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Trump claims he tanked economy on purpose: 'I love the inflation'

President Donald Trump insisted he loves inflation caused by his war in Iran and claimed he tanked the stock market on purpose.

The 79-year-old president spoke to reporters Wednesday in the Oval Office, where he was asked about year-over-year inflation hitting a three-year high of 4.2 percent last month as his war pushed energy prices higher, and he claimed that was part of his broader strategy for launching the attack in the first place.

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'I was never in on this': Dan Bongino chewed out Susie Wiles over Epstein cover-up

Former Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino erupted during a tense Situation Room confrontation with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in front of shocked administration insiders last July, refusing to be scapegoated for the DOJ's catastrophic mishandling of the Epstein files, according to new reporting.

According to New York Times reporting by Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman from their forthcoming book "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump," Bongino was summoned to the White House along with FBI Director Kash Patel to meet with Wiles, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and Taylor Budowich, one of Wiles's deputies.

The moment Bongino arrived in the room, Wiles accused him of leaking sensitive Epstein information to ABC News, the Times is reporting.

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Republicans dump on 'crybully' MAGA lawmaker after her loss: 'She's not all there'

Nancy Mace's political career came to a crashing end Tuesday as the South Carolina congresswoman finished a distant fifth in the state's Republican gubernatorial primary — and the knives came out almost immediately.

Former allies, ex-staffers and fellow Republicans were immediately lining up to deliver their verdicts on a congressional tenure defined by combustible ambition and self-inflicted wounds in a turbulent political career that appears to have ended in her decisive loss, reported the Washington Post.

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Trump flew off the handle at Charlie Kirk for hosting Epstein 'grievance session': report

Donald Trump called up the late conservative gadfly Charlie Kirk last July and berated him for letting one of his Turning Point rallies spiral into anger and conspiracy rumors about the Jeffrey Epstein files, reports the New York Times.

According to reporting from Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, from their forthcoming book, “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” at the same time that Trump was trying to take heat off of Attorney General Pam Bondi for her handling of the Epstein Files, Kirk was on the road holding rallies that were roiled by the revelations trickling out of the FBI.

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Trump 'sleeping habits' draw warning on House floor: 'Grave national security threat'

A California Democrat took to the House floor Tuesday to declare Donald Trump's tendency to fall asleep in public a "grave national security threat" — and demanded that Republicans join her in forcing the White House to come clean about the president's health.

The speech by Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove was first flagged by journalist Aaron Rupar.

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Senator eviscerates Trump judge nominee in clash during hearing: 'You understand?'

A longtime Democratic senator slammed a judge nominated by President Donald Trump for an appeals court vacancy after he refused to answer a direct question about who won the 2020 presidential election.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) asked North Dakota U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Mack Traynor, who was testifying before the Senate during a confirmation hearing for the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.

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Erika Kirk 'disappoints' wannabe tradwives as she flees event after just minutes: report

Erika Kirk spent less than 20 minutes at Turning Point USA's Women’s Leadership Summit — a three-day event where hopeful tradwives gathered to learn how to land a husband and start a family, according to a report from The Daily Mail on Wednesday.

The quick appearance from Kirk, the wife of former Turning Point leader Charlie Kirk, left many attendees at the San Antonio, Texas conference disheartened, reported Susan Greene, U.S. senior reporter for The Mail. Greene attended the gathering and said it was a more "somber affair" than in the past following Charlie Kirk's assassination in September 2025.

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'The Office' star appears on Capitol Hill after Hegseth religion flub

WASHINGTON — As various officials and groups aim to use the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding, a bipartisan group of lawmakers, with the help of a famed sitcom actor, turned the spotlight Tuesday to a central tenet of U.S. democracy: religious freedom.

Actor Rainn Wilson, widely known for playing Dwight Schrute on NBC’s “The Office,” joined a press conference that U.S. Reps. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., and Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., hosted along with religious leaders to advocate for the American tradition of religious freedom.

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Trump appointee caused ethics panic over plans to apply for slush fund: report

A senior Justice Department official in charge of relations with Congress wanted to recuse himself from working on the Trump administration's so-called "Anti-Weaponization Fund" — because he wanted to apply for money from it.

According to Politico, Patrick Davis, the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, "raised his plan to file a claim with others at the DOJ in May because he viewed it as a conflict" — but his colleagues were alarmed by this development "in part because he was responsible for communicating the department’s reasons for setting up the fund to lawmakers."

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Expert flags 'huge warning signs for Republicans' as new economic numbers worsen odds

Inflation hit a three-year high last month as President Donald Trump's war in Iran continued pushing energy costs higher, and an analyst warned that could hurt Republican chances in the midterm elections.

Consumer prices rose 4.2 percent in May from a year earlier, surpassing the 3.8 percent hike the previous month, and CNN's Jeff Zeleny said those higher consumer prices could get baked in as a political issue even if they alleviate before the election.

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Susie Wiles ignored FBI warnings about Epstein memo that set off MAGA 'earthquake': report

Add to the number of missteps Donald Trump’s White House has made with regard to the “explosive” Jeffrey Epstein files, Trump Chief of Staff Susie Wiles believed that the controversy would blow over after the FBI released a memo on their findings.

She could not have been more wrong and she had been warned, according to the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.

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'I am anti-sunscreen': MAGA TV host insists sun doesn't cause cancer

A pro-MAGA Real America's Voice host declared he won't wear a single drop of sunscreen on an upcoming Florida trip — then played a clip of an anti-medicine influencer arguing against science that the sun doesn't cause cancer; it's the corn dogs.

Steve Gruber, host of the conservative network's morning program Day Break, made the announcement Wednesday alongside his guest and wife, Ivey Ramos Gruber, who agreed sunglasses might also be unnecessary. The segment fits neatly into the MAHA movement's growing anti-sunscreen wing — and straight into a public health nightmare.

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Senate GOP terrified Susan Collins is about to make 'fatal mistake': report

Democratic candidate Graham Platner coasted to an easy nomination for the U.S. Senate race in Maine on Tuesday night, overcoming weeks of negative press over scandals about his personal life and interactions with women to take on longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins, a top target of Democrats hoping to flip control of the upper chamber.

While Republicans project confidence in the race publicly, a recent memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) is throwing up alarms, warning this could be a tough fight and Collins must not be caught off guard.

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