President Donald Trump has repeatedly characterized the $400 million luxury Boeing 747 the government of Qatar offered him as a "gift" — but according to CNN, it turns out the Trump administration asked them for the plane first.

Specifically, reported Alex Marquardt, Kristen Holmes, and Natasha Bertrand, administration officials "first approached Qatar to inquire about acquiring a Boeing 747 that could be used as Air Force One by President Donald Trump, four sources familiar with the discussions told CNN.

"After Trump took office in January, the Pentagon contacted Boeing and was told the company would not be able to deliver the new jets it was building to replace the aging presidential planes for another two years, the sources said," the report continued. However, administration officials didn't want to have to wait that long, and "At the same time, Trump tasked his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff with finding a list of viable planes, a senior White House official told CNN."

EXCLUSIVE: Trump accused of new grift that puts Qatari plane in shade

The Defense Department ultimately reached out to Qatar, proposing that they supply the aircraft originally, with the thinking that it could be a lease arrangement, but the idea quickly evolved into Qatar simply giving over the jet.

All of this stands in contrast to Trump's characterization of the arrangement, as he "repeatedly described the potential deal as a 'gesture' or 'contribution' from Qatar’s royal family," noted the report. "A 'GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE,' he wrote on his social media site Truth Social. He said it would be a temporary replacement for Air Force One and given to his presidential library after he leaves office but denied he would fly in the plane then."

Amid even some members of Trump's party feeling uneasy about the transaction, particularly as it came at the same time Trump was headed to the Middle East to ink diplomatic and business deals, the president has defended his actions, saying he would have to be a "stupid person" to turn down a "free plane" from a foreign government.

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The conservative editorial board of the Wall Street Journal has a dire warning for President Donald Trump: don't make the same mistakes on trade policy you did in your last term.

Trump opened his term with massive tariff threats against Canada and Mexico, sparking economists' fears of a sharp shock to consumer prices. At the last minute, he punted those tariffs to next month. But now he is moving for another 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum imports.

But he's already gone down this road, the board noted. And the consequences were disastrous.

"In March 2018, Mr. Trump announced 25% tariffs on steel and 10% on aluminum under the pretext of protecting national security. Then, as now, most U.S. metal imports came from allies including Canada, Mexico, Europe, South Korea and Japan," wrote the board.

Trump claimed at the time it was important to increase domestic production. But, the board added, "U.S. production was already increasing amid a surge in capital investment unleashed by his deregulation and 2017 tax reform. U.S. steel capacity utilization climbed to 78.5% in March 2018 from 72.4% in December 2016."

In fact, Trump was just trying to boost the profits of domestic steel producers. The problem, wrote the board, is that companies that use steel employ way more people than companies that produce steel — and those companies, faced with higher prices as a result of the tariffs, had to cut thousands of jobs.

For example, "consider Mid-Continent Steel and Wire, which produced roughly half of the nails made in the U.S," wrote the board. Sales plunged by more than half after tariffs were enacted and it laid off 80 workers. Another 120 quit fearing its Missouri factory might shutter.

The Commerce Department then granted the company a tariff exemption, wrote the board.

"Auto makers were another casualty. Ford Motor said tariffs subtracted $750 million from its bottom line in 2018, which reduced profit-sharing bonuses for each of its workers by $750. GM said the tariffs dented its profits by some $1 billion, equal to the pay of more than 10,000 employees," wrote the board.

Trump's new plans are even more draconian, the board warned — and the result is going to be the same.

"This is political rent-seeking at its most brazen, and it benefits the few at the expense of the many," the board concluded. "None of this matters to Mr. Trump, whose dogmatic views on tariffs can’t be turned by evidence. But we thought our readers would like to know the rest of the story."

President Donald Trump's chances of getting former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard confirmed as director of national intelligence received a boost Monday as Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) indicated she will support her nomination.

"As one of the principal authors of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 that established this coordinating position, I understand the critical role the DNI plays in the intelligence community," said Collins in a statement. "The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, however, has become far larger than it was designed to be, and Ms. Gabbard shares my vision of returning the agency to its intended size."

Collins said Gabbard "addressed my concerns" about her views supporting Edward Snowden, the former contractor who exposed national security secrets and fled to Russia.

Collins' position on Gabbard, who has frequently been described as a conspiracy theorist for her embrace of Russian propaganda, drew cheers and praise from Trump supporters on social media — and condemnation from almost everyone else.

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"Why bother even being a Senator if you think Tulsi Gabbard is fit for DNI?" wrote Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL). "Just admit you're a g-d rubber stamp for a felonious rapist."

"This is not good," wrote American Enterprise Institute leadership fellow Andrew Eastmond. "Susan Collins spine appears to have gone the way of Lindsey Graham's. Maybe the ghost of McCain needs to pay them a visit..."

"Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic," wrote Bridgeport, Pennsylvania Councilman Tony Heyl.

"GOP senators fall into line. Again," wrote former MSNBCcommentator Mehdi Hasan.

