Ex-conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin has a winning strategy for Democratic challengers going up against Republican senators with a record of coddling President Donald Trump.

Writing for The Contrarian on Thursday, Rubin outlined four simple ways that candidates can hit Republicans on not merely their approval of the Trump agenda, but also their refusal to stand up to some of the most disastrous policies for Americans.

First, she said, Republicans should be held accountable for their votes. She began by citing Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) as an eager supporter of the billions of extra dollars to fund Homeland Security's efforts to detain people as they wait for immigration trials. Thus far, Rubin wrote, "50 people have died while being detained by ICE." That's in addition to the protesters ICE agents have shot and killed. She could have stopped it, said Rubin. She also could have stopped the GOP's "Big, Beautiful Bill" that significantly cut healthcare subsidies and SNAP help while preserving a tax cut to billionaires.

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) is another example, she said, citing his vote to confirm Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Even after the Signal scandal, Sullivan continued his support. He, too, has rubber-stamped Trump's spending “tens of billions" on the Iran war. Now the U.S. has "sacrificed the lives of 18 brave American military personnel, depleted our munitions and lost free navigation of the Strait of Hormuz," wrote Rubin. Sullivan, she argued, refuses to stand up to the Trump administration, even as he refuses to promote women and people of color and commits "potential war crimes."

These are issues that could apply to scores of Republican lawmakers, she continued. They are to blame, she said, for the GOP's budget that resulted in "mass closings of rural hospitals, measles outbreaks, decimation of the rural economy, fires overwhelming DOGE-reduced emergency responders, devastation of veterans’ services, wholesale cuts to SNAP that leave millions without food assistance, deprivation of emergency relief services, ever-escalating prices aggravated by tariffs (which Congress could have short-circuited), the plethora of health and disease disasters spawned by DOGE cuts and RFK, Jr. nuttery, a generational loss of scientific research" and more.

Her second recommendation is to ignore "Republican-spewed nonsense." She means amplifying silly attacks on candidates like the Republicans claiming Texas Senate nominee James Talarico is somehow not masculine enough due to his diet or religious beliefs.

Third, Rubin said Democrats must respond in kind to Trump's claims that the Democratic Party is “communists.” She wants to see Democrats highlight Trump's insults as the "last-ditch defense of desperate MAGA candidates shilling for a corrupt regime in which oligarchs rig the system to get out of jail, exempt themselves from taxes, avoid accountability for misconduct and shift business costs onto the backs of ordinary Americans."

Finally, she said, and perhaps "most importantly," Democrats must put an end to the GOP cover-ups and "protection racket." Whether it's about the Jeffrey Epstein files, Trump family corruption, pardon scams or a slew of other examples of corruption. An anti-Trump campaign may work in some respects, but it has to be more specific and tied directly to GOP politicians enabling him.

The White House is sending conflicting messages about whether leakers are sharing classified information or the information itself is "fake news."

The ordeal involves a recent report that President Donald Trump had a dramatic meeting with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. In an effort to to “knock down” the report, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to accidentally verify elements of the reporting, a Washington Post journalist said.

Trump and Hegseth sparred over reports the U.S. Army has depleted its munitions stockpile. Reuters reported Tuesday that this includes “the Army's surface-to-surface weapons, known as Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM).” Sources said “the U.S. has used ‘virtually all’ of these weapons."

Trump fumed at Hegseth during a Camp David Cabinet meeting last week, saying he thought the issue had been "fixed," the Post reported.

A phone call from Trump over the munitions issue prompted a "crisis meeting" at the Pentagon over the matter, NBC News reported on Thursday. Hegseth, during his Camp David exchange with Trump, blamed the munitions issue on Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg. That resulted in an angry phone call from Trump to Feinberg, where the president suggested Feinberg should be fired, two sources told NBC Mews.

After midnight on Thursday morning, Trump posted to Truth Social, denying the munitions shortage, instead claiming, "The U.S. has massive amounts of 'munitions,' especially of certain types. Additionally, large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. as needed. Defense companies are building the largest number of plants and factories in our country’s history.”

“The ‘leakers’ of these treasonous statements are being hunted down,” Trump added.

Meanwhile, Leavitt continues to call reports of a Camp David altercation “B.S.” and swore the altercation “literally never happened.”

Will Chamberlain, a Trump ally, posted on X that if Todd Blanche is confirmed as attorney general he should "order a full investigation of these leaks, with subpoenas going to the reporters involved I'm quite tired of hearing about sensitive, classified conversations about our military readiness."

He was flooded with replies, including Leavitt's tweet saying that the reports are fake. Now it's causing more confusion.

Leavitt and Trump might claim that the story is fake, but they're also claiming "leakers" revealed that "fake" information.

The Bulwark's Sam Stein was confused: "The stories are made-up fiction. But also they're leaks and were gonna jail the people who leaked it.

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger joked, "We have so many munitions that we’re hunting people down that say otherwise."

Political scientist Ian Bremmer similarly understood the complicated situation the White House was putting itself in. "If the Washington Post claims are false, how could the 'leakers' have revealed classified information? It’s a mystery," he wrote on X.

"Here's why the accuracy question is almost secondary tonight: Iran's leadership reads the Washington Post too. Whether the Camp David clash happened exactly as described or not, if Tehran's decision-makers consider it true, it shapes their read on U.S. missile stockpiles, appetite for further strikes, and cohesion inside this administration — all in the middle of an active unresolved conflict," wrote investigative journalist Gerald Posner on X.

"A contested two-source story can move a wartime calculus in Tehran just as fast as an ironclad one. That asymmetry is the real story here, separate from whether every detail holds up," he added.

Meanwhile, MS NOW host Joe Scarborough called for Hegseth to be step down. "When Hegseth attacks media questions on this extreme munitions shortage as 'fake news,' he makes this unforgivable blunder worse. Congress needs to take action. Americans need the truth. Hegseth can’t give it. He needs to go," he wrote on X.

Just two weeks into President Donald Trump's second term, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote a series of memos that made new rules at the Justice Department, The New Republic's Casey Michel explained. They aren't laws, and they aren't official regulations; they only change the DOJ's priorities, eliminating key anti-bribery and anti-kleptocracy rules built over decades, some of which were established before Trump was born in 1946.

First is the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which is still a law passed by Congress, but Bondi "announced that it would focus solely on lobbying crimes that were ‘similar to more traditional espionage,'" the report explained.

"For decades, FARA was itself a backwater, largely unenforced and almost entirely overlooked," wrote Michel. "That disuse allowed the foreign lobbying industry — which now comprised not just traditional lobbying shops, but also PR professionals, consultancies, white-shoe law firms, think tanks, and many more — to blossom into a multibillion-dollar behemoth, flipping into the go-to tool for foreign dictatorships looking to tilt American policy however they wanted."

When Bondi came in, enforcement got even more lax. While the laws were on the books, the DOJ's focus on crimes “similar to more traditional espionage" confounded critics. "FARA has nothing to do with spying," the report explained. Under Bondi, FARA was effectively dead.

Then came another decision by Bondi: she cut the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force. Ironically, it was created in Trump's first term and quickly became the "U.S.’s leading tool for tracking and tracing foreign influence campaigns around the country, dedicated to dismantling infiltration campaigns out of places like Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela and more."

Then came the elimination of the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, which started in 2010. It was part of an effort to stop dirty money networks funneling it into the U.S. The program wasn't hugely successful, only bringing in millions "pilfered around the world," instead of billions. Countries like Nigeria, Malaysia and Uzbekistan all returned looted dirty money from abroad.

The other initiative eliminated was KleptoCapture, a program that grew out of sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. While Russian oligarchs had assets frozen or seized in other countries, the U.S. would do the same for what was located in the country if the wealth came from "illicit" means, including ties to the Kremlin.

All of these rules were eliminated "in a single day," effectively "kneecapp[ing] its most successful and most prominent counter-kleptocracy tools."

However, it was only the beginning. Trump has since eliminated enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) with an executive order.

Trump claimed that the law needed to go to ensure “American economic competitiveness” and allow American companies to engage in “routine business practices in other nations." Michel called it nothing more than "a handy euphemism for bribery."

It put "foreign corruption ... back on the table. Kleptocratic regimes and crooked American businessmen around the world rejoiced, knowing they wouldn’t have to worry about pesky prosecutions anymore," the report said. "One of the greatest post-Watergate reforms was now dead, for all to see."

In 2021, the first-ever shell company registry was crafted, making it impossible for oligarchs to use corporations to hide ownership. But by March 2025, Trump eliminated it too.

The new program has been Trump's so-called "golden visa," which allows people to buy citizenship. "Kleptocrats couldn’t have asked for more," Michel closed.

Protesters are being arrested by President Donald Trump's Department of Homeland Security, a new report from National Public Radio detailed.

Treasure Thoreson, a Minneapolis special education teacher, along with 14 others, has been charged with "conspiracy to impede federal agents" because they were using "blockades" outside of the Whipple Federal Building, where ICE is headquartered.

"The charges against Thoreson are part of an escalating trend," the report said, after reviewing court records from the last five years. The analysis compared how the federal government is using one specific charge against protesters: "conspiracy to impede or injure an officer, which can carry a sentence of up to six years in federal prison," the report said.

