A New York Democrat thinks he knows what's behind President-elect Donald Trump's bizarre new request: money.
Over the weekend, Trump suggested the United States should reclaim the Panama Canal, citing exorbitant fees for access and an increasing Chinese presence in the waterway.
"The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the US,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform late Saturday. "This complete ‘rip-off’ of our Country will immediately stop …”
Trump said he would not allow the canal to fall into the “wrong hands."
“The United States has a vested interest in the secure, efficient, and reliable operation of the Panama Canal, and that was always understood. We would and will NEVER let it fall into the wrong hands! It was not given for the benefit of others, but merely as a token of cooperation with us and Panama."
The president-elect also appeared to be alarmed by increasing usage from China.
“When President Jimmy Carter foolishly gave it away, for One Dollar, during his term in Office, it was solely for Panama to manage, not China, or anyone else,” he said. “It was likewise not given for Panama to charge the United States, its Navy, and corporations, doing business within our Country, exorbitant prices and rates of passage.”
Panamanian President Mulino rebuffed Trump's statement on his X account.
“Every square metre of the Panama Canal and the surrounding area belongs to Panama and will continue belonging [to Panama],” Mulino said in a statement, prompting a curt reply from Trump: "We’ll see about that."
The saga became the topic of conversation on CNN on Monday night, with former Rep. Max Rose joking that people should always take Trump at his word.
"Look, you should take what Donald Trump says seriously," he said. "And to my friend [Republican strategist David Urban], obviously congrats on your victory and what I particularly enjoyed about Donald Trump's campaign was all of the Panama Canal commercials. And you saw how much that spiked in the exit polls. It was such a pivotal issue in the campaign! So obviously he'd be acting on it now!"
As his fellow panelists chuckled at Rose's dig, he noted Trump did not mention the Panama Canal during the campaign.
"The guy never mentioned it once! So we all know how this business works, ok? Someone wrote him a check. Or Someone had a pivotal meeting with him and made him a promise for a future check if he acted on this issue. So it's going to be Panama Canal this week or next and then in the weeks thereafter it'll be another pet project of the billionaire class. This speaks to the actual truth of this second iteration of what the second iteration of the Trump presidency will be: not the populist hard core issues that he actually ran on, and that's what's so sad about all this."
According to a source close to the former president, it was not an urgent or life-threatening situation. Rather, Clinton was there "for testing and observation."
The 42nd president of the United States was "reportedly in good spirits," according to NBC News.
Corey Lewandowski, a senior adviser to Donald Trump, defended the president-elect's desire to take over Greenland by arguing his boss was a "real estate master."
During a Monday interview on Newsmax, Lewandowski outlined some of Trump's expansionist plans for his next administration.
"Corey, what do you make of Trump's threat about the Panama Canal?" Newsmax host Logan Ratick asked the Trump adviser.
"Yeah, once again, this is President Trump focused on America first," Lewandowski explained. "We sold it for a dollar, which was just the most ridiculous thing that anybody has ever seen."
"And so it's time to make sure that our independence and our dominance on the world stage is back in play," he continued. "He's talking about maybe Greenland from a historic perspective coming as part of the United States, taking back the Panama Canal so that China doesn't have its influence there."
"This is a president who is making outside-the-box announcements to put the world on notice that, once again, the United States is the dominant world superpower."
Newsmax host Emma Rechenberg pressed Lewandowski on the plan to annex Greenland.
"It's, of course, considered part of the kingdom of Denmark," she noted. "It's an autonomous territory under Danish sovereignty, but not a separate country."
"Why would he want this, Corey?" Rechenberg asked.
"Well, look, Donald Trump is a real estate master, and he understands the historic and the strategic, more importantly, significance of Greenland," Lewandowski claimed. "There is a very important strategic value to the United States having control of this."
"And by the way, we have not expanded our country in 70 years," he added. "So, look, Donald Trump is, again, thinking outside the box. How do we have a lasting impact on the world stage? What does his legacy look like?"
"This is someone who has a vision for America's greatness long after he has left the White House, and this is just part."
