Alexander Willis

In the wake of the Trump administration’s failure to achieve regime change in its war against Iran, President Donald Trump has fixated on another objective – seizing the country’s supply of enriched uranium. But on Thursday, he made a startling admission that the effort was largely a public relations stunt.

“I’d just feel better if I got it, actually,” Trump said in an interview that aired Thursday on Fox News with Sean Hannity. “But it’s… I think it’s more for public relations than it is for anything else.”

Moments after authorizing the first wave of U.S. attacks on Iran, Trump issued a direct call to the Iranian people to “take over your government.” In the weeks since, Trump repeatedly claimed that the United States had, in fact, enacted regime change in Iran, citing the number of Iranian officials killed by the United States and Israel.

Military and foreign policy experts, however, have refuted the claim.

“It's fair to say that there has been a leadership change in the regime, but the regime is still there because the basic structures, like the constitution, are intact,” said Mark F. Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, speaking with the Poynter Institute’s PolitiFact.

Seizing Iran’s existing supply of enriched uranium has become the new top objective for Trump, an apparent attempt to achieve his administration’s long-stated goal of removing Tehran’s ability to ever acquire a nuclear weapon. However, seizing Iran's existing supply of enriched uranium, argued Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, would not actually achieve that goal.

“You cannot unlearn what you've learned,” Grossi told CBS News.

Furthermore, such an operation “would involve probably thousands of U.S. troops on the ground for weeks in the middle of Iran,” argued military historian Max Boot.

President Donald Trump landed in China on Wednesday ahead of his high-stakes summit with President Xi Jinping, reportedly hoping for help with his deeply unpopular war against Iran – but Beijing residents interviewed by CNN were quick to pour cold water on the idea.

“I don't have a good impression of President Donald Trump at all,” one Beijing resident, identified as Mr. Liu, told CNN. “The U.S.-Iran conflict was stirred up by him, too. Look at the trade and economic war before, wasn't that him too?”

CNN’s Boris Sanchez said, citing U.S. officials, Trump is “expected to encourage Xi to push Iran to re-open the Strait of Hormuz,” a critical shipping waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil trade historically flows. On the ground in Beijing, CNN’s Mike Valerio reiterated Sanchez’s claim and expressed shock at the pushback he personally heard from Beijing residents.

“What's important for everybody back home in America to know: deals and getting help with the war in Iran are far and away the two biggest topics the president is going to raise in his meeting with President Xi Jinping,” Valerio said.

“In terms of asking for help from China to re-open the Strait of Hormuz, we went up and down throughout town in Beijing most of the day yesterday, and I was so struck by so many who told us they do not want China getting involved at all in this U.S.-Israeli war.”

Beijing resident Mr. Li, for instance, told CNN it was not China’s "diplomatic principle” to get involved in such matters. Ms. Yuan, another Beijing resident, was more blunt in her opposition.

“I don't think China should interfere too much in those kinds of issues,” she told CNN.

Trump’s visit to China already got off to “a rocky start,” according to the progressive advocacy platform Call To Activism, after the president stepped off Air Force One to be greeted not by Xi, but by lower-ranking Chinese officials, the optics of which Mary L. Trump, Trump’s niece, described as “humiliating.”

President Donald Trump made the stunning admission Tuesday that he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation” when making major decisions, and when asked about the remark by MeidasTouch’s Pablo Manriquez, several Republican lawmakers refused to weigh in.

Speaking with reporters on the White House lawn Tuesday, Trump was asked “to what extent” did “Americans’ financial situations” motivate him to secure an end to his war against Iran.

“Not even a little bit,” Trump answered. “The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran – they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody.”

Trump’s remarks were met with widespread condemnation from political commentators, and described by MS NOW’s Zeeshan Aleem as “the ideal video clip for midterm messaging” for Democrats. Republican lawmakers, however, when asked about the remarks, had little to say.

“I don’t know the context in which he made that comment, but I can tell you, the president thinks about Americans’ financial situations,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Wednesday when asked about the president’s remarks.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), when pressed by Manriquez on Tuesday, instinctively questioned whether Trump had actually said such remarks.

“Did he say that?” Lummis asked. “I don’t have a comment about that, mostly because I think he actually does care [about Americans’ financial situations].”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) also refused to comment on Trump’s remarks, claiming she hadn’t seen them herself, as did Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), who told Manriquez he “would have to find out the context of it” before commenting.

In an analysis published on Wednesday, MS NOW political contributor Steve Benen predicted that Trump’s remarks would “likely not be forgotten anytime soon.” Regarding Johnson’s response to Trump’s remarks – that he didn’t “know the context in which he made that comment” – Benen offered the House GOP leader some cautionary advice.

“The trouble is, the context doesn’t help," Benen wrote. “‘I don’t think about anybody’ is one of those quotes that even the most creative GOP voices can’t spin away.”

