Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and other members of President Donald Trump's administration have refused to file the statement Judge Leonie M. Brinkema demanded in her judicial order last week.

AlterNet reported that last Friday, Judge Brinkema said she wanted to "avoid any further litigation in this civil action," and asked Blanche along with Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, Jr. and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent to submit a declaration they wouldn't take any further action to create Trump's slush fund.

The deadline for that was June 19.

Judge Brinkema had demanded that the filing be submitted "under the penalty of perjury."

But instead, something else was submitted, according to legal reporter Chris Geidner. The Justice Department didn't merely ignore the requirement; it submitted another filing

"The acting attorney general has testified before Congress that the Fund is 'not going forward, period,'" the DOJ filing claims. "Undersigned counsel have twice signed briefs reaffirming that 'the Fund is not going forward.' And counsel for Defendants has twice said substantially the same thing in open court. All these statements were made against the backdrop of serious penalties for falsity."

Demanding that the Cabinet officials, in particular, be burdened with signing a document for a court is simply too far, the filing argues.

According to the DOJ, these facts mean "there is no reason why declarations should affect the Court's mootness analysis." They also say that having such officials sign such a declaration is a "separation of powers." The inverse could also be argued that if so many statements have been previously made, then a declaration shouldn't be a problem.

The filing goes on to attempt to relitigate an argument already lost, Geidner commented.

"Accordingly, the Court's demands are unnecessary. And it's presumption that mootness can arise only by compelling testimony from three senior government officials 'implicate[s] separation of powers concerns.' As stated multiple times, the Fund is not moving forward. The transcript of the Acting Attorney General's equivocal testimony to Congress is attached," the DOJ says.

The filing was signed by both Woodward and Andrew Block, senior counsel to the associate attorney general.

The judge said last week, "If such a declaration is not filed by June 19, 2026, the Court will issue a Scheduling Order and require defendants to file a responsive pleading ..."

The Trump administration's defiance of Judge Brinkema's order reflects a broader pattern of executive resistance to judicial oversight.

Legal experts have noted that the DOJ's response—citing prior statements and separation of powers concerns—amounts to an end-run around the judge's explicit authority to compel sworn testimony. The administration's argument that previous congressional testimony and court statements suffice contradicts the judge's determination that a formal declaration under penalty of perjury was necessary to resolve the case and prevent further litigation.

Judge Brinkema now faces a critical decision: whether to enforce her order through contempt proceedings or accept the administration's reframing of mootness. The case underscores ongoing tensions between executive accountability and claims of constitutional separation of powers, with significant implications for judicial authority to oversee government compliance with court orders.

Political commentator Jonah Goldberg issued a rhetorical body-slam about President Donald Trump's recent claim that there are "no limits" to his power.

Marc Caputo recently asked Trump, " What have you learned about not just the exercise of power, but the limits on your power as a result of the conflict?"

"There are no limits. No, not — I haven't learned that lesson yet. I know there are. But you know, there are no limits. We defeated them totally militarily," Trump said about Iran, his agreement, and what he calls "an unconditional defeat."

It comes at a time when Trump insulted Premier Giorgia Meloni, claiming Meloni "begged" him for a photo and he "felt sorry for her." That mistake prompted Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani to abruptly cancel his planned trip to the U.S. Meloni also responded with a video, making it clear that his claim was not true but that “Italy and I do not beg."

Goldberg returned to the Axios interview and merged the two stories together. While Trump was once able to bully his way into foreign policy and make demands of international leaders, the Iran War made it clear that those days are over. Meloni simply vocalized it publicly.

"Where he says, we totally defeated Iran militarily. There are no limits to my power to my power.' The fact that he's coming out of this week with this deal, saying that there are no limits to his power when he was forced to negotiate ending a blockade to open up the Strait of Hormuz, is preposterous," Goldberg said. "And why was the Strait of Hormuz such a problem? They begged to get allies to come in and help with the mine-sweeping, because our European allies have better equipment for that kind of stuff."

The reason that the Strait is closed is that Trump couldn't get Europe to come to his aid.

"Why couldn't they get them to do it? Because he threatened to take, militarily, take over Greenland, and made himself so unbelievably radioactive," Goldberg continued. "The most brilliant thing Trump did — he was already unpopular in the middle and with the left in Europe. But the Greenland thing made the nationalists hate him, too."

After that, it was implausible that any European allies would help at Trump's demand.

"The idea that all these allies were going to jump and help him out in the Strait of Hormuz. It would be political suicide for any elected leader in Europe to act to save Trump's bacon about anything," Goldberg said.

"I think his approval rating in Denmark is like 4 percent, right? So like, those are limits to his power," Goldberg explained. "We would be a much more powerful country if we had allies that were willing to get our back and help us out. Those are limits. What's disturbing is he's so delusional he can't see the limits to his power, and that's something that's going to get him into more mistakes."

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It has been a few days since President Donald Trump signed a "deal" at the Palace of Versailles to end the war with Iran, but the intelligence community is now warning him that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will likely undermine any agreement the U.S. makes.

According to diplomacy and national security reporter John Hudson at The Washington Post, "the Israeli leader faces intense political pressure to continue waging war in Lebanon."

One intelligence report that circulated over the week said that Netanyahu’s political desperation was growing as his elections quickly approach.

"Netanyahu’s political survival is linked to showing his domestic audience that he will not withdraw troops from Lebanon and that he is intent on escalating," said Hudson in a thread on X.

Lebanon is where the extremist anti-Israeli group Hezbollah is headquartered. Iran, which has funded terrorism by Hezbollah, has made Lebanon part of the deal with the United States. As of Friday afternoon, Israel agreed to a ceasefire with Hezbollah.

Speaking about it in France on Wednesday, Trump called it a "little dispute over Lebanon."

The intelligence report described frustration from Israeli officials with Trump's Iran deal. They object to the terms that they believe "undermine its broader objective of maintaining maximum pressure on Tehran."

"Trump administration officials insist that the terms do not prevent Israel from retaliating against Hezbollah if fired upon and that Netanyahu’s concerns pale in comparison to the need to complete a deal and reopen the Strait of Hormuz to stave off a global economic crisis," Hudson also wrote in his X thread.

In an interview with Axios on Thursday, Trump claimed that Iran agreed to an "unconditional surrender," which isn't consistent with the 14-point agreement that he released this week.

Meanwhile, Israel began Friday by launching more air strikes in southern Lebanon after a Hezbollah drone strike killed four Israeli soldiers, the Post report said.

Iran and the U.S. were set to meet in Switzerland on Friday, where Vice President JD Vance would officially sign an agreement. At the last minute, the trip was off and the signing postponed. The president hasn't given any reason for what may have happened in the past 48 hours.

Punch Bowl News reported Friday that it seems like every time Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) gets ahead, he is thrown back several steps by Donald Trump.

House and Senate Republicans don't see eye-to-eye on much, but they can both agree they've been waylaid by Trump just when it seems they're "turning a corner." For Thune has accelerated over the past month.

Thune "had just about the worst luck over the past couple of months, getting blindsided repeatedly by a president who sometimes seems not to care that much about the fate of his congressional majorities," the report explained.

The holiday edition of the site's morning news explained that Thune had things well in hand before being thrown into a tilt-a-whirl being run by a madman. While lawmakers were desperate to end the government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, Trump began demanding that lawmakers help him fund $1 billion in funds for his ballroom project. Trump initially said that $200 million is all he would need and that he would fundraise to afford it. That has since changed to be $600 million and Trump was only able to raise half of it.

There was backlash from Republicans, but in the end, taxpayers must pay for half of it. In another matter, Republicans thought they'd be able to fast-track Trump's choice for the Director of National Intelligence, Bill Pulte. That was scrapped and his lack of support turned Pulte into an "acting" secretary. Trump then shut down the hearing for his real choice that was scheduled for this week.

"Thune has seen that even when he does what Trump wants, the favor is rarely, if ever, returned," wrote the Punch Bowl team.

Meanwhile, Thune is taking it in stride, managing to only flash "some anger here and there. But his relationship with Trump has clearly taken a hit.

On Thursday, Thune said he hadn't spoken to Trump since the previous weekend, so there was no interaction about Trump abruptly trying to stop Jay Clayton's confirmation hearing set for Wednesday.

“I’ve never been asked to slow a nomination down before,” Thune told Punch Bowl. “We’re just executing — or trying to execute — on what they had asked us to do. They nominated him.”

Instead of Clayton's confirmation, Pulte will take over and start making big changes. There are challenges with that, as Pulte appeared not to know the basics about the post.

It remains unknown why Clayton's nomination hearing was stopped, and Republicans were just as "perplexed that Trump was deliberately slowing down his own pick’s confirmation process."

The GOP lawmakers have also been public about their dissatisfaction with Trump's Iran deal. Thune had been asking all week for the White House to brief him, but for an unknown reason, he "was consistently stiff-armed."

