Two Southern Republicans are speaking out against President Donald Trump’s recent proclamation to redeploy 5,000 U.S. troops out of Germany.

Punchbowl News reporter Anthony Adragna posted on social media that Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) — both Armed Services GOP chairs — deeply oppose the removal.

Trump announced the move in retaliation after he was angered by criticism from the German chancellor over his deeply unpopular war with Iran. NBC News reports Trump “has been threatening” Germany and other NATO allies for their refusal to engage in the U.S. and Israel war on Iran.

“The Europeans have not stepped up when America needed them,” a Trump official said. “This cannot be a one-way street.”

But Wicker and Rogers say Germany “has stepped up in response to President Donald Trump’s call for greater burden sharing, significantly increasing defense spending and providing seamless access, basing and overflight for U.S. forces in support of Operation Epic Fury.”

“Rather than withdrawing forces from the continent altogether, it is in America’s interest to maintain a strong deterrent in Europe by moving these 5,000 U.S. forces to the east,” they said, reports Adragna. “Allies there have made substantial investments to host US. Troops, reducing costs for the U.S. taxpayer while strengthening NATO’s front line to help deter a far more costly conflict from ever beginning."

The two also argued that “any significant change to the U.S. force posture in Europe warrants a deliberate review process and close coordination with Congress and our allies” for the sake of U.S. and NATO security.

“We expect the Department [of Defense] to engage with its [Congressional] oversight committees in the days and weeks ahead on this decision and its implications for U.S. deterrence and transatlantic security,” the two Republicans warned.

Michael Feinber, former assistant special agent in charge of the FBI, lobbed an undeniable warning to President Donald Trump’s interim AG during his pursuit of Trump’s enemies: Trump won’t always be there to save you.

Blanche served as Trump’s personal defense attorney before Trump appointed him over the DOJ. But years after Blanche failed to protect his boss from being convicted of illegal hush-money payments to a sex industry worker, he is now repeat prosecuting former FBI head James Comey.

While following Trump’s will, however, Feinberg said Blanche is setting himself up for legal repercussions when the aging president is inevitably out of power.

“This [prosecution] has nothing to do with unbiased prosecution of law enforcement priorities,” said Feinberg. “This is about silencing a presidential critic, and it's worth noting that … it’s not just potential legal ramifications for the people involved in this.”

“I have no doubt that Trump is going to issue a blanket pardon for every single person in the executive branch, but there are professional consequences,” Feinberg told hosts of MS NOW’s “The Weekend.” “Todd Blanche should remember that John Eastman, the intellectual architect of Donald Trump's … first attempt to carry out a electoral coup was recently disbarred, and the appeal of his disbarment was denied. So, Todd Blanche should watch his step.”

Miles Taylor, who served as DHS deputy chief of staff and senior advisor in Trump’s first term, warned that Blanche and his henchmen should definitely watch for legal prosecution in the wake of Trump’s removal.

“What they should be worried about is whether any of them engaged in criminal conduct to bring these charges,” said Taylor. “I'm as serious as a heart attack about the deprivation of rights, selective, vindictive prosecution. These are things that are illegal and unconstitutional. When Todd Blanch basically conceded that this thing went from the back burner to the front burner when he came back into office, was that an admission that he wanted to bring a case that the president requested?”

Taylor went on to question whether Trump had already made the case for selective, vindictive prosecution “on September 20, at 6:44 P.M., when he tweeted to [former AG] Pam Bondi, that “I need you to prosecute [Comey].”

“This is serious, said Taylor. “Anyone who is in the chain of these decisions, they should be worried about a future administration [charging them] with violating Comey's rights intentionally and deliberately.”

On Friday USA Today reports President Donald Trump told the crowd at a Florida Republican stronghold that he felt safe there.

“They want me to be in a secure place. I said: ‘What’s more secure than The Villages?’” Trump said of the overwhelmingly-white retirement community known as The Villages.

The Villages is an age-restricted community north of Orlando, where Republicans vastly outnumber Democrats, reports USA Today. It was thus an excellent opportunity for the aging president to banter with Americans who fall into his own age bracket.

But not everyone was a fan, reports USA Today. Paul Hoecker, 76, was supposed to be at softball practice Friday, but since Trump won a second term, Hoecker says he increasingly has been compelled to publicly show his disapproval. Hoecker, an independent, said he had never attended a protest until recently.

“It’s gotten unbearable, the stuff he’s done,” said Hoecker, who USA Today described as a Navy veteran sporting a “grumpy old vet” hat as he sat in front of a golf cart parked with dozens of others at a demonstration organized by the Florida Democratic Party and The Villages Democratic Club.

Hoecker slammed Trump’s so-called “tax cut for seniors” as a big tax bill benefiting the wealthiest Americans.

Florida resident Dana Dandino had her own gripes, complaining about the recent rise in grocery costs and gas.

“People are not going to be able to put groceries on the table. It’s already happening,” said Dandino, 71, a retired teacher who slammed other Village residents as cushioned by their retirement accounts and Medicare and electric golf carts with no pain at the pump. Dandino said she and more thoughtful retirees are concerned about how Trump’s policies will hurt the economy, debt and spiking prices and the impact that will have on their grandchildren.

USA Today reports many aging protesters held signs with protest messages, including an “86 47” sign, as depicted in seashells on a post by former FBI Director James Comey — for which Trump made a point to prosecute him.

After Bulwark Editor Sarah Longwell finished processing a recent slate of surveys, she said she was surprised by the sheer amount of indifference (and even suspicion) haunting respondents who had voted for Donald Trump in 2020 and 2024.

“Okay, let me just set the table on this because we did five groups this week all across the political spectrum, and not a single one brought up the White House correspondence dinner situation,” Longwell told podcast guest host and former GOP speechwriter David Frum. “Nobody brought this up organically — not in five groups where we asked ‘how do you think things are going in the country.’ People were talking about how things feel like a powder keg, but nobody brought that up.”

