White House staff are hoping President Donald Trump’s executive orders will start delivering visible results in the new year, because the broader economic agenda is still being developed.

NOTUS reported Friday that a senior White House official said they have a “whole list” of plans; however, they are "still under development."

Trump is headed to a newly drawn North Carolina congressional district on Friday to tout his "affordability tour." The Associated Press reported that voters there are feeling the squeeze.

“Having to pay bills, if you happen to pay rent and try to do Christmas all at the same time, it is very, very hard,” said Daijah Bryant, who noted she'd just worked 22 days straight.

“Everyone would love immediate gratification, but that’s just not how it works,” a senior White House official told NOTUS. “It’s going to take some time.”

It's a sharp turn after Trump's campaign promise to Americans that, on "day one," he would end inflation and cut prices.

“Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again, to bring down the prices of all goods," Trump told a Montana audience in Aug. 2024.

“Under my administration, we will be slashing energy and electricity prices by half within 12 months, at a maximum of 18 months," he promised at a North Carolina rally the following week.

In the same speech, he pledged, “Prices will come down. You just watch: They’ll come down, and they’ll come down fast, not only with insurance, with everything."

Forbes detailed 20 signs that the affordability crisis persists and Trump hasn't delivered. They include high energy costs, food costs, housing prices, insurance increases and utilities, to name a few.

According to NOTUS, "the White House is hoping that while the larger plan takes time to bake," the Trump executive orders will magically make life more affordable and ease economic pain.

Another plan in the works, according to former Heritage Foundation economist Stephen Moore, is to eliminate the capital gains tax, which is the tax on profits people get when they sell their home.

Moore agrees that staying the course and waiting for things to improve is the best plan.

“I think that the best strategy is just keep doing the right thing on the economy, keep cutting taxes, cutting regulation, reducing waste in government, producing more energy,” Moore said. “All those things eventually will turn the tide.”

Read the full report.

President Donald Trump has already bulldozed the East Wing of the White House, but replacing it with his ballroom may not be in the cards, one columnist said.

Writing for Salon, Amanda Marcotte explained that when the president has a short attention span, a building project of the scale necessary may not be possible.

It has now been two months, and the architectural firm initially hired has been let go, and another firm has been brought in.

"It increasingly seems that such discussion was a wasted effort, as the chance this ballroom will actually be built is rapidly disappearing," said Marcotte. "Perhaps it could have if Trump had delegated the management of the project to someone competent, but that’s not what he did. Instead, the famously lazy and disorganized president decided to blow off his actual governance duties in favor of micromanaging a construction project he is incapable of handling."

She noted that constructing a historic building and finishing it on his timeline would be a stretch for even the most experienced builder. For the "famed real estate tycoon," it will likely be impossible.

After only a few months of working on the project, it has now become emblematic "of Trump’s second administration: They are very good at breaking things, but they don’t know how to create anything of value," wrote Marcotte.

The Washington Post published a report Tuesday revealing no one appears to know what’s happening with the project. Marcotte pointed out that they haven't even agreed on where the building will sit and how many people it can hold.

The Trump administration faces a deadline: a judge ruled this week that Trump must "avoid building anything foundational and demanded plans for the structure be submitted by the end of the year," according to Marcotte.

Then, on Thursday, the Washington Post revealed that Trump's attention had pivoted to taking over three D.C. golf clubs. There is also the matter of changing the Kennedy Center's name to include his own. That will require new signs and likely more gold.

"The White House hasn't even scheduled meetings with the National Capital Planning Commission" to begin crafting the documents that the judge requested. Marcotte believes this means meeting the judge's deadline is unlikely.

Meanwhile, the cost of the structure keeps ballooning.

Over the summer, Trump claimed the project would cost about $200 million and that he would personally pay for it. The price tag now exceeds $400 million, and corporate sponsors and donors are paying for it.

Marcotte noted that despite his "fame" as a builder, the president hasn't actually built anything in a very long time. He's done renovations and put his name on them, but the last time he oversaw a construction project was about 20 years ago, when he was nearly 60.

"The 79-year-old president has lost whatever limited capacity he may have once possessed to make good on stated goals — or at least those that involve building or creating, instead of simply blowing things up," Marcotte mocked.

Another barrier to Trump's efforts, she wrote, is that his "existential yearnings are no match for his inherent laziness."

"This attempt by Trump to leave his mark is destined for the trash heap, probably before 3 p.m. on Jan. 20, 2029. He’s restarted weak efforts to pretend he’ll just take an illegal third term, but his apparent poor health and exhaustion leaves most wondering if he’ll be able to make it through the second," Marcotte wrote.

Ultimately, Trump seems to have realized that even his own voters "can’t wait to start forgetting Trump ever existed," Marcotte continued. His ongoing efforts to leave his physical mark around Washington "will fail."

"Trump will be felled by the worthlessness he’s spent a lifetime trying to conceal with cheap parlor tricks, because he’s incapable of making a true, lasting contribution," she closed.

Read the full column here.

A new law passed required that the Justice Department release all of the investigation documents associated with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein by Friday, but according to Democratic lawmakers, that won't be the end of the story.

NOTUS reported Thursday that lawmakers say they're waiting to review the DOJ documents before they decide on next steps.

“There’s so many different things that could happen,” said Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calf.), the ranking member on the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

He noted that he has concerns that the administration might try to hide further documents from the public.

“Ideally, they release everything. I highly doubt that’s going to happen,” he said. “But post Friday, everything has to be on the table. And so the legal approach absolutely has to be on the table, and then the Senate’s already talking about that. So we would like to see what actually happens. And so I think we’re preparing ourselves. Our team’s ready. We’re ready to review what comes out. Everyone knows, everybody’s going to be working for the weekend, and we’re ready to go.”

NOTUS reported that many Democrats believe the Trump administration will withhold some documents.

Garcia said that lawmakers may be able to cross-check the DOJ documents with the Epstein estate files.

"What are they releasing? What are they not releasing? I think that will be interesting for us, but we’re going to be releasing more photos and more documents from the estate that the DOJ may or may not have, so that will, that will continue,” Garcia said.

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) told the reporters that he is concerned they won't know what is missing since they never had access to the totality of the information to begin with.

“I’m skeptical that they [the administration] will release all of the files,” Subramanyam continued. “They haven’t answered any questions about what they think the Epstein files are. I don’t quite know how they define the Epstein files right now, or whether they’ve tampered with them in any way, or whether they will selectively release files.”

Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-Minn.) told NOTUS that lawmakers may have to rely on Epstein's survivors to fill some information gaps.

She alleged, “We will know if they have omitted any files.”

