Donald Trump was in no mood to hear from another female reporter asking about his administration's failures during an interview with Politico’s Dasha Burns.
Politico posted a 45-minute video Tuesday showing the president sitting down with Burns, in which he gave rambling answers that went far off the topic. But he took real offense when she asked him about the upcoming end of the Affordable Care Act subsidies — and responded with a sneer.
Burns asked, “In the meantime, I mean, two weeks, Mr. President, people will see those premiums go up. So will you tell Congress to extend those Obamacare subsidies while you work out another deal?”
“I don’t know. I’m gonna have to see. I’d like to get better health care. I’d like to have people buy their own health care, get much better health care, and what I want to do, for example, I want to give the money to the people, not to the insurance companies,” he replied, at which point she interjected. “So right now, people are buying their holiday presents. They’re planning for —.”
“Look, don’t be dramatic,” Trump sneered as she protested, “No, no.”
“Don’t be dramatic,” he repeated.
“They’re planning their budgets for next year, Mr. President," Burns continued.
“Here’s what I want to — I know. And what I want to do is help them,” he replied as she pressed, “So will their premiums go up?”
“I’m giving them money," Trump snapped.
"I want to give the money to the people to buy their own health care. That’s a good thing, not a bad thing. The Democrats don’t want to do that. They want the insurance companies to continue to make a fortune. The Democrats are owned by the insurance companies. They want the insurance companies to get these trillions of dollars,” he stated.
“Trillions of dollars goes to the insurance companies. I want that money to go to the people and let the people go out and buy their own health care. It works like magic. But you know who doesn’t want it? The Democrats, because they’re corrupt people, because they’re totally owned and bought by the insurance companies.”
After some back and forth, Burns pointed out, “That’s going to take time, sir.”
“Ready?” Trump fired back. “ I want to give the people better health insurance for less money. The people will get the money and they’re gonna buy the health insurance that they want.”
Growing up in an ultraconservative Mormon family, Jennie Gage said, she was primed to become a Christian nationalist and supporter of Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement — or MAGA.
But about two years ago, at 49, Gage had a reckoning, realizing she had been “literally a white supremacist from birth,” based on teachings from the Book of Mormon.
Gage said she came to see Mormonism as “the OG Christian nationalist church.”
So, she flipped her life upside down, leaving organized religion and the Republican party.
“I would have never said, ‘I'm white supremacist. I'm Christian nationalist,’” Gage told Raw Story. “I would have just said, ‘I'm traditional, and I'm conservative because I believe in church and family and America.’”
But when Trump ran for president in 2016, Gage embraced MAGA.
“I will never forget him on my big-screen TV, saying the words, ‘Make America Great Again,” Gage said.
“The first time I heard that, I literally started crying … and I pictured Norman Rockwell.”
What came to mind was the painter’s “Freedom from Want” — ”The grandma putting the turkey on the table, the Thanksgiving dinner, the beautiful home and just that American traditional family and conservatism," she said.
“Obviously, I hated brown people. I hated all the illegal immigrants. I hated that our country was being overrun with lesbians and feminists, women who worked instead of being in their proper place in the home, gay people — they are like the biggest sinners in Mormonism — and baby killers, all of that,” Gage said.
“When [Trump] said, ‘Make America Great Again,’ what I pictured was this businessman not only is going to save our economy, but he's also going to get rid of all of that stuff that people are doing that's destroying our country, and we're going to return to the 1950s where life was great and everything was simple, and he's going to make America great again.”
‘God’s president’
Gage’s family, she said, took Mormonism to “next-level insanity,” as much of her childhood revolved around The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“It is a cult without walls,” Gage said.
She attended Brigham Young University, the flagship Mormon college, for two years, taking classes including early childhood development, as well as dating and marriage.
“Even going to Mormon college, I was just indoctrinated also,” Gage said.
As treasurer of the BYU Young Republicans, she canvassed for President George H.W. Bush when he ran against Bill Clinton in 1992.
“It was devastating to see this evil Democrat Bill Clinton get elected,” she said.
As Gage had children, she became less politically involved. Her interest revived when Mitt Romney ran for president.
She remembered thinking, “‘We're gonna have a Mormon boy,’ and then that's probably gonna usher in the Millennium, so it's gonna be Mitt Romney and then Jesus.”
Gage began watching Fox News, listening to conservative commentators and reading books by Republican politicians. When Trump announced his run, Gage was familiar with his reality TV show, The Apprentice, and his books, The Art of the Deal and The Art of theComeback.
“The Apprentice was actually my pipeline into MAGA. It was just really interesting, as we had a business and were really wealthy,” Gage said.
“That sucked me into … completely buying into it because NBC, The Apprentice and his ghost-written books, they showcased him as this really savvy entrepreneur, and that spoke to me because I was this conservative Christian wife of an entrepreneur.”
Gage said she liked the idea of a “businessman” running America, instead of “slimy politicians.”
She became more active on social media and engaged in arguments defending Trump. She recalls one verbal fight with her 10-year-old nephew.
She told him, “Donald Trump to America is going to be what Napoleon was to France. He is going to free us, and generations to come are going to thank God that Donald Trump was voted in office.”
When Trump beat Hillary Clinton in 2016, Gage thought: “President Trump is God's president.”
‘A major shift’
Gage began to upend her life in October 2018. One day at church, she “literally stopped believing.”
“I Googled my own religion for the first time,” she said. “I had never researched Mormonism outside of books that I would go to the Mormon bookstore and read. And so I resigned from the church.”
The church’s history of polygamy pushed her away. Simultaneously, she said, she ended her 24-year marriage, due to infidelity.
She “plunged pretty headlong into Christianity, and in a way, that kind of kept me stuck in that traditional conservative Americana,” she said.
But she continued “deconstructing” her beliefs, and by the time of the 2020 election had seen “a major shift” in her values.
She was prepared to vote for Trump, but on the way to the voting booth, Gage said, “my MAGA started to crack.
“I remember sitting there in the car, and I just felt sick thinking about Donald Trump because some of the debates that year, he started to seem a little bit unhinged, and the MAGA crowd was just no longer aligning with me.”
Gage and her partner decided not to vote for either Trump or Joe Biden.
Gage returned to her computer, to research political issues.
“I’m like ‘Oh s—. There's not one f—- thing that the Republicans are doing that I support. Not one. I'm a Democrat,” Gage said.
“I literally support everything that most of the Democratic leaders are currently doing, and the entire Democratic platform speaks to me so much.”
Gage said she began “really stepping into my true, authentic self.”
While it was “extremely unsettling” and “terrifying” to change her beliefs,” her life in Tucson, Ariz., now looks far different than her life in MAGA.
She has a diverse group of friends, is an atheist feminist, and calls herself an “anarchist” and “white apologist,” for her ancestors’ roles in massacres of Native Americans.
“I am moving farther and farther away from everything that originally made me lean into MAGA,” she said.
‘American Gestapo’
To Gage, Trump is now “f— reprehensible” and “so hateful.”
“Donald Trump is the president of only the people he gives a f— about,” Gage said.
“Everybody else is just out. He's more of a mob boss, and he is a president, and that's not the way that America is supposed to work.”
During the 2024 election, Trump accused Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, of eating cats and dogs. Gage called that the “a straw that broke the camel's back.”
“I wouldn't want him to be in charge of our PTA. I wouldn't vote for him for the president of our homeowners’ association,” Gage said.
“Listening to the debates and the hatred in some of the rallies, I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience, and it made me panic because I'm like, ‘Oh, now what? I hate Donald Trump, and the whole entire MAGA movement no longer aligns with who I am.’”
Gage now calls Trump administration immigration enforcement agents an “American Gestapo.”
“The whole point of the Gestapo was to be this police force out there terrorizing people,” Gage said.
“Sure, deport illegals if they're a threat, but to drag people down the street, the masks, the fear-mongering, the scare tactics, is absolutely reprehensible.”
‘It’s going to re-brand’
Gage is starkly concerned about Trump and the GOP’s quickening push toward Christian nationalism.
“I wasn't just Christian nationalist for logistical reasons,” she said. “It was part of my religion.
“I believed Jesus had written the Constitution and that the American government was just the interim government until Jesus came back, and then Jesus was going to rule America, and the rest of the world from America.
“The Charlie Kirk people … or Christian nationalists, honey, they ain't got nothing on the Mormons. We took Christian nationalism next-level. I believed all of that 100 percent.”
A college student wearing a “Make America Great Again” cap looks on at a Turning Point USA event, held at University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida on Nov. 13. REUTERS/Octavio Jones
Gage likens Christian nationalism to “a virus,” particularly as it gains a platform with Turning Point USA, the youth nonprofit founded by Kirk, who was killed in September.
“My worry is that these religious institutions and these political movements … are targeting the people that they need to target in a way that's effective enough that they are always going to be 10 steps ahead of us, and they're specifically targeting those emerging young adults,” Gage said.
“I'm afraid that conservative Christian nationalism will not die out, that just like a very smart virus, it's going to adapt. It's going to re-brand. It's going to emerge on the other side, maybe a little bit different than the 2020 MAGA movement, but it has a vested interest in protecting itself.
“They have the money, they have the power. They don't want to let that go, so they're going to fight to the death.”
A House Republican in Missouri attacked a group of California voters this month in a post on X for trying to interfere in her state's politics — but then quietly deleted her post after realizing these voters were not from California at all. Or at least, not the California she was thinking of.
The drama began with a post by the local paper, the California Democrat, which stated, "Concerned citizens gathered at California City Hall Railroad Park on 500 South Oak Street to stop gerrymandering in Missouri," which detailed people signing a ballot petition to overturn the GOP legislature's aggressive mid-decade redraw of congressional maps that would delete a Democratic district in Kansas City.
The story rubbed Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO) the wrong way.
"Missouri's elections aren't decided in California," the suburban St. Louis congresswoman wrote. "The real threat isn't our map but the Soros-funded network trying to manufacture outrage. Missourians will choose Missouri's future."
The problem: this article was not talking about voters in the state of California. It was talking about the town of California, Missouri, a community of just over 4,000 people in Moniteau County, in the center of the state.
Wagner deleted the post later — but not before reporters, including HuffPost's Jennifer Bendery, managed to take a screenshot of it.
Voting rights groups across the state are gathering signatures for a ballot referendum that would allow Missouri voters to directly decide whether the newly gerrymandered map is adopted, which would also suspend the use of the new map until the vote can be held. Republicans have done everything in their power to try to stop the referendum, from lawsuits to declaring certain signatures invalid, to even accusing a company collecting the signatures of human trafficking.
A former Democrat representative has highlighted how one "craven" act would let the GOP hold onto their House majority — even if they lose the midterms.
Donald Trump could act on a "craven, but shockingly constitutional" clause should the House flip to a Democrat majority after next year's elections. Steve Israel, writing in The New Republic, confirmed there could be cause for the president to hold a majority through a "possible hijacking" that courts would struggle to reverse.
The ex-Dem rep wrote, "I’d always assumed that seat was bestowed to me by a majority of voters in my Long Island district. Turns out I was wrong. That simple language—tucked into Article 1, Section 5—might be a mechanism for Donald Trump and his congressional acolytes to maintain their House majority after the 2026 midterm elections, even if it’s clear the Democrats have flipped the House."
"It would be craven, but shockingly constitutional. And it would be hard for the courts to reverse. The possible hijacking of a Democratic majority would rest on these words: 'Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business.'"
Ex-rep Israel believes the "preferred representative" chosen at the ballots could be overturned, as the "final arbiter" is the speaker of the House, Republican rep Mike Johnson. There is precedence to refuse the results of the midterms and stagger on with a slim majority, too.
Israel wrote, "In 1984, a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives refused to seat newly elected Republican Rick McIntyre from Indiana’s notorious “bloody” 8th congressional district."
"He’d just beaten incumbent Democrat Frank McCloskey by a mere 34 votes, but questions about the vote counting abounded, leading House Democrats to appoint a three-person commission to investigate further. They ultimately found that McCloskey had held the seat by four votes and seated him instead—reversing the results of the election."
No House since then has used Article I, Section 5, but there could be a plan under way to give the GOP a "rubber-stamp majority". Speaker Johnson had previously refused to seat Adelita Grijalva immediately, instead taking seven weeks to confirm her spot in the House.
Israel added, "That’s why I’m worried that the president and his most rabid supporters have a plan in their back pockets to invalidate the results of the 2026 midterms if Democrats win the House. And while the move may be thoroughly legal, it will be based on a Big (and not so beautiful) Lie that will amount to a constitutional coup d’état."
Donald Trump's recent appearance at a FIFA event highlights how he's a full-blown "elderly man" losing the support of his hardcore fans, an analyst wrote Monday.
The president received the FIFA Peace Prize at the World Cup 2026 draw last week, but his "yammering" appearance was more important for highlighting his "obvious decline", according to Heather Digby Parton. The Salon columnist suggested Trump's power base, including that of FIFA president Gianni Infantino, is surrounding Trump with made-up medals and praise.
But even his own supporters are seeing through the cracks and believe the president is fading. Parton wrote, "Mind you, the hardcore base is sticking with Trump so far because, like their idol, they can never admit they were wrong."
"But even they are starting to feel the dissonance of hearing this feeble, elderly man yammering about peace amid daily news footage of grotesque attacks on immigrants, boat strikes and increasingly bellicose warmongering."
Trump was seen dancing to the Village People's performance of YMCA later in the ceremony, which was described as a "strange moment" by Parton given the context of what was happening outside of the John F. Kennedy Centre for Performing Arts.
She added, "As the president performed his “Trump dance” and the Village People delivered 'YMCA' at the FIFA prize event, the U.S. military struck another boat, killing four more people. The strange dissonance became even more jarring when the administration finally released its long-awaited 'National Security Strategy.'"
Trump's recent appearances had him lash out at audiences and quoting Rocky Balboa. An appearance last night at the Kennedy Honors heard Trump take aim at "miserable, horrible people".
The president said, "Some of them have had legendary setbacks, setbacks that you have to read in the papers because of their level of fame. But in the words of Rocky Balboa, they showed us that you keep moving forward, just keep moving forward."
"I know so many of you are persistent. Many of you are miserable, horrible people. You are persistent. You never give up. Sometimes I wish you’d give up, but you don’t." Trump would claim he had not prepared very much for the Kennedy Center Honors appearance.
He said, "I have a good memory, so I can remember things, which is very fortunate. But just, I wanted to just be myself. You have to be yourself."
While awaiting sentencing in a county jail in the Sierra Nevada foothills, a 36-year-old woman described as a leader of a “transnational terrorist group” has “continued to coordinate” with members of her group “and other white supremacist attackers via letters, phone calls and video calls,” the U.S. government says.
Dallas Erin Humber, who led Terrorgram Collective alongside codefendant Matthew Robert Allison from July 2022 until her arrest in September 2024, is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in Sacramento, Calif. on Dec. 17.
Humber pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including conspiracy, solicitation to murder federal officials, and distribution of information relating to explosives and destructive devices.
The U.S. Department of Justice accuses the 36-year-old of seeking to establish a white ethnostate by igniting a race war and “accelerating” the collapse of the federal government.
Humber, the DOJ says, aimed to achieve her goals by “targeting and radicalizing vulnerable teenagers; by grooming them to commit hate crimes; terrorist attacks on infrastructure, and assassinations; and by providing them technical, inspirational, and operational guidance to plan, prepare for, and successfully carry out those attacks.”
Humber describes herself as a “ruthless neo-Nazi terrorist” and “accelerationist martyr and icon,” according to a sealed presentence report cited in the government’s sentencing memorandum.
The report says that 15 months in pretrial detention “has only served to validate, reinforce and galvanize” Humber’s commitment to white supremacist accelerationism.
Citing the report, the government claims Humber is “proud of her ‘legacy’ of death and destruction, and her only regret is not personally murdering anyone before her arrest.”
Based on Humber’s personal history, the severity of her crimes, the need to protect the public and provide adequate deterrence, the report found that a 40-year sentence would be appropriate.
The government and Humber reached a plea agreement for a range of 25 to 30 years.
‘Ongoing security risk’
Federal prosecutors argue the court should accept the plea agreement to hasten Humber’s transfer to a federal facility where her ability to coordinate with fellow terrorists will be more constrained.
“Given the defendant’s history of radicalizing others and grooming them to commit attacks on her behalf, her continued pretrial detention at a county-run facility without adequate rules and resources to prevent her from doing so poses an ongoing security risk,” prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memorandum last week.
“This is another reason this court should accept the plea agreement and sentence the defendant: so she can be transferred to a secure [Bureau of Prisons] facility with restrictions in place to prevent her from continuing to engage in the same conduct that landed her there in the first place.”
Humber’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.
Since May, Humber has been a housing unit orderly at Wayne Brown Correctional Facility in Nevada City, Calif. The role involves cleaning microwaves, bathrooms and showers, vacuuming the day room, and occasionally cleaning up vomit and feces from other inmates’ cells.
In a letter submitted to the court, Jail Commander Bob Jakobs described Humber “as having a good attitude, being dependable, respectful, helpful,” and “one of the most reliable orderlies.”
“I appreciate Ms. Humber’s willingness to help my staff keep our facility clean and to take on tasks that other inmates aren’t always willing to do,” Jakobs said.
The government’s sentencing memorandum credits Humber’s “early and full acceptance of responsibility for her crimes,” and says her guilty pleas “allowed the government to focus its limited time and resources on bringing to justice other members of the Terrorgram Collective domestically and abroad.”
But Matt Kriner, executive director of the Institute for Countering Digital Extremism, told Raw Storyhe wasn’t surprised the government would be concerned about Humber coordinating with Terrorgram members.
Although the group is “dormant,” Kriner said, “The threat is only paused while the government goes through its criminal process against the leaders.”
‘Struggled with self-hate’
Humber’s lawyer is arguing for a sentence of 25 years, to account for her experience of “extreme physical, emotional, and verbal abuse.”
“Ms. Humber was groomed from a young age to get attention from men in a way that she has clung to throughout her life,” her sentencing memorandum reads.
“She has struggled with self-hate in myriad forms, including drug addiction, anorexia, suicide attempts and remaining in violent relationships.”
At 14, Humber operated a LiveJournal account presented as a forum for “the personal insights of a fascist dictator in training,” according to an exposé by Left Coast Right Watch in March 2023, 18 months before her arrest.
The government claims seven attacks or plots were “inspired or guided by” Humber’s leadership of Terrorgram.
An online relationship between Humber and a 19-year-old Slovak, Juraj Krajčík, is at the heart of the government’s case.
Krajčík was mentored by Pavol Beňadik, a prominent Terrorgram member known as “Slovakbro.”
Following Beňadik’s arrest in Slovakia in May 2022, the U.S. government alleges that Humber and Allison “continued to guide” Krajčík “down ‘the path of sainthood’” — a reference to efforts to sanctify white supremacist mass murder.
‘Dead targets or I don’t care’
Humber promised Krajčík that if he “became a saint,” she would narrate his manifesto, according to the government.
“That’s the cost of admission, so to speak,” Humber reportedly told Krajčík. “Dead targets or I don’t care.”
Humber’s sentencing memorandum indicates she disputes the claim that she “groomed” Krajčík.
On Oct. 12, 2022, outside an LGBTQ+ bar in Bratislava, Krajčík shot three people, killing two and injuring one. He fled, then killed himself.
The government also alleges Humber communicated directly with a Brazilian high-schooler, Gabriel Castiglioni, before he carried out a mass shooting in Aracruz in November 2022, the most lethal Terrorgram-inspired attack, with four students killed.
Humber created “saint cards” to “celebrate and commemorate the mass shootings committed by” Krajčík and Castiglioni, whom she considered “symbolically [her] kids,” the government says, adding that the evidence will be filed under seal for review by the court.
Other attacks or plots the U.S. government claims were “inspired and guided by” Humber’s leadership include:
A stabbing injuring five outside a mosque in Eskisehir, Turkey in August 2024.
Plots to attack electrical substations in New Jersey and Tennessee, disrupted by the FBI in July 2024 and November 2024.
A plot to assassinate an Australian lawmaker, disrupted in June 2024.
A double murder in Wisconsin in February 2025 by a 17-year-old boy against his mother and stepfather, allegedly motivated by his quest for financial resources and personal autonomy to pursue a plot to assassinate President Donald Trump.
Despite the arrests of its leaders more than a year ago, Terrorgram continues to inspire violence, Kriner told Raw Story.
“There’s always going to be individuals who retain influence or keep their adherence to the Terrorgram approach to accelerationism, or mobilize in part through the consumption of the Terrorgram propaganda and publications,” he said, “because they remain persistently available through various online ecosystems.”
Ticket sales for the Kennedy Center’s annual performance of “The Nutcracker” have plummeted under the new leadership of President Donald Trump, who took over as the organization’s chairman earlier this year, CNNreported Saturday.
According to internal sales data obtained and reviewed by CNN, ticket sales for the Kennedy Center’s performance of “The Nutcracker” topped out at around 10,000 seats across the production’s seven performances, around a 33% drop off from the around 15,000 ticket sales for the production seen in 2001 through 2024.
A person with knowledge of the internal workings of the Kennedy Center told CNN that even if the performance of “The Nutcracker” were to have sold out this year, the costs for the performance would still outweigh the revenue from ticket sales.
“Selling every ticket to ‘The Nutcracker’ is absolutely not paying your bills,” the person told CNN on the condition of anonymity. “We have 19 unions here. The production costs are huge.”
Additionally, other performances have been cancelled due to both a new policy imposed on the center of requiring all performances to “break even,” and from artists resigning from their leadership roles or pulling out of previously scheduled events, such as the cancellation of a performance of the musical “Hamilton” that was planned for earlier this year.
“One of the financial lifelines of the center is Broadway,” said a former Kennedy Center employee, speaking with CNN on the condition of anonymity. “Broadway tours are looking at where they should be playing, and in many cases, they are choosing not the Kennedy Center.”
Under the Kennedy Center’s new Trump-approved board of trustees, performers had also been vetted for their gender identity, according to Marc Bamuthi Joseph, the former head of the center’s social impact team whose role was terminated after Trump was sworn into office.
“They would ask us specifically if any of the artists were trans,” Joseph told CNN. “They never explicitly said, ‘Don’t do that,’ but they would make the conditions impossible for trans artists and gay artists to safely come.’”
A MAGA lawmaker's own base rejected her this weekend after she posted a Christmas-themed seasonal photo without saying, "Merry Christmas."
U.S. Representative Nancy Mace (R-SC), 48, reportedly "set the world on fire" on Saturday by releasing a photo of herself that some have said suggests she is pregnant. That photo led to confused comments from those who weren't sure if she was in fact making such an announcement.
But there was another type of comment, specifically from the most fervent MAGA supporters who follow Mace.
Numerous people complained that in her post, Mace said, "Season's greetings," instead of, "Merry Christmas."
One popular account, @swedentrade, replied with, "No season's greetings."
"We're daring to speak MERRY CHRISTMAS," the user added over the weekend.
TV writer Chase Mitchell wrote, "Wow I thought we were saying Merry Christmas again."
Anti-Trump account Piyush Mittal also chimed in, "Did Trump ban 'Merry Christmas'?"
USMC Lady Vet simply asked, "What season is it Nancy?"
One popular account purporting to be an attorney, @bethbourdon, wrote, "Nancy, what are you doing? you're standing next to a christmas tree, wishing season's greetings, wearing brown? you should be in something that goes with the christmas theme, like red, green, or winter white."
Patriot Lover further added, "Merry Christmas! There I fixed it for you."
A prosecutor who beat a DOJ indictment hit back on Saturday, saying that President Donald Trump has done nothing to improve the dangerous fentanyl situation in the U.S., choosing instead to "pardon a drug kingpin."
New York Attorney General Letitia James hit back against Trump, who sought her indictment for alleged mortgage crimes apparently in response to her successful criminal indictment against him on numerous business fraud counts ahead of the 2024 election. The case brought against James was tossed, and then a grand jury refused to issue a second indictment against her.
James can be seen in the video on stage getting applause as she criticized Trump's recent pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández. Hernández was convicted in June 2024 on U.S. federal charges for conspiring to traffic more than 400 tons of cocaine into the country, and he was ultimately sentenced to 45 years in prison.
"He pardoned the former President of Honduras. He’s a drug kingpin! He talks about how he wants to stop all these drugs from coming into our country. He was one of the largest drug pins and you just pardoned him," she said Saturday. "And what the hell have you done with regards to fentanyl? What have you done on opioids?"
President Donald Trump lashed out at Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) on Sunday after learning that the lawmaker – whom he had pardoned this week following bribery and conspiracy charges – still plans to run for re-election as a Democrat, decrying it as “such a lack of loyalty.”
Cuellar, among the most right-wing Democratic lawmakers in Congress, and the only reliably anti-abortion Democrat in the House, was indicted in May of 2024 on charges for bribery, money laundering, acting as a foreign agent and conspiracy.
Prosecutors alleged that he and his wife accepted close to $600,000 from an oil company owned in part by the Eastern European country of Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank in return for him advocating for legislation favorable to both entities. The payments were alleged to be laundered through sham consulting contracts and shell companies.
Trump, however, described the prosecution of Cuellar as political, and alleged it was motivated by his support for “border security.”
“I never spoke to the Congressman, his wife, or his daughters, but felt very good about fighting for a family that was tormented by very sick and deranged people – They were treated sooo BADLY!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
“I signed the papers, and said to people in the Oval Office that I just did a very good, perhaps life saving, thing. God was very happy with me that day! THEN IT HAPPENED!!!”
Trump then went on to write how he learned that Cuellar had decided to run for re-election, and apparently to Trump’s surprise, as a Democrat.
“Only a short time after signing the Pardon, Congressman Henry Cuellar announced that he will be ‘running’ for Congress again, in the Great State of Texas (a State where I received the highest number of votes ever recorded!), as a Democrat, continuing to work with the same Radical Left Scum that just weeks before wanted him and his wife to spend the rest of their lives in Prison - And probably still do!” Trump wrote.
“Such a lack of LOYALTY, something that Texas Voters, and Henry’s daughters, will not like. Oh’ well, next time, no more Mr. Nice guy!”
Donald Trump's character made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live, where he crashed a Pete Hegseth press conference and was awoken from a dream about New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
After Hegseth's character gave a presser in which he mocked the "nerds" and "dorks" in the media while clamoring for an alcoholic beverage, James Austin Johnson's Trump character appears on screen while sleeping. In his dreams, he says, "Stop, Mamdani. You can freeze my rent any time."
He then wakes up and says, "I wasn't sleeping. I'm very much awake. Now someone quickly tell me where am I, who am I, and what year it might it be."
A judge on Saturday hit Donald Trump's DOJ with a negative ruling, giving some positive news to a well-known critic of the president.
As Politico reported, "A federal judge dealt a setback Saturday to the Justice Department’s effort to re-indict former FBI Director James Comey, blocking prosecutors’ access to key evidence from email accounts and a computer belonging to close Comey friend and attorney Daniel Richman."
"U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly granted a temporary restraining order sought by Richman’s lawyers, requiring that the evidence be sequestered pending a ruling on Richman’s claim that the government illegally retained his emails and other data," the report states. "Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton appointee based in Washington, issued the restraining order before getting a formal response from prosecutors to a petition Richman filed last week seeking return of his data. However, she said a lack of clear indication about who currently has the data and where it is stored supported her conclusion that a temporary order limiting access to the trove of records was warranted."
Legal analyst Anna Bower said, "Judge grants Daniel Richman’s request to temporarily block DOJ’s access to evidence taken from his electronic devices. Richman was a key figure in the now-dismissed prosecution of former FBI director James Comey. Order could complicate DOJ’s effort to re-indict Comey."
Josh Gerstein also added, "Judge complicates DOJ drive to re-indict Comey, orders his lawyer Dan Richman's emails & computer off limits to prosecutors. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly says likely Richman's rights were violated by govt's retention & use of the data."
Roger Parloff wrote, "Remarkable win for Prof Dan Richman (and Comey), at least temporarily."
"Judge Kollar-Kotelly orders USA not to access any info seized from Richman's devices—which Mag Judge Fitzpatrick called the centerpiece of the case vs Comey—till she permits," the legal analyst added Saturday.
Adam Klasfeld chimed in, "The evidence that another judge previously called central to the grand jury presentation leading to Comey’s indictment was likely obtained in violation of his lawyer’s Fourth Amendment rights. Feds can no longer access it, for now."
Remarkable win for Prof Dan Richman (and Comey), at least temporarily. Judge Kollar-Kotelly orders USA not to access any info seized from Richman's devices—which Mag Judge Fitzpatrick called the centerpiece of the case vs Comey—till she permits. https://t.co/CU7JurtXacpic.twitter.com/SL7wnOosBp — Roger Parloff (@rparloff) December 7, 2025
A new report about a military cover up had one former GOP lawmaker calling the debacle "absolutely incredible and wrong."
Melissa Corrigan and David Shuster, the latter having previously exposed GOP corruption as an Emmy-winning anchor at MSNBC and CNN, reported in an article called "EXCLUSIVE: US Navy Deleted Video of October Boat Attack Survivors," that a "leaked document reveals effort to coverup aftermath of Oct 17 strike."
According to the report, "two detainees were brought on board a US Navy vessel, one in apparent medical distress having survived an explosive boat strike. Shipboard personnel followed standing protocol and code to capture video and photo documentation of the onboarding of these individuals, and then were given the dubious order to delete that footage."
Shuster wrote about the story on social media, "US Navy deleted video of October 17 boat strike survivors. In this attack, two men were rescued and detained on USS Iwo Jima. Navy was ordered to delete photos/videos, ship document reveals."
"This story proves the U.S. military has engaged in a coverup and destruction of documents/materials related to these boat attacks. Good grief," he then added.
Ex-GOP lawmaker Adam Kinzinger shared the report and added, "This is absolutely incredible and wrong."
A college student wearing a “Make America Great Again” cap looks on at a Turning Point USA event, held at University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida on Nov. 13. REUTERS/Octavio Jones