Matthew Chapman

Reports this week indicated that Scott Kirby, the CEO of United Airlines, went directly to President Donald Trump to sell him on the idea of a merger with American Airlines, a move that would leave the U.S. aviation industry with just two "legacy" carriers.

At least for now, however, executives at American are shooting down the idea, and publicly repudiated it in a statement posted to X that nonetheless overflowed with effusive praise for the Trump administration.

"We appreciate the leadership and strong support of President Trump, Secretary Duffy and numerous other leaders in the Administration who have demonstrated expertise and an ongoing commitment to continue to improve the world's best aviation industry," began the statement.

"American Airlines is not engaged with or interested in any discussions regarding a merger with United Airlines," the statement continued. "While changes in the broader airline marketplace may be necessary, a combination with United would be negative for competition and for consumers, and therefore inconsistent with our understanding of the Administration's philosophy toward the industry and principles of antitrust law. Our focus will remain on executing on our strategic objectives and positioning American to win for the long term."

"We look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with the Administration as it takes steps to strengthen the broader airline industry," the statement concluded.

This follows reporting that industry lobbyists seeking approval for megamergers that might skirt antitrust law have broadly adopted a strategy of lobbying Trump and those immediately around him directly, rather than going through the traditional attorneys at the Justice Department in charge of reviewing such deals.

FBI Director Kash Patel was the subject of an explosive article in The Atlantic on Friday, accused of being a problem drinker, frequently absent from his duties, whose paranoid outbursts border on being a threat to national security. Patel has broadly denied these allegations, and an FBI communications official threatened to sue over the story.

But the effect elsewhere on the internet was swift, as commenters reacted to the colorful details.

"This story is well worth your time. They really got Bluto in charge of the FBI," wrote fellow Atlantic reporter Jemele Hill.

"FBI Director Kash Patel should already have been fired for his lies about the Epstein investigation; for flying on taxpayer’s dime to party at places like the Olympics; and for gross mismanagement," wrote Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA). "If the allegations in this article are true, Patel should be fired immediately."

"Let’s be clear: half of Trump’s cabinet is a national security vulnerability. Trump himself included," wrote Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ).

"From extramarital affairs to wasting millions on luxury jets to drunken escapades to corrupt business dealings this is an administration of corrupt, unqualified & incompetent clowns," wrote former Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison.

Podcaster Kyle Seraphin focused in on the detail that FBI officials reportedly tried to requisition SWAT "breaching equipment" to access offices Patel had drunkenly locked himself inside, saying, "A subpoena to the TL of the security detail would make that hearing worth watching."

"Drunk Podcasters shouldn’t be leading the FBI," wrote Leaders We Deserve director David Hogg.

"Kash Patel got so drunk that his security team requested breaching equipment because he was unresponsive behind locked doors," wrote policy consultant Adam Cochran. "The man is not only incompetent and under qualified but a massive national security risk. At a time when top scientists with clearances are disappearing we’ve got this clown binge drinking and partying!"

"Sounds like an ideal appointment if the goal is to reduce America to a second rate power so autocracies can thrive," wrote authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat.

FBI Director Kash Patel's communications strategist, Erica Knight, threatened legal action against The Atlantic on Friday night, following their publication of a devastating report on Patel's alleged behavior and the potential search to replace him.

The report in question detailed claims that Patel has been frequently drunk on the job, to the point FBI officials considered ordering forcible-entry SWAT equipment in case he locked himself in his office while intoxicated, that he has been impossible to reach at times, and that he has repeatedly had nervous breakdowns over the fear he will be fired any minute.

None of that is true, wrote Knight on X.

"The Atlantic published a 'bombshell' on Director Patel tonight that every real DC reporter chased, couldn't verify, and passed on," wrote Knight. "Here's reality. Since being sworn in, Director Patel has taken a grand total of 17 days off — half as much time off as Comey and Wray — and he spends twice as much time in the office as either of them ever did."