"Susan Collins continues to prove herself a classically trained clown," wrote former President Barack Obama adviser T.J. Adams-Falconer.

The premier of Canada's most populous province is retaliating against President Donald Trump's harsh new tariffs against his country with a blanket ban on U.S. companies from receiving provincial contracts.

On Monday Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, announced the new policy change on X, making clear that it would remain in effect as long as Trump's tariffs do.

"Every year, the Ontario government and its agencies spend $30 billion on procurement, alongside our $200 billion plan to build Ontario," wrote Ford, who leads the right-leaning Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. "U.S.-based businesses will now lose out on tens of billions of dollars in new revenues. They only have President Trump to blame."

But Ford took it one step further, and singled out pro-Trump tech billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX, which provides satellite internet services for the Ontario government. "We’ll be ripping up the province’s contract with Starlink," said Ford. "Ontario won’t do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy."

" Canada didn't start this fight with the U.S., but you better believe we're ready to win it," Ford concluded.

Trump's tariffs on Canada, which took effect this weekend along with tariffs on Mexico and China, are ostensibly in retaliation for fentanyl seizures and migrant entrances, although only a tiny fraction of either of those things in the U.S. occur at the Canadian border.

Ford has grown increasingly outspoken against Trump's threats in recent months. He has punched back over Trump's repeated suggestion that Canada should become a U.S. state if they want to avoid tariffs, at one point replying that Canada should buy Alaska instead. He has also threatened to block the U.S. import of Canadian oil and gas from his province; Canada is the largest foreign source of energy for the United States, although the majority comes from the prairie provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, rather than Ontario.

The Pulitzer Board is asking a court to pause all defamation proceedings in President Donald Trump's lawsuit against them, CNN reported on Monday — and they're citing Trump's own legal theories to make their argument.

Trump filed the lawsuit against them for awarding prizes to The New York Times and The Washington Post for their coverage of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election — after his previous attempts to sue those outlets over the coverage directly fell through.

However, according to the report, in the new filing, "the Pulitzer Board pointed out that Trump previously sought stays in other civil lawsuits where he was the defendant, saying the suits should be halted while he is in office because of questions of whether the US Constitution bars state courts from exercising jurisdiction over a sitting president."

As evidence of this, the lawyers representing the Pulitzer Board pointed out Trump made exactly this argument to try to move to suspend a lawsuit brought against him by investors in Trump Media and Technology Group, the company that runs his Truth Social platform.

"In that case, Trump’s team argued '(c)ommonsense favors a stay of this case until the end of the President’s term,' so that 'President Trump can devote his time and energies to America’s problems,'" the filing said.

Trump's federal criminal cases are dead now that he is in office, in accordance with the Justice Department's opinion against prosecuting sitting presidents.

However, a number of civil actions brought both by and against Trump remain in litigation, including a half-billion-dollar judgment of civil fraud won by New York Attorney General Letitia James, and judgmentswon by E. Jean Carroll for sexual abuse and defamation.

The Senate, with the help of Vice President J.D. Vance narrowly confirmed former Fox News weekend co-host Pete Hegseth to serve as President Donald Trump's secretary of Defense.

The overall vote count Friday night was 51-50, with three Republican Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) all breaking rank and voting no, forcing Vance to break the tie — just the second time in modern history.

"I thought I was done voting in the senate," Vance, a former Ohio senator, joked on X just before casting the tie-breaking vote.

Collins and Murkowski had said they would not support Hegseth for the role.

Hegseth was a hot button for the Trump administration, as he faced serious questions about both his qualifications to run the Pentagon and allegations that he committed sexual assault and had a serious drinking problem.

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This vote came as Trump's other controversial nominees for key positions will be facing Senate confirmation hearings, including former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to serve as the Director of National Intelligence, MAGA loyalist and "Deep State" conspiracy theorist Kash Patel to serve as Director of the FBI, and anti-vaccine activists Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

CNN reporter Manu Raju described the vote as being on a "knife's edge" with lawmakers closely monitoring Sens. McConnell and Thom Tillis (R-NC). While McConnell voted no, Tillis voted yes.

Tillis tweeted out his support for Hegseth during the vote.

"From the beginning, I have been clear about my position: if President Trump’s nominees were reported favorably out of the relevant committees, I would support their confirmation on the Senate floor absent new material information about their qualifications," he said.

Tillis added that he conducted his "own due diligence, including asking tough questions," and "appreciated his candor and openness in answering them."

"Pete has a unique perspective as a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and is unquestionably passionate about modernizing our military and supporting the brave patriots like himself who serve our nation. I will support his confirmation and look forward to working with him to rebuild our military and advance President Trump’s peace through strength agenda."

President Donald Trump flubbed geopolitics in his first informal exchange with reporters in his second term as president in the Oval Office.

This came as Trump signed a massive flurry of new executive actions, including to withdraw from the World Health Organization and to pardon roughly 1,500 people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.