Then there's the infighting in the Senate GOP itself. A closed-door meeting on Wednesday resulted in a battle after Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) began "undermining the GOP majority by continuing to push for the SAVE Act," Trump's flagship voting rights restrictions.

Thune made it clear the SAVE Act was dead unless they killed the filibuster, and that's never happening, he made clear.

“Everybody knows we’re not nuking the filibuster,” Thune told Punchbowl. “It was on the floor for two weeks. We’ve had now five votes on it, none of which have gotten 60, and SAVE America hasn’t even gotten 50. So at some point, it seems like we ought to start making this an issue with the Democrats rather than with each other. That was the gist of the [lunch] conversation, and that would be my view.”

It's a rare rebuke of one Republican by another, the report sussed.

Meanwhile, Republicans are preparing to debate a bipartisan housing bill because they want to refocus Trump on issues that Americans actually care about. That hasn't worked in the past, however.

Thune, rather than Trump, has been the one to get the blame, even if other Republicans don't think it's right

"What’s true is that Trump is never going to accept the limits of the Senate’s legislative power. Thune is always going to have to tell him 'no' when the votes aren’t there. And 'no' is a word Trump doesn’t like," the report closed.

Local news reporter Spencer Allan Brooks on Friday posted a photo out of an airplane window looking over the new face of Washington D.C. after President Donald Trump's birthday weekend, complete with algae blooming the Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial.

There are 15 days until the 250th birthday of the United States of America. Trump said that he wanted Washington D.C. to be "beautiful" for the birthday. But, as the photo reveals, some of Trump's projects look a little rough.

Once a ceremonial sweep of green near the White House, the "front lawn," or Ellipse, was taken over for Trump's blood sport on his birthday. Critics have argued that these branding campaigns are diminishing the dignity of the White House. But they're also tearing up the actual White House complex.

The aerial photo Brooks shared goes beyond the green Reflecting Pool to show just how bad the damage was to the White House lawn due to the UFC event. The walking paths and stunning grass north of the fountain have given way to a flattened pad of dirt.

UFC's owner claimed that they'd chip in to repair the lawn and Scotts Miracle-Gro pledged $1 million to help restore the grass.

Fox5 in New York reported Scotts is using the funds for both marketing and research.

"The restoration is more complex than a standard landscaping project. Washington D.C.'s climate presents unique challenges, with freezing winters and hot, humid summers," the report explained. Scotts offered up several seed opportunities and said that "physical restoration will roll out in phases over the next year."

"The National Park Service will first disassemble the UFC infrastructure, followed by a previously scheduled public infrastructure project on the grounds," the report said. Scotts intends to start with some "mature sod," and then it will begin the seeding options. It means that the grass will not be fully restored in time for the America 250 events. In fact, it will take more than a year as a result of Trump's birthday fight he called a Flag Day event.

Meanwhile, the grass between the Reflecting Pool and the Washington Monument was quickly repaired after the number 8647 was carved into it.

Former CBS News reporter Scott MacFarlane remarked, "How much did the UFC event impact the Ellipse? This is quite a photo."

Legendary heckler of white nationalists, Joe Flood, wrote on X, "Trump’s fight club destroyed the Ellipse too."

Over the past year, Trump has made extravagant promises in his effort to remake public space in his own image, sometimes literally, as one D.C. resident complained in a Slate piece. The result remains the same and has served as a metaphor for his presidency, one columnist wrote. The city has been left with less civic grace and more wear and tear as residents absorb the aftershocks.

In the background of the failures around the reflecting pool and the Iran war agreement, Republicans see another pending disaster on the horizon.

President Donald Trump has asked Republicans to jam through the "SAVE Act," even if that means they will sink the crucial reauthorization of the spying bill known as FISA. The SAVE Act stands for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act.

FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, was established to ensure there is a mandated legal process for Americans who come under the physical and electronic surveillance of the U.S. government. Section 702 has become a larger question because it allows for warrantless surveillance of foreign targets that can also result in the collection of Americans' communications.

The Hill reported on Friday that Republicans are feeling "dismay" amid the president's deal with Iran that appears to be already falling apart.

In a separate report, lawmakers made it clear that combining FISA with the SAVE Act was "dumb."

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) didn't seem optimistic, saying that attaching the SAVE Act might work, but he called it "a Hail Mary."

He added, Trump “doesn’t seem to understand the Senate.”

There's a good reason to mention the Senate. Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told Punch Bowl News on that it would be "unrealistic" to try and attach the two.

Trump has implied he's willing to veto legislation if he doesn't like what the legislature passes.

“I certainly would hope if we can get FISA off the floor, he would sign it," Thune said.

Rep. Tom Massie (R-Ky.) made it clear that he's a "no" on renewing the 702 piece of FISA.

“Why would we let the government spy on us in exchange for anything? After we trade the Fourth Amendment for parliamentary advantage, what shall we trade the First and Second Amendments for?” Massie wrote on X, calling it "dumb."

It presents a problem because Speaker Mike Johnson would need near-unanimous support from his party. If Massie is a "no" Johnson may not have the votes.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) has been a longtime advocate of the SAVE Act, writing, “No Save America. No FISA.”

Other Republicans are the opposite. Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-Calf.) said that it was downright "unacceptable" that FISA was allowed to lapse in the first place.

"This program is critical to our intelligence collection and national security, and you know, when it comes to the national security, safety of the American people, we need to put partisanship aside,” said Rep. Kiley.

“It’s already dragged on far too long. We had a short-term renewal, now it’s lapsed. This is just another example of the dysfunction of Congress that the American people are so frustrated with, and that now is putting the national security of our country at risk,” Kiley added.

CNN kicked off its morning show discussions talking about the epic failure that President Donald Trump's Reflecting Pool project has become.

There are ongoing questions about whether the algae can be fully removed, and now it appears the $14 million paint job is peeling off in chunks. The U.S. Department of the Interior continues to insist that the water is perfectly clear and everything is fine. Those visiting have filmed something entirely different.

Two companies were responsible for the project that cost nearly $16 million: Greenwater Services, an Ohio company, and Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which was responsible for the paint that is now peeling off in chunks.

"First of all, the fact that it was called Greenwater should have been a giveaway. I'm just saying you can't make that up. Sorry," quipped New York Times reporter Lulu Garcia Navarro.

The Dispatch's politics editor, Michael Warren, called the ordeal "thoroughly predictable."

The issue has been a long-standing problem for the reflecting pool.

"These algae blooms happen because there just isn't enough water flow out of it. And I do think that, you know, two weeks ago, a week ago on social media, you had all these kind of supporters of the president, Republicans, saying finally the president is cleaning this up," he added.

The U.S. Department of the Interior compared it to Trump's success in Iran. At the same time that CNN was reporting the reflecting pool failure, it was also revealed that the signing of the Iran deal was on hold again.

"It was just it was obvious that this was going this was very likely to happen," said Warren.

Former federal prosecutor and CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams noted, "Perhaps there ... could have been a benefit to it. Once again, it is Trump, and the folks around him making the case aggressively before it — almost as a moral matter. And that when it goes badly now, sort of it's —"

Host Audie Cornish cut him off, agreeing that it has become a metaphor for the Trump administration as a whole for the "clean-up of Washington." Further, it is indicative of the promises that Trump made during the 2024 campaign and his continued failure to deliver on issues like lower gas prices, lower inflation, affordable living and groceries, cutting $2 trillion from the federal budget and a slew of other things.

ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl compared the pool peeling to the back of Trump's hand.

"Well, now it has cost a lot of money," Cornish said. She played a clip of Trump promising that the project would cost $1.9 million. Trump also promised that his ballroom would only cost $200 million and he would raise the funds for all of it. That has now ballooned to $600 million and Trump was only able to raise half of it.

"You see, that's the point I'm making," Williams agreed. "He went so far out there making the case as to how quickly it was going to happen, how cheaply it would be done and how perfect it would be," Williams continued. "That's what could have been an honest problem of maybe a piece chipped off. People have been in a swimming pool [they] know that that happens from time to time. What could have been a simple problem now becomes an embarrassment."

Cornish said that the Department of the Interior was the one that made the unfortunate mistake of comparing the pool to the Iran war and now it's clear that both have become failures.

"And so now they're able to say, oh, really? A thing no one asked for has gone wrong, costing us way more than we expected. And you're trying to do a cleanup? Sounds familiar. And it was like the messaging," said Cornish.

"The internet is undefeated," Garcia Navarro quipped. " I mean, there is so many jokes about this. There's like the Rothko joke because of the peroxide."

President Donald Trump's new intelligence community chief came into his appointed post ready to fire people, CNN reported Friday morning.

Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Bill Pulte has now also taken over as director of national intelligence and began "asking for a list of every employee in the office so he could assess whether to fire them," CNN reported on Friday morning, citing two sources familiar with the matter. He wants to eliminate hundreds of jobs and he wants to do it quickly.

Outgoing Director Tulsi Gabbard didn't even know Pulte was showing up until she got a brief heads-up.

