party officials to support her candidacy. Her gubernatorial race includes competition from Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette, Rep. Ralph Norman, and Attorney General Alan Wilson. While Mace leads in name recognition among the field, she simultaneously carries the highest unfavorability ratings in recent polling.
Mace's path to the nomination is complicated by ongoing personal controversies, including a well-documented tirade over airport security details and a contentious breakup with her former fiancé. Despite public appeals, she has failed to secure an endorsement from Donald Trump.
At a recent Clemson-South Carolina football game in Columbia, Wall Street Journal reporter Olivia Beavers conducted conversations with more than two dozen GOP political operatives, donors, and officials. None expressed support for Mace, with the most positive response being "no comment."
Mace's own statements have hindered her campaign. In a recent interview, she remarked, "I don't get invited to parties, I don't have any friends. I have a dog." Austin McCubbin, who recently worked for Mace, criticized this approach: "What she didn't understand is the fundamental reality that politics is the art of relationships. She has no political relationships whatsoever in South Carolina. Why are you running for governor and telling people you have no friends?"
A Trump endorsement appears unlikely, given that Mace led efforts to release the Jeffrey Epstein files—an action for which Trump is known to hold grudges. Some South Carolina Republicans have speculated that if Mace abandons the gubernatorial race, she could pursue her House seat, where approximately a half dozen candidates are already competing in the GOP primary. The filing deadline is scheduled for spring.
You can read more here.
Media figures were left stunned Tuesday after the publication of a “wild” interview with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, which included quotes from the top official that directly contradicted President Donald Trump’s denials around Jeffrey Epstein.
“Susie Wiles throws Trump under the bus by contradicting him on the Epstein Files,” wrote The Independent's White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg Tuesday in a social media post on X.
Wiles spoke to Vanity Fair and made several disparaging remarks about top Trump officials and allies, such as calling Vice President JD Vance a “conspiracy theorist” and Tesla CEO Elon Musk an “avowed ketamine [user].” She also, according to Feinberg and other public figures, appeared to undercut Trump’s claims about Epstein.
“Wiles told me she’d read what she calls ‘the Epstein file,’” wrote Chris Whipple for Vanity Fair in the outlet’s report Tuesday.
“And, she said, ‘[Trump] is in the file. And we know he’s in the file. And he’s not in the file doing anything awful.’ Wiles said that Trump ‘was on [Epstein’s] plane…he’s on the manifest. They were, you know, sort of young, single, whatever—I know it’s a passé word but sort of young, single playboys together.’”
Wiles’ claim that Trump “was on [Epstein’s] plane” is in direct contrast with earlier statements from the president according to Reuters, which reported in July that “Trump has denied ever being on the plan.”
Wiles also went on to undercut Trump’s efforts to investigate Epstein’s ties to former President Bill Clinton.
Last month, Trump announced that he would be asking Attorney General Pam Bondi to launch an investigation into Epstein’s ties with Clinton, as well as with other prominent Democratic figures. He’s also claimed, without evidence, that Clinton had visited Epstein’s private island “28 times.”
“There is no evidence,” Wiles said, according to Vanity Fair, referencing Trump’s claim that Clinton had visited Epstein’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Little St. James. While Clinton had a well-documented friendship with Epstein, no evidence has been seen showing that he’d visited Epstein’s island.In which @SusieWiles throws @realDonaldTrump under the bus by contradicting him on the Epstein Files ("we know he's in the file") and his claims about @BillClinton
("no evidence ... the President was wrong about that.") pic.twitter.com/ItkTiBM8K3
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) December 16, 2025
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) lashed out Tuesday after reporters asked him if Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should release a controversial video of the U.S. military's strike on a small boat near Venezuela that critics say could show war crimes.
Following a meeting with Hegseth, Graham complained that the Trump administration did not have a clear plan for removing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
"If he's still standing when this is over, this is a fatal, major mistake to our standing in the world," Graham said. "And I did not get a very good answer as to what happens next."
As he spoke, reporters peppered the senator with questions about the boat strike video.
"I think it should be [released]," Graham insisted. "I think the video should be given to everybody in Congress."
"Do you buy the explanation that it's sensitive information?" one reporter asked.
"You know, the least of my concerns is this friggin' video!" Graham hit back. "Release it, make your own decisions. This is lawful."
"No, the video, I don't think most Americans give a damn about the video!" he continued. "I'd like all of us to see it! Most Americans are going to want to know what's going to happen next. I want to know what's going to happen next!"
Jeffrey Epstein's former girlfriend revealed a rare glimpse inside the late financier and convicted child offender's life — and how he manipulated women "for connections, for money and for social capital."
Patricia Schmidt, who was a 23-year-old working at Bear Stearns, shared pages from her diary with The New York Times Magazine and, for the first time, spoke publicly about her relationship with Epstein. Schmidt first interacted with Epstein after her boss sent her to his home in 1987.
The diary contains descriptions of her life, the couple's interactions and moments together from the 1980s.
In one remembrance, Epstein had apparently confused Schmidt's mother, whose maiden name was Arlene Dahl, with a former Hollywood starlet with the same name. But that wasn't actually the case and Schmidt never corrected him. In May 1987, he apparently found out and then called her at work to chastise her over it.
"It was terribly awkward," she said. "He sort of felt played."