Instead, what Longwell quickly picked up on was the taint of distrust.

“It just doesn't make sense to me that we have our leader — who is supported/protected by what is supposed to be the … the most dominant military force on the planet. It doesn't make sense to me that there have been this many close attempts on his life when we have all these other presidents recently who haven't really had that issue,” said one Trump voter.

“I can't even … bring in a can of Diet Coke to a baseball game or a concert without a metal detector [going off] or them emptying in my pocket,” complained another. “So, the idea of somebody having a gun, especially where the president is, makes no sense.”

“I feel like it was a ploy to get his ballroom that he wants and that's his reason because literally that is the first thing that he talks about after,” said a woman who voted for Trump in 2025, and who describes herself as an avid fan of guns. “It's suddenly ‘see, this is why I need the ballroom at the White House because [I] almost got shot.’ Like, that's literally the first thing he talks about after this happens. That's not normal. That's not what people think about after you almost get shot.”

Still another Trump voter said she was becoming numb to all of Trump’s shootings and drama.

“Whether it's the French president and his husband/wife, whether it's these NASA people who have just a dozen of them died or been murdered or had accidental deaths within the last year, whether it's the Charlie Kirk total cover up I just feel like this particular shooting I'm almost becoming desensitized,” the woman said.

Democrats surveyed immediately suspected a ploy to build a ballroom or tweak Trump’s rotten polls.

“I feel like every single one of [the shootings] have been staged and that there's no truth to any of them,” said one Maine Democrat.

“I want to be able to look at the facts and to trust the reporting that's going on. But the fact is that because of all of the lies and all of the gaslighting and all of the theater productions that this administration puts on, it's really hard to believe them,” said another Democrat.

“As a physician, there are so many red flags about the [shooting] in Pennsylvania where his ear was bloodied or whatever,” said still another Democrat. “First of all, there was nothing about his emergency room visit, any of the tests or scans. When Reagan was hurt seriously, that was all in the open — his medical reports or whatever. And a nearly 80 year old person does not heal that quickly.”

“Mostly they thought he's doing this because his numbers are tanking and he wants his ballroom and that's why they think this happened that it was somehow set up,” a surprised Longwell told Frum.

Former Army major Harrison Mann says President Donald Trump tosses off lies and untruths, but his latest this week isn’t doing anything to help the party catching splash damage from his Iran conflagration.

Trump claimed this week that his self-declared war on Iran is officially over, but Iran gets its own say and is maintaining its block on global oil tankers filing through the narrow Strait of Hormuz. This is walloping U.S. and global oil and fertilizer prices and delivering considerable damage to Trump and his party.

“Frustrated Republicans like Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) have seized on the (1973 War Powers Resolution) 60-day deadline in the hope of prodding the administration to wrap up a war that Trump increasingly appears emotionally and intellectually incapable of ending,” said Mann, who resigned in protest of his office’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza under the Biden administration. “Other Republicans have also pointed to a provision of the WPR that allows the president to extend a war for 30 days, to claim that Trump still has a month of slack, while Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth suggested on Thursday that the current ceasefire means a pause in the 60-day countdown.”

But then Collins, whose seat is in jeopardy in a tough year, “fired a warning shot on Thursday” when she joined Democrats in a vote attempting to end the war, the first Republican to do so other than Senator Rand Paul.

“Congressional Republicans and the White House know the war is unpopular and that they’re going to take the blame for cost-of-living-exploding Iranflation if they don’t end the war ASAP – though it’s possible ASAP may not be fast enough to repair the US economy by the time of the midterms,” said Mann.

The Daily Beast reports President Donald Trump bragged about his ability to correctly identify common animals while touting his mental prowess on Friday, and he even suggested his fans could not pass such a test.

Trump, who is now 79, said at a rally in Central Florida that he is proud that he managed to ‘ace’ three cognitive tests identifying animals like giraffes, bears and sharks.

“You know I’m the only president to take a cognitive test, because I don’t think Obama could pass it. Didn’t he get into Harvard with a C-Average? I don’t think he could pass it. Biden? Give me a break,” Trump told the crowd at The Villages Charter School in Sumterville.

But then Trump told his crowd of supporters that many of them had no hope to pass a test designed to identify mental deterioration.

“The first question is very easy. I lion, a giraffe a bear and a shark. They say which one is the bear. Everybody says it’s a very standard test but it gets pretty tough around those last 10 questions. Not too many people – even in this very room … But I’m in a room of brilliant people but a lot of you wouldn’t have been able to answer those ten questions.”

Observers claim Trump is showing signs of mental deterioration, hence the cognitive tests the president has had to endure.

Trump's recent handshaking gaffe during the recent visit from U.K. royals was interpreted by some as an example of rude, self-absorbed behavior — but one medical expert opined that the movement looked more like a warning sign for his dementia.

Former U.S. solicitor general and conservative attorney Paul Clement says the Trump administration’s lawsuit against an entire federal court in Maryland must die, and die quickly, before the spirit of the infection spreads to other courts and dismantles the U.S. justice system.

Last June, President Donald Trump’s politicized Department of Justice targeted the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in a lawsuit after the chief U.S. district judge for Maryland granted automatic stays against the government in response to a flood of petitions for writs of habeas corpus, reports Law & Crime.

The court granted the stays automatically as a matter of judicial economy because of the flood of immigrant habeas petitions, Law & Crime reports. But Trump and his helpers were furious, and launched a first-of-its-kind suit to undermine the court.

Judges on the court hired Clement to argue their case, and Clement did not hold back in the withering response brief he filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.

In Clement’s view, Trump’s attack is a devastating power grab by the executive designed to pulls courts to pieces.