The report said that he met with lawyers and staff during the day.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) told CNN on Friday morning that the last thing someone does is go into work on their first day and start firing people. It's prompting a lot of concern from him that Pulte "could weaken America's national security."

CNN host Sara Sidner asked whether DOGE, Elon Musk's failed project to eliminate $2 trillion from the federal budget, had already done the firings.

"It did," said Juliette Kayyem, CNN's senior national security analyst and ex-assistant secretary of Homeland Security.

"Look, Bill Pulte is there for one reason, and that is to satisfy the president's agenda of politicizing the intelligence community," she continued. "And that is so we'll look at sort of, you know, his notions of — well, the presidents' notions of election fraud in various elections. I want to say, just it's not a personal opinion: by statute, Bill Pulte is not qualified for this position. The Director of National Intelligence is supposed to come from the intelligence community. Bill Pulte is a businessman with strong ties to MAGA and to Trump."

Pulte has never held a job in national security or intelligence.

Kayyem said that the only reason that Pulte is in the post is to "go after the president's political critics and perceived political enemies."

Another shocking revelation came when Pulte asked whether "he could bring the President’s Daily Brief to his house, raising alarm bells among intelligence officials," one source told CNN.

The top briefing book is highly classified. A "second source pushed back on this characterization, noting that the PDB is provided electronically," the report added.

CNN also reported that Pulte wanted to know his level of security clearance. As the top intelligence official, he would have the top intelligence clearance. He also wondered if he had access to his own government plane.

These were the questions Pulte had in a meeting that was supposed to be an explanation of "the core mission of ODNI to Pulte."

Kayyem said that some people tend to look at the ODNI post the way that Trump does, "which is essentially ... is he a friend or not a friend to what Trump wants to do, which is to use the intelligence agencies, all of them, because that's what the DNI oversees to go after political critics and then to go after anyone who might oppose an election threat to the president."

She added that Pulte will politicize the department more than any other previous person in the post.

Sidner called the matter "fascinating to watch all of this happen" because it is coming "from a president who talked so much about the deep state that was against him. And now to me, it seems like he's trying to create the deep state himself."

Last week, a federal judge ruled against President Donald Trump's administration, which has tried to remove historic content featured at national parks. Trump's administration then demanded that her order be stayed, but on Thursday that too was denied.

Judge Angel Kelley of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued an order that points out in great detail how poorly constructed the demand for a stay was written from the administration. She

ordered the administration to restore all historic materials that were either altered or previously removed. Much of that included references to things like slavery, the Civil Rights movement and Black history as well as references to climate change impacts on the land.

Judge Kelley referenced the pride of all Americans in celebrating the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding. Historians have argued against sanitizing history, and instead embrace remembering where the country was, where the country is today and the work left to be done to create what the Founding Fathers called "a more perfect nation."

National parks preserve the “good, the bad, and the ugly” of American history, said Kelley in the decision last week.

According to the judge's comments on Thursday, the Trump administration's lawyers "have failed to establish the elements necessary to justify a stay."

A main issue, she explained with the administration's argument is that they simply disagree with her. Instead, they must provide legal reasoning to make their case.

"To establish a likelihood of success on the merits, Defendants must do more than express disagreement with the Court’s prior ruling; they must make a strong showing that they are likely to prevail on appeal," she explained.

Further, she wrote, "To establish irreparable harm, Defendants bear the burden of demonstrating that, absent a stay, they will suffer irreparable injury that is substantial, certain, and inadequately remedied by monetary damages or later appellate relief. ... Here, Defendants raise three theories: (1) the Injunction Order hampers government speech by preventing the National Park Service (“NPS”) from proffering its preferred narrative at National Parks; (2) implementation of the Injunction Order is practically infeasible and costly; and (3) the Injunction Order conflicts with a recent order issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit regarding Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, PA, thus subjecting Defendants to inconsistent obligations with respect to that site. The Court is unpersuaded by these arguments and explains why."

First, she said, the government arguing a free speech defense doesn't hold water because they never raised it at trial to begin with. Second, "Plaintiffs do not assert any First Amendment claim, making the issue of government speech irrelevant to this action and Defendants’ claim of injury unconvincing."

The takedowns continue for 13 pages.

President Donald Trump released less than two pages outlining his memorandum of understanding that will be the framework for the ultimate deal with Iran to end the war. While some Republican lawmakers have come out against the deal, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) hasn't even read it.

The 14-point agreement was available nearly 24 hours ago, CNN producer Kit Maher remarked after reporter Manu Raju faced off with Collins outside the members-only elevator.

"I have not reviewed the MOU yet," Collins told reporters. When pressed on whether the war was successful or she thought it was a "good deal," she reiterated, "I have not yet had a chance to read it."

CNN's Aaron Blake remarked, "Collins sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee."

Semafor congressional bureau chief Burgess Everett commented, "'There is high level dismay' among Senate Republicans about the Iran deal, one senator says, adding it’s 'unlikely' that a final deal with Iran is ever reached."

One of Blake's followers thinks that Collins is lying.

"She may SIT on the committee, but there's no intelligence in evidence..." another commented.

A mock account named Art Vandelay suggested that Collins plug the plan into ChatGPT and have it summarize the MOU into five sentences.

A lawyer who previously worked for the Democratic Party called the comments "Embarrassing and disqualifying." He urged Collins, "Do your job or go away."

The X account Collins Watch, which heckles the senator on the social media platform, commented, "You can't just wait for the elevator doors to close when you get an uncomfortable question in the middle of a town hall...which is probably why Susan Collins hasn't held one since the 1990s."

Trump already has a strong opposition force in the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Sen. Roger Wicker, a far-right Republican from Mississippi, made it clear he isn't happy with Trump's MOU and went so far as to blame "ill-advice" that he thinks the president's advisors are giving him.

"Specifically, the $300 billion fund for the reconstruction and economic development of Iran — though not funded by U.S. taxpayers — would make Iran's payoff under President Obama's 2015 deal look like a pittance by comparison. I believe it would be an error to force Israel to stand down against Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist organization that continues to attack Israel on its northern border," he continued.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama issued strong praise for her husband at the opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center on the south side of Chicago on Thursday. And in that profound speech, she criticized President Donald Trump without mentioning his name.

After words of thanks, she turned to her husband to talk about watching him serve eight years in the White House.

"I know it hasn't always been easy, but there hasn't been a single second through this experience that standing by your side hasn't left me in awe," Mrs. Obama said. "Eight years in the crucible. And not once did you melt from the heat. Not once did you let it harden you. Instead, you used it to reveal your truest essence, your stubborn optimism and unflinching courage. Your dazzling brilliance and unpretentious decency, your ferocious work ethic and absolutely unshakable moral fiber. And to do it all as a first and the higher standard that comes with all that."

She recalled that he was criticized for not being experienced enough as a one-term U.S. senator and constitutional law expert. She then delivered a thinly-veiled take down of Obama's critics, including the current president.

"The lies about your birthright, your faith, your patriotism. The outrage when you stated the biological fact that if you'd had a son that he too would be Black. Yet, you were unflappable at every turn, always focused, always calm, always looking at the long view," she championed. "How absurd it is to even imagine that you might have buckled under the pressure, even once lashed out in frustration, lost your temper."

She continued: "How absurd it is to imagine that you might have done anything but make our family and this entire country proud. No, you were too busy ... You were doing the people's work, rescuing our economy, expanding health care, ending a war, ordering the [Osama] Bin Laden raid, saving an auto industry, winning a Nobel Peace Prize. Keeping us safe from Ebola. Regulating the banks."

Trump has been frustrated about his inability to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sitting behind former President Obama, could be seen laughing, turning to her husband, covering her mouth and making a comment.

She closed the speech saying that "a lasting legacy isn't a name on a building," — another slight at Trump, who's pushed to add his name to the John F. Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts.

At many points in the speech the former president could be seen wiping away tears as his wife's voice echoed with passion and love.

Punch Bowl News senior congressional reporter Andrew Desiderio posted on Thursday that the Senate chairman of the Armed Services Committee is not happy with President Donald Trump's Iran deal.

Trump signed a "memorandum of understanding" while in France for the G7 that outlined the 14-point framework for ending Trump's war.

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) released a statement making it clear he doesn't like the $300 billion fund that he said “would make Iran’s payoff under President Obama’s 2015 deal look like a pittance by comparison."

The conditions for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action included the U.S. unfreezing $50 billion in Iranian assets that had been frozen.

Wicker goes on to imply that those helping negotiate the deal, Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff and Vice President JD Vance could be undermining the president with their insistence that Trump move forward with the MOU.

"Since day one, I have supported President Trump's efforts to end Iran's 47-year threat to the United States and our partners. I am concerned that the memorandum of understanding negotiates away the victories of Operation Epic Fury in ways that are completely out of step with the president's goals," Wicker said in a statement.