NPR claimed that the statute was established during the Civil War and it isn't used often. Since Trump took over, however, more than three dozen people in fewer than 10 cases have been prosecuted using the law. All of them are for protesters of federal immigration enforcement. There have also been nearly 50 people indicted on conspiracy charges using different statutes.

But it was also a law used after the Jan. 6 attackers, particularly against the militia members. All of them were pardoned.

NPR noted that the sudden increase in conspiracy charges is sounding some alarms for legal experts who think it's being stretched to fit the administration's targeting of political activists.

"These cases are part of a broader trend that's worth watching," Aaron Terr, director of public advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told NPR.

He explained that the cases all appear to be different and the administration is getting around the First Amendment by alleging destruction of property or violence, like what was seen on Jan. 6.

"The government can legitimately prosecute people for that. But some defendants aren't accused of personally engaging in that conduct," Terr says. "The concern there is that the government may be casting too wide a net. It may be lumping in innocent people or people who committed minor misdemeanors, based on their political beliefs."

Civil disobedience and non-violent protests can still break some laws, but the charges are typically minor. Conspiracy is another matter.

"For a conspiracy to occur, Terr says there has to be an agreement among people to commit a crime and, according to the statute involving impeding or injuring an officer, that crime has to prevent the officer from doing their duties through force, intimidation or threat," the report explained.

Terr said that someone showing up to a protest and deciding in the moment to block an ICE van should not be enough to constitute a criminal conspiracy.

NPR said that many of the cases have been dismissed, but there have been some successes. About 30 people outside of Spokane, Wash. were arrested after they linked arms to block the transport of two people detained by ICE. The following day, an internal email seen by Reuters from the Justice Department demanded that U.S. attorneys prioritize charges against protesters who "destroyed property or assaulted law enforcement."

The memo from former Attorney General Pam Bondi said that she wanted the protesters charged "with the highest provable offense available under the law."

Washington and Minnesota are just a few of the examples. Other protesters have been arrested in Chicago and Texas.

Katie Schwartzmann, legal counsel with the organization Protect Democracy told NPR, "It's important to see these indictments and the use of this law for what it is, which is an attempt to scare Americans. But also, Americans should not be afraid to organize peaceful resistance in this moment. Those acts of ordinary people organizing and working together have been the most important force for justice in the history of our country."

President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Justice Department appears to have stricken a deal with two Republican senators.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has agreed to sign off on an agreement officially rescinding the "anti-weaponization" fund that critics refer to as nothing more than a Trump slush fund.

Conservative commentator Bill Kristol cautioned in The Bulwark that agreeing to Blanche is a far worse outcome for Republicans.

"These assurances will presumably be enough for Blanche to make it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday on a straight party-line vote. He’s then likely — though not certain — to get the 50 votes he’ll need to be confirmed by the whole Senate, probably at the end of the week," wrote Kristol.

He referred to Blanche as just another "lemon" in Trump's Cabinet, but noted Democrats could make lemonade out of it.

"Trump’s polls have been sinking. Republicans are almost certain to lose the House this fall, and the Senate majority is up for grabs," Kristol said. "Democratic control of both houses would help check Trump’s authoritarian schemes. And the fact that the entire Senate Republican conference will have to cast a high-visibility vote to confirm Todd Blanche can help in turning the Senate Democratic."

If the Blanche vote goes to the full Senate, without McConnell, Republicans can only have two defections to pass. He thinks that given the closeness of the election, Republicans could be willing to buck Trump's demands.

"It’s possible there will be a revolt among a few GOP senators against this man who sought to shovel taxpayer money to the January 6th assailants, who has initiated and presided over blatantly political prosecutions and who was at the very center of the Jeffrey Epstein coverup," said Kristol.

When it comes to Blanche on the Jeffrey Epstein documents, Kristal quoted Epstein survivor Dani Bensky, who wrote last week: “You can’t say that you want to make sure that sex offenders and sex traffickers are behind bars and then vote for him. Every vote for Blanche is really a vote against survivors.”

It would be an "embarrassment" for Trump if Blanche lost, but Kristol said that even if he's confirmed, "it could do more damage to Republicans." It would be the proof voters need to show that Trump still intends to hide the Epstein files, and that the GOP Senate doesn't intend to be a check on Trump's power.

He called on Democrats to make the coming week "as visible and painful for the GOP as possible." And make the case that "a Republican Senate will never stand up to Trump."

President Donald Trump is "furious" at Washington D.C. District Attorney Jeanine Pirro after she dismissed the case against Olympian David Hearn, who was charged with destroying the lining of the Reflecting Pool after climbing off of his bicycle and sticking his hand in the water.

At issue was that the Justice Department's own evidence after an FBI investigation showed that the problem with the pool was a botched installation, not vandalism.

CNN reported Monday afternoon that Trump is so angry he wants to fire Pirro, two people confirmed.

One of the sources told CNN that Trump "fumed about her all weekend." They think it's “highly likely she’s removed from her job.”

The president had no idea the news was coming, said another source, calling him "blindsided."

“The president did not know beforehand that she was going to do that," said the source.

“Frankly, I think she choked, because the judge was really vicious. Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after her and went after her department, and I guess she choked,” Trump said on Monday during an Oval Office executive order signing.

On Friday, the Justice Department submitted a court filing saying that the $14 million renovation was "hasty and botched." Charges against Hearn dropped.

One of the sources said that Trump and Pirro spoke on Saturday and it "wasn't pretty."

While she's been a loyalist for a long time, the evidence simply wasn't there, the court filing said. Pirro reportedly told Trump that it was her staff that did the filing, another source claimed.

That same day, Trump ranted about the ordeal, posting to Truth Social: “I disagree 100 percent with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool. I don’t know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of vandalism.”

Pirro also blamed Department of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, saying the department “provided less than fulsome information at the outset of this case.”

“Had DOI been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment,” Pirro's filing read.

President Donald Trump promoted is so-called "anti-weaponization" fund from the Oval Office on Monday after his attorney general nominee made an agreement with Senate Republicans to nullify his contract with the IRS.

Lawmakers have opposed the agreement, with critics arguing it would amount to a slush fund for Trump supporters, including the Jan. 6 attackers that he pardoned on his first day in office.

Speaking with reporters, Trump also appeared to be confused about the IRS case in general.

"First of all, I had a ten-year case that was settled until I announced I was running for office. It was a settled deal, like I've been doing all my life. I've been audited every year for my entire life, which I have a lot of wealthy friends. They were never audited to this day," said Trump. "They were never audited. I was audited, and my deal was settled in writing. It was settled, subject to final approval. Then I announced I was running for president, and all they did was haunt me with it. They ended the settlement and they went after it, and they went after me illegally. And they did a lot of bad things to me, like they did to other people. And I was treated very unfairly by the IRS. I was — it was weaponized against me."

"And what they did here was very I frankly, uh, if you talk about reparations or if you talk about payment, what they did to me, I had a very good case against them," Trump claimed.

Trump sued the IRS because he said the agency failed to protect his private tax returns when they were leaked by an IRS contractor and published by the press. There were over 400,000 people and businesses whose information was leaked.

Trump and his family, along with the Trump Organization, also sought damages to the tune of about $10 billion. Critics said it made the suit look less like a normal legal complaint and more like a way to pressure the government over a deal for audits and tax disputes. The judge said it was filed for an "improper purpose."

Trump also told reporters that he had no input on the agreement, but he also said he has no idea what the agreement was that Blanche signed off on.

"I didn't look at it. All I know is that Todd Blanche is great. Uh, he's going to do a great job," said Trump. "Everybody knows it. And I understand there's been a sign off, but I didn't — I don't know what they agreed. I think Todd Blanche agreed to reconfirm things that he's already said."

He went on to promote the fund, saying that people want it and he continues to think it's a great idea and supports it.

A U.S. senator revealed that he's seen the official “execute order” signed by President Donald Trump that outlines the criteria for oat strikes in the Caribbean.

In a letter to the White House, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) wrote that the U.S. military has “exceeded” the parameters that Trump agreed to in striking the drug-smuggling boats, ABC News reported Monday.

According to the statement, Trump's targeting criteria mean that they have likely killed civilians.

Kaine, a senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that briefings have provided details on the targets and that, by their own rules, the military strikes didn't fit what Trump approved.

“My review of your directive, the [Office of Legal Counsel] legal opinion, the EXORD and the notifications of the boat strikes, makes clear that the United States is engaged in violent and fatal attacks against people far beyond those whom the OLC opinion claimed could be lawfully targeted. In other words, a careful review of the available evidence suggests that the United States has killed individuals who are not involved in narcotrafficking,” Kaine continued. “They are murder victims.”

“You selected numerous organizations for targeting,” Kaine wrote, addressing Trump. “That target list is classified so I cannot reveal it.”

“Importantly, the classification of the list means that those you have asked the Department of Defense to target are entirely unaware that they are marked for execution,” he said.

Thus far, at least 218 people have been killed by military bombing and the operation has cost over $820 million, a recent inspector general report said.

In a Truth Social post, Trump claimed “98.2 percent of Drugs coming into the U.S. by Ocean or Sea have STOPPED!” But neither he, the Pentagon, nor the Department of Homeland Security has provided evidence for the claim.