“If this case were to go forward, the next step would be discovery, with Article III judges and principal Executive Branch officers ‘prob[ing]’ each others' ‘mental processes,’ producing documents, and litigating privilege disputes of epic proportions,” said Clement. “Then comes final judgment and the potential for a permanent injunction, the effect of which could be to place the United States District Court for the District of Maryland in indefinite judicial receivership of an out-of-district colleague. And the virus would only spread.”

Clement said if Trump’s “misguided lawsuit were allowed to proceed, tensions between the branches would only escalate,” with Executive depositions of Judicial officers and cross-examinations in open court exploring Judicial motivations and Executive necessities.”

The attack Trump lobbed in Maryland would certainly not be the last, said Clement: “The next one could be against this Court (or the Supreme Court) and cause greater disruption still.”

That being the case, Clement says Trump would have managed to “permanently elevate” himself over his coordinate branches, with the loser being “not just or even principally the Judiciary, but the Constitution and the People it protects."

After almost 30 years of broadcasts and MAGA-style conspiracy theories, MS NOW reports the lights are off at Infowars on Friday. And the new company owner couldn’t be more pleased to see founder Alex Jones bump the door on the way out.

“Good riddance to the world’s worst rubbish,” The Onion’s CEO, Ben Collins, wrote in a text to MS NOW. “The second this man is disallowed from abusing these courts, from paying out the $1.4 billion he owes to these families, we are ready to take over with something that will make you forget about what was ever there before.”

MS NOW reports the legal dismantling of one of President Donald Trump’s most reliable propaganda networks — at least until recently — is far from over, but it began with a group of defamation lawsuits filed in Connecticut and Texas by family members of Sandy Hook victims, who argued Jones had damaged them with years of claims that the school shooting was a hoax.

With Jones’ conspiracy claims plastered across the internet, there was no place to deny it, so the judge slapped him with a historic billion-dollar judgement. MS NOW reports Jones has “made good on his promise not to pay the families,” having filed for bankruptcy in 2022 and in 2024. But a judge ordered the liquidation of his assets, which opened the door to comedy site The Onion gathering the pieces under ownership.

“The Onion, helmed by Collins, a former NBC News reporter on the disinformation beat, came forward with a bid, supported by many of the Sandy Hook families,” reports MS NOW. “The Onion initially won, but a judge granted Jones’ request to block the sale, arguing that another offer by a company that happened to operate Jones’ online supplements store had been higher. But in April, there seemed to be a workaround — Jones’ estate had run out of money and instead of buying it in an auction, The Onion could just pay rent in a licensing deal. On Wednesday, a Texas appeals court stopped the transfer again, temporarily blocking the asset handover.”

But unable to afford rent, Jones closed up shop.

“The hell we’ve been through has only made us stronger,” Jones told his staff during his last appearance on Thursday.

But Collins has his own plan for Jones’ “hell.”

“We have a deal with both the Sandy Hook families and the court-appointed receiver, and we look forward to taking over this hellhole imminently,” Collins told MS NOW.

Former Republican speechwriter Tim Miller, MS NOW anchor Nicole Wallace, and civil rights activist Al Sharpton did not hide their confusion after U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) tried to claim the economy was “firing on all cylinders” and feeling great.

“The fact of the matter is that all of the cylinders are kicking. It is good news. You can even feel in our environment how good things are getting,” Scott told Fox Business Thursday. “Gas prices continue to come down, which means that your groceries will come down a little bit as well. We've got a lot of good signs in the economy.”

It was a response that Wallace called “detached from reality” with gas prices spiraling up $1 just in the last week.

Sharpton appeared stunned into silence, while Miller kept demanding the date of Scott’s interview.

“When was that crap from, Nicole? When was that clip from?” sputtered Miller.

“That's from yesterday,” Wallace answered.

“Yesterday?”

“If it's enough for Republicans, for Tim Scott to lie to their faces, then I don't know what to tell them. But the problem politically for Republicans is that over and over and over again … Republicans know they've been suckered,” said Wallace. “Trump's voters know they've been lied to. The jig is up and there is finally, after nine years, a cumulative impact of lying to your base about releasing the Epstein files, lying to your base about the client list Pam Bondi talked about on Fox News, lying to your base about not getting America into forever wars in the Middle East, and lying to your base about the price of things, when the gas prices are literally in glowing lights on every corner.”

Miller agreed.

“It's one thing to be lied to about the election being stolen, right? Because the, the voters, the MAGA voters … lives [weren’t] really affected by it. This is different when people are paying,” said Miller, a podcaster at The Bulwark. “The upper Midwest got particularly hit particularly hard. I think in Indiana, the gas prices increased a buck just over the last week. If you're a MAGA voter in Indiana and you're turning on Fox Business … and Tim Scott is on there and he's saying ‘gas prices are coming down,’ that is a lot. That line doesn't work because you're like, ‘no, I just was there, I just paid for it.’”

- YouTube youtu.be

Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.) struggled to explain his sudden support for the removal of the Senate filibuster — despite Scott opposing similar nuclear options when Democrats were in the Senate majority.

Scott’s collapse began when he complained of Senate Democrats blocking votes on bills favored by President Donald Trump.

“They use this 60-vote threshold filibuster, which I think we ought to get rid of,” Scott told CNN anchor Kaitlin Collins.

“Just a moment,” interrupted Collins. “Since you mentioned the filibuster and you said you should get rid of it, when Republicans were in the minority you described it repeatedly as vital and necessary to protect minority party’s rights. … Why do you have a different position now that Republicans are in the majority?”

“Well, let's do the filibuster. But it means you talk. I mean, we're not making people talk,” said Scott. “The filibuster was set up – so I'm fine with if we were going to do the filibuster, where people have to talk. The filibuster … was … used to say, we're going to have a conversation. And then at some point, once we're done, we vote. I'm, I'm fine with that. But we don't make people talk. So, if we're not going to make people talk —”

“But Republicans are in charge,” reminded Collins.

