Donald Trump was sending a message with his latest post on Truth Social, according to a right-wing influencer who has the president's ear.
Trump over the weekend told what some considered to be a bizarre story about a subcontractor who purportedly damaged part of the Rose Garden while doing work in the area. Trump also included a video of the alleged incident, resulting in outrage from observers online.
But one Trump ally and associate flagged what could potentially be a "message" in Trump's social media post.
Laura Loomer, known for her controversial feuds and conspiracy theories, first responded to Trump's post by writing, "I’m glad we have a meticulous President who cares about quality."
Donald Trump's former White House attorney shocked a MSNBC host when he said on Saturday that he was worried the president might "stop an election."
Ex-Trump lawyer Ty Cobb appeared on the news outlet over the weekend, sharing that the recent announcement of an investigation into a former Trump adviser "caught his attention" and made him worry a bit. At the end of the interview, the host asks Cobb what he worries we might see next.
The host asked, "Is there anything that you haven't seen Trump do yet that you worry he may try?"
Cobb quickly replies, "We haven't seen him stop an election yet."
The host responded, with, "Yeah. That's sobering. Leave that there. Let everyone ponder what you just said."
Murkowski made waves over the weekend when she declared "politics" was taking over policy at Trump's Center for Disease Control.
"The firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez just a month after her confirmation, along with the departure of other high-level disease experts the day after her termination, raises considerable questions about what is happening within the agency," she wrote on X. "Americans must be able to fully trust that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rigorously adheres to science-based and data-driven principles when issuing policy directives."
The outrage came for Murkowski instantly.
Republicans against Trump said, "You knew he’s an anti-vaxxer crank and still voted for him. This is on you."
In a separate post, the group added, "Reminder: Murkowski voted to confirm RFK Jr."
Marcus Jackson, an engineer, wrote, "You voted for this idiotic government. Resign already."
Ex-prosecutor Ron Filipkowski chimed in, "These spineless people won’t do damn thing."
Popular influencer @SundaeDivine responded with, "You know as well as everyone else that Cassidy isn't going to do jack-s---. You're all performative monkeys for Trump."
"Shame on you," the account then added.
GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski: “The firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez just a month after her confirmation, along with the departure of other high-level disease experts the day after her termination, raises considerable questions about what is happening within the agency…The removal… pic.twitter.com/yNeuyAwfIw — Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) August 30, 2025
Donald Trump on Saturday posted a video of a White House subcontractor and put the individual on blast, leading to outrage from critics online.
Trump over the weekend said he has permanently banned a subcontractor from working on the White House grounds after video surveillance captured workers damaging a sidewalk in the White House’s Rose Garden. The president shared the details in a story and video on social media, and admitted he was "yelling" about it.
The post confused and infuriated observers on X.
Former prosecutor Ron Filipkowski speculated about the origin of the Truth Social post, writing, "OK, this one he wrote."
Home of the Brave wrote, "Trump celebrates Labor Day Weekend by treating American workers the same way he has treated them throughout his entire life: with contempt, condescension, and cruelty."
Ben Meiselas chimed in, "Trump just released more information about a subcontractor than Epstein."
PatriotTakes, which documents right-wing extremism, said, "Trump goes on rant about how the limestone he selected for the White House was damaged and how he looked up video surveillance footage to blame a contractor."
"Trump says he will now charge the contractor for the damage," the group added.
Popular Democratic influencer Turnbull said, "Trump is upset that a contractor damaged the stone in his new Rose Garden and is making him replace it."
"Just think how upset he’s going to be when Newsom has it all torn up and tossed in a landfill," Turnbull added.
Most Republican lawmakers are staying relatively silent about the ongoing shakeup at the Center for Disease Control, but one decided to stand up on Saturday.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who has been a thorn in Trump's side at times but has sided with him in other instances, took to social media over the weekend to declare her concern after the director of the nation’s top public health agency was fired after less than one month in the job.
"The firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez just a month after her confirmation, along with the departure of other high-level disease experts the day after her termination, raises considerable questions about what is happening within the agency," she wrote on X. "Americans must be able to fully trust that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rigorously adheres to science-based and data-driven principles when issuing policy directives."
Going further, Murkowski added that, "The removal of the director after such a short tenure appears to be evidence that politics are taking precedence over policy."
She concluded, "I fully support HELP Chairman Cassidy’s call for congressional oversight and look forward to participating in the committee’s work."