Kaine disputes the assertion, writing, “Adding to the deep concern over these illegal killings is the fact, recently confirmed by the Drug Enforcement Administration, that Operation Southern Spear has had no effect on the flow of illegal drugs into the United States."

As The Washington Post reported last week, the amount of cocaine entering the United States hasn't changed despite the hefty spending from the Pentagon.

In a Pentagon congressional briefing, a DEA assessment and "interviews with current and former U.S. and foreign officials," The Post found that there has been no change in the supply and price of cocaine hasn't changed.

Instead of using the multi-engine "go fast boats," the report said that drug traffickers have started using larger boats that travel close to the coastline. They're also using more aircraft transportation. In the first few months when the strikes began, it did disrupt some of the operations. But in the months since, the "smugglers have adapted to the intensified pressure," the DEA analysis said.

Kaine's letter tells the president the operations have "dubious legality" and achieved nothing.

Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) on Monday issued a joint statement saying that they both believe that an agreement with President Donald Trump's attorney general nominee, Todd Blanche, is trustworthy. At the same time, legal analysts and experts are flooding social media calling the lawmakers out for buying into something that isn't even legally binding.

"From the outset, Senator [Cornyn] and I were clear that we needed a written document addressing our concerns on the IRS audit agreement and the anti-weaponization fund that included constraining the scope of audit protection by limiting it to the parties of the Settlement Agreement and legally ending the anti-weaponization fund," Tillis wrote on X.

"We are pleased that the Department of Justice has issued a formal order terminating the anti-weaponization fund. Additionally, the Department has acknowledged in a binding written order that the audit settlement is limited to the plaintiffs and the scope does not extend beyond the defendants in the lawsuit, the IRS and the Treasury, addressing concerns that multiple of our Republican colleagues share," the statement continued.

Legal affairs reporter Josh Gerstein at Politico wrote on X that it is "Not at all clear that the narrowing of the IRS claims waiver in the Trump settlement is 'binding.' That's simply Blanche's interpretation at this point. Nothing to stop other Trump family members, affiliates, trusts, etc., from claiming they can rely on the original wording."

Legal experts and scholars were quick to agree, calling Blanche's pledge to Tillis and Cornyn a "sham" and highlighting that it is far from legally binding. The agreement also doesn't have any consequences if Blanche were to break it.

Former federal prosecutor and University of Michigan Law School Professor Barbara McQuade said, "Blanche’s appeasement is hollow. Trump still gets immunity from tax audits worth $100 million. And last week’s payout to abortion clinic blocker shows the path to payouts to rewrite history will be individual settlements instead of one designated fund."

Ben Meiselas commented that the contract between the Justice Department, IRS and Trump makes it clear that all three parties must agree to edit the agreement. "This is an unenforceable sham document," he added.

Lawyer and Lincoln Project co-founder George Conway tagged both senators and agreed, "This cannot be emphasized enough."

Criminal Law Professor at the University of North Carolina, Carissa Byrne Hessick agreed, writing on X, "Others might have a different impression, but I see nothing in Blanche's letter that would prevent him from reviving the fund the moment that he is confirmed. Sen. Cornyn is a former state AG and judge on the TX Supreme Court ... so I imagine he is aware of this as well."

National security expert Marcy Wheeler similarly commented, "The order is not remotely binding. And you're still [clapping] that Trump will get excused from his $200 million known tax dodge, the money laundering Capital Bank just disclosed and the bribes he accepted between November 2024 and end of 2025. Why do you love crime so much, Tillis?"

She then added, "Let's be honest. Tillis ' concerns were the POLITICS of the corruption, not the corruption itself. This gives the GOP top cover through the election ... and then Blanche will forgive more Trump crimes afterwards."

Conservative Federalist Society-approved lawyer Gregg Nunziata added his name to opposition to Blanche, saying, "Mr. Blanche demonstrated his unfitness to serve as Attorney General before the slush fund and the tax immunity deal; any purported limitations on the latter cannot possibly cure his manifest defects. To perform its constitutional duty as a check, the Senate should vote no."

Conservative columnist Quin Hillyer similarly agreed: "Blanche rescinds Trump's 'Anti-Weaponization Fund' amid AG confirmation pressure 1.) Blanche still isn't close to being fit for AG 2.) Federal Vacancies Reform Act badly needs reform and stricter limits 3.) Blanche's lawfare vs. Trump's enemies = inexcusable."

President Donald Trump's new Federal Reserve chairman is already losing credibility, and he's only been on the job for a few months.

Kevin Warsh announced last week that the Fed would not raise or lower interest rates, and now it appears at least one of the big banks is questioning his leadership.

Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal reported that Bank of America thinks that Warsh seems too relaxed about inflation, and it's making investors nervous. Markets, it said, now expect more inflation risk and more uncertainty.

"Fed Chair Warsh's press conference on the back of a 9-3 decision to hold the policy rate unchanged came across as dovish, and didn't bring any good or bad news, and it just added uncertainty. The market immediately priced it with a bear steepening, high inflation breakevens, and higher risk premia. A steeper curve, lower equities and a weaker dollar is the typical price action associated with credibility shocks faced by EM central banks," the message said.

Employ America executive director Skanda Amarnath said that Warsh was hyping rate hikes for July and then backed out. "And now the committee will compensate with more hikes in 2026. Three hikes is the right base case for the rest of the year."

Warsh's credibility was also questioned by Tim Duy, chief U.S. economist for SGH Macro Advisors

Economics and public policy professor Justin Wolfers explained on his podcast, "Markets don't just listen to the Fed's actions. They listen to what the Fed says it believes. When that message gets unclear, uncertainty fills the gap.⁣"

Warsh's problem, Wolfers said, is that he appeared to believe saying less would be better. However, "Less clarity created more uncertainty.⁣ ⁣Markets don't just listen to the Fed's actions. They listen to what the Fed says it believes. When that message gets unclear, uncertainty fills the gap."

Meanwhile, Weisenthal also flagged from the Institute for Supply Management, "Two separate respondents in the ISM manufacturing report [say] that the current market environment is worse than COVID-19."

"No normalcy in sight in the world of metals," said the person for Primary Metals. "It makes me yearn for the coronavirus pandemic chaos, which was more manageable than whatever this is that we are in. At least business is better; however, the components of good business are not. Sharp pricing downturns in aluminum will make things more interesting, as supply levels will prevent those decreases from taking hold across the board. Getting customers to understand that is not always easy."

A rep from Electrical Equipment, Appliances and Components, agreed. "The pricing volatility and lead-time extensions in this market are arguably worse than the pandemic era. During COVID-19, we saw a surge of price hikes and inventory buy-ups, which caused constraints that eventually leveled out. We are seeing nothing but consistent upward trends for both pricing and lead times that show no signs of slowing down."

Former Fox host Jeanine Pirro announced the Justice Department was dropping charges against Olympian David Hearn for vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after an investigation found all of the problems with the pool came from a botched installation. As one reporter noted, this is merely one of many places around Washington, D.C. tourists can find destruction at the hands of President Donald Trump.

In a discussion with Hearn's lawyer, Norm Eisen, the MS NOW panel explained that the attack on Hearn was part of a larger problem with the Justice Department using its power to follow Trump's demands. Trump maintains that the pool was damaged by vandals, but he's now in conflict with his own FBI and DOJ. He also alleged there was a 200-350 "foot" or sometimes "yard" gash in the lining. After draining the pool, that has yet to be found.

Eisen disputed Pirro's claim that they didn't have evidence disproving the vandalism allegations at the time the DOJ charged Hearn. Eisen said he used the DOJ's "own evidence and other photographs" to show "the section of the reflecting pool that they claimed Davey had damaged was exactly the same in photographs before and after he touched it."

He said that they're "gratified" that the DOJ confessed it was the botched installation to blame. But it's part of a larger question: "What have we come to as a country where under Todd Blanche, Jeanine Pirro and Donald Trump, innocent people like Davey Hearn can be targeted?"

"Morning Joe" co-host Jonathan Lemire said that the Reflecting Pool situation "has become a national joke, frankly, a national embarrassment. But this is more than just a no-bid contract. This is the president of the United States and his Justice Department, and Todd Blanche, is soon to be permanent attorney general, sort of, carrying out the president's whims and wishes."

Political analyst and New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay agreed that Trump "has totally weaponized the Justice Department — has inverted the mission."

The politics of the ordeal was interesting because "corruption can be hard" to get Americans to care about. "Even lies can be hard to, kind of, drive home the meaning of it, the consequences to just ordinary voters. But this is a case where that's not true because everybody in America can see that it is President Trump's fault, that he has destroyed the Reflecting Pool, just like they saw the damage to the White House. And so that's the kind of corruption that you can touch, taste, feel, that in addition to going after a private citizen in Davey Hearn."

She noted that it was different than Trump going after his political foes like James Comey and Letitia James. Hearn was nothing more than a regular American who stuck his hand in the pool. Gay related it to the targeting of the two election workers in Georgia who were targeted by Trump and Rudy Giuliani.

"I mean, Americans don't like bullies, and they don't like liars. And this is a case where you can just see very clearly that the president is lying," Gay continued. "You have evidence that you can, kind of, live in. And now there's, I mean, people who are visitors to Washington, D.C. are, you know, talking about how they're essentially on a tour of Donald Trump's damage to the nation's capital. It's embarrassing."