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is filing a legal complaint to try to block release of the House Ethics Committee's report into him, reported NBC News — but he's probably too late for it to matter.
This comes after reports that the committee, which has been wrestling with whether to release the full details of the report, is finally moving to do so — and after large portions of its content were already leaked, including confirmation the committee found substantial evidence for accusations that Gaetz engaged in statutory rape and illicit drug use.
Gaetz has continually denied all of these allegations, which have floated around for years, but which he claims were part of an extortion racket against himself and his family.
Gaetz's request for a restraining order "accuses the committee of an 'unconstitutional' attempt 'to exercise jurisdiction over a private citizen through the threatened release of an investigative report containing potentially defamatory allegations, in violation of the Committee’s own rules,'" noted the report. His legal team further asserts that the release of the report "represents an unprecedented overreach that threatens fundamental constitutional rights and established procedural protections."
The former congressman was initially Trump's pick for attorney general, but he withdrew amid the controversy over releasing the report, and indications that Senate Republicans did not have the votes to confirm him.
CHICAGO — The Aid for Women pregnancy clinic in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood might be one of the nicest offices I’ve visited for medical advice.
The clinic is located in the storefront of a newly constructed modern apartment building. Its windows are adorned with images of beautiful, diverse women, advertising free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds. With tasteful neutral tones throughout, the lobby has a cascading wall fountain with the nonprofit’s logo and a woman’s silhouette image, creating a peaceful atmosphere.
Yet, the clinic is not a medical office even though medical procedures and tests are offered there. Aid for Women is one of as many as 4,000 crisis pregnancy centers, or CPCs, operating throughout the country that present as healthcare clinics but are typically nonprofits with an agenda to stop women from getting abortions.
A new study from the University of California San Diego published on Dec. 2 analyzed the websites of 1,825 crisis pregnancy clinics, including Aid for Women, and created a database, choicewatch.org, to provide unbiased data about the services provided by these groups.
“We just want to start a policy debate around these issues,” John W. Ayers, leader of the study, told Raw Story. “With the new administration, there's a chance CPCs could be federally funded, and if those federally funded dollars are going to CPCs, under what conditions can they be given to maximize society benefits and reduce the harms?”
Ultimately, the paper’s authors are calling for greater scrutiny of these clinics, particularly around the services offered, provider qualifications and conformity with regulations and medical best practices. Generally, such pregnancy centers are exempt from the licensing, regulations and credentialing requirements of healthcare facilities.
“When it comes to crisis pregnancy centers, there's a lot of unknown unknowns,” said Ayers, who is an adjunct associate professor of medicine and epidemiologist at the University of California San Diego. “Our study is independent of your position on abortion, and so, we just want to give data and solve this problem of there being no data.”
Doctors like Kristyn Brandi, an OB-GYN in New Jersey, often find crisis pregnancy centers to be “angering” and “annoying," requiring reeducation of patients after visiting a clinic, she said.
The clinics can also be dangerous to women’s health if unsafe and unproven procedures like “abortion pill reversals” are offered (Aid for Women advertises such a procedure on its website). Ayers and Brandi both pointed out that abortion pill reversals are not recommended by medical professionals and put patients at risk for hemorrhaging and sepsis as they involve pumping the body with progesterone after a first abortion pill is taken, even though the process of ending the pregnancy is likely already underway and no longer likely to be viable.
“At crisis pregnancy centers, they are not healthcare centers, and so they aren’t under the same regulations and rules that doctors and other healthcare providers have to abide by, which is really concerning as a healthcare provider knowing that I have many patients that go there first and then come to me for healthcare,” Brandi told Raw Story. “Hearing the stories about what these patients encounter when they go to these centers is really disturbing.”
Susan Barrett, executive director of Aid for Women, did not respond to Raw Story’s requests for comment.
‘Very weird and off’
When I first visited an Aid for Women clinic, I was just shy of five weeks pregnant. Several at-home early detection pregnancy tests came up positive, but I figured it didn’t hurt to have professionals confirm for me as I waited for my regular OB-GYN appointment at 10 weeks pregnant.