"Specifically, the $300 billion fund for the reconstruction and economic development of Iran — though not funded by U.S. taxpayers — would make Iran's payoff under President Obama's 2015 deal look like a pittance by comparison. I believe it would be an error to force Israel to stand down against Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist organization that continues to attack Israel on its northern border," he continued.

The huge chunk of funds, he fears, will also continue to fund Iran's terrorism.

"I also oppose the U.S. lifting any sanctions on Iran, or unfreezing Iranian funds, in exchange for Iran's mere agreement to negotiate for another 60 days. The Iranian regime has not renounced its ultimate goal — 'Death to America, Death to Israel.' The regime will invest every penny it receives to further that aim. President Trump has pursued peace through strength. I hope the intermediaries working on this deal are not undermining that objective," Wicker closed.

Wicker wasn't a fan of the past deal that Trump proposed at the end of May.

“The rumored 60-day ceasefire — with the belief that Iran will ever engage in good faith — would be a disaster. Everything accomplished by Operation Epic Fury would be for naught,” tweeted Wicker.

As the Mississippi Free Press reported at the time, it's rare for Wicker to criticize Trump. In that case, too, Wicker was fearful that Trump was being "ill-advised."

“His instincts have been to finish the job he started in Iran, but he is being ill advised to pursue a deal that would not be worth the paper it is written on,” Wicker also tweeted. “Our commander-in-chief needs to allow America’s skilled armed forces to finish the destruction of Iran’s conventional military capabilities and reopen the strait. Further pursuit of an agreement with Iran’s Islamist regime risks a perception of weakness. We must finish what we started. It is past time for action.”

President Donald Trump spent $14.2 million to paint the Reflecting Pool a blue color. The water immediately turned green in the hot Washington D.C., sunshine. Now, taxpayers are funding millions more to fix the problem.

The cleanup adds another nearly $2 million to the cost of the renovations, the Columbus Post Dispatch reported. An Ohio company known as Green Water Services scored the contract.

The company claims on its website that it has the "only water purification system in the world whose patented technology is backed by government and academic research."

A reporter witnessed workers pouring hydrogen peroxide into the reflecting pool on Tuesday. Staff have been scooping the algae, vacuuming the algae and also deploying the "patented technology" from Green Water Services.

The CEO of Green Water is Al George, who was also quoted by a New York Times report a month ago as bragging "about the prospect that the government would hire the company to bring mobile, trailer-based filtration systems — seemingly a temporary stopgap — to treat the pool’s water."

As recently as mid-May, the administration knew there would be a continuing algae problem. The public contract information on the project shows that their work on the reflecting pool will go on through September 30.

George told the San Diego Union-Tribune in January that their technology can achieve an average 93 percent reduction in bacteria "on the days we treated."

"The technology uses self-contained units that require only electrical power to operate. The machines bring in air, remove nitrogen to create 95 percent pure oxygen, then feed that oxygen into an ozone generator. The ozonated water passes through a patented nanobubble generator that creates the microscopic bubbles as water is drawn in and expelled back out," the Union-Tribune explained.

When Trump announced the project, he bragged, "It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be waterproof. It's going to be reflecting again."

He wrote on Truth Social on May 16, "Also, went to a higher quality sealer with more reflectivity. Check it out before the Opening — It's a very exciting project!” the president said.

The Times also reported that these contracts were awarded through a no-bid process. Typically, the government will take several bids to compare the costs for the project and ensure they're getting the best deal. David Schutzenhofer, who manages Trump's golf and country club in New Jersey, was picked to spearhead the Reflecting Pool project.

The total project will now cost nearly $16 million.

The Washington Post recruited Alana Menendez, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Virginia’s Department of Environmental Sciences, to research the Reflecting Pool algae over the past several years using satellite data. The recent tests show 2026 is one of the top years for algae in the reflecting pool. The amount of algae generally follows the weather and the sunlight. So when the city experienced a heatwave in 2019-2021, the amount of algae in the pool also soared.

Around the time the pool was refilled, the city was facing another unseasonable heat spike.

One of President Donald Trump's own supporters made it clear just how furious she was with his deal with Iran.

Speaking to CNN, Batya Ungar-Sargon of "Batya" on NewsNation said that it gave her no pleasure to trash the president.

" You wrote the greatest superpower to ever exist, brought to its knees by a few minds, just a disaster for America," said co-host John Berman.

Ungar-Sargon noted that the "disaster" Iran deal only guarantees free passage to ships through the Strait of Hormuz for 60 days. After that, Iran can begin charging tolls. It will likely increase the price of oil starting in mid-August.

"If they could plant a few mines in that strait, they could bring the greatest superpower to ever exist in human history to its knees," she said. "And that is just such a disaster. I mean, what message do you think that signals to China right now? It's really, really horrifying. And I'm very surprised that this administration would go down this road. "

On Truth Social, Trump has called any critics of the deal are "jealous," "bad people" or "stupid."

Berman asked her what would have happened had a Democrat signed the deal that Trump did.

"I mean, you know the answer to that, right? There's no Republican who, if a Democrat had signed this exact document, they would blast them to kingdom come. We all know this," said Ungar-Sargon.

She went on to slam Trump for his comments during the press conference on Wednesday, in which he "repeatedly said things that were the exact opposite of the things that he had promised."

She conceded, "I am a big fan of this president. I think he has done amazing, amazing things in the first year of his second term, which is why I'm so surprised by this."

Berman keyed in on her comment, "Again, just to reiterate what you said, you are a Trump supporter by your own words there. You were a fan of this president."

"So when we first went into this, the president laid out three main goals. He said he wanted to get rid of their navy. He wanted to get rid of their ballistic capabilities, and he wanted to get rid of their ability to achieve a nuclear weapon," said Ungar-Sargon. "Um, I don't see any of that in this [memorandum of understanding]. Of course, they promised not to pursue a nuclear weapon. Guess what? They promised that to President Obama as well."

She falsely claimed that Iran then "lied and cheated." In fact, the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) showed that Iran was in compliance as late as of March 2018, a timeline on its website showed. In May 2018, Trump withdrew the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which required the weapons inspectors to test for enriched uranium, Bloomberg News reported at the time.

Ungar-Sargon called Trump's attacks on those who disagree with the deal "very insulting."

"They have never been as weak as they were last Friday, right before the president agreed to this exact deal. And I just do not understand why we're letting up the pressure in 60 days when they have all their money back, they're going to be much stronger and much less likely to agree to anything that would make this not just better than the JCPOA, but just as good as the JCPOA," she added.

Georgetown Law School Professor Steve Vladeck has some assumptions about why the U.S. Supreme Court may have put off President Donald Trump's appeal of the E. Jean Carroll settlement a whopping 15 times.

Writing for his Substack, Vladeck recalled that Trump filed a "cert petition" last November. A cert petition is when a defendant asks a higher court to review a lower court's decision.

This week, the Supreme Court decided to "reschedule" its conference over the matter for the 15th time and refused to explain why they did it.

"As I explained in a previous issue, there’s an important but elusive difference between what it means when the Court 'reschedules' a petition and what it means when it 'relists' one," wrote Vladeck. “'Relisting' is more common, and is usually a sign that a case has been discussed, and that we’re just waiting for the Court’s disposition (whether because the justices are confirming that there are no obstacles to granting certiorari, or because someone is preparing an opinion respecting a denial of certiorari)."

He noted that rescheduling is less common. In this case, Vladeck said, "a case can be “rescheduled” at the request of a single justice, and is usually rescheduled for reasons external to the case — but that may affect it (e.g., additional proceedings in related cases; pending legislation; etc.)."

In one case, Jones v. Oklahoma, the case was rescheduled 24 times, which is the current record.

There are two defamation cases from Carroll that are key to the argument. Both were filed by Carroll in a New York court against Trump for defamation. Trump lost, and the jury awarded Carroll $5 million in one case and $83.3 million in the other. Carroll alleged that Trump sexually assaulted her inside of a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman in 1996. To decide whether Trump defamed Carroll it first had to decide whether it believed Carroll or Trump's story about what happened. They ruled that Carroll was "sexually abused" by Trump and then found in favor of Carroll in both defamation cases.

Justices are likely waiting for the second Trump case to be submitted for appeal. It is on its way, said former Trump lawyer Justin Smith in a filing.

"I write to advise the Court that President Donald J. Trump intends to file a petition for a writ of certiorari in Carroll v. Trump, No. 24-644 (2d Cir.) (Carroll I), within the next month. Because Carroll I involves the same parties and overlaps with the President’s pending petition for a writ of certiorari in Carroll II, the Court may wish to consider the petitions together," he wrote.

He pointed out that Smith's filing has "no explanation for how the questions presented in Carroll II are actually affected by the questions that will be presented in Carroll I — which is what we’d normally expect in a request like this."

In the background of this, the Justice Department has targeted Carroll, alleging she lied under oath when she said no one was funding her legal fees.

Vladeck followed with a disclaimer that "it is really difficult to believe that the Court would show anywhere near the same kind of procedural deference to any litigant other than Trump."