“We can expect that if the files are fully released, there will be a mountain of evidence of both criminal and civil liability against individuals who were never prosecuted,” Stansbury said. “It’s likely that if that is the case that there will be legal ramifications for individuals that are exposed to have been complicit in crimes, and I think it will also help shed insight as to why the U.S. government did not prosecute the case.”

For the past two weeks, House Oversight Democrats have released photos from a trove of 95,000 images that came from the Epstein estate. The first batch had a number of photos of Epstein with famous people in filmmaking, Wall Street and politics. The second batch features a number of photos of quotes from the book "Lolita" written on the skin of an individual.

Trump and his administration deny any wrongdoing.

Read the full report here.

President Donald Trump is in the middle of another government takeover attempt that will leave the nation's capital marred by his whims, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

Trump seeks control of three public golf courses, breaking a 50-year lease between the National Park Service and the nonprofit National Links Trust. To do so, the government must identify violations, but the Interior Department’s Solicitor’s Office skipped that step when issuing a notice of default on Oct. 29, 2025.

"The lack of public explanation and recent comments from President Donald Trump have fueled concern that the administration is attempting to take control of the East Potomac, Langston and Rock Creek courses regardless of contractual obligations," the Post reported.

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), ranking member on the House Committee on Natural Resources, said there’s a process for such leases for good reason: “It’s a legitimate lease that is used to operate those courses owned by the Park Service. The lessee has been putting a lot of money and investments into it and relying on that, and the idea that Trump would just swoop in and take these things over is very disruptive and obviously terrible policy in addition to what it says about his priorities.”

“This is just the latest example of an administration that treats historically significant places as expendable when they stand in the way of vanity projects," lamented Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.).

Trump bulldozed the historic East Wing of the White House during the government shutdown and boasted about plans for a “Trump” arch near Arlington National Cemetery’s entrance.

The current lease lets the National Links Trust manage and refurbish the courses; it was approved during Trump’s first term.

In a statement last Friday, the Trust disputed any default, saying it “respectfully disagrees with the characterization.” The agreement requires the Park Service to identify violations and give at least 45 days to cure them, and the government cannot terminate as long as the Trust begins corrections and “thereafter diligently pursues such efforts.”

If the Park Service wants to claim "default," it must identify violations and give at least 45 days to address them, the agreement says, according to the Post.

A retired Park Service leader said rules are being ignored in the new administration: “The reality is nothing is normal right now. Contracts, agreements, leases —cliterally nothing is done the way we would have normally done it.”

“Normally, if we think someone is in default, there’s a long paper trail,” the Post reported, citing an individual with knowledge of federal leases. “For this to come out as short as it was, with no specifics and no cure, is really outside the norm."

Privately, administration officials fantasize about redeveloping the East Potomac course to host the Ryder Cup, with discussions about expanding toward the water — potentially eliminating parts of Ohio Drive SW, a route in the Marine Corps Marathon, one Post reporter said on X.

It would also shrink "bike paths, picnic areas, fishing spots, playground space and possibly even cherry blossom trees that stretch toward the southern tip of Hains Point."

The area is often less populated than the Tidal Basin when viewing the legendary cherry blossoms during the peak season. It was built when the Army Corps of Engineers developed the Tidal Basin. It has a rich history that includes a tea house created by the Girl Scouts of America and a gathering place in hot summers throughout the past 130 years.

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calf.) fears Trump is “looking to acquire and develop new government golf courses for the President and his friends to play on."

"No wonder Trump thinks the affordability crisis is a hoax: he’s got all the taxpayer money to play with that he wants," Schiff, a frequent Trump target, wrote on social media.

Read the full report here.

A group of photos from the estate of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was released on Thursday by the House Oversight and Reform Committee Democrats. The photos show body parts of an individual with quotes from Vladimir Nabokov's novel "Lolita" written on the exposed skin.

The book, a 1955 novel, describes a French literature professor who falls in love with a 12-year-old girl, becomes obsessed with her, kidnaps her and sexually abuses her after becoming her stepfather.

The quotes include one written on the foot of an individual describing the girl as "four feet ten in one sock."

Another appears to be written across the chest, hip, neck and back of a person.

The photos also include Epstein's passport, which included a note saying that he had been convicted of a sex crime. The passport of a Russian woman also appears in the images. There are various identification cards from the Czech Republic, Italy and South Africa.

There is also a screen capture of what appears to be a text conversation on WhatsApp.

"I have a friend scout she sent me some girls today. But she asks 1000$ per girl," the texts say. "I will send u girls now. Maybe someone will be good for J?"

The details include the girl's height, weight, and measurements.

Financial columnist and CNBC co-anchor is urging folks to put the brakes on before they invest in artificial intelligence.

Speaking to MS NOW's "Morning Joe," Andrew Ross Sorkin discussed his book "1929," which explores the first stock market crash that triggered the Great Depression. It prompted him to warn viewers that "understanding the economics in the AI boom" is necessary in order to prevent a "bust," which, he said, is a possibility if the financial system is too "leveraged."

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released new data on Thursday showing November's numbers, but it may not tell the whole story due to some missing details.

With the information provided, Joe Scarborough said it showed a "cooling" in the inflation rate and cited the rising jobless rate.

"I think we have to look at this particular number with skepticism, this idea that we've had inflation come down so materially on the [consumer price index] number, I think has a lot of people scratching their heads, quite surprised," said Sorkin.

Sorkin also said that it's possible some of the pricing numbers came from late November when things were heavily discounted for "Black Friday."

He predicted that he would not have accurate numbers for another month.

One of the key points in Sorkin's book is that he notes just how much was "missed" in 1929. He was asked what he thinks analysts are missing today.

"Oh, goodness," Sorkin began. "I think the things, if we're missing something, is really just understanding the economics of what's happening in the AI boom in order to prevent, hopefully, a bust. To understand some of the leverage where the debt is inside the system right now, I think, unlike even in 2008, it is very hard right now to understand how much leverage, how much debt, how much borrowing is going on."

The reason, he said, is that after 2008, major borrowing from big banks no longer works.

"Frankly, because of a lot of the regulations we put in place, this entire other industry known as the shadow banking system, known as private credit, has emerged," said Sorkin. "And in that world, there is very little disclosure. And so we just don't know. And I think that is the piece of it. Even inside the Federal Reserve, I would say they don't even know really how intertwined and how much leverage is in the system."

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With every fresh disclosure, Donald Trump’s connection to trafficker Jeffrey Epstein appears increasingly intimate.

The New York Times' Nicholas Confessore and Julie Tate interviewed more than 30 former employees of Epstein, along with survivors of his abuse, and found that he and Trump bonded over their mutual "pursuit of women."

