Robert Davis

A GOP strategist spotted a damning detail included in President Donald Trump's new Time Magazine cover story during a CNN panel Thursday.

Doug Heye, a veteran House and Senate Republican communications strategist, told CNN's Kasie Hunt on "The Arena" that Trump's wide-ranging interview with Time included one problematic detail - the cover photo was shot on the president's new helipad. While Trump may be proud of the helipad, Heye argued that it is a symbol of how far off course the Trump administration has wandered as the consequential 2026 midterm elections rapidly approach.

"The cover of Time Magazine tells us exactly what the problem is," Heye said. "What do we see? We see his helipad."

Trump has promised to campaign with Republicans as if he is on the midterm ballots in an effort to boost GOP turnout. However, some Republicans have privately expressed consternation with that plan because of Trump's sinking popularity.

Some candidates, like Florida gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds, have scrubbed mentions of Trump from their campaign websites to distance themselves from the president.

To Heye, Trump's focus on the helipad sends the wrong message to voters ahead of the midterms, many of whom are chiefly concerned with the rising cost of living across America.

"So, we spent a couple of days on the helipad, the Kennedy Center, and Karl Rove talked about the reflecting pool and all these other ancillary stories where Trump could be saying, 'Here's what we've done to lower prices, and here's what we're going to do in the future,'" Heye said. "And instead, he focuses on these just bizarro world issues that just don't connect with voters."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth alarmed some analysts Thursday after he announced he was inviting a few private citizens to collaborate with the Defense Department on the future of warfare.

Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, and Palmer Luckey, founder of drone company Anduril, have been given advisory roles in a Pentagon project about the future of war, The Guardian reported. The project, known as “Project Meridian," seeks to develop new weapons of war for different terrain ranging from outer space to subterranean.

The inclusion of private citizens in defense contracting is nothing new, but Brendan Glavin at Open Secrets noted in the report that the motley crew Hegseth has gathered raises some important questions.

“Bringing major industry players into these types of positions at the Pentagon is not something new, but what feels different now is the substantial financial support these two have, and continue to, deliver for the Republican Party,” Glavin told The Guardian.

Musk was one of the largest donors to President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign, spending an estimated $250 million to help elect the president. Musk's companies have also been deeply wedded to some of the Trump administration's pet projects, such as the Department of Government Efficiency and the so-called "golden dome" missile defense project.

Luckey's company is also supported by the venture capital firm run by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, according to the report.

Luckey has also been dubbed the "godfather of Republican fundraising on the West Coast," according to the report.

"Invitations to political fundraisers obtained by the Guardian show Luckey hosted and co-hosted events for candidates from Trump himself to Ken Calvert, Rick Scott, Mehmet Oz, Ted Cruz and others. The most recent event was on 22 August, where he and his wife co-hosted a $50,000-a-head effort to 'Keep the Senate,' and listing guests John Thune of South Dakota, Mike Rogers of Michigan, Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Jon Husted of Ohio," the report reads in part.

MS NOW host Rachel Maddow revealed a surprising move that President Donald Trump seems to have made that is pummeling the GOP's chances of maintaining their majority after the midterms.

Under more normal circumstances, a president with a historically low approval rating might allow his party to criticize him while they're out on the campaign trail, Maddow told Seth Meyers on his "Late Night" show Tuesday night, The Daily Beast reported. However, Trump doesn't seem to have told Republicans they are free to do that, as many of them have lined up to support the president even though his approval rating is in the low 30% range, she added.

“Can you imagine Trump saying, ‘Let’s not make this about me; feel free to diss me?’” Maddow said. “We’ve got this situation on the one hand, a very normal situation where the president’s unpopular and members of his party are trying to figure out how to get re-elected. And on the other hand, we’ve got this impossible situation where he’s not just unpopular: he is the least popular president at this point in his presidency of any president in modern history.”

Maddow noted that Trump's unpopularity goes beyond some of the heinous things he has said. Other moves like his decision to speed up deportations of people who are in the country legally and illegally have broken the trust of Latino voters who heavily swung toward Trump in the 2024 election.