President Donald Trump landed in Beijing, China Wednesday ahead of his high-stakes summit with President Xi Jinping, but critics soon noticed a key figure was absent during Trump’s arrival.

“Donald Trump has arrived in China to find that President Xi did NOT greet him at the airport,” reads a statement from the progressive advocacy platform Call To Activism, run by digital strategist and political influencer Joe Gallina.

“MAGA is in spin mode heralding the ‘red carpet treatment,’ but the visit is already at a rocky start. Instead of a presidential welcome, Trump was greeted by US Ambassador to China David Perdue; Xi’s vice president, Han Zheng; China’s Ambassador to Washington Xie Feng; and Executive Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu.”

Trump was, in fact, not greeted by Xi as he stepped off Air Force One Wednesday, and instead met by other Chinese officials. Trump’s own niece, Mary L. Trump, took notice of what she characterized as a snub as well.

“Xi couldn't be bothered to meet Donald at the airport because he understands as well as Donald does that humiliating your underlings is a great way to keep them in check,” she wrote in a social media post on X to her more than 1.6 million followers.

As argued by journalist Charbel Antoun, Trump walks into the U.S.-China summit with a “weakened” hand given his inability to secure a peace deal with Iran amid the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war against the Middle East nation. And on Monday, Trump’s efforts to end the war on his own terms were undercut after Tehran agreed to a U.S.-Iran peace deal brokered by China.

Just moments after President Donald Trump and his entourage of officials and business leaders landed in Beijing, China, CNN data analyst Harry Enten dropped a series of brutal poll numbers on how Americans rate the president’s handling of China.

“In term number one, China was a strength for Donald Trump, Americans really liked what he was doing vis-à-vis China, and no longer is that the case,” Enten said on Wednesday, moments after Trump landed in China ahead of his two-day summit with President Xi Jinping.

“In term number one, he was at plus-nine points – that's pretty gosh-darned good! They liked the way Trump was dealing with China, but down he goes into the red sea, now at minus-15 points! That's a drop of nearly 25 points from where he was in term number one to now.”

In terms of which voters were driving Trump’s cratering poll numbers, Enten flagged two key groups: independent and non-college educated white voters, two groups that were critical to the president’s 2024 election victory.

According to the polling, which was sourced from the conservative network Fox News, independent and non-college-educated white voters supported Trump’s handling of China during his first term at margins of plus-9 and plus-34, respectively. Now, those figures have plummeted to minus-42 and minus-3, respectively.

Furthermore, worldwide favorability of the United States has plummeted since 2021 when compared with China.

“China's image is improving; the United States' image? Going down!” Enten said.

“It was plus-11 points in 2021; the latest numbers for the United States under Trump, look at that: minus-15, that's a switch-a-roo of over 25 points! So China's image [is] improving, the United States' image [is] going down under Trump just like his own numbers on China [are] going down here in the United States.”

Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) took to Fox Business Wednesday to complain about his phone being confiscated by law enforcement in 2024 as part of a federal probe into his campaign finance filings, an incident so impactful, he claimed, that his child “still has nightmares” about former President Joe Biden.

“The impact that has on your family... my little one still has nightmares, afraid that his dad is gonna be taken away by big, bad Biden and his Department of Justice,” Ogles told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo. “That should never happen again!”

Ogles was the subject of a federal investigation for indicating in his campaign finance filings that he had loaned his 2022 campaign $320,000, only to later amend that figure to $20,000. Ogles claimed it to be a mistake, and that he had “originally meant to ‘pledge’ $320,000 toward his campaign,” but that the pledge was “mistakenly included in his campaign reports,” the Associated Press previously reported.

As part of that probe, Ogles’ phone was confiscated by law enforcement, though as recently as last week, the Justice Department agreed to return Ogles’ phone and to "destroy the information it had obtained from it,” The Washington Post reported.

In the wake of President Donald Trump’s recent overnight posting spree that left onlookers concerned for his mental well-being, former FBI Director James Comey said Tuesday that he believed there to be “something wrong” with the president and that he didn’t “seem okay.”

Appearing on CNN’s “The Source with Kaitlan Collins,” Comey was asked about his recent indictment by the Justice Department over his social media post that included a photograph of seashells, which Trump allies have interpreted as a threat on the president’s life. Comey said he expected an endless string of indictments until “Trump leaves office because he is obsessed with retribution.”

“I'm preparing for three and four [indictments], I mean, it's not going to stop given who is president of the United States and the way he has really torn apart the Justice Department,” Comey told Collins. “I would expect there will be more efforts to get the president's enemies because he's obsessed with it, and that's really, really sad.”