"President Trump several times says that Spain is a BRICS nation, referring to the global coalition that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa," reported The Washington Post's Matt Viser, who added a swift fact check. "It does not include Spain."

BRICS began not so much as an actual alliance of nations as a list of countries that economists considered to have broadly the same types of fast-growing trends in the early 2000s. While these countries still notionally meet for summits, the alliance is more on paper than anything substantive, according to analysts.

Trump has been known for making bizarrely incorrect proclamations about politics and history.

In 2019, he infamously remarked that George Washington's army seized airports from the British, an impossibility as the Revolutionary War took place over 100 years before the invention of powered aircraft.

Trump's flurry of planned executive orders are rife with "dangerous and illegal abuses of power" that will not hold up under the slightest legal scrutiny, George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin wrote in a scathing analysis for the libertarian magazine Reason on Monday.

In particular, he argued, Trump's plans to go nuclear against immigration will face immediate legal challenges that even his own judges will struggle to defend under the Constitution.

To start, he wrote, Trump's plans to stop recognizing birthright citizenship for children of unauthorized immigrants.

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"This is blatantly unconstitutional," he wrote. "Section 1 of the Amendment grants citizenship to anyone 'born … in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.'"

Trump wants to argue illegal migrants aren't subject to U.S. jurisdiction, but this is nonsense, he noted, otherwise, they wouldn't have to follow U.S. laws and couldn't be arrested.

"I think it highly likely that courts will strike down this action, as the text and original meaning are clear, longstanding Supreme Court precedent points in the same direction, and there is broad (though not quite universal) cross-ideological agreement on the subject among legal scholars."

Similarly, Trump cannot use the 1798 Alien Enemies Act as a basis for mass deportation, as he has suggested, Somin continued, "because we are not in a 'declared war' with any foreign nation, and there also is no 'invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation or government.'"

Trump also plans to declare a national emergency at the southern border.

"There is no sudden crisis at the border right now. In fact illegal entries are down to their lowest level since August 2020, when the rate was unusually low due to the Covid pandemic. What remains is an ongoing policy issue, on which there is longstanding disagreement," wrote Somin. That said, he added, Trump has a better chance of winning that one in court, because judges may simply defer to the executive branch on what constitutes an emergency.

One of the most alarming ideas, he concluded, is Trump's reiterated dream to "take back" the Panama Canal.

"Perhaps it was a mistake for the US to transfer the Canal to Panama in 1999," he wrote. "But we did do it, and there is no remotely plausible moral or legal justification for seizing it now. As with possible attacks on Mexico, it would poison relations with a key ally and damage the international standing of the US for no good reason."

President-elect Donald Trump took his complaints about the wildfire disaster in California to a new level on Thursday, with a Truth Social post baselessly suggesting that Gov. Gavin Newsom was withholding water firefighters could be using to protect homes and businesses.

"Governor Gavin Newscum should immediately go to Northern California and open up the water main, and let the water flow into his dry, starving, burning State, instead of having it go out into the Pacific Ocean," Trump said. "It ought to be done right now, NO MORE EXCUSES FROM THIS INCOMPETENT GOVERNOR. IT’S ALREADY FAR TOO LATE!"

Trump has repeatedly claimed that California officials are somehow blocking firefighters from accessing water — which appears to be a confused misinterpretation of long-running political battles in the state over how to allocate water between agricultural, commercial, residential and environmental use.

He made similar accusations in 2018 about water being denied to firefighters during an aggressive fire season in Northern California, prompting the state fire agency to issue a statement clarifying this is not true.

Firefighters have struggled to maintain water pressure as they have tried to save neighborhoods like Pacific Palisades Experts say it's because aging water infrastructure in Los Angeles is being overstressed by the sudden spike in demand, depleting tanks faster than they can be refilled.

In previous fire disasters, Trump has also accused California officials of failing to properly manage forests, at one point suggesting they should have raked leaves to prevent wildfires, like Finland does — a remark that led to widespread mockery from Finns on social media.

He made similar claims about the latest fire disaster, which forced a reporter on Fox News to point out that forest management was irrelevant given that the fire in Malibu began in a residential area.

The United States is finally approaching a long-forecast "demographic cliff" with a sharp drop in the number of 18-year-olds — and some of the first institutions to feel it will be colleges and universities, according to the nonprofit Hechinger Report.

"This so-called demographic cliff has been predicted ever since Americans started having fewer babies at the advent of the Great Recession around the end of 2007 — a falling birth rate that has not recovered since, except for a slight blip after the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control," reported Jon Marcus. "Demographers say it will finally arrive in the fall of this year. That’s when recruiting offices will begin to confront the long-anticipated drop-off in the number of applicants from among the next class of high school seniors."

One of the effects of this has been that smaller schools in lower-population areas are being forced to close down. That happened in 2023 to Iowa Wesleyan University, which, founded in 1842, was the state's oldest co-educational higher education campus — and had piles of furniture, trophies, books, and other assets loaded off into trucks to be sold off. Doug Moore, who founded a company that was involved in the college's shutdown, reflected, “All the things that are mementos of the best four years of a lot of people’s lives are sold to the highest bidders.”