Vice President JD Vance has the bad luck of trying to sell another book at the same time that he's being put in charge of a much-maligned deal to end the war in Iran. But one strategist thinks the real intention is to cover up who the actual architect was.

CNN's Audie Cornish closed her Thursday show talking about President Donald Trump's comment during his G7 press conference, during which he said he'd blame Vance if the memorandum of understanding (MOU) fails.

Democratic strategist Meghan Hays asked if anyone truly believed that Vance was the one who negotiated the Iran deal.

Hays, the former Joe Biden White House director of messaging, asked: "Are we just trying to hide that Jared Kushner was actually the one negotiating this deal, who does not work for the United States government?"

"I mean, I just think that maybe Marco Rubio will end up better when he's trying to run for president," Hays continued. "But I don't think that Donald Trump cares who gets blamed as long as it's not him. But I don't think the American people are that stupid to [not] realize their gas prices went up because we went into a war of choice by Donald Trump."

A report from The New York Times in May said that Trump wanted to give Iran a $300 billion "bribe to back out of a war he never should have waded into," as The New Republic characterized it. The Times said that an Iranian official put the reconstruction of Iran at $300 billion.

The idea came from United States Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and the president's son-in-law, both of whom are real estate investors. The two had also pitched a kind of real estate investment fund that would help provide financial incentives for developers in Iran. Kushner is already being investigated by the House Judiciary Democrats for cashing in on foreign investment funds while working on behalf of the United States government.

If Democrats win in November, the Trump administration believes that investigations will promptly begin, The Hill reported.

The Jerusalem Post noted that Israeli right-wing figures are attacking Witkoff and Kushner as "losers" over the plan.

Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R) is being hammered over his residency again, but those arguments are being taken to a whole new level.

In a lawsuit from "Brooke Lynn Dorgan and Justin Jude Le Blanc, as Realtors," sued Tuberville on behalf of the state of Alabama, challenging the eligibility of his candidacy to run for governor.

The suit, which was posted by former Alabama prosecutor and MS NOW legal analyst Joyce Vance, alleges that Tuberville admitted to a group that he wasn't an "everyday resident."

According to the suit, “At a meeting of the Shoals Republican Club on August 3, 2019, Tuberville candidly conceded that he ‘has property’ in Alabama but is not an ‘everyday resident of Alabama,’ describing himself as a ‘carpetbagger.'"

The challenge is part of a larger debate over Tuberville's home, though more recently it has been a party affair. On Sunday, the state's GOP rejected a challenge to his residency from his primary opponent Ken McFeeters.

The state party chair, Scott Stadthagen, announced that a 21-member steering committee ruled in favor of Tuberville on Sunday afternoon, according to the Alabama Reflector.

“We looked at it with the facts. The contest was unsuccessful and Coach Tuberville will be our nominee for governor,” Stadthagen said of the ruling. “I want to make it crystal clear: Under my leadership as chairman of the Republican Party, we will stand on integrity, on strong morals, on truth, and most importantly, we will always do what’s right.”

McFeeters also filed a lawsuit in the spring in Covington County questioning Tuberville's eligibility. County Circuit Court Judge Charles Short dismissed the case in a one-page order that gave no reason, the Alabama Reflector reported in May. The judge did refer to a motion filed by the Alabama Republican Party, saying that it was not the place to have that debate. The party's motion said that they believed Tuberville had been a resident for the past seven years. The Alabama Constitution requires a gubernatorial candidate to be a resident for seven years to run for the top spot. However, Tuberville has served as the U.S. Senator for the state for the past six years.

“Setting aside the reality that McFeeters’s objection to Tuberville’s gubernatorial eligibility is not a fact question for a jury to determine, this court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over McFeeters’s complaint as a result of Alabama’s ‘jurisdiction-stripping statute,’” the motion from the ALGOP said.

In early June, Tuberville's lawyers released documents that inadvertently showed he may have committed voter fraud. To prove he was an Alabama resident, Tuberville's team produced seven years of tax documentation and property tax records.

Alabama Reporter journalist Josh Moon questioned why it took so long for Tuberville's staff to produce documentation in his defense when the question has been one that has plagued him for years.

Among the documents were Tuberville's 2018 tax filings, which weren't required since he only has to prove seven years of residency, not eight. The problem is that Tuberville voted in Florida in Nov. 2018 while claiming to be a resident of Alabama, AL.com reported.

"According to records from the Walton County, Florida, registrar’s office, Tuberville registered to vote in Florida on May 24, 2017, and voted by mail in the 2018 general election," Moon reported. "The earliest he could have received a mail-in ballot was October 2, 2018, according to the Division of Elections at the Florida Department of State."

Tuberville's wife and son also voted in Florida that year, the AL.com report said. Suzanne declared a homestead exemption for the Alabama house in October 2018. To get the exemption, you have to claim the house as your primary residence. Tuberville has been fighting over the issue because the homestead exemption wasn't on the Alabama House until 2024.

"That means there is now both a homestead exemption and a tax filing that shows the Tubervilles were Alabama residents when they voted in Florida, after swearing a year earlier that they were Florida residents," Moon wrote. "That seems … not good."

Gov. Brian Kemp (R-Ga.) called lawmakers back to the Capitol to attempt to redraw the congressional districts, a plot that Republican states have used over the past several months to try to stack the deck for the GOP in the midterm elections. But lawmakers in Georgia simply gave up.

The Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported on Wednesday that they will not redraw the lines after all, "retreating from a proposal that had threatened to ignite one of the state’s most explosive political fights ahead of the November election."

There has been pressure from Democrats and voting rights groups for extensive litigation. Meanwhile, "uneasy Republicans" cautioned that such partisan redistricting could motivate Democratic voters who are already winning special elections in deep red parts of the country.

In Indiana, Republicans argued that redrawing the lines could hurt them because when they did the last round of redistricting, they told voters they were "fair maps" and “will serve Hoosiers well for the next decade.” Redrawing them would mean they'd repudiate their own previous work, wrote Professor Robert Dion for the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

Unlike in the Indiana conflict, Georgia had already held its primary election. So anyone who bucked Trump's demands would not face the same danger that Indiana Republicans did.

House Speaker Jon Burns, a Republican, told Kemp in a letter that the existing lawsuits over the 2021 maps gave him pause and that the renewed redistricting push should probably not be as rushed as it was in other states.

“Changes to Georgia’s maps should take place only when members of the General Assembly and citizens have been given ample opportunity to gather the facts, provide input, and engage in meaningful discussion,” Burns wrote in the letter. “For this reason, we will not be taking up congressional or legislative redistricting for the 2028 election cycle during this special session.”

All members of the George House Republican leadership signed onto the letter, as did the Senate Pro Temp, Larry Walker. The Senate, Walker said, made it clear that the caucus stands "united" in the opposition to mid-decade redistricting.

Kemp and other Republicans weren't happy about the move, as Trump had called on red states to deal with it before the elections.

“I do not believe there is reason to delay the apportionment process, especially with the legislature already convening,” Kemp said. “Legislative districting, however, is the responsibility of the General Assembly, and it is within their discretion to defer the issue until a later date.”

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones similarly called on the House to redraw the lines immediately. He was Kemp's pick for the GOP nominee in the governor's race, while Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) had Trump's endorsement. Jones lost in the Tuesday vote.

“I stand behind the governor’s plan to redraw the maps during this special session,” Jones said. “Failure to deliver is not an outcome I am willing to accept. We need to do our jobs and get this done.”

President Donald Trump had a press conference at the G7 in France, where he appeared to be rambling to such a degree that MS NOW cut from the press conference to refer to him as "incoherent."

Deadline's Ted Johnson commented on X that MS NOW's Alecia Mendez broke into Trump's speech, calling him "a rambling, incoherent president of the United States attempting to take a victory lap over his page-and-a-half Iran agreement."

One of Trump's bizarre comments included, "When you see young men walking around without legs, that's [Qasem] Soleimani."

Trump also acknowledged that they would be releasing money to Iran, which he has criticized former President Barack Obama for doing.

"The unfreezing, that's the easy one to answer. We have taken a lot of their money. And we have their money. We have taken a lot of their money. It's not our money. It's their money. And we froze it. At a certain point in time, I guess we're gonna have to give it back. You know that if we didn't give it back, nobody would ever invest in the dollar again," Trump said.

Trump bragged that "drugs are down by water 97 percent. And over 60 percent we're down. And now we're going to go and focus on the land. And they come through Mexico. Mexico has lost control of their country. The cartels run Mexico. And it's sad. And the president is a very good woman, but she's a very scared woman. The drug cartels are totally running Mexico. It's not even close."

He then swatted at a fly, saying, "I wanted to get that little sucker. But I missed. I hate missing."

The rambling presser prompted a lot of comments from those observing the press conference.

Filmmaker Steven DeKnight remarked, "Trump in the G7 presser is rambling, delusional, and completely disconnected from reality. 'The word affordability is a fake word made up by the Democrats.' What a pathetic old man. If you still support this moral and ethical black hole, you deserve the pain he’s causing."