She added that anyone who is "not in the MAGA cult is going to realize, I can't take this seriously. It's dark, but it's going to be hard for him to get out of this one."

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If there's anything indicating President Donald Trump is losing his stranglehold on the Republican Party it's his failure to get Todd Blanche nominated as the attorney general without a written guarantee that the IRS slush fund is officially dead.

Blanche caved into demands by Republican senators over the weekend, and it prompted a larger discussion about whether Trump is losing his control over the GOP or if it's a fluke. The New Republic's Greg Sargent spoke with writer Emma Janssen for the Monday episode of his podcast and the two debated whether the Blanche compromise is the beginning of something larger.

Janssen explained that the end of primary season is at hand and Trump's power comes from his ability to mobilize his base in Republican primary elections.

"This major source of power for him to enforce his agenda and elect the people that he wants elected, or make sure that the people he doesn’t like don’t get elected—that might actually be the more important part. That tool for him is disappearing now that the primaries are coming to a close," Janssen explained.

"And so I think it’s exactly what you said. It’s a grip on power. And we might start seeing more resistance from his own party. I mean, I wouldn’t put a ton of money on that, but he’s losing this tool. And that could open up a space for more Republicans to jump ship on a war powers resolution, for example," she added.

Sargent called it a kind of "split screen," where one side shows Trump's control over the GOP while non-GOP voters are increasingly furious with his policies.

"He’s just able to get Republican voters to stampede away from their own representative or senator and go back whoever Trump says they should vote for instead," Sargent said. "So, you know, I don’t know how well that reflects on these Republican voters—not very well—but it surely shows that Trump does wield some real power over them."

On the flip side, he continued, Trump doesn't have the control over GOP legislators the way he once did.

"And that drives him absolutely crazy. And he can’t stand that. So he won’t let them get distance from him in order to position themselves for the midterms, which they absolutely desperately have to do," Sargent said. "I really wonder whether Trump in his head doesn’t understand that the midterm electorate is a different thing than the Republican primary electorate."

Where that comes into play is whether, after primary elections have finished, Republicans are going to be more willing to stand up against Trump's unpopular war in Iran.

Janssen noted that more and more Republicans are joining recent Democratic bills that have more teeth when it comes to withdrawing from the war, which is also growing increasingly unpopular with Americans.

Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha isn't shocked to see President Donald Trump's base arguing amongst themselves in the content wars.

The right-wing online content space is shrinking and all of the personalities with streaming shows that were once flooded with a massive audience are now down significantly.

A New York Times report on Thursday showed the ratings slump in views of a set of MAGA media hosts and the significant decrease in their viewership online.

Far-right podcaster Benny Johnson, for example, has lost millions of weekly views since his peak in 2024. Megyn Kelly has lost 65.7 percent of her weekly viewing audience since January 2025. Candace Owens had a small spike in October 2025, but since Trump's inauguration, she's gone from 16 million weekly views to 4.1 million, which a 65.6 percent weekly audience loss.

Rocha thinks this is all due to "disgruntled" conservatives, and he was empathetic to their plight because they were lied to.

"I think it signals back to what you started this conversation with this panel, which is way the way that people are disenfranchized right now, or sick and tired of being sick and tired," said Rocha. "A lot of these folks you're talking about in social media on the right, they wanted Donald Trump to be elected, and they were united behind that early on because he said we would not get in any foreign wars. He said he would bring the prices down on day one. He was going to make America great again and rebuild industrial America. Even some things this democrat agrees with."

None of that has come to fruition, however, Rocha continued.

The result has been "you have all these folks fighting each other because they're not getting what they were promised," he explained. "And a lot of them are feeling, again, disgruntled like a lot of your viewers are. And that's why you see the numbers upside down."

Meanwhile, he said, Trump is more focused on gold statues, ballrooms, a pool and messing up one war while he's plotting another with Cuba.

Conservative David Drucker claimed that ratings will always drop "when your guy is in the White House" because people aren't as "angry."

Another issue, he said, is that Democrats have a more educated voting base with "College graduates, post-grads, you know, white collar professionals, those are a lot of Democratic voters."

Whereas lower classes are low propensity voters, he said, who only show up in presidential years.

"There are a lot of Trump voters that they like Trump because they don't think he's a politician, and he's constantly railing against his own party," Drucker said. "In fact, he's constantly complaining about his own government that he's in charge of. And so they're like, yeah, I'm for that guy who's not part of the system, even though ten years on, he is the system."

At the same time, other Republicans in the House and Senate "are not delivering. And so Republicans are kind of caught in a vise, and I think they'd be in a much better position if the economy had turned around, such that that's why voters voted for Trump in 2024, knowing everything else that came with it. And so congressional Republicans are in a bind."

The MAGA media universe, he called a "sideshow" for Trump, and claimed that if he was winning on his issues, MAGA would also probably see a drop in interest.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) remains in the hospital recovering from what he claimed was a fall on June 14 that left him unconscious.

While he said he didn't suffer a concussion or break any bones, a bout of mild pneumonia put him out of commission for 46 days so far.

It's the main reason that questions are being raised about how McConnell's signature was added to a letter to the governor about disaster assistance.

Professor and journalist Adam Cochran posted the letter, saying, "McConnell's office had a press release highlighting McConnell's signature of a letter about disaster assistance for the state of Kentucky. McConnell claims to be in rehab only for mobility issues, but has a gorgeous signature... An autopen signature is perfectly legal if a Senator of *sound mind* directed his staff to apply his signature."

He noted, however, that Gov. Andy Beshear (D-Ky.) has been trying to speak with McConnell and hasn't heard a word from him or his office.

"Now we have to ask ourselves: Has someone applied the signature of a sitting Senator, on a state matter, without the appropriate knowledge and consent?" asked Cochran. "McConnell's staff continue to defraud the American people, by hiding the severity of their bosses condition, so they can ride out the remaining term on tax payer dollars," the post continued.

Capitol Hill correspondent Desirée Townsend quoted one of the remarks from McConnell's spouse, Elaine Chao, when she accepted an award this week.

"She's right. I think both parties should be gravely concerned about Senator McConnell's 47-day hospitalization and continued absence from the Senate," said Townsend. "This is a bipartisan issue, especially given the questions surrounding official documents being signed in his name on July 28th."

Bill Short, who specializes in urban trams and gondolas, commented, "Just how did @SenMcConnell sign this? Outlaw Autopens! If he’s not alive, how can he sign? We need Proof of life or Mitch is dead!

Another account had a business card from McConnell with his signature on it as well. Comparing the two, the account asked how Republicans could "fret about Joe Biden's autopen?"

One complained that if he's well enough to read documents and sign them, then he can get on television and "show himself." And there were a few who claimed it was a GOP cover-up or unlawful.

The letter was dated July 28 and was signed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.).

A 2025 report from The Dispatch said that McConnell and many other lawmakers on Capitol Hill use the autopen, and McConnell was one of them.

The content creator who bragged that she likes to preach on planes when people are trapped and must hear her message has now been kicked off a flight.

Whitney Lynn, a self-described singer and producer, posted a video of the incident online in which she appears to attack the flight attendant for waging "spiritual warfare," reported The Mirror.

"Demons don't like the name of Jesus," she said when staff began escorting her off the plane. She then lashed out at one of the people taking her off the plane, asking if he was from Puerto Rico because she "can't really understand" him.

"God bless everybody, if you know Jesus today, make him lord of your life and continue to spread the gospel. We are in the last days. We are being persecuted, persecuted to be a Christian," Lynn broadcasts to the trapped passengers.

While leaving the plane she lashed out at one flight attendant walking behind her saying, "you totally pushed my bag."

When she spoke this week to The Washington Post, she claimed that they're the perfect audience because, “They have no choice but to hear the truth. When I have a gift, and I have a life raft, if you’re drowning, I want to give you that life raft so you can be saved.”

In another video from early July, Lynn "preached" at passengers waiting to get off of the plane in San Diego, speaking about Jesus and the weather to all passengers who looked disinterested.

In a separate video posted earlier this month, Lynn delivered a post-flight preaching session as passengers waited to disembark in San Diego. As she spoke for a little over a minute about the weather, Jesus, sin, hell, redemption and heaven, all other passengers remained disengaged and did not look around.

“I just love a captive audience," Lynn boasted in the clip description.

There are no bans on preaching on airplanes, but passengers must remain seated and buckled into their seat belts unless the seat belt sign is off.

Flight attendants have strict rules about following directions from the flight crew. Anything that interferes with a crew's duties or anything considered "disruptive behavior" is a violation of federal law, says FAA regulations. One federal law (49 U.S.C. § 46504) outlines punishments of a fine or imprisonment for not more than 20 years, or both. The FFA outlines that passengers must follow crewmember instructions "at all times" while on board.

Speaking about Lynn to The Post in its profile of her, Pastor Rodney Kennedy said that he's not a fan of the non-consensual preachers.

“I don’t have any problems with people articulating their faith,” he said. “But I think it requires a relationship and level of trust and a level of permission."

He worries that force-feeding unwilling participants a message about Jesus can send people in the opposite direction.

“I think that ultimately it’s a turnoff and it kind of reinforces the ideas that they already had about Christians,” he said.

