Tom Boggioni

One of the most decorated preparatory schools in the nation, which has seen future Hollywood stars, professional athletes, and notable politicians walk through its doors, was rocked this week by new allegations that it allowed a star student to create a climate of intimidation.

And he has not been the only one.

Harvard-Westlake School, a $50,000-per-year private institution in Studio City, California, has become the center of litigation involving star water polo player Lucca van der Woude, who has been accused of sexual assault and racial harassment by teammate Aidan Romain, who is Black.

According to Vanity Fair reporting by Deanna Kizis, the updated lawsuit alleges that between August 2022 and February 2024, Romain was repeatedly sexually assaulted by Van der Woude during practices and on campus. The suit also alleges that Romain and other minority students faced racial harassment and discrimination, including being subjected to racial slurs.

A revised complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court Thursday escalates the allegations significantly. An unnamed witness told Romain's attorney, Daniel Watkins, that Van der Woude "had a history of making antisemitic remarks while interacting with peers online and in person" and that he "referred to a Jewish peer using antisemitic slurs and stated words to the effect of: 'You stupid Jew, die in the oven,'" Vanity Fair reported.

According to the witness, Van der Woude "frequently glorified sexual violence against women, made repeated comments referencing rape, regularly used racial slurs, and made offensive comments concerning slavery and racial domination." The lawsuit characterizes van der Woude as someone who "harbored and expressed racist, antisemitic, and white-nationalist beliefs during the period in which he sexually and physically abused Plaintiff and other students."

Romain's attorney explained the revised complaint's focus on ideology and violence. "White nationalism and sexual violence come from the same belief: that some people exist to be dominated by others. That is what makes these accounts so troubling," Watkins said.

In interviews, Black parents at Harvard-Westlake describe an institutional pattern of avoidance and inaction.

"It appears to me that they're just kind of treading water and hoping this moment will pass," one parent said. Another suggested deliberate evasion: "It's almost like the school is trying to shut down the questions and conversations before they even happen."

One parent described witnessing racism firsthand on school water polo teams. "Not everybody's experience at Harvard-Westlake is the same. The lack of support, the lack of action, of intervention, letting things get so far out of hand until kids are harmed and families are impacted. Well, that was exactly my experience."

Parents also cited the school's response to students wearing Make America Great Again (MAGA) hats following the 2024 presidential election as emblematic of the institution's approach to accountability.

"We called the administration at the school, and they basically said, 'Look, we don't like it. But there's nothing specifically in our rule book about political attire,'" one parent recounted.

His wife described escalating concerns about how the hats were perceived by Black students. "It was kind of a gloating victory lap thing that they were doing. I told the powers-that-be that MAGA hats read as a threat to some Black students. So, the question was, 'Well, are you going to change the rule?'"

While the hats eventually stopped appearing, parents remain unclear how the school accomplished this.

"I don't know how they got them to stop wearing them. There was no follow-up with us," one parent said.

Vanity Fair reported that the school's official response dismissed the allegations.

"Many of these outlandish claims bear little-to-no relation to the reality of life at Harvard-Westlake for our students or their families," a spokesperson said, characterizing the accounts as "a false and sensationalistic narrative" while reaffirming the school's "unyielding commitment to fostering an environment where all can feel safe and welcome."

According to the report, for Black families, the institution's reputation has suffered irreparable damage. One parent who withdrew their child in fall 2024 explained the sentiment bluntly. "The shine is off. I was talking to our education consultant, and she suggested a different school. I said, 'It's not a Harvard-Westlake.' And she was like, 'Listen, Harvard-Westlake isn't a Harvard-Westlake anymore.'"

Continuing questions about Donald Trump’s health were not helped on Thursday during an Oval Office press availaibility that led to more questions about his ability to keep up at his current pace.

On MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” co-hosts Johnathan Lemire and Willie Geist highlighted the 79-year-old president “slumped’ in his chair as EPA Head Lee Zeldin talked about clean coal, with the two pundits observing the president was clearly asleep.