"For nearly a quarter-century, Mr. Trump and his representatives have offered shifting, often contradictory accounts of his relationship with Mr. Epstein, one sporadically captured by society photographers and in news clips before they fell out sometime in the mid-2000s," the report said. "Closely scrutinized since Mr. Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell during Mr. Trump’s first term, their friendship — and questions about what the president knew of Mr. Epstein’s abuses — now threatens to consume his second one."

As the evidence continues to be released, it has revealed that "the two men’s relationship was both far closer and far more complex than the president now admits."

"Neither man drank or did drugs," the report explained. So, women became their vice.

“I just think it was trophy hunting,” said Stacey Williams, a Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition model during the 1990s.

She had previously described an encounter with Trump in which he groped her in 1993. Trump denies it, however.

Another individual who's never spoken out before, told The Times that Epstein "coerced her into attending four parties" at his home. Trump attended all of them.

"At two of them, she said, Mr. Epstein directed her to have sex with other male guests," the report said. It was reminiscent of an email released by Congress in November in which Epstein bragged he "gave" Trump a 20-year-old woman.

In another incident on Epstein's "Lolita Express" plane, Trump came onto another Epstein staffer, claiming he "could have anyone he wanted," the report said.

Another Epstein employee recalled Trump sending over "modeling cards" for Epstein to look at, like a menu.

Close to 20 women have publicly accused Trump of "groping, forcibly kissing or sexually assaulting them," the Times noted. Trump has denied this.

In Trump's 2004 book offering "business advice," The Times recalled that Trump's office phone rang with "the mysterious Jeffrey" on the other line. It never identifies a last name.

"A few times a week, the phone would ring in Mr. Epstein’s office in the Villard Houses on Madison Avenue. Mr. Trump would be on the line. On one occasion, recalled an Epstein assistant from the mid-1990s, Mr. Trump refused to give any name at all," the report continued.

The first assistant recalled that if she was working late, Epstein would poke his head out of his door to see if she was at her desk before putting Trump on speaker phone when he called. Trump "seemed to enjoy regaling Mr. Epstein with tales of his sexual exploits. And Mr. Epstein seemed to delight in how uncomfortable it made her to overhear them."

One call involved a discussion of pubic hair one woman had and whether it was enough for Epstein "to floss his teeth with." Trump recalled having sex with a woman on a pool table in another call, the assistant recalled. The speaker phone calls were recounted by others as well, the report said. A woman trafficked in the mid-1990s testified Epstein frequently put people on speakerphone while others were in the room.

A different assistant from the early 2000s recalled the speakerphone calls would pivot to discuss "pageants or modeling shows." Epstein had such a short attention span that an assistant said he would frequently leave the room while Trump was still talking.

The first former assistant kept handwritten notes from several months in 1994, including details of Trump visiting Epstein's office, despite a Trump spokesperson denying the claim over the summer. Some notes reminded the assistant to tell Epstein to return Trump's calls. One questioned whether Epstein was "flying to [Florida] tomorrow."

"Another recorded that a package would be arriving with an invitation to a Mar-a-Lago event," the report said.

Epstein's brother Mark confirmed the account. "He was in the office all the time back then," the brother told the Times.

George Houraney, who partnered with Trump for a 1993 beauty pageant, told The Times in 2019 that, aside from the pageant's partners, Epstein was Trump's guest at a Mar-a-Lago event promoting the pageant with a few contestants.

In a 1997 lawsuit, the second partner, Jill Harth, recalled Trump groping her under the table and cornering her in a room normally used by Trump's daughter, Ivanka. She said that Trump “forcibly kissed, fondled and restrained” her from leaving, The Times recalled. Before dawn, Trump then climbed into her bed uninvited and groped her again, the suit said. Trump denies the accounts.

"Harth said she withdrew her subsequent harassment lawsuit as a condition for settling the contract dispute. She went on to briefly date Mr. Trump," the report said.

A college student in her early 20s in the early 2000s recalled attending four parties at Epstein's mansion and that "Trump's presence stood out." She described him as "a household name, someone Mr. Epstein often bragged about to the women around him, but also seemed to compete with."

"Tina Davis, who modeled for Ford in the mid-1990s, said in an interview that her Ford booker instructed her to get dressed up and attend a Mar-a-Lago party in late 1994," The Times reported. She was told to "dress sexy." She was just 14.

“All the girls were really young,” Coleman's mother recalled to The Times. “Some of them could have been in training bras.”

At one point, Coleman's mother ran into Trump's second wife, Marla Maples, en route to the ladies room. Coleman recalled Maples telling her, “Whatever you do, do not let her around any of these men, and especially my husband. Protect her.”

Maples denied the comment, saying, “I would always protect young women in any way I could, but I am sure I didn’t specifically say that about my daughter’s father.”

A woman trafficked by Epstein in the late 1990s and early 2000s recalled at least six parties at Mar-a-Lago when she was 17. Epstein was at many of them. If he didn't go, he wanted to hear about her experience.

Zoë Brock, a New Zealand model, recalled boarding a bus with about 20 other young models and being given a special wristband. She was then handed a glass of "champagne, and I immediately felt not well,” Ms. Brock recalled, adding, “I thought my drink had been spiked.”

Stacey Williams, the swimsuit cover model, recalled being grabbed by Epstein on the street and dragged into Trump Tower. She was on his arm while Epstein spoke to Trump about real estate. Trump began fondling her. Once they left, Epstein was enraged she let Trump do it.

“I’m convinced that’s why he walked me in there,” she told the Times. “He thought I would punch him in the face or something. But I froze.” A current Trump representative called the story “unequivocally false.”

One woman recalled Epstein dropping the veiled threat that he'd filmed an encounter in which he and Ghislaine Maxwell had sex in front of her. She said that when it began she froze and wasn't sure if she could leave, the report said, "terrified that her parents and pastor would find out what had happened, she acquiesced" to Epstein's demands to keep coming to the mansion.

Read the extensive report here.

President Donald Trump's Wednesday speech went over like a lead balloon, according to CNN's Stephen Collinson.

"Donald Trump put a dark new spin on the tradition of national presidential addresses Wednesday, conjuring a hellscape of a 'dead' nation he claims he was handed by former President Joe Biden," Collinson wrote.

CNN's Stephen Collinson called Trump's speech the "nightmare before Christmas."

"His goal was obvious — to distract from his own political slump," wrote Collinson.

It isn't unusual for the president to deliver a speech or give a press conference before the holiday break, but this was something different, according to Collinson. When presidents ask for time to make big announcements, it's usually something significant, like the bombing of Iraq or the killing and capture of Osama bin Laden.

"Trump’s Yuletide message lacked such poetry," wrote Collinson. "Instead, he shouted out a seasonal dose of his most dystopian rhetoric."