Collins asked Comey whether he believed Trump was “the same person as he was” nearly a decade ago. Citing Trump’s recent overnight social media posting spree where the president posted content 55 times over a three-hour period – including sharing posts that called former President Barack Obama a “demonic force” – Comey concluded that Trump was, in fact, “different” mentally than he was in 2017.

“He doesn't seem okay to me. I know that sounds like a political shot – it seems like there's something wrong with the man,” Comey said.

“There was always something wrong with the man in that he lacks a moral center, but this seems off, this middle-of-the-night Truth after Truth – not an actual truth, but a re-Truthing on his platform. Seems crazy to me. He seems different – not different in you redid your hair, I mean different in that you seem nuts, buddy.”

An increasing number of Republican lawmakers are openly rebuking President Donald Trump’s demands after a key source of his leverage has all but disappeared, a dynamic that led Punchbowl News to question whether Trump was “losing sway on Capitol Hill” in its Wednesday morning newsletter.

That leverage was the threat that GOP lawmakers could face a Trump-backed primary challenger, but with primary elections wrapping up around the country, that threat has mostly been neutralized until at least 2028. As such, Republicans appear to have found a newfound courage to more frequently give Trump “the stiff arm,” Punchbowl News reported.

“The ‘do-whatever-Trump-wants’ incentive structure for many House and Senate Republicans has flipped,” Punchbowl News’ report reads.

“Trump’s approval rating is in the 30s. Most Republicans are through their party primaries, meaning there’s no longer a risk of a Trump-backed primary challenger. As the political environment worsens for the GOP, many rank-and-file Republicans are finding it necessary to split with the president.”

Examples include Republicans' meek response to the $1 billion funding request related to Trump’s White House ballroom project, which one GOP senator told Punchbowl News he was not convinced by the Trump administration’s case for the request. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) issued Trump an “explicit rebuke” after defying the president’s demand that his chamber advance a bill related to housing.

South Carolina state Republicans outright rejected the push from the White House to redraw its congressional district map, and Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Punchbowl News reported, “has been voting like he’s vulnerable,” siding with Democratic lawmakers on several votes, and in spite of Trump having won Alaska in the 2024 election by 13 points.

Trump successfully used his leverage last week in Indiana, ousting several state GOP lawmakers who rebuked him last year in his push for the state to redraw its congressional district map. With the primary season largely over, however, that leverage has all but vanished for the immediate future, giving rise to a growing number of Republicans outright “ignoring his policy demands,” Punchbowl News reported.

President Donald Trump took to social media Tuesday night to demand that Robert Karem, a Republican Senate staffer, be fired over an incident that took place earlier that day during a Senate hearing, one that Trump claimed made Sen. Mitch McConnell “look foolish and completely out of it.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testified Tuesday before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee, and in what Newsweek described as an “awkward moment,” the committee’s chair, McConnell, had to be reminded by a staffer “that several senators still had questions after he attempted to wrap up proceedings early.”

That staffer was Karem, who Trump accused of “grandstanding” and called for his immediate firing.

“This was a case where Mitch wasn’t confused, he just didn’t understand why he was being asked to do something when it was too late, and people were wrapping up to leave – They wanted to go home,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

“His name is Robert Karem, he is a Never Trumper, and was grandstanding – trying to show how ‘important’ he was! Karem has tremendous Democrat support, far greater than he should have, and is praised relentlessly by Obama’s people. He is probably the reason why Mitch McConnell is stupidly opposed to terminating the Filibuster, and refuses to help with a 97% issue, THE SAVE AMERICA ACT. FIRE THE BUM!”

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary stepped down from his position on Tuesday following a long dispute with President Donald Trump over flavored vape nicotine products, making Makary’s exit the “fourth high-profile departure of a member of the Trump administration this year,” NBC News reported.

The dispute centered around Trump’s growing frustration with Makary over his apparent inability to move “quickly enough” in approving flavored vape products for retail sale. The Trump administration pushed to expand the availability of flavored vape products earlier this year, but was rebuked by Makary after his office issued a memo that “prevented the authorization of several flavors,” The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

Makary quickly found himself “on thin ice” with the president. And on Tuesday, Makary officially left the Trump administration, according to a U.S. official who revealed the news to Politico on the condition of anonymity.

“The decision to move on from Makary was months in the making, according to a senior administration official granted anonymity to discuss the Johns Hopkins surgeon’s tenure,” reads a Tuesday report from Politico. “His stint was marked by mass layoffs, persistent churn among senior leaders and policy fights with lawmakers, drugmakers and President Donald Trump.”

A House Oversight Committee hearing turned emotional Tuesday after a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein issued a blistering rebuke of the Justice Department (DOJ), which months earlier had publicly named her in its release of Epstein-related files “over 500 times,” permanently exposing her identity to the world.