But rather than having a doctor or nurse confirm the pregnancy for me, I conducted the test myself at Aid for Women.
Instead of leaving a urine sample behind a mini door in the bathroom for technicians to grab as I was used to at doctor’s offices, I brought my sample back to a meeting room with an advocate and was told that I would be administering my own pregnancy test since there wasn’t a nurse on site at the time to do so.
I used a dropper to apply a sample to my test and had to write down that, yes, I understood my test was positive.
Brandi said typically patients at a medical practice are “not running their own samples” due to regulations requiring that collection and testing is accurate and a “real result” is being reported.
“It's weird for going to a healthcare center and having to do the stuff you would just do at home,” she said when told about my experience.
At the appointment, I spoke with an advocate about my “pregnancy intention,” a question also asked on an intake form where clients indicate whether they’re planning on parenting, abortion, adoption or are undecided.
The advocate made it clear that the center does not offer abortions but did not explicitly express disapproval for those seeking abortions.
However, the 20-plus-page informational booklet provided to me featured several pages on the risks and drawbacks of abortions, alongside photos of depressed-looking women.
Raw Story shared the pamphlet with Brandi, an abortion provider, who said she was “struck” by the language in the brochure and found it to be “very focused on misleading information” and “very graphic depictions” of procedures like a dilation and evacuation surgical abortion, also known as a D&E.
“It was very much leading with all the risks, which I will not say that there are no risks to abortion care, but the risks are incredibly low and much lower than things like live births and C-sections,” Brandi said. “I make sure that when I counsel patients, I do absolutely tell them the risks, but I make sure to balance that information with all the benefits if they seek abortion, what are the health benefits to them versus continuing the pregnancy … there wouldn't be a field of OB-GYN, if pregnancy was always safe.”
Brandi also took issue with other components of the Aid for Women brochure, calling some parts “just very weird and off.”
For instance, the brochure’s timeline of the pregnancy does not reflect the “medically accurate” dating method, she said, and milestones noted such as the beginning development of a baby’s brain, spinal cord and heart at four weeks is misleading, she said.
“Usually at that time we have maybe three or four cells that are cardiac cells that eventually will turn into a heart in some time,” Brandi said. “It's not inaccurate, but it's misleading to say that those things are developed yet when they're definitely not developed in a significant way.”
Brandi noted that as an abortion provider, she looks at fetal tissue after a procedure, which typically isn’t seen until about 10 weeks pregnant, and it’s not visible to the naked eye at that point. The brochure said “a little face, fingers and toes” appear as early as six weeks and included images.
A first ultrasound experience
After my first visit, I decided to return to the clinic for another free service offered: an ultrasound. I didn’t have to pay hundreds of dollars or use insurance, so I decided to get an early sneak peek before my regular 10-week appointment.
I brought my husband with me to the clinic when I was just shy of eight weeks pregnant, and we heard our baby’s heartbeat for the first time, which was an exciting, emotional moment. I can imagine hearing a heartbeat that early for an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy might evoke upsetting emotions instead.
A sonographer conducted the ultrasound to check for basic criteria of a viable pregnancy such as noting if a heartbeat was present and that the pregnancy was located in the uterus. She produced two ultrasound images that didn’t look like much yet — I’d say the image resembled a small shrimp-shaped blob.
At barely eight weeks, I had a long way to go until the baby had any chance at surviving outside of the uterus. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology reports that premature births at 23 weeks have a 23 percent to 27 percent survival rate, which grows to 67 percent to 76 percent by 25 weeks of gestation and continues to go up from there.
I showed my ultrasound to one of my regular OB-GYN doctors, who accurately predicted the sonographer wanted to show me the heartbeat. Brandi reviewed the ultrasound and corresponding report, calling it “similar” to a typical report.
My report was signed off for review by an OB-GYN, Robert Lawler — something Brandi said is rare to find at crisis pregnancy centers.
Lawler was featured in a 2013 article by the Chicago Catholic, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Chicago, about a new OB-GYN practice he opened in the southwestern Chicago suburb of Downers Grove, Ill., to conform to the teachings of the church.
