US News

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) taunted congressional Republicans Monday morning over a key vote slated for next week, one that he argued was making “vulnerable” GOP lawmakers increasingly “nervous” over the potential fallout from voters.

That vote is on Republicans’ $72 billion spending package, which includes a $1 billion ask for security related to President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project, an ask that has made a growing number of GOP lawmakers uneasy.

Senate Republicans have included $1 billion in funding for White House security upgrades related to President Donald Trump's East Wing renovation project in a $70 billion immigration enforcement bill, triggering sharp criticism from Democrats – and resistance from some GOP lawmakers.

The provision, tucked into the reconciliation package by Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, explicitly restricts funds to "security adjustments and upgrades" and prohibits spending on non-security ballroom elements, but the Trump administration has embraced the measure as tacit approval of the president's ballroom project, which Democrats argue amounts to federal funding of the construction, reported MS NOW.

The Washington Post's editorial board is warning Americans that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s push to dictate what hospitals can serve patients is a sign of dangers to come.

In a blistering editorial published Sunday, the board accused Kennedy of "using the coercive power of government to substitute his judgment" for that of doctors and patients, and called the crackdown "a warning to anyone who supports a full government takeover of health care."

Progressive podcaster Bryan Tyler Cohen is calling on Democratic governors in blue states to "wake the [expletive] up" and go on the offensive, warning that the GOP redistricting blitz could erase Democrats from the U.S. House for a generation.

In a Sunday video posted to his "No Lie" YouTube channel, Cohen ran through the running tally of Republican-controlled states moving to wipe out Democratic seats, including Alabama, where lawmakers are reverting to a map previously struck down as a racist gerrymander.

The Wall Street Journal's editorial board is accusing the ethanol lobby of "extortion" after Congress handed it a sweetheart deal as "political compensation" for the damage caused by President Donald Trump's tariff blitz, and warning that American drivers will pay the price at the pump.

In a scathing editorial published Sunday, the board described how the corn fuel lobby threatened to hold the five-year farm bill hostage unless Congress agreed to permit year-round sale of E15 fuel, a blend of 15 percent ethanol and 85 percent gasoline, and severely restrict waivers from the ethanol mandate for small refiners.

The Wall Street Journal's editorial board is sounding the alarm ahead of President Donald Trump's summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday, warning that Xi set a "Venus fly trap" for Trump on Taiwan that could upend decades of U.S. foreign policy.

The board warned that Xi wants Trump to formally "oppose" Taiwanese independence, a subtle but seismic shift from the current U.S. posture of "not supporting" it. While the change might sound like diplomatic hairsplitting, the Journal warned it would have massive ramifications.

Author and journalist Anand Giridharadas identified Sunday what he called the single thing that has allowed the wealthy and powerful figures in Jeffrey Epstein's orbit to escape accountability for decades — and it's something most Americans have lost.

Speaking on The Daily Beast podcast with host Joanna Coles, Giridharadas argued the so-called "Epstein class" — a shadowy network of billionaires, financiers, professors, royals, and political operators — operates by a code of mutual protection that overrides any ideological divide.

A former senior White House official is spilling the tea on Stephen and Katie Miller, describing the union of Donald Trump's deputy chief of staff and his right-wing podcaster wife as less of a romance and more of a corporate transaction.

"It's more like a merger than a marriage," the former official told the Financial Times in a sprawling profile published Saturday. "They’re very close as a couple, but they’re two very odd ducks."

A Virginia church group's Sunday discussion turned into a raw debate over whether President Donald Trump deserves forgiveness — with one parishioner flatly declaring it isn't his job to grant it.

About a dozen members of Annandale United Methodist Church gathered in a chapel beside the sanctuary to wrestle with faith, the U.S. war in Iran, and Trump's recent feud with Pope Leo XIV, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. The conversation came in the wake of Trump's AI-generated image appearing to depict himself as a Christ-like figure, which the president later deleted.

A hotly contested Democratic primary in Nebraska's Omaha-area Second Congressional District is shaping up as one of the more unusual dilemmas of the 2026 midterms: the candidate best positioned to flip the seat could, under certain circumstances, inadvertently put the district's coveted electoral vote at risk in a future presidential race, according to the New York Times.

The district, known nationally as the "blue dot" for the speck of Democratic blue it can produce on an otherwise red map, awards a single Electoral College vote to its presidential winner. Nebraska and Maine are the only states that split their electoral votes by congressional district, a quirk that made the blue dot a potential tipping point in 2024.

Critics across the political spectrum erupted Sunday after the Trump administration's stunning move to clear a path for major tobacco companies to flood gas stations and convenience stores with flavored e-cigarettes — a policy shift that benefits some of President Donald Trump's most reliable donors.

The Food and Drug Administration's Friday guidance, issued without public comment or rule-making, drew immediate outrage from public-health advocates and political commentators who framed the move as a straightforward payoff to tobacco giants Reynolds American and Altria, both of which have donated heavily to Trump's MAGA Inc. PAC and pet projects, including his planned White House ballroom.

President Donald Trump lashed out at two of his own Supreme Court picks in a rambling Truth Social post this week, suggesting he should pack the nation's highest court after Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett joined the 6-3 majority that struck down his sweeping tariff agenda as unconstitutional.

"I 'Love' Justice Neil Gorsuch! He’s a really smart and good man, but he voted against me, and our Country, on Tariffs, a devastating move. How do I reconcile this? So bad, and hurtful to our Country ," Trump wrote, before turning his ire on Barrett with equal frustration. "I have, likewise, always liked and respected Amy Coney Barrett, but the same thing with her. They were appointed by me, and yet have hurt our Country so badly!"