"The so-called 'intoxication incidents' The Atlantic breathlessly reports have happened exactly ZERO times," wrote Knight, then rattling off statistics about FBI arrests and public safety under Patel's tenure. "The Atlantic's 'reporting'? Fabricated stories about 'breaching equipment' that was never requested. Intoxication claims with not a single witness willing to put their name on one. A paragraph — I'm not kidding — about the FBI Store not carrying 'intimidating enough' merchandise."

"Every serious DC reporter passed on this. Sarah Fitzpatrick and Jeffrey Goldberg printed it anyway," wrote Knight, adding, "Lawsuit is being filed."

FBI Director Kash Patel is hanging onto his job by a thread, reported Sarah Fitzpatrick for The Atlantic on Friday — and a large part of that stems from accusations of erratic behavior, including unexplained absences and problem drinking, that have alarmed FBI staff.

For the entirety of his time in charge, Patel, a former GOP House Intelligence Committee staffer known for his hard-right, pro-Trump attitude, has faced rumors of being absent from critical parts of his job, which he has denied. New reporting gave deeper insight into how bad it has gotten — and how much Patel fears he's about to lose his job any moment.

"Patel, according to multiple current officials, as well as former officials who have stayed close to him, is deeply concerned that his job is in jeopardy," wrote Fitzpatrick. "He has good reasons to think so — including some having to do with what witnesses described to me as bouts of excessive drinking."

Furthermore, she wrote, "Patel was among the officials expected to be fired after Attorney General Pam Bondi’s ouster, on April 2. 'We’re all just waiting for the word' that Patel is officially out of the top job, an FBI official told me this week, and a former official told my colleague Jonathan Lemire that Patel was 'rightly paranoid.'"

The White House has reportedly already begun talks about who could replace Patel if he is let go.

"Speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information and private conversations, they described Patel’s tenure as a management failure and his personal behavior as a national-security vulnerability," said the report.

Fitzpatrick wrote that Patel's security detail even struggled to rouse him at times when he was needed for certain FBI duties.

"A request for 'breaching equipment' — normally used by SWAT and hostage-rescue teams to quickly gain entry into buildings — was made last year because Patel had been unreachable behind locked doors, according to multiple people familiar with the request," the report said.

Patel was so fearful for his job that last Friday, when he was locked out of the FBI computer system due to an IT error, "he panicked, frantically calling aides and allies to announce that he had been fired by the White House, according to nine people familiar with his outreach," the report said. "Two of these people described his behavior as a 'freak-out.'"

Ultimately, the problem was resolved, but during the chaos, "the White House fielded calls from the bureau and from members of Congress asking who was now in charge of the FBI," and some agents privately expressed "relief" when they thought he really had been fired, Fitzpatrick added.

One of the oldest and most right-wing justices on the Supreme Court appears not to be retiring after all, Fox News reported on Friday.

Justice Samuel Alito, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush, "'is not stepping down this term and is in the process of hiring the rest of his clerks for the next term,' a source told Fox News Digital. Two other sources told Fox News that Alito is not retiring this term, which lasts until the Supreme Court's new year kicks off in October. Justices tend to hire their clerks two to three years in advance, although that process is not necessarily indicative of a justice's retirement plans."

The news follows months of speculation that Alito was preparing to retire at the end of this term — fueled by the fact he was preparing to release a book in the fall. Touring to promote the book would have been easier to plan if he had intentions of not sitting on the court by next term.

Alito remaining on the Supreme Court ups the stakes of the midterm elections in the fall, as a Democratic Senate majority, or even just a more evenly divided Senate, could severely limit President Donald Trump's ability to nominate a Supreme Court justice if a vacancy opens up after this year.

"The revelation that Alito is reportedly not planning to step down comes after President Donald Trump told Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo he is 'prepared' to appoint up to three Supreme Court justices if vacancies arise," noted the report. "Trump added he has a shortlist of nominees in mind, though he did not mention any names."

Trump was able to appoint three Supreme Court justices in his first term, giving Republicans an even firmer advantage on cases heard by the court.

President Donald Trump's Justice Department attached the "wrong document" to a filing in their lawsuit against the state of Minneosta to obtain their full, unredacted voter rolls, liberal elections outlet Democracy Docket reported on Friday.