The real crisis, the columnist wrote, is that Trump's approval has slumped to 39 percent, according to CNN’s Poll of Polls.

The speech itself recycled some of Trump's favorite applause lines, which he gets from his supporters at campaign rallies. Unlike his rallies, however, there were no cheers for him to feed off of.

"Trump did not look like a leader in control of either his own political fate or the nation’s destiny," Collinson said. It was more like one of his Truth Social rage-posts "come to life."

The biggest problem, however, is continuing to blame Biden, Collinson argued. Trump takes credit for successes while passing the buck for failures at the same time. Polls show the "blame Biden" message hasn't worked since July." And as of late November, Americans still aren't buying the spin.

"He left no doubt of his message that anything still going wrong is Biden’s fault. But telling people over and over again that things are great, in an increasingly loud voice, seems like a political strategy doomed to failure," the column continued.

In the past, Trump has been able to convince his supporters of anything, even that the 2020 election was "stolen." But this time around it might be a heavier lift. "Trump is likely to see diminishing returns for incessantly dumping on his predecessor," predicted Collinson.

"There’s also a sense that the iron grip of a president who built his brand on dominance, and who seeks limitless executive power, is slipping," the column said.

It's making it appear increasingly likely that the GOP should prepare for heavy losses at the midterm elections.

While the speech "will please grassroots Republicans," Collinson said, "after Wednesday night’s angry lecture, Democrats might be more delighted to have Trump metaphorically insert himself on the 2026 ballot than GOP leaders."

Read the full piece here.

Former special counsel Jack Smith spoke to the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday after many House Republicans made public allegations about him and his work investigating President Donald Trump.

In an effort to set the record straight, Smith said he would testify and answer questions before the committee, but only in a public hearing. Republican committee leaders refused to allow for this, instead holding the hearing behind closed doors.

New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush posted on X that Smith, in his opening statement, said, “The decision to bring charges against President Trump was mine, but the basis for those charges rests entirely with President Trump and his actions…”

“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power," Smith continued.

Smith worked on two main cases. First, the allegations that Trump stole documents from the White House upon leaving office, including classified materials, and refused to return them. The second case involved investigating Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Smith told the members that he gathered “powerful evidence” for the classified documents case from Trump's Mar-a-Lago country club in Palm Beach, Florida. He also said that he uncovered evidence showing efforts to obstruct that investigation as well.

“I made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 election,” Smith said, according to the AP. “We took actions based on what the facts and the law required — the very lesson I learned early in my career as a prosecutor.”

If asked whether he would “prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether the president was a Republican or Democrat," said Smith.

Trump told reporters at the White House, “I’d rather see him testify publicly. There’s no way he can answer the questions.”

According to CBS News reporter Scott MacFarlane, Smith also stated, "Exploiting that violence, [President] Trump [and] his associates tried to call Members of Congress in furtherance of their criminal scheme, urging them to further delay certification of the 2020 election. I didn’t choose those Members; President Trump did”

Democrats erupted into a shouting match with Republicans after Speaker Mike Johnson shut down a House vote before they had a chance to cast theirs.

On Wednesday, enough Republican lawmakers signed onto a discharge petition forcing a vote over extending subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. Johnson has long opposed this and refused to bring the bill up for a vote. However, with four GOP members willing to sign onto the petition, the vote was forced.

As the vote to "order the previous question" reached 204 to 203, Johnson abruptly ended the vote, NOTUS reporter Reese Gorman wrote on X.

"Crazy scenes going on in the House floor. The chair just closed the vote on ordering the previous question when it was at 204-203. Some Democrats hadn’t voted yet and were trying to vote no. They are livid [right now] and shouting at the chair," posted Gorman.

Asking to "order the previous question" ends all debate and amendments. The members were given an hour to discuss the matter.

Washington Post reporter Marianna Sotomayor reported, "The House floor is just exploding right now after Republicans – frantic they would lose a procedural hurdle that would force a vote on a Dem discharge petition – closed the vote early. [Republicans] really are playing with the floor right now in ways that's not usual. They're nervous."

She later added, "The threat of a successful ACA extension vote – ever since GOP filed discharge petitions last week has been driving GOP leaders to stop the momentum. But by not allowing moderates an amendment vote on subsidies, Johnson now finds himself in this mess."

NBC News editor Sarah Mimms echoed the Post reporter, observing, "'The House floor is just exploding right now' really feels like a summary of the last two years."

Gorman then noted, "Huge huddle on the house floor right now ... Johnson’s Health Policy advisor is also in the huddle. Johnson just grabbed Rep. Kevin Kiley’s (R-CA) suit as he walked by and pulled him into the huddle."

Early Wednesday, Kiley called Johnson a liar on X after Johnson told Punchbowl News reporter Laura Weiss, "I lament how this turned out in the end."

Weiss asked about the fallout with moderate members who wanted a vote on the ACA subsidies and Johnson replied, "They know. They'll tell you that I worked really hard with them to try to... craft an amendment that would work. In the end, they they opted not to do that. We needed to pay-for – not to get too deep in the weeds, but – we needed a pay-for under the rules. And for whatever reason, they decided they did not want to do that."

"So, I mean, they made the choice. But I understand that there's a desire by a number of those members that they really want to have a vote, and we tried to do that. So we'll see how it turns out today," he continued.

Kiley wrote on X, "This is false. I prepared precisely the amendment the Speaker is describing, and he said it would be ruled out of order."

The 2025 elections continued this month with a state Senate seat left vacant in Kentucky and it turned out to be another "blue wave."

Newsweek reported Wednesday that union leader and U.S. Army veteran Gary Clemons beat his GOP opponent by 47.5 percent.

While the 37th Senate District is a blue district, in 2024, David Yates won the race by about 20 points. Vice President Kamala Harris carried the area by about 6 percent. So, winning with 72.6 percent shows a significant lead among voters supporting Democrats.

“State Democrats are overperforming and winning special elections across every part of the country," Heather Williams, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) president, told Newsweek in a statement. "Momentum is on our side as voters turn away from MAGA Republicans and back state Democrats who are fighting to lower costs."

The report explained that the southern part of Louisville, Kentucky, leans Democratic, but the benchmark was so significant that it contributes to Democratic successes in Virginia, New Jersey and other local offices around the country.

Newsweek cited Tennessee’s deep-red 7th Congressional District, where the Republican was expected to win, but the Democrat, state Rep. Aftyn Behn lost by about nine points. Harris lost that district by 22 points in 2024.

Read the full report here.

Candace Owens and Erika Kirk have a public feud unfolding online and it is prompting discussions about a fracturing base. However, writing for the New Republic Brynn Tannehill argues there is no collapse coming.

