SmartNews

'He is no longer at State': Trump official who worked with DOGE canned after Rubio 'clash'

A key State Department figure is out after purportedly "clashing" with the leader of the agency, Marco Rubio.

Pete Marocco was "a key architect of the Trump administration’s campaign to slash foreign aid has left the State Department," but he has now been let go after "less than three months on the job," according to the Wall Street Journal's report.

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Suspected Josh Shapiro home arsonist arrested after 'evading troopers': report

A man who is accused of an arson attack at the official residence of Democratic leader and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has been arrested and named publicly, after he initially avoided police, according to breaking media reports.

Shapiro, who was reportedly considered as a vice presidential candidate last year, was said to be inside the home with his family when the "fire broke out in a different part of the Georgian-style mansion in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania."

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'Unprecedented': Judge whose son was murdered compares Trump's attacks to 'intimidation'

Donald Trump's insults toward judges are part of the "unprecedented attacks" judicial officers are facing in 2025, a jurist said Sunday.

U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas on Friday sounded the alarm about a particular type of "intimidation tactic" that is being employed against judges as Republicans seek to limit judicial authority and impeach the judges who rule against the President.

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Trump's medical exam reportedly 'revealed a few abnormalities' — including colon condition

Donald Trump's new medical examination revealed that he has some "abnormalities," according to media reports.

Trump has consistently bragged about his medical and mental fitness, but past medical exams have been sparse on details and included passionate language about how healthy Trump purports to be.

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'Nobody is getting off the hook': Trump digs in deeper on tariffs — and denies 'exception'

Donald Trump on Sunday announced that "there was no tariff exception announced on Friday," declaring, "THOSE DAYS ARE OVER!"

The President over the weekend took to Truth Social, writing, "NOBODY is getting 'off the hook' for the unfair Trade Balances, and Non Monetary Tariff Barriers, that other Countries have used against us, especially not China which, by far, treats us the worst!"

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'Like a gut punch': Trump's trade moves put 'once unshakable' major home market 'on ice'

Donald Trump's "trade war" has reportedly damaged a key housing market.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that, "Wealthy Buyers Are Backing Out of Multimillion-Dollar Home Deals."

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Russell Brand says he 'needs Jesus' in yoga class because of 'primarily female activity'

Right-wing influencer Russell Brand admitted that he needed help from Jesus to prevent him from ogling women in his yoga class.

Less than two weeks after being charged with rape and sexual assault, Brand spoke to conservative musician Ted Nugent about what he did to relax himself.

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'Significant division' in Trump world after 'wrecking ball' ABC interview: Fox reporter

According to a Fox Business News correspondent, Donald Trump's Commerce Secretary has set off a panic at the White House over comments he made on ABC Sunday morning where he created new doubts about Trump's tariff plans.

Late Friday night, the administration announced there would be a tariff carve-out for specific electronics such as laptops and iPhones coming from China, but Secretary Howard Lutnick created new confusion when speaking with "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl.

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'A great deal of alarm': Pro-Trump Fox News host admits public fears plane crashes in 2025

Right-leaning Fox News host Kevin Corke admitted that there was "a great deal of alarm" from the public after a series of airplane and helicopter crashes during President Donald Trump's latest term in office.

"I want to show all the aviation accidents in 2025, 48 fatal, 219 non-fatal," Corke told Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) during a Sunday interview. "I share that because, Congresswoman, there's a great deal of alarm in the country, or there seems to be more reporting about crashes, fatal crashes, lately."

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Trump insiders have no idea what his 'endgame' is: Politico reporter

After almost two weeks of economic chaos, White House insiders who surround Donald Trump reportedly have no idea what his tariff endgame will be.

That is according to Politico White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns who appeared on CNN's "Inside Politics" on Sunday.

"Dasha, you cover the White House," host Manu Raju prompted his guest. "Where does the president see this going on tariffs? Or is it just sort of every day is another adventure?"

"Well, he said this week it's all about his instinct, right?' she replied. "Look, remember how much we were reporting at the outset of this administration that chaos is the strategy? That's how he's going about what he's doing with DOGE. That's how he's going about so many aspects of his agenda."

"He's doing that with tariffs as well," she elaborated. "He wants to keep everyone off balance, he wants people to come to the table and negotiate and wonder, you know, how they're going to do this with the White House."

"The problem is that uncertainty and chaos is not good for markets," she explained. "It's not good for consumers and it's certainly not good for the global economic order and the question of what the endgame is. I think a lot of people around Trump are asking themselves the same thing right now."

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'Not going to be brainwashed': Fox News pundit slams Trump's tariff 'screw up'

Fox News contributor Leslie Marshall blasted President Donald Trump for a "screw up" after he walked back his so-called reciprocal tariffs for 90 days.

During the Sunday Fox News Media Buzz program, host Howard Kurtz pointed out that White House Secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed reporters for not understanding Trump's "Art of the Deal" in response to the decision to postpone tariffs.

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'They’re just spinning their wheels': Conservatives are turning on Musk's 'flailing' DOGE

With billionaire Elon Musk admitting to Donald Trump's Cabinet that the $1 trillion in government savings he had promised will be closer to $150 billion, an 85 percent reduction, fans of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are quickly losing faith.

According to a report from the New York Times, an analysis shows that even the $150 billion promise may be a pie-in-the-sky boast.

And that has led to skepticism from conservatives who were thrilled with the idea of government cost-cutting and now are pointing out that more than a few successes that Musk's people have promoted turned out to not save any money at all.

As the Times' David A. Fahrenthold and Jeremy Singer-Vine wrote, "...when Mr. Musk’s group tallies up its savings so far, it inflates its progress by including billion-dollar errors, by counting spending that will not happen in the next fiscal year — and by making guesses about spending that might not happen at all."

That led to Romina Boccia of the libertarian Cato Institute to complain, "They’re just spinning their wheels, citing in many cases overstated or fake savings. What’s most frustrating is that we agree with their goals. But we’re watching them flail at achieving them.”

RELATED: Untested new software installed by DOGE employees crashing Social Security servers: report

Nat Malkus of the conservative American Enterprise Institute agreed and said the bogus claims have become de rigueur from DOGE.

“It’s like if your kid drops out of college, and you tell your wife, ‘Whoa, we saved money on medical school!’ Well, that doesn’t make any sense, but that’s the same idea. How do you call it savings?”

The Times report added DOGE officials also announced canceling a contract that did not, in fact, even exist.

"The Office of Personnel Management declined to release the request, or say what it had planned to spend on the contract, nor would the office say when it planned to choose a contractor," the report states. "Despite that uncertainty, Mr. Musk’s calculated the savings involved in that cancellation down to the cent. (It later rounded the claim to an even dollar: $318,310,328.)"

That led Steven L. Schooner, a professor who studies federal contracting at George Washington University, to label the boast "garbage."

The Times report added, "H [Schooner] said it was far too early to know for sure what the government was going to spend — especially in the year that Mr. Musk had targeted. What if the bidders competed to drive the price lower? What if a losing bidder protested, and then the whole thing got canceled?"

You can read more here.

'Gonna take it back': Pete Hegseth could 'feel' the communism at the Panama Canal

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed to take back the Panama Canal because he said that he could "feel" communism there when he visited.

While speaking to Fox News host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday, Hegseth reflected on his recent trip to Panama.

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