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GOP lawmaker nails Trump and JD Vance over 'double-dumb' endorsement hurting Republicans

Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance just suffered a humiliating foreign policy defeat that exposes the severe limits of American influence abroad — and signals potential disaster for the GOP in the midterm elections.

According to the Washington Post's Michael Birnbaum, Trump's decision to personally intervene in Hungary's election by dispatching Vance to campaign for strongman Viktor Orban not only failed catastrophically, but also damaged Republican credibility on the international stage.

Orban had been a darling of the American right, preaching to conservatives at CPAC about seizing control of institutions. "Have your own media," Orban once declared, "it was the only way to combat the 'insanity of the progressive left.'" He aligned perfectly with Trump's worldview, opposing NATO aid to Ukraine and framing it as anti-war rather than pro-democracy.

Trump returned the embrace enthusiastically by exempting Hungary from energy sanctions imposed on other European countries, and Vance personally campaigned for Orban, telling Hungarians they had a guaranteed friend in Washington if they reelected their prime minister.

It wasn't enough. Orban was decisively defeated. A constitutional supermajority for the opposition will now rewrite election laws that Orban had previously reshaped to favor his own party — a stunning reversal of fortune for Trump's endorsed candidate.

Vance attempted to minimize the damage, claiming "I'm sad that he lost. We will work very well, I'm sure, with the next prime minister of Hungary. It wasn't a bad trip at all because it's worth standing by people, even if you don't win every race."

But Republicans are furious. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), who is retiring, blasted the intervention as a norm-breaking disaster that backfired spectacularly.

"President Trump and Vice President Vance broke the norms by going and campaigning for a candidate in another democracy," Bacon said. "It's not appropriate to do it, and then they failed. So it's like a double-dumb move, and it just undermines us."

The strategic implications are dire. One Republican strategist with extensive European experience warned that Orban's ouster is "a harbinger" for what might come in the midterm elections this fall.

"If you don't define your campaign on an issue set that gets your base energized to turnout in huge numbers, it will be a problem," the strategist told the Post.

DHS staffers dish out gossip about Kristi Noem's tenure: 'Felt like a South Park moment'

Dozens and dozens of Department of Homeland Security insiders dished out damning details about Kristi Noem's chaotic tenure as the agency's top official.
The 54-year-old Noem was fired last month by President Donald Trump after she told lawmakers he had signed off on a $220 million self-promotional ad campaign and fumbled on questions about her alleged sexual relationship with DHS employee Corey Lewandowski, and agency insiders told the New York Times about similar examples of her self-aggrandizing leadership.
"At Secretary Noem’s first DHS town hall, she came out onstage to the theme song 'Hot Mama,' spoke for maybe a few minutes and took no questions and left," said Jason Marks, former supervisory refugee officer at United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. "I wasn’t in the room, but it was something everyone was talking about in real time. It felt like a 'South Park' moment."
Noem had faced intense scrutiny since the administration surged Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol officers into the Minneapolis area, where agents shot and killed two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who she slurred as domestic terrorists.
"The Good shooting was cleared by Secretary Noem like within an hour," said one senior ICE agent. "There should be a real investigation. For lesser-trained officers, that made them think, okay, we can push the limits. You could really see that in the field in the lack of professionalism. ICE was giving us big cans of pepper spray we were never issued before. I know that if I spray someone, that’s a use-of-force incident that needs to be investigated. But all these new people were emptying out their canisters, driving by and spraying the crowd — no questions asked."
Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump's sweeping immigration crackdown, set a target at the start of his second term of 3,000 arrests a day at minimum and a million deportations in 2025, and DHS insiders described how Miller and Noem issued that directive to the officials expected to carry out those orders.
"Todd Lyons, the ICE director, introduced the secretary," said one former ICE senior executive. "She says to us, If I get fired in six months, I’m going to make sure you get fired in six months, and I’m like, Hold on a second. I’ve been doing this for over 30 years, and you just got six months under your belt. You should get fired because you don’t know how to run the mission."

"Then Stephen Miller goes up next, and he chastises our director," the former senior executive added. "He dresses him down in front of us. And I’m like, This is so unprofessional. A field office director says: We’re working through the list, but we’re having some challenges with the list. We’re going to get it done. We’re trying our hardest."

Miller then looked at Lyons and demanded to know how he was issuing the command.

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Trump's naval blockade crumbles after Iran-linked vessels breach barricade: report

A U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz went into effect Monday at 10 a.m. EST at the direction of President Donald Trump, but in a matter of hours, the blockade was breached without incident by at least four Iran-linked vessels, BBC reported Tuesday.

On Monday, Trump said that he had instructed the U.S. Navy to “seek and interdict every vessel in international waters that has paid a toll to Iran,” and the U.S. military later said that the “blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas.”

