David McAfee

David joined Raw Story in 2023 after nearly a decade of writing about the legal industry for Bloomberg Law. He is also a co-founder and a commissioning editor at Hypatia Press, a publisher that specializes in philosophical works that challenge religion or spirituality.

Ex-CIA official warns Trump risking 'mass casualty event' by playing 'very dangerous game'

A former senior CIA officer says the Trump administration is taking a dangerous risk by moving federal law enforcement off counterterrorism and onto immigration. He also warned that it could end in a "mass casualty event."

Marc Polymeropoulos, a retired CIA senior operations officer, posted the warning on X early on Sunday. He was responding to a ProPublica investigation into how the Justice Department has shifted its priorities.

ProPublica reported that the DOJ dropped 23,000 criminal cases in the first six months of Trump's second term, including hundreds of investigations into terrorism, white-collar crime and drugs. Over the same period, the department prosecuted 32,000 new immigration cases, according to the outlet.

Polymeropoulos said people in counterterrorism are alarmed by those numbers.

"The concern of my CT [Counter Terrorism] world is just this. There are finite resources. CT is taking a back burner. It's simple math," he wrote.

"All fun and games, until a mass casualty event happens," he added. "The admin is playing a very dangerous game short changing the FBI's standing CT requirements."

Critics have warned about the same thing throughout Trump's second term, as the administration moved federal agents and prosecutors to immigration enforcement. Agents from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies have been assigned to help with Trump's deportation push.

Immigration enforcement itself looked shaky this weekend. Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin reported that ICE officers were told to stop arresting immigrants without criminal records. Hours later, the administration called the order a "miscommunication" and reversed it.

Polymeropoulos served 26 years at the CIA before retiring in 2019. He has been an outspoken Trump critic since leaving the agency.

Ex-GOP lawmaker says Republicans now resigned to hospice: 'Make the patient comfortable'

Former Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock of Virginia said Sunday that her party is no longer trying to win in November. In her view, it's just trying to ease the pain.

On MS NOW, Comstock was asked about the Axios report that GOP donors at a Senate Republican retreat called their pollster "delusional" for predicting the party could grow its majority.

"Yes, this is delusional," Comstock said.

She said the midterms were largely decided months ago, and that Trump is to blame.

"I think elections are won in the summer. And we're now here in late September," she said. "And Donald Trump did everything he could to help Republicans lose over the summer."

She pointed to the Iran war, which she said "is not popular at all," along with high gas prices, rising interest rates and "$7 beef." She also said Trump "didn't spend any money over the summer."

Comstock then brought up a line an unnamed Republican operative gave reporters earlier in the week, after Senate Majority Leader John Thune campaigned in Georgia with GOP Senate candidate Mike Collins. Collins trails by double digits there, she said.

"We're trying to make the patient comfortable," the operative said, according to Comstock.

She said Politico's report that Trump plans an Oct. 2 rally in Mobile, Alabama, shows the same thing.

"I think we're trying to make the patient comfortable by sending Donald Trump to Alabama," Comstock said.

Democratic strategist Amisha Cross, who was also on the panel, took it further.

"America's already on life support," Cross said, "so I don't know how comfortable these patients can get."

Comstock, who represented a Northern Virginia district from 2015 to 2019, has become one of Trump's most outspoken Republican critics.

Trump White House diet spurs blunt warning by ex-GOP White House doc: 'Will raise BP'

A prominent cardiologist has a message for President Donald Trump and his inner circle: skip the meat-and-sauerkraut diet.

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a George Washington University cardiologist who treated former Vice President Dick Cheney and advised the White House Medical Unit under President George W. Bush, responded Sunday to a line in Molly Jong-Fast's New York Times guest essay.

Jong-Fast wrote that Trump's "cabinet of curiosities" is "reportedly eating the same 'living diet,' which consists almost entirely of hunks of meat and globs of sauerkraut." Citing New York Times Magazine reporting, she named Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Vice President JD Vance and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as followers.

Reiner said that's not advice he would give anyone.

"Cardiologist here. There's no patient for whom I recommend daily 'hunks of meat' and sauerkraut," he wrote on X.

He also pointed out a specific risk for anyone on cholesterol medication.

"If you take a statin a diet dense in meat is counterproductive," Reiner wrote. "As for the sauerkraut, it's high in sodium and will raise BP."