“He is not just poorly reviewed,” Maddow concluded. “He is radioactive. He’s monstrously unpopular. There is historically unprecedented hate for this president among the American people.”

A political expert flagged what he described as a "huge sign" that there is a brewing hurricane waiting for Republicans in the midterm elections.

Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist, joined CNN's "The Lead" with Jake Tapper to discuss the upcoming elections and recent public polling. Rocha noted another factor that shows Republicans might be in for more than they bargained for in November.

On Monday, the New York Times reported that the largest super PAC aligned with Democrats will begin spending money to support state lawmaker James Talarico in his bid against Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general who is backed by President Donald Trump. Rocha noted that was a "huge sign" of how much trouble Republicans are in.

"That's a huge sign," Rocha said. "Because there's only so much money to go around, and we're talking about Iowa and Ohio and Michigan, and all these places."

"Let me put a little more meat on that bone," he added, noting that Republicans have already spent about $160 million to support Paxton since Labor Day. "That's the craziness about this. James Talarico, through the summer and through the early part of the fall, has been on TV by himself, building up a reputation of who he is without being unabated by any Republican. That's going to be the real tell: if all of this late money makes a difference when James Talarico has been out there telling a message to people."

Rocha also noted that the race showed how much trouble Republicans are in with Latino voters, many of whom previously supported Trump.

"I'm working in all of these southern congressional races where there are heavy Latino populations, and these same Latinos voted for Donald Trump two years ago," he said. "Well, they may be the most pissed because they're the most affected by gas and diesel prices, and they happen to be more middle class. So the construction industry and what's happening with ICE is all a perfect storm for this Latino hurricane to hit Republicans in the mouth."

Fox News host Sean Hannity sparked fury Tuesday after he deleted a controversial post on his social media account.

Hannity posted a clip from an exchange between former special counsel Jack Smith and Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) from a hearing held Tuesday. In the clip, Schmitt accuses Smith of attending a professional basketball game in Atlanta and somehow colluding with former District Attorney Fani Willis in her attempt to prosecute President Donald Trump. Hannity captioned the post by saying Schmitt put Smith "on the spot."

What the clip didn't show was an exchange later in the hearing in which Smith and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) corrected Schmitt by acknowledging that he attended a women's college basketball game in Maryland against the University of Iowa on the same night Schmitt alleged he met with Willis.

Hannity later deleted his post defending Schmitt when the additional footage was published online. But not before Brian Beutler, co-host of Politix.fm, captured a screenshot and shared it with his audience.

"Here’s a deleted tweet from Hannity, who won’t admit error, won’t chastise Schmitt, and won’t lose stature with anyone on the right, including the most of the blue-check community on this website," Beutler wrote. "This is what you all like about him!"

Hannity's deleted tweet also caught other critics by surprise.

"Hannity's staff needs to be flipping the same burgers as Schmitt's," Steven Svekis, multimedia journalist at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, posted on X.

"It's incredibly on brand how many of these tools are just running with the prescribed 'gotcha!' as though Schmitt didn't just publicly soil himself," Julian Sanchez, author of the "Non-Content" Substack, posted on Bluesky.

Conservative strategist Scott Jennings got more than he bargained for from CNN's Kaitlin Collins and Ashley Allison, the former national coalitions director for the Biden campaign in 2020.

Jennings appeared on "The Source" on Monday, where Collins asked him about President Donald Trump's decision to stump for Republicans ahead of the midterms and two recently released political ads paid for with federal tax money. Jennings noted that the ads are part of Trump's strategy to churn turnout among Republican voters, but his attempt to deflect concerns about the ads, which he described as "public service announcements," fell flat.

"I think a reasonable person could look at these and be mad about it, and I think a reasonable person could look at it and say, 'Well, other presidents have also run PSA's,'" Jennings said. "If I had offered any advice on it, it would have been [that a] PSA is fine. I probably wouldn't have cut and pasted material from a previous campaign ad, which I've read that they may have done."

Over the last week, Trump has released two overtly political ads with a disclaimer that they were "paid for by the U.S. Government." Sources told CNN on Monday that Trump played a "leading role" in creating the ads, which the White House communications office produced.

