A complaint by far-right conservative Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) about his budget vote had the entire panel on MSNBC's "The Weekend," laughing on Saturday morning.
Co-host Jonathan Capehart provided the set-up by remarking, "This is too rich," before running audio of a bitter quote from Van Orden about his upcoming budget vote when he snapped, "The president of the United States didn’t give us an assignment. We’re not a bunch of little b–––hes around here, okay? I’m a member of Congress. I represent almost eight hundred thousand Wisconsinites.”
After clarifying for viewers what was said in the garbled audio clip, Capehart repeated that Van Orden stated, "We're not a bunch of... b-words"–– the mention of which led the entire MSNBC panel to burst into laughter.
"We're not a bunch of b-words around here, okay," he repeated before pointing out to guest Dana Milbank, "And yet, brother man voted for the bill. He voted for the bill!. So is he a little b-word?"
"Well, I hate to tell the congressman," the Washington Post columnist replied. "But, you know, being a little b-word and being a member of Congress are not mutually exclusive at this point," which created more laughter as Capehart interjected, "Especially this go round."
"Is there a bigger joke than the House Freedom Caucus now?" Milbank asked. "I mean, every time they roar like tigers and then they do the kitten tiptoe back into their cages. Nobody's going to take them seriously again."
That is according to Politico which is reporting that the Trump administration is bending over backwards to accommodate the 2026 World Cup to be played in the U.S. at the same time that the same administration is waging war on immigrants and foreign visitors.
According to Politico's Sophia Cai, a quick phone call to the White House from Alex Lasry, CEO of the New York-New Jersey 2026 World Cup Host Committee, got the White House to call off plans to send “suited and booted” ICE agents to matches which had alarmed officials after it was posted on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Facebook page. That Facebook post was later deleted.
The report notes that all the harsh rhetoric about foreigners coming to the U.S. fades into the background when it comes to the world's most popular sport holding its most popular event in Trump's U.S.
As Cai wrote, Trump's apparent desire to make himself a main character during the World Cup has led his administration to work more closely not only with foreign governments but the leaders in the cities and states hosting games, many of them Democrats.
"Trump has long gravitated personally to the testosterone and glitz of athletic competition," Cai wrote before adding, "Now in his second he has the opportunity to preside over the games themselves. But that requires his administration to coordinate logistically complex events that rely on the type of global cooperation and free movement of people that is anathema to Trump’s 'America First' agenda."
Adding, "Enthusiasm for the pageantry has led Trump to quickly embrace every aspect of what will be among the largest sporting events ever, even at the risk of alienating his most loyal supporters," Cai reported Trump "regularly dismisses the United Nations, NATO and World Health Organization, [but] he caters to the demands of FIFA."
Alan Rothenberg, who assisted in putting on the 1994 U.S. World Cup, suggested, "Trump, as we all know, likes attention. How could you have more attention than a couple billion people watching you kick out the ceremonial first ball and awarding the World Cup trophy to the ultimate champion?”
According to the report, in May, Vice President J.D. Vance was put on the spot about the administration, "attempting to balance its otherwise uncompromising attitude towards foreign visitors with a newfound desire to welcome soccer fans."
Vance replied,"We want them to come, we want them to celebrate, we want them to watch the game. But when the time is up, they’ll have to go home. Otherwise they’ll have to talk to Secretary [Kristi] Noem.”
According to a White House insider who is deeply involved in talks with U.S. trading partners, Donald Trump's tariff threats are not to be taken seriously because they are just a "theatrical show" being put on by the attention-obsessed president.
According to a report from Politico, as Trump's 90-day window on getting trade deals done before onerous tariffs are put in place looms, there is no real urgency at the White House which has negotiators and even some White House staff taking a dim view of the proceedings.
Politico's Daniel Desrochers and Megan Messerly are reporting, "Foreign officials, trade experts, lawmakers and even some White House allies have expressed a nihilistic view of the July deadline, questioning whether a deal with the Trump administration means anything at all given the president’s penchant for using tariffs as leverage to get his way."