“Well, I mean, look, I'm from Florida. This is what I — this is what I believe in. I talk to the people in my state. They agree with me. I've been clear on what I believe,” insisted Scott.

But Scott was equally unclear when asked to explain his shifting position on gerrymandering depending on which party is benefitting from it.

“All this stuff where the redistricting, where Democrats are great, it's all great if it goes on in Virginia, where there's no Republican seats hardly left. But if someplace else they attack it, I mean, I think we ought to say, ‘look, what we don't — what we don't want, we don't want anybody disenfranchised.’ We want everybody to vote,” said Scott.

“Well, I mean, the legislature in Florida passed a plan to create four more Republican leaning seats. Do you think that's fair, or do you think it's disenfranchising people?” asked Collins.

“Kaitlan, I haven't seen the details of it. Um, I mean, we have we have an obligation, um, to have fair districts, you know, whatever they end up doing, it will go through the courts. Uh, and I believe what will happen in Florida is that it will be fair,” said Scott, tipping into a stammer.

“So, you, you're in favor of the new map in Florida?”

“I haven't, I haven't, I haven't seen the details.”

- YouTube youtu.be

Economist Scott Lincicome said the February Supreme Court ruling dismantling President Donald Trump’s illegal emergency order tariff was a big victory for the rule of law. But don’t think you’re getting reimbursed for all those costs you paid out while Trump was imposing illegal taxes on you.

“[The court] … left tariff refunds to be worked out by lower federal courts, administration officials, and private parties — a situation that raised practical, legal, and economic questions. … But the tariff refund process is still far from perfect, and it will generate many winners and undeserved losers due to the choices the administration is now making — and the ones it unwisely made last year,” said Lincicome.

Trump’s [International Emergency Economic Powers Act] tariffs slurped $166 billion in extra charges from U.S. businesses and consumers, and returning it will be a massive task that isn’t trickling down to the little people any time soon – if at all.

“[The refund system is not great] because it takes too long and places the burden on all the American importers who did nothing wrong, dutifully paid up, and are now owed their own money,” said Lincicome. “And things could get worse in the coming days if the government appeals the CIT’s refund orders or if CBP searches for ways to narrow payouts or punish applicants for unintended paperwork mistakes made in CAPE or during the chaos of 2025.”

“Maybe it’s too much to ask for Washington to proactively offer quick and automatic refunds to all who paid Trump’s illegal tariffs, but it’s still frustrating that many businesses will be hurt, not to mention millions of consumers and taxpayers, too,” Lincicome added.

The most frustrating part, however, said Lincicome, is that “every single annoyance and injustice described in this column — the compliance burdens, the Wall Street arbitrage, the litigation and political grandstanding, the needless interest expenses — is a direct consequence of an administration that chose expediency over the law, confiscated $166 billion via a series of dubious unilateral taxes, and told federal courts to keep those taxes in place for most of last year because, if they lost at the Supreme Court, refunds would quick and easy for all who paid them.”

But Trump’s IEEPA tariffs “were not a close legal call,” said Lincicome. Still, the administration recklessly gambled on its right to snatch other people’s money “and lost big.”

“And now, even in the best case, the government will get to keep billions in ill-gotten funds it never should have had,” said Lincicome.

Professor of Law Richard Hasen, an elections law expert, is denouncing Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito as a “coward” who is either lying to himself or the American public, after authoring what has been called the “earthquake” decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which sharply erodes the Voting Rights Act.

Alito’s “disastrous” majority opinion in Callais “essentially gutted what remains of the Voting Rights Act,” but he “claims to have done no such thing. The question is why,” Hasen posits.

Hasen charges that Justice Alito was too “afraid” to share his actual opinion, and so he found ways to “get away with overturning Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act through technical minutiae rather than through a direct hit.”

Section 2, passed in 1965, is the provision of the Voting Rights Act that protects minority voters from discriminatory voting laws and maps.

Hasen argues that Alito’s opinions in both Callais and Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee “necessarily imply” that “Congress cannot do anything to protect minority voting rights short of banning intentional discrimination despite the 14th Amendment’s equal protection guarantee, despite the 15th Amendment’s ban on race discrimination in voting, and despite the fact that both amendments explicitly give Congress the power to enforce the measures by ‘appropriate legislation.'”

He notes that Alito managed to render Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act “essentially toothless,” while leaving the six-decade-old landmark law on the books.

“Since Brnovich,” he writes, “no plaintiffs have brought successful suits under Section 2 challenging a law alleged to suppress votes.”

Indeed, Alito’s opinions in both cases are “extreme overkill,” handing states “multiple pathways” to defeat a Section 2 claim.

Hasen explains that for Alito, “to discriminate against Louisiana Democrats is not to discriminate against Louisiana’s Black voters, despite the overwhelming overlap between the two groups.”

But for Hasen, the most “galling” issue is that Alito “goes out of his way to disclaim he is making radical change while putting multiple stakes through the heart of Section 2.”

He offers some possibilities of why Alito has acted in this way.

“Maybe Alito is worried that a ruling forthrightly saying what he is doing would sully the reputation of the court, which has already faced public criticism for killing off another key part of the Voting Rights Act in 2013’s Shelby County decision,” Hasen writes. “Perhaps he is worried that a frontal kill of Section 2 would energize Democrats, leading to greater losses for Republicans in the midterm elections and in future elections.”

Regardless, Hasen concludes, no one “is fooled by Justice Alito’s act of cowardice, unless it is Justice Alito himself. If that’s the case, he is more deluded than he seems to think the rest of us are.”

Paraquat is an herbicide banned in more than 70 countries, including China, Brazil, and throughout the European Union. President Donald Trump’s own Environmental Protection Agency warns that “one sip can kill,” and MS NOW reports that it is often used in suicides because it’s cheap and fatal. The stuff is so virally toxic that even wearing special gear and respirators doesn’t fully protect applicators from exposure.