Legal experts said on Monday that the ads clearly violate federal law.

"A PSA I think most people would think of is boil your water, or there's a tornado coming, or you need to prepare for this. What is this public service announcement in that ad that you, Scott?" Collins asked.

Allison laughed at the question and claimed the ad was telling viewers to "vote for Republicans."

Jennings pivoted to talking about Trump's attempts to defend America from "communism" as the public service message behind the ad, a claim that Collins and Allison pounced on.

"But that came as he had the red carpet rolled out for a communist leader," Collins said, referring to the recent visit of China's Xi Jinping.

Allison reminded Jennings that Trump kicking out the press and spending taxpayer funds on personal aggrandizement are examples of actions that communist leaders would take.

"Using taxpayer dollars for a political ad, kicking the press out because you don't like the coverage. Those are more communist like behaviors than calling just calling people communists," she said.

President Donald Trump unveiled his midterm strategy Monday during a press conference in the Oval Office, one that hinges on what one expert described as a "monumental scandal," according to a new report.

Trump announced Monday that a massive new steel mill will be built in Iowa as part of an $18 billion overall investment, the New York Times reported. The announcement is part of the president's strategy to highlight how many jobs he's created ahead of the consequential midterm elections, and he noted during a press conference that the project likely wouldn't have gone through if a "less friendly" administration occupied the White House.

The report also gives good reason to be concerned about the investment. For instance, Mesabi Metallic, the company behind the investment, once hired Trump associate Jason Miller to a $ 240,000-a-year lobbying contract. That was during a time when Miller was also raking in about $150,000 a year from a lobbying contract from the Indian government to attract Mesabi's business, according to the report.

“In any other administration, this would be treated as a monumental scandal,” Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, told the NYT. “But in this one, it’s just another day.”

The report suggested that Trump may use these kinds of deals to win over Republicans in states where voters seem to be tiring of him. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds praised the steel mill project.

"This opportunity will fundamentally change the economic trajectory of our state and the entire region for decades to come," she told the Times in a statement.

A Fox News host sparked an uproar after uncorking a strange take about what he described as a "quality of life issue" New Yorkers face during Monday's broadcast of "The Five."

"It's something that a lot of people are talking about in terms of a quality of life issue, and I don't know if we have photos of what's going on in that area, but how overweight the hookers have become," said Greg Gutfeld, one of the show's co-hosts. "Have you noticed that?"

"I have!" co-host Jesse Watters chimed in.

"It's insane," Gutfeld said. "I am not a fan of the sex trade, but it does seem that if you are going to sell your body, you should make it as appealing for your customer. If I lived in that neighborhood, I would want it to look as nice as possible."

The comments sparked an uproar on social media.

"Oy," Joe Garofoli, senior political writer at the San Francisco Chronicle, posted on X.

"Is Gutfield trying to be the Pete Hegseth of the sex industry? Does he want sex workers doing pull-ups?" George Conway, a former Republican lawyer, posted on X. "What gives him expertise on their level of fitness? Finally, WTAF?"

"The Republican pitch to voters: Hookers are too overweight in NYC," Hemant MEhta, a "Jeopardy!" champion and a frequent critic of the Trump administration, posted on X.

"And these people deliver 'news' to millions of Americans nightly," Carla Marinucci, a former reporter at Politico, posted on X.

President Donald Trump's war in Iran has exposed a "growing vulnerability" that has no easy solution, according to one foreign affairs expert.

Max Boot, a columnist at The Washington Post and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, argued in a new op-ed that the war has called into question whether the American military still retains its air superiority over other nations. He pointed to Iran's use of inexpensive drones to "inflict heavy losses on U.S. bases" and in allied countries in the region.

"The growing vulnerability of U.S. bases because of the proliferation of cheap drones and missiles — which will only get worse with the spread of artificial intelligence guidance — has no easy solution," Boot argued. "Shutting down bases is one way to prevent them from being targeted, but that would have a deleterious political impact, because it would signal U.S. disengagement."

"U.S. bases serve an important trip-wire function, alerting foes that if they attack a U.S. ally, they will have to attack U.S. troops too," he added. "Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping would like nothing better than to see U.S. bases near their countries close."