While right-wing figures like Ben Shapiro, Owens, Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes and Milo Yiannopoulos are all fighting and some Republicans are backing away from President Donald Trump, it's more about a power vacuum.

"Some will point to Republican politicians bucking Trump as a reason to believe that the whole circus tent is about to collapse," wrote Tannehill. "Marjorie Taylor Greene is leaving Congress, and it is rumored that Nancy Mace (who seems to be struggling with mental health issues) will soon follow. There are Trump’s health concerns, and the obvious vying by Cabinet members like JD Vance, Pete Hegseth, and Marco Rubio to be seen as the natural successor to the president in the MAGA movement."

Tannehill called it mostly a "power struggle" in the extremist world of far-right politics and there is no sign of demise.

"At the core, MAGA voters remain committed and are not about to switch to Democrats; the main differences among the movement’s influencers are about which hated groups to target and who gets to lead after Trump, not about rejecting the underlying authoritarian, bigoted project," the column said.

All of the people that Tannehill listed agree with each other on the issues. Where they are divided, however, is "when they discuss which groups of people should be loaded into a rocket and fired into the sun."

Some blame "the Jews" while others focus on transgender people and immigrants.

Then there are the Fox News viewers, many of which wouldn't even know who some of the far-right influencers are.

However, Trump's most powerful base of support comes from "low information, low propensity voters. ... People who don’t have accounts on X and couldn’t tell you who we’re about to go to war with, much less find Venezuela on a map. They couldn’t tell you what riders were in the National Defense Authorization Act or even figure out why their medical premiums just went way up."

The media saturation from the White House is so strong, he wrote, that he doubts anything could break through that contradicts the Trump "message."

Where Trump is losing people, however, is on the economy, because there are many among his voters who can't handle the extra costs associated with the Trump tariffs.

Tannehill closes by predicting "Democrats will face a nasty surprise as the low information, low propensity voters once more turn out in droves for the Republican nominee in 2028."

Read the full column here.

President Donald Trump's former campaign manager and current chief of staff, Susie Wiles left no one untouched speaking to a Vanity Fair reporter for a profile that was posted on Tuesday.

Speaking on Wednesday about the article, conservative Republican Erick Erickson noted that between the palace intrigue was the disappointment in the jobs being done by top Trump Cabinet members.

"I actually interpret this article, here at the end of the first year of the Trump Administration, as part of a reset effort," Erickson said, as Josh Kraushaar quoted on X.

"Wiles is saying things the President cannot publicly say. She is saying Homeland Security has not been good at its job and needs to handle deportations better. She is saying Pam Bondi is not good at her job and probably needs to consider calling it quits. She is saying lots of things the President would like to say to reset the administration and deflate the egos of some of its members who have been riding high on their own supply," Erickson continued.

He found it "notable" that there were people who participated in the piece and others who were not included. Who those people were could say something about the future makeup of the Trump Cabinet.

President Donald Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles is still mitigating fallout after her profile in Vanity Fair. Speaking about it on CNN one commentator said that it's clear Wiles is trying to do damage control after she and the White House "betrayed" the MAGA base.

During a panel discussion Wednesday, Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky said "nothing is going well for" Trump this week.

"And the biggest issue here that I think is not going well for him is that Vanity Fair is the epitome of the coastal elites that he has been deriding for his movement for the last ten years. And if you're some MAGA person who believed in Donald Trump and thought that Donald Trump was standing up to the MAGA elites for you," she began telling Trump followers.

"What you realize after reading that article is that every single person in Donald Trump's inner orbit rushed to pose for Vanity Fair, rushed to talk to Vanity Fair, rushed to suck up to Vanity Fair the same people that host the Oscar parties, the same people that lunch at Michael's, the same people who have no time for your typical MAGA adherent," she continued.

Looking directly into the camera, Roginsky told Trump's followers, "He betrayed you, MAGA. Like — he betrayed you. Look at me. He only wants to get in with the same coastal elites that he derided. And you saw that when you saw all of these people posing for these flashy, wonderful, Oscar-worthy photographs like they were George Clooney and Amal Clooney. It's a joke."

Political commentator S.E. Cupp explained that for Wiles, every moment she and the team spends with a reporter is another chance for them to "step in it."

"We can remember this doesn't usually work out well, because every second you spend with a reporter is another opportunity," Cupp said, noting the more comfortable a subject becomes the more likely they are to let their ego fly free.

"It's hubris. It's feeling like I'm smarter and I can control this narrative, not in 11 interviews. You can't," Cupp said.

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The America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a pro-Donald Trump think tank run by his former chief of staff, helped secure a $1 billion Department of Homeland Security contract tied to new planes for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Noem has already spent $200 million on a pair of luxury Gulfstream G700 private jets for her team during a government shutdown.

On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that the fast-tracked contract is closely linked to AFPI’s top donor. That donor, William Walters, runs the company that received a separate $140 million Noem-approved contract to buy six Boeing 737 planes for use in deportations, as the Post reported last week.

Under the larger deal, AFPI is set to oversee “Project Homecoming,” which will deport people the administration deems unlawfully present to their home countries or to third countries.

"The program arose from an executive order on the first day of President Donald Trump’s second term directing DHS to develop policies to encourage immigrants to leave the country voluntarily, a process the administration calls 'self-deportation,'" the report explained.

"The larger contract involves a DHS program called Project Homecoming that offers cash bonuses, free flights and a 'concierge service' at airports for departing migrants," the report said. "The program arose from an executive order on the first day of President Donald Trump’s second term directing DHS to develop policies to encourage immigrants to leave the country voluntarily, a process the administration calls “self-deportation.”

DHS claimed that the nonpartisan federal officials ensure the legitimacy of contracting decisions. Indeed, they do, but not in this case. The Post obtained emails exposing that it was the political appointees who chose the Meadows outfit for the $1 billion contract.

The main contract went to an Arlington-based firm, Salus Worldwide Solutions, incorporated in 2023, which advertises expertise in coordinating international travel, disaster relief, and security facilities. It has never previously held a federal contract, but documents show Walters, its CEO, is a major donor to AFPI.

DHS promoted its self-deportation program with various reels, including a vintage message trying to make it sound like self-deportation could earn them money.

Read the full report here.

An interview with one of President Donald Trump's top aides is also drawing scrutiny among those who see the apparent contradictions in her statements.

The Bulwark's Jonathan V. Last wrote Tuesday that Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is one of many who will never face accountability for her role in Trump's efforts.

"People will say that this piece is devastating because Wiles is so candid. I disagree," said Last. "The most devastating aspect is the extent to which Wiles contradicts herself and is an unreliable narrator."