That led to jokes about the president’s people defining the napping as an extended “blink,” with Lemire commenting, “I believe the White House pushback of ‘’He was blinking, you moron, ‘is how they would engage reporters who would point out on Twitter that the president seemed to be asleep.”

“So this was yesterday, the scene here,” he added as a clip of the president with his eyes closed ran. “And there's other footage where he seems fully slumped to sleep to one side of his chair, and then he kind of shifts and falls asleep on the other side of the chair. I mean, it's a long blink. We could count it off if you'd like.”

“But this is becoming almost a daily occurrence,” he pointed out. “And as much as the White House likes to push back on this, there are questions about, you know, his health, his fitness. He had another physical at Walter Reed a week or so back. We haven't really gotten much in the way of results. A week from Sunday, he turns 80.”

He then pointed out, “We heard for four years about 'Sleepy Joe Biden.' You know, not that I like to credit John Heilemann with much, but the ‘Confession or projection’ construct here works really well. This is clearly, you know, President Trump projecting his own perhaps frailties and need for naps during the day.”

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Republican members of Congress are reaching a "boiling point" with President Trump, with GOP insiders expressing deep-seated frustration over what they characterize as the president's relentless demands and self-sabotage timing that undermines their legislative efforts.

According to interviews with NOTUS, Republican congressional insiders describe a workplace environment poisoned by "resentment" as Trump repeatedly upends their strategy at crucial moments.

"There's a really stark frustration that's probably past the boiling point to a place of resentment, actually," one senior Senate GOP aide said bluntly. "You've had, whether it's Senate Republican leadership and really just generally the conference working really hard to deliver the president's agenda, and frankly it's the White House and the president himself that keeps shooting us in the foot when we're on the goal line of delivering some of these key things."

The grievances are mounting, according to the report. In recent weeks, Republicans have openly rebelled against Trump's demands to fund a White House ballroom renovation, a $1.8 billion Justice Department compensation fund for Capitol riot participants, and his nomination of Bill Pulte—a political loyalist with zero intelligence experience—to direct the nation's intelligence agencies.

Adding to the dysfunction, both chambers of Congress voted to challenge Trump's Iran war strategy, which has spiraled into what many view as another Middle Eastern quagmire.

What has particularly inflamed GOP lawmakers is the timing of Trump's decisions. His endorsement of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn just one week before the primary exemplified what Republicans view as reckless interference that undermined a popular Senate leader and former top GOP legislative strategist.

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) suggested Trump may simply be receiving poor counsel. "Somebody's not serving him well," Cramer said, calling the Pulte announcement timing "a mystery."

"With Donald Trump, he's usually a step ahead of all the rest of us, and oftentimes you look back and go, 'Oh, that makes sense now.' I think some of it may be that, on one hand," Cramer told NOTUS. "On the other, maybe he's not being served as well by advisers as he was in the first term, because some of this stuff does seem like unforced errors."

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) was more direct in her criticism, stopping short of outright revolt but making clear the proposals are indefensible.

"It's not like, 'OK, I'm going to take my stand and push back against the president.' These are not good ideas," she said. "It's not a good idea to tell the American public that I want to renovate a ballroom and I'm going to pay for it with donations, and then turn around and say, 'I need taxpayer dollars for it.'"

Murkowski reiterated the distinction: "This is not, you know, a design to be a revolt against Donald Trump. It's not a good idea, and we don't support the ideas that are not good ideas."

Lawmakers fleeing the chaotic House of Representatives for the greener pastures of higher office are finding the doors are shut to them by unimpressed voters, according to a report.

Nearly 30 House members have discovered that service in Congress has become a political liability rather than an asset.

Politico reported that the exodus of House members seeking promotions has resulted in a cascade of primary defeats, leaving some lawmakers wishing they had simply remained in their current positions and relied on incumbency to keep them employed.