He ended with a message aimed at the president.

"The president should get his nutritional advice from his doctor, not his HHS Secretary," Reiner wrote.

Trump, 80, has taken a statin for years, according to past health reports from the White House. His diet has long been a subject of public fascination, from fast food on Air Force One to well-done steaks with ketchup.

Not everyone thought the president had joined his cabinet. Dorit Reiss, a law professor at UC Law San Francisco who studies vaccine policy, doubted he'd made the switch.

"I doubt the President is eating that," she replied.

Kennedy, who has promoted meat-heavy eating and fermented foods, has put diet at the center of his "Make America Healthy Again" agenda.

Cardiologist here. There’s no patient for whom I recommend daily “hunks of meat” and sauerkraut. If you take a statin a diet dense in meat is counterproductive. As for the sauerkraut, it’s high in sodium and will raise BP. The president should get his nutritional advice from his… https://t.co/7dW2aogGOV
— Jonathan Reiner (@JReinerMD) September 27, 2026

'That was the moment': Maggie Haberman flags when Trump's MAGA base started turning on him

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said Saturday that she can name the point when President Donald Trump's supporters started to lose faith in him. According to Trump's own allies, it was his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

"That was the moment, by the way, that last year with how Trump handled Epstein and the files, that was when, according to his own top allies and advisers, that was when they could start seeing his own base not believing in him quite as much," Haberman said at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin.

She said something happened then that she and her Times colleague Jonathan Swan had never seen before.

"It was the first time Jonathan and I could recall Trump saying believe me, not what you're hearing over there, and it didn't work," Haberman said.

Haberman made the remarks during an interview with Texas Tribune co-founder Evan Smith, while explaining why Republicans are nervous about the midterms. She listed promises she said Trump has failed to keep, including exposing Epstein's associates.

"If you run on I'm going to shatter the Epstein cabal," she said. She noted that Trump "actually did it less than some of his own people, including Vance."

During the 2024 campaign, Trump allies, including JD Vance, who is now vice president, promised to release the Epstein files. After the administration took office, the Justice Department and FBI said last year that no "client list" existed and that no more files would be made public. That set off a revolt among parts of the MAGA base. Trump then told his supporters to move on and called the uproar a "hoax."

In the same interview, Haberman said "every Republican I talk to is completely freaked out" about November. She also recounted a Trump voter in Miami telling her the president "turned out to be a real disappointment. He's just another politician."

"That is the danger for Trump, when someone who runs as different is seen as more of the same," she said.

Maggie Haberman: “Every Republican I talk to is completely freaked out. It’s gonna be bad. If you run on Joe Biden didn’t fix the economy, it’s clear that I am the only one who can do this, I am going to reduce prices, I am going to keep inflation down, I am going to fix this and… pic.twitter.com/szPKN6TUQ3
— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) September 26, 2026

'You have no shame': Conservative fury hits Trump official over lavish party video

Republicans and Democrats alike over the weekend criticized a White House official for a social media post.

Meghan McCain had a short response for Dan Scavino, a top White House aide, after he posted a video of himself partying.

"One of my friends couldn't afford air conditioner this summer," John McCain's daughter wrote on X on Sunday. Her post had more than 437,000 views within hours.

Scavino is the White House deputy chief of staff and also runs the Presidential Personnel Office. His post, which critics called an AI-generated video, shows him in a tuxedo with a bottle of champagne, riding a gilded luggage cart through an ornate, confetti-covered room alongside a laughing man and two women in evening gowns. President Donald Trump walks into the frame at one point.

Critics on both the left and the right said it was the wrong message while Americans are struggling with gas and grocery prices during the Iran war.

Carrie Prejean Boller, the former Miss California USA and a onetime Trump ally, was among the harshest.

"You really have no shame, do you? Many Americans can't afford groceries, gas or their mortgage payment, and you post a tone deaf AI video of you and your buddies partying at the People's House," she wrote. "MAGA is dead."

Jonah Goldberg, the conservative editor-in-chief of The Dispatch, mocked the timing.

"This is precisely the midterm messaging the GOP needs from the Deputy White House Chief of Staff," he wrote.

Sarah Longwell, a Republican strategist and publisher of The Bulwark, called it "Real fall of Rome s---."

Criticism came from the far right too. An account called Kentucky Statesman, run by a self-described "Christian Nationalist" and former America Only candidate for the Kentucky state House, called the video "Absolute filth."