President Donald Trump has permanently banned a subcontractor from working on the White House grounds after video surveillance captured workers damaging a sidewalk in the White House’s Rose Garden, the president shared in a detailed story and video on social media.
“Three days ago, while admiring the stonework, I happened to notice a huge gash in the limestone that extended more than 25 yards long,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
“It was deep and nasty! I started yelling, ‘who did this, and I want to find out now,’ and I didn’t say this in a nice manner. I wondered, ‘was it vandalism or was it stupidity?’ Lo and behold, because of the fact that we’ve installed the finest security equipment anywhere, they brought back the stupid people, with their boss watching (in sunglasses)!”
Trump included in his post a video that depicts two workers dragging what appears to be a damaged steel cart across a sidewalk in the Rose Garden, its edges apparently scratching the stone as it slid along.
“I love and respect great workers and contractors, but something like this should never happen,” Trump continued.
“Now, I’ll replace the stone, charge the contractor, and never let that contractor work at the White House again – but, how great is the video equipment? We caught them, cold. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
President Donald Trump privately pitched a controversial idea for Ukraine following the end of the Russo-Ukraine War, a proposal fiercely opposed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to four insiders that spoke with the Financial Times.
According to the Financial Times’ report, four “people briefed on discussions” told the outlet that Trump had asked Chinese officials to provide “peacekeepers” to patrol and monitor a hypothetical “neutral zone” in Ukraine along its current front line in a postwar scenario. Trump made the suggestion last week during his meeting with Zelenskyy and European leaders, according to the insiders.
The White House, however, has outright denied the claims.
“This is false,” said a senior Trump official, speaking with the Financial Times under the condition of anonymity, who went on to declare there had been “no discussion of Chinese peacekeepers.”
The idea of deploying Chinese peacekeepers to Ukraine following the end of hostilities was first raised by Russia early on into its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, when brief peace talks were being held between the country and Istanbul.
Zelenskyy, however, has fiercely shot down the proposal, and condemned China for its support of Russia amid the ongoing conflict.
“First, China did not help us stop this war from the beginning; second, China helped Russia by opening the drone market,” Zelenskyy said earlier this month. “They did nothing when Crimea was occupied. That is why we do not need guarantors who do not help Ukraine and did not help Ukraine at a time when we really needed it after [Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine].”
Tensions between Ukraine and China have flared throughout the Russo-Ukraine War, with Zelenskyy accusing China of allowing the use of more than 150 Chinese nationals to fight on behalf of Russia, as well as helping Russia with arms production.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson made it crystal clear during a press conference on Saturday that Donald Trump and his appointees should not expect any help from the local police and city workers if the president makes good on his threat to send in the National Guard to back up masked-ICE agents snatching immigrants off the streets.
Stating he had “no time to waste,” Johnson signed his own executive order, mirroring Trump’s favorite pastime besides golf, instructing city officials on how to deal with the coming militarization of their hometown.
With Chicago expected to be the next targeted city, Johnson pointedly said the Chicago Police Department will not “collaborate” and will instead protect Chicagoans from “federal overreach.”
According to the mayor, his executive order will “... protect ourselves from the threats and actions of this out-of-control administration. We will protect our Constitution. We will protect our city, and we will protect our people. We do not want to see tanks in our streets. We do not want to see families ripped apart. We do not want grandmothers thrown into the back of unmarked vans. You don't want to see homeless Chicagoans harassed or disappeared by federal agents. We don't want to see Chicagoans arrested for sitting on their porch.”
“That's not who we are as a city, and that's not who we are as a nation,” he continued. “My team and I have spoken with the governor, the county president, and with our federal delegation, and we are in complete alignment. The time for action is now.”
Ashli Babbitt, the pro-Trump Air Force veteran who was fatally shot by Capitol Police during the Jan. 6 Captal riot, is now set to receive full military funeral honors, a decision that has left one retired general livid, and condemning the move as “obscene.”
“I am infuriated that the Air Force plans to grant military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt,” wrote Retired Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling in an op-ed published Saturday in The Bulwark. “She did not die defending the Constitution. She died trying to overturn it.”
Hertling, whose active duty service spanned from 1975 to 2013, recounted his own history of swearing his oath to defend the Constitution, done many times throughout his career. Babbitt, having served in the Air Force for 12 years, and was deployed at least eight times, would have taken that same oath.