"The Trump DOJ’s latest blunder came one day after it asked a federal court for permission to fix what judges across the country have already called a fatal defect in its voter roll demands: failing to explain why it needed the data in the first place," said the report. "But instead of waiting, DOJ rushed to file a new 'additional basis' for its demand — and fumbled the rollout."

Specifically, DOJ claimed to attach an example of a noncitizen potentially voting in the 2024 election. However, "the exhibit DOJ attached to support that claim didn’t mention the alleged incident at all. Instead, it was an unrelated January letter about Minnesota’s same-day voter registration system — a separate issue that has had nothing to do with DOJ’s case to seize Minnesota’s unredacted voter rolls."

DOJ officials acknowledged the mistake and updated the document. However, per the report, "The corrected document still relied on a recent news report about a single alleged noncitizen voter as the basis for demanding Minnesota’s full voter rolls."

This comes after the DOJ has already lost nearly half a dozen similar lawsuits in states across the country, with judges tossing suits to obtain the voter rolls of California, Oregon, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

A majority of states, including many run by Republicans, have refused to turn over this data, which in many cases includes full Social Security numbers, as the request is a violation of state law — though a handful, like Texas, have complied.

The Secretary of State of Wyoming is currently facing a legal complaint alleging he ignored state law to hand over the requested data to the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary tried to walk back his disparaging remarks against children with autism and people with disabilities at his congressional hearing on Friday — but CNN's Jake Tapper had a clip ready to hold him to account.

"Another round of intense questioning for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.," said Tapper. "On Capitol Hill today, lawmakers pressed the Department of Health and Human Services secretary on his promotion of medical misinformation. In one of the most hostile moments from today's hearing, Democratic Congresswoman Lucy McBath of Georgia scolded RFK Jr. about his past remarks on autism, specifically his claim that autism, quote, 'destroys families' and that children with autism 'have no future.'"

Tapper rolled the clip.

"Some people with disabilities do need direct care to assist them with activities like going to the bathroom, but that does not mean that they are somehow less than or unable to lead fulfilling and productive lives as you," said McBath, to which Kennedy replied, "Nobody said they were."

"'And nobody said they were,' RFK Jr. said," repeated Tapper. "But Secretary Kennedy, someone did say they were, and it was you."

He then played another, earlier clip of Kennedy giving a speech.

"Destroys families and more importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which our children," said Kennedy in the clip. "These are kids who will never pay taxes. They'll never hold a job. They'll never play baseball. They'll never write a poem. They'll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted."

"Today, Congresswoman McBath asked RFK Jr. to apologize for his remarks," said Tapper. "He refused, stating that he was specifically talking about profound autism, although that's not what he said. He said autism destroys families."

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Far-right conspiracy theorist webcaster Alex Jones took to X on Friday to accuse President Donald Trump of deliberately throwing the midterms on behalf of a foreign power.

"This is my response to the new attack President Trump launched on myself and other sane American patriots today. The evidence is overwhelming President Trump is committing political suicide on purpose, and has made a deal to sabotage the midterms," he wrote, accompanied by a 5-minute video manifesto. "America is now under the control of a foreign government."

"Everyone needs to fly their flags upside down, because our nation is in distress!" he added.

Jones, who infamously pushed baseless claims that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was staged with child actors and sells a line of products including survival gear, untested dietary supplements, and even filters to protect from government chemicals in tap water that turn the frogs gay, used to be a close ally of Trump. However, their relationship has fallen apart due to the war in Iran, which has Jones warning his viewers that Trump's cognitive abilities are deteriorating.

His Friday post was a response to Trump hitting back at Jones on Truth Social, along with several other far-right personalities who have turned on him, like Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and Candace Owens.

"It’s easy! Tucker is a Low IQ person - Always easy to beat, and highly overrated!!!" Trump wrote. "So are Megyn Kelly, 'Candace' (Really Dumb and mentally ill!), and Bankrupt Alex Jones, who is completely 'fried.' There are others, also! Then we have some that are VERY GOOD, true MAGA all the way, and smart. I should do a list of good, bad, and somewhere in the middle. Wouldn’t that be fascinating??? President DJT"

President Donald Trump's Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention practices are so outside of what the law allows that even judges he appointed are freeing immigrants found to have committed serious crimes, and who sometimes have deportation orders against them, because they weren't detained lawfully.

