Tom Boggioni

During a filmed interview with Politico’s Dasha Burns, President Donald Trump became confused when confronted with comments made by the first American pope, Pope Leo XIV.

As part of the 45-minute interview, where the president professed, “I watch everything, yeah. I watch everything. I see a lot of things,” Trump seemed surprised the Chicago-born pope has criticized his administration for the forced roundup of immigrants by ICE on orders from the Department of Homeland Security.

Asked by Burns, ”Immigration, sir, critical to your agenda. I want to ask about what the Pope has said, which is, he has called your immigration actions inhumane. Do you take that seriously from the pope?”

“I haven’t seen that. I mean ... I mean, he ... maybe he has,” Trump stuttered. “I mean, he also didn’t like the wall. You know, they didn’t like the wall. The wall turned out to be great.”

That led Politico’s Seb Starcevic to write, “Trump was apparently referring to Pope Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, who slammed Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall as ‘not Christian.’ The Republican and the former Catholic leader — who, months before his death, also called Trump’s mass deportation plans a ‘disgrace’ — frequently clashed over immigration, with Trump branding him a ‘very political person.’”

Having confused the current pope with the one who died the day after meeting with Vice President JD Vance, Trump responded to a question of whether he would sit down with the living pontiff by talking about his controversial wall by remarking, “You know, I built a wall that, uh, stopped people from flooding into ... we ... I didn’t put up the wall. I built the wall. The wall, nobody talks about that. You know, it’s interesting, uh, two years ago, a year ago under Biden, this country was out of control; millions of people pouring through totally unchecked, totally unvetted. And now we have nobody coming in. We have them coming in only legally. They have to go through a legal process. Nobody ever talks about that anymore. They should talk about that.”

“But I haven’t heard any statements from the Pope. I’m sure he’s a lovely man. His brother’s a lovely man. You know, his brother ...” he continued.

“Yeah, you’ve spoken to him,” Burns interjected.

“Do you know his brother is serious MAGA? Lives in Florida. He’s like ...” Trump replied as he was asked again, “So will you meet with the other brother, with the Pope?”

“I already met with the brother. He came to —,” he continued as the Politico interviewer asked again, “But with the Pope, will you meet with him or speak with him?“

"Sure, I will. Why not?” Trump finally replied.

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A nonprofit that raises money for a San Diego County high school district is under fire for renting out one school's gym for a “punishment” game show that featured racist attacks, profanity and bondage-themed penalties for participants.

According to a report from the San Diego Union Tribune, “the Canyon Crest Academy Foundation — a nonprofit separate from the district that raises money for the high school” agreed to rent out the gym for a show called “24-Hour Tag,” where the four participants were tormented as it was streamed on Twitch.

The report from reporter Kristen Taketa said the show was produced by the online content creator PaymoneyWubby, which is known for adult-oriented shows.

A promotional video for the show can be seen below.

The show, which set off the firestorm, was based on participants being “tagged,” and where “the male contestants used profanity, wore sashes with phrases including ‘botched penis’ and ‘pedophile,’ licked chocolate fondue off of women’s feet and enacted a mocking parody of the crucifixion of Jesus.”

Additionally, “They also gave a PowerPoint presentation with slides showing racist statements, such as: ‘What does a White man in America face today? Too much Spanish, Black history month (as a whole), Trader Joe’s, China.’”

In response, the school district issued a statement that claimed, “We understand that the production company filmed a game show with highly inappropriate content that appears to have violated the terms of the agreement between (the foundation) and the production company, as well as the district’s community standards and policies,” and threatened legal action against “the parties involved to hold them accountable for the egregious conduct on our school campus.”

An official for Paymoney Wubby replied to inquiries with, “We had a wonderful and very successful event that fully complied with our contractual agreements. Based on threats of litigation made by other parties, I cannot comment further at this time.”

