Trump News

CNN's John Berman confronted a conservative commentator over President Donald Trump's attack on a Republican senator — and he quickly backed down.

The president lashed out at Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) for siding with Democrats to include presidents in a ban on stock trading by members of Congress, even though it wouldn't take effect until after he was out of office, and the "CNN News Central" host asked conservative Scott Jennings to comment on the issue.

With the House out on summer break after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) vacated the premises to avoid a vote on the Jeffrey Epstein files, Democratic senators are huddling on plans for when the full Congress is back in session.

According to a report from Politico, at a luncheon for Democratic senators on Wednesday attendees "grappled" with how to push back against the Republicans and whether they should forcefully take them on or work to come up with some compromises.

Donald Trump erupted in fury Thursday after Dmitry Medvedev, Vladimir Putin's attack dog and the deputy chair of Russia's security council, delivered a stinging humiliation by invoking the MAGA leader's own derogatory nickname for Joe Biden.

The explosive exchange began when Medvedev mockingly dismissed an ultimatum from Trump demanding Russia reach a Ukraine ceasefire within 10 days or face "debilitating secondary tariffs" on trading partners.

An offhand comment by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent about Social Security at a forum on Wednesday hosted by Breitbart News drew a stunned reaction on MSNBC on Thursday morning.

Addressing a provision contained in the budget bill signed by President Donald Trump that allows for setting up tax-deferred children's investment accounts, also called "Trump accounts," the Cabinet member admitted they are a "back door for privatizing Social Security."

Specifically, Bessent blandly pointed out, "I'm not sure when the distribution level date should be, whether it should it be 30, and you can buy a house, should it be 60. But in a way it is a backdoor for privatizing Social Security."

That earned the billionaire Trump appointee a "Whoa' from MSNBC host Joe Scarborough.

Addressing Rep. Richie Torres (D-NY), the "Morning Joe " host continued, "He said the quiet part out loud. Congressman, so you got this bill and, again, I don't know politics, but you got this bill that slashes health care for the most needy among us. It gives the biggest tax cuts ever to billionaires and multinational corporations, and now the treasury secretary says it creates a way to privatize Social Security. What say you?"

"I think it shows the world what we've long known: that Donald Trump is a snake oil salesman," the New York lawmaker replied. "And, you know, the slogan of Trump has been 'promises made, promises kept.' He made a promise to protect Medicaid, and instead he has cut it by $1 trillion. He made a promise to protect Social Security and now you have his treasury secretary threatening to privatize Social Security."

"And, of course, he made a promise to release the Epstein files and instead, he's broken his promise to his own base. So there's a pattern here?" he added.

"Yeah, there is," Scarborough replied. "And again, Jon Lemire, this is an own goal,to put it mildly, when again, you have this massive bill that's already hugely unpopular that slashes health care, I mean, for people in Red State America for people in rural America, slashes health care there. It slashes health care in Blue State America. It gives tax cuts to billionaires and IT monopolists it. It slashes taxes for multinational corporations and now the treasury secretary says it's going to help us privatize Social Security."

"I mean, you talk about touching all the third rails of American politics at the same time — they've just done it," he suggested.

Co-host Jonathan Lemire replied, "Yeah, and there's a recognition that they did. The treasury secretary, the department, put out a statement a few hours later, running back, not just walking back, but running back it."

"But, yes, for many it was revelatory that this is something that perhaps the Trump administration is going to try to push through," he explained. "To the congressman's point, you know, again, Democrats have been warning about this all along and here we have an extremely influential member of the cabinet suggesting it's a possibility."

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President Donald Trump went after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell early Thursday in yet another rant over his continued refusal to drop interest rates, calling him a “total loser” and blaming him for “costing our country trillions of dollars.”

“Jerome ‘too late’ Powell has done it again!” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.

Survivors of the deadly July 4 flood in Central Texas are planning to confront state lawmakers next week after their disaster response has left many feeling “abandoned,” The New York Times reported Thursday.

“I get that people have to go home and return to their lives,” said Mike Richards, whose property was ravaged by the flood, speaking to The New York Times. “But you can’t help but feel abandoned.”

The family of the most prominent survivor of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse was left stunned by President Donald Trump's remarks about her.

The president told reporters aboard Air Force One that his relationship with Epstein ended when he "stole" his Mar-a-Lago employees, and Virginia Giuffre's family told The Atlantic that his comments suggested he knew more about the disgraced financier's sex crimes than he had previously acknowledged.

With the Jeffrey Epstein file controversy still dogging Donald Trump's administration, there is a point where the president will have to throw someone overboard to calm his MAGA base.

That someone is likely to be Attorney General Pam Bondi, according to longtime DC insider Elanor Clift in a new column.

A CNN panel on Wednesday shut down claims that President Donald Trump's trade policies have not negatively impacted the economy.

GOP strategist Scott Jennings claimed that Trump's tariffs have been a boost for the economy because they have not caused a recession, as some economists predicted. That is despite the most recent economic data showing that imports and business investment both decreased in the second quarter.

Wednesday's economic data was one of the most confusing releases in recent memory, according to the Wall Street Journal's editorial board.

"This may be the weirdest GDP report ever," the board wrote in an op-ed. "The top line growth number looks good, and the White House naturally touted it. This reverses the 0.5% decline in GDP in the first quarter, which was largely explained by a surge of imports as businesses tried to front-run the anticipated tariff barrage. Growth in the first half was a mediocre 1.2%."

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was blindsided by one of his party members after negotiating a peace deal with the president, according to a new report.

Axios reported Wednesday that Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) reneged on an agreement he made to vote for President Donald Trump's domestic spending bill. Johnson negotiated a deal where Massie reportedly had agreed to vote for the bill to get Trump to stop attacking him publicly. Massie voted to pass the bill along procedurally, but voted against the final version.

Two former high-ranking officials of President Barack Obama's administration slammed the Trump administration for its remarks about the 2016 Russia investigation.

For weeks, President Donald Trump has tried to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein files story. One of those attempts involved relitigating the 2016 investigation into Russia's meddling in our elections.

American automaker Ford on Wednesday followed in the steps of General Motors in warning that President Donald Trump's tariffs are going to take a hammer to its bottom line.

As reported by Bloomberg, Ford said that its profit could plunge by up to 36% this year as it expects to take a $2 billion hit from the president's tariffs on key inputs such as steel and aluminum, as well as taxes on car components manufactured in Canada and Mexico. News of Ford's guidance sent its stock shares diving by more than 2% in after-hours trading on Wednesday.