After noting Trump himself was wavering this past week when he told reporters, "We could extend it, we could make it shorter. I’d like to make it shorter,” one insider offered a candid assessment about what is really going on.
“Trump knows the most interesting part of his presidency is the tariff conversation,” they admitted. “I find it hard to believe he’s going to surrender it that easily. It’s all fake. There’s no deadline. It’s a self-imposed landmark in this theatrical show, and that’s where we are.”
The report notes that the president has delegated negotiations to three individuals, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, with Politico is reporting they have little actual authority and are often working at cross purposes.
"The result has been a convoluted process with little progress and no end in sight. Countries have sent representatives to the U.S. on repeated visits to negotiate, but some have failed to secure meetings. Those who have secured facetime with Trump officials have sometimes left confused about U.S. demands or have been later seen their countries chastised by Trump on social media," the report states.
Another White House insider suggested Trump just likes the attention tariff threats bring him.
“You have wins. Take them,” they remarked. "You only have to assume he doesn’t want to take them because he likes the game too much.”
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is now in a bitter back-and-forth with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, after the world's richest man announced his intent to follow through on his plan to launch a new third party to compete with Republicans.
According to a Friday report in the Daily Beast, Bannon tore into Musk over his proposed "America Party," which is Musk's chosen name for his new far-right political party. The MAGA podcaster also openly questioned his immigration status (Musk is a naturalized U.S. citizen).
"No, brother, you’re not an American. You’re a South African," Bannon said. "You should be deported because it’s a crime of what you did — among many."
In response to Bannon's remarks, Musk tweeted to his 221 million followers: "The fat, drunken slob called Bannon will go back to prison and this time for a long time. He has a lifetime of crime to pay for."
The centibillionaire has promised for weeks that if President Donald Trump signed his massive new budget legislation into law, he would launch his own political party and fund its efforts to oust lawmakers who voted for it. He later said on his X account that the America Party would have a "laser focus" on a 2-3 U.S. Senate and 8-10 U.S. House races in next year's midterm elections.
"Given the razor-thin legislative margins, that would be enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring that they serve the true will of the people," Musk wrote.
Musk hasn't yet named the House or Senate seats he's targeting or how much money he is committing, but he did spend more than $290 million helping Republicans in federal elections last year. That's about the same amount of total money spent in Pennsylvania's 2024 U.S. Senate race, in which Democratic incumbent Bob Casey and eventual Republican winner Dave McCormick faced off amidst $289 million in spending.
During a review of how the Republican Party will defend cuts to Medicaid in the budget bill that Donald Trump signed on the 4th of July, questions were raised about how aware the president is over what is transpiring.
Add to that, the official White House statement on the fate of Medicaid contained a glaring omission as one MSNBC host pointed out on Saturday morning.
On MSNBC's "The Weekend" one guest, Eugene Craig, the former president of Black Republicans for Harris, suggested there was no way the TV-obsessed Trumpwas unaware that Medicaid would be facing drastic cuts.
That led him to conclude, "You either have one or two things happening. Donald Trump lied to us again which, one more time, water is wet, or you know, Congress, you know, literally just defied the president while at the same time trying to do everything possible to show fealty to him."
That led "The Weekend" co-host Eugene Daniels to chime in by reading a statement from the White House.
"I want to ask you a question," he prompted his guest, "Abigail Jackson, a spokesperson for the White House, told NOTUS that President Trump's reconciliation bill, this was in reference to the same report, quote, 'Takes decisive action to protect Medicaid for generations to come by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in the program. President Trump is committed to protecting Medicaid for the vulnerable Americans who rely on it most.'"
He then observed, "But I did not read in that was that we didn't cut Medicaid."
As the panel laughed at the rhetorical sleight of hand, Daniels continued, "Like even even even the spokespeople are not saying what the president is saying and what some of these members of Congress are saying in front of the cameras."
On multiple occasions, President Donald Trump has floated the idea of deporting naturalized U.S. citizens, including during a recent visit to a Florida detention camp for immigrants. But that policy could end up being used against his own family.