The report added, "The nonprofit said the company did not disclose specifics about the show or any inappropriate or concerning content, although it did say the content would be PG-13. The foundation said the production was ‘in clear violation’ of the foundation’s facilities use license agreement. The foundation did not respond to questions about the name of the company to which it rented the gym but said it was based in New Hampshire. The organization did not provide a copy of the contract, and it was not immediately clear how much was paid for the rental.”

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A complaint by Donald Trump advisor Stephen Miller’s wife that their family had been victimized by protesters making what were described as “terroristic” threats fell apart on Tuesday with the release of a police incident report that pointed out that she had made much ado about nothing.

According to a report from Zeteo, Katie Miller, a former Trump administration functionary who has traded on her husband’s name to launch a career as a podcaster, had called police because she feared protesters outside their home, now listed for sale at $3.75 million.

After the event, she ran to Fox News where she cited her own picture of chalking on her sidewalk that read “Stephen Miller is preying on families” as “doxing” and claimed, “There are several criminal statutes that were violated in the case.”

Virginia police appear to disagree with Miller’s assertion.

According to the police report, “The messages were non-threatening and alluded to political issues such as immigration, transgender rights, DEI, and white supremacy.”

The released report comes just days after Katie Miller appeared on the “Ruthless” podcast where she complained, “There were people who drove by my home, there were people who sent us death threats, who knew where we lived, and it was no longer safe for our children to play in our front yard, or our backyard.”

She also dramatically stated that she and her children faced threats from her neighbors.

"But unfortunately, what happens when you have little kids who are impossible to get in and out of car seats, right? How many parents can relate to a kid doing a tantrum?" she remarked. "How many parents can relate to their kids chalking or learning to ride a bike, and that takes a while and your heads are not on a swivel looking around for who's coming fast with a high-powered weapon? And that’s a society that we’re living in."

According to the report, the Millers later moved onto a military base despite her claim, “We will not back down. We will not cower in fear.”

A legal brief authored by Pam Bondi before she became Donald Trump’s Attorney General could come back to haunt their relationship.

On Tuesday, MS NOW host Jonathan Lemire pointed to a report from the New York Times which uncovered work that Bondi did for a conservative think tank that was submitted to the Supreme Court — and made a case for the limitations of presidential power.

As the Times reported, Bondi, working for the America First Policy Institute, helped write a friend-of-the-court brief for three military officers in which she argued, “Military officers are required not to carry out unlawful orders.”

At the same time that the Trump solicitor general has been arguing before the nation’s highest court that the president has almost unlimited powers, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is caught up in a firestorm over the killing of two survivors of a Pentagon attack, Bondi's think tank legal filing could be used against the DOJ arguing for him in the future.

Lemire pointed out that Trump’s now-AG, “Elaborated, writing the military would not carry out a patently unlawful order from the president to kill nonmilitary targets. Indeed, service members are required not to do so."

He added, “The court was wrestling with questions surrounding executive authority and whether presidents were immune from prosecution.”

He continued, “Discussing one hypothetical, Bondi writes, ‘A president cannot order an elite military unit to kill a political rival, and the members of the military are required not to carry out such an unlawful order. It would be a crime to do so.’”

The New York Times reported, “The brief was filed in support of Mr. Trump, who was asking the Supreme Court to grant him immunity from prosecution on charges of trying to subvert the 2020 election,” and that, at the time, Bondi was attempting to shoot down accusations that the president would make such a demand as "unrealistic."

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Donald Trump was in no mood to hear from another female reporter asking about his administration's failures during an interview with Politico’s Dasha Burns.

Politico posted a 45-minute video Tuesday showing the president sitting down with Burns, in which he gave rambling answers that went far off the topic. But he took real offense when she asked him about the upcoming end of the Affordable Care Act subsidies — and responded with a sneer.

Burns asked, “In the meantime, I mean, two weeks, Mr. President, people will see those premiums go up. So will you tell Congress to extend those Obamacare subsidies while you work out another deal?”

“I don’t know. I’m gonna have to see. I’d like to get better health care. I’d like to have people buy their own health care, get much better health care, and what I want to do, for example, I want to give the money to the people, not to the insurance companies,” he replied, at which point she interjected. “So right now, people are buying their holiday presents. They’re planning for —.”

