Trump News

Taxpayers to fork out $1B to block Trump's pet obsession: 'Outrageous misuse'

The U.S. government will pay a French energy firm nearly $1 billion to cancel its plans to build a pair of wind farms off the East Coast, the Trump administration announced Monday in its latest move to stymie offshore wind.

The French firm TotalEnergies will forfeit its leases for projects off the coasts of New York and North Carolina, with the United States paying $928 million to reimburse what the company initially spent on the leases.

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RFK Jr allies panic as Republicans turn on his surgeon general pick

Surgeon General nominee Dr. Casey Means is running out of runway — growing Republican defections on the Senate health committee have left her without the votes needed to advance, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The healthy food advocate, championed by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., currently lacks sufficient GOP support to move forward, forcing Kennedy allies to scramble behind the scenes, working the phones to pressure wavering Republican senators.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Means needs unanimous Republican support from the health committee if all Democrats oppose her nomination, as expected. She doesn't have it.

The standstill leaves no clear path to confirmation.

Several Republican health committee members have signaled serious doubts without publicly committing their votes, including Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana (the committee chairman), Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Susan Collins of Maine.

Even if Means clears committee, her prospects on the full Senate floor look bleak. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) has indicated he's leaning toward voting no. Other Republicans seen as likely defectors include Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who voted against Kennedy's HHS confirmation due to Kennedy's vaccine skepticism. Means can afford to lose only three Republican votes if all Democrats vote against her.

When asked if Means had the committee votes, Cassidy declined to say: "I just have nothing to say on that right now."

Kennedy's allies are now in full pressure mode. Tony Lyons, a Kennedy confidant who leads nonprofit groups supporting the MAHA movement, urged supporters during a recent livestream to mobilize.

"I encourage all of you to call your senators and tell them that you want to see Dr. Means confirmed as soon as possible," Lyons said. "I have no doubt that she'll lead the charge towards empowering Americans to take control of their health."

McConnell's opposition carries particular weight — he was the sole Republican who voted against Kennedy's HHS confirmation. Cassidy, however, expressed reservations but ultimately joined Collins, Murkowski, Tillis and other Republicans in supporting Kennedy's confirmation. The Louisiana senator faces a difficult primary challenge where Trump has backed his opponent, making him unlikely to break ranks with the president.

Republican demands Lindsey Graham be stripped of Oval Office access

A Republican Party representative has called for Donald Trump's unlikely ally to have his access to the Oval Office taken away.

Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) believes Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Senator, should be limited in how much he can speak with the president, The Hill reported. "I absolutely think he should have his Oval Office credentials revoked," Cammick said on Wednesday.

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Trump ridiculed as he says he doesn't want 'a stupid person being president': 'Too late'

President Donald Trump faced backlash after he said he didn't want "a stupid person being president."

While speaking at a Thursday Cabinet meeting, the president attacked California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) for admitting he had dyslexia in a recent interview.

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'He's talking about the ballroom': CNN anchor sums up Trump's wartime cabinet meeting

CNN's Wolf Blitzer returned from a commercial break to summarize the multiple topics President Donald Trump addressed during his latest cabinet meeting on Thursday.

The 79-year-old president addressed a variety of topics after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth provided a rosy update on the war in Iran, and Blitzer caught viewers up to speed before returning to the meeting at the White House.

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'Because I'm president': Trump struggles to defend casting a mail-in ballot

President Donald Trump struggled to explain why he cast a mail-in ballot after insisting the practice amounted to election fraud.

The president fielded a question about his voting habits during a White House cabinet meeting on Thursday.

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GOP hoping to get a handle on internal crisis at this year's CPAC: 'Can we pull together?'

Republicans are hoping to regroup and rally at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, although President Donald Trump will be notably absent for the first time since he took over as the party's dominant figure.

CPAC chairman Matt Schlapp is hoping to rein in GOP infighting at this year's event, which will be held in suburban Dallas, and is warning that internal divisions could hurt Republican chances of holding on to their congressional majorities in this fall's midterm elections, reported Reuters.

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Dem rep tries to stop Kennedy Center closure and outlines 'narrow exceptions' for remodel

A Democratic Party representative has waded in to prevent major remodeling action at the Kennedy Center, challenging President Donald Trump's administration on the laws around the building.

Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) has asked a federal judge to outline the specifics of what can and cannot be changed in the two-year remodeling plan. A motion filed Wednesday challenged the purpose of the shutdown, which is set to begin later this year as the Trump administration makes a series of sweeping changes to the interior and exterior of the building.

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'Terrible': JD Vance warns Iran could blow up supermarkets with nuclear suicide vests

Vice President JD Vance suggested that Iran had the desire to blow up grocery stores with nuclear suicide vests.

During a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Vance praised the U.S. military strikes on Iran for creating options for negotiations.

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Josh Hawley getting cold shoulder from GOP colleagues over new abortion proposal

Sen. Josh Hawley's (R-MO) hopes of rallying House Republicans behind his legislation to ban Mifepristone crashed on Thursday — his own party is not-so-quietly abandoning him according to a report from NOTUS.

The Missouri senator acknowledged the uphill battle in comments to NOTUS, framing the silence from fellow Republicans as a strategic problem rather than a moral one.

"Not talking about abortion, they may think that's a feature. I think that's a bug," Hawley said. "I'm pro-life. I want to do what I can to advance the pro-life cause."