Most of her videos struggle to get more than 1,000 views on YouTube, but the recent videos appear to be close to 5,000 views.

On Friday, she posted her video of her chatting with police.

"Hi! You guys are looking for me! Hello. I'm the wanted one. I'm the wanted one for telling people about Jesus. It's a crime. It's a crime. Oh my gosh. Okay. So, I preached the gospel and I, you know, I'm a content creator, but everywhere I go, so I'm on my way to San Diego to street preach and do outreach and, um, so I preached the gospel while we were waiting. I said, 'Oh, we're waiting. Perfect opportunity.' Yeah," she said in the video.

The police explained that you can't have arguments with flight attendants, noting it's one of the ways people get kicked off planes frequently. The officer said many people are removed "for much less."

Lynn didn't respond to their comments; she began to quote the Bible again.

She did mention that the flight attendants wouldn't engage or say anything to answer her questions. She said that she films everything because "people want to see this."

"Well, let's get you to the main terminal, that way we can, you know, get you situated," the officer is heard saying.

President Donald Trump held a Cabinet meeting on Friday at Camp David, where each of his officials talked about what a great job he's doing. Still, the president appeared to have a difficult time keeping his eyes open.

The White House has pushed back on rumors that the president dozes off during public events like Cabinet meetings, Oval Office events and Sen. Lindsey Graham's funeral. They've made it clear that only “depraved morons" believe that Trump was sleeping during Graham's funeral.

“President Trump was reflecting on the loss of his dear friend Lindsey Graham, for whom he had just delivered a beautiful eulogy,” a White House spokesperson said.

In February, Trump appeared to snooze in the first meeting of his Board of Peace.

In May, Trump appeared to doze off during the Oval Office event on maternal health. The White House at the time attacked reporters, saying photos were being posted of him "blinking."

"He was blinking, you absolute moron," a Trump staffer said on social media.

Critics say he's blinking for a long time.

During an early June Oval Office event with Lee Zeldin, his Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Trump was opening and closing his eyes abruptly as they talked about so-called "clean coal."

In late June, Trump appeared to rest his eyes while an Oval Office event unfolded around him about the separation of church and state.

Such cases of closing his eyes appear to be occurring more frequently than in 2025. One incident CNN posted about included Trump appearing to doze off during another Cabinet meeting in early December.

Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, spent Thursday night ribbing Trump over the Graham incident.

Kimmel described the president as sitting in his friend's funeral "with his eyes heavy, his face slack and the internet collectively whispering the phrase that must hurt him more than any indictment, any poll, any protest sign or any judge with a working gavel, 'Sleepy Don.'"

There were multiple outlets that reported after the funeral that Trump struggled to keep his eyes open or appeared nod off.

"So, there it is, the man who branded Joe Biden 'Sleepy Joe' for years now, had cameras catch him in church looking like the WiFi went out behind his eyes," quipped Kimmel. "The irony is so thick it should have had pallbearers."

Kimmel noted that even at a time that should be about Graham, Trump stole the show, again making it about himself.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) threw President Donald Trump's words back in his face on Friday after one of his Truth Social Rants.

Trump ranted, John Cornyn never had a problem with the so called 'fund,' which will not benefit me, but rather the great American patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden administration, until after I decided to endorse and support his Republican primary opponent in Texas, who easily won the nomination for the United States Senate."

Indeed, the Justice Department announced on Monday, May 18 that it would create a nearly $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization fund." Trump endorsed Cornyn's opponent the following day, May 19. Cornyn lost his primary election five days later.

"Perhaps there has never been a group of people treated so badly in our nation’s history," claimed Trump.

Trump claimed many of those targeted "are suffering still, many ruined, and I felt that they should be given compensation for what has been done to them. I gave up any payments for myself, which would have been substantial, including for the illegal and unprecedented raid on Mar-a-Lago, my home in Florida, even though many legal experts, and others, including John Cornyn, said it was a shocking and disgusting display of 'weaponization' against me. Such an event has never happened before, and hopefully will never happen again!"

While many former officeholders have been found to have government documents that should have been given to the National Archives, all of them returned the documents once they were found. Trump refused to turn over the documents, even after the National Archives said it would have to get the FBI involved if he wouldn't hand them over.

"I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined! millions of people agree with me, as was proven in my landslide presidential win, where this was a major subject of debate, and so did John Cornyn, until he lost his election to an opponent that I endorsed. Todd Blanche, a good man, should be immediately approved as U.S. attorney general. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

While the note wasn't directed at Tillis, he responded anyway, repeating the president's words to reinforce his point.

"The president made it clear today that the so-called 'anti-weaponization fund' is still alive, which is exactly why we are attempting to formally end it. While I never disagreed that the Biden administration pursued a number of vindictive prosecutions related to January 6, the criminals who assaulted police officers and defiled our nation’s Capitol are not 'great American patriots' who are 'victims of government abuse,'" Tillis wrote on X.

He pressed further saying, "anyone who attacked law enforcement should still be in prison, not getting a check from the federal government."

Polls taken days before the pardons showed that Americans overwhelmingly opposed his pardons of the Jan. 6 attackers. The States United Democracy Center showed that 66 percent opposed pardons for those who violently assaulted police and 65 percent opposed pardons for those who committed other violent crimes.

"Senator Cornyn and I have been working with Acting AG Todd Blanche to end the 'anti-weaponization fund,' and he has been forthright, thoughtful and patient," said Tillis. "It’s a shame his confirmation has hit a snag only because an incompetent personal advisor to the president refuses to amend the bogus settlement. I will continue working in good faith to put an end this legal and political albatross and prevent any potential misallocation of taxpayer dollars."

Tillis made a similar comment on Thursday, saying he didn't believe that Trump was the one pressing for the fund. Trump then responded on Truth Social that indeed, he wanted the fund.

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, who has a new book out with colleague Jonathan Swan, explained just how much of an oversized obsession President Donald Trump has with remaking Washington D.C. in his image.

The Daily Beast reported Friday about Haberman's appearance on Ezra Klein's podcast in which she claimed, “If you looked at a chart of his mind share, this I will say about getting into his mind: Seventy percent of it would be on his renovations."

The 80-year-old president has an unlimited budget at his fingertips to carry out renovation demands with little approval process. When it comes to his bulldozing of the East Wing of the White House, Trump started out saying he would "fundraise" for costs to replace it with a 9,000 square foot structure including a ballroom. Trump is now requesting Congress allocate the money for the project, saying it's for "national security."

Haberman recalled that when she and Swan spoke to Trump in March to fact-check things for their book, Haberman said most of the conversation was about his big plans. The war in Iran had just begun.

“It’s Day 17 of the war, and he’s telling us: Here’s my models of the ballroom — and so forth. It was like he didn’t have a care in the world,” said Haberman.

She was asked whether the war or any other policy occupies as much of Trump's attention as his building projects and she said frankly "no."

Thus far, Trump's projects have ballooned in size and in price. When Trump decided that the renovated Reflecting Pool needed a special lining, he promised it would only cost about $1.5 million. That cost now stands at over $16 million, according to an NBC News analysis.

The White House East Wing was initially said to cost $200 million, which Trump promised would be funded by donors and not at taxpayer expense. The cost of the ballroom now stands at over $600 million so far, with less than half ($293 million) coming from private donors. GOP lawmakers proposed giving Trump $1 billion for the project.

Trump decided that two large bronze equestrian statues on the east entrance of Memorial Bridge should instead be a thick layer of pure gold. The estimated cost was $2.4 million. The Art Deco-style bronze-cast statues had patinaed over the years, giving them a time-worn glow. Critics now call the statues "gaudy" and "way too shiny."

"I think from a tourist perspective, sure?" said Maryland resident Carlos Burger when speaking to the BBC. He was certain to add the words "Question mark."

The final cost is double the initial estimate at $5.1 million so far. There still could be overage costs once it is finalized, USA Today reported.

Another forthcoming project is his 250-foot arch that will block Arlington National Cemetery, which sits on a hill overlooking Washington. It is modeled after Paris’ Arc de Triomphe, which, in part, is to memorialize those who fought and died in the French Revolutionary War. It's already being referred to as the “Arc de Trump.” The cost there begins at $100 million in taxpayer dollars. There's also a new renovation of Dulles International Airport that Trump has started, which will cost at least $22 billion and will feature a gold ceiling.

President Donald Trump's administration scrapped the federal system that protects U.S. elections when he entered the White House last year. Now, less than 100 days before the election, they want to rebuild it. Election officials are making it clear that he's simply too late. All that's left to protect elections is "duct tape," one official said, according to a CNN report.

CNN's cybersecurity reporter Sean Lyngaas, on Friday, called it "ironic" since the first Trump administration "built a large federal apparatus for supporting election officials."

In a prime-time address on July 16, Trump said that the 2020 election he oversaw was broken and that China somehow meddled with it.

"We're talking about cybersecurity support, physical security assessments of facilities, intelligence sharing from the intelligence community on the latest threats. And then when Trump returned to office, he was still mad at the [Homeland Security] cyber agency for saying the 2020 election was secure. And so he fired most of the election security experts in that agency," explained Lyngaas.