Hertling went on to recall his time serving in Iraq, with one memory in particarly standing out to him: the death of his colleague, a “young soldier,” who died by suicide bomber while standing at his post at a military base entry gate.
“The soldier died at his post, saving lives by giving his own; that is service, that is sacrifice,” Hertling wrote.
“...(Babbitt) was not protecting lives at a gate in Iraq; she was forcing her way through windows in the Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power, one of the most sacred traditions of our Republic. To pretend that her death deserves the same recognition as the young soldier at the gate is obscene. It is a betrayal of the oath she once swore and a desecration of the sacrifice made by so many who kept faith with theirs.”
Babbitt has become something of a martyr for the MAGA movement, including for President Donald Trump himself, who called the Capitol Police officer who shot Babbitt – Lt. Michael Byrd – a “thug.” Other MAGA-aligned figures have also condemned her shooting.
The military funeral honors for Babbitt were previously denied under the Biden administration, a decision that Air Force Secretary Matthew Lohmeier, appointed by Trump and confirmed by the Senate last month, called an “incorrect determination.”
“After reviewing the circumstances of Ashli’s death, and considering the information that has come forward since then, I am persuaded that the previous determination was incorrect,” Lohmeier wrote in a letter to Babbitt’s family, and shared on social media. “Additionally, I would like to invite you and your family to meet me at the Pentagon to personally offer my condolences.”
The Trump administration has also agreed to pay Babbitt’s family nearly $5 million to settle their wrongful death suit filed against the federal government.
The decision by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) not to run for reelection despite reported pressure from the White House to remain in the race, has Iowa Republicans on their heels coming right after Democrat Catelin Drey won a key race in the state this past week that altered the balance of power in the state legislature.
According to a report from Politico’s Liz Crampton and Holly Otterbein, Democrats see a chance to make major inroads in the reliably red state where the GOP is faced with not only coming up with a suitable candidate for the Senate seat, but also face a challenge holding onto the governorship.
Earlier in the year, Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) announced she too would not run for reelection in 2026 in order to spend more time with her family and that has Democrats anticipating a challenge with a candidate Rob Sand, Iowa's state auditor, already amassing a substantial warchest.
According to Politico, “The idea that Democrats are going to reclaim any ground in Iowa two years after they lost complete control in Washington — and while they piece their party together amid record-low approval ratings — is difficult to imagine,” adding, “But Democrats in Iowa think Republicans are vulnerable because they have fumbled both hyper-local and national issues in the state, and believe that anti-Trump sentiment will drag down the GOP.”
The report notes, “a GOP strategist, granted anonymity in order to speak freely, said Republicans are more worried about Sand’s gubernatorial campaign, which raised $2.25 million in the first 24 hours after its launch, breaking a state record."
Politico is reporting, one local Republican thinks the state party establishment needs to do some soul-searching after Drey’s win.
“I don’t think it was about Donald Trump at all,” Republican Woodbury County Supervisor Mark Nelson wrote on Facebook . “I think it was about Kim Reynolds and I think it’s about what the Republicans have done in the Iowa legislature for several years now.”
Conservative political scientist Norman Ornstein condemned the Trump administration Saturday for its “outrageous” policies he says will “damage lives,” while at the same time he handed Democrats a roadmap as to how they could make a serious dent in President Donald Trump’s plans to consolidate power.
Speaking on MSNBC, Ornstein first painted a picture for why he thought Democrats have struggled to adequately oppose the Trump administration, a characterization supported by the party’s tanking poll numbers.
“What Trump and the Republicans have done so successfully is to flood the zone with scandal after outrage every single day; they all wash over, and most Americans who don't pay close attention don't know about a lot of this stuff,” Ornstein said, visibly frustrated.
“Democrats need to focus. The way to attack flooding the zone is to have a single message each day, and a core message for a week and use every avenue in the Congress and outside to do so.”
Trump’s explosive second term has been fraught with controversy and scandal, a tenure so chaotic that some experts say Americans have become desensitized to some of the administration’s actions. Recognizing this, Ornstein proposed a targeted approach for Democrats, and one he labeled as "extreme."
“I think we need to use impeachment now… impeach RFK Jr.!” Ornstein said. “You can have a privileged resolution on the floor of the House. They can't block it, it supersedes all other work. You get a debate, and we can talk about the outrageous things that this monster is doing to damage lives and end up with people being killed.”
