Travis Gettys

President Donald Trump's ambassador to Greece signed off on some eye-watering expenditures, according to leaked documents.

Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News co-host and Donald Trump Jr.’s one-time fiancée, requested the construction of a $58,000 basketball court at the lavish Jefferson House in Athens, where she has been living while serving as the top diplomat, reported The Daily Mail.

"It started with a courtside seat and a custom jersey – and now American taxpayers are set to foot the bill," the outlet reported.

"[Guilfoyle] has thrown herself into the city's glittering social scene: receptions, courtside seats, and late-night parties," the report added. "And to document it all, she's seeking to add a personal photographer to the US government payroll at 25,000 euro ($29,000) per year, according to a prospective contract obtained by the Daily Mail."

Panagiotis and Giorgos Angelopoulos, owners of the famed Olympiacos basketball team, struck up a friendship with the ambassador and gave her a jersey bearing the name of Greek basketball legend Vassilis Spanoulis, and she's been spotted at games sitting with the duo and Los Angeles Chargers linebacker Daiyan Henley and Greek-American shooting guard Tyler Dorsey.

"In the spirit of friendship, respect, and US-Greek ties," the 57-year-old posted on Facebook, along with photos of herself swapping jerseys with the players.

She's looking to add a photographer added to the taxpayer payroll on an "as-needed basis," including "after-hours and weekend" shifts for up to 20 hours a month, according to a prospective contract dated Feb. 20, the Mail reported.

The photographer would be expected to deliver edited images within 24 hours, or faster if requested by the embassy.

"Guilfoyle launched her diplomatic tenure with a nightclub party hosted by Greek pop idol Konstantinos Argiros in late October," the Mail reported. "They were joined by billionaire ticket marketplace tycoon Eric Vassilatos, who has since been spotted with Guilfoyle in London and Miami."

President Donald Trump's approval rating on the key issue that won him re-election has hit a dismal new low, and CNN's Harry Enten is betting things will get worse.

A new CNN poll shows the 79-year-old president's approval for his handling of the economy has hit a personal low of just 31 percent just a year and a half after voters chose him to carry through on his promise to fix inflation immediately upon returning to office, but that hasn't happened and the public is dissatisfied.

"This is no April fool's joke, this is a disaster," Enten said. "All these numbers are a disaster for President Trump. I mean, let's just talk about inflation, which is the name of the game. Okay, highest disapprovals on this inflation about this time in a presidency. Whenever you have Joe Biden and Jimmy Carter on the board and you're matching them or slightly exceeding them when it comes to inflation, you know it's bad. Look at this – 72 percent in our latest CNN poll say they disapprove of the president on inflation. Joe Biden, an average of polls at this point in his presidency, 68 percent, and Jimmy Carter, whose presidency, just like Joe Biden's, was absolutely wrecked by inflation, was at 66 percent about at this point in his presidency back in 1978."

"Donald Trump, even worse than they are," he added. "So you see it here, and the one word is or phrase I might say is, oh my goodness gracious, what a disaster."

Inflation was substantially higher during Biden's presidency than Trump's second term, but rising fuel costs associated with his Iran war are driving voter approval into the tank.

"Biden's worst number, his worst number in any poll I could find, was 72 percent disapprove of Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump," Enten said. "Right now, in our CNN poll, 76 percent, 76 percent, three in four Americans disapprove of the way that Donald Trump is handling gas prices, and again, the gas prices were higher during Biden, but the increase has been so dramatic under the last month under Donald Trump – we're talking about an increase of about a dollar – it's the highest increase that we've seen since at least 1991 in terms of raw dollars. No wonder this number is so high. He is beating or doing even worse than Joe Biden was on gas prices, which of course was such a major issue."

Trump's approval rating on the economy is historically bad compared to other presidents, Enten said.