Trump now intends to rebuild the entire cyber agency "starting from scratch. And they make the point that they want to rebuild trust with election officials, trust that has been severely damaged by their actions in the last year."

Geoff Hale, former election security official for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said, "We are well into the election cycle. It is not simply about Election Day. Election Day is not when the Russians started in 2016. It is not when the Iranians started in 2020 ... People should be realizing we have a gap of information of 14 to 18 months."

The CISA offices have been largely quiet after Trump first fired the director in Feb. 2025, and then in Oct. 2025, there were 176 DHS employees let go, many employees working for the (CISA), The Hill reported.

"So, this whole federal bureaucracy has been dormant," Lyngaas continued. "Not really connecting with election officials. And now they're scrambling to do so with less than 100 days to go to the midterm elections."

There are still some staff at CISA, a press release this week showed. The agency reported that there has been "a significant increase in cyber threats" targeting what are called programmable logic controllers (PLCs), which are used in the Water and Wastewater Systems (WWS) across the U.S.

The hosts of "Morning Joe" cracked up on Friday, laughing at President Donald Trump's willingness to throw his attorney general nominee "overboard" once two Republicans said they refused to sign off.

Formerly Trump's personal lawyer, Todd Blanche has been serving as the acting attorney general since Pam Bondi left the office. There was a willingness to approve Blanche among Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, but one sticking point remained: a nearly $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund dreamed up by the president.

On Thursday, two U.S. Senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee said that someone at the White House is stopping Blanche from agreeing to putting the cancellation of the fund in writing.

The terms Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) wants guarantee that the fund will not be started. A federal judge requested a signed agreement in court, and Blanche refused twice to sign such a pledge. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) is also bothered by the idea that Trump and his family would be above the law, due to a provision in the contract saying that neither he nor his children could ever be audited by the IRS "forever."

"Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski read the news about the IRS ban on audits as Joe Scarborough cracked up laughing.

"Donald Trump is saying, 'I will throw my attorney general nominee overboard if my family and I can't get immunity from the IRS,' the likes of which nobody else in America has," said Scarborough. "So, what he's saying is we want to live — the Trump family wants to live by separate rules regarding the IRS than any other family in America, any other family on the planet. And he's willing to not have an attorney general, to do that. I mean, this is something."

He added that the matter isn't only unpopular with Democrats, but with Republicans too.

Reporter Jonathan Lemire said it's the issue that lawmakers are angrier about than the fund. Trump, he said, "made clear what his priorities are. He prioritizes the fund and the IRS protections over installing Todd Blanche as permanent attorney general."

Blanche could remain in his acting role indefinitely, as he was already approved by the U.S. Senate as the deputy attorney general. As Trump discovered in his first term, having "actings" in the top spots gives him more freedom to hire and fire as he sees fit. There have not been serious consequences to Trump's use of "acting" secretaries in the first or second terms.

Lemire noted that Trump's solution to the matter was to simply say he'd reappoint Blanche after Cornyn and Tillis are gone.

"But problem with that plan, of course, is we have no idea what the Senate's going to look like come January," he explained. "The Republicans may have a smaller margin or perhaps be in the minority."

Cornyn also made it clear on X Thursday that he and Tillis are not the only two who have issues with Blanche over the contract between Trump and the government.

Calling it "self-dealing" and "corruption," Scarborough said he's "never seen anything like it in my life. This is one politician saying, "My family and I are going to get protected status, are going to get immunity from IRS audits now and in the future."

Axios reporter Marc Caputo said that both the Senate and White House realize they have "a broken relationship." Trump grows increasingly angry because the Senate won't do what he demands over the SAVE America Act, the filibuster and other matters.

President Donald Trump has been after the ABC network as part of his ongoing feuds with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and the co-hosts of "The View." Now, it appears Trump's own vainglorious boasts have put the whole thing in jeopardy.

Chatting with Greg Sargent for his morning podcast for The New Republic, law school professor Leah Litman walked through why Trump has completely undermined his own case.

Sargent explained that Trump's own social media posts have become exhibits in ABC's case, which argues that he's using the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to go after his political foes. Leading the FCC is who Sargent called Trump's "slavishly devoted accomplice," Brendan Carr.

"This captures something really essential about Trump's open corruption and whether our institutions are capable of constraining it," said Sargent.

Litman said that it's all part of Trump's inability to hear bad news about himself and that often it inspires him to threaten to remove FCC licenses from affiliates. In other incidents, Trump has threatened to weaponize the FCC for investigations into the networks that he doesn't like.

The largest example came when Trump tried to get Kimmel kicked off the air, only for ABC parent company Disney to lose anywhere from $3.5 billion to $4.99 billion in market value as well as nearly 3 million subscribers, Fox Business reported at the time. Kimmel later joked that the same tactic couldn't be used for Stephen Colbert because so few people use the Paramount subscription service.

"If they don't rent licenses, that's the end of the company," Litman explained.

ABC's response to the Trump administration filing is "scathing," said Sargent, reading a line from the court filing.

"The retaliation against ABC is a signal to every media company in the country: accommodate the administration's view of what news coverage should look like or pay the price," the filing says.

Litman said it's a clear message from the administration: "to stand down, do our bidding or face the penalty." It's being seen across the board to universities, James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Jack Smith and Dr. Anthony Fauci.

The part that Sargent found the most amusing is that ABC cites one of Trump's own social media posts to allege they're being targeted for political purposes.

"Why is it that ABC and NBC Fake News, two of the worst and most biased networks, aren't paying millions of dollars a year in license fees? They should lose their licenses for their unfair coverage of Republicans," Trump said.

Litman said arguments like ABC's have been effective in the past, but the larger question is whether the Supreme Court will be willing to get involved.

"Right now I think there's a disparity in lower courts saying, 'The president said what he said. We can't ignore that.' And the Supreme Court saying, 'No, actually we can and we will and we'll just pretend it didn't happen," Litman said.

A truly awkward moment unfolded on Thursday night during a panel discussion between Democrat Karen Finney and Republican Scott Jennings on Kaitlan Collins' CNN show.

Jennings, who worked previously for Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), was quick to boast that he'd spoken to his old boss for "20 minutes" to check on him after an incident landed the senator in an ambulance in early June.

“I spoke to my old friend Mitch McConnell this morning, the senior Senator from Kentucky. He’s still recovering in the hospital. We talked for just shy of 20 minutes ... about IRAN, UKRAINE, the unfolding situation in MAINE, my visit to the TR Presidential Library and even a little bit of Senate history. I told him we want to see him back at work as soon as possible,” Jennings wrote on X at the time.

That same day, CNN host Kasie Hunt asked Jennings to call McConnell live on the show, but he refused.

While the senator has produced two photos as a kind of "proof-of-life," he hasn't been seen in videos or even a call-in to a Fox News show.

Collins asked Jennings whether he'd spoken to McConnell since the call in early July and Jennings confessed he had not but said he was in regular contact with the Senate staff.

“Scott, can I ask you, because you actually were invoked the other night on the show about your former boss, Senator Mitch McConnell. Have you spoken to him recently on the phone?” asked Collins.

“Uh, no, I haven’t spoken to him,” Jennings said. “I talked to him early on. And I’m in touch with his office, but I haven’t spoken to him recently.”

Finney held up her cell phone and asked whether they should FaceTime him live on air.

“We could – should we – do we want to FaceTime him?” Finney asked to dead air. “No? Ok.”

There was an awkward silence as Jennings stared blankly at the cameras for several blinks.

“Okay," Collins jumped in.

"On that note, Scott Jennings, Karen Finney, thank you both for being here," she continued before going to commercial.

McConnell has been in George Washington University Hospital in Washington D.C. "recovering" from what he said was a "fall."

In the 9-1-1 call revealed weeks after the incident, someone from McConnell's home on Capitol Hill said that he was in “cardiac arrest” and that CPR was being administered until EMS arrived. That detail sparked a series of bizarre incidents that left folks scratching their heads.

According to McConnell, he suffered a fall severe enough to knock him unconscious. However, he said that he didn't have a concussion or break any bones.

The most recent photo produced by the senator's office shows him sitting in a hospital chair with his wife beside him. The statement said that McConnell was keeping up with physical therapy but isn't ready to return home yet.

The CNN incident happened as "MISSING" fliers popped up on Capitol Hill asking if anyone had seen McConnell.

One of the hometown reporters who's covered McConnell for decades said that the senator is likely "just being a little cranky and pugnacious here in the twilight of his career."

A recent filing to the U.S. Supreme Court from President Donald Trump's Justice Department prompted Georgetown Law School Professor Steve Vladeck to flag a key piece being ignored and misconstrued in the reporting.

Less than 100 days before the 2026 midterm elections, Trump is demanding that the high court let the federal government take over the elections in 23 states and the District of Columbia. Filed on Monday, Trump v. California will ultimately be a battle over whether Trump can use his power over the U.S. Postal Service to refuse mail service of ballots in blue states.

On Wednesday, another case was filed by red states against blue states asking the Supreme Court to stay an injunction that stops federal agencies from fully implementing Trump's order on the mail-in ballot ban.

What Valdeck explained is that the framing around the case is being "wildly overstate[d]."

"What the justices were actually asked to do ... is messier—and, for now, far less apocalyptic," he explained.