Retired soldier Robert Clark wrote, "Trump speaking about the Iran Agreement after the G7 Summit on live TV. Rambling, delusional, demented word salad. Flanking Trump, [Secretary of Commerce Howard] Lutnick and [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio look very uncomfortable and are staring aimlessly away."

The News Agents, Lewis Goodall, called Trump "largely incomprehensible in a rambling set of remarks at the G7."

President Donald Trump, speaking at the G7 Summit in France, took questions about the one-and-a-half-page Iran memorandum of understanding and revealed that if nothing works out, he'll blame it on his vice president.

The final question in Tuesday's rambling press conference came from Fox News' Peter Doocy. Doocy asked the president why he isn't staying in Europe over the weekend to participate in the signing of the agreement and is sending the Vice President JD Vance instead.

"Yeah, I might, but ... this is a memorandum of understanding. It's very important, but it might not be the kind of a document that I should be signing," Trump said.

"Is there some element to this where you send the vice president, and if it works out, great, you'll look like a genius for sending him. And if it doesn't work out, it's the vice president?" Doocy asked.

"I like that idea. Sure. Why not? This way, if it works out, I'm going to take the credit. If it doesn't work out, I'm blaming JD. You better be careful. JD, he's going to turn his plane around and get the hell out of here. Yeah, I like that idea. I think it's a good idea," Trump said before ended the press conference.

On Tuesday, The Mirror reported that Trump is pondering firing some of the top Cabinet officials who oppose his deal with Iran. Those include Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

"The debate has been settled. Anyone who opposed it could pay a personal price," a source told The Mirror.

One person who appears to be safe is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who serves in multiple roles for the president.

It's unclear whether Trump would be willing to fire Vance, who has opposed to the Iran war from the start. In April, The New York Times reported that Vance was the most skeptical voice on the strikes. But The Mirror reported that Vance now supports the deal.

The U.S. Senate is threatening to freeze three-quarters of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's travel budget unless it gets what it wants.

Politico reported on Wednesday that the requirement is built into the defense policy bill in the Senate Armed Services Committee and would withhold a whopping 75 percent of Hegseth's funds if he doesn't turn over the documents that it has requested about the school bombed in Iran and the boat blown up in the Caribbean.

It's a significant escalation in the demands from lawmakers since 2025, when Republicans were happy to sign off on whatever President Donald Trump requested, but put a 25 percent hold on the travel budget.

"The renewed provisions suggest lawmakers still haven’t gotten the information they want," reported Politico. "It also signals continued bipartisan dissatisfaction with the Pentagon ignoring or slow-walking responses to congressional inquiries. The provisions are part of the annual National Defense Authorization Act approved last week by the Republican-led panel. Senate Armed Services leaders filed the bill on Tuesday."

According to lawmakers who spoke with Politico, the Pentagon leadership rarely speaks to them, and Trump rarely keeps them abreast of details about what his team is trying to accomplish on Capitol Hill.

"The latest Senate bid to jam the Pentagon faces a long road to becoming law. Competing legislation approved by the House Armed Services Committee doesn’t include similar language. The funding freeze must survive negotiations between the two chambers over the next few months," said the report.

The Pentagon has hit over 200 boats in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea since Trump's efforts in September 2025. An elementary school in Iran was also hit by the U.S. About 150 people were killed, most of whom were children.

"In all, the panel linked Hegseth’s travel funds to more than a half-dozen requests for information. Senators are also demanding more information on three American air strikes against suspected Houthi military sites in April 2025 and an unspecified investigation by U.S. Special Operations Command in January," said Politico.

Democrats don't support the bill in its current form because they say the president has "no restraint."

President Donald Trump announced at the G7 Summit that he was "canceling" the confirmation hearing for his nominee for director of national intelligence, which was scheduled for Wednesday. A president can't decide whether or not a congressional hearing is held.

Punchbowl News' Andrew Desiderio reported on Wednesday morning that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters that Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) is still planning to hold the DNI hearing for Jay Clayton anyway. Cotton is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The only reason he wouldn't hold the hearing is if Trump withdrew the nomination or Clayton didn't show up.

“And then from there on, we'll just have to take it a day at a time until we get more clarity on what the White House position is on this," said Thune.

Desiderio asked Thune why he thought Trump was doing something like this and Thune said, "Good question."

His colleague, Jake Sherman, called it an "absolute mess for Trump/The Hill."

CNN showed footage of reporters chasing after Cotton to ask whether there would be a hearing on Wednesday as planned and if they intended to vote on Clayton. Trump hasn't indicated whether he will withdraw Clayton's name from nomination, but Trump made it clear he was happy to let his "acting DNI Bill Pulte" continue his work without congressional support.

Congressional correspondent Lauren Fox said that congressional officials are just as confused about what is going on as the press seems to be.

Fox asked Cotton whether he'd spoken to Clayton and if he had a comment, but Cotton said he didn't have any comment beyond the statement that the committee released. He then tried to run into the member's elevator but was stalled waiting for it.

"So, you will proceed. Just to be clear, you will proceed with the hearing. And you expect Jay Clayton to be there despite what the president is saying?" reporter Chad Pergram asked as Cotton stood waiting.

"Chad, you have our statement," Cotton said.

"It's about as clear as mud about whether this hearing is going forward," Fox said.

Democratic ranking member of the committee Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said in a statement on Tuesday that Trump's latest social media posts underscore the reality that "the biggest obstacle to resolving these issues has not been Senate Democrats or Senate Republicans. It has been the chaos and confusion coming from the White House."

The goal was to hold the hearing quickly with a vote on Thursday.

A group of six immigration rights activists and local political figures known as "The Broadview Six" are calling on a judge to appoint a special counsel to investigate the Justice Department for criminal contempt.

According to the Chicago Sun Times federal courts reporter Jon Seidel, the lawyer for the six made the request to U.S. District Judge April Perry, a former federal prosecutor herself.

The six were targeted as part of the arrests around the immigration raids in Chicago known as "Operation Midway Blitz." Judge Perry discovered apparent prosecutorial misconduct after the defense attorney suggested she review the unredacted transcripts of the grand jury.

Prosecutors browbeat the grand jury, lied and manipulated them to get the indictment they wanted. One grand juror called the case a "crock of s——" and the prosecutors dismissed them. Another who questioned the facts presented by the prosecutors was asked to leave. The case was tried three times, despite the grand jury shooting down the prosecution, the local NBC affiliate described.

As legal analyst Adam Klasfeld of "All Rise News" explained, it took three weeks for the prosecutors to release the grand jury transcripts. In April, Judge Perry found that prosecutors had redacted transcripts or removed any concerning excerpts entirely."

A hearing will determine whether sanctions will be imposed, but the judge is also being asked for more.

The request comes nearly a month after the tainted case against the six Operation Midway Blitz protesters collapsed amid revelations of apparent misconduct before a grand jury by prosecutors from the office of U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros.

Lawyers for five of the cleared former defendants now say an investigation should be initiated because Botrous’ office appears to be laying blame at the feet of a single prosecutor. The defense attorneys say the misconduct “runs much deeper,” and likely into the upper echelon of President Donald Trump’s Justice Department.

It's the main reason that they want a special counsel hired.

“The court has the authority, and we think the obligation, to ensure that those responsible for this unique and sorry chapter — a chapter which has dramatically impacted the lives of multiple defendants and enduringly sullied the reputation of the U.S. Attorney’s Office earned over decades — are held to account,” said a 27-page filing submitted late Tuesday.

“The Department of Justice attorneys involved in this case refused to accept that reality or their Constitutional obligations, committing appalling misconduct and putting their DOJ marching orders above justice,” said attorney Christopher Parente, who represents Chicago politician and former defendant Brian Straw.

They're also searching to see if Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was also involved in the scandal.

The defendants are referred to as the Broadview Six because they were arrested at the Broadview immigration facility.

On his Wednesday morning show, "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough attacked President Donald Trump for bungling the Iran War.

Trump spoke to the press from the G7 Summit in France around 6:30 a.m. EST where he gave details about the tentative deal to end the war in Iran.

Bloomberg News has the 14-point agreement, though it has little in the way of details. Among the details is a $300 million "reparations" payout, as confirmed, in part, by the Wall Street Journal, Scarborough said.

"JD Vance has admitted on TV to the $300 billion — he was asked about this $300 billion fund, which really is — it's reparations for Iran. It's as if we lost the war, $300 billion in the MOU language that we have seen. The draft language says that the financing will be guaranteed by the United States of America. So we're guaranteeing $300 billion in reparation funding for Iran. And then the Wall Street Journal is also reporting the unfreezing of Iranian funds across the globe. "

Ultimately, they're scoring "a tidy $500 billion slush fund for Iran to use on their nuke programs, to use for Hamas to use for Islamic Jihad, to use for Hezbollah to use for terrorism attacks as terrorism attacks across the globe. It is it again, half $1 trillion for a regime that was about to fall before we went in and gave them new life," the host said.