“Look, don’t be dramatic,” Trump sneered as she protested, “No, no.”

“Don’t be dramatic,” he repeated.

“They’re planning their budgets for next year, Mr. President," Burns continued.

“Here’s what I want to — I know. And what I want to do is help them,” he replied as she pressed, “So will their premiums go up?”

“I’m giving them money," Trump snapped.

"I want to give the money to the people to buy their own health care. That’s a good thing, not a bad thing. The Democrats don’t want to do that. They want the insurance companies to continue to make a fortune. The Democrats are owned by the insurance companies. They want the insurance companies to get these trillions of dollars,” he stated.

“Trillions of dollars goes to the insurance companies. I want that money to go to the people and let the people go out and buy their own health care. It works like magic. But you know who doesn’t want it? The Democrats, because they’re corrupt people, because they’re totally owned and bought by the insurance companies.”

After some back and forth, Burns pointed out, “That’s going to take time, sir.”

“Ready?” Trump fired back. “ I want to give the people better health insurance for less money. The people will get the money and they’re gonna buy the health insurance that they want.”

You can find the exchange at the 38-minute mark:

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s inability to quell the firestorm of accusations of war crimes has severely crippled his leadership at the Pentagon and is leading to resignations by Defense Department officials who don’t want to be caught up in the chaos he is creating.

Appearing on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” Atlantic journalist Nancy Youssef reported that the embattled Hegseth is not in “imminent danger” of being fired by Donald Trump — who is reportedly getting tired of the Hegseth drama — but he is seeing an exodus among military officials.

She told co-host Willie Geist, “Last week was a particularly bad week for the secretary in addition to questions about this double-tap strike, questions about the mission writ large and the impact it actually has on drug trafficking in the United States.”

“He was also sued by one of the victims of these strikes, by the family of this man, who said he was not a drug trafficker but a fisherman. He was sued by the New York Times,“ she added.

“He has faced a number of questions about his leadership, sort of rooted in questions about his judgment. You are seeing a lot of questions about his ability to conduct the job,” she explained. “Within the Pentagon, it's leading to, in some cases, resignations from people who are fearful that they will be in the position that Admiral Bradley was in, where they carry out an order and have to then carry the burden of that decision in a political climate and a command climate that secretary himself has created.”

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Donald Trump's increased attacks on reporters over questions about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and accusations about war crimes his appointee has been accused of is a sign that the president is grasping for a defense for attacks of so-called narco terrorists.

That was the consensus of a panel on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday after a clip of the president once again being abusive to a female reporter was played.

On Monday, when pressed about releasing video of a second strike on survivors dating back to early September, the president denied he had ever said he'd be happy to make it available — which he was recorded saying last Wednesday.

Instead, he told ABC's Rachel Scott she was “fake news,” and then added, “You are the most obnoxious reporter in the whole place. Let me just tell you, you are an obnoxious, a terrible reporter. And it's always the same thing with you. I told you. Whatever Pete Hegseth wants to do is okay with me.”

After sharing the clip on Tuesday morning, as co-host Mike Brzezinski groaned, Willie Geist pointed out, “So obviously, I mean, there is the tape. A week ago, he said one thing, now yesterday he is saying it is fake news.”

“Again, it just gets at what we pointed out at the top of the show, he's floundering on this. The Pentagon is floundering on this question. There is talk of Republicans withholding funds from Pete Hegseth.”

Co-host Jonathan Lemire chimed in with, “Yeah, flailing is the right way to put it.“

He later added, “But in terms of inside the West Wing, they recognize this story — they can’t get their arms around it. It seems to be spiraling by the day and, for Secretary Hegseth, he’s received votes of confidence from the president — he gave him another one yesterday — but there are plenty people in that building who say, hey look, he has already lost the Pentagon.”

“Though he [Hegseth] is not in imminent danger, there are people around him that are saying the president is tiring of the distraction.”