The underlying issue returns to the question of executive authority and whether the president can use the USPS to tamper with an election. It isn't necessarily about whether Trump can fiddle with the election; "it involves who can challenge Trump’s order and when—not whether the order is legally valid on its face," Vladeck explained.

So, even if the Supreme Court steps in and grants a hearing of both cases, it's only putting off the core part of his executive order.

According to Vladeck (including his own emphasis), "Either the Trump administration is going to take meaningful steps to implement this executive order before the election (at which point, the standing and ripeness issues necessarily go away) or it isn’t (in which case, it’s impossible to see how the federal government is suffering the kind of irreparable harm that is supposed to be necessary to obtain emergency relief from the Supreme Court)."

Regardless of the decision, what will happen in either case ultimately leaves the matter of whether the federal government can meddle in an election unresolved, he said.

So far, five lawsuits have been filed against the administration for the order, and the one at the Supreme Court is a joint suit with 23 states and D.C.

He cited Judge Indira Talwani's June 25 ruling, which granted summary judgment to the states, meaning she ruled without a trial. The judge called it “legally void.” Making it clear, "The President plays no role in the regulation of elections.”

Vladeck said that the court’s ruling on the statute is just as important, and it's also likely harder for the government to debate much less overturn. Judge Talwani said Congress has not given the Postal Service the power to control mail-in voting, or even to sort mail, much less to refuse to deliver ballots for some voters.

There's an easier argument, that whatever step the federal government tries to take, it can't do it without Congress. Right now, Congress can't even pass a budget, much less decide on whether the Post Office can sort mail and refuse to deliver some items but not others.

The second point, he cited from the judge's ruling, is that the short timeline left “no allowance for Congress’ mandated procedure regarding USPS rulemaking.” Congress requires steps that the USPS must follow if it intends to make new rules for mail. It can't do that on the current timeline before the November election, and those steps can't be skipped by law.

So, she shut down Sections 2 and 3 of Trump's order for the Nov. 3 election. Trump is now taking it to the Supreme Court, debating the timeline point in the decision, but not the rest of it.

Judge Talwani published an interim order, saying: “[I]n light of the EO’s specific deadlines over the next three months, and the reality that elections will be occurring throughout this period . . . postponing judicial review is impracticable and may inflict significant hardship on Plaintiffs," meaning the states.

The red states asked for a stay of her ruling before an appeal could be decided, saying that the blue states didn't even have standing in the case. It's particularly important that they didn't fight what the judge ruled about Section 3 of the case. They only debated Section 2.

Vladeck said that reports claiming the ruling was a "divided one" don't capture the specifics. Newly appointed Trump judge, Joshua Dunlap actually "agreed with Judges Gustavo Gelpí and Julie Rikelman with respect to Section 3 of the executive order (the USPS-specific provisions)—i.e., that it should remain paused for the duration of the litigation."

Because they didn't mount a defense for Section 3 of Trump's order, the administration has "no other basis to demonstrate likelihood of success as to the injunction barring implementation of that provision," the majority said.

He closed by saying that the cases are absolutely a "big deal," and the executive order a "bigger deal," however "even the best-case scenario for the Trump administration here is a narrow procedural victory in the Supreme Court that puts off Section 3’s reckoning only for a matter of weeks." Vladeck explained it's "more than the government deserves," but it won’t matter as much as it will look, and it won’t be as big a deal as the media will probably make it seem.

President Donald Trump has lost again at another appeals court over the mass detention policy he's pushed out over the past year.

MS NOW producer Kyle Cheney reported that the 9th Circuit rejected U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) detention policy. It's the fifth straight loss at an appellate court. Cheney remarked that the district is the crucial one that covers California, Arizona, Nevada and Washington.

Politico reported Thursday that the decision is "the most significant rejection yet." Lower courts will now be bound by the ruling in states where there are thousands of detainees.

The ruling came down 2-1, and the court decided that he misconstrued immigration laws from decades ago that set the rules for the modern deportation system.

“The government’s change in policy has resulted in detained aliens filing thousands of habeas petitions in federal courts across the country, seeking bond hearings and possible release from detention,” wrote Trump appointee Judge Daniel Bress in the majority decision. “The implication of the government’s position is that Congress in 1996 made a major change to the immigration laws by subjecting millions of unadmitted aliens present in the United States to mandatory detention, but that this change then went unnoticed and unheeded, with the Executive Branch for the next three decades … We accordingly do not think that Congress in 1996 made such a large-scale change to our established system of immigration detention in the way that the government now contends.”

Anyone who has been in the U.S. for years and has established families can now only be detained after a bond hearing, which requires convincing an immigration judge that they can live safely in their own communities while the process unfolds.

Of the five courts that have ruled this way so far, Politico cited, are the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit, the New York-based 2nd Circuit, the Colorado-based 10th Circuit and the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit, explained the report. Only two courts, the 5th and the 8th Circuit, have ruled in Trump's favor. There are court battles in four other circuits forthcoming.

Meanwhile, there have been a whopping 460 federal judges who have ruled against the administration on more than 10,000 cases involving the detention policies. This compares with 54 judges who have supported the ruling in about 1,100 cases, calculated Politico.

Trump's mandatory detention policy has faced unprecedented judicial resistance across the federal court system. Federal judges have overwhelmingly rejected the administration's interpretation of 1996 immigration law, with 460 judges ruling against the policy in more than 10,000 cases compared to only 54 judges supporting it in about 1,100 cases. The 9th Circuit ruling is particularly significant because it covers California, Arizona, Nevada, and Washington—regions with substantial immigrant populations.

The decision marks Trump's fifth consecutive loss at the appellate level. Only two circuits, the 5th and 8th, have sided with the administration. Legal experts argue Trump misread congressional intent, claiming Congress never intended to mandate detention for all undocumented immigrants regardless of ties to U.S. communities, creating a constitutional conflict between executive power and due process rights.

The U.S. State Department got every one of the countries on an Africa map wrong that it was highlighting for funding.

According to The New Republic, the State Department flub unfolded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this week during the annual International AIDS Conference. The U.S. unveiled a map of Africa that showed six countries and the U.S. investment for current Advancing Global Health Annual Program Statement (APS) funding.

"Nigeria drifted into the Sahara Desert, landlocked and lost; Mozambique was relocated to the eastern Horn of Africa; and the Ivory Coast, somehow, found itself nowhere near a coast. The map also included a country with no name," said the report.

The map, posted on X by Ana Lucia Araujo, PhD shows lines from the labels on the right to the "corresponding" countries, with the exception of Cameroon, which was abandoned altogether.

It was about halfway through the U.S.'s presentation when the map came out as State Department employees were talking about the new health agreements. Former Donald Trump strategist Elon Musk has been attacked for the past decisions to slash funding for HIV/AIDS prevention in Africa through the dismantling of USAID last year.

Those in the audience, which included high-level officials from several of the mislabeled countries, took photos of the map and shared it on social media.

Reuters did an analysis of the map and believes it had a watermark showing it was made by OpenAI.

That report said that one photo shared by journalist and AIDS expert Emily Bass on LinkedIn earned about 40,000 views.

They confirmed it was legitimately shown by reviewing a video of the presentation.

In a statement about the huge mistake, the State Department called it "confusion" and said it took “full responsibility.” Audience members said that the map was produced by someone else on the team who changed the slide deck before the presentation began.

“Whoever created and approved this slide did not know where countries in Africa are and did not care to check their work,” said The Atlantic Council's Matt Petit, who focuses on AI and geopolitics.

The speaker at the time was Jeff Graham, who serves as Trump's ⁠top U.S. health envoy. He oversees the full initiative for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.

The conference itself was interrupted by protesters angry over Trump's huge cuts to the HIV/AIDS initiatives around the world established by former President George W. Bush in 2003.

Two U.S. Senators have said that someone at the White House is stopping President Donald Trump's nominee to be attorney general from signing off on preventing the so-called "anti-weaponization fund" for MAGA allies who felt they were unfairly targeted by the U.S. government.

In an earlier interview, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said, "But, I don't know, somebody somewhere, I don't know whether it's the White House, or somebody works there or somebody works for the president, is basically telling them don't agree to those terms. And so we're kind of back to square one."

The terms Cornyn wants include a signed guarantee that the fund will not be started. A federal judge requested the same thing in court, and Blanche refused twice to put such a pledge in writing.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) is now part of the small caucus of outgoing senators unwilling to sign off on Blanche without that guarantee.

MS NOW's Ali Vitali spoke to Tillis on Thursday morning. In the interview, the outgoing Republican senator said that Blanche has been working with lawmakers in good faith. The problems are coming from someone else in the White House.

"I think Blanche is trying to fulfill the commitment he made in the hearing. And so, we're continuing to talk, and we need to get to the person who's in the way. Todd Blanche is negotiating in good faith, but it's clear that the approval to get this done is above his pay grade, and we just need to get to that pay grade," said Tillis.

He began to walk away and shouted over his shoulder, "I don't believe it's the president."

Within a few hours, Trump went to Truth Social, writing, "Todd Blanche is a STAR, and everyone knows it! He has the potential to go down as one of the Greatest Attorney Generals of All Time. However, John Cornyn, of Texas, and Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, both of whom I refused to endorse, and whose political careers have been ended by my action, are refusing to vote for this great nominee, who will remain, in any event, as acting [attorney general]. Remember, both Cornyn and Tillis voted for Merrick Garland, and others, too numerous to mention. I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd’s name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office."