The chemical hits particularly hard in many agricultural states that tend to vote Republican. This includes Mississippi, where one county saw high rates of Parkinson’s disease deaths, in the top 7 percent of all U.S. counties that reported Parkinson’s deaths between 2018 and 2024.

“Troves of evidence have long linked paraquat to Parkinson’s, the world’s fastest-growing – and incurable – neurodegenerative disease,” reports MS Today, adding that a Sipcam Agro plant that processes the toxic herbicide sits within that county and is the “largest single emitter of paraquat.”

“There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that we’re all victims of our environment,” said Ashton Pearson Sr., a life-long Mississippi resident who was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2013, at 58 years old.

“Since 2018, three facilities across the country have reported releasing paraquat into the air to the EPA: the Sipcam plant in Mississippi, a Syngenta subsidiary in Georgia and a hazardous waste facility in East Chicago, Indiana,” reports MS Today. “The Georgia plant, which is owned by Syngenta subsidiary Adama in Tifton, released 10 pounds into the air in 2020. The Indiana waste site, which has been penalized for improper storage, reported releasing one pound of paraquat into the air in 2023.”

When it was owned by Odom Industries, the Mississippi plant’s paraquat air emissions hovered around 500 pounds per year, said MS NOW, growing to 1,500 pounds in 2022. But they spiked massively in 2023, when Sipcam Agro took over the facility and announced plans to expand – thanks in part to tax credits provided by the Mississippi Development Authority.”

By 2024, under Sipcam Agro, airborne emissions soared to over 47,000 pounds.

But the revolving door between industry and the Trump administration “threatens to undermine” state efforts to restrict the poison, reports MS NOW.

“Kelsey Barnes, current senior adviser to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, is a former manager of federal government relations for Syngenta. Language introduced in the Farm Bill would pre-empt state bills and prevent state and local bodies from regulating chemicals like paraquat. Organizers’ efforts to remove the language earlier this year were unsuccessful.”

“We’re very concerned,” said Andi Fristedt, executive vice president with the Parkinson’s Foundation. Fristedt added that restraints on state-level regulation are extra concerning when the federal government has continued to resist taking action.

“The most important thing is pushing the EPA to ban paraquat,” said Fristedt. “They could end paraquat use tomorrow.”

Trump is losing his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) supporters, the health-conscious predominantly female coalition that, largely due to Trump's lax take on banning dangerous pesticides.

“Jim Acosta Show” host Jim Acosta says Kid Rock addressing the Pentagon like someone with military expertise makes clear that we are living in a movie, and that movie is “Idiocracy.”

“Over a mind-numbing span of approximately the last 48 hours, American brains have been assaulted with an absurd amount of Trumpian stupidity,” said Acosta. “… Yes, that is Kid Rock addressing the troops at the Pentagon this week. It is tempting to think photos, like [that] are AI generated. But no. Your intrepid reporter checked. And that happened. Apparently, the Trump administration’s self-described War Secretary, Pete Hegseth invited Mr. Rock to Washington for a taxpayer-funded joyride on an Apache helicopter at a nearby base in Virginia.”

Between that and Trump warning Iran via Truth Social to “get their act together,” and declaring they “don’t know how to sign a nonnuclear deal,” Acosta said it feels like “living through a sequel to the film, Idiocracy.”

Acting attorney general Todd Blanche’s “comically strained” attempt to defend DOJ charges against former FBI head James Comey was equally embarrassing.

“Nobody is buying it, including Trump’s most ridiculous legal defenders,” said Acosta. “Even George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, who regularly runs interference for Trump on Fox News, said the case is likely to be thrown out. [And] When you’ve lost Turley …”

Acosta derided “other scenes from our Trumpian Idiocracy,” including federal workers currently applying blue paint to the bottom of the reflecting pool on the National Mall.

“The goal, according to the Trump administration, is to transform the appearance of the century old landmark into that of a swimming pool,” said Acosta. “Yes, that is really happening too. Having already paved over the Rose Garden, and with his congressional allies, like the once-serious Senator Lindsey Graham, now proposing a $400 million, taxpayer-financed ballroom on the White House grounds, Trump is busily turning the nation’s capital into the second coming of Mar-a-Lago.”

Thankfully, though, U.S. voters don’t appear to be as dumb as their government, said Acosta.

“A new Emerson College poll finds voters prefer Democrats over Republicans by a 50-40 margin. Dem Advantage in Midterms. Oof! This is not a ‘throw the bums out’ midterms cycle that is looming on the horizon,” said Acosta. “More like ‘throw the Dum-Dums out.’”

Fox News Chief Political Analyst Brit Hume is one of the Network’s most serious voices. And on Wednesday he very seriously declared Congress likely lost to the GOP were elections held today.

“I think people are concerned about the economy, and the Republicans are likely to pay a price for that,” said Hume, when asked by a Fox anchor to for perspective on the midterms. “There’s some hope among Republicans that if we get a successful outcome of this war in Iran, or above Iran actually, that the gasoline prices and other prices will come down, people will feel better about the economy, that [President Donald Trump's] program will bring about some strengthening growth, that some of the measures he’s taken in terms of taxes and regulation will pay off, and that they’ll have a chance of doing well in the midterms.”

But Hume was not at all ready to skew that optimistic at this point.

“I think the House is a long shot for [Republicans] because the margin is so tiny and historical precedent is so strong that the in-party loses in the midterm in a new president’s first term,” said Hume, before adding: “I think if the election were held today give how we’re in the middle of this conflict that the House would be obviously gone and a chance that the Senate would go, too.”

It’s a nice thing to hope for, but Hume was not quite ready to lay his hopes there considering the sheer scope of punishment that could be underway should Trump fail to end his self-made Iranian conflict and settle the global energy prices and inflation that came of it.