“I had visions of meeting the Lord at Judgment Day and him saying to me, 'OK, Robert, what part of 'intrinsically evil' did you not understand about contraception?'" Lawler said in the article.
The practice seems to have since closed as it has both an inactive phone number and web domain. A handful of negative Yelp reviews for the practice complain about lack of transparency about Lawler’s religious influence on his practice.
“He lets his personal religious beliefs undermine the health and well-being of the victims he lures into his office,” wrote one reviewer in March 2018.
Lawler appeared on an episode of the “Family Talk” show by Evangelical Christian author and psychologist James Dobson, where he discussed his opposition to a 2017 Illinois abortion bill that “forces pro-life doctors and nurses to violate their consciences and advocate for the murder of babies in the womb,” according to the video description.
As of January 2024, Lawler is now the medical director for labor and delivery at OSF Little Company of Mary Medical Center, a healthcare system in Illinois founded by the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis.
Lawler could not be reached at his OSF office in the southwestern Chicago suburb of Oak Lawn, Ill. He did not respond to Raw Story’s request for comment through Aid for Women.
‘Lying to women in vulnerable positions? Let's cut that out.’
For comparison I also visited a Planned Parenthood clinic a mile away from Aid for Women to confirm my pregnancy there as well.
The Planned Parenthood clinic was certainly not as stylish and welcoming as the Aid for Women office. It was located in a small strip mall next to a Dollar General. The waiting room was dark, and front office staff were seated behind plexiglass.
But the experience reflected that of a typical doctor’s office visit, where I entered a room with an exam chair (I was brought to a room that resembled a personal office with a desk, chair, side tables and sink at Aid for Women).
I answered some medical questions at Planned Parenthood and got my test result through a MyChart portal. I was given some informational materials that included statistics and risks of different procedures, and I was told that if I proceeded with the pregnancy to start taking a prenatal vitamin.
I chose not to go through the ultrasound experience at Planned Parenthood because I didn’t want to prematurely use my insurance benefits before visiting my regular doctor.
Planned Parenthood clinics are regulated as healthcare facilities and must abide by regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to protect patient privacy.
When I went to Aid for Women, I asked about HIPAA and was told my information would be protected. I was given a "care and competence" commitment agreement that promised to hold client information in "strict and absolute confidence;" however, there was no mention of HIPAA on the form, and the Aid for Women privacy policy does not mention HIPAA.
"One thing that really worries me, especially in this Dobbs moment, is privacy," Brandi said, referencing Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the 2022 landmark Supreme Court decision that overturned the right to abortion protected by Roe v. Wade. "I think many people when they go to a healthcare center, they expect that the healthcare providers are not going to like share their information and talk about them to other people because we abide by rules like HIPAA that protect patients’ privacy. Because these centers aren't health care centers — they look like health care centers — but they have no reason to protect your privacy."
Spokespeople for Planned Parenthood did not respond to Raw Story’s request for comment.
The intake form I filled out during my visits at Aid for Women had me initial that I understood all questions on the form were optional, but when I didn’t fill in some information, such as my address, I got pushback from staff to include those details.
“I think when people are pretending to be doctors and have no legal liability if something bad happens, that's really concerning and scary to think about, that patients are trusting these centers when they don't necessarily get the health care that they deserve in these moments,” Brandi told Raw Story.
I returned to the Aid for Women Clinic months later at 37 weeks pregnant to learn about what support services the center offered. When I requested my medical records, I was required to give my address and was given a two-page report from my ultrasound, nothing else from the first visit or any other paperwork.
At this visit, like all my previous visits, the advocate asked me about my housing situation and made sure I had support and wasn’t experiencing any abuse. The nonprofit runs maternity homes and offers referrals for healthcare and community support resources.
I signed up to watch videos from the clinic’s "Earn While Your Learn" program to prepare for my impending labor and delivery experience. Clients who complete various tasks such as watching lessons and doing homework, participating in the nonprofit's newsletters and reviewing the center online can earn points to enter a monthly raffle to win essential baby supplies like a stroller or a crib set. The videos were produced by a group called True to Life Productions, who did not immediately respond to Raw Story’s request for comment.