This is on top of the much more public, and outrage-inspiring, cases in which the Trump administration is targeting U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, immigrants who otherwise were following the law, and even military veterans.

According to Politico's Kyle Cheney, "hundreds of immigrants targeted amid the Trump administration’s mass deportation drive with murky histories — and sometimes sordid criminal records ... nevertheless have been found by federal courts to be illegally detained."

Among this group, he wrote, includes "A Cambodian national convicted of aggravated robbery in 1993. A stateless Palestinian man who pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and drug crimes in 2018. A Ukrainian man who fled the war with Russia in 2022 only to lose lawful status last year when he accidentally drove his UberEats delivery across the Mexican border. A Cuban man convicted of child abuse in 2020."

In some cases, wrote Cheney, the immigrants are stateless, from countries like the Soviet Union that no longer exist, or have been found by another court to have credible fear of persecution if returned to their native country. In others, they were held for a longer period of time than the law allows before deportation, sometimes much longer.

"U.S. District Judge John Hinderaker, a Trump appointee in Arizona, ordered the release of a Cameroonian woman who was ordered deported but protected from being sent to her home country over concerns about torture," noted the report. "U.S. District Judge Dominic Lanza, another Arizona-based Trump appointee, recently ordered the release of a Honduran woman, convicted of sex crimes in 2006 and incarcerated until 2022, who received similar protections from torture in her home country."

"These people have served their criminal sentences but were released — sometimes years, and even decades ago — after ICE was unable to deport them," wrote Cheney in a follow-up post to X. "The Trump administation has been re-detaining them and claiming to have restarted or reinvigorated deportation efforts, but courts have routinely found this to be predicated on 'hope' rather than concrete progress."

President Donald Trump's confused reaction to the term "corner store" drew withering mockery and scrutiny from MS NOW's Katy Tur on Friday, who pulled it into a broader discussion of how Trump has lost his ability to look relatable to the common man.

"Donald Trump's had a remarkable ability in 2016 of making people believe he was like them," said Tur. "Ignore the private 747, the Fifth Avenue tower, the golf courses, the limousines, and all that gold. Donald Trump is just like us, they'd say. He gets us. He talks like us. He eats like us. He thinks like us. He's us if we were rich, and he's out there fighting for us, it worked so well. He has been coasting off that perception for more than a decade now, even making some truly hardscrabble working class politicians look like mealy-mouthed robots programmed with poll-tested talking points."

"But is that veneer of relatability breaking?" she continued. "First, it was the word 'groceries,' which he very strangely kept calling old-fashioned. Then affordability was a 'made-up' term, and now he doesn't know what a 'corner store' is." She played the clip of Trump speaking about it at his "No Tax on Tips" event on Thursday.

"The great Big, Beautiful Bill also slashed taxes on millions of Americans," said Trump in the clip. "Small businesses, including restaurants, dry cleaners, corner stores. What is the corner store? I've never heard that term. I know what a corner store is, but I've never heard it described as a corner store. Who the hell wrote that? Please?"

"There is a corner store or bodega on almost every block in this city," said Tur. "Sometimes at both ends. They've been here forever. How does Donald Trump not know it? Could he possibly be that insulated, that out of touch? I guess it could be something else. A loss of memory, perhaps."

"Regardless, it is another example of this administration filled with the very, very, very, very, very rich not getting what regular people are going through," said Tur. "Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins appeared to tell Americans not to worry about the rising costs of groceries, that they can eat a healthy, well-balanced meal for $3. HHS Secretary RFK Jr. urged people to buy liver or cheaper cuts of meat in response to surging beef prices. And remember when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent addressed the housing crisis in this country and referred to mom and pop retirees buying five, ten or even 12 homes like it was somehow normal?"

"Super authentic for them, yes, but super relatable?" Tur added.