The pattern has been unmistakable in recent weeks. Rep. Randy Feenstra (R) lost Iowa's GOP gubernatorial nomination despite a late Trump endorsement. Rep. Dusty Johnson (R) fell short in South Dakota's gubernatorial race. Rep. Chip Roy (R) lost a Texas attorney general runoff.

House Democrats have fared no better. In Illinois, Reps. Robin Kelly and Raja Krishnamoorthi both lost to the state's lieutenant governor in the Senate primary. In Texas, high-profile Rep. Jasmine Crockett was defeated by a state representative in the Democratic Senate race.

The reason, according to members themselves, is straightforward: voters blame Congress for being dysfunctional and see House members as part of the problem rather than the solution, according to Politico.

"There's definitely those out there who think, 'Well, it's broken, and they've been in it a long time, and obviously it's still broken,' so we kind of get the blame for it," said Rep. Buddy Carter, who failed to reach a runoff in Georgia's Republican Senate primary last month.

The shift marks a dramatic reversal. Congressional service was once a stepping stone to higher office — half of last year's freshmen senators previously served in the House. Now, members fear their Capitol Hill tenure has become toxic.

State-level officials and political outsiders are capitalizing on anti-Washington sentiment. "The voters all across the country aren't particularly fond of D.C., so are you perceived to be part of the establishment or someone that's been battling it?" asked Rep. David Schweikert, now running for Arizona's GOP gubernatorial nomination.

According to the report, the pattern extends to specific races. GOP Rep. John Rose trails Sen. Marsha Blackburn in Tennessee gubernatorial polling, even as he downplays his congressional service in campaign ads, identifying himself as "a father, a farmer and a CEO" while omitting any mention of his House seat.

The consequences ripple beyond individual campaigns. In South Carolina, Tuesday's GOP gubernatorial primary could end the political careers of Reps. Ralph Norman and Nancy Mace, with Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette positioned as the frontrunner after winning Trump's endorsement.

According to Politico, the mounting primary losses create additional complications for House leadership already struggling to maintain attendance. Speaker Mike Johnson has canceled multiple voting days this year to accommodate members' primary schedules, with the risk of further no-shows likely to increase as more House members pursue long-shot bids for higher office.

CBS News head Bari Weiss has created a powerful new enemy within the network after her controversial decision to revamp the popular “60 Minutes” newsmagazine with a mass firing that blew up into front-page news.

According to media watchdog Status, the conflict has evolved from a news division firefight into a corporate-wide crisis, with CBS Entertainment chief Amy Reisenbach leading the charge against Weiss's sweeping changes.

Reisenbach has privately told associates that Hollywood creatives are expressing alarm over Weiss's direction for the network, and she herself believes the news chief is inflicting "significant damage on the broader CBS brand" — creating headaches for other company leaders, including herself.

The fallout extends into major business problems, according to the Status report. Reisenbach has reported that showrunners are approaching her in panic mode, questioning why they should continue developing broadcast programs for a network whose leadership appears to be abandoning linear television. New "60 Minutes" Executive Producer Nick Bilton's characterization of linear TV as "a rapidly melting ice cube" has only amplified those concerns.

Even more damaging is that Hollywood insiders have expressed concern that Weiss is steering CBS toward what they perceive as a more MAGA-friendly editorial direction — a characterization that has spooked creative talent.

Reisenbach is far from alone. Dozens of senior figures inside David Ellison's Paramount, the parent company, share the view that Weiss is damaging the corporate brand. Some have gone further, believing she should be removed from her position entirely.

The internal revolt comes as CBS News battles a five-alarm crisis threatening the survival of "60 Minutes," the flagship news program. After Weiss fired the show's senior leadership team and correspondents Scott Pelley, Cecilia Vega, and Sharyn Alfonsi, other senior figures have begun evaluating their own departures.

A CBS spokesperson declined to comment to Status's Oliver Darcy on the internal discord.

