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Author and CNN panelist Keith Boykin slammed President Donald Trump's latest "affront to democracy" during CNN's "NewsNight with Abby Phillip" on Monday.

Boykin and former George W. Bush administration spokesman Pete Seat clashed over the significance of an AI-generated video Trump posted ahead of the "No King's" protests last weekend that drew 7 million people nationwide. In the video, Trump can be seen flying a fighter jet named "King Trump" and the jet drops excrement on protesters in several cities, including Democratic influencer Harry Sisson in New York City.

MAGA fans expressed astonishment and disgust Monday night as FBI head Kash Patel publicly celebrated Diwali, the Hindu “Festival of Lights” celebrated each autumn by more than a billion people, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and some Buddhists.

In a post on X, Patel wrote "Happy Diwali - celebrating the Festival of Lights around the world, as good triumphs over evil."

Observers bashed the groundbreaking of President Donald Trump's signature White House renovation project on Monday, calling it "an abomination."

Trump announced on Monday that crews broke ground on the White House ballroom project that he announced over the summer. The roughly $200 million renovation is being funded by private interests, Trump included, the president said in a Truth Social post. The project also includes a renovation of part of the East Wing of the White House.

Ohio Republicans appear all but guaranteed to join the ranks of GOP lawmakers around the country, heeding President Donald Trump's call to rig congressional maps to give themselves extra seats — but Democrats may be hatching a plan to stop it, Punchbowl News reported on Monday.

The issue stems from Ohio's redistricting laws, which Republicans passed several years ago to ensure they'd retain the power to draw maps unilaterally, while creating a series of extra steps and checks to make it look as if they didn't. Under Ohio's procedure, the map must be passed on a bipartisan basis, but if no consensus can be reached, the majority party can pass its own map, but only for four years.

President Donald Trump's loyal followers in the right-wing media have drummed up a false panic about chaos and disorder in American cities to justify his authoritarian crackdown with the National Guard on anywhere that protests him, Media Matters for America president, Angelo Carusone, told MSNBC's "The Weeknight" on Monday.

This comes after a federal appeals court panel dominated by Trump appointees gave the green light for the president to activate the Oregon National Guard to march on protesters at the Portland Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.

The top Senate Republican torpedoed one of President Donald Trump's most controversial nominees on Monday night, flatly asserting, "he's not gonna pass."

Sen. John Thune (R-SD) told CNN in a statement that he hopes the White House pulls Trump's nomination for Paul Ingrassia, a right-wing podcaster whom Trump nominated to lead the Office of the Special Counsel. Thune's comment comes after Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) also said Monday that he would not support Ingrassia, setting up a potential fight between MAGA heavyweights and the president.

White House officials scrambled Monday to rescue President Donald Trump's peace plan for Israel and Gaza amid fears the Israeli prime minister could blow up the deal.

Trump's plan involves Gaza governance by a temporary committee led by the U.S. president with involvement from figures including Tony Blair. It also calls for Hamas to disarm and release all hostages.

A top Pentagon spokesperson joined the chorus of President Donald Trump administration officials offering childish responses to questions from journalists, according to a new report.

HuffPost reported on Monday that Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell told a reporter, "your mom bought it" in response to a question about why Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wore a Russian-colored tie to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week.

Lawfare's Anna Bower revealed on Monday that President Donald Trump's newly-appointed prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindsey Halligan, reached out to her on Signal and repeatedly melted down, accusing her of false reporting and bias without explaining anything she reported incorrectly — then demanded that it all be retroactively considered "off the record."

Halligan, a defense lawyer with no significant prosecutorial experience, was brought in to replace a seasoned U.S. attorney whom Trump wanted gone for failing to find the evidence to prosecute his political enemies. Since then, she has filed indictments against former FBI Director James Comey for false statements and obstruction, and New York Attorney General Letitia James for bank fraud — but these cases have been riddled with mistakes and are widely panned by legal experts as flimsy.

Cattle ranchers pushed back on Monday against one of President Donald Trump's latest plans to try and lower domestic beef prices.

Trump announced last week that he is considering purchasing beef from Argentina to help lower the cost for American consumers. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that beef prices hit record-highs this year amid Trump's trade war with China and other countries.

President Donald Trump's bid to gut the federal government as the shutdown rages took another turn Monday as a new court filing showed thousands more federal workers faced "imminent" firings.

The Trump administration has already fired thousands of federal workers as a strategy during the shutdown, wielding it as leverage to pressure Democrats in Congress to vote in favor of a stopgap funding measure that would reopen the government.

Monday's decision from a three-judge panel on the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, dominated by President Donald Trump's appointees, sent the appellate division into chaos and drama almost immediately.

The order overturns a block put on Trump, sending the National Guard to Immigration and Customs Facilities in Portland, Oregon, which was itself issued by a district court judge, Karin Immergut, who was appointed by Trump. It swiftly raised alarms from legal experts, who noted that Judge Immergut compellingly laid out how factually baseless Trump's claims were to justify a military response.

President Donald Trump announced on Monday that contractors have broken ground on the "much-needed" White House Ballroom, a $200 million development that includes modernizing part of the East Wing.

"I am pleased to announce that ground has been broken on the White House grounds to build the new, big, beautiful White House Ballroom," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Completely separate from the White House itself, the East Wing is being fully modernized as part of this process, and will be more beautiful than ever when it is complete!"