He quoted one excerpt in which Wiles claims Trump has an "alcoholic's personality," believing there's "nothing he can't do." However, Wiles also said that she and Trump had a deal under which he'd spend his first 90 days on retribution. Another quote he cites is Trump promising he's not going to run for a third term and that it's about trolling Americans.

"So, according to Wiles, Trump thinks he can do absolutely anything. Trump said he won’t do retribution, and then did retribution. But you can absolutely take it to the bank that Trump accepts that he cannot run for a third term," Last pointed out. "How does that work?"

Last also thinks Wiles was lying when Trump "fell asleep in a cabinet meeting," saying he was merely closing his eyes and leaning back in the chair.

The Bulwark writer also points out that Wiles claims over and over that Trump doesn't know anything about some of the most important political issues of the day, such as how trafficker Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, was able to snag a spot in a cushy prison camp where sex offenders are barred. Trump also "doesn't know and never will" know about the "smallish agencies" that were eliminated by billionaire Elon Musk.

"So: Trump is completely keyed in on what regional federal prosecutors are doing on mortgage fraud investigations, but he has no idea what happens with USAID or Ghislaine Maxwell," Last wrote. "Sure."

Finally, Last pointed out that Wiles's statement about loving her thankless job was very different from that of her predecessors.

Wiles told Vanity Fair's Chris Whipple that in March, she had difficult conversations with Trump every day.

"They’re over little things, not big,” she said. "I hear stories from my predecessors about these seminal moments where you have to go in and tell the president what he wants to do is unconstitutional or will cost lives. I don’t have that."

Last said that based on Wiles's statements, it's "unmistakable" to conclude the Trump administration can't be "counted on to stop itself from doing terrible things. Un-American things. Even illegal things. And Trump’s chief of staff just said so, out loud."

Read the full write-up here.

The bombshell interview with President Donald Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, sent shockwaves through MAGA world, CNN's Dana Bash reported on Tuesday.

At the top of her show, Bash said her phone was blowing up with comments about the 11 interviews a Vanity Fair reporter did with Wiles.

"It is in every group chat," Bash said. "Everyone is shocked and confused. That's how one Trump ally is describing the impact of the jaw-dropping Vanity Fair piece out this morning with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles as an unfiltered quote machine. Now, Wiles is an incredibly powerful and very well-respected force inside Trump world, and she is known to avoid the public spotlight."

Yet, in a post on X, Wiles claimed her months-long interviews were a "hit piece." At one point, she denied ever saying anything about Elon Musk's drug use. The New York Times called the Vanity Fair reporter to confirm, and was given a recording of Wiles' words, the report said.

"There are, sort of, earthquakes in politics," Bash said. "And then there are moments like this, and it is because Susie Wiles, as I said, is so restrained, so strategic, so well-respected. And what this is, is Susie Wiles unfiltered on politics, on personality, and on real-time policy decisions."

Journalist and political analyst David Chalian noted Wiles is also "loyal" to Trump, making it all the more unusual she would do such an interview.

"And I think this is why our phones exploded this morning, not just as you reported at the top of the show, Dana, about inside Trump world, but across this entire city. This electrified everyone because it was so unexpected," Chalian said.

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President Donald Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, did a series of 11 bombshell interviews with Vanity Fair for an extensive cover story blasting many Cabinet officials and revealing inside secrets about the administrations goals.

CNN host Dana Bash read off some of the more shocking details from the report. One of those included Wiles saying that Trump was, indeed, on a retribution tour and encouraged him to switch back to kitchen-table issues.

Speaking about the piece on Tuesday, Brian Stelter, CNN's media correspondent and analyst, said that Wiles' problem is she was simply being honest.

"The scandal is always just saying the truth out loud, just admitting what everyone else knows is going on. What Republicans say in private," said Stelter. "And she just happens to have been saying it in front of a tape recorder. And she was saying this over the course of a year, right? So different interviews, different times. That creates some context for this."

He noted that on X, Wiles claimed that the writer did a kind of hit piece and she was "taken out of contxt."

"Maybe [reporter Chris] Whipple will now come out with the tapes, but it does seem like, to me, a situation where she was in a very candid situation. Maybe she was talking — not that she thought she was not on the record, because she knows the whole time. Chris Whipple is an author who writes for Vanity Fair, so there's no excuse."

"But maybe it's one of those situations where you're talking for hours, you're talking in a really casual way," he continued, speculating. "Maybe you forget the tape recorder is rolling. I'm wondering if that's the best way to explain some of this material, because it is so honest and all on the record."

New York Times national political correspondent Lisa Lerer cut in to say what was so unusual is that Wiles "is a deeply savvy operator."

"This is someone who has been around politics for a really long time, and you would think that she's someone that knows," said Lerer.

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President Donald Trump’s efforts to undermine American democracy persist, even if they’re “haphazard,” a Vox column said on Tuesday.

Last week, Trump pardoned MAGA supporter and Colorado county clerk Tina Peters after her conviction on state charges tied to proving that he won the 2020 election. Peters allowed a fellow 2020 "truther" to copy hard drives from actual voting machines, yet she was found guilty and sentenced to nine years in prison.

Trump issued a federal pardon anyway—but presidents cannot pardon state crimes, which the Constitution limits to offenses “against the United States.” In a Truth Social post, Trump made clear there was no doubt this was an illegal act, Vox’s Zack Beauchamp wrote. Colorado officials ignored the order.

Yet, Trump issued a federal pardon. A president cannot authorize a pardon for state charges. According to the Constitution, the presidential pardon only applies to crimes committed “against the United States."

"Trump made it clear in a Truth Social post, that there was no indication that this is anything but a genuine attempt to do something clearly illegal," wrote Zack Beauchamp for Vox.

Trump's order to release Peters was ignored by those in Colorado.

Beauchamp called the Peters case emblematic of Trump’s second term: an “incompetent form of authoritarianism” he dubs “haphazardism.”

Haphazardism is authoritarianism without vision, a governing style defined by a series of individual attacks on democracy without any kind of overarching logic, strategic structure, or clear end state in mind,” he wrote. These moves "can damage the system but are often poorly executed and even self-undermining — preventing Trump from ruling in the truly unconstrained manner he seems to desire."

Harvard political scientist Steve Levitsky agrees: Trump is breaking down democracy. However, he hasn't managed to consolidate autocratic power.

It comes from, in part, Trump's impulsive nature that also lacks a real understanding of the levers of policy and government, the column argues.

“They have to balance out their trade, number one. We have deficits with almost every country — not every country, but almost — and we’re going to change it," Trump claimed in April.

As NBC News explained, "Because Americans tend to buy more and save less than those in other countries, a deficit persists. Economists are nearly unanimous that Trump’s call for tariffs to reverse the deficit would raise costs for U.S. consumers — and the president himself has acknowledged their imposition will likely lead to “pain” for some time."