Viewers angry over CBS's cancellation of Stephen Colbert's "The Late Show" are making their displeasure known, with Byron Allen's replacement program "Comics Unleashed" hemorrhaging more than half its audience — and competitors Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon capitalize on the exodus.

According to The Daily Beast, the viewership just days after CBS pulled the plug on Colbert tells a devastating story for the network's late-night strategy.

Kimmel's show experienced a dramatic surge, drawing 2.185 million total viewers on June 1—a 53-percent year-on-year increase. In the coveted 18-49 demographic, ABC's late-night leader captured an eye-popping 295,000 viewers, representing a staggering 178-percent increase from the same night last year.

Fallon's "Tonight Show" came in a distant second with 1.301 million total viewers, though that was still a respectable 10-percent year-over-year increase. The NBC program pulled in 194,000 viewers in the 18-49 demo, a 14-percent improvement from last year.

CBS, meanwhile, cratered. Allen's "Comics Unleashed," which debuted a day after Colbert's departure, drew only 628,000 total viewers — a catastrophic 65-percent drop compared to the same time slot last year. In the crucial 18-49 demographic, the show managed just 82,000 viewers, according to the Beast report.

The report notes the financial structure of Allen's arrangement insulates CBS from the direct financial damage. Under a "time buy" deal, Allen purchased the 11:35 p.m. time slot directly from CBS and covers all production costs while retaining the right to sell advertising himself. That arrangement means Allen—not the network—absorbs the financial consequences of the poor ratings.

A source told The Daily Beast that this model actually benefits CBS by allowing the network to program the late-night slot without exposure to audience and advertiser volatility, even as the show itself collapses into irrelevancy.

Former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele used Trump's birthday UFC spectacle at the White House to eviscerate what he characterized as the administration's carefully constructed — and deeply misleading — image of presidential fitness.

In a column for MS NOW, Steele called out the White House health reports as "nonsense" and flagged the underlying narrative as patently suspicious.

The target of Steele's critique was a Pentagon memo requiring military personnel hoping to attend the UFC event to meet specific body composition and fitness standards — a directive that read "more like a casting call than a military order," according to a Washington Post report cited by Steele.

"The Pentagon says service members seeking tickets to Trump's UFC event must satisfy specific height-to-waist standards and meet all fitness requirements," the Post reported.

Steele seized on the irony that, while the administration is requiring an audience of physically fit service members, Trump's own health metrics don't match.

"The president has spent years cultivating an image of himself as a peak specimen of physical vigor," Steele wrote. "Former White House physician Ronny Jackson famously described him as having 'incredibly good genes.' Earlier this year, Trump's latest White House physician reported that he stood 6-foot-3, weighed 224 pounds and enjoyed 'excellent cognitive and physical health.' One of the supporting pieces of evidence? His golf victories."

Steele then dismantled the official narrative. "Can we stop with this nonsense? At the reported '238' pounds and a BMI of 29.7, Trump sits just shy of the obesity cutoff. It's very convenient math."

The broader messaging strategy, Steele argued, appeared to be backfiring. "Trump might think of himself as a UFC champ, but in real life he's more of a McDonald's guy," he quipped, before citing a YouGov poll showing that two-thirds of Americans believe they could defeat Trump in a physical fight, compared to just 10 percent who picked the president.

"So while the administration is reportedly checking troops' waistlines, the public appears unconvinced about the physical prowess of the man hosting the event," Steele observed.

He concluded by characterizing the entire enterprise as theater designed to project strength ahead of Trump's 80th birthday. "The reported fitness requirements are just part of this broader effort. Trump wants to create the perfect backdrop as he rings in his 80th year to a testosterone-soaked spectacle of blood and chokeholds, surrounded by svelte men in uniforms."

Discussing the growing Republican betrayal problems Donald Trump is experiencing as he attacks his own caucus and has made it his mission to oust some of them in primaries, longtime DC insider Mark McKinnon claimed the president is not going to like what is coming.