"These are the worst in our poll – 69 percent disapprove of Donald Trump on the economy," he said. "For George W. Bush it was 57 percent, in terms of the average, Barack Obama, 56 percent. Donald Trump is crushing them on a metric you don't want to be crushing anybody on, which is disapproval ratings on the economy – he's double digits. I was looking at some other polling data also above the 57 percent to 56 percent, the worst of all time at this point. In term number two, it's the economy dragging Trump down, being, of course, accelerated by inflation being so bad, and, of course, the gas prices just adding up. It's like a pancake tower and you're just reaching the top, and this is not a tower you want to climb."

"Where does the Kalshi prediction market say that we're going on inflation chance CPI year over year is above 4 percent in any month in 2026, 64 percent [chance]," Enten added. "That would be for the first time since 2023, so the inflation tower that we're going up, it seems like there are more steps on a stairway, certainly not to heaven, more like hell, if you're the president of the United States."

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President Donald Trump confirmed his presidential library will be more like a high-rise hotel, and it will be built on a parcel of prime downtown Miami real estate finagled from a college that primarily serves minorities.

The 79-year-old president shared AI-generated video of his planned presidential library Monday on social media, but he told reporters in the Oval Office the following day that the project will closely resemble the self-branded hotels he developed as a private businessman – but he used his political powers to purchase the valuable property for next to nothing, as reported by NPR and WTVJ-TV.

"I don't believe in building libraries or museums," Trump told reporters. "Could be [an] office, but it's most likely going to be a hotel with a beautiful building underneath and a 747 Air Force One in the lobby."

The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Fund, Inc., owns the 2.6-acre plot at 531 NE 2 Ave. – across from two museums, the Kaseya Center, Bayside Marketplace and PortMiami – after the District Board of Trustees of Miami-Dade College transferred the land in late September to a state board overseen by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The college, which enrolls more minority students than any college or university in the U.S., had been using the land – valued at $67 million – as an employee parking lot, and local activists filed a lawsuit in early October accused Miami-Dade College of violating Florida's Sunshine Laws by failing to properly notify residents of what the board would be voting on.

A local judge agreed and temporarily blocked the transfer of the land and scheduled a trial for August 2026, and a state appeals court declined to block the legal challenge, but the college trustees held another vote in December that was more publicized, and nearly 100 people voiced their opposition at the meeting.

However, the board of trustees voted unanimously to transfer the valuable real estate to Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund of the State of Florida, and a month after that vote Miami-Dade College President Madeline Pumariega turned over the property to that board overseen by DeSantis, the state gave up the land in a quitclaim deed in February to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, Inc.

Court records show the state transferred the property previously owned by the college to the presidential library for $10.

The nonprofit Trump library fund was set up December 2024 after ABC News agreed to donate $15 million as part of its defamation lawsuit, and tech giants and other companies pumped it full of cash as part of other legal settlements with Trump, but the fund was dissolved by the state in September 2025 – days before the trustees' first voted on the land transfer – after it failed to file required annual reporting.

It's not clear how much money was in the fund at the time, but Democratic lawmakers say it could have held up to $63 million.

The only stipulation on the quitclaim deed, as the Miami Herald reported, is that "construction starts on a 'Presidential library, museum, and/or center within five years.'"

A conservative commentator met repeated pushback on "CNN This Morning" for justifying President Donald Trump's attempts to take over this year's midterm elections.

The 79-year-old president signed his second election-related executive order in this term directing the Department of Homeland Security to create federal lists of citizens and ordering the U.S. Postal Service to transmit mail ballots to only those voters, and conservative activist Terry Schilling insisted Trump was addressing a real issue and not simply trying to tip the scales in Republicans' favor.

"Look, to say that we're terrified of losing in the midterms is ridiculous," said Schilling, president of the anti-trans American Principles Project. "It is the trend, is the vast majority of the midterm elections after every single Republican president or Democrat president wins, there's a huge pushback in the election. So to act like we're wetting the bed over this is just preposterous. But I will say that for the people that are concerned about all of the changes that President Trump is making to our election system, we should rewind a few years. I mean, in 2020 was the first election where not just millions of ballots, but tens of millions of ballots were cast through the mail. This has never been done in American history. Jimmy Carter, for example, wrote an entire brief and report on election integrity where he admonished nations that did mail-in balloting. It's super unsecure, so I think we need some –"

"Donald Trump just voted by mail in the special election," interrupted former Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh.