Boot's op-ed also questions Trump's repeated claims that he's rebuilt the military during his two administrations. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has claimed to be restoring the "warrior ethos" by remaking the military's image as more male-dominant and removing punishments for soldiers who commit violent acts. However, some troops have reported significant mental health issues stemming from long deployments overseas, as was the case with the USS Lincoln.

Boot argued that the Iran war also serves as a dark warning that the military needs to "radically change" its thinking.

"It can no longer expect to operate from invulnerable bases near the front," Boot wrote. "But it’s hard to imagine that the armed forces can focus on such a major strategic reorientation when they are dealing with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s destabilizing political purges and his retrograde demands for increasing testosterone counts."

"Many of the topflight officers being cashiered by Hegseth, for no good reasons, are the very ones the armed forces need to adjust to the massive changes in the American way of war being necessitated by the drone revolution," he added.

CNN host Kasie Hunt slammed President Donald Trump's White House on Monday for trying to defend the president's latest taxpayer-funded advertisements.

The ad was released during Sunday Night Football and featured a black-and-white video of Trump walking through the White House grounds, promising to "liberate" America from communists. It followed another taxpayer-funded ad that appeared on Fox News last week, featuring UFC CEO Dana White calling Trump "the most resilient person I've ever met." Both ads featured a disclaimer saying they were "paid for by the U.S. Government."

The Trump White House defended the ads as public service announcements, which other presidents have released in the past. Hunt wasn't buying it.

"Just ask yourself, do you really think they would be running ads like this if it wasn't an election year?" Hunt said on "The Arena." "I mean, come on!"

The taxpayer-funded ads have become a contentious issue within the Republican Party ahead of the midterm elections. On Sunday, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) sharply criticized the ads.

"I don't think any public official ... should spend public money on private ads for themselves," Kennedy said.

President Donald Trump was hit with a brutal fact-check Sunday night after he returned to the White House from a golf outing.

Trump attended the final round of the Presidents Cup in Medinah, Illinois, where Team U.S.A. completed a comeback victory over the international squad to notch the country's 11th Presidents Cup victory. After Trump landed, he spoke with reporters and uncorked a series of untrue claims about the economy that one fact-checker swiftly corrected.

"With the exception of oil, which is lower than under the Biden administration, and we no longer have to worry about nuclear weapons because Iran has been wiped out ... prices are going down. We have it going down," Trump told reporters. "We inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country, and it's really going down."

401Ks are at an all-time high. The stock market is at an all-time high, and our country is doing really well," Trump continued.

He made those comments at a time when public polling shows that the top concern for Americans in the upcoming elections is affordability, a word that Trump has previously described as a "Democratic hoax."

CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale swiftly corrected Trump's claims.

"Overall grocery prices are up 3.4% since Jan. 2025, and way more grocery items are up than down," Dale wrote in a post on X that included a picture comparing recent price trends.

"In summary: The price of eggs has fallen big under Trump after spiking late in Biden’s term because of a bird flu outbreak; a few other items have gotten cheaper, but by much less than eggs; the overwhelming majority of items have gotten more expensive," Dale added. "It’s fair to note that grocery prices tend to rise no matter who the president is. But this president keeps lying that there has been grocery deflation."

Republicans face a significant test in the Texas Senate race that could shape future elections, according to one political analyst.

Republicans are spending big to retain outgoing Sen. John Cornyn's (R-TX) seat in Texas. State Attorney General Ken Paxton and Democratic state lawmaker James Talarico are facing off in the November election, which political analyst David Pakman noted on a new episode of his self-titled podcast will test the strength of one of the Republican Party's most reliable voter bases.

"Obviously, there are the immediate implications of if Texas elects a Democratic senator for the first time in decades, it would make a huge difference for control of the Senate right now," Pakman said. "But I want to go bigger than that. There's another possibility that I find a lot more interesting. What if James Talarico winning exposes a vulnerability in the modern Republican coalition that goes far beyond 2026? Because for decades, one of the most reliable Republican constituencies has been white evangelical Christians."