That's according to former MSNBC host Joy Ann Reid, who recently interviewed Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) on her YouTube podcast. The Daily Beast reported that Jayapal joined Reid to discuss, among other things, Trump's new "Alligator Alcatraz" facility in the Florida Everglades. They both pointed out to listeners that Trump said during his visit to the prison camp earlier this week that even native-born U.S. citizens could one day find themselves in federal custody.
"They’re not new to our country. They’re old to our country. Many of them were born in our country," Trump said. "I think we ought to get them the hell out of here, too, if you want to know the truth."
Trump also floated that proposal to El Salvadoran President Nayyib Bukele during visit to the White House in April. NPR reported at the time that Trump said "homegrowns" born in the U.S. could one day be sent to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison, which is notorious for flagrant human rights abuses. Reid said there was nothing theoretically stopping a future administration from targeting Trump's wife and family members.
"If you give the president of the United States monarchical-like powers to say, ‘I don’t like your views, I don’t like your take on issues, I don’t like that you’re too liberal, you’re not conservative enough, I’m just gonna take away your naturalized citizenship,‘ well ... If we ever get a Democratic president, they could say, ‘I don’t like Melania Trump. She wasn’t born here. She was born in Slovenia. She is a naturalized citizen. She’s outta here,'" Reid said.
"And by the way, Ivana Trump, the late Ivana Trump, who’s buried in the golf course in New Jersey in Donald Trump’s golf club, she wasn’t an American citizen. And three of her children are Don Jr., Eric, and Ivanka," Reid added. "And maybe the next Democratic president says, ‘You know what? I don’t like the Trumps. And so we’re gonna denaturalize all of the Trump children, whose mother was a foreigner at the time.'"
Trump hasn't yet denaturalized a U.S. citizen, but White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previously suggested that the administration hadn't ruled out a denaturalization investigation into New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) has called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to conduct denaturalization proceedings over rap lyrics Mamdani wrote in 2017.
Former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris came under fire from Donald Trump's allies on Friday, after a simple holiday comment.
Harris, who lost to Trump in 2024, took to X on the Fourth of July holiday to write, "This Fourth of July, I am taking a moment to reflect."
"Things are hard right now. They are probably going to get worse before they get better," the Democrat added on her social media. "But I love our country — and when you love something, you fight for it. Together, we will continue to fight for the ideals of our nation."
That led Trump-affiliated lawyer Mike Davis to say, "Don’t stop fighting, Kamala."
"And please run again in 2028," he added.
Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita chimed in, "Oh please - someone get her another 5th."
The Babylon Bee's Seth Dillon said, "I'm taking a moment to reflect on how much worse things would have been if you'd won."
President Donald Trump's administration withholding federal money Congress appropriated to blue states can present a unique opportunity for Democratic-controlled state governments, according to two Democratic state legislators from blue states.
In a Friday segment on MSNBC's "Deadline: White House," Maryland House of Delegates Majority Leader David Moon (D) told host Alicia Menendez that two bills he's introduced would enable his state to begin withholding state funds meant for the federal government. Moon defended the bills as necessary due to the Trump administration's recent announcement withholding $7 billion from K-12 schools across the country
According to the Baltimore Sun, Maryland was counting on $125 million for after-school programs, teacher training programs and summer programs prior to the Department of Education suddenly announcing a day before the money was to be disbursed that it was simply "unavailable." Moon said the state was now in "unprecedented times" and had to consider strict measures.
"I introduced bills to treat the federal government as deadbeat debtors, and basically have Maryland act like a collections agency," Moon said. "So we're talking about withholding funds that's owed to the feds and putting liens on their property."
Menendez was curious about how Moon's proposal would be implemented, and asked whether such a strategy has ever been put into practice. Moon acknowledged that states holding money hostage meant for the federal government was unconventional, but argued that his proposed means of doing so were ordinary. And he reminded viewers that Trump has a history of stiffing creditors.