"No, no, listen," Schilling replied.

"But there's also not any evidence of widespread fraud and certainly not in the U.S., widespread fraud," added host Erica Hill.

Schilling shifted the terms of the debate.

"But the argument is not that there is not widespread fraud," Schilling argued. "The argument being made against this executive order is that he's making all of these changes to federal elections. I'm sorry, but in California, they allow illegal immigrants to register to vote. They're only allowed to vote in state elections, apparently. [Editor's note: California law allows noncitizens to vote in some local elections but not in state or federal elections.] But we know that these laws are fungible. You know, we're up against an entire party that really doesn't even believe in American citizenship."

Singh heard enough.

"I am sorry, I have to absolutely object to that," she said.

"Please do, I love that," Schilling interjected, beaming into her face.

"The party that is on the other side of that – I mean, that that is just patently false," Singh said. "We are not against citizenship, and what we want and what Democrats have been fighting for is just access to to voting and voting by mail is something that I do, something that the president does, that is inherently safe, that is secure, and something that can be done with ease."

"It is not secure," Schilling insisted. "We need rules."

"There's no evidence that it's not secure," Hill added, "that it has been widely insecure in the United States."

Schilling argued that the Department of Justice had seized absentee ballots in Georgia that showed signatures that didn't match ones on voter registrations, and legal expert Shan Wu challenged his assertion.

"Just because they got them, it means they're fraudulent?" Wu said.

"No, it means that their their signatures don't match," Schilling replied, and Wu chuckled. "Look, the reality is the American people need to have assurances that their elections are safe and secure."

"They do," Singh exclaimed. "They have in every single election that's happened."

Schilling shifted the terms of debate once again.

"Sabrina, Sabrina, let me just say," he said, beaming into her face again. "Let me say half of the country, half of the country disagrees."

"That's actually not true," Singh corrected.

"Yes, half of the country has very big concerns," Schilling insisted. "They're called Republicans, about how our elections are handled."

A recent poll found 57 percent of Republicans say voter fraud is the biggest threat to elections, and Singh told Schilling she's talked to many Republicans who don't have concerns about the issue Trump's order is purported to address.

"But you haven't talked to me or my friends," Schilling said.

President Donald Trump's off-the-cuff statements about the Iran war have sowed confusion among foreign leaders and financial markets, and within his own administration.

Some of the 79-year-old president's aides and allies confirmed to Axios that Trump has been improvising his plan for the war, saying he likes to keep his options open and spitball ideas for the joint U.S.-Israeli military operation with various audiences, and they said he has vacillated between a major escalation and a swift resolution.

"Nobody knows in the end what he's really thinking," said one senior adviser.

"They had a plan for the first week and since then, they are making the plan up as they go along," added a former U.S. official.

Some administration officials and outside allies argue the ambiguity is intentional. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who recently spoke with Trump, told Axios: "That's the plan — for you to not have a clue." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed this sentiment, stating the objective is to remain "unpredictable." An unnamed official characterized the strategy as "12-dimensional" chess, claiming Trump deliberately contradicts himself to obscure his intentions.

Current signals suggest Trump may be preparing to withdraw and declare victory within two to three weeks. He has repeatedly discussed U.S. success and potential exit scenarios. However, his private conversations increasingly focus on hawkish advisers like Graham and conservative commentator Mark Levin rather than those cautioning against escalation.

The contradictions are apparent in simultaneous actions: Trump discusses exit strategies while simultaneously massing additional forces in the region, including potential invasion capabilities. Officials speculate that if an April 6 deadline passes without a negotiated settlement, Trump may authorize heavy bombing of Iranian infrastructure and nuclear facilities before withdrawing.

Regional allies like Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates worry about leaving Iran weakened but unbowed.