Scarborough cited an editorial saying that Iran is "euphoric over what has happened."

He said that in Iran's eyes, they stepped into the ring with "The Great Satan" and "took the punch. And we're now going to help them get $500 billion. They took America's best punch, and they've come out stronger, richer, and more powerful because of it."

Trump's problem won't be with Democrats, but with his own GOP allies.

"Morning Joe" co-host Willie Geist commented on some of the striking language coming from the president.

Among the odd things Trump has done is praise the new regime in Tehran, saying they've been "nice to deal with" and that they are "very rational people."

"That's the president of the United States talking about the regime in Tehran that has called for the death of the United States for 47 years," Geist said. "And, Joe, you made the point that Iran feels like it took its best punch. It also made a bet that all the bluster from President Trump was just that bluster when he said, 'A civilization is going to die tonight if they don't come to the table and get rid of the nuclear program. We're going to hit them harder than they have ever been hit.'"

"And that was the bet that this regime made, that Donald Trump was all talk. And to this point, it appears that he has been and that none of those objectives laid out on February 28th have been achieved yet," he added.

Geist called the plan "disastrous."

Scarborough took a victory lap, claiming that from the start of the war, he knew that this would be the way things would ultimately be resolved.

"And he's just going to pull the ripcord and get out of there when it becomes too uncomfortable. Politically, they became quite indignant and said, That's not a possibility. I said, well, you've got to know who you're dealing with now," he said.

President Donald Trump spoke at the G7 on Wednesday about the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that his administration developed with Iran to end the war.

Among the most perplexing things the president said was that the markets love the MOU, and if he doesn't like the final agreement, "we'll just start bombing again." He continued to refuse to hand out text of the agreement, but said that among the things in the agreement is that, for now, the Strait of Hormuz will be open "toll-free beyond the 60 days" and that Iran will "never" have a nuclear weapon.

Trump promised Americans would see prices go down because the Strait will reopen without tolls.

"Oil is at 73 or 74 and it's getting to very close to where it was before the crisis," Trump claimed. "The difference is now we have Iran without a nuclear weapon. So, we'll see how that all plays out. I think people are going to be very happy. But there's nothing so smart as the market and the market loves it beyond anything that I've actually seen."

Third, Trump claimed "stupid people" and Democrats want the war to continue. In reality, there are plenty of people on the right who are displeased with the current outcome of the war.

"The alternative would be a worldwide depression. You know, the stupid people want to have a worldwide depression. And the stupid people, so you can only go so far," Trump said.

"You could drive somebody into the ground and a lot of bad things happen. Number one, the Strait would never open because, uh, they don't like floating billion-dollar ships up and down a strait when there's rockets flying over them and mines all over the place. So the Strait would never be open. It wouldn't be open for a long time."

Fourth, Trump claimed that the "affordability crisis" was caused by Democrats. He then said Democrats "caused affordability" and then that affordability is "just another con job. They made up the word affordability."

Another bizarre comment from Trump was relitigating the 2020 election while in a bilateral meeting with the President of Egypt.

"Uh, a dam was built in Ethiopia, and it's causing tremendous problems for Egypt, and I'm very aware. I had that deal settled, and then we had a rigged election, and somebody came in, and they didn't know too much about that deal. They were not going to settle anything. But but we'll get back into it. We'll see if we can settle it. Okay," Trump said.

In 2020, Trump said that the U.S. would simply "blow up the dam." Critics at the time blamed Trump for escalating the tensions. Trump claimed that he "saved a big war" and demanded a Nobel Peace Prize, the BBC reported at the time. On Wednesday, he claimed that former President Joe Biden messed up the whole thing.

Finally, Trump repeated his debunked claim that former President Barack Obama "handed [Iran] a billion seven in cash. Gave them ... billions and billions of dollars, but he gave them $1.7 billion dollars in cash, green cash from banks, into a Boeing 757 and flew it into Iran," Trump claimed.

In fact, the U.S. simply gave Iran access to its money that had been tied up in banks as a result of the sanctions. Part of the JCPOA was allowing Iran to have access to it's own money again.

In his final episode, "The Late Show" host Stephen Colbert gave a parting gift as his own way of flipping the network the bird. Now CBS is on the hook and the cash will go to Colbert's favorite charity.

In the final edition of his popular segment "Meanwhile," Colbert mentioned recent copyright enforcement for Lee Mendelson Film Productions, which owns the song from the cartoons of Peanuts by creator Charles Schulz. They have recently gone on a kind of legal blitz over the usage of their content by Vince Guaraldi. One of those enforcement agreements concerns Guaraldi's musical reproductions of the song, including the theme from the animated film "A Charlie Brown Christmas," which features the famous theme song "Linus and Lucy."

“Peanuts is a powerful brand and corporation in and of itself," Colbert said. "Anyone illegally using that music is going to have to pay through the nose... Louis, Louis! Is the band right now playing the same Peanuts music I just said people were being sued for using without permission? Is that what you're doing? Oh no, I hope this doesn't cost CBS any money!”

Variety reported on Tuesday that CBS has made an agreement to avoid further legal trouble. According to the deal, CBS will pay for a license for “Linus and Lucy,” which the band played on air.

The proceeds from the deal will be given to Chef José Andrés' World Central Kitchen, the charity that Colbert has supported for years. In the final months of the show, he began a campaign to sell things from the "Late Show" set, including ties he wore, props from segments, and other mementos. The proceeds all went to World Central Kitchen, totalling nearly $2.5 million. Variety didn't indicate how much would be donated to the charity.

“LMFP found the music’s use on 'The Late Show' funny and entertaining, and is proud to support World Central Kitchen’s mission,” the group’s chairman Jason Mendelson said.

“A principal goal of our enforcement actions is to educate individuals, businesses, and government entities about the need to obtain written license agreements to use music in a commercial setting,” Mendelson added.

A spokeswoman for CBS confirmed the two had reached an agreement but declined to comment further.

Colbert's "Meanwhile" segment is still on YouTube and has over 1.2 million views and the song remains in the video played by Louis Cato and the Great Big Joy Machine.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

President Donald Trump hasn't yet released what he has agreed to on the Iran deal, but there are those in his administration who aren't happy with it and think it's a mistake.

According to the Mirror, Trump is pondering firing them. Those include Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

"The debate has been settled. Anyone who opposed it could pay a personal price," a source told The Mirror.

One person who appears to be safe is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who serves in multiple roles for the president.

It's unclear whether Trump would be willing to fire Vice President JD Vance, who has opposed to the Iran war from the start. In April, The New York Times reported that Vance was the most skeptical voice on the strikes. But The Mirror reported that Vance is supportive of the deal.

Oddly, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, who have been on the team working on the deal, are also said to support it, the Mirror reported. Since the deal hasn't been revealed, it's unclear if it prevents Israel from defending itself against Hamas in Lebanon. In the past both Kushner and Witkoff have been ardent supporters of Israel's ability to defend itself.

The Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday that Witkoff and Kushner are being seen as "sell-outs" as a result of their support for the deal.

Right-wing pundit and close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Yinon Magal, host of Channel 14 's The Patriots, blasted Kushner and Witkoff using a slur, saying that Trump's deal makes him look like a “loser.” Magal accused the two men of acting under pressure from Qatar and “selling their brothers in Israel.”

"Rubio, Hegseth, and other officials from both the Department of Defense and State have presented an assessment that the current Iranian regime was already in decline due to economic pressure and that turning up the heat on the country would eventually end in a surrender or, alternatively, its collapse," The Mirror claimed.

South Carolina Republican, Lindsey Graham, fears that the U.S. and Iran might have "different" views of what the deal is or should be.

He wrote on X that he was "pleased to hear the memorandum of understanding with Iran to allow the Strait of Hormuz to open has been agreed to."

"I will be watching closely the ensuing negotiations regarding Iran’s nuclear program and other matters," Graham wrote. "I am somewhat concerned that Iran’s view of the agreement seems different than what the American negotiating team is claiming."

That said, Graham doesn't appear to want Trump to decide whether the deal is final.

"Under our law, any nuclear deal with Iran will be sent to Congress for review and a vote," Graham claimed. "I look forward to reviewing the final product, and I believe it is imperative that the architect of the deal, Vice President Vance, and his negotiating partners be part of the process in presenting the final deal to Congress."

Retired War College professor and staff writer for The Atlantic Tom Nichols on Tuesday warned that President Donald Trump appears to start bombing when he needs to "change the news cycle."

Speaking to MS NOW on Tuesday, Brennan alleged, "There are so many elements of this that I think make [the Iran deal] a real fraught agreement."

He added that there is a large segment of the GOP that is nervous about this deal and that the U.S. might be in a worse position than before the war began.

Nichols said, "So if this brings this conflict to an end and people start talking, that's all the better. But this is an American strategic defeat. There is no question about that. The Iranians achieved their strategic goals, which was the survival of their regime, proving that they could control the Strait of Hormuz, intimidating all of their neighbors by striking them, more or less, at will, as punishment for cooperating with the United States."