As head of the Department of Health and Human Services, RFK Jr. has been under renewed scrutiny this week after the attempted firing of Susan Monarez, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and for allegedly asking her to “do something illegal.” The announcement sparked a walkout of hundreds of CDC employees in support of Monarez.
Ornstein also recommended that Democrats not stop there, and wield articles of impeachment far beyond the HHS secretary.
“Do the same thing with (Director of National Intelligence) Tulsi Gabbard, do the same with (Homeland Security Secretary) Kristi Noem,” Ornstein continued. “Every week, find a way to highlight for Americans what they don't know, and to make the Republicans vote to support the outrageous, or do to the right thing. We have lots of tools to use; we're not using them right now.”
The former director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease raised a “red flag” on Saturday morning, accusing Health and Human Services head Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promoting eugenics.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who resigned in protest over the firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez, hammered at RFK Jr’s purge of scientists at the CDC, which has plunged the department into chaos.
Toward the end of the segment, co-host Jackie Alemany noted something that Daskalakis wrote in his resignation letter that was made public.
“There was a line in your resignation letter that really stood out to me,” she prompted her guest by reading, “’Eugenics plays prominently in the rhetoric being generated and is derivative of a legacy that good medicine and science should continue to shun.’. Can you spell out for our viewers what exactly you mean by that?”
“I’ll start by saying this is sort of in my in my sort of personal experience,” he began. “You know, my grandfather was in Greece; he died because he stood up against sort of fascist regimes in his country. And when I see the secretary [RFK Jr] go on television and, you know, talk about the first time I was like, ‘Oh, no,’ when he was talking about the H5N1bird flu and chickens, and he said in an interview, all of the chickens should get bird flu. and the ones that survive are genetically superior and they should reproduce and they should reestablish the flock. “
“So fast forward to West Texas and measles, where he says, you know, getting the infection is fine, really, because only the strong will survive. You know, like it makes your immune system stronger, which is false,” he added. “It actually makes your immune system weaker.”
“So I really hear the echoes of the words ‘superior genetics,’” he elaborated. “He referred to very high members of this administration and their improving health status and said, well, that person has superior genetics. That is eugenics. Wake up, that is a red flag.”
Media personality Van Jones pushed back on GOP strategist Pete Seat Saturday over accusations that Democrats don’t “talk about” crime, during a CNN panel discussing the ongoing federal takeover of Washington, D.C.
“I don't like crime, I'm not a part of some pro-crime lobby, but there's a smart way and a dumb way to do anything,” Jones said, speaking to President Donald Trump’s deployment of thousands of federal officers and National Guard members to the streets of the nation’s capital.
Jones argued that the president’s crime crackdown strategy, while temporarily successful, would fail in the long term and “create unintended consequences,” largely from the mass arrests leading to “over charging” that would “clog up the court” and incarcerate individuals that “shouldn’t be in the system at all.”
“This is not a stable, dependable way to deal with the problems that are happening in America,” he continued.
Seat, who was also the White House spokesperson under former President George W. Bush, pushed back against Jones’ critiques, and claimed that the federal takeover was necessary due to Democratic city leaders outright ignoring crime.
“Washington, D.C. has a murder rate that is five-times the national average, but no one wanted to talk about that!” Seat charged. “No one wanted to acknowledge those statistical facts.”
Jones, visibly emotional, fired back at Seat for claiming crime was being ignored.
“I don't like it when conservatives say that we pretend there's not crime; I don't know who you're talking about,” Jones said.
“I spent my entire life working in very tough neighborhoods, going to funerals with young people in caskets. Nobody cares more about this issue than the people who have to deal with it, and there has been progress.”
Now two weeks in, Trump’s D.C. takeover has yielded more than 1,000 arrests, and while crime has dropped significantly in the city, the operation has largely been, according to a review by the New York Times, “more of a sprawling dragnet than a targeted crime-fighting operation.”
The review found, according to police records, that federal officers are “often” performing “low-dollar buy-and-bust drug operations,” confronting D.C. residents to determine whether they’re consuming alcohol, and other low-level crime investigations.
Jones conceded that the operation had reduced crime in the short term, but warned that it could, if prolonged, have devastating long-term consequences.
“Now you have this solution, which right now, I think is temporarily correct but it's not long term,” Jones said. “I just don't like it when you say we weren't talking about crime; maybe you weren't talking about crime, but the people who actually deal with this, we talk about it every single day!”