"The Saudis sound like Mark Levin," one Trump adviser said. "They want the U.S. to finish the job by wiping Iran off the globe now. We don't want to."

Additional complications include unresolved challenges regarding the Strait of Hormuz and potential ongoing "mowing the grass" operations — periodic strikes conducted after major combat concludes.

"The president said early on we might have to come back," another administration official said, "and we might have to. If we have to mow the lawn again, the grass won't be nearly as tall next time."

Trump is scheduled to address the nation on Iran Wednesday evening, potentially offering the clarity his own advisers and international partners desperately seek.

The Trump administration's online portal for processing refunds on tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court will only handle approximately 63 percent of 53 million import entries when it debuts, according to a court filing submitted Tuesday.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials told the U.S. Court of International Trade that the system cannot process refund claims for the remaining one-third of entries immediately, without providing a timeline for subsequent phases, reported Bloomberg. The agency previously committed to having the first phase operational by mid-April.

The Supreme Court declared Trump's tariff executive orders unlawful in February, determining that importers paid more than $166 billion under the contested levies. The government has committed to providing interest payments alongside refunds.

The initial phase will process tariffs that have not yet become "final" — a designation typically occurring more than a year after goods enter the country. However, this limitation has created complications for importers facing "final" tariffs, which automatically reach that status unless companies file costly and time-consuming protests.

Brandon Lord, executive director of the Trade Programs Directorate at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said that including "final" duties would prevent the agency from meeting its original mid-April deadline for the first phase. As of this week, the main claim portal was 85 percent complete, with other system components between 60 percent to 80 percent finished.

U.S. Court of International Trade Judge Richard Eaton, overseeing the tariff refund litigation, initially ordered the government to recalculate tariffs but did not initially include "final" duties. After companies raised concerns about ongoing automatic tariff finalization, he expanded his order to include those tariffs as well.

The administration has registered more than 26,000 importers to receive electronic refunds, representing approximately $120 billion in challenged tariffs. The case, Atmus Filtration Inc. v. United States, has become the lead litigation for tariff refund disputes.

President Donald Trump's preferred candidate in Alabama is bucking "conventional wisdom" by trailing badly in Republican primary.

The president endorsed former state GOP chair John Wahl for lieutenant governor in January, but a new poll released Monday shows him in third place behind Secretary of State Wes Allen and state Agriculture and Industries Commissioner Rick Pate, reported AL.com.

“The conventional wisdom says a presidential endorsement settles a primary,” said Michael Lowry, founder of The Alabama Poll. "The lieutenant governor’s race says otherwise."

Wahl is polling at 7 percent, behind frontrunner Allen at 18.7 percent and Pate at 8.8 percent, although a majority of Republican voters, 60.2 percent, remain undecided.

"The Trump-endorsed candidate is the only one in the field with a net negative favorability rating, and he trails by nearly 12 points," Lowry said. "There’s certainly room to recover but this isn’t what any campaign wants to see a month and half out.”

The Alabama Poll found Wahl, a butterfly farmer from north Alabama, had the highest net negative favorability rating among the candidates at minus-1.7 points, but he pointed out that Allen's favorability had fallen from 28 percent in an August poll and 23 percent in February to 18.7 percent in the latest survey.

“A four-point drop since the last poll by this firm makes it clear that voters are looking for an alternative,” Wahl said.

Lowry agreed Allen's drooping favorability “warrants watching," but he said his "overall structural position" was solid with an 11.7-point lead, and the secretary of state touted his record as a "proven conservative."

“I am the only candidate in this race that has sponsored and passed legislation to ban transgender procedures on children, the only one to help send absentee ballot harvesting crooks to jail and the only one to remove noncitizens from our voters rolls," Allen said.

The poll noted that Pate was the “only candidate in this race showing consistent upward movement," but he told AL.com he was surprised his numbers weren't higher.

“Everywhere I go, people are encouraging and supportive,” Pate said. “God opens doors and closes doors, we’ll do our best.”