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All of this is coming at a time when colleges and universities are already under increased scrutiny and pressure for decades of unsustainably rising tuition rates that trapped millions of people in mountains of student debt.

That trend has finally begun to reverse, with College Board data showing an inflation-adjusted decrease of 4 percent in overall public college tuition rates in the last decade, a 40 percent decrease in real annual public college costs, and a decrease in the share of students graduating with debt.

However, Marcus noted, the implications go far beyond colleges and universities.

"It’s a looming crisis for the economy, with fewer graduates eventually coming through the pipeline to fill jobs that require college educations, even as international rivals increase the proportions of their populations with degrees," he said.

President-elect Donald Trump has now threatened to “tariff Denmark at a very high level” as retaliation for the country not surrendering the autonomous territory of Greenland to become part of the United States — a measure that could have profound consequences on a surprising range of goods Americans buy, reported The New York Times on Wednesday.

"Denmark, which has a smaller population than New York City, is not a huge trading partner for the United States," reported Ana Swanson and Jenny Gross. "The country — a U.S. ally and a NATO member — sent the United States more than $11 billion worth of goods in 2023, just a tiny slice of more than $3 trillion of imports" — as opposed to the U.S. sending $5 billion in goods that include industrial and scientific equipment, aircraft, and computers.

However, "despite its small size, Denmark, which handles Greenland’s foreign and security affairs, is home to some products that are very well-loved in America, goods that could become more expensive if Mr. Trump follows through with heavy tariffs," the report said.

One of those products is LEGO, the brick-assembly toy beloved by generations of both children and adult collectors, which has its origins in Denmark (the name LEGO itself comes from a Danish phrase meaning "play well.")

Additionally, Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk produces Ozempic and Wegovy, two wildly successful weight-loss medications that have exploded in use in the United States.

"Denmark is also the leading supplier to the United States of hearing aids," continued the report. "Beyond medicines, Denmark also sends the United States medical instruments, fish fillets, pig meat, coal tar oil, petroleum and baked goods, among other products, according to the OEC."

Trump's fixation on acquiring Greenland dates back to the first term of his presidency. More broadly, proposals for the United States to purchase the island, which is rich in natural resources and a strategically important military location, have been floating around since the 1800s.

Denmark has said in no uncertain terms it is not interested in selling Greenland; that being said, treaties between Denmark and the U.S., as well as their shared membership in NATO, broadly give America the military access it needs to the island anyway.

A tragic situation went from bad to worse in Evansville, Illinois, after police who responded to complaints about animal neglect ended up shooting the dog they were summoned to help, WISH reported.

Officers "say animal control had been called 16 times with neglect concerns about the dog. Police say this led to a request for police to assist removing the dog from the premises," reported Jason Ronimous. After authorities had been at the premises for 30 minutes, "officers and animal control attempted to safely remove the dog and instructed its owner to leash the dog to walk it to the animal control vehicle."

The dog, who reportedly was being kept in an "open-air style kennel with a tarp wrapped around two sides" in conditions so cold the water in its bowl had frozen solid, then charged at police as the owner was trying to leash it.

Police said that they had "observed the dog for signs of playfulness or normal behavior but became concerned when the dog’s approach escalated into aggressive behavior, including jumping up with its mouth open in an attacking manner within very close proximity to the officer. In response to the threat, the officer discharged his duty-issued handgun, firing three rounds at the dog. The dog succumbed to its injuries."

The owner ended up with a fine for animal neglect.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is about to face a potential hurdle in his bid to be confirmed as President-elect Donald Trump's secretary of Health and Human Services, reported The Daily Beast: a meeting with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), one of the few Republicans who may have reason to buck Trump on the issue.

Kennedy is widely known for his conspiracy theories on a broad range of health-related topics, from vaccinations to water fluoridation — and Cassidy happens to be one of a handful of members of Congress who worked as a medical doctor before his election.

Speaking to Fox News over the weekend, Cassidy, who was also one of a small group of GOP senators to vote to convict Trump in the second impeachment trial, said of Kennedy, “I will meet with him this coming week. I look forward to the interview. I agree with him on some things and disagree on others. The food safety, I think the ultra-processed food is a problem. Vaccinations, he’s wrong on, and so I just look forward to having a good dialogue with him on that.”

Cassidy chairs the powerful Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, which will be responsible for the initial vetting of Kennedy.

That committee, per The Beast, "is slated to hold a 'courtesy' hearing to weigh Kennedy’s nomination, which has not yet been scheduled. But the Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing to decide whether to sendKennedy’s nomination to the chamber floor for a vote, which would likely occur late this month — if Kennedy, whose own family has turned on him, makes it that far."

Kennedy's issues might not be limited to fears from Cassidy over his anti-vaccination stance. Some Republicans from key farming states reportedly have had reservations about his opposition to the widespread use of corn sugar and other additives in food.