The one thing that could stop that from happening is if Democrats win the Senate in the November elections. It's a long shot that requires flipping four seats, NPR reported this week.

Cornyn responded to Trump on X, saying, "POTUS is mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to Senator Tillis and me."

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said that he was shocked by some of the documents revealed in a filing this week from former FBI Director James Comey.

Speaking to host Sara Sidner on Thursday, Honig said the fact that the Department of Justice recruited help from a notorious mobster was shocking.

Comey is accused of issuing a violent threat to kill President Donald Trump when he posted a photo of seashells spelling out "86-47." Comey said that those who worked in food service or restaurants know the term "86" to cancel an order or clear a table. He also made it clear that it was not a threat, much less a violent one.

On Wednesday, it was reported that Secret Service agents exchanged emails revealing that the president was directly involved in the case and was asking for updates for an upcoming press conference.

"The first thing that I think is notable about the reporting is that Donald Trump was directly involved in this, getting real-time updates, getting FBI interview notes on the spot," said Honig, a former federal prosecutor. "... So much for [Todd] Blanche’s claim that we’re completely separate from the president."

Information from the prosecutors at the Justice Department "show how desperately prosecutors are trying to make 86 mean murder and only murder, and they’re failing. First thing they did is they ran that term through the FBI’s Sentinel database, which is essentially everything the FBI has. Came up empty. Then they pulled files from an old mob case that Jim Comey had tried 30-some years ago, came up empty again," Honig said.

Their next option was to get a mobster named Sammy "The Bull" Gravano to say that when he was active 36 years ago, he agreed that "86" was a mob term.

Honig said it was funny because he was working on a case and once spoke to Gravano on the phone.

"We were thinking about calling him as a trial witness for about three minutes, and I said, absolutely not," recalled Honig. "This guy has zero credibility. That’s their star witness now! And if your basis for your case against Jim Comey is Sammy Gravano from 1990 thinks it could mean that, you’re going to lose. I promise you."

Host Sara Sidner said it was remarkable to see how much time and effort was spent to find one mention of "86" meaning to kill someone. She noted anyone who looks up the definition can see it clearly that it means exactly what Comey said it did.

To put it in context, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in 1969 where a man protesting the Vietnam War said, "If they put a rifle in my hands, the first person I want in my sights is L.B.J." In that case, the high court said it wasn't a criminal threat, Honig recalled.

President Donald Trump once famously bragged that his supporters love him so much that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and they wouldn't abandon him. And a new Politico poll reveals that his most ardent supporters still aren't faltering.

Regardless of his scandals, the top MAGA voters are still behind him. Where Trump appears to be losing ground is with non-MAGA Republicans and Independent voters. Previous reports show that Trump is losing ground with some MAGA supporters who felt they were "lied to" by the president.

Now, that loyalty is stretching across to other Republican candidates, with voters saying they don't care what a candidate does; they'll continue to support the Republican.

GOP candidates "confronted with an array of scandals, from a DUI conviction or accepting lobbyist gifts to more serious accusations including domestic violence, sexual assault and antisemitic social media posts" still maintain support among MAGA.

"Two-thirds of self-identified MAGA Trump voters say they would continue supporting a GOP candidate accused of sexual assault — 13 percentage points higher than the share of Trump 2024 voters writ large, which include those who do not identify as MAGA. By comparison, 40 percent of voters who backed former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 would continue backing a Democratic candidate accused of sexual assault," said Politico.

The numbers show that the worst possible issue among MAGA voters would be if Trump shared classified information with a foreign government. Just 57 percent of his supporters said they'd continue to support him. Antisemitic statements weren't much of a concern either, with 58 percent saying they'd still support him. Being accused of sexual assault and selling misleading medical treatments wouldn't phase 66 percent of MAGA fans who said they'd continue to support Trump

If Trump lied about a terminal illness 69 percent of MAGA would stick with him. Everything else over 70 percent of his supporters said didn't matter to them: things like whether he was convicted of a DUI, domestic violence, taking gifts from lobbyists, bullying in the workplace and even wearing blackface.

"Scandal doesn’t mean what it did 15 years ago. The rules have changed, and Republican voters know it," longtime Republican strategist Ford O’Connell told Politico. “Republicans, particularly MAGA voters, have learned that Queensberry rules don’t win in modern politics. Today it’s a full-contact fight, more UFC than civics class, and anything goes.”

President Donald Trump continues to lose ground with key voting groups outside of his MAGA base. It's become so bad that CNN data analyst Harry Enten called it "laughably bad."

While the economy is slowing, inflation is on the rise. Enten was asked by host Sara Sidner just how bad things were for the president, who won his 2024 election on inflation and the economy.

"Sara, the numbers are laughably bad. They are laughably bad. But no one is laughing about these because just take a look here. Trump's not up on inflation. Our latest CNN poll that has been coming out over the last few days, the net approval minus disapproval: 50 points underwater," Enten explained.

He said he checked polls for every past president he could find and discovered that there has never been a president "who had ratings this bad."

"That's an over 50-point shift from where we were before the election, where, of course, President Trump was more trusted on inflation than Kamala Harris, which is why he got a second term," Enten said.

Sidner called it "insane."

"Not only on gas prices, which of course is part of this equation, right? I mean, as I said, laughably bad. You just don't ever see numbers like this," said Enten.

Questions like whether America is on the right track or wrong track now has 70 percent of voters willing to say the U.S. is on the "wrong track." The "right track" number is just 16 percent. A stunning 50 percent of Republicans agreed it was on the wrong track.

"No wonder that President Trump is putting up historic numbers in the wrong direction when it comes to inflation," said Enten.

Republicans also believe that Trump is focused on the wrong things (58 percent) and should instead deal with lowering costs. The overall number is 78 percent of Americans who believe he should deal with the affordability crisis.

Enten noted that prediction markets thought that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates because of the increase in inflation, and at least three governors on the board did support raising the rate. In the end, however, new Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh kept the numbers unchanged.

"While the decision to stand pat could be seen as good news for consumers, they might not feel much relief with the average credit card rate still near 20 percent and mortgage rates the highest since last August," reported PBS News on Thursday after the announcement.

MS NOW caught up with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) on Thursday morning as he explained where things stand with President Donald Trump's attorney general nominee.

Todd Blanche's nomination to lead the Department of Justice has been on hold as Blanche refuses to put in writing that the DOJ won't pursue an "anti-weaponization fund" as part of the president's settlement with the IRS.

Trump's taxes were exposed along with over 400,000 other Americans and businesses, so Trump sued the government for $10 billion. Trump is now telling the government to settle his case with an agreement that would set up a nearly $1.8 billion fund to pay out taxpayer dollars to people who feel they've been wronged by the U.S. government.

Cornyn told MS NOW's Ali Vitali he wanted to confirm that the language in the contract between the U.S. government and Trump isn't changing even after a federal judge shot down the deal.

"This settlement agreement can be modified, may be modified only upon the written agreement of the parties," the contract reads, according to Cornyn.

During the committee hearing, he asked Blanche whether the parties had changed the language to say that the fund would no longer be created. Blanche answered, "no."

So, Blanche's claim that the fund was dead doesn't square with the contract language keeping it in place. The two claims conflict and Cornyn wanted to know why, saying he'd be satisfied if they could square that.

"But, I don't know, somebody somewhere, I don't know whether it's the White House, or somebody works there or somebody works for the president, is basically telling them don't agree to those terms," said the senator. "And so we're kind of back to square one."

Vitali asked if he got everything he needed from DOJ and if he doesn't get what he needs is he willing to vote "no" on Blanche.

"I am prepared to vote no. But I do — I do think, I owe it to my constituents and, to Mr. Blanche to try to negotiate in good faith. And that's what we've been doing. And, so we'll, we'll see where things are this morning," Cornyn continued.

Cornyn said he hadn't talked to the president but that it might "help" and go a long way to helping understand what's happening.

"Yeah. He could fix this in a minute. But, I don't know whether — who he's listening to or whether he's motivated to do that. So, we'll see what happens," Cornyn continued.

Vitali said that Trump appears to believe that Cornyn is doing this because he doesn't like Trump.

"You know, I voted with him 99.3 percent of the time," Cornyn paused to laugh. "That has nothing to do with it. This is about making sure that, even if you're the president of the United States, you don't get favorable terms from the government in a settlement of a lawsuit that ordinary citizens would not get. Like protection from audits by the IRS into the foreseeable future. So I think this is about making sure that we maintain the integrity of our justice system."

Vitali said that before the cameras went live, Cornyn had talked about how "every time he thinks they're getting to a point where there's some kind of deal that could get him to yes, someone else throws a wrench in it. And I asked, okay, well, what's the wrench right now? And he seemed to focus in on the IRS piece of the deal."

A federal judge has already declared that the so-called "settlement" between Trump and the federal government isn't valid. She had asked that Blanche sign a sworn statement under penalty of perjury that the fund wouldn't go forward. Blanche refused.

It was a major question for Cornyn during Blanche's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Over and over Blanche refused to say he would sign something or swear to something because he'd already indicated the fund was dead and felt it would be redundant.