Aid for Women’s nonprofit tax filing is transparent that it’s a pro-life organization, describing itself as an operator of “pregnancy help centers, pregnancy medical clinics and residential programs to assist women in difficult and unexpected pregnancy situations so that they might choose life.” The nonprofit reported more than $2.5 million in contributions in 2023 and paid Barrett a salary of $101,519.
According to the data provided on choicewatch.org, Aid for Women is affiliated with Heartbeat International, an international pro-life group that supports the largest network of crisis pregnancy centers.
While I visited Aid for Women knowing what type of facility it was, clients in crisis might not be aware of its pro-life mission and could be susceptible to misinformation.
“I think what our study does is it shows some of these crisis centers are bad actors, and CPCs can get behind getting rid of them," Ayers said. "Pro-life, pro-choice, lying to women in vulnerable positions? Let's cut that out."
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) tried to flex his political muscle, but instead got hit in the face, according to a former Republican staffer.
Brendan Buck, a former key adviser to ex-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), appeared on MSNBC Sunday.Buck, who was counselor to Ryan and press secretary to former speaker John A. Boehner, has previously defended Donald Trump against allegations of parallels to Nazi leaders.
Over the weekend, Buck was asked about the ethics report looking into former GOP lawmaker Matt Gaetz, and why the ethics commission might have changed their vote and decided to release the report.
One reason, Buck said, is that they could have feared Gaetz would come back for the next congress, despite saying he will not.
Another reason, Buck suggested, is that Johnson actually ruined it for himself.
"When Mike Johnson came out and said I don't think they should release that report, I wondered if that was a mistake," Buck said. "The house ethics committee is one of the few sort of independent bipartisan panels, evenly divided. I imagine there are some members of that committee who said we can't look like we're being told what to do. We don't serve the speaker. If the speaker was trying to push them around, it was very unusual for the speaker to tell the ethics committee publicly what he thinks they could do, that may have backfired."
Donald Trump on Sunday once again reaffirmed his desire to take back the Panama Canal.
"We will demand that the Panama Canal be returned," Trump declared a day earlier. He took to his own social media site, Truth Social, to issue a threat to local Panama officials about the famous Panama Canal.
The next day, it was reported that the President of Panama said, "As president, I want to clearly state that every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjoining zone is Panama’s and will remain so."
Donald Trump made a statement on Sunday that many critics interpreted as exhibiting his weakness.
President-elect Donald Trump used a speech to MAGA supporters to strongly push back on claims that billionaire Elon Musk had effectively taken over his presidency. While speaking to Turning Point USA's AmFest conference attendees on Sunday, Trump argued that "big companies" wanted him to cut regulations more than slashing taxes.
"But no, he's not going to be president that I can tell you," Trump also insisted. "And I'm safe. You know why? He can't be. He wasn’t born in this country."
This comment went viral, with Scott Dworkin, the Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Democratic Coalition, saying, "This confirms that Musk is the President-Elect."
Popular satire account Mrs. Betty Bowers replied with, "This is great for two reasons: (1) it shows that all this President Musk talk is getting under Donald’s notoriously thin skin; and (2) it has to be very insulting to JD Vance."
Artist Art Candee said, "President-elect Musk is running the country."
Obama appointee Eric Columbus said, "The last guy Trump claimed wasn’t born in this country was president for eight years."
A group of current and former Republicans who oppose Trump, The Lincoln Project, said, "No previous president-elect in history has ever had to say this."
President-elect Donald Trump complained about possibly having to walk down steps to reach the stage at a conservative conference on Sunday.
As he walked out to the podium at AmFest in Arizona, Trump began by wishing the audience a Merry Christmas.
"Nice to win the election and very nice to win," the president-elect said. "And I want to wish everybody a very Merry Christmas. They don't say that too much anymore."
"And when I had all that smoke backstage, I said, Hey, are there any steps in front of me?" he continued. "I don't want to go. I go down. That would not be good."