Tech billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he has evidence that the Cybertruck explosion at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas that killed one person and injured more than half a dozen others was an intentional terrorist act.

That incident, which was captured in footage by hotel guests, occurred in the valet area. The immediate reaction of many people was to call it on-the-nose symbolism for Musk's controversial relationship with President-elect Donald Trump — but it may not have been a coincidence at all.

"We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself," Musk posted to his X platform. "All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion."

He added that law enforcement officials believe the blast was "most likely intentional."

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This comes amid reports that federal authorities are investigating whether that blast was not just an act of terrorism, but whether it was tied to the vehicle-ramming attack in New Orleans by a Texas man driving a truck with an ISIS flag, which left 15 people dead and many more wounded.

Musk also strongly suggested that it's thanks to the superior engineering of Tesla that the explosion didn't do more damage.

"Cybertruck is the worst possible choice for a car bomb, as its stainless steel armor will contain the blast better than any other commercial vehicle," said Musk.

He later boasted: "The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards. Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken."

Pressed by reporters ahead of New Year's Eve celebrations on why he apparently reversed his position on the H1-B visa program, President-elect Donald Trump denied doing any such thing.

"I didn’t change my mind," said Trump. "I always felt we have to have the most competent people in our country. We need competent people. We need smart people coming into our country. We need a lot of people coming in."

While Trump made some overtures in favor of high-skilled worker visas near the end of his presidency, he ran on sharp curtailment of the program in 2016, noted former GOP strategist turned anti-Trump influencer Ron Filipkowski.

"The H1-B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration: these are temporary workers foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay," said Trump in a statement issued during the 2016 election cycle. "I remain totally committed to eliminating rampant, widespread H1-B abuse and ending outrageous practices such as those that occurred at Disney in Florida when Americans were forced to train their foreign replacements. I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program. No exceptions."

In recent days, tensions have flared in the MAGA community as hard-right activists have turned on tech billionaire Elon Musk for his passionate defense of the H1-B visa program.

Trump, for his part, has publicly taken Musk's side on the issue.

Watch the video below or at the link here.

President-elect Donald Trump should be disqualified under the Fourteenth Amendment's Insurrection Clause when Congress gathers to certify the results of the 2024 election, wrote Evan Davis and David Schulte for The Hill.

The two former Ivy League law review editors, who also previously clerked for Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, freely acknowledge the odds of this happening are basically nil — but laid out their most compelling case that Congress does, at least, have clear power and duty to do make this decision, were it so inclined.

"Disqualification is based on insurrection against the Constitution and not the government. The evidence of Donald Trump’s engaging in such insurrection is overwhelming. The matter has been decided in three separate forums, two of which were fully contested with the active participation of Trump’s counsel," they wrote. Those three forums were Trump's second impeachment trial, a state court ruling in Colorado, and the bipartisan House January 6 Committee.

The Supreme Court shot down efforts by state election officials to disqualify Trump on the basis of insurrection earlier this year, Davis and Schulte noted — but all they ruled was that that isn't the correct venue to disqualify a presidential candidate, not that Trump did not engage in insurrection. The majority did suggest federal legislation was necessary to establish this as a basis, but only as non-binding dicta — and "this overreach is a power grab which Congress is not required to credit."

The Electoral Count Act, which was just updated in 2022, "specifies two grounds for objection to an electoral vote: if the electors from a state were not lawfully certified or if the vote of one or more electors was not 'regularly given,'" they continued. "A vote for a candidate disqualified by the Constitution is plainly in accordance with the normal use of words 'not regularly given.' Disqualification for engaging in insurrection is no different from disqualification based on other constitutional requirements such as age, citizenship from birth and 14 years’ residency in the United States."

Ultimately, Republicans who control Congress won't allow this to happen, they concluded. "But Democrats need to take a stand against Electoral College votes for a person disqualified by the Constitution from holding office unless and until this disability is removed. No less is required by their oath to support and defend the Constitution."

Democrats' fears that President-elect Donald Trump will govern as a dictator — something he himself suggested on the campaign trail — may ultimately never come to pass, conservative analyst Ramesh Ponnuru wrote for The Washington Post Tuesday. Not because he wouldn't want to, but because he is too impulsive and scrambled to be able to get even his own party in Congress to bend the knee.

Ponnuru is a frequent critic from the right of Trump, particularly on matters where he bucks traditional Republican orthodoxy like trade protectionism.

"Trump has indisputable political talents," he wrote. "But he remains impulsive, manipulable and jealous of attention."'

Ponnuru went on, "Democrats spent much of the presidential campaign warning that a second Donald Trump presidency would move methodically and remorselessly toward sinister goals: persecuting immigrants, enriching billionaires, ending democracy, imposing theocracy. This time, they said, he and his people would already know how to use the powers of his office. His party would put up less, maybe no, resistance."