Pakman cited recent Pew polling that found about 85% of evangelicals align politically with Republicans. However, Pakman argued that Talarico has several qualities that might make him attractive to those voters, especially those who have grown tired of President Donald Trump's antics.

For instance, Pakman noted that Talarico is a pastor who studied at seminary, and that "challenges the political identity that Republicans have benefitted from."

Pakman argued that Talarico's success at courting evangelical voters might put other Republican held districts in play for Democrats.

"That could be a big deal," Pakman said.

"This is a test of whether one of the relationships that has held the Republican coalition together is a little bit of an automatic," he added.

A professional golfer was brutally ridiculed Sunday after he gave President Donald Trump "all the credit" for a comeback victory.

Trump attended the final round of the Presidents Cup, a weekend-long tournament between professional golfers representing the U.S. and an international squad. The U.S. entered the final round down by three, and wound up winning the cup after taking home eight victories in singles matches, marking the largest comeback victory in Presidents Cup history.

During his post-match interview, U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker praised Trump for his impact on the match.

"One last shoutout, President Trump. Donald Trump," Snedeker said during the interview. "He told me I was going to bring some energy for these guys, and they needed it. I told him if we did this, he gets all the credit. So, thank you, President Trump."

Snedeker's comments elicited groans and ridicule from the president's critics online.

"Good grief," Jon Becker, an education professor, posted on Bluesky.

"I had no idea that @BrandtSnedeker was a huge fan of rapists until today," Dean Blundell, a Canadian radio personality, posted on X.

"Getting away with a win after being a mediocre captain at best and then saying this. Take all of it away," Paolo Uggetti, a staff writer at ESPN, posted on X.

President Donald Trump put one CEO in a very "awkward" corner ahead of their Sunday night dinner date at the White House, according to a new report.

Reports indicate that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei dined with Trump on Sunday, just days after Chinese President Xi Jinping left a White House summit where he reportedly struck a deal with Trump to establish a safety channel for artificial intelligence systems between the two countries.

Trump told Fox News's Aishah Hasnie a little about what he planned to discuss with Amodei during dinner.

"We're going to talk about [AI]. I'm for, let's go and let's win. You know, we're about a year, maybe a year and a half up on China," Trump told Hasnie, as she relayed on her X account. "There is nobody in third place. I mean, it's just us in China. we're leading by quite a bit ... But I'll be speaking to Dario and others. We have, as you know, a very big meeting on Tuesday where everybody's coming in and that'll be very important.”

The New York Times reported on Sunday that the meeting also comes at an awkward time in the relationship between Anthropic and the Trump administration. Earlier this year, the Department of Defense declared Anthropic a national security risk and canceled the nine-figure contract it had with the AI firm.

A federal judge ruled last Friday that the Trump administration acted lawfully when it canceled the contract.

"The ruling left Anthropic in an awkward position, one that Dr. Amodei may have an opportunity to address with Mr. Trump on Sunday night," the Times reported.

One of President Donald Trump's foreign ambassadors has been hanging out with someone during her time in Greece, which has raised red flags among some of the administration's critics.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Kimberly Guilfoyle, Trump's ambassador to Greece, has been frequently seen with Christos Marafatsos, a 39-year-old lobbyist who, some officials said, has often cosplayed as Guilfoyle's chief of staff during meetings with government officials.

"These days, the Maryland-raised Marafatsos is frequently seen at Guilfoyle’s side, acting as her unofficial gatekeeper and joining her for meetings at her ambassadorial residence and with government officials in countries around the region — a highly unusual move for a private citizen," the report reads in part.

Robin Brooks, a former foreign service official with more than two decades of experience, described Marafatsos' behavior to the WSJ as "absolutely problematic" because it calls into question whether the meeting is advancing American interests or advancing some sort of private interest.”

Several political analysts sounded the alarm over Guilfoyle and Marafatsos' relationship on Sunday.

"Sketchy," Molly Jong-Fast, a political commentator and MS NOW host, posted on X.

"They [are] inventing weird new kinds of corruption," journalist Matthew Yglesias posted on X.

"Unprecedented corruption," Brendan Nyman, a political scientist at Dartmouth, posted on X.