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process is rooted in senatorial courtesy and aimed at ensuring local input in federal appointments, critics argue it is outdated, undemocratic and enables partisan obstruction….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.
Donald Trump believes "dark and sinister" forces want to dismantle the US economy, which he claims is the "strongest" in the world.
In a post to Truth Social earlier today (November 9), the president made two posts. The first post had him share a news story on European nations weighing up their options on tariff policies against China. Trump wrote, "The biggest threat in history to United States National Security would be a negative decision on Tariffs by the U.S. Supreme Court."
"We would be financially defenseless. Now Europe is going to Tariffs against China, as they already do against others. We would not be allowed to do what others already do!" A second post to the Truth Social platform saw the president claim Trump had the strongest economy in the world thanks to his economic policy.
He wrote, "Because of Tariffs, easily and quickly applied, our National Security has been greatly enhanced, and we have become the financially strongest Country, by far, anywhere in the World. Only dark and sinister forces would want to see that end!!!"
His comments on Truth Social come as he lashed out at Mexico over what he saw as a "violation" of the Water Treaty. Trump wrote, "Mexico continues to violate our comprehensive Water Treaty, and this violation is seriously hurting our BEAUTIFUL TEXAS CROPS AND LIVESTOCK."
"Mexico still owes the U.S over 800,000 acre-feet of water for failing to comply with our Treaty over the past five years. The U.S needs Mexico to release 200,000 acre-feet of water before December 31st, and the rest must come soon after. As of now, Mexico is not responding, and it is very unfair to our U.S. Farmers who deserve this much needed water."
"That is why I have authorized documentation to impose a 5% Tariff on Mexico if this water isn’t released, IMMEDIATELY," Trump continued. "The longer Mexico takes to release the water, the more our Farmers are hurt. Mexico has an obligation to FIX THIS NOW. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
Though Trump has claimed the US is the "strongest" economy in the world, experts are predicting prices to snowball over 2026.
Joseph Feldman, a senior managing director at Telsey Advisory Group, said, "“In the first half of next year, we are concerned that consumers are going to start to see the price increases become a little more broad-based, and there may not be all the [holiday sales] promotion to help clear through some of that."
Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel has hit out at Donald Trump after the president received the first-ever FIFA Peace Prize.
Trump received the accolade last weekend at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. FIFA president Gianni Infantino presented Trump with both a peace trophy and medal, the latter of which Trump wore immediately after being presented it. Kimmel has since hit out at the prize and Trump's reception of it, suggesting the only person taking it seriously is Trump, and that it is "deeply pathetic" to see.
The talk show host said, "One of the greatest honors of his life. Even his family knows this is a BS prize designed to keep him from screwing up the World Cup, except for him. It is so deeply pathetic, it almost makes me feel bad for him."
Kimmel then joked the trophy was bought for "$300 at the trophy shop" and that "he got the President of the United States to do anything he wants." A freeze frame of Trump taking the peace medal was compared to The Grinch lifting the star from a Christmas tree.
Kimmel added, "Then we have our lumbering dope grinning from ear to ear with this meaningless medal. Like a fat kid who gets a karate trophy for breaking a piece of balsa wood."
Trump's appearance at the FIFA World Cup draw earlier this week had him branded an "elderly man" who was seen "yammering" on stage after receiving his award. Heather Digby Parton of Salon suggested the appearance suggested Trump's power base was dwindling, as was his public image.
She 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.'"
A top Democrat in the House of Representatives made a surprising prediction about her run for a Senate seat in Texas on Monday during an interview on CNN.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) joined CNN's "Laura Coates Live" on Monday night to discuss her Senate run, which she announced earlier that day. Her announcement ended months of speculation that Crockett would run for Senate after Texas Republicans redrew the state's congressional map, and made Crockett's district more competitive for Republicans.
During the interview, Crockett said that she expects to pick up support from a surprising group of voters.
"A lot of peoplecontinue to think that this isabout policy, yet they can'treally explain how it is thatyou have Mamdani-Trump voters orhow you have Obama-Trump voters,or how you have AOC-Trumpvoters," Crockett said. "The reality is that's where weare going to walk that fineline."
"We are going to be able toget people that potentially havevoted for Trump, even though Iobviously am one of his loudestopponents, because at the end ofthe day, they vote for who theybelieve is fighting for them," Crockett said. "It's about moving people, and I've got a trackrecord of doing that."
Crockett has been one of President Donald Trump's loudest critics from the Democratic side of the aisle. She has accused him of using his presidential powers to "attack" everyday Americans with immigration raids, and has sharply criticized his handling of the economy and the Jeffrey Epstein files.