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Trump actively considering ‘another abduction operation’ against world leader: insiders

Despite being entangled in the ongoing U.S. war against Iran, President Donald Trump is actively considering an operation to abduct another world leader, much like his administration had in January with the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, three insiders revealed to Zeteo in its report Tuesday.

“In recent days, according to two sources familiar with the situation and another person briefed on it, officials at the Pentagon and elsewhere in the US government were quietly given a new directive that came straight from the Trump White House,” Zeteo’s report reads. “The message: ramp up your preparations for possible military operations against Cuba.”

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JD Vance out as 'Trump's obvious successor' as president targets him with jokes: analyst

JD Vance’s less than impressive performance as vice president, combined with Donald Trump needling him in his comments to the press, led longtime Financial Times columnist Ed Luce to claim the veep’s star has faded to the point where he is becoming irrelevant.

And because of that, he no longer can be considered Trump’s successor.

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'One of the greats!' Trump praises Epstein-linked lawyer for impeachment expungement idea

President Donald Trump lavished praise Tuesday on Alan Dershowitz – a longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein and lawyer who helped secure Epstein’s unprecedentedly lenient plea deal in 2008 for child abuse – after Dershowitz floated a plan to help Trump expunge his 2019 impeachment.

“Alan, one of the greats, should do it!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social in reference to Dershowitz's proposal on how to expunge the president’s 2019 impeachment.

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Trump comments on FEMA official's supernatural claim: 'I know nothing about teleporting'

President Donald Trump responded to a request for comment on supernatural experiences claimed by a high-ranking official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Gregg Phillips, the third-ranking official at FEMA, has been quietly sidelined from key operations following public reports that he claims to have teleported 50 miles to a Waffle House in Georgia, and CNN's KFILE reported that he has made other bizarre claims about personal experiences with the supernatural.

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Trump admin investigating children as 'extremists': 'What's next, toddler terrorism?'

Children younger than 13 years old are under investigation by the FBI after the agency designated an online group as an “extremist” threat, a group whose members consist of a large number of children, independent journalist Ken Klippenstein reported Tuesday.

The group is known “764” and was designated by the Justice Department as a Nihilistic Violent Extremist group, a designation that the Trump administration established to succeed the Biden administration’s “Anti-Authority and Anti-Government Violent Extremists” designation, itself established in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

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'The vibes aren't great' at the White House as Trump chaos grows: Politico

Appearing on MS NOW to expand upon her report on the meme war between Donald Trump’s White House and Iran on social media, which has become the latest tool for spreading propaganda, Politico’s Dash Burns claimed White House insiders admit things are not going well on multiple fronts.

Speaking with the hosts of “Morning Joe,” Burns claimed Trump insiders are dismayed at how badly things are going.

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'Trump is torching his coalition' with cascade of controversies: report

President Donald Trump is shedding supporters as he launches bombs and threats against Iran, insults the pope and rattles markets with his policies.

The 79-year-old president won re-election in 2024 with an eclectic alliance made up of MAGA diehards, crypto enthusiasts, non-white men, anti-war isolationists and right-wing Christians, but he has tested their loyalty in recent months with a series of erratic moves and bellicose statements, reported Axios.

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JD Vance schooled on MS NOW over pope lecture: 'That's what he's talking about, buddy'

JD Vance’s decision to add to Donald Trump’s attacks against Pope Leo XIV earned him a scolding on MS NOW on Tuesday morning as “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough called him out for lecturing the Catholic leader on “morality.”

Adding to the Trump administration’s all-out attack on arguably the world’s most powerful religious leader, Vance told Fox News, “I certainly think that in some cases, it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality, to stick to matters of what’s going on with the Catholic church, and let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy.”

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Unearthed FBI doc undercuts White House denial about Epstein's connection to Melania Trump

A newly unearthed FBI document appears to directly contradict First Lady Melania Trump’s surprise statement last week regarding how she met her husband, President Donald Trump, and whether Jeffrey Epstein had played a role.

Last week, Mrs. Trump stunned onlookers by issuing a statement – seemingly unprompted – denying having had a relationship with Epstein, and denying allegations that the disgraced financier had been the one to introduce her to Trump. Paolo Zampolli, a former modeling agent who now serves as Trump’s special envoy, later claimed that he was the one to introduce Mrs. Trump to her future husband.

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Trump family venture accused of freezing out investors as value plummets

One of the largest stakeholders in the Trump family's crypto venture accused the company of bilking investors.

Crypto billionaire Justin Sun alleged that World Liberty Financial grants company officials with unilateral authority over user accounts – including the power to freeze them – and an independent analysis found the value of his personal stake in the company has shriveled while he's been locked out of his account, reported NBC News.

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