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'The secrecy is gross': Republican slammed for sneak effort to add to megabill

Ahead of a vote on Republicans' budget reconciliation package expected as soon as Saturday, U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee revived his effort to sell off public lands.

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has blocked multiple provisions of the GOP megabill, including several under the jurisdiction of the Utah Republican's panel. Among them is his attack on public lands.

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Trump's honeymoon is over as his future takes a 'gruesome' turn: analyst

Donald Trump is leaning heavily on his attack on Iran and his recent NATO appearance to detract from the news that his popularity is waning, his big beautiful budget bill may not be all that he hoped for and prospects don't look good for the president and his party going forward.

That is according to Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, who claims that things are not looking good for the president on the homefront.

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Scott Jennings told 'that's your opinion' –– then nailed with fact check on CNN

CNN conservative Scott Jennings saw his defense of Donald Trump's continuing Iran attack claims of "total obliteration" dismantled piece by piece by "Table for Five" host Abby Phillip on Saturday morning.

After complaining about leaks that suggest the mission was far from the success the Trump administration is insisting upon, Jennings offered that the reports were designed to make Trump look bad.

"I mean, that's your opinion," host Phillip countered. "I think that's fine. But the reality is, when Trump says the Iran nuclear program has been eliminated, he basically said, 'It's done, it's it's ended.' There's a real legitimate question about whether that's a factual statement."

"Just this week, he was asked, 'What are you going to do if Iran is able to enrich uranium again?' and he said, 'Well, we'll bomb them again.' Does that sound like a nuclear program that he thinks is completely gone? " she asked.

"So, I mean, clearly there is a factual question here about whether or not the threat has been eliminated," she added before pointing out, "Even Republican senators like Lindsey Graham have acknowledged and others the threat has not been eliminated and that is something that American people need to know and understand."

You can watch below or at the link.

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Nancy Mace submitted private request to Trump Admin for luxury car funds

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) has made a backdoor appeal to Donald Trump's administration to release funding promised by President Joe Biden's administration that would benefit a luxury car maker with a plant in her state.

According to the Washington Post the normally attention-seeking South Carolina Republican has made private inquiries about roughly $285 million in clean air incentives that would go to Mercedes Benz to help subsidize the carmaker producing EV vehicles.

The report notes, that the funding was part of a package aimed at at-risk auto plants that manufacture electric vehicles.

The Post is reporting, "Mace’s letter illustrates the tension some GOP lawmakers face as they seek to support Trump’s agenda while shielding the jobs that some of Biden’s programs brought to their own constituents."

Mace reportedly wrote, "We strongly support President Trump’s initiative to restore fiscal responsibility within the executive branch, particularly in reducing waste, fraud, and redundancies. While we understand and support the necessity of such measures, we believe that federal investments should continue to prioritize projects with sustained economic growth."

The report notes that Mace's request runs counter To Republican efforts to tamp down on EV production -- a main plank in Trump's administration.

You can read more here.

Neil Gorsuch 'exchanged sharp words' with Jackson before Friday ruling: report

The day before Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett took a highly-criticized personal shot at Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, fellow conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch also sniped at his liberal colleague.

According to a report from Politico on increased tensions within the nation's highest court, as the 6-3 conservative majority continues to use the "shadow docket" to hand Donald Trump questionable wins, Politico is reporting that Brown Jackson's opinions, often in dissent, are getting under the skin of conservatives justices.

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'Unanticipated' GOP House retirement is handing Dems a shot at another seat: NYT

Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) will reportedly announce he will not run for re-election on Monday which could hand Democrats a shot at another seat as they try and retake the House in next year's midterms.

With Republicans already casting a wary eye at the 2026 election, Bacon, who has succeeded in bucking Donald Trump, stepping down provides Democrats with a "prime opportunity to pick up a seat in the closely divided House."

According to the Time's Annie Karni the "upcoming announcement, which was reported earlier by Punchbowl News, marked a major break for Democrats hoping to win control of the House next year, and with it a foothold for pushing back against Mr. Trump. Republicans control the House with a slim three-vote majority."

According to her analysis, Bacon's district has been trending "leftward," with Karni noting, "... that both former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and former Vice President Kamala Harris won [it] by more than four points."

Madison Andrus, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee pointed out, "The writing has been on the wall for months. Don Bacon’s decision to not seek re-election in 2026 is the latest vote of no-confidence for House Republicans and their electoral prospects.”

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'Arrogant' Amy Coney Barrett buried over 'out of bounds' personal attack

Justice Amy Coney Barrett was called out on Saturday morning for her thin-skinned and personal response to a dissent written by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Writing the 6-3 conservative majority opinion that handed the Donald Trump administration a win with its birthright citizenship ruling, Coney Barrett took a dismissive shot at Brown Jackson observations by writing, "We will not dwell on Justice Jackson’s argument, which is at odds with more than two centuries’ worth of precedent, not to mention the Constitution itself."

She then added. “We observe only this: Justice Jackson decries an imperial Executive while embracing an imperial Judiciary.”

Appearing on MSNBC's "The Weekend," Slate legal analyst Mark Joseph Stern called Coney Barrett's personal attack "arrogant" and "out of bounds."