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Democrats who are hoping to snatch control of the House away from Republicans and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) in 2026 are going to get a major boost from former Republicans who want to see Donald Trump neutered for the last two years he is in office.

According to a report from Politico’s Andrew Howard, the Save America Movement PAC has launched a new initiative labeled “Save America Seats,” with plans to raise and spend $100 million in support of Democratic challengers targeting GOP-held seats.

The report notes that disaffected former GOP campaign consultant Steve Schmidt is behind the initiative, which will be the PAC’s first foray into candidate-focused attacks.

According to co-founder Mary Corcoran, “The Save America Movement was started with the express mission of defeating MAGA, but the electoral side, particularly the 2026 elections, are absolutely critical to that mission.”

The report notes they have “big plans” and hope to raise the big money needed to make a dent in the GOP caucus and they feel the timing is right.

"The timing of the launch comes just a week after progressive Tennessee state Rep. Aftyn Behn made a double-digit cut into the GOP’s margin in a deep-red House seat but still came up 9 points shy of victory. That performance followed Democrats making sweeping gains in November’s off-year races, ranging from gubernatorial wins in New Jersey and Virginia to two flips on a statewide utility board in Georgia,” Politico is reporting, with adviser Brandon Hall admitting, “We can’t truly break the MAGA movement until these Republican members of Congress are more afraid of their own voters than they are of Donald Trump.”

Corcoran detailed their strategy, explaining, “Republicans have always been really good about speaking to voters early. We need to fill that gap and ensure by the time the candidates are actually campaigning, the voters already have a perspective in their minds about how they’re going to vote.”

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is discovering that he can change the players, but he can't change the game as one of the more prominent conservative “reporters” he has allowed to cover the Pentagon is already giving him grief less than a week in.

The embattled Donald Trump appointee effectively purged the mainstream media from covering the Pentagon if they didn't agree to highly restrictive rules.

In their place, the Pentagon has allowed in what the Guardian has labeled, “mouthpieces for Trump,” which includes, “dozens of rightwing media figures and organizations who agreed to the strict rules, including Laura Loomer, a Trump confidante who has described herself as a ‘proud Islamophobe’; LindellTV, an online streaming channel founded by Mike Lindell, a conspiracy theorist and CEO of MyPillow; and Matt Gaetz, a disgraced former congressman turned host at One America News Network.”

With Hegseth facing a firestorm accompanied by accusations of war crimes from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, the honeymoon with Loomer — who has a history of urging Trump to fire aides and government officials she feels are “disloyal" — looks to be on shaky ground.

On Monday, as the debate rages about drug interdiction and how far the Pentagon can legally go, Loomer weighed in on X, writing, “What’s really interesting about the strikes in Venezuela is the fact that only 8% of the drug supply that comes into the US is coming from Venezuela. Most of it is cocaine. I have no sympathy for narcoterrorists being killed. It’s just worth noting that over 90% of the drug supply coming into the US is coming in from Mexico, especially the fentanyl.”

“Fentanyl isn’t being manufactured in Venezuela,” she asserted. “Given that 90% of the drugs coming into the US that are killing Americans are coming from Mexico, when can we expect to see air strikes on the Mexican cartels in Mexico? Or what about China, since China produces the chemicals that are used to make fentanyl in Mexico?”

Needling the Pentagon chief, she baited him with, “It makes a lot of sense to start with neutralizing the Mexican cartels since that’s where most of the damage is coming from. It makes me wonder why this hasn’t been done… surely the @DeptofWar knows where all of the Mexican drug lords live.”

Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s future within Donald Trump’s administration is reportedly on “thin ice,” reports MS NOW’s Jake Traylor — with highly influential Trump adviser Stephen Miller reportedly seeking her ouster.

Over the weekend, The Bulwark reported that White House patience with the controversial Noem is waning over her escapades and “it was made clear that Trump is indeed considering moving on from Noem. Two of those officials said they believed such a move could happen 'really soon,' relaying that they’ve been told Noem has been taking on less of a role in directing department memos.”