The winner of the May 19 primary will face the winner of a Democratic primary contest between state Rep. Phillip Ensler of Montgomery and Darryl Perryman of Grove Hill in the November election.

President Donald Trump has sunk to historic lows in his approval rating, and CNN's Harry Enten sees "no sign" that he can turn things around.

The 79-year-old president has been underwater in approval for more than a year now, and his war in Iran has driven up fuel costs around the world and made consumer costs even higher, which has driven down his approval rating even lower.

"We are talking as low as Death Valley, and this, I think is so key here," Enten said. "You know, it is sped up now, but this has been a steady fall into the abyss – there is no bottom, Death Valley. See, that is how low we are going, and look at this. I think this really just kind of shows that it is not one event that is dragging Donald Trump down. It's a slew of events that have come together and have continuously dropped his net approval rating. You know, you go back to last year, when he was sworn in for a second term, he was at plus-six points, then minus-three points a year ago, minus-seven points nine months ago, minus-10 points on Oct. 20, 2025."

"January 2026, minus-13 points, and now all the way down to minus-18 points, a term-two low, and what is so key to point out here is let's just say that somehow we got out of the Iran war tomorrow," Enten added. "Yeah, might ctlimb a little bit, but we have seen this steady, slow or steady and dropping number that just seems no sign of rising."

That trend is different from his first term, when Trump was actually rising in approval at this point in 2018, and Enten said his approval with independents was historically awful.

"Eye-popping indeed," Enten said. "This number, if there's one big number from this is that Donald Trump now has the worst net approval rating among independents of any president ever at this point in term two, he is worse than Richard Nixon, who would be going adios, amigos in a few months back in 1974, and term two, look at this, minus-45 points, worse than George W. Bush at this point in term two, the Iraq war was weighing him down at minus-37 and worse than Richard Nixon, when, of course, there were all those impeachment hearings back in 1974, at minus-36, he's nearly 10 points worse among independents on his net approval rating at this point in term two, Donald Trump, than Richard Nixon. My goodness gracious."

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President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested he was caught off guard by Iran's response to the joint U.S.-Israeli military operation, and that has placed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth under scrutiny.

Sources have said the self-styled "secretary of war" downplayed the risks of Iran shutting down the Strait of Hormuz and launching counterstrikes on its Middle Eastern neighbors, and CNN's Erica Hill asked her panelists on "CNN This Morning" whether Hegseth had failed in his role.

"CNN also had reporting in the days just before the war that Gen. [Dan] Caine, [chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff], was really in a bit of a balancing act here, right?" Hill said. "Trying to avoid confrontation with the president while also laying out, trying to lay out the risks here of the war. Especially in a moment like this, when U.S. service members are being sent into a dangerous situation, it's important that the president have the full scope of what could happen. This is more reporting that that's not happening. How damning could that be?"

Journalist Margaret Talev agreed that the president should have full awareness of the risks of a military operation, from the best-case scenario to the worst-case scenario, as well as long-term prospects, and she said early indications suggest that Trump was not provided with an in-depth assessment.

"As this goes on, this kind of reporting is going to be really important, important to help people understand the conversation that's going on behind the scenes," said Talev, director of Syracuse University's Institute for Democracy, Journalism & Citizenship. "But I do think there are certainly leadership on the president's side inside the government, including the chairman of the joint chiefs who can give all of that kind of guidance and all of that kind of scenario planning."

Hegseth has also drawn criticism from retired military leaders for his "braggadocious" posturing during updates on Operation Epic Fury, and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona said she was astonished by the disconnect between his chest-beating public performances and seeming dereliction behind the scenes.

"I think one of the things that we can't do here is extract the politics from this, because Donald Trump is the commander in chief," Cardona said, "and it was jaw-dropping to me when he said and has said several times that the reaction by the Iranians was unexpected. It was not unexpected. There have been plans, the reporting has been that there have been plans for years that this is exactly how Iran would react if we did what we did."