According to a deep dive into how House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) managed to get most of his caucus and Donald Trump to agree on a budget package that kept the government working until March, the Washington Post is reporting that Johnson "blindsided" the president-elect by also negotiating with Democrats.
That, in turn, led Trump to prompt billionaire adviser Elon Musk to launch a war on the House leadership in a flurry of attacks on X that derailed the proposed deal at the time.
According to the report, while attending the Army-Navy game the previous weekend, an insider claims Trump believed he made it clear what his expectations were, which forced Johnson to make concessions to Democrats — which in turn angered his caucus.
According to the Post, "Lawmakers were irate when Johnson laid out details about his bicameral and bipartisan proposal in a Tuesday morning meeting. When Johnson described it as a collaborative process, Ways and Means Chairman Jason T. Smith (R-Missouri) exclaimed 'not true,' according to people in the room," adding that the House Speaker also ended up getting grief from Trump.
"Several people close to Johnson say the speaker talked frequently with the president-elect and kept him abreast of ongoing negotiations," the Post is reporting. "But another Trump adviser described him as blindsided by the bill’s contents and furious. The first adviser said the president-elect was with Musk at the time, and Trump told NBC he encouraged Musk to post messages condemning the bill."
“I told him that if he agrees with me, that he could put out a statement,” reportedly Trump said.
The report notes that is when Musk flooded his X account with over a hundred posts that had Republicans scrambling to put together the final budget that only passed with the help of Democrats, but still left far-right members of his caucus fuming and refusing to support it.
Will a political prosecution of former former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) be successful? "No dice," says one former prosecutor who warns that the threat still shouldn't be ignored.
Former federal prosecutor Elie Honig swiftly poured cold water on House Republicans’ claims that former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) broke the law for her work on the Jan. 6 committee – and suggested that a recently released GOP report “crosses the line.”
Now, another former federal prosecutor, MSNBC's Joyce Vance, is sounding the alarm about the report.
"This is how revenge prosecutions start. A Trump-led Justice Department investigates following a referral from the subcommittee. That sounds normal enough and can be presented to the Trump supporters and even non-lawyers in the general public as though it is," the analyst wrote. "But it isn’t. It’s not even close to normal."
Vance goes on to suggest that Cheney "has speech and debate clause immunity for all of this work."
"What she is accused of doing clearly and literally falls within the well-understood contours of that doctrine," the expert said.
"In other words, there can’t be a successful prosecution. Just as Trump argued with presidential immunity, conduct involving his official acts could not form the basis for a prosecution," Vance added. "The only difference is that the Constitution sets forth speech and debate immunity for Senators and Representatives, while Trump’s special privilege was crafted for him by the Supreme Court."
Vance goes on to call the criminal referral "unusual," and "the kind of thing DOJ typically passes on."
"Prosecutors can only indict a case if they believe they can obtain an conviction and sustain it on appeal and where it’s barred by immunity from the outset, no dice. But this referral from the House comes in the context of Trump’s call for revenge prosecutions, which means we don’t have to think very hard to understand what’s going on. House Republicans have bent the knee, and hard," she wrote. "This is not normal and it must not be ignored."
Republican lawmakers have set themselves up for failure in the next year, according to a former Republican staffer.
Brendan Buck, a former key adviser to ex-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), appeared on MSNBC Saturday.Buck, who was counselor to Ryan and press secretary to former speaker John A. Boehner, has previously defended the president elect against allegations of parallels to Nazi leaders.
On MSNBC, Buck was asked about Trump, House Republicans, and their relationship to Elon Musk.
Buck first spoke about how Republicans "have made a lot of promises over the last several days." Those vows, he says, will be "difficult" to live up to.
"We are talking about $2.5 trillion in spending cuts they want to do. I am curious what they're looking at, where they will find that," he said. "They already ruled out budgeting most of the big spending programs. I think they have set themselves up for failure next year. It is too bad. It could really get into the way of the things they want to do."
Buck went on to predict that Trump will soon cut ties with Musk.