Appearing on MS NOW with host Alex Witt, McKinnon claimed that the retribution the president has been inflicting on some of his former allies is going to be returned in spades.

"You know, I was just thinking about [Sens. Bill] Cassidy and [Thom] Tillis, [John] Cornyn, and [GOP Rep. Thomas] Massie — it's really kind of revenge of the walking dead,” he quipped.

“I mean, these these guys, these guys are on their way out and man, they are going to — they are going to get their, you know, they're going to get their licks in while they can,” he mused. “So I think it's again, it's just a testament to Trump's waning political power because the people that he screwed in the primary are now going to screw him in the general and screw him on the way out and screw it and do everything they can to take down whatever is a priority for him right now.”

“Which is the president's ballroom, apparently,’ host Witt interjected.

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Despite former White House chief of staff Karl Rove’s prediction on Fox News on Thursday morning that the Democratic “blue wave” in November may not be as damaging to the Republican Party as has been predicted, the Republican commentator was the target of the president’s ire on Truth Social.

Toward the end of his Fox News segment, Rove off-handedly mentioned, “And remember, this is a contest between two unfavorables. The president’s unfavorability is at 40 percent. The Democratic Party’s unfavorability is below 37. So who’s more- who’s less popular and how’s that going to affect the outcome?”

That appears to have angered Trump, who, as is his custom, aired out his frustrations on Truth Social.

“FoxNews should get rid of sloppy RINO Karl Rove. He’s called ME and MAGA wrong for 11 years now, and he still doesn’t get it, and he never will, because he suffers from a completely inoperable, and totally dysfunctional, case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” the president snapped.

“Put Karl Rove out to pasture, NOW. He is a LOSER, and he always will be! Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT,” he added.

Billionaire tech CEOs and investors hoping to “buy” seats in Congress with nominees sympathetic to their demands are finding it easier to find candidates than it is to get them elected, no matter how many millions of dollars they invest in their campaigns.

According to a report from Politico’s Christine Mui, Dustin Gardiner, Madison Fernandez and Kimberly Leonard, Tuesday’s primaries were not kind to potential lawmakers who made no bones about their enthusiasm for tech initiatives that included the increasingly unpopular data centers.

And they paid the price.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan (D) became the most prominent casualty of the night, conceding California's gubernatorial race less than half an hour after polls closed. The former startup executive had leveraged his Silicon Valley connections to raise tens of millions of dollars, only to finish in the low single digits.

The Bay Area bloodbath extended to congressional races. Entrepreneur Ethan Agarwal conceded early Wednesday after being soundly defeated by Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna, a progressive who championed a proposed tax on California billionaires. Wealthy venture capitalist Eric Jones fared little better, pulling in third place in his challenge to Democratic Rep. Mike Thompson in Napa County, Politico reported.

"This is a preview of what's coming in 2026, and it's a preview of what's coming in 2028," Rob Flaherty, a Democratic strategist who served as deputy campaign manager for Kamala Harris's presidential campaign, told Politico. "Association with tech money is increasingly going to become a problem."

Voters sent a clear message: they wanted candidates who reflected their values and not Silicon Valley's interests. "People are looking for these avenues to push back on tech," explained Irene Kao, director of Courage California. "Voters at the end of the day really want to see candidates who reflect who they are. They want candidates who feel less out of touch."

The losses revealed what insiders characterize as startling political incompetence among tech megadonors. "The tech guys that think they know politics, those are the ones that got spanked," said one prominent Silicon Valley Democratic fundraiser granted anonymity to speak candidly. "These guys are wannabes, the ones that don't appreciate that political science is actually a science."

The anti-tech wave has also transcended state lines. In Iowa, Republican businessman Zach Lahn pulled off a stunning upset against a Trump-endorsed candidate by calling for a data center moratorium and pledging to tax companies five times more to build them. Similar anti-tech messaging is gaining traction in races across the country, with candidates finding political gold in running against Silicon Valley.