However, "Last week’s fight over the continuing resolution to keep the federal government funded should calm some of these fears."

In that fight, tech billionaire Elon Musk, Trump's biggest benefactor, blew up bipartisan negotiations to keep the government open, causing a mad scramble until the House GOP managed to salvage a compromise that didn't even give the things Trump was demanding. This episode left Democrats somewhat emboldened they could beat Trump — and armed with a new talking point that "President Musk" is really the one pulling the strings.

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Trump, wrote Ponnuru, did many things that signaled he still doesn't understand how Congress works. "He still has little interest in figuring out how to build a legislative coalition. He was effectively demanding that Republicans lift the debt ceiling on a party-line vote. He should have known that they would never accede ... The president-elect also kneecapped Johnson by telegraphing his disappointment with the way the speaker handled the continuing resolution."

Trump's GOP may still want to do all the things Democrats fear, Ponnuru concluded — but they are devoid of skilled leadership to do it.

"Voters are unlikely to remember this episode by the midterm elections of November 2026, especially since Congress ultimately avoided a shutdown," he wrote. "What should concern them — and buoy Democrats — is that they seem very likely to produce sequels."

Democrats felt they hit rock bottom after the election — but are now looking on with satisfaction as Republicans tear themselves apart before even achieving unified control of government, Politico reported.

Barely emerging from licking their wounds, the party "watched with barely contained glee as President-elect Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser Musk nearly caused a government shutdown last week," reported Holly Otterbein, Brakkton Booker and Ally Mutnick. "Ditto when Trump and his allies vowed to field primary challenges against Republicans who didn’t take their side on the funding battle. And then they couldn’t believe their luck when Trump fumed about House Speaker Mike Johnson, opening up the possibility of a messy leadership fight next year that could stall his agenda."

All of this led to Democrats adopting a new line of messagingdesigned to needle Trump about playing second fiddle to Musk — and it was all compounded by the release of the ethics report against former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), confirming the man Trump previously sought to be his attorney general was credibly accused of sexual contact with minors and illicit drug use (which he still denies).

“President Musk and House Republicans are the living embodiment of a dumpster fire,” said the Democratic-aligned House Majority PAC's spokesman C.J. Warnke. “From threatening to withhold military pay over Christmas to voting to defund childhood cancer research, the agenda put forward by House Republicans will assure Democratic victory in 2026.”

While all of this gives Democrats hope for 2026, the report noted, it's only the beginning, as Democrats will need a compelling message of their own for voters beyond the disarray of the GOP.

"When Democrats won control of the House in 2018, they campaigned on the GOP’s attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act and cast its tax overhaul as a giveaway to the wealthy," said the report. "It was a simple yet specific message that painted Republicans as a party that did not care about the working or middle classes. That and backlash to Trump’s 2016 election won them a resounding House majority in the midterms."

Donald Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt took to X on Tuesday night, saying she was enraged that a Washington Post reporter would ask her to comment on an alleged hate crime two days after the election.

In the incident in question, Dawn Hines, who is Black, found "I hate n-----s sorry not sorry" spray-painted on her fence — which prompted an outpouring of support and solidarity from the mostly-Black community in Lawnside, located in southern New Jersey near Philadelphia. The reporter, Emmanuel Felton, reached out to Leavitt for comment about his article on the incident.

"What happened in Lawnside was part of a wave of racial incidents that occurred in the days following Trump's reelection," wrote Felton. "Around the same time that Hines's fence was sprayed, Black people across the country were receiving text messages that said they'd been 'selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation.' And at the same time that Lawnside residents came together to discuss the graffiti on Hines's fence, a group of self-identified neo-Nazis marched and shouted the same slur in Columbus, Ohio. While none of these events can be traced directly back to Trump, experts say that his rhetoric has been tied to an increase in hate crimes across the nation."

Hate crime rates have doubled since Trump first ran for president a decade ago.

But Leavitt, who has previously defended the racist joke about Puerto Rico at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally and claimed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's legislation on tampon access was a "threat to society," took umbrage over the assertion.

"I just received one of the most absurd emails EVER from the Washington Post," she wrote. "This 'reporter' is doing gymnastics to try and sow division and blame President Trump for something that he admits in his email has no trace to him whatsoever; This is exactly why NOBODY trusts the Fake News Media; Jeff Bezos warned his staff before the election, and they’re still not listening to him!"

The Bezos remark alludes to the Amazon billionaire thwarting the Washington Post editorial board's intention to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. Bezos argued it would taint public trust in the paper's straight news reporting, though political endorsements are standard practice for the editorial divisions of many newsrooms.

Donald Trump is the first Republican to secure a popular vote victory in the presidential contest since 2004. As such, he feels more confident than he did last time, and has stated that “America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate” to issue a wave of new policies through executive power once he takes office.

But he could be heading for a rude awakening, wrote Hayes Brown for MSNBC.

The fact is, he wrote, Trump's popular vote win is one of the smallest in the history of modern elections — and while he enjoys a modicum of goodwill from voters now, that will quickly dissipate if he overreaches.