"Pete Hegseth and everyone who was surrounding him from the political standpoint, they're all 'yes' people, and there is a danger in surrounding yourself with 'yes' people," she added. "But we all know that that's the only thing that Donald Trump accepts, and you even saw the joint chiefs, you said he was kind of dancing around and not wanting to say things very directly to to not offend Donald Trump. That doesn't do Donald Trump any good, and importantly, it doesn't do the American people any good. It absolutely takes away credibility, if Donald Trump had any credibility to begin with, because the things that he's saying don't track with the reality of what we're hearing in terms of reporting about the war."

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President Donald Trump has shackled Republicans with a "huge challenge" heading into the midterm election cycle, according to a former White House official.

The U.S. labor market has experienced no growth or net private-sector job creation over recent months, despite the 79-year-old president's promises during his 2024 re-election campaign, and former Trump official Marc Short told "CNN NewsNight" that one of his signature policies was at least partially to blame for the sluggish economy.

"I think the president was elected on two primary issues, the border and addressing affordability issues," said Short, who was director of legislative affairs in Trump's first term and then served as chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence. "The reality is that action, the labor jobs, they've actually net negative since 'liberation day.'"

The president announced his sweeping tariff regime April 2, 2025 – which he dubbed "liberation day" – that lifted prices for importers and retails consumers and dragged down hiring as they passed through the economy, and Short said those trade wars would be a problem for GOP candidates.

"I think this is a huge challenge for Republicans heading into the midterms," Short said. "The president has a good story about having made America more, a net exporter of energy, but we're not insulated from this, and the reality is that prices are going to continue to go up. This is going to continue to ripple through [the economy]."

"It's to say this is a short-term pain really sets an expectation for a lot of Americans that if it's not, it's going to create a bigger and bigger problem come November," he added, "and so I do think that affordability was one of the primary issues that he was elected on. I think it's becoming a growing and growing challenge for Republicans in the midterms this November."

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The Department of Housing and Urban Development has dramatically expanded its immigration enforcement activities, auditing thousands of housing applicants and proposing new rules that would force mixed-status families to choose between separating from undocumented relatives or losing rental assistance entirely.

HUD Secretary Scott Turner has instructed public housing authorities to verify immigration status for approximately 200,000 people receiving federal housing benefits, reported the Washington Post. The department is also sharing data with the Department of Homeland Security and has proposed a rule blocking mixed-status households — families containing both documented and undocumented members — from accessing housing programs altogether.

The policy would devastate eligible families. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that nearly 80,000 people would lose housing assistance under the proposed rule, including 52,600 eligible citizens and 35,400 citizen children. Housing officials report that for every ineligible person removed from programs, approximately three eligible people lose assistance.

Public housing authorities have raised significant concerns about the implementation. HUD provided 3,000 housing agencies with lists of flagged tenants and demanded corrections within 30 days — a timeframe housing officials characterize as impossible. After investigation, local officials discovered the vast majority of flagged individuals were flagged in error due to data synchronization problems, duplicate entries, or administrative mistakes like missing initials or transposed Social Security numbers.

Mark Thiele, chief executive of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, criticized the shift in mission.

“Putting that responsibility on them shifts immigration enforcement away from the agencies that are meant to handle it and actually puts eligible families at risk of losing their housing assistance,” Thiele said. “Housing agencies should focus on what they do best: providing homes for their communities. They should not be asked to act as immigration enforcers on top of that.”

Turner defended the policy as necessary to protect taxpayer funds and ensure benefits reach U.S. citizens. "Under President Trump's leadership, the days of illegal aliens, ineligibles, and fraudsters gaming the system and riding the coattails of American taxpayers are over," he stated.

Housing experts argue the policy won't address underlying housing shortages or lower costs. Of 4.4 million HUD-assisted households, only approximately 20,000 are mixed-status. The proposed changes represent part of a broader administration effort to use federal agencies for immigration enforcement, including similar initiatives at the Education Department, IRS, and banking sector.