During a “Morning Joe” discussion on Donald Trump’s constantly evolving statements about bringing the Iran war to a close, MS NOW contributor Katty Kay suggested the president’s deep-seated obsession with former President Barack Obama could be the biggest roadblock.

Speaking with co-host Willie Geist, Kay humorously claimed the president lives in fear of the “O word.”

“The question is, are we any closer to getting some kind of a deal after all the fits and starts that we've had out of the White House?” she began. “It seems the two big issues that remain are whether the Iranians will have any kind of control of the Strait of Hormuz. And the even bigger issue is what's to be done about Iran's nuclear program.”

“I mean, Willie, it still looks like we're at the status quo ante where before the shooting started, on February 28th, Iran had a nuclear program, and it didn't control the Strait of Hormuz,” she pointed out before adding, “And I think at the moment, that's the best that the administration can hope for.”

“Donald Trump seems to be terrified of the ‘O word,’ the Obama word, anything being compared that he does to the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action], which may be why there's a holdup,” she stated. “It looks like they had got fairly close, but then he got spooked by being criticized for being weak and that this looked too much like the Iran deal [from the Obama administration.”

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At the same time that Donald Trump is demanding $1 billion for his ballroom to fill the space where the East Wing used to be, congressional leaders are facing the prospect that the Rayburn House Office Building where they work is falling apart and needs a massive renovation.

To the tune of an estimated $9 billion.

According to Politico's Katherine Tully-McManus, the renovation represents a "ticking time bomb" that cannot be postponed much longer without risking systemic collapse affecting members of the House.

The Rayburn building has not undergone a complete renovation since opening in 1965, the Politico report notes, before adding that lawmakers have repeatedly deferred comprehensive repairs while critical systems are failing with increasing frequency, and expensive emergency fixes are "draining" the legislative branch budget.

Thomas Austin, Architect of the Capitol, warned lawmakers Wednesday of the imminent threat of "catastrophic system failures" in the sprawling facility, which houses nearly 200 member offices, committee hearing rooms, secure information facilities, a police firing range, and approximately 1,600 parking spaces.

"As these facilities age and kind of reach this tipping point, we start having an increasing number of failures as all these systems age out and we start having series of failures on top of each other," Austin told the House Administration Committee.

Austin's agency estimates a complete renovation could cost nearly $9 billion and require more than a decade—the largest and most expensive project ever undertaken by the Architect of the Capitol, dwarfing any previous renovation on Capitol Hill by nearly an order of magnitude.

House Administration Chair Bryan Steil (R-WI) called the price tag "eye-popping," noting it exceeds the construction costs of the newest NFL stadiums.

Beyond the staggering expense, lawmakers face operational nightmares, the report notes. The renovation cannot proceed wing-by-wing as the recent nearly $1 billion renovation of the neighboring Cannon House Office Building demonstrated—that decade-long project severely disrupted congressional operations. Instead, Rayburn would require near-total evacuation, forcing members and committees to find alternative space.

Since project timelines stretch to approximately 20 years, many current lawmakers openly assume they will no longer serve by the time the project begins, let alone concludes, Politico's Tully-McManus observed.

Down from seven correspondents to four on “60 Minutes” after CBS News head Bari Weiss took a wrecking ball to the popular Sunday night newsmagazine, there are fears about the coming season’s launch as well as its long-term viability.

According to the Washington Post, newly fired correspondent Scott Pelley “ignited a firestorm in a Monday meeting, questioning the credentials of the show’s new boss, Nick Bilton, accusing CBS News head Bari Weiss of 'murdering' the show, and demanding answers about why his colleagues, including fellow correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, were fired the previous Thursday.”

The confrontation prompted media analysts to warn that "60 Minutes" could spiral into a ratings death dive—a stunning reversal for a program that has been a ratings juggernaut for decades.