Meanwhile, Beauchamp said that Trump also appears to be "showing signs of age."

At least twice in the past two months, Trump appears to have dozed off during public appearances.

"The advisers who step up to shape policy are not always the most competent, and sometimes have agendas of their own that clash with both Trump’s public statement and their fellow aides’ agendas," wrote Beauchamp. "Haphazardism emerges from the interaction of these dynamics."

He warned that it isn't difficult to overturn a democracy "haphazardly." Turkey, for example, has taken a "more winding and improvisational pathway" than Hungary. The U.S. is a different task, however.

"Again, this does not mean the survival of American democracy is assured. Trump is persistent in pushing democratic limits, and the American presidency is an extraordinarily powerful office," he closed. "But, it does mean that the limits of the administration’s current strategy are very real — and coming into sharper focus."

Read his full column here.

The Pentagon is tight-lipped when it comes to sharing information with members of Congress about drastic new cuts that will "downgrade several of the U.S. military’s major headquarters" while changing the command structure among top generals, the Washington Post reports.

Congress, which is constitutionally tasked with oversight, knows little to nothing about plans from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to shake up the military structure, according to the report.

Citing two people familiar with work on the Republican-led Senate and House Armed Services committees, the report said that top officers in command have prepared for the proposal but have heard nothing.

Each agency head is required to brief Congress about work being done, and Republicans are "perturbed" that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ignored that responsibility.

"If adopted, the plan would usher in some of the most significant changes at the military’s highest ranks in decades, in part following through on Hegseth’s promise to break the status quo and slash the number of four-star generals in the military," said the Post. "It would reduce in prominence the headquarters of U.S. Central Command, U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command by placing them under the control of a new organization known as U.S. International Command, according to five people familiar with the matter."

Hegseth won't submit the proposal, according to the Post. Instead, he will have Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine reveal the details.

The cuts will also include a realignment of the U.S. Southern Command and the U.S. Northern Command. Each branch oversees all military operations in the western hemisphere, the report explained.

Hegseth wants to reduce it to a "Western Hemisphere" office he will call "U.S. Americas Command, or Americom," an earlier report from NBC News said.

The Pentagon is also considering creating a "U.S. Arctic Command that would report to Americom." Sources told the Post that plan may have already been abandoned.

According to the proposal, combat commands would be cut from 11 to eight, and four-star generals and admirals would suddenly report directly to Hegseth, the Post reports.

It's part of an ongoing effort by the Trump administration to decrease U.S. military abroad.

Lawmakers told the Pentagon that in order to move forward with the plan, they must "submit a detailed blueprint that describes the realignment’s potential costs and impacts on America’s alliances."

The Pentagon won't get its funding until at least 60 days after the materials have been provided.

Read the full report here.

President Donald Trump's former campaign manager and current chief of staff, Susie Wiles left no one untouched speaking to a Vanity Fair reporter

In a new tell-all article, Wiles calls Vice President JD Vance "a conspiracy theorist for a decade."

There has been speculation about Vance's conversion from calling Trump "Hitler" to becoming a fierce defender of the president. Wiles reveals in the interview that Vance has been "sort of political" in his conversion.

Wiles also criticized Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Vought was the "architect of the notorious Project 2025," the Heritage Foundation plot to radically change the U.S. government from the inside.

According to Wiles, Vought is nothing more than "a right-wing absolute zealot."

Vought was closely involved with the effort to eliminate thousands of federal workers, leading to a brain drain of some of the smartest experts in government, Reuters reported in September.

Vanity Fair asked Wiles about the effort under Elon Musk to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget. Toward the end of his time in the White House, Musk confessed he would only able to cut about $150 billion by the end of 2026.

In March, the billionaire argued, in a since-deleted posted, that leaders like Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler "didn't murder millions of people. Their public sector workers did."

Wiles said of the statement, “I think that’s when he’s microdosing.”

Wiles remark was in reference to reports of Musk's heavy drug use while working in the White House. In May, the New York Times reported Musk had a daily supply of 20 ketamine pills. He mixed the ketamine with ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms and Adderall, according to the Times.

Wiles said she never had first-hand knowledge of Musk's drug use.

Read the full report here.

President Donald Trump's chief of staff and former campaign manager, Susie Wiles, spoke to Vanity Fair for an extensive piece where she revealed some of her own psychoanalysis of the GOP leader.

At one point during the interview, which involved a number of Trump staff members, Wiles said Trump has “an alcoholic’s personality."

She explained that he “operates [with] a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”

Trump's brother, Fred Trump Jr., was an alcoholic, and Trump doesn't drink alcohol at all. However Mary Trump, the president's niece, has said that for the president, "nothing is ever enough."

"This is far beyond garden-variety narcissism," Trump's niece, who has a degree in clinical psychology, said of Trump. "Donald is not simply weak, his ego is a fragile thing that must be bolstered every moment because he knows deep down that he is nothing of what he claims to be."

Mary Trump wrote that her grandfather bullied his son, Fred Jr., into alcoholism.

Later in the Vanity Fair report, it explains that Wiles' father "was an absentee father and an alcoholic, and Wiles helped her mother stage interventions to get him into treatment." He finally got sober and stayed there for the 21 years before his 2013 death.

"Alcoholism does bad things to relationships, and so it was with my dad and me,” Wiles said.

“Some clinical psychologist that knows one million times more than I do will dispute what I’m going to say. But high-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink. And so I’m a little bit of an expert in big personalities.” Wiles said.

Read the full piece here.

The New York Times Editorial Board on Monday lambasted President Donald Trump's short-sighted foreign policy that focuses more on bluster than defense.

Earlier this year, Trump and his secretary of defense decided they would start calling the Department of Defense the Department of War. The board explained that this is exactly the kind of wrong-headed thinking that takes America's eyes off the road.

"The Trump administration brings a starkly different mind-set to the issue. Out with the Department of Defense; back to the Department of War. Well-established rules of engagement have yielded to blowing up small boats on the high seas. In place of standing with Ukraine’s embattled democracy against Russia’s invasion, the administration has adopted a course of moral equivalence between the two sides while seeking profits from the war through arms sales and mineral deals," wrote the Times.

The board called Trump's military foreign policy more necessary in the 1800s than in the 21st century.

"The architects of the Cold War understood that the country’s future security required engagement, not isolation, and that the primary purpose of military power was the prevention of war through deterrence, alliances and international legitimacy — hence the name the Department of Defense, not War," the Times explained.

Previous leaders understood that having a "scientific and technological edge" over the former Soviet Union was a key piece of not war but defense, the board said. Those efforts meant an investment in American universities and built generations of advancement. Today, however, Trump has gone to war with higher education, mandating that they meet his demands or lose federal funding.

