MSN

Frustrated White House insiders who are looking at Donald Trump’s cratering approval numbers and have been attempting to get him to address issues that are causing his collapse have been warned off by powerful White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

According to a report from MS NOW, while voters are consumed with anger over exploding costs of living and the unpopular Iran war, Trump has instead devoted his energy to pursuits that make his own staff cringe: a new White House ballroom, renovation of the National Mall reflecting pool, purges of insufficiently loyal Republican lawmakers including four-term Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), and a $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" that could compensate Capitol riot participants.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's son has been secretly working as a political appointee attorney at the U.S. Treasury Department, raising serious conflict of interest questions as high-stakes cases involving the agency have made their way to the nation's highest court, according to a report.

Philip Alito was hired to Treasury's office of the general counsel in the early months of the second Trump administration, according to four former government officials, yet his presence there has been treated as something close to a state secret, reported NOTUS.

President Donald Trump is now facing pressure from his loyalists not to fold in his posture against Iran — and is growing frustrated over it, The Atlantic reported.

This comes as the president, faced with economic ruin and tumbling polls as the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed and fuel prices remain high, is pursuing a framework for a deal to end the war — one that is a long way off, but still looming large with some of his allies.

President Donald Trump is taking a second crack at suing the Wall Street Journal over bombshell claims regarding Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump refiled a defamation suit against the newspaper Wednesday over its report about a crude birthday card it claimed Trump sent Epstein — a card Trump claimed didn't exist despite it later being released as part of the Epstein investigation.

Ken Paxton's primary victory over Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is sending shockwaves through Republican donor circles, with party strategists warning the Texas Senate race could become a financial nightmare that bleeds resources from competitive battlegrounds across the country.

Nine GOP strategists and donors told Politico they fear the general election could force the party to spend up to $150 million defending a state Republicans never expected to truly contest — and one donor didn't mince words, comparing the final stretch of the Texas runoff, after President Donald Trump issued a last-minute Paxton endorsement, to a "horror movie."

Donald Trump's controversial settlement with the Department of Justice to establish a $1.8 billion "weaponization" fund and shield himself from IRS audits is facing a major legal challenge, with 35 retired federal judges — appointed by presidents of both parties — demanding the court investigate whether the deal constitutes fraud.

According to the Washington Post, the bipartisan group of former judges filed a motion in federal court in Florida alleging that Trump and federal prosecutors deliberately misled the court by failing to disclose the settlement when voluntarily dismissing the underlying IRS lawsuit.

Fired U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi could be stripped of her law license after a retired judge and 120 Florida legal experts filed a sweeping ethics complaint against her with the Florida Bar.

The complaint was brought by Peggy Quince, a retired chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court, and carries the signatures of more than 120 judges, law professors, and attorneys. It is their second attempt; the Bar turned away an earlier filing last June on the grounds that it doesn't investigate sitting federal appointees.

Several of President Donald Trump's recent judicial nominees have displayed a "disqualifying" pattern of behavior that has alarmed a legal expert.

In hearing after hearing, Democrats have asked Trump's judicial nominees: Who won the 2020 general election? Yet several nominees have refused to explicitly say that former President Joe Biden won the election, and have instead deflected, according to Andrew Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) astonished onlookers on Wednesday after he gave what some described as an "ignorant" interview on Fox News.

Graham joined Fox News host Sean Hannity on his eponymous show, where the two discussed topics ranging from President Donald Trump's efforts to end the war in Iran to Trump's endorsement of Graham's re-election bid. But it was one comment Graham made about a prominent award that he thinks Trump should receive that caught the ears of political analysts and observers.

The Texas Senate race has officially been set, between notoriously scandal-plagued state Attorney General Ken Paxton on the Republican side and Presbyterian minister and state legislator James Talarico on the Democratic side.

But already, Texas Republicans are sounding off a message of fear, NBC News reported, because of the impending money problems the race will cause for them.

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt explained he shares some policy ideas with President Donald Trump — but argued he differs significantly on immigration enforcement.

While both former reality TV stars appeal to similar constituencies with tough-on-crime platforms, Pratt explicitly opposes ICE raids at restaurants and stores, he said. He told Vanity Fair, "I don't want ICE here but I want to get the murderers and rapists out."

Former White House ethics chief Norm Eisen was beside himself with fury on CNN over news that the Trump administration is pursuing a criminal investigation into former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who claimed President Donald Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s.

A jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation after he left office the first time; he has maintained his innocence and fought furiously in appeal after appeal to get the verdict and damages thrown out.