The tensions underlying the purge run deeper than personnel disputes. Alfonsi, Vega, and Pelley have all accused CBS News management of "interfering in its editorial work and inserting bias in an effort to appease the Trump administration"—allegations the network has strenuously denied," the Post is reporting.

The report notes the stakes could hardly be higher. "60 Minutes" has been the rare CBS News program to thrive while competitors like "CBS Evening News" have languished behind ABC and NBC. The show averaged more than 9 million viewers per episode last season, a 9 percent increase from the prior year—making its current trajectory all the more catastrophic.

Current and former staffers expect conditions to deteriorate further. All attention now focuses on whether the remaining correspondents—Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, L. Jon Wertheim, and contributor Norah O'Donnell—will abandon ship. Stahl, Whitaker, and O'Donnell declined to respond to inquiries Wednesday, while Wertheim refused comment.

According to the Post, show production has effectively stalled. People with knowledge of the Wednesday atmosphere described a newsroom where "few people were working and the production had largely ground to a halt."

"Nick Bilton has no time to lose," one former CBS News correspondent told the Post. "The next season will be highly scrutinized and even though the show is on so-called hiatus, a lot of work for those September stories is done over the summer. He better have some damn good ideas!"

The obstacles appear insurmountable. "I don't see how they put a show on in the fall even if miraculously they cobble together a team," a former "60 Minutes" staffer said bluntly. "Not a single producer thinks they will have a correspondent to work with outside of Norah."

Even optimistic assessments are grim. Another former staffer acknowledged that even with new correspondents, "there's a 'sharp learning curve.'" The prediction: "I'd guess they can probably squeeze out a strong season opener and then the wheels will fall off. Week to week, it is a grind."

Mark Feldstein, a journalism professor at the University of Maryland and former network television correspondent, characterized the threat as existential.

"This is the acid test for David Ellison, but unless he reverses course, I think 60 Minutes will die a slow, embarrassing death as the new management tries and fails to invent a new formula that works better than what's tried and true," Feldstein told the Post's Scott Nover.

With their primary two weeks away, Georgia Republicans are waiting nervously for Donald Trump’s endorsement in the GOP race for one of Georgia's two U.S. Senate seats, fearing a longer delay could have a huge impact not just on the eventual nominee, but also on November’s general election.

According to a report from Politico, the Tuesday primary in Iowa, where MAGA-friendly Rep. Randy Feenstra (R) was upset, despite getting the president's coveted endorsement to be the next governor four days before the election, is serving as a red flag to Georgia GOP insiders.

The Feenstra loss has sent a chill through Georgia Republican circles, where both Rep. Mike Collins and former college football coach Derek Dooley are desperately courting Trump's support.

"The window is starting to close," Casey Cagle, a former Georgia lieutenant governor backing Collins, told Politico. "Candidates have to spend time and resources to make sure people know about the endorsement."

The ticking clock is firing up speculation about when — or if — Trump will act. One Republican connected to the race expressed deep concern about a repeat of the Iowa chaos.

"I wouldn't want Trump to get in at the last minute down here. What happened in Iowa could happen in Georgia next and continue to ruin the president's win streak," the person claimed.

Republicans desperately need Trump's intervention to unify their fractured field against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, widely acknowledged as a formidable general election opponent. Ossoff has already built a massive campaign war chest, avoided a divisive primary, and maintained a comfortable lead in public polls—giving Democrats a significant structural advantage.

Without a Trump endorsement to consolidate the conservative vote, Republicans face an uphill battle in November. Yet Trump appears unmoved by the urgency. Collins has personally spoken to several Trump allies, while the Dooley campaign has maintained ongoing contact with the White House, Politico is reporting.

According to a senior national Republican official, Trump is treating the endorsement as "actively under consideration," with the report noting that the president called Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, one of his most loyal lieutenants in the state, to assess the political landscape.