CNN anchor Jake Tapper shared the clip with no comment beyond Scavino's title: "WH deputy chief of staff."

Derek Cressman, a California political-reform advocate, wrote that "Real Americans can't afford gas or housing. The billionaires are laughing at us."

The video comes as Republicans worry about the midterms. The president's approval rating is at a career low, and Trump family members have faced similar criticism this week for flaunting their wealth.

Ex-MAGA insider exposes GOP scheme to 'scare you into voting': 'Nothing else is working'

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who used to be one of President Donald Trump's most loyal allies, accused her own party on Sunday of pushing fear about a migrant caravan to save itself in the midterms.

Greene was responding to a post from right-wing activist Anthony Aguero. He shared video of a group of migrants walking through Mexico and claimed that "over 400 aliens predominantly from Honduras" had entered the country Thursday and were "ready to make their way to the US southern border."

"Someone is incentivizing this movement, this is not organic," Aguero wrote.

Greene didn't buy that the timing was an accident.

"We have not seen a caravan headed to the U.S. southern border in several years, why now?" she wrote on X. "Oh yeah, there is an election coming and the GOP needs to scare you into voting because nothing else is working."

Her post was shared by Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist and co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project who studies Latino voters.

Republicans have used this strategy before. In the weeks before the 2018 midterms, Trump repeatedly warned about a caravan of Central American migrants heading north. He called it an "invasion" and sent troops to the border. Republicans lost the House that November.

Greene, who left Congress after a public split with Trump, has become a sharp critic of the GOP. She has also broken with the president on the Epstein files, foreign wars and the cost of living.

Her post came as the administration's own immigration message looked shaky. Over the weekend, Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin reported ICE officers were told to stop arresting immigrants without criminal records, an order the administration quickly called a "miscommunication" and reversed. Meanwhile, some vulnerable Republicans, including Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.), have started criticizing Trump's crackdown.

We have not seen a caravan headed to the U.S. southern border in several years, why now?
Oh yeah, there is an election coming and the GOP needs to scare you into voting because nothing else is working. https://t.co/6AHNluG9ps
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) September 27, 2026

This 'key to Trump's undoing' could push Cabinet to remove him from office: columnist

The thing that ends Donald Trump's presidency may not be the war in Iran or high prices, according to columnist Molly Jong-Fast. She argues it will be the way his White House runs, like a high school clique.

In a guest essay published Sunday in The New York Times, Jong-Fast wrote that Trump governs "alongside a high school clique of dumb jocks (Pete Hegseth!) and hot cheerleaders (Natalie Harp!) and nerdy suck-ups (Mike Johnson!)."

"This dynamic — more than another unnecessary war or even a cost of living crisis — will be the key to Mr. Trump's undoing," she wrote.

Jong-Fast said past White Houses, from George Washington's to Joe Biden's, were full of competing power centers that could slow down or stop bad decisions. She said Trump's cabinet was "picked like something out of Bama rush." In her telling, officials are chosen for how well they "dazzle dear leader," and after that, all that matters is "continuing to tell the president what he wanted to hear."

She wrote that the result is a "sycophancy Olympics." She pointed to cabinet members wearing matching $145 Florsheim shoes that Trump gave them, and to Harp, who she said passes Trump "positive news coverage and good polls like she's the 'Mean Girls' gossip Gretchen Wieners."

She cited Axios reporting that Trump's aides no longer try to stop him. "Why bother? He's the boss," a longtime adviser told the outlet.

"Maybe because everybody around him was too scared to tell him," Jong-Fast wrote.

She said that could explain why Trump seems not to notice his record-low approval rating or that Hispanic voters are leaving the GOP. She argued that the president who once knew how to shape the story is now "living in such a fantasy world that his greatest power has been effectively neutralized."

She predicted the midterms could be his "next project to fail." She also said the GOP could still turn on him to save itself.

"Teenage girls can't invoke the 25th Amendment on their bullies," she wrote, "but this cabinet theoretically could."

MAGA senator braces for Trump to mock him after proposing new 'rule' for president

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said Sunday that he expects President Donald Trump to make fun of him for what he was about to propose. He proposed it anyway.

On CBS' "Face the Nation," Kennedy said public officials shouldn't use taxpayer money on ads that promote themselves. He included the president in that.

