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Trump’s secret off-the-record phone briefings raise huge legal red flags

As the midterms near, President Donald Trump is increasingly relying on a campaign strategy that fuses his public office with his private political agenda in a manner ethics experts warn may pose a problem. According to reporting by the Washington Examiner, Trump is calling into “tele-rallies” to campaign for down-ticket Republicans with growing frequency, and his tendency to include it on his daily White House schedule is raising questions about conflicts of interest.

“In recent weeks,” writes the Examiner, “the White House has begun listing evening tele-rallies on the president’s public schedule, though the events themselves are not live-streamed on the White House’s official channels.” The paper spoke with Trump’s top political aide, James Blair, who explained, “Obviously, this is much easier logistically,” adding the White House typically doesn’t share the tele-rallies with the public, saying, “We just don’t broadcast it. Never have.” Per the Examiner, “Blair took a leave of absence earlier this year from his role as White House deputy chief of staff to run Trump’s outside political operation. He suggested that the tele-rallies are now appearing on the president’s daily schedule because he ‘just [doesn’t] work there anymore and [doesn’t] get asked, and therefore no one says to leave off.’”

But according to Peter Loge, professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University and the director of the Project on Ethics in Political Communication, the White House’s inclusion of tele-rallies on Trump’s schedule “blurs the lines between government and campaign operations.” As he noted, “President Trump has a history of mixing politics, self-interest, and government. Running politics on the official White House schedule is one more example of Trump treating the White House as something he owns, rather than something he borrows from the American people.”

Trump has held at least 16 tele-rallies over the course of his second term, two of which were held during the first year, while the remaining 14 took place in the past few months as Republican concern over the midterms grows. According to the Examiner, “On Monday night, Trump tele-rallied