US News

Former Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-NC), who portrayed himself as a champion of fiscal discipline during his tenure in Congress, has put his campaign creditors on notice that they will not get another penny from him.

According to NOTUS, the former lawmaker who lost his re-election bid in 2018, has filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission indicating it will pay zero dollars on approximately $726,000 in outstanding debts.

Christopher Rufo, a hugely influential conservative activist who’s advised President Donald Trump’s team directly, was forced to acknowledge the president’s “corruption” problem in an interview with The New York Times published Tuesday, and ultimately conceded that it didn’t look good.

“I guess one thing I think about, when I think about Donald Trump and virtue, is corruption,” said Ezra Klein, an influential liberal columnist for the Times.

The Trump administration's effort to broker peace in the Middle East is being shaped — and at times complicated — by competing approaches from Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

A top Trump adviser described the two men as representing different instincts within the president's own thinking on the region, with Rubio leaning more pro-Israel and Vance more skeptical of Israeli positions, and one U.S. official told Axios the secretary of state has purposefully taken a back seat in the negotiations.

A pair of legal experts were astounded on Monday while discussing a trap the Trump Department of Justice may have laid for itself in a recent case.

One of the arguments Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche made when the DOJ created the $1.776 billion settlement between the Trump administration and the IRS was that Trump had been irreparably harmed by a government contractor or employee, which is why they sought such a large payout. However, that argument could get the Trump DOJ into trouble in other cases where privacy matters are concerned, according to Lisa Graves, co-host of the "Court Accountability Action" podcast and Christopher Swartz, the senior ethics counsel for the Democracy Defenders Fund.

A political analyst called out a striking contradiction that President Donald Trump's chief spokesperson made during an interview on Fox News.

David Pakman, host of "The David Pakman Show" on YouTube, said in a recent video that Karoline Leavitt "immediately imploded" during her appearance on Fox News's "Fox & Friends" on Monday. He noted that Leavitt had a hard time explaining how the ceasefire brokered between the U.S. and Iran is going, and offered a contradiction that left him taken aback.

President Donald Trump was roundly ridiculed on Monday night after he posted a picture of the "golden gift" he plans to give the country for its 250th birthday celebration this week.

Trump posted a picture of a golden eagle attached to the front facade of the White House on his Truth Social feed. The AI-generated eagle is shown holding a red, white, and gold shield surrounded by 11 stars.

Rachel Maddow kicked off her Monday night MS NOW program with a discussion of Star Wars — and specifically, how one track from the original trilogy just cost the Trump administration a big settlement payout for unlawful police conduct.

"The Empire Strikes Back is just as exciting as the first Star Wars movie, but it is darker, it is definitely darker, right?" said Maddow. "Our heroes aren't, you know, just plucky underdogs like they were in the first movie. It really, really feels like they are losing ... it's dark. The whole vibe of The Empire Strikes Back is this, you know, the dark dread of this tyrannical force having the upper hand, seeming like it's winning."

President Donald Trump's image within the MAGA movement is "collapsing under the weight of reality" as his followers find it more difficult to reconcile his brand with the administration's recent fumble in the war with Iran, according to one analyst.

Mary Trump, a psychologist and author, argued in a new Substack essay that her uncle is driving a wedge in his base as he continues to tout his brand of strength after he signed a memorandum of understanding with the Iranian regime that some have described as a complete capitulation. The agreement allowed Iran to immediately resume selling oil and lifted some sanctions on the regime in exchange for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which had been shut since the early days of the war.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) finally found an issue he is willing to threaten President Donald Trump over.

According to Politico's Meredith Lee Hill, Johnson "told Politico tonight the bipartisan, landmark housing bill will become law and President Trump will NOT veto it."

MS NOW host Luke Russert laid out on Monday's edition of "The Weeknight" how the newest grift by the Trump family dwarfs the corrupt deals that had Republicans enraged with the Biden family — by three orders of magnitude.

Specifically, they brokered a mining deal in Kazakhstan through the federal government, from which members of the Trump family could reap hundreds of millions of dollars due to personal stakes.

Vice President JD Vance revealed the new scheme he has cooked up to salvage what's left of his political career during a recent talk at the Nixon Presidential Library, according to one political analyst.

David A. Graham, a staff writer at The Atlantic, argued in a new edition of "The Atlantic Daily" newsletter that Vance's comments about Watergate being a 12-hour news story today were revealing for all of the wrong reasons. Vance may have been trying to make a point about the state of the American media, but instead exposed that he is cozying up to President Donald Trump's corrupt side as he seeks a way to take the MAGA reins once Trump leaves office.

President Donald Trump had a decidedly mixed day at the Supreme Court, suffering some major losses — and former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb thinks another huge one is coming down tomorrow on the last day of the court's term.

Specifically, he told CNN's Erin Burnett that he believes the court is about to deliver a "rebuke" of Trump's executive order abolishing birthright citizenship, and possibly a unanimous one.