President Donald Trump was confronted by Politico's Dasha Burns after one of his supporters complained about prices rising faster than wages under his administration.
During an interview this week, Burns asked Trump to grade his economic performance.
"A plus, plus, plus, plus," the president said.
"Well, it's interesting because I talked to a supporter of yours, her name is Melanie from Westmoreland County, PA, and she loves you," Burns noted. "She gave you overall an A plus plus grade. But here's what she said about the economy."
"She said, quote, groceries, utility, insurance, and the basic cost of running a small business keep rising faster than wages," she continued. "She also says that not enough is being done. Mr. President, this is one of your supporters."
"Okay, good," Trump replied. "And I love her because you said I got an A plus on everything, I guess."
"But she's still worried about the economy," Burns explained.
"But what you have to understand, the word affordability," Trump asserted. "I inherited a mess. I inherited a total mess. Prices were at an all-time high."
A series of Supreme Court rulings could pave the way for "aggressive efforts" from Donald Trump's successor.
Legal experts have claimed two cases, one being Trump v. United States and another involving the president's powers to fire, could set in motion a chance to "consolidate power" in the White House. A conversation between Kate Shaw, Will Baude, and Stephen Vladeck in The New York Times had the trio discuss what the overturning of Humphrey's Executor could mean for the future of the United States.
Humphrey's Executor allows Congress to enact laws limiting the sitting president, particularly in the firing of executive officials of an independent agency. Vladeck believes the "careless language" surrounding possible changes to Humphrey's Executor and Trump v. United States is a slippery slope to kneecapping Congress more than they already are.
Vladeck said, "Two things can be true — that this court has been chomping at the bit to pare Humphrey’s Executor back to a fare-thee-well, and that there is a lot of careless language and analysis in the chief justice’s majority opinion in the presidential immunity case that only emboldens claims of indefeasible executive power in contexts in which we would previously have thought Congress could do something."
"Is it now unconstitutional to require the solicitor general to be a lawyer? Or to bar active-duty (or recently retired) service members from becoming secretary of defense?"
"That, to me, is the real story here: In the name of a very formalist reading of Article II (except for all of the exceptions the court doesn’t want to have to acknowledge), the majority is continuing to kneecap Congress in ways that will be very hard to recover from, and that will enable only more aggressive efforts by this president and his successors to consolidate power in the executive branch."
The Supreme Court has previously stayed lower court rulings relating to firings acted on during Trump's second term which may breach Humphrey's Law. Baude added that previous rulings relating to Trump and his second term had been a "very bad sign".
Baude said, "The thing that most concerns me is the risk that the court won’t take its own formalist principles as seriously when it comes to restraining executive power."
"The jury is still out on that, and the tariff case will be an important data point, but Trump v. United States was a very bad sign. I’d rather have a non-originalist court than a court that uses originalism to help the president win cases and then finds excuses not to use it against him."
The alleged naps President Donald Trump appears to be taking during meetings are a reflection of how tired Americans are with his administration, a political commentator has suggested.
Chauncey DeVega wrote that while Trump may be tired and falling asleep in meetings, the public is "exhausted" with administrative shortcomings that have sunk the president's approval rating. Writing in Salon, DeVega compared the sleeping president to the hardships of the American people.
He wrote, "Like his predecessors, he [Trump] embodies the fears, hopes and collective mood of the nation. He is clearly tired. In that way, he is a mirror for the American people. But while Trump may be merely tired, the American people are truly exhausted."
DeVega would go on to suggest this exhaustion is an active plan from the administration, rather than an accident which is hindering the public. He continued, "Since he returned to office in January, Trump has used a “shock and awe” strategy to undermine American democracy and society.
"A core element of this plan is to leave the public confused, disoriented, overwhelmed and exhausted, which his administration has done to great effect.
"Autocrats and authoritarians know that an exhausted and distracted public is a compliant public, and one that is less capable of engaging in collective action and other forms of resistance."
Pollsters across the country are charting a massive decline in support for Trump, with even the MAGA faithful abandoning the president and party. MAGA pollster Mark Mitchell of Rasmussen Reports warned that Trump was "losing Republicans" because he wasn't giving them "what we voted for."
He said, "I'm just saying that they want their [Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco]. And I kind of think a lot of people thought Donald Trump would be that person.
"And so these things that we've seen have, you know, drawn blood. Donald Trump's down to a negative 12 net approval rating, which puts him on par at about three months after COVID in the middle of the George Floyd riots."
President Donald Trump clammed up during an interview with Politico published Tuesday when asked whether he would “rule out” a military ground invasion of Venezuela as his administration continues to escalate military threats toward the South American nation.
“Can you rule out an American ground invasion in Venezuela?” asked Politico’s Dasha Burns, seated across from Trump during the two’s one-on-one interview.
“I don’t want to rule in or out, I don’t talk about it,” Trump said.
The Trump administration has ramped up military threats toward Venezuela in recent months, starting with its lethal strikes on suspected drug-carrying sea vessels in September, strikes that have killed at least 87 people and have been described by critics as potentially illegal “extrajudicial killings.”
Trump has also reportedly considered assassinating Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, deployed an aircraft carrier strike group to Venezuela’s coast, has illegally closed the nation’s airspace, and suggested recently that land operations would “start very soon.” Venezuela has also claimed that it foiled a Trump administration plot to stage a “false flag” attack on a U.S. warship.
Trump was asked by Burns about “how far” he would go to force Maduro out of office, another question that saw Trump clam up.
“I don’t want to say that,” Trump said.
“But you want to see him out?” Burns pressed.
“His days are numbered,” Trump admitted.
When pressed on what his goals were in enacting regime change in Venezuela, which the Trump administration has frequently shifted from combating drug trafficking to curbing the alleged influence of Iran in the region, Trump provided yet another answer.
“Well, one goal is I want the people of Venezuela to be treated well,” Trump said. “I want the people of Venezuela, many of whom live in the United States, to be respected. I mean, they were tremendous to me. They voted for me 94% or something. I mean, it’s incredible. I own a big, uh, project, Doral [in Miami, Florida]. It’s a great place, Doral Country Club.”
Burns: Can you rule out an American ground invasion in Venezuela?
Trump: I don't want to rule in or out. I don't talk about it.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s inability to quell the firestorm of accusations of war crimes has severely crippled his leadership at the Pentagon and is leading to resignations by Defense Department officials who don’t want to be caught up in the chaos he is creating.
Appearing on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” Atlantic journalist Nancy Youssef reported that the embattled Hegseth is not in “imminent danger” of being fired by Donald Trump — who is reportedly getting tired of the Hegseth drama — but he is seeing an exodus among military officials.
She told co-host Willie Geist, “Last week was a particularly bad week for the secretary in addition to questions about this double-tap strike, questions about the mission writ large and the impact it actually has on drug trafficking in the United States.”
“He was also sued by one of the victims of these strikes, by the family of this man, who said he was not a drug trafficker but a fisherman. He was sued by the New York Times,“ she added.
“He has faced a number of questions about his leadership, sort of rooted in questions about his judgment. You are seeing a lot of questions about his ability to conduct the job,” she explained. “Within the Pentagon, it's leading to, in some cases, resignations from people who are fearful that they will be in the position that Admiral Bradley was in, where they carry out an order and have to then carry the burden of that decision in a political climate and a command climate that secretary himself has created.”
Panelists on "CNN This Morning" were flabbergasted by unearthed criticism of Donald Trump by Pete Hegseth from nearly a decade ago.
Hegseth, now the secretary of defense, insisted as a Fox News host in 2016 that then-candidate Trump was wrong for suggesting that military lawyers and commanders would violate the laws of war if he ordered them to kill the families of terrorists or revive banned forms of torture.
“They won’t refuse,” Trump told Fox News anchor Bret Baier when asked about the topic during a Republican presidential debate. “They’re not going to refuse me — believe me.”
Hegseth at the time cast doubt on whether Trump would back up his commanders if they followed those orders, and noted the campaign pivoted to what he considered an unrealistic position.
"The military is not going to follow illegal orders, and so the Trump campaign was forced to change their position and say, we're going to try to change the law so that the military can operate within the law," Hegseth said at the time. "That's a tall order also."
Panelists were momentarily silent after hearing Hegseth's comments, which they agreed was eerily prescient in light of the current scandal over Hegseth's alleged "double-tap" order against survivors of a missile strike off the coast of Venezuela — and a furor surrounding a video featuring Democrats reminding service members that they had no duty to follow illegal orders.
"That's fascinating," said Democratic strategist Maria Cardona. "That isfascinating."
"Very relevant to the moment,I think," agreed host Audie Cornish.
"I think it also underscoreswhat so many Democrats' concernswere when Hegseth was goingthrough his confirmationhearings, which is his lack ofexperience," Cardona continued. "Not his lack of experience on TV."
"Well, obviously this is goingto be played a lot over the nextyear," added Republican strategist Ashley Davis. "But, I mean, obviouslyit's going to be differentsituations. I just don't know.Going back to the midterm,though, I just want to [say] I don'tknow if this is what's going tochange anyone's mind. It'sgoing to be the economy, it'sgoing to be the kitchen table.But it is a constantconversation."
CNN's Edward-Isaac Dovere disagreed, saying the issue was more important to voters than Davis suggested.
"What it comes down to isfundamental question of who canthe government just decide tokill, and based on what?" Dovere said. "Whichare on these sorts of questionsin a lot of people's minds, whocan the government just decideto arrest and take away? Theseare things that Donald Trump ischanging our conceptions of ... and that's why it's beyondthe the legal justificationstuff and the political, andthese are people were killed andwe don't know why they werekilled, and the governmenthasn't explained it."
On Monday, attorney Alina Habba made a bombshell announcement: She is resigning as a federal prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) District of New Jersey. Habba's announcement followed a federal appeals court's ruling that she was in the position illegally.
Although Habba was appointed by President Donald Trump, she was not confirmed by the U.S. Senate. And the appeals court ruled that maneuvers to keep her in that position were not lawful. Habba, however, will remain at DOJ as an advisor to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Now, Trump is blaming Republicans for Habba's departure.
Newsweek's Khaleda Rahman reported, "President Donald Trump has been caught on a hot mic blasting Republicans over the blocks on his U.S attorney appointments. In a widely shared video posted on X, the president can be heard speaking as members of the press are leaving an event at the White House. 'You know, I can't appoint anybody,' Trump said. 'I can't appoint anybody. Everybody I've appointed, their time has expired. Then they're in default, then we're losing."
Trump on Monday told reporters, "You've got a blue slip thing that's horrible. It's a horrible thing. It makes it impossible to appoint a judge or a U.S. attorney. And it's a shame. And the Republicans should be ashamed of themselves that they allow this to go on."
Rahman noted that Habba "is one of several acting U.S. attorneys around the country to have their appointments by the Trump Administration challenged on the basis that they stayed in the temporary jobs longer than the law allows."
"(Habba's) nomination faced opposition from New Jersey Democratic Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both Democrats," the Newsweek reporter wrote.
"The Senate's 'blue slip' tradition gives Democratic home-state senators a say in the confirmation of federal judges and U.S. attorneys nominated to serve in their state. While the process is rooted in senatorial courtesy and aimed at ensuring local input in federal appointments, critics argue it is outdated, undemocratic and enables partisan obstruction…. One of Trump's most outspoken legal defenders, (Habba) was appointed in March to serve as temporary term as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, a powerful role charged with enforcing federal criminal and civil law.
"But with little federal prosecutorial experience, the state's two Democratic senators signaled they would block her confirmation in the U.S. Senate."
President Donald Trump has been sending signals that his health is fading — and he's losing his grip on power, according to an analyst.
The 79-year-old president has been dozing off in public meetings and showing other signs of diminished health, including mysterious bruising on his hand and swollen ankles. Foreign policy analyst David Rothkopf told The Daily Beast Podcast that Trump seemed aware of his eventual demise.
“They actually are serious issues because they are evidence that Donald Trump is at the end of his story,” Rothkopf said. “They are signs to the world that this is not a vigorous person. This is not a person whose biography is about their future. It’s about their past, and everybody can see that in Washington.”
Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are both trying to position themselves to succeed Trump in the White House, he said, as the president dozes off beside them.
“Marco Rubio is sitting there going, you know, ‘The president is the most vigorous, brilliant man ever,'" Rothkopf said, "and Trump’s like passed out next to him, you know?”
Rothkopf also highlighted the president's increasingly frequent moves to rename institutions and buildings after himself — such as the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Kennedy Center — as another indicator that Trump is thinking about his legacy as his life comes to a close.
“If you’re watching his Band-Aids and you’re watching his cankles, the number of things he wants to name after himself, I think, is a good indicator of how ill he thinks he is, because this is just him looking for some legacy,” Rothkopf said. “It’s just him saying, ‘Well, that could make me immortal.’ Because I think he realizes that he is shuffling off this mortal coil sooner rather than later.”
A "cynical plot" to turn CNN into a MAGA-friendly channel could be underway as Donald Trump hears out bids from Netflix and Paramount.
Paramount CEO David Ellison has reportedly told insiders he would influence CNN into making changes that would benefit the Trump administration. The Wall Street Journal claims Ellison has "offered assurances to administration officials" that CNN would receive sweeping changes should Paramount win the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery.
Netflix has also bid on Warner Bros., but Ellison has played up to Trump's apparent desire to have CNN changed. The president told people close to him that he wanted new ownership of CNN and changes to its programming, which Ellison appears to have assured he can do.
But the plot to make CNN "full MAGA" relies on Jared Kushner too, who has backed a $108billion takeover bid from Paramount for Warner Bros. Discovery. Ellison made it clear what he wants from the takeover and took a shot at Netflix.
He said, "I’m incredibly grateful for the relationship that I have with the president, and I also believe he believes in competition. And when you fundamentally look at the marketplace, allowing the number one streaming service to combine with the number three streaming service is anti-competitive."
"We want to build a scaled, new service that is basically, fundamentally in the trust business, that is in the truth business, and that speaks to the 70 percent of Americans that are in the middle, and we believe that by doing so, that is for us, kind of doing well while doing good."
Ellison was asked about what the president may make of his possible CNN takeover. The 42-year-old Paramount Skydance CEO replied, "We’ve had great conversations with the president about this, but I don’t want to speak for him in any way, shape, or form."
Trump has made his thoughts on CNN very clear over the course of his two presidential terms. Most recently, Trump posted a furious tirade against the news channel and Caitlin Collins.
He wrote, "Caitlin Collins of Fake News CNN, always Stupid and Nasty, asked me why the new Ballroom was costing more money than originally thought one year ago. FAKE NEWS CNN, and the guy who runs the whole corrupt operation that owns it, is one of the worst in the business. Their ratings are so low that they’re not even counted or relevant anymore. MAGA!!!"
Donald Trump's increased attacks on reporters over questions about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and accusations about war crimes his appointee has been accused of is a sign that the president is grasping for a defense for attacks of so-called narco terrorists.
That was the consensus of a panel on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday after a clip of the president once again being abusive to a female reporter was played.
On Monday, when pressed about releasing video of a second strike on survivors dating back to early September, the president denied he had ever said he'd be happy to make it available — which he was recorded saying last Wednesday.
Instead, he told ABC's Rachel Scott she was “fake news,” and then added, “You are the most obnoxious reporter in the whole place. Let me just tell you, you are an obnoxious, a terrible reporter. And it's always the same thing with you. I told you. Whatever Pete Hegseth wants to do is okay with me.”
After sharing the clip on Tuesday morning, as co-host Mike Brzezinski groaned, Willie Geist pointed out, “So obviously, I mean, there is the tape. A week ago, he said one thing, now yesterday he is saying it is fake news.”
“Again, it just gets at what we pointed out at the top of the show, he's floundering on this. The Pentagon is floundering on this question. There is talk of Republicans withholding funds from Pete Hegseth.”
Co-host Jonathan Lemire chimed in with, “Yeah, flailing is the right way to put it.“
He later added, “But in terms of inside the West Wing, they recognize this story — they can’t get their arms around it. It seems to be spiraling by the day and, for Secretary Hegseth, he’s received votes of confidence from the president — he gave him another one yesterday — but there are plenty people in that building who say, hey look, he has already lost the Pentagon.”
“Though he [Hegseth] is not in imminent danger, there are people around him that are saying the president is tiring of the distraction.”
Top advisors to President Donald Trump were revealed to have privately boasted to GOP donors last weekend about how two impending decisions from the Supreme Court could bolster Republicans’ chances in the upcoming midterm elections, Axios exclusively reported Tuesday.
According to the report, Chris LaCivita and Tony Fabrizio – two political consultants who manage the president’s fundraising operations – had attended a Republican National Committee retreat in New Orleans, Louisiana. At the event, they were reportedly optimistic over the impending midterm elections, and despite polling that suggests a strong performance from Democrats.
That optimism was due to two impending cases from the Supreme Court, which LaCivita told donors “have the ability to upend the political map,” according to an attendee of the retreat, speaking with Axios on the condition of anonymity.
One of those two cases is Louisiana v. Callais, which may see the conservative-led Supreme Court gut Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a provision that prohibits racially discriminatory voting policy. Were the Supreme Court to rule Section 2 of the VRA to be unconstitutional, states would be free to draw their congressional maps without considering racial demographics, and arbitrarily split demographics in any manner they choose.
Were Section 2 of the VRA to be gutted, the anti-voter suppression advocacy group Fair Fight projects that Republicans could flip as many as 19 Democrat-held congressional seats.
The other case that gave the two Trump advisors hope for the midterms was National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission, which could see the Supreme Court eliminate federal law that imposes limits on how much money political party committees can spend in coordination with candidates.
Axios reporter Alex Isenstadt wrote that the case is “widely seen as the most consequential campaign finance-related dispute to land before the court since the landmark Citizens United decision in 2010 that lifted restrictions on political spending by corporations.”
“Campaign finance experts predict Republicans would benefit more if the court overturns the law because the GOP relies heavily on billionaire mega-donors such as tech mogul Elon Musk, casino executive Miriam Adelson and hedge fund manager Ken Griffin,” Isenstadt wrote.
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.
"Freedom from Want" by Norman Rockwell (Wikimedia Commons)
“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.
Jennie Gage with her children when she said she was still a "Mormon trad wifey" (Photo provided by Jennie Gage)
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.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) became the latest Republican to break with President Donald Trump on a key issue, arguing that a recent order could not override state government authority and that it would be "unpopular with the public."
DeSantis took to X to push back against Trump's recently announced plan to block state-level regulations on artificial intelligence (AI). Per a Monday report in Politico, the governor has emerged as a "fierce AI skeptic" as the technology has grown in prominence, and has been pushing for his state to pass laws that will create consumer protections related to it.
DeSantis's post came in response to an X user expressing hope that his state plans "to challenge" Trump's impending AI executive order, which would call for a federal-level AI "rulebook." The governor expressed skepticism that the order would amount to anything, due to the nature of state government powers, and suggested that only Congress could enact such rules.
"An executive order doesn’t/can’t preempt state legislative action," DeSantis's post read. "Congress could, theoretically, preempt states through legislation."
The governor's post went on to express further skepticism about the likelihood of Congress accomplishing such goals based on its recent efforts and the unpopularity they have with the voting public.
"The problem is that Congress hasn’t proposed any coherent regulatory scheme but instead just wanted to block states from doing anything for 10 years, which would be an AI amnesty," the post continued. "I doubt Congress has the votes to pass this because it is so unpopular with the public."
Over the years, DeSantis has generally been seen as a strong supporter of Trump and his agenda. Despite butting heads as the governor tried to best Trump in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, he avoided much in the way of direct criticism of Trump and has largely continued in that vein since then.
One-time allies of the president have become increasingly vocal in their criticism of Trump, most notably including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), whose conflict with the White House spurred her to announce her resignation from Congress a year early. One former GOP Senator told a Politico editor last week that more Republicans will likely break with Trump once it is past the point that he can endorse primary opponents against them.
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"Freedom from Want" by Norman Rockwell (Wikimedia Commons)
Jennie Gage with her children when she said she was still a "Mormon trad wifey" (Photo provided by Jennie Gage)
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