Addressing Brown Jackson's dissent, he told the hosts, "I think Jackson's blows clearly landed here, and Barrett responded with, what I do agree is a far too personal retort that accuses Justice Jackson of not really being smart enough, I think, to levy a strong criticism of her opinion. That's totally out of bounds, it's highly unusual, even when the justices disagree, they usually do so respectfully."

RELATED: 'Tempers are high' on Supreme Court after 'jarring' exchange: legal expert

"And here Barrett is going much further and I think the reason why is really obvious, right?" he continued. "Justice Jackson's dissent is one of the sharpest, fiercest, most blunt dissents we've ever seen. She is taking on the Supreme Court as an institution and the conservative super majority. It's one of several dissents she published this term where she accused the super majority on the right of bias toward the Trump administration, of surrendering the rule of law so that Trump can rule like a king."

"This is how the majority sees the country, that they really believe Trump should rule it with no limits and, you know, I think after this decision, it's kind of hard to argue with that, right?" he observed. "The majority sees a policy that is so patently unconstitutional and rather than understand that that's the emergency that courts need to address, it turns around and smacks down the lower courts and says, 'You went too far.'"

"So Jackson's criticism there was entirely appropriate and for Justice Barrett to act so wounded and respond so personally is really out of bounds, disrespectful and arrogant," he concluded.

You can watch below or at the link:

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US inflation edges up as Trump renews criticism of Fed chief

The US Federal Reserve's preferred inflation measure logged a mild uptick Friday while spending weakened, triggering another tirade by President Donald Trump against the central bank chair for not cutting interest rates sooner.

"We have a guy that's just a stubborn mule and a stupid person," Trump told an event at the White House, referring to Fed Chair Jerome Powell. "He's making a mistake."

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A question Trump always asks 'appears to play an outsize role in his decisions'

President Donald Trump's mercurial nature could be best explained by one question he constantly asks everyone in his orbit. And how he governs over the remainder of his second term may very well be up to how his favorite question gets answered at any given time.

The New York Times' Carlos Lozada wrote Friday on Trump's propensity to gauge feedback from those in his inner circle by asking: "How's it playing?" According to Lozada, that was the first question Trump asked deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino while being treated at a Pennsylvania hospital following an attempt on his life in July of 2024. And it was the top question after Israel carried out its first strikes on Iranian nuclear sites earlier this month.

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'Peak Trumpism': State Department staffers furious at demands under Rubio

At the same time he is proposing massive layoffs at the State Department, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is pushing staffers to work longer hours and push out more propaganda to polish the image of Donald Trump.

According to a report from the Washington Post, the former senator from Florida is facing an internal revolt as "morale craters" six months after the Trump administration took charge.

As the Post's Adam Taylor, John Hudson and Hannah Natanson reported, State Department employees have been put on notice that there is going to be a purge –– once the courts give the go-ahead –– and the the workforce is "exasperated and embittered" at the demands being made of them knowing many of them are going to be laid off.

With a 15 percent reduction of employees in the works, one staffer told the Post, "Doing extra shifts while this ax is swinging above our heads is just devastating to morale."

The report notes that employees were tasked this week with an "action request” that they "gather and share images of July Fourth celebrations at embassies and consulates worldwide. The cable asked staff to 'collect a high-quality set of visuals' including 'candid shots of attendees enjoying the event' and 'smiling children, families, and diplomats.'"

That led another staffer to remark, “To me the irony of asking for happy photos of smiling children, happy families, and guests celebrating while threatening to fire thousands is peak Trumpism.”

Noting that the department recently revised rules "governing layoffs, making it easier to fire large swaths of employees," one balking employee warned the Trump administration is "looking to cut a percent of overall employees instead of keeping high performers, people with critical language skills, experience abroad, etcetera."

You can read more here.

WSJ editors trash conservative Supreme Court's 'most disappointing decision'

The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board issued a blistering rebuke of the U.S. Supreme Court in a Friday opinion piece where it blasted its latest 6-3 ruling on taxation as “the most disappointing decision” of the term – and accused the justices of ripping apart a core constitutional protection against government overreach.

The case that drew the editorial board’s ire on Friday centered on a Federal Communications Commission program created by Congress in 1996 to fund “universal service” in telecom access. The FCC levies what amounts to taxes on providers and consumers to fund the program, and has delegated the authority to collect those fees to a private nonprivate.

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Judge smacks down Trump order over 'grave' legal violations

A federal judge on Friday delivered a stinging blow to President Donald Trump’s push to punish elite law firms, ruling that one of his executive orders was riddled with “grave constitutional violations,” according to NPR.

U.S. District Judge Lauren AliKhan permanently blocked Trump’s executive order targeting the prestigious firm Susman Godfrey, calling the presidential directive “unconstitutional from beginning to end." The decision is “the latest in a series of legal wins for firms” representing clients or causes the president dislikes and marks the fourth consecutive time a federal judge has struck down a Trump order aimed at Big Law, NPR noted.

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Trump’s trade war comes for Nike sneakers: 'Major impact at the cash register'

Nike is warning that Donald Trump’s tariffs will soon cost U.S. consumers at the cash register, saying sneaker prices will jump this fall as the president’s trade war with China escalates.

The sportswear giant said the tariffs could cost it $1 billion, and the company is now preparing “surgical” price hikes this fall to soften the blow, according to a new report in the Independent.

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