“The war outcome, I think, will produce a reset, for better or for worse, for each party. If it turns out well, I think the president would have a lot to run on, and the party would swing behind that because they’ve been behind this war,” said Hume. “But if it turns out in a way that is unconvincing to people that it was worth it, woe be unto the Republicans.”

As of now, Trump is aggravating Iran's squeeze on the Strait of Hormuz by imposing a second U.S. blockade on the critical oil-supply thoroughfare, and gas prices are raising accordingly.

The Hudson Independent reports that New York Supreme Court Jus­tice David Fried has re­jected a claim by U.S. Re­p. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) ’s to oust De­mo­c­ra­tic can­di­date Effie Phillips-Sta­ley’s pe­ti­tions to be on that bal­lot to run against him.

Lawler is the only Republican incumbent in New York whose district is rated a “tossup,” and he faces a difficult year with President Donald Trump acting as a drag on Republicans in the midterms. In November, Cook Political Report categorized Lawler's Hudson Valley seat as "lean Republican." But by January, one year into Trump’s second term, Cook shifted that designation to the "tossup" column.

Lawler is running for a third term in one of only three districts nationwide represented by a Republican that Democrat Kamala Harris won in 2024.

Lawler argued that Effie Phillips-Sta­ley’s pe­ti­tions were “per­me­ated with fraud,” but Fried ruled that the Lawler cam­paign “failed to prove that the in­valid sig­na­tures were enough to taint the en­tire sub­mis­sion,” according to the Independent. “Stip­u­lat­ing that as many as 501 sig­na­tures col­lected by one of Phillips-Sta­ley’s hired col­lec­tors were in­valid still left 2,058 valid sig­na­tures where only 1,250 were re­quired to put her name on the bal­lot.”

Additionally, the judge determined that Lawler failed to show that the can­di­date her­self or her cam­paign had col­lab­o­rated with the col­lec­tor, Dion McBean, to fal­sify sig­na­tures.

Lawler, who has been confronted by angry constituents griping about his connections to deeply unpopular Trump, did not accept the decision gracefully.

“No sooner had Judge Fried’s rul­ing been an­nounced than the Lawler cam­paign called for ‘an im­me­di­ate crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion by state and fed­eral au­thor­i­ties’ of her pe­ti­tions,” reported the Independent.

“This is a crim­i­nal mat­ter,” said Lawler’s cam­paign man­ager, Ciro Ric­cardi Wednes­day. “Six vot­ers tes­ti­fied live and un­der oath that sig­na­tures bear­ing their names were forged. Twenty-four more swore to the same thing in no­ta­rized af­fi­davits. The can­di­date’s own lawyer ad­mit­ted on the record that this ‘makes it fraud by some­body.’ Now we are call­ing on every law en­force­ment agency with ju­ris­dic­tion — state and fed­eral — to do their job, un­cover how deep this fraud op­er­a­tion went, and hold the per­pe­tra­tors of this scheme ac­count­able.”

Former Assistant Special Agent in Charge with the FBI Michael Feinberg says he has no reason to feel safe that President Donald Trump won’t send his politicized Department of Justice after him with a bogus and expensive prosecution as he already has with former FBI director James Comey.

“As to whether I'm worried. Yeah, of course I'm worried on a lot of levels,” Feinberg told MS NOW Anchor Nicole Wallace. “This is an administration that comes after critics, and … I'm in the position of being a critic.”

Feinberg made his confession after former DOJ Pardon Attorney Elizabeth Oyer admitted publicly that she, too, feared legal persecution by the vindictive president.

“On a personal note, … I'm worried for myself. I mean, I've had a security incident at my home after I left the department. That was very worrisome. And the idea that I don't know that the justice department or the FBI is a place that I could turn for help because of the people who are in charge of it — that scares me. It scares me tremendously for myself and for my family,” Oyer told Wallace. “And I am certain that there are many other citizens, former employees of the justice department and beyond who feel the same way. We don't know if the institutions that are supposed to protect us are going to do to do that. The bad guys are on the inside now … and it's something that troubles me every single day.”

However, Feinberg said he and Oyer served “in the executive branch, and we took an oath to the Constitution,” and “that has to mean something.”

“It's worth noting that when we all raised our right hands and we repeated the words we were given … those words do not come with an expiration date,” said Feinbeg. “So those of us who have ever served our flag with honor, seeing it being trampled on by this administration, we have a duty to speak up. And quite frankly, the consequences are immaterial at this point.”

Former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said he was similarly bound to speak out regardless of the threat of persecution.

“Donald Trump has posted pictures of me in an orange jumpsuit and I'm not flattered that much by it. He posts thousands of things about many people, so I'm not trying to elevate myself in any way,” said Rhodes. “There're thousands and thousands and thousands of people he's threatened. And I should say, there are truly vulnerable people in this country that are far more vulnerable than us [three].”

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The record of President Donald Trump’s justice department is starting to look spotty, but CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins reports Trump’s latest DOJ indictment “might be the worst case DOJ has filed in my lifetime,” according to one former DOJ official.

To a DOJ that has failed to convince multiple grand juries to go along with what critics call flagrant political prosecution, this means a lot. Last year, Trump's Department of Justice (DOJ) under then- AG Pam Bondi promised to re-indict New York Attorney General Letitia James after a Virginia grand jury has declined to return an indictment.

“It's said that you can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. Well, apparently the Trump people can't do that," CNN host Jake Tapper said at the time. Later, Trump’s DOJ failed to indict James a second time, heaping even more embarrassment upon the DOJ.

Trump’s DOJ then literally failed to indict a sandwich-related matter when a DC grand jury failed to indict Charles Sean Dunn — a former U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) paralegal who threw a Subway sandwich at a federal officer in Washington, D.C. At the time, critics called Distrcit of Columbia U.S. Attorney Jeanine Piro a hypocrite considering Trump pardoned rioters who did much more than throw sandwiches when they invaded the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.