"I don't think any public official, including President Trump or Kristi Noem or John Kennedy, should spend public money on private ads for themselves," Kennedy said.

Then he went further.

"I may end up with a sombrero on my head, but I also think we ought to have a rule that no politician can have a building named after him when he's alive," he said.

The sombrero line referred to the AI-generated videos Trump has posted mocking his critics. The best-known one showed House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) in a sombrero and a fake mustache.

Before Kennedy spoke, the show aired a clip of a government-funded ad that shows Trump alongside the word "RESILIENT." An on-screen label said it was "Paid for by the U.S. Government."

Critics have attacked the administration for years over spending public money on ads that put its top officials front and center. Noem drew heavy criticism as Homeland Security secretary for a costly ad campaign that starred her. Trump has also put his name on a growing list of things, including efforts to add it to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Kennedy's comments caught the attention of Trump critics. Former GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock of Virginia reposted the clip, which independent journalist Aaron Rupar shared on X.

The Louisiana Republican usually backs Trump, but his folksy one-liners sometimes put him at odds with the White House. His remarks come as more Republicans distance themselves from the president ahead of the midterms.

Kennedy: "I don't think any public official, including President Trump or Kristi Noem or John Kennedy, should spend public money on private ads for themselves ... I may end up with a sombrero on my head, but I also think we ought to have a rule that no politician can have a… pic.twitter.com/xcHkbwuY9Y
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 27, 2026

Jim Jordan frets over probes of allies: 'They're going to investigate Cabinet secretaries'

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) warned Sunday that if Democrats win back the House, they will go after President Donald Trump, his family, his cabinet and even private businesses, The Hill reported.

"They say they're not going to, but we know they will –– they'll do a third impeachment of President Trump," Jordan said on "Cats Roundtable," the WABC 770 AM radio show hosted by John Catsimatidis. "But that's just part of it. They're going to investigate the first family, they're going to investigate cabinet secretaries."

Jordan, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, singled out its top Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.). He said Democrats would try to impeach FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Todd Blanche, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

He said it wouldn't end with government officials.

"And then they'll also, I think, go after people in the private sector," Jordan said, pointing to companies that helped pay for Trump's inauguration.

He also predicted Democrats would target the 2028 Republican presidential ticket, calling it "nonstop weaponized investigations."

"Not for legitimate oversight, but to just go after your political opponents," he said.

Jordan's warning reflects a growing expectation that Republicans will lose the House. According to The Hill, Decision Desk HQ's forecast gives Democrats a 72% chance of winning it back in November.

Trump has made the same case himself. He has repeatedly told Republicans they need to keep the House or he could face another impeachment. He said it again last month at a rally for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has not ruled out another impeachment. He has said that Raskin and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, would lead efforts to hold the president accountable if they take over as chairs.

A separate impeachment push for impeachment over Trump's immigration crackdown, led by Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), failed earlier this month.

Trump was impeached twice in his first term, in 2019 over Ukraine and in 2021 after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. The Senate acquitted him both times.

'Straitjacket crazy': Obama adviser tears apart Trump's GOP rally plan

A Democratic strategist had a blunt response Sunday to reports that President Donald Trump plans an October rally in Alabama: he's lost it.

"There's crazy. And then there's straitjacket crazy," Amisha Cross, a former Obama campaign adviser, said on MS NOW. "He is at the straitjacket level."

Politico reported Thursday that Trump is looking at an Oct. 2 rally in Mobile, according to two people with direct knowledge of the plans, though Politico said the plans could still change. The report came out the same week Axios reported that GOP donors at a Senate Republican retreat called their own pollster's forecast "delusional."

Cross said the choice of city makes no sense for a party trying to hold Congress.

"Alabama as a whole is not competitive for Democrats," she said. "However, when you see somebody going to a place like Mobile, one of the reddest cities in the entire state, it is really confusing."

She said voters want Trump to deal with one thing, affordability, and that much of the problem "runs a straight line to the Iran war."

"They're seeing their gas prices rise, you know, truck drivers, diesel, all of that. Utility bills, you name it," she said. "And the president can't talk his way out of this."

Cross said Trump's usual approach of "making things up and trying to make people believe or change their reality" has stopped working, so he is heading to friendly territory.

"He feels safer and more comfortable in areas that are going to cheer him on," she said. "Mobile is going to cheer him on like you've never heard."