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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) starts off from an enviably strong position for an incumbent senator seeking re-election — and the smart money is on him sailing through the process with no difficulty. But there is one possible chink in his armor, Kathleen Parker wrote for The Washington Post: his rabid support for the Iran war.

"Graham had some opposition in the Republican primary, slated for June 9, that appeared promising to those who would prefer a new face. One was former lieutenant governor André Bauer, who withdrew last August," wrote Parker. "The other, Paul Dans, an architect of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 whom Tucker Carlson endorsed, also pulled out recently. The remaining GOP candidates — in addition to ones in the Democratic primary — probably don’t justify the time it would take to learn their names."

For evidence of how hard it is to unseat a South Carolina senator, Parker wrote, look no further than former segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond. "Voters in one of America’s reddest states didn’t vote Thurmond out of office — ever. The Dixiecrat turned Republican retired in January 2003 at 100, having served 48 years in the U.S. Senate for South Carolina. Whereupon a relatively young Lindsey Graham, now 70, grabbed the baton and hasn’t let go."

Moreover, South Carolina is a state where voters don't currently have much grievance with how things are going.

But should the Iran war start putting greater pressure on voters, Parker wrote, it might be a different story, given it might as well be called "Graham's War" for how enthusiastically he has pushed it — even at the moment, the war is deeply unpopular, and if it continues driving up gas prices, it could only get worse. "If negotiations fail and Trump’s big gamble spirals out of control, Graham will surely become collateral damage."

"An ardent supporter and wingman to the president, Graham won’t be able to distance himself from the Iran debacle should negotiations go south," Parker concluded. "With so much in flux, there’s no telling where the war goes and, therefore, no telling what’s in Graham’s future. If all fails, it will have been Graham’s good fortune that he was able to hone his golf strokes as Trump’s favorite caddy."

Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, plans to step down in May, according to The New York Times.

"In a letter to Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, Mr. Lyons said that it had been a 'tremendous honor' to lead the agency, but that he had decided to leave to 'spend more time with my family,'" said the report.

Lyons emphasized that “My sons are both reaching a pivotal point in their lives, and my wife and I wish to spend as much time as possible with them. “This was not an easy decision, but I believe it is the right one for me and my family at this time.”

This comes after Trump has made a series of shakeups at the Department of Homeland Security amid nationwide backlash and sinking approval for his immigration policy.

Most notably, Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino was reassigned and moved to retire after the disastrous federal occupation of Minneapolis known as Operation Metro Surge, in which federal agents killed two civilian protesters, Renée Good and Alex Pretti, both U.S. citizens.

ICE was accused of violating at least 96 court orders in Minnesota and Secretary Kristi Noem herself was shortly fired amid a spending controversy.

President Donald Trump is deteriorating worse than ever, MS NOW's Jen Psaki argued on Thursday evening, and it's obvious in the ways that he is lashing out at anyone and everyone — even right-leaning people and organizations.

"Just two days ago, Trump attacked the conservative think tank the Cato Institute, claiming they, quote, 'hate Trump,'" said Psaki, a former press secretary for the Biden administration. "Yesterday, he even went after Fox News for having the audacity to cover California Democratic candidate Tom Steyer's gubernatorial campaign. How dare they? And even with all the new fights, Trump is picking, he still somehow finds time to continue his many other wildly unproductive and unpresidential ongoing feuds."

For instance, she said, "Trump spent part of his day today drafting multiple lengthy screeds attacking the judge overseeing the case against his White House ballroom renovations ... He's renewed his threats to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Senator Thom Tillis has already said that if Trump fires Powell, he, as in Tillis, will block any new Fed nominee Trump tries to appoint. But Trump has threatened to fire him anyway, and he seems genuinely confused about the fact that Thom Tillis has any power at all, given Trump doesn't seem to be aware that Thom Tillis is still a United States Senator."

She played a clip of Trump being asked on Fox Business whether Tillis will be an obstacle to confirmations, in which he said, "Well, we're going to have to find out. He might not, but that's why Thom Tillis is no longer a senator."