CNN reported on Tuesday that U.S. intelligence found Iran can shut down the Strait of Hormuz at will from now on.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has achieved none of its goals, he said. Trump also tried to walk back his goal of "regime change."

"Trump today said, well, we weren't interested in regime change. Of course, he was," Nichols said. "That's why he launched this war. He thought this was going to be a quick, easy knockdown of the Iranian regime. So we haven't achieved regime change. The Strait is in a more perilous position than before the war."

Meanwhile, he said that the U.S. has lost control over the nuclear situation. While he had his own concerns with the JCPOA from the Obama administration, he noted that it was actually working before Trump ripped it up.

"And now Trump is saying, well, you know, the nuclear dust can sit there. Maybe it's not that important, which is his way of saying we can't get it. And I give up," Nichols said of Trump.

Another thing Nichols criticized is that the U.S. hasn't allowed Israel to see the deal and hasn't told them whether it has anything in it to do with military action in Lebanon. It's one of Iran's demands and it has been a red line for Israel. The anti-Israeli terrorist group, Hamas, operates out of Lebanon. Iran has been funding Hamas for decades.

He later recalled Vice President JD Vance saying on X that no funds would be released to Iran in exchange for signing an agreement to halt the war.

"First, the Iranians are not receiving any cash, and no funds are being released for simply signing a deal or attending a meeting," Vance wrote.

"When people say that billions of dollars of assets will be released, that's not true," Vance later said to CBS. "What is true is that Iran will have a much better and much more prosperous future if they meet the obligations they make in this agreement."

Nichols chuckled, calling Vance's attempts to walk back his initial statements as "a very careful circumlocution."

In reality, the U.S. isn't giving any money, Nichols said.

"We're just going to make it possible for them to get billions and billions of dollars from everybody else. I'm sorry, what happened to a month or two ago that this was the worst regime in the world? It was run by monsters. These were tyrants who had to be overthrown, that the Iranian people could be freed?" he asked.

Nichols said now it appears that the administration is saying, "Well, you know, these new guys, they're very rational, they're reasonable, they're nice fellows. They're nice to deal with."

"You know, I've never been in a room with Iranian negotiators, but I've never known anybody who said, you know, these are nice guys. These are easy guys to deal with," Nichols added. "This is all just a way of of Vance rationalizing Trump's burning desire to get out of this war in which we have been defeated, a war that we started, that we screwed up and that now we need to get out of."

President Donald Trump's administration lost it when a group of Democrats who previously served in the military or in intelligence reminded those still in service that they don't have to follow "unlawful orders." In fact, it's part of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).

Trump went so far as to call the message “sedition,” and added that it was “punishable by death.” The Justice Department tried to bring charges against the lawmakers, but a grand jury refused to indict.

While several Democrats in the video reminded viewers of the oath they took to uphold the Constitution, Trump's Department of Defense has responded by targeting one in particular: Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), NOTUS reported Tuesday. The result has been a political gift to the lawmaker and has only amplified the message further.

According to the report, Kelly said that being targeted by Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has "driven attention and millions in campaign cash." It has prompted him to “seriously” consider whether he should run for president in 2028. Further, the report said, the attack on Kelly "blessed one of the Senate’s most centrist members with an identity as a fighter in a party hungry for confrontation."

The report noted that every time Hegseth speaks or tweets, he's adding more evidence to Kelly's lawsuits and helping raise more money for Kelly's campaign. Kelly isn't even up for reelection until 2028, but is amassing a war chest to support other Democrats running for the Senate. Kelly also made it on Time's top 100 most influential people, and Hegseth did not.

“I don’t get angry about it; I don’t lose any sleep,” Kelly told NOTUS. “They’re going to do s—— like this. They’re flailing. They know the law’s on my side, and they want to shut people up. This is a corrupt administration, and it’s clear to everybody."

“If they’re going to go after the rights of 2 million retired service members, it might as well be me,” he also said.

One Democratic strategist argued that Kelly isn't known as the orator Barack Obama is, but he's getting eyeballs.

“Mark Kelly is a brilliant, charismatic dude, but his superpower is not lighting the room on fire with a fieriest stump speech with the most maximalist rhetoric,” the Democratic strategist said. “But every time the Trump administration hits him, he can say, ‘See, I’m their enemy, come with me in this fight.’ That is the most powerful thing for eyeballs, and eyeballs equals donors among the base.”

One of the potential Republican candidates for president in 2028 isn't doing very well back home in his own state — and he's suffering considerably with female voters.

Vice President JD Vance has been on shows defending President Donald Trump, but it comes at a time when he also has a new book out. CNN host John Berman said that a new political book generally means the author is running for president.

Speaking to CNN, data analyst Harry Enten cited some of the prediction markets showing that numbers have changed since the beginning of the year. On Jan. 1, the chances that Vance would win the 2028 GOP nomination was about 50 percent, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio came in with a distant 11 percent. Rubio is now up to 28 percent, and Vance has fallen significantly to a 33 percent chance of becoming president again in 2028.

"Look at this! The gap — it is closing. It is closing," Enten said with gusto.

He noted that the thing that changed is the Iran war.

Approval ratings among Republican voters are important if one of the two intends to run for president. Net approval in Vance has declined, according to the Quinnipiac University Poll. He was up 81 percent and now is closer to 69 percent approval. Rubio has increased, standing at 75 percent, and now is at 77 percent approval.

Back home, things are looking worse for Vance. According to Enten, one can tell a lot by how a candidate's home state feels about them. In Vance's Ohio, his net favorability was up 5 percent, but now it's down 7 percent. Among Independents, Vance is 27 percent underwater.

"JD Vance, not so popular in the Buckeye State," said Enten.

Berman called it "Problems at home." How about his net approval overall?

Overall, Enten said that Vance is still suffering with women. A few years ago, Vance attacked single cat ladies, it didn't do much to help him with the women's vote. With women, Vance is down 26 percent and down 2 percent with men.

Every month, European and U.S. counterparts from various embassies would gather for wine and cheese. For the most part, the group was like-minded, even when their partisanship differed. Then came Donald Trump.

On Tuesday, Zoya Sheftalovich penned a report for Politico's EU vertical about a long-running U.S. tradition of small, private dinners that helped build trust and coordinate with European allies. Sadly, however, it has mostly faded since Trump came back into office.

Those dinners once brought together ambassadors, EU officials and other closely aligned partners for honest, off-the-record chats about trade, security and foreign policy, often helping participants understand each other’s red lines before formal negotiations began. It built goodwill, and even through disagreements, allies could stick together and help each other when needed.

The report says the disappearance of a simple dinner is only one part of a broader shift in U.S.-European Union relations under Trump, as Washington has become more confrontational toward Europe through tariffs, NATO threats and attacks on the EU as an adversary. Diplomats argue that the shift away from intimate relationship-building toward larger, more superficial events has weakened America’s influence in Brussels and reduced the candid intelligence-sharing that once made the previous gatherings so valuable.

“This stuff is the blood in the veins of the diplomatic system," said one former U.S. diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“It’s like, ‘I can’t say this formally, but informally, these are our red lines, these are my considerations, the political realities in my country, and I don’t understand why you can’t do X, Y and Z,'" they added.

“With 10 or 12 people around a table, you can actually have conversations," said one EU diplomat who also wanted to remain nameless. “You can talk to everybody. You come away having learned something.”

The first former diplomat explained that relationships are built over time through these dinners. "You get people aligned in a common direction around common goals; you find out where people’s red lines are.”

“That’s why the U.S. was able to do this for 70 years before the system broke down under Trump," the former diplomat said.

"There was a whole ecosystem that developed around these things," said one EU diplomat.

Under Trump's ambassadors, the dinners are much grander, embracing the excess that Trump is known for. Current U.S. Ambassador Andrew Puzder hosts glitzy receptions and packed social events, the diplomat said. "They are pleasant. But when there are a hundred people in a room, you spend the evening saying hello, not having meaningful conversations."

Another EU diplomat explained, former Ambassador Mark “Gitenstein threw parties like a diplomat and [Andrew] Puzder throws parties like a businessman.” Gitenstein would hold an event, and then another person would hold the next dinner meeting. The only scandal is that "the ambassadors, through their chefs, would try to outcompete each other.”

“There was an ego thing about who had the best chef," said one former diplomat.

One former diplomat said that Puzder believes he's done what he can with what he's got, but "it’s brutal being Trump’s ambassador. Trump is not making Puzder’s job easy.”

The U.S. Mission to the EU called it "categorically false" that Puzder has scaled back the dinners. They insist “he meets regularly with EU and non-EU ambassadors on a range of topics.”

“Ambassador Puzder has also hosted and attended multiple dinners and gatherings with like-minded counterparts, bringing together groups with shared interests to ensure EU policy outcomes support EU and American security and prosperity," the U.S. mission to the EU said.