And as more votes have been counted, he wrote, Trump's victory — now at 1.6 percent, versus President Joe Biden's 4.5 percent win four years ago — looks less and less impressive: he "has not won a majority of the country’s votes, according to the most recent tally from NBC News. And much of the data available shows that Trump’s win likely had more to do with people opting to stay home this year than a massive swing in his favor."

This should worry Trump, wrote Brown, because even presidents who entered office with far greater mandates have lost popularity rapidly when voters turned on their agenda: the U.S. electorate "will support the presidential candidate deemed most likely to represent change, only to move quickly to punish them for any sign of hubris," he wrote.

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"Every new administration since Clinton has seen its party hold a trifecta in Washington during its first year in office and claim a mandate to shake things up. It has not fared well in most instances."

Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, for example, suffered wipeouts after controversial healthcare reform agendas, while George W. Bush's second term was crippled early on by a groundswell of outrage over his effort to privatize Social Security.

And there are signs Trump is setting himself up for something similar. Pew Research "hasn’t found a massive surge in support for his policies," wrote Brown, with only a bare 53 percent of voters open to his agenda, and even many of them turning against it when asked specific questions like on his immigration ideas.

Ultimately, wrote Brown, "The will of Donald Trump should never be confused for the will of all Americans."

Hours after his pick for attorney general removed himself from consideration, Donald Trump announced his replacement pick on Truth Social: former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.

"I am proud to announce former Attorney General of the Great State of Florida, Pam Bondi, as our next Attorney General of the United States," wrote Trump. "Pam was a prosecutor for nearly 20 years, where she was very tough on Violent Criminals, and made the streets safe for Florida Families. Then, as Florida’s first female Attorney General, she worked to stop the trafficking of deadly drugs, and reduce the tragedy of Fentanyl Overdose Deaths, which have destroyed many families across our Country. She did such an incredible job, that I asked her to serve on our Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission during my first Term — We saved many lives!"

"For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans - Not anymore," Trump continued. "Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again. I have known Pam for many years — She is smart and tough, and is an AMERICA FIRST Fighter, who will do a terrific job as Attorney General!"

Trump did not mention in his announcement that Bondi also served as one of his defense attorneys during his first impeachment trial, where he was accused of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in his effort to try to extort Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into announcing an "investigation" of Joe Biden's family.

Bondi also faced controversy for shutting down a state probe of Trump University, which authorities said falsely claimed to offer education, but actually sought to upsell students to more expensive programs. Bondi's decision came around the same time a political group linked to her accepted a $25,000 campaign donation from the Trump Foundation.

She also worked for a lobbyist for Qatar at the same time she was representing Trump's defense, according to the book, "The Big Cheat"by David Cay Johnston

Trump's original pick for attorney general was former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, but this nomination quickly went off the rails amid a House Ethics Committee report, still as of now unreleased, into allegations he engaged in child sex trafficking and illicit drug use.

Former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) on Friday night sharply criticized Donald Trump's selection of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to serve as attorney general — and gave his fellow commentators on Fox News a piece of his mind.

Gowdy, who ran the House's controversial investigation into the 2012 Benghazi consulate attack, has a history of enmity with Gaetz, who has himself lashed out at Gowdy on Fox News.

"Trey Gowdy would know something about clown shows," he said in January 2023. "That's probably how a lot of us would categorize the Benghazi hearings that resulted in people screaming at each other in a big report but no real accountability."

Gowdy was no less cutting as he explained to Fox News anchor Bret Baier what he thought of Gaetz, who abruptly resigned from Congress this week ahead of a vote on whether to release a House Ethics Committee report into allegations of child sex trafficking, acceptance of illegal gifts, and drug use.

"I think, as I said at the beginning, a lot of these senators want to get these [nominees] through, if not all that they can," said Baier, noting to Gowdy that the FBI investigation of Gaetz for sex trafficking never ended up with charges against him.

"Well, with all due respect ... I was there for, if you want to give credit to somebody [for GOP investigations], give it to Kash Patel, Jim Jordan, John Ratcliffe, James Comer. Don't give it to the guy who was out there putting on makeup while other people were doing the investigation."

When it comes to who could run the Justice Department in a way that would satisfy the MAGA movement, Gowdy added: Trump "just picked Jay Clayton, he just picked Todd Blanche, both of whom would be fantastic. They would do exactly what you wanted done."

"You don't have to pick between character and competency," he said. "You can actually have both in a nominee. But Gaetz doesn't have both."

Watch the video below or at the link here.

After years of baselessly claiming the Justice Department was out to get him for political reasons, incoming President Donald Trump appears set to take a firm hand with the department and make it do precisely that to his political foes, former federal prosecutor Harry Litman warned Monday on MSNBC's "The Beat."

The remarks came as Trump prepares to replace huge chunks of the civil service with his loyalists.

There are things that people can do to fight back, Litman added — even if those remedies are somewhat limited now.