Cross, a University of Alabama fan, further added a joke.

"He can go and sprinkle a little bit of goodness on Alabama so my team can win. I'd be happy," she said. "But other than that, this is completely pointless."

Trump in trouble after blurting out 'best poverty' boast: 'Not the flex you think'

President Donald Trump said this weekend that the U.S. now has "the best" poverty, and critics online quickly made fun of the line.

"We have the best, uhh, I guess you could say poverty," Trump told reporters in a clip that independent journalist Aaron Rupar shared on X on Sunday. "They talk poverty. We have the best poverty numbers ever in the history of our country."

The replies came in quickly.

Mowafaq Tayeb, who lists a Ph.D. in his profile, replied in Arabic. He wrote that U.S. poverty numbers are "terrifying," especially "after millions lost their health insurance and government food aid."

Reed Galen, a former Republican strategist who co-founded the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, was harsher. "Out of the mouths of morons," Galen wrote on X in response to the clip.

The Tennessee Holler, a progressive news outlet, argued that the president was taking credit for data that doesn't belong to him. "Reality: we don't have numbers for 2026– we have 2025 numbers... he's taking credit for Biden's policies (again)," the outlet wrote on X, linking to the Census Bureau's release.

Arturo Dominguez, a journalist, had a shorter response. "Poor white people would like a word," he wrote on X.

The Rev. Dr. Marvin Tiller Jr., a pastor, wasn't impressed either. "Not the flex you think it is, doofus," Tiller wrote on X.

Trump made the remark as his approval rating sits at a career low, with Americans pointing to high prices. Gas and diesel prices have hit record highs during the war in Iran.

GOP insider 'met with disbelief' and laughter from crowd after making 'delusional' claim

Top Republican donors and operatives were stunned this weekend when a GOP pollster told them the party could grow its Senate majority in November. According to Axios, one attendee called the forecast "delusional."

Pollster Erik Iverson made the prediction at the National Republican Senatorial Committee's fall donor retreat on Sea Island, Georgia, Axios' Stef W. Kight reported. The annual event draws big-dollar donors, senators and their senior staff.

Iverson, a former chair of the Montana Republican Party, said Republicans could gain a seat in the Senate. But he didn't lay out, state by state, how they would do it, Kight's sources said.

The room didn't buy it.

"Delusional," one attendee told Axios.

"The mood is not good," said another.

"I think most attendees down here are politically astute and realistic about the headwinds Republicans face," a third attendee said.

A fourth said people at the event were sarcastically telling each other "we're winning" and "everything's good."

Another source told Axios that Iverson made the comments while answering a question about the 2022 midterms, when Democrats gained a Senate seat even though Joe Biden's approval was low. Some people laughed when an audience member asked whether that meant Republicans would pick up a seat too, the source said.

Iverson defended himself to Axios.

"I told attendees that I think all incumbent Republican Senators will hold their seats because we have good candidates who are well funded," he said. "The message was for folks to keep their heads up."

According to Axios, attendees asked why they weren't getting a full update on each race. Some noted that the unexpectedly close Senate race in Texas never came up.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), who also spoke at the retreat, told Axios last week that Republicans face a "tough environment." Axios also reported that the NRSC is asking donors for $9 million to help in Alaska, Iowa and Ohio, three states Trump won by double digits in 2024.

Karoline Leavitt infuriates MAGA TV host with 'immature' Trump 'gossip': 'Breach of trust'

Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described President Donald Trump telling British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over a private lunch that his policies were "extremely stupid." One pro-Trump TV host says she should have kept that to herself.

Leavitt told the story on "Hang Out with Sean Hannity." Hannity had asked how "brutally honest" Trump is with world leaders.

"With Starmer, I remember we sat down for lunch," Leavitt said. She said she couldn't remember whether it was Windsor Castle or "the place where Keir Starmer lives," and noted that the trip was "a year ago today," because the memory had come up on her phone.

"We were sitting around the table and enjoying lunch in this beautiful place. The president began attacking him because of his policies," she said.

According to Leavitt, Trump told Starmer, "Your policies here are extremely stupid," and "You need to close your borders."

"He says it exactly like that," she said. "'You must deport these people who are in your country.'"

She said Trump told the prime minister that the British people "hate what you do." Leavitt also pointed out where the scolding happened.