The survivor identified herself only as “Roza” to avoid further public disclosure of her name, and despite the DOJ having already failed to properly redact victim-identifying information – including hers, she claimed – in records released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

“I kept my identity protected as Jane Doe. I woke up one day with my name mentioned over 500 times!” Roza said, her hand clutching her face as she held back tears.

“While the rich and powerful remain protected by redactions, my name was exposed to the world. Now reporters from across the globe contact me, I cannot live without looking over my shoulder! I can only imagine the long-term impact this mistake will have on my life.”

Roza said she had just turned 18 in 2008 when she first met Jean Luc-Brunel, a French model scout and founder of MC2 Model Management, a modeling agency formed with considerable financial backing from Epstein. Luc-Brunel, who died by apparent suicide in 2022 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, recruited Roza as a model, she said, and helped her immigrate to the United States.

Also in 2008, Epstein faced his first criminal conviction and pleaded guilty to one count of child abuse, and despite the FBI having identified at least 40 potential minor victims in his case. He was given a generous plea deal that allowed him to leave prison on work release for up to 12 hours a day.

It was when Epstein was serving his 18-month sentence when Roza was first introduced to Epstein at his home in West Palm Beach, Florida. It was also then, Roza said, that the sexual abuse began.

“Jeffrey Epstein was under house arrest for the molestation of underage girls at the exact time he was abusing me,” Roza said.

Roza returned to condemning the DOJ for its botched handling of its release of Epstein-related files, describing the oversight not as a “mistake,” but as a “choice.”

“Releasing my name while redacting the names of other powerful [figures] is not a mistake, it's a choice, it's a choice to prioritize the comfort of institution over the safety of the survivors,” Roza said.

“The evidence is right here, yet those in power rather us die socially, emotionally and physically than admit their own complicity. I am no longer Jane Doe hidden in the files, I'm a woman, I'm a fighter, I'm a witness, and I'm begging you: please, wash your hands!”

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, thanked Roza for her testimony, and called her story a “really horrific example” of how the DOJ had made survivors suffer "re-traumatization."

A pair of arcade game cabinets appeared Monday morning at the D.C. War Memorial titled “Operation Epic Furious: Straight to Hell,” a satirical jab at President Donald Trump and his wildly unpopular war against Iran – and on Tuesday, MeidasTouch reporter and attorney Aaron Parnas shared a photograph appearing to show National Guard members playing the game.

The art installation was set up by Secret Handshake, an anonymous art group also responsible for such exhibits as the golden throne toilet and statues depicting Trump alongside convicted sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“The National Guard has been spotted playing the arcade games put up on the National Mall by Secret Handshake making fun of Donald Trump, [Defense Secretary] Pete Hegseth, and the war in Iran,” Parnas wrote in a social media post on X Tuesday to his more than 335,000 followers, alongside a photograph of a National Guard member appearing to play the satirical arcade game.

According to The Washington Post, the game depicts Trump “initiating the war with Iran,” and “collecting barrels of oil and fighting those who oppose his military campaign.” Players can also assist Trump in finding a “Big Mac,” or help him “order a Diet Coke.” The game also pokes fun at Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who “sends the player to find a vial of measles.”

Hegseth was also mocked in the game over his alleged drinking habits, telling Trump in one scene to “hit me up at the bar,” according to the Post.

President Donald Trump went on a multi-hour social media frenzy Monday night into Tuesday morning – posting on average roughly once every three minutes for three hours – and buried within his online posts was a sharp critique of his own acting attorney general and former personal attorney.

On Monday, AMG News – a website described by the media watchdog group Media Bias/Fact Check as a “conspiracy and pseudoscience news source based in Romania” – published a report with unsubstantiated claims about former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Medeea Greere, the founder of AMG News, made the unsubstantiated claim that the report exposed Clinton for leaking classified information, that Obama “ordered” a “cover-up,” and that police officers “died trying to expose the truth.”

X user “You Wish” – a relatively obscure pro-Trump account and admitted election denier – responded to Greere’s claim on social media with a slight at Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, asking “when the hell are you going to indict her Todd Blanche,” and “it’s time we get to SEE JUSTICE!”

Trump apparently came across the user’s post, sharing a screenshot of the text on his own social media platform, Truth Social, at 10:40 p.m. ET.

Trump’s apparent endorsement of the criticism lobbed at his own acting attorney general came as a surprise to former federal prosecutor and legal commentator Joyce Vance, especially given the fact that the president’s previous attorney general, Pam Bondi, was reportedly ousted over what Trump viewed as her inability to secure indictments of his political adversaries.

“You would think the golden statue might have pacified Trump for a little while, but no,” Vance wrote Tuesday in a social media post on X. “I think the best part is his criticism of Todd Blanche, which goes to show that even the most willing attorney general can’t keep Trump happy for long at this point.”

A professor at the University of Alabama School of Law, Vance was nominated by Obama to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama in 2009, a role she served in through 2017.