"Trump believes in cutting deals, not sharing values; in making money, not winning friends," the board wrote. "He has waged a funding war against basic research at our leading universities. And he is infatuated with displays of hard power — the power to coerce, in the formulation of the political scientist Joseph Nye — but contemptuous of the value of soft power, which is the power to attract. His latest National Security Strategy, released this month, is notable mainly for its indifference to the distinction between despotism and democracy."

It's "inadequate for the long-term," the editorial said. "Arsenals alone did not win the Cold War."

The column argued that "soft power" was just as important as military might. Building relationships with allies and "mutually beneficial trading ties" brought countries closer together.

Today, the U.S. is on the "cusp of a new Cold War" with foreign enemies and Trump is playing power games with the countries American will need to fight back.

"We cannot afford the consequences of a world in which dictators can aggress at will, as they did before World War II, and as they have started to do again," the board closed. "Preventing that requires a military that has the right tools, the right tactics and the right culture. It requires a global alliance of like-minded democracies. Most of all, it requires leaders with the wisdom and vision to explain the stakes and rally the free world to the work ahead."

President Donald Trump is considering naming Kevin Hassett to head the Federal Reserve after the end of Jerome Powell's tenure has ended.

CNBC reported Monday that while Hassett may have the president's ear, there is a risk that he'll be seen as in Trump's pocket and do whatever he asks.

Trump has spent the better part of his administration demanding that Powell reduce interest rates. When Powell finally did reduce interest rates, Trump continued to rail against Powell for being "too late" to do so.

CNBC cited Kalshi, the online betting site, for the 51 percent odds that Hassett is the nominee. However, that's down 29 percent from earlier in December. Former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh is currently ranked as a distant second at 44 percent odds. That's up from 11 percent earlier this month.

The concern, however, is whether someone like Hassett could cause a bond market "revolt over time."

"That view could end up having the opposite effect Trump wants, with long-term yields eventually rising on concern Hassett wouldn’t do enough to contain inflation should it ever rebound down the road," the report said.

CNBC speculated it could have been the reason that Hassett spoke to CBS News over the weekend about the independence of the Fed.

Trump “has very strong and well-founded views about what we ought to do. But in the end, the job of the Fed is to be independent and to work with the group of people that are on the Board of Governors, at the FOMC, to drive a group consensus on where interest rates should be,” said Hassett during an appearance on “Face the Nation,” a transcript said.

Hassett was asked whether Trump's views would carry the same weight as the voting members of the central bank.

“No, no, he would have no weight. It’s just his opinion matters if it’s good, you know, if it’s based on data," said Hassett.

Powell's term is officially up in May 2026.

Read the full report here.

Conservative New York Times reporter Brett Stephens shamed President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" movement in a conversation with colleague David Leonhardt, noting the knack MAGA has for spreading "pessimism" among its followers.

"What you have today among conservatives, and certainly with the president, is essentially a pervasive pessimism about the future of liberal democracy: the idea that ultimately free citizens sorting out their problems through experiment and collaboration, the contestation of ideas, is going to yield good results," said Stephens.

"The conservatism that Trump expresses is better classified as illiberalism. That’s to say, a set of ideas often based in ethnicity, race or place that may have something in common with the conservative traditions of Europe, but have much less in common with the conservative traditions of the United States," he continued.

Stephens noted one of the "many reasons" that he was never a Trump supporter, despite being a traditional, Reagan-Republican.

"At its heart, there’s a dark vision of the future of the free world, a real pessimism or doubt about whether liberal societies can succeed," he said.

The only solution he has, however, is the hope that the GOP will "see the light" on immigration, once they have "exhausted the available alternatives. ... But I don’t think that’s happening in the next two years. I wonder if it’s happening in the next 20."

By contrast, Reaganism, he said was more "optimistic" about "possibility."

Read the full column here.

Comedian Paula Poundstone told the Baltimore Sun that her Donald Trump-focused videos aren't likely changing any minds but that she was inspired to share her perspective

"I started doing them because I am an enormous fan of historian Heather Cox Richardson’s daily podcast, 'Letters from an American," Poundstone said to the Sun. "I listen every day, and one of the questions she often gets is 'What can we do to help when we’re watching this slow car wreck?' She said: 'Put your voice out there. Post on social media. Make videos.' So I do."

In her latest video, Poundstone jokes about her kittens being spayed and neutered and the pain pills that the vet gave her to use "as needed." She said she kept them in case she needed them for herself, because U.S. healthcare has reached that level of absurdity. She speaks directly to Trump in her videos asking questions like what his co-pay was for being rushed to Walter Reed in the helicopter during the pandemic.

Poundstone even went so far as to needle White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt about her comments on Trump.

"It's not what Karoline Leavitt says," she said, referencing the bruise on Trump's hand. "Almost nothing is what Karoline Leavitt says."

Ahead of a Dec. 19th show in Annapolis, Poundstone said that comedy has the unique ability to explain things without confrontation or fear.

“Really great comedy can bring a certain clarity to the awful times we’re going through,” Poundstone said. “I’m hoping what I do can inspire other people not to be afraid.”

She said that she agrees with former Vice President Kamala Harris who was shocked to see "the capitulation" to Trump from some of America's top institutions and influencers

"Not everyone has caved. Some people know right from wrong and there have been instances of great bravery," Poundstone continued. "But there has been this avalanche of capitulation and it has been really upsetting. And it’s not over. I will not be surprised if Trump burns the damn White House down. He is a trapped rat and he will do anything to save himself and vindictively punish people who aren’t supporting him, which at the moment is the majority of the American people."

She admits to having a fear about becoming a Trump target in the way that Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel have become.

In a note to lawyer and Slate journalist Dahlia Lithwick, Poundstone recalled asking, “If I go to jail, will you be in the same cell with me?”

Lithwick agreed. "So at least I’d be guaranteed great conversation," Poundstone said.

She cited the comedy duo “Frangela," which said, “You’re going to cry now or you’re going to cry later.”

"Later," Poundstone said, "is not going to help us once a dictatorship is firmly in place. Knowing that I could become a target doesn’t change what I need to do."

The frequent "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" panelist even waxed poetic on her upbringing as a born-again Christian.

"I could never get past the idea that people could say on their deathbeds 'I accept Jesus Christ as my savior' and they’d be saved despite all the horrible things they’d done," she said after confessing she thinks about the afterlife. "Hitler could have said 'I accept Jesus Christ as my savior' right before he offed himself in his bunker. So, we get to heaven and Hitler is there? I’m not comfortable with that. Besides, the music is better in hell anyway."

Read the full interview here.