"In his home, and in his country," she said. "We're not even in the White House. We're not even on our own land."

Newsmax host Greg Kelly, a strong Trump supporter, was furious.

"Unbelievable. So now that she's an Ex press secretary, Karoline (with a K) Leavitt GOSSIPS about PRIVATE meetings the President had with world leaders?" Kelly wrote on X on Saturday.

"We're in the middle of MIDTERM MADNESS and Karoline (with a K) 'dishes' Without a Care In the World," he added. "A BREACH of Trust: The President's, and the Nation's. So IMMATURE!!!!"

Kelly's post had more than 325,000 views by Saturday evening.

Trump made a state visit to the U.K. last September. He stayed at Windsor Castle and met with Starmer at Chequers, the prime minister's country residence.

Unbelievable. So now that she’s an Ex press secretary, Karoline (with a K) Leavitt GOSSIPS about PRIVATE meetings the President had with world leaders? We’re in the middle of MIDTERM MADNESS and Karoline (with a K) “dishes” Without a Care In the World. A BREACH of Trust: The…
— Greg Kelly (@gregkellyusa) September 27, 2026

Trump caught with mouth 'agape' due to Natalie Harp distraction during game

More than 100,000 fans at Neyland Stadium were watching Tennessee take on top-ranked Texas on Saturday. Photos from the game show that for at least a few moments, President Donald Trump was looking at his aide Natalie Harp's laptop instead, according to The Daily Beast.

Photographers from Reuters, AFP and Getty Images caught Harp, 35, holding up a laptop and pointing at the screen for Trump in Knoxville, Tennessee. In the photos, Trump, 80, leans over Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) to see it.

Independent journalist Aaron Rupar pointed out that Trump and Hagerty's mouths appeared "agape" in one image, The Daily Beast reported.

It isn't clear what was on the screen. But Harp has a reputation as the president's personal media monitor, and she has been called Trump's "human printer" because she reportedly keeps feeding him positive articles.

The Washington Post has reported that she brings Trump printed copies of news stories and social media posts. CBS has reported that Trump often dictates Truth Social posts to her, and she types and publishes them.

That role has drawn more scrutiny in recent months. Harp has been described as one of Trump's most trusted aides, and critics worry about how much she controls what information reaches him.

"Everyone in the world knows how much Trump craves attention, especially televised attention," economist Robert Reich wrote on Instagram earlier this week. "He views much of what he and his regime do through the lenses of television."

The Daily Beast reported Trump left the game at halftime.

His visit had already made news before the photos came out. Videos shared online appeared to show fans booing when he came on the stadium's big screen. Earlier in the week, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian had warned that Trump's movements around the stadium could knock out the teams' headsets.

ICE agents 'shocked and frustrated' after being told to 'scale back' in internal memo

ICE officers around the country got verbal orders this weekend to stop arresting immigrants who have no criminal record. According to Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin, the Trump administration now says the guidance was a mistake and has reversed it.

Jennie Taer broke the story Saturday for The Daily Wire. Citing agency sources, she reported that ICE officers were told they could only arrest undocumented immigrants who had criminal convictions or pending charges "for the time being."

Melugin said on X Saturday night that he had talked by phone with Trump and with nine ICE and Department of Homeland Security sources. According to him, the guidance was real.

"Yes, this verbal guidance did go out to ICE offices across the country last night," Melugin wrote. "I've spoken with ICE agents who received it & were shocked & frustrated by it."

He said no one could tell him where the order came from.

"It's unclear who it started with," he wrote. "However, I'm told it's erroneous, was some type of 'miscommunication' during conversations about prioritizing 'worst first,' and there is no change in immigration enforcement policy."

Melugin said Trump told him that anyone in the country illegally is still "on the table" for arrest and deportation. He also reported that new guidance went out to ICE field offices that night to reverse the earlier message, and that ICE sources confirmed they received it. Under the new guidance, arrests of immigrants without criminal records, including "collaterals," will continue.

DHS then posted its own denial.

"This is false. No one is off the table," the department wrote on X. "Anyone in our country illegally will be arrested and deported."

Melugin still couldn't explain how the order went out.

"I'm not really sure what happened here," he wrote.

The mix-up comes as some Republicans have started criticizing the administration's immigration crackdown ahead of the midterms. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) recently accused Trump of "betrayal," and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) has also spoken out.