That same year, a judge deep-sixed more than one indictment when he determined that Trump administration appointee Alina Habba was unlawfully serving as the acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey and booted her. Then-AG Pam Bondi appointed and delegated a “Byzantine” triumvirate of lesser leaders, all unconfirmed by the U.S. Senate — which also got removed by judicial order.

And now comes the Tuesday re-indictment of former FBI head James Comey, for what critics call “playing with seashells.”

“I hope that Todd Blanche doesn’t have any big plans for his legal career after Trump’s term is over. Because he’s going to get disbarred for this blatantly unethical prosecution,” one critic posted on X.

'This indictment is deeply flawed,” former prosecutor Elie Honig told CNN anchor Jake Tapper.

“I remain skeptical of the accounts of the two criminal charges. This has to overcome towering free speech protections,” posted law professor, columnist and New York Times best-selling author Jonathan Turley on X. “We will have to wait to see if the administration has a ‘smoking shell’ allegation that makes Comey's shell speech more menacing as a willful and knowing threat.”

Investigative journalist Carol D. Leonnig said interim AG director and Trump personal attorney Todd Blanche told his lieutenants that he was brewing up a ‘perp-walk’ for James Comey before doing it, according to anonymous sources inside the Department of Justice.

“Well, how convenient for me that you would ask that question,” Leonnig told MS NOW anchors when asked if Blanche’s indictment of the former FBI head Comey was meant to be proof that “he can be thr AG that President Donald Trump wants.

“I was on the phone with some sources who said that Blanche has been telling many of his senior aides inside the Department of Justice that he is not happy with having been blamed as not creating a perp walk for James Comey the last time around and is not going to make that mistake again this time,” Leonnig said.

The former Pulitzer Prize winning Washington Post reporter went on to say that people inside the administration “who are still trying to keep the deck swabbed and not violate the law every other day” told her that the Comey indictment, along with the department’s arrest for alleged FOIA obfuscation of a Fauci aide is all “part of a hard-core overdrive audition.”

“[It’s] a desire by Todd Blanche to quickly ensure that he's no longer acting, and that he doesn't make the mistake of irritating the audience-of-one in the way that [former AG Pam] Bondi did.”

Leonnig went on to point out that Bondi failed Trump when she failed to land prosecutions before grand juries and judges.

“She tried to prosecute a gobsmacking number of people for whom career prosecutors found … zero evidence of crimes, no predication, no reason to go forward. But she didn't push as hard when prosecutors said ‘no,’” Leonnig said. “She didn't replace them as quickly as Donald Trump would have liked, and she didn't force them to redo it as they’re redoing it now with James Comey — about an Instagram post of some shells.”

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A former FBI agent and the former CIA director took turns dismantling President Donald Trump’s interim AG Todd Blanche for his thin indictment of former CIA head James Comey — allegedly for threatening Trump’s life with seashells.

“This should be a mournful day for our country,” said Michael Feinberg a former FBI agent and legal pundit, discussing the Trump justice department’s indictment of Comey. “… [W]e just saw a former assistant U.S. attorney … Todd Blanche diminish himself as a human being, as a public servant, and as an American.”

“With every action that cuts against every norm of our Constitution and our judicial system that he carries out with vigor, simply to debase himself in front of a president who, if history shows us anything, eventually will cast Blanche aside, too,” said Feinberg to MS NOW anchor Nicole Wallace, speaking on the recent ouster of former AG Pam Bondi after she failed to prosecute Trump’s perceived enemies. “Why is he sacrificing his integrity? Is his thirst for power that great. Is his lack of knowledge about Trump's own history and how he treats his cabinet that great? We're watching the tragedy of a nation day by day, but also the tragedy of an individual's life.”

Former CIA director John Brennen said the indictment was proof of Blanche’s ongoing bid to make his interim position as DOJ head more permanent.

“Todd Blanche clearly is continuing to audition for the nomination to be attorney general, and he was signaling his determination to follow through on Trump's every wish,” said Blanche. “He was signaling to Trump himself and performing in front of this group. And it's clear that there's not one shred of decency left in Todd Blanche.”

“Doing this and hurting people in the process is what I find just so, so reprehensible,” Brennen continued. “But it shows the depth of the corruption that has taken root in the executive branch.”

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Semafor reports that it isn’t just a smattering of Republicans who are trashing President Donald Trump’s proposed bailout of Spirit Airlines. It’s a united front — and they’re furious.

“It’s horses-——,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told Semafor of Trump’s proposal of forcing taxpayers to invest $500 million in the failing company. “My God: 10 percent stake in Intel, 5 to 10 percent stakes in three or four mining companies, ‘golden share’ of US Steel — and now a half-a-billion-dollar stake in Spirit Airlines.”

Trump spent the brunt of his second term bending congressional Republicans to his will, but his iron gripe appears to stop at bailing out Spirit. Less than a week after Trump claimed his administration was “thinking about” buying a stake in the company, nearly a dozen GOP lawmakers — ranging from moderates to conservatives and from rank-and-file lawmakers to party leaders— told Semafor they either opposed or hated the plan.

“This would be a really bad idea. I don’t think you want the government owning airlines,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Semafor Tuesday, adding that he would be happy to “share” his view” with Trump administration at the first opportunity.

“It’s a strikingly unified front for congressional Republicans who break publicly with the president only on rare occasions, like when he suggested importing beef from Argentina last year,” reports Semafor. “It took most GOP lawmakers far longer to signal their discomfort with the Justice Department’s investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell — and when they at last did, they were often more circumspect.”

But this time, Semafor reports the opposition is “swift and unanimous.”

“It is a terrible idea; corporate bailouts are a mistake,” Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Semafor. “The federal government doesn’t know a damn thing about running a budget airline — so I hope that this ill-conceived idea is put back on the shelf.”