On Monday, Traylor expanded on the Bulwark’s reporting and pointed out that, not only is Miller grossly unhappy with the DHS head, about Republican governors’ complaints about the former South Dakota governor, but he is also displeased with how she is spending the billions of taxpayer dollars Republicans have been shoveling her way.

As Traylor explained to host Anna Cabrerra, “Now at the center of her ousting is the deputy chief of staff to the White House, Stephen Miller, who focuses on policy and homeland security. The frustration from Miller to want to oust Kristi Noem is twofold, a white house official tells me.”

“The first part of that is that there is really growing frustration around her inability to build out detention facilities; the big, beautiful bill that was passed earlier this year had $45 billion allocated to Noem to oversee the building out of these immigration enforcement facilities,” he added. “Miller has grown increasingly frustrated that she has not done that in the efficient time that has been allocated.”

“Secondly, there have been multiple governors, this White House official tells me, that have called Donald Trump personally to complain about Noem, saying that she is not being efficient with FEMA resources, disaster relief funds to the state,” he elaborated.

“So, really, a twofold frustration that Miller personally has with Kristi Noem and the White House official that I spoke with said that the decision is not actually fully finalized in terms of her ousting.”

He added that there is reportedly a “short-list” of replacements for Noem being compiled and headed by outgoing Republican Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, who doesn’t have the controversies that have dogged Noem since she made a run at being Trump's running mate before he selected Sen. JD Vance (R-OH).

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Crawling from the wreckage of the successful California redistricting vote that will likely make Golden State GOP representation in Washington, DC, almost extinct, Politico’s Jeremy White reported Monday that party leaders in the state are desperately looking for a path forward.

In response to President Donald Trump setting in motion redrawing of district boundary lines in Texas in order to acquire more Republican seats in the House in the 2026 midterms, California Gov. Gavin Newsom returned the favor with Prop. 50 that did the same for the Democrats in his already liberal state.

Voters in California backed him by a stunning 64 to 35 percent margin, the report noted, adding that GOP campaign consultant Dave Gilliard admitted, “I’m sure Gavin Newsom and the Democrats are sitting back laughing and enjoying the havoc they’ve wreaked on the Republicans in California.”

Politico’s White wrote that imperiled GOP lawmakers are “fighting each other for scraps” after an election day blow which left them “demoralized,” feeling “massacred” and see the results as an “obliteration.”

“The infighting began almost immediately. Less than 24 hours after Proposition 50 passed, Rep. Ken Calvert announced he’d run for one of the few remaining red seats, after his own Southern California district was redrawn to favor Democrats. He was followed quickly by Rep. Young Kim, who announced a $3.5 million ad buy that would begin in April of next year — an unusually long runway that looked like an effort to dominate the airwaves and drive up ad rates before Calvert could,” the report states.

Longtime California Rep. Darrell Issa (R) has even toyed with moving to Texas to run for a seat there before backing off.

Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa, stated, “I was really hoping there’d be some type of agreement worked out that we wouldn’t have Republicans pitted against Republicans. That’s counterproductive and all it does is waste resources.”

With Republicans pointing fingers, fundraiser Anne Dunsmore warned, “I don’t want people to lose hope, but everyone needs to wake up and deal with this. Everyone needs to go back to their corners and reassess. We can’t go back to the battlefield in the same way — we’re almost completely gone.”

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Republicans hoping to get questions answered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are getting impatient with his stonewalling and are finding Donald Trump’s White House to also be unresponsive, conservative journalist David Drucker reported Monday.

Appearing on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” Drucker claimed GOP lawmakers are desperately seeking guidance as they fend off questions about the attacks on so-called narcoterrorists — but they're not getting their calls returned.

Drucker pointed out this has led to growing anger and impatience within the party.

Asked by co-host Jonathan Lemire about a growing desire among lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for the Pentagon to release all video from the attacks, including the so-called “double-tap” clip that has lawmakers bickering about what they saw when it was shared with them, Drucker claimed there are ominous rumblings.