By February 1988, Schmidt arrived at Epstein's apartment at 1 a.m. where he was on the phone with Eva Andersson, his longtime girlfriend that friends have said "was the love of his life." He lied to Andersson, telling her that he was receiving work materials and passed the phone to Schmidt to try and "back him up."
"Schmidt perceived it as a power play by Epstein, who was seeking not only to appease Andersson but also to show Schmidt that she was not his top priority — and that he was in control of both," according to The Times.
The dynamics between the two and diary entries show the unique ways Epstein attempted to use this "relationship for his advantage."
"On a number of occasions, Schmidt described in her diary how she and Epstein had sex. But other times, she noted his preference for cuddling or kissing on the cheek. 'He was like a little boy almost,'" she said.
In July 1989, Schmidt told Epstein that a married colleague said he liked her. She initially told him in an effort "to remind him of my value" and that another man was interested in her.
But that backfired.
"His response was that Schmidt was being naïve if she thought the man was looking for anything other than sex," according to The Times. "In the diary, Schmidt berated herself for having hurt Epstein."
"In the end, though, she was the one feeling guilty — a sign that Epstein still had the upper hand," The Times reported.
Republicans are on the wrong track for holding onto their congressional majorities, according to a new data analysis.
CNN's Harry Enten crunched the numbers on a series of new polling that found Americans are concerned about the direction the country is headed, and the data analyst said they seem to be in the mood for a change in leadership heading into next year's midterm elections.
"I like going traveling, we all do," Enten said. "Look, you know what it was, the NBC News poll came out this weekend, and I saw this wrong track number, and it just kind of jumped out to me because it was 66 percent, and one of the things I always like to look at is, you know, Donald Trump historically has done better than his polling suggested. But these right track-wrong track numbers have generally tracked with what actually the country is feeling. We see 66 percent there, more than three in five Americans who say the country is on the wrong track. Ipsos, 61 percent, MU, Marquette University Law School, 64 percent, Gallup, 74 percent of Americans say they are dissatisfied with the state of the nation."
"You see it on your screen right there, and all of these numbers, all of these numbers that I could find were the highest percentage who said that the country was on the wrong track since Donald Trump took office," Enten added. "It's not just Trump's poll numbers, it's disapproval that's going higher and higher and higher. It's the wrong track numbers that are going higher and higher, as well."
That's quite a turnaround from the start of Trump's second term, Enten said.
"Yeah, it's a huge change – it's a huge change," he said. "Think that the country is on the wrong track or the right track, you go back to April, May – look, the clear majority of Americans thought that the country was on the wrong track, at 58 percent, but you see 38 percent, a 20-point difference here. Look at that: What we've seen is a ballooning of this, a ballooning. Now you take the average of the polls, right, and now we're talking well north on average."
"Two and three Americans say that the country is on the wrong track now," Enten added. "Less than three in 10 Americans say that the country is on the right track, and when we look at this back in the going into the 2024 election, right, the election in which the Democratic Party was pushed out of power, this number looks a whole heck of a lot. This right track number looks a whole heck of a lot what it looked like going into 2024 election. This 66 percent looks a whole heck of a lot like that number going into the 2024 election."
That's an ominous sign for Republicans heading into next year's election, he said.
"President's party didn't lose House seats, midterms since 1978, percentage said the country was on the wrong track, 46 percent in 2002, 38 percent in 1998," Enten said. "The 66 percent now, the 66 percent, a lot of numbers on the screen right now who say the country is on the wrong track? This doesn't look anything like those midterms where the president's party didn't lose. The Republican Party is on track to lose the House of Representatives if the wrong track numbers look anything like they do right now."
- YouTube youtu.be
President Donald Trump was hit by pushback from some MAGA Republicans —including "War Room" host Steve Bannon — for an executive order limiting states' ability to regulate artificial intelligence technology.
The Hill's Alexander Bolton on Tuesday wrote, "Trump is trying to avoid an open fight with Republicans who want to rein in the titans of AI by reaching out to GOP lawmakers to make the argument that state regulation of the industry could cripple its growth. But Republicans who warn that unregulated AI poses a serious threat to intellectual property, American jobs and children's safety aren't happy the president did an end-run around Congress — even if they're holding back from criticizing the president directly."
Bannon is being especially outspoken.
Although the "War Room" podcaster — who served as White House chief strategist in the first Trump Administration in 2017 — is a major Trump ally, he is often critical of the president's alliances with Silicon Valley tech bros. And he isn't shy about attacking Tesla head Elon Musk.
In a statement, Bannon said of Trump's AI executive order, "After two humiliating face plants on must-pass legislation, now we attempt an entirely unenforceable EO — tech bros doing upmost to turn POTUS MAGA base away from him while they line their pockets."
Outgoing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is another MAGA Republican who is critical of Trump's tech alliances.
The Georgia congresswoman recently resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives, effective early January 2026, and believes that Trump has betrayed his America First agenda during his second presidency.
In a post on X, Greene declared, "I will NOT vote for any bill that destroys states' rights and lets AI run wild for the next 10 years. AI will replace jobs, especially in the press. This is not a left or right issue. It's about humanity. I'll go to the mat on this. If you kill federalism, I'm out."
Copyright © 2026 Raw Story Media, Inc. PO Box 21050, Washington, D.C. 20009 |
Masthead
|
Privacy Policy
|
Manage Preferences
|
Debug Logs
For corrections contact
corrections@rawstory.com
, for support contact
support@rawstory.com
.