"So Harry, what is the legal recourse for people or companies, if they end up within the crosshairs of Trump and the DOJ, and, as you call them, the flunkies that are going to do his bidding?" asked anchor Katie Phang, herself an attorney.

"Yeah, there are a lot of legal remedies," said Litman. "You can bring something against the government for a politically trumped-up prosecution, but there is not going to be any personal remedy, as you were saying, to couple everything he is doing with the immunity decision. He did it himself when he said he would fire [special counsel] Jack Smith within two seconds."

Despite all of this, he said, the problem is that "as a general matter, we rely on the professionalism and fairness of the DOJ and there are not a lot of remedies out there, not to mention [Steve] Bannon is crowing about having the judiciary populated with Trump judges."

The upshot, he said, is "this is really serious stuff, and it is a fundamental erosion if it takes place, and I think, Katie, it's going to take place at least in some part, [of the] absolute bedrock assumption about the criminal justice system since at least Watergate. We are really going back to a government of man, not of laws."

Watch the video below or at the link here.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Former President Donald Trump's legal ally Rudy Giuliani was roundly mocked on social media after a devastating court order against him Tuesday.

Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor and New York City mayor who has been one of Trump's most dedicated surrogates, helped push baseless lawsuits to try to throw out the 2020 presidential election, and ended up facing a $148 million default judgment in a defamation suit brought by a pair of Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, whom he had accused of stuffing the ballot box in Atlanta.

Already in a dire financial situation, and with his bid to shield his assets through bankruptcy being thrown out in court, a judge has ordered the seizure of Giuliani's New York penthouse and several other assets to start paying off the money.

Commenters had a field day over the new development.

"Well that is called sweet justice and should serve as a deterrent to others in this MAGA orbit," wrote former DOJ attorney and political consultant Julie Zebrak.

"When you repeatedly lie about people committing election fraud in 2020, it can lead to $146 million judgments against you," wrotecongressional reporter Jamie Dupree. "On the bright side, Rudy Giuliani won't have to sell his 3 World Series rings - at least not yet."

"A federal judge has ordered the property of election denying TRAITOR Rudy Giuliani to be put into receivership," wrotesinger/songwriter Bill Madden. "Repeating the lies of the loathsome piece of sh-t, Giuliani put the lives of election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss in danger — and he is now paying the price."

"The Martin Scorsese saga of the rise and fall of Rudy Giuliani is going to be excellent," wrote statehouse reporter Jake Zuckerman, noting that among the other possessions Giuliani has to surrender are a luxury watch collection, movie star Lauren Bacall's former Mercedes, and a jersey signed by baseball legend Joe DiMaggio.

Politico published a story on Monday that critics say sanitized Donald Trump's speech in storm-ravaged Asheville, North Carolina — even as the article acknowledged several other chaotic developments and actions the former president has taken in the previous few days.

"After a weekend of headlines about Donald Trump’s entertainment-focused message on the campaign trail — he jokingly touted the size of Arnold Palmer’s genitalia, learned how to cook McDonald’s french fries and appeared at a Steelers game — the former president delivered a more somber address about the resilience of survivors of the deadly storm, while also bashing the Biden-Harris administration’s response," said the report, written by Natalie Allison.

Commenters on social media took umbrage, accusing Politico of whitewashing Trump's extreme behavior.

"In 2024 Trump being 'somber' just means he didn’t explicitly mention anyone’s genitalia or call for using the military against Americans," wrote Dave Willett of the League of Conservation Voters.

Some commenters pointed out that Trump's "somber" tone wasn't all that somber; Kamala Harris campaign spokesman Ian Sams posted a video of Trump praising gunmen who threatened FEMA aid workers trying to help the city, saying, “I think you have to let people know how they’re doing. If they’re not doing, if they’re doing a poor job, we’re supposed to not say it? By doing that, they’ll do a better job next time.”

".@politico wrote this up with a headline about Trump striking a somber tone," wrote national security attorney Bradley Moss.

"What fresh hell is this @politico ?!" wrote former Chicago and Seattle local news reporter Jennifer Schulze. "Take a look at the actual clips of Trump in NC and see if you think this is anyone's idea of somber. Good grief."

"Dear @politico reporters. It really is OK to fact-check candidates' claims -- rather than just repeat them verbatim as if you're human tape-recorders," wrote former Wall Street Journal editor and Columbia University professor Bill Grueskin, emphasizing the article omitted that many of Trump's claims about absent disaster response in North Carolina were false.

"Literally WHAT is happening in the Politico newsroom?? Trump angrily lied & politicked throughout his NC damage tour-- including justifying threats against FEMA workers stemming from his own disinformation," wrote T.J. Adams-Falconer, a former adviser to former President Barack Obama.

"I’ve resisted the conclusion that the mainstream press wants Trump to win," wrote progressive reporter Aaron Rupar. "But stuff like this really makes me wonder what the hell is going on in some of these editorial meetings."