"Okay," Psaki said. "Thom Tillis didn't abruptly quit, Marjorie Taylor Greene style. He just isn't seeking reelection. But he's definitely still a senator through the end of this year. Long enough, by the way, to hold up the nomination of the Fed chair Trump nominated. Trump has started so many feuds he can't even keep track of them all. He's acting like a cornered animal, lashing out at everyone and everything around him. And the reason is obvious: Trump knows he's losing, and he's on the verge of losing control over the spineless legislative branch of government he currently controls beyond his own."

"His approval rating is cratered," said Psaki. "He's fallen below 40 percent in nearly every poll taken over the last month. Look at those numbers. He's hovering in the 30s. Democrats look poised to win back the House of Representatives and maybe even the Senate, too. That seems recently to be a possibility. I mean, yesterday we got first-quarter fundraising numbers for all of the major Senate candidates running this year. Just look at that chart on your screen. Of the top 10 candidates, just one, the little red block in the middle, is a Republican, and red-state Democrats in places like Texas, Alaska and Ohio — states, by the way, that would represent flips in Senate seats, are bringing in some of the largest fundraising hauls."

"Trump could see the writing on the wall," said Psaki. "He can read a poll. He sees the outpouring of protesters. He sees Democrats outperforming in special election after special election. He knows he's in for a major rebuke this November, but that's why he's lashing out. But here's the thing: it's a vicious cycle, because the more Trump lashes out, the worse things get for Republicans."

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James Carville, the veteran Democratic strategist and perennial Trump critic, is making a stark prediction, The Daily Beast reported on Thursday: the president won't be in office by next year.

Speaking on Politicon's Politics War Room, the 81-year-old former Bill Clinton associate didn't mince words about what he's observing in the 79-year-old commander-in-chief. "I just don't see this guy being President of the United States by this time next year," Carville said. "And I increasingly believe that we're on a much shorter leash than that."

The "rate of deterioration," Carville insisted, is evident to anyone paying attention. "I don't have to be a neurologist, anything like that. I mean, we've all seen it. And you're looking at it right in front of your eyes. And it's not wishful thinking, it's not projecting. It's just what's happening."

But there's more to it than just Trump's physical and mental health, Carville added — it's also the fact that Trump's words and antics don't command the attention they have for years.

"People are giving less of a [expletive] of what he says," said Carville. "Foreign leaders, voters, politicians. It's not the same job he had a year ago, and it's clearly not going to be the same job come November."

Over recent weeks, Carville believes the situation has reached a critical inflection point. "I think that he's turned a corner, and turned a corner in a really substantial way," he said. "It's a bad situation right now, and honestly — I've cried wolf so many times, but I think this time it's really the wolf. I really do."

Trump has repeatedly claimed he doesn't have any significant cognitive issues, and bragged that he "aced" the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) — a simple screening test used to evaluate people already suspected of dementia.

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House Democrats are plotting an aggressive new strategy to challenge President Donald Trump's Iran war, according to Axios: introduce war powers resolutions every single day the chamber is in session until one passes or military operations end.

The tactical maneuver emerged during a Congressional Progressive Caucus lunch on Thursday, according to the report. One member proposed flooding the legislative calendar with resolutions, a strategy that resonated with attendees.

The plan isn't finalized, and House Democratic leadership's position on the tactic remains unclear. However, sources say members "were interested in it" and the discussion involved "more than just one person talking." The idea gained traction even among centrist Democrats. "I'd welcome it," said Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV), while Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) said, "I've voted for it twice. I'll vote for it as many times as we need."

The proposal surfaced after Democrats fell just one vote short Thursday morning of advancing a war powers resolution. The measure failed 213 to 214, with Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) breaking ranks to vote against it. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) joined Democrats to back the resolution, while three Republicans didn't vote.

Progressive Caucus members argue the relentless vote strategy would keep Republicans accountable on the war's consequences, including rising gas prices, which are now causing a shock, particularly in states that backed Trump.

Since war powers resolutions require up to 18 days to ripen before floor consideration, the approach would involve "constantly moving them to the line to get them to be able to come to the floor," according to one lawmaker.