Even Sen. Josh Hawley, (R-Mo.) a loyal Trump follower, dismissed the proposal.

“I don’t really want to help Spirit,” Hawley told Semafor. “Maybe I don’t get it. But Spirit is one of the worst in terms of how they treat their customers.”

Before President Donald Trump headed off to Washington, DC., on Saturday for the White House Correspondents Dinner he first had to face top investors in his Trump meme coin crypto scheme at Mar-a-Lago — just as his cryptocurrency is in freefall.

But MS NEWS reporter Alex Tabet said the value and pay-off of the money purchase isn’t as important as the act of dumping money into a hole that apparently buys access to the president.

“Let me break down how this Mar-a-Lago crypto conference works. So, the top 297 holders of this Trump Coin — which buying, by the way, enriches the Trump family — gets you invited to the conference. The top 29 buyers of the coin get a special VIP reception with President Trump, complete with champagne,” said Tabet. “And if I were one of those 29 people, I'd be hoping it's a bottomless brunch because the value of the Trump Coin has been absolutely decimated. The coin is down more than 84 percent in the last year, down 96 percent from its peak. So, I wouldn't be surprised if some of those attendees today were using those champagne flutes to catch their tears.”

But, of course, Duke University professor and crypto expert Lee Reiners said the bottom of the coin falling out from under it is no matter so long as heavy investment gets the owner a face-to-face with Trump and helps make Trump rich and appreciative.

“These are essentially political assets. It's a new type of asset class where the asset has no inherent value other than the ability to influence and curry favor with the U.S. presidential administration,” said Reiners. “From a revenue standpoint, we can say for certainty that thus far, in the second Trump Administration, Donald Trump has made over $1 billion from his crypto ventures. This is a level of enrichment by a sitting president that has no parallel in American history.”

Tabet added that a Reuters analysis found Trump’s family has taken in more than $1 billion in asset sales with at least $336 million of that billion coming from meme coin sales. “

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Zeteo editors made clear that they will not be attending the Saturday White House Correspondents’ Dinner. They were equally vocal about their reasons.

“We will not join our media colleagues in partying with Donald Trump, an authoritarian who seeks to curtail the First Amendment and criminalize journalism, who puts masked agents on the street to racially profile and kidnap people and kill people, who jails foreign students for their pro-Palestine speech, who seeks to denaturalize US citizens, who has made it US policy to summarily execute people at sea, who is massacring children and threatening the global economy with his disastrous war in Iran,” said editors.

“There is no reason to don a tuxedo and celebrate this racist wannabe tyrant,” they added, pointing out that Trump and his Justice Department have already privately discussed using the Espionage Act to bring criminal charges against reporters.

“There is nothing to be gained by showing up to the dinner with the hopes of offering any small act of protest,” said editors. “Members of the industry should skip the event instead, and refuse to provide a televised backdrop for Trump’s vitriol and hate.”

Zeteo founders say they would prefer to focus on “getting under” Trump’s skin, and that is why the Trump White House keeps attacking the publication, and its founder Mehdi Hasan.

“It’s why the White House has repeatedly refused to grant press credentials to our journalists that would allow our team to ask tough questions of the president and his propagandists,” said editors.

Zeteo writer Asawin Suebsaeng told readers earlier this week that he personally would not be attending the event “because I have a soul and would like to keep it.”

Reports suggest Trump intends to use the event, which raises money for freedom of speech issues, as a soundboard to vent his personal grievances against the press.

“F—— that,” said Suebsaeng. “I’d rather waterboard myself than put on a tuxedo and be used as a prop in a fascist game show host’s ritual of self-love and smug hostility.”

Democratic strategist and author Jessica Tarlov says liberals have bigger problems with President Donald Trump supporters than Trumpers have with liberals. But that higher standard is leaving MAGA out in the cold with old friends and relatives.

“Trump himself is such a moral failing that it says something more definitive about you [as a Trumper],” Tarlov said, and this reality appears to be bearing out in survey interviews of both Republicans and Democrats.

“Even though we don't post political things, we've literally, my husband and I have lost friends,” one Trump supporter told Bulwark surveyors. “My stepmother, her niece didn't even go to her — didn’t invite her own parents to her wedding. And when her father died, she never even went to say ‘goodbye’ to him or even went to the funeral.”

Another Trump supporter lamented the “finger pointing” and “blaming.”

“I have a sister who is very, very far left and it is next to impossible to have a decent conversation with her because it's just, I feel like it's, um, there's no common sense, I feel like, and no worldly experience, I guess,” she told analysts. “That bothers me.”

But Democrats appear unbending in their ethics, according to interviews.

“This one close friend, we no longer speak,” one never-Trumper told Bulwark analysts. “I'm sure you've heard QAnon and all of that stuff, right? She's absolutely crazy. So, our relationship has been totally severed. I have a really good friend who went through breast cancer — but she's quite young as well — went through breast cancer a few years ago. And she's a big, big supporter of Trump and doesn't believe he's taking away funding for cancer research. Like, how can you not believe that?”

“So, it's kind of just made me take a step back and look at them,” the woman added. “That's not to say that they're bad people. Their rebuttal to me is, ‘well, you're a Democrat, I'm a Republican, we both want what's best for America.’ Well, no, in my opinion. You don't want what's best for America, or you wouldn't have voted for Donald Trump.”

Another Democrat said he is quick to avoid Trump supporters in his own circle and would immediately pull affection if he ever detects an affinity for the president.

“I have a friend who happens to be an immigrant. He works in finance and he's also gay and he voted for Donald Trump. I don't know what is his reasoning for that. I think he realizes most of his friends are very progressive, so he doesn't really talk about it. So, we don't ever speak about it, but I realistically found that out and I'm like, what the f—— is wrong with this person? I don't understand his reasoning,” the respondent said. “I don't really want to know or care. I just know that I would never have sex with that person.”