"It's not novel for people who are trying to chase people that are running away from their debts," he said. "Certainly this White House, this president, is someone who is no stranger to trying to walk away from obligations and debts just because he simply doesn't want to pay them."
The Maryland Democrat went on to observe that when the federal government doesn't deliver money that was promised, states have to fill in the gaps. And because states have to tax for every dollar they spend, that means the federal government reneging on its promises forces states to make cuts to their own public services.
"We don't have the time for school systems that are open right now to have to wait for lengthy court battles and appeals to wind down in years, probably," Moon said. "These these are funds that were counted on by local school systems across the country for the current year. So what they're doing is so unprecedented that it does require us at the states to have some way of defending ourselves."
"Trump and [Vice President JD] Vance have said very plainly that they plan to expand executive power and ignore court orders when they do this," he continued. "What are we to do? Well, we need to take self-help measures like we're talking about, withholding funds we owe them so that we have an immediate way of addressing school system shortfalls that are happening right now."
Washington state senator Manka Dhingra is planning to introduce similar legislation in the Evergreen State. She pointed out that her state was counting on $137 million from the $7 billion the administration was withholding to pay for school programs in the coming academic year. To illustrate her point, she said that 28% of the Washington state budget is made up of federal money appropriated by Congress. And the Coalition on Human Needs found in January that 32% of state budgets are made up of federal money. And poor, rural states often rely on it the most, with federal money making up 45% of Mississippi's state budget.
"It's about making sure that we can continue to keep people receiving mental health services, physical services, housing and things that they are entitled to," Dhingra said. "And so we have to make sure that when decisions are made in an arbitrary fashion, the states are able to stand up and fight back."
One career prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) who worked on cases involving defendants who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 was recently fired by Attorney General Pam Bondi. Before leaving his position, the prosecutor wrote a scathing letter that fired several parting shots at President Donald Trump's administration.
NBC News' Ryan J. Reilly reported Friday that prosecutor Andrew Floyd, who led the Capitol Siege section of the DOJ and worked out of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of his Columbia (which is now led by interim U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro) was one of three January 6 prosecutors who were recently fired. Before making his official exit, Floyd both extolled the work of his colleagues and assailed the "despicable and illegal acts" committed by January 6 defendants (whom Trumppardoned on the first day of his second term).
Floyd pulled heavily from a speech by former President Teddy Roosevelt in his letter known as "The Man in the Arena" but officially titled "Citizenship in a Democracy." In that speech, Roosevelt said it was "not the critic who counts" but rather people who are "actually in the arena" who he contrasted with "cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
According to Floyd, senior-level DOJ prosecutors had a tradition of sending that speech to assistant U.S. attorneys who lost cases. In his letter to his former colleagues, Floyd wrote that the gesture "made new prosecutors feel seen as they toiled, for long hours and often unsuccessfully, on difficult cases while trying to uphold the rule of law in this city."
"I lost a few trials and each time I received that email I was reminded why I went into court in the first place. It was not winning that mattered, but the fight for justice," Floyd's letter read. "My days of entering the arena with you are over. I also have no regrets."
"I know from my communications with you over the years that the people in this building do not keep quiet and are not timid. You pursue justice. You enter the arena. Win or lose,” he added. “From now on, although I can no longer join you, I’ll be on the sidelines cheering you on."
Floyd's letter came on the heels of a separate open letter by Andrew Feinberg, a former FBI official who resigned this week. Reilly reported that Feinberg was given the choice of either being fired or leaving of his own volition, due to his friendship with someone on FBI Director Kash Patel's "enemies list." Feinberg wrote that while he loved his country and the Constitution "with a fervor that mere language will not allow me to articulate," he lamented that the Trump administration would no longer allow him to serve his country.
Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday gave Donald Trump the gavel used to pass the Republicans' so-called "big, beautiful" spending megabill, resulting in mockery.
After Trump signed into law the package, which includes Medicaid spending cuts, Johnson said, "This is the gavel we used to enact the big, beautiful bill, and I want you to have that," the GOP speaker said.
He then gave Trump the gavel in a symbolic gesture, and Trump banged it on the desk.
Observers erupted online.
Liberal political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen said, "This is about as on-the-nose as it gets."
Former prosecutor Ron Filipkowsk said, "Congress abdicated its role as a separate and independent branch of government on January 20 while also relinquishing all oversight responsibility, so it’s entirely appropriate for Johnson to show that he has surrendered his gavel to the executive."
YouTuber J.J. McCullough said, "Some dark symbolism in the submissive Speaker of the House handing his gavel over to the authoritarian president."
Trump Lie Tracker (Commentary) chimed in, "BREAKING: In a stunning move, Speaker Johnson literally hands Trump his gavel. The Republican Congress has done nothing to put a check on Trump’s abuses of power, and nothing symbolizes that more than literally handing over his authority."
Republicans against Trump said, "Mike Johnson gives Trump his gavel, a fitting gesture since he already handed him control of the House of Representatives long ago."
A firefighter is one of multiple people injured in an "accidental detonation" of fireworks in Utah on the Fourth of July, according to a report.
Fox 13 reported Friday, "West Wendover officials confirm multiple people were injured, including a firefighter, after fireworks were accidentally detonated Friday morning."
The report continues:
"According to city officials, the accidental detonation happened at around 9:00 a.m. Friday. What caused the detonation isn't known currently."
According to the outlet, "West Wendover's Mayor, Jasie Holm West, tells FOX 13 News that in addition to the firefighter who was injured, two of the city's UTVs also caught fire and were destroyed."
"The firefighter's injury is described as a non-life-threatening ankle injury. The injuries to the other victims aren't currently being shared," according to the report. "The mayor initially said five or six people were injured. In a call Friday afternoon, she said they knew several people had minor injuries, but were still sorting out an exact number."
Donald Trump has signed into law the so-called "big, beautiful" spending bill that cuts Medicaid and other services.
Chris Cameron of the New York Times reported, "President Trump signed his signature policy bill at a Fourth of July celebration event at the White House."
"Accompanied by a flyover of B2 bombers, the warplanes used in the recent bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites, Trump touted the massive tax cuts included in the bill and downplayed the unpopularity of the legislation in polls because of the potential impact of spending cuts to safety-net programs like Medicaid and food assistance," the report states.
“The largest spending cut, and yet, you won’t even notice it,” Trump said, reportedly adding, “The people are happy, they’re happy.”
Donald Trump just precipitated a "brutal" and deadly attack abroad, according to the president's former "trusted operative" Friday.
Lev Parnas, a former insider of the Trump administration who said he "saw how he thinks" and "how he operates," published an article on Independence Day called, "BREAKING: Putin Bombs Kyiv After Trump Call."
Parnas began with an explanation of the devastating attack Russia just launched on Ukraine, saying, "Yesterday morning, just hours after Donald Trump’s phone call with Vladimir Putin, Russia unleashed one of the most brutal, coordinated assaults on Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began."
Parnas went on to level an allegation against Trump himself.
"This was the largest aerial assault on Kyiv since the war began — and it didn’t happen in a vacuum. It was greenlit. It was enabled. It was part of a chain reaction — triggered from the Oval Office," he said.
According to Parnas, it all began when "Trump lifted key sanctions on Russian military-financing banks just days ago," which freed "up the cash Putin needed to escalate his war."
"Next," according to the ex-operative, "Trump ordered the rollback of U.S. missile systems on the Polish border meant for Ukraine."
"That decision, according to my sources, came after direct pressure from the Kremlin," he wrote.
Then Trump had his private call with Putin, after which "Putin launched the deadliest wave of attacks on Ukraine in over a year," according to Parnas.
He then added, "And now — my sources tell me Trump is preparing to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to pressure him to accept a 'deal,' which really means a surrender."
Parnas then adds, "You’re watching this unfold in real time. Trump lit the match, Putin launched the missiles, and now the plan is to close the deal. Hand Ukraine over in pieces — a slow suffocation of a sovereign nation."