“One of the things that I learned was that there's a lot of simmering distrust and unhappiness with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,” he reported. “He does not communicate with Republicans on Capitol Hill. The administration has been very opaque with these operations in the Caribbean and what's going on vis-à-vis Venezuela. And so, you know, this frustration runs deep in this way.”

"I've had Republicans tell me that, look, I'm on the same team as President Trump. I want to help his defense department succeed and I can't get any information or anybody to talk to me over at the Pentagon. And I think that if the administration were more communicative with Republicans on the Hill they, number one, might know more and might conclude from the information that this isn't what it appears to be or what it could be. Number two, and obviously this is this is a different political issue here, they might not give the administration such a hard time about this because they'd feel like they were looped in.”

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Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) got a dressing down on Monday morning for his performance over the weekend on ABC after he lashed out at "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos who put him on the spot about Donald Trump’s pardon of a cocaine kingpin.

Schmitt, the former attorney general of Missouri before being elected to the US Senate, was asked about the pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of plotting to flood the US with cocaine. The Missouri lawmaker claimed he was in the dark about the president’s interference on the convicted drug dealer’s part.

That led the ABC host to shoot back, “What do you mean you're not familiar with the facts and circumstances of the pardon? It's been well-reported all across the country. He is the former president of Honduras. He was convicted of conspiring to bring in 400 tons of cocaine into the United States. Also guns and other materials. It's been front-page news across the country. Aren't you curious about that?”

Ducking the question, Schmitt snapped, “Well, I'm curious about your pushback on that particular point. With your previous guest [Democratic Sen Chris Coons], you had zero pushback because he is giving the Democrat talking points like you spew every single week, which is probably why your ratings are so bad. But to make the point, what I'm saying is that you're trying to divert here the attention from what the American people actually support.”

Before sharing the clip on MS NOW on Monday morning, “Morning Joe“ co-host Mika Brzezinski stated, “Republican Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri repeatedly dodged questions about whether he supported President Trump's pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez.”

After the clip ran, the disgusted MS NOW host bluntly stated, “Okay. The shamelessness is so painful. We also had a senator on our show last week who just didn't know enough about the pardon to talk about it. It's really, really, really pitiful at this point, because the hypocrisy of pardoning this individual while you have this potentially unlawful operation going after these narco terrorists in these little boats, we know who these people are in these boats in terms of the narco terrorism operation. They are not like the big fish in the operations. Not not even close.”

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is not making any new friends at the Pentagon, as the whole department is facing scrutiny over his attacks on so-called narco-terrorists while giving department intel officials the cold shoulder.

That is according to longtime Washington Post columnist David Ignatius who reported on MS NOW Monday that the Donald Trump appointee’s tenure at the Pentagon, where he has fired people left and right, is now coming back to haunt him during the latest crisis.

Asked by “Morning Joe” co-host Jonathan Lemire what the mood is like at the Pentagon as questions about war crimes hang over Hegseth, a grim-faced Ignatius responded, “So, Jonathan, what I hear from retired military and intelligence officers in particular is a sense of deep unhappiness about what they're hearing about and what we may see the details of. I think, in this terrible crisis over the September 2nd shootings, we forget that the vast majority of American soldiers and intelligence officers have worked hard, especially these last two decades, to follow the rules in the most difficult armed conflict situations imaginable.”

“And I think it offends a lot of them to see this essentially dismissive attitude from Secretary Hegseth about the issues that have been raised here,” he offered. “People want to see the laws of war, the rules that commanders have to live by and need to live by to avoid making mistakes drawn clearly here. The only way you can do that is public hearings that lay out what happened and make clear where responsibilities are, where mistakes may have been made.

“But I think above all, there's a feeling that this crisis could produce greater clarity that this generation of commanders needs. It could strengthen the hand of lawyers in the military who were essentially purged by Pete Hegseth in the first months that he was Secretary of Defense, so that they have a stronger role. Their advice, which is needed, can be listened to,” he added hopefully.

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