One of President Donald Trump's allies in the Senate undercut him during an interview on Monday about a key regulatory issue.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) joined the Wall Street Journal's Editorial Page Editor, Paul Gigot, on Monday to discuss the priorities for Congress in 2026. Graham said that Congress should focus on creating "national standards" for artificial intelligence, something that Trump has sought to prevent.
"You're going to have to have national standards, or else you'll drive everybody crazy," Graham said.
Trump has been hesitant to place regulations and restrictions on AI companies during his second administration. On Monday, Trump signed an executive order prohibiting states from enacting their own AI regulations, even though experts have said that move raises safety concerns.
Trump's views on federal regulations for AI remain less clear. Graham said during the event that Trump wants "to do a summit on AI" but hasn't announced any details yet.
"If you own a driverless car and you run somebody over, you're on the hook," Graham began. "I think that's a big decision we're going to make in [2026] because if we don't start making it now, we're going to get left behind."
Graham's comments come at a time when the administration relaxed rules prohibiting Nvidia, a company that produces the strongest AI computing technology, from selling its products in China. Experts have said allowing Nvidia to do business in China would threaten the U.S.'s global leadership in AI.
"If we don't, it's moving really quickly, like really quickly," Graham said to the audience. "Don't you agree? So I think we need to get our stuff."
We gotta have some guardrails on how to develop the technology, but if you lock it down and have too much government, you're going to be left behind," Graham said. "That's a bipartisan exercise."
A former federal prosecutor bashed President Donald Trump on Monday night over what he described as the president's "most callous and craven" pardon yet.
Last week, Trump issued a pardon to Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), who was convicted of money laundering charges and advancing the interests of Azerbaijan while Cuellar served during the Biden administration. The trial had been scheduled to begin in April 2026.
Cuellar appeared on Fox News last weekend, where he was asked if he planned on running for re-election as a Republican. Cuellar said he would run as a conservative Democrats who is willing to work with Trump. That answer did not sit well with the president.
“Such a lack of LOYALTY, something that Texas Voters, and Henry’s daughters, will not like," Trump wrote on Truth Social after Cuellar's announcement. "Oh’ well, next time, no more Mr. Nice guy!”
Glenn Kirschner, an ex-DOJ prosecutor, discussed Cuellar's pardon on a new episode of "The Legal Breakdown" with progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen.
"It's one of many potential crimes that Donald Trump commits when he corruptly delivers a pardon expecting to get something in return for that official act that he took of delivering a pardon," Kirschner said of Trump's expectation that Cuellar would switch parties after his pardon.
"And what he wants is political loyalty in return that will enure to his personal benefit because he obviously wants to continue to keep the House of Representatives in Republican hands and this is now going to thwart his efforts in that regard," he continued. "It is political corruption of the most callous and craven. It probably also constitutes a violation of any number of federal laws."
A foreign policy expert made a stunning prediction on Monday about what President Donald Trump's life will be like if Republicans can't retain their majorities in Congress following the 2026 midterm election.
David Rothkopf, a foreign policy expert and columnist for The Daily Beast, discussed how the upcoming midterm election could impact Trump's presidency on a new episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast" with the outlet's executive editor, Hugh Dougherty. He argued that there are several issues Americans are facing right now that will "add up" for Trump and the Republican Party as the midterm approaches.
"If you look outside your window and you're living in most American cities these days, you're going to see ICE rounding up your neighbor or somebody who works in your neighborhood, dragging them off, whether they're an American citizen or they're not, whether they did anything wrong or not, whether they're contributing to the community or not," Rothkopf said. "And that's going to add up."
Rothkopf previously authored a column where he predicted that Trump's next year is going to be "hell." In the column, Rothkopf argued that Trump "saw his own mortality" in the November elections, where Democrats won a spate of key races nationwide. That caused the president to start considering how his administration will end, Rothkopf argued.
On Monday, Rothkopf took that argument a step further.
"Despite all his efforts to put his thumb on the scale of the elections, there will be an election next year, and all the signs say the Republicans are going to do terribly in the election next year," he said. "And so the chickens are going to come home to roost at the worst possible time.
"[Trump] can't give a speech to talk his way out of this one, because it's people's lives and and that's going to be bad news for him," he continued. "And if the Democrats win control of the House or the Senate, the next year is going to be even worse for Donald Trump because he will be impeached. People in his cabinet will be impeached. His programs will be dead in the water, and the Donald Trump chapter of American history, it'll be over because he'll be 80 years old."
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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