The bill has no realistic path forward in a possible Democratic-controlled Senate, so the clock is ticking, but the real problem for Hawley is that even in the Republican-controlled House, his own party is backing away.

Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), whose seat Democrats are actively targeting, openly rejected Hawley's priorities.

"It's my opinion that each and every Republican has to run their own race," Miller told NOTUS. "The state of Missouri is very much different from the state of Ohio."

Miller made clear he's siding with President Donald Trump over Hawley.

"I respect his opinion. I am extremely pro-life and I've never been anything but pro-life. But I'm going to go ahead and stick with President Trump on this one and not the senator," Miller said, adding he remains undecided on the bill. He argued abortion is an issue that "should reside" at the state level.

Rep. David Valadao (R-CA), facing a brutal reelection fight thanks to California redistricting, hasn't even bothered to read the legislation. Instead, he urged Republicans to focus on anything but abortion heading into November.

"I think what we should be focusing on right now is funding the government, get DHS back open, pass the farm bill, getting permitting reform done and working on things that actually make our economy better and make our country stronger," Valadao said.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), running in a competitive district, flatly refused to support the bill. When asked if Republicans should prioritize abortion before November, Lawler simply smiled and said, "No."

The political reality is stark: abortion is toxic for Republicans in 2026. A December AP-NORC poll found that 71% of voters want the government to prioritize economic issues, compared to just 4% who identified abortion as a key concern.

The House version of Hawley's bill, introduced by Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-TN), currently has only five co-sponsors. Harshbarger acknowledged her team hasn't even begun serious lobbying efforts, blaming the crush of other congressional business.

"We have to work on educating the other members," Harshbarger told NOTUS. "It may be a personal thing that they want to sponsor or don't want to sponsor, maybe they don't feel the same way, or they have a district that, you know, if they do sponsor it, they'll say, 'Well, we're not going to vote for you.'"

Hawley's bill would force the FDA to revoke approval of mifepristone — the most widely used abortion pill — and allow patients to sue manufacturers. Medication abortion now accounts for more than half of all U.S. abortions, making it a prime target for anti-abortion activists.

But for vulnerable Republicans worried about their seats, the political calculus is clear: supporting Hawley's crusade is a losing proposition.

Trump's problem 'far more alarming' than 'dementia' fears: former aide

President Donald Trump's mental fitness has become a growing concern, but a former staffer warned the problem is even worse than the public realizes.

Miles Taylor, a former chief of staff for the Department of Homeland Security, published a column for The i Paper recounting an alarming anecdote from 2018, when Trump and his staffers were discussing the impending Category 5 hurricane, and the president veered wildly off topic into a tangent about helicopters breaking down because they had "too many parts."

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Trump judge quashes subpoena of FBI agent behind seized 2020 election ballots

Trump-appointed District Court Judge J. P. Boulee quashed a subpoena for an FBI agent who was behind a search warrant that allowed the federal government to seize ballots and other materials from the 2020 presidential election in Fulton County, Georgia.

In a 16-page ruling on Thursday, Boulee noted that Fulton County had filed a motion to return the election materials and had subpoenaed FBI Special Agent Hugh Raymond Evans, who had signed the affidavit for the warrant that searched the county's election headquarters.

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White House increasingly being caught 'flat-footed' because of Trump: columnist

The relentless chaos consuming Donald Trump's administration isn't just the result of the president's reckless indifference to consequences. His inner circle has absorbed and amplified that same destructive pathology, creating an echo chamber of incompetence at the highest levels of government.

New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie argues that the botched Iran war exposes the administration's fundamental inability to plan for anything beyond its own fantasy scenarios.

Trump and his aides failed to anticipate Iran targeting shipping lanes and closing the Strait of Hormuz, the columnist wrote. They didn't prepare for serious, sustained retaliation against American Gulf allies. They didn't account for an energy crisis or potential global economic disruption. And they apparently never considered that European allies would largely reject their pleas for military support.

The damning reality: the administration didn't genuinely plan for or expect virtually anything that has actually defined the war. Two questions emerge: What did they plan for? And what exactly did they expect to happen?

The answer reveals stunning delusion. Trump and his team apparently expected token Iranian resistance followed by rapid regime collapse, installation of a pro-American government, and a quick return to the status quo — essentially a replay of their Venezuela intervention.

This exposes the real pathology. Trump is famous for dismissing everyone around him. He is a textbook narcissist — arguably the most solipsistic person ever to hold the presidency. Decades of public life offer little evidence he believes other people possess their own independent minds.

Every administration reflects its leader's character, and this one is no exception. Like Trump, the White House fundamentally fails to grasp that other actors possess agency. It views itself — and him — as the protagonist of the universe. Everyone else is either a supporting character or an NPC: extras with no will of their own.

When others inevitably act independently, the president and his administration are caught completely "flat-footed" For Democrats, this represents a golden opportunity, Bouie argued.

The White House's complete inability to understand that people outside its walls have their own intentions and agency gives Democrats a distinct strategic advantage. They can seize the initiative knowing Trump will struggle to respond constructively.

This dynamic is already playing out. During the partial Department of Homeland Security shutdown, Trump has stubbornly refused to budge — as if sheer obstinacy will bend reality to his desires. The result: chaos at the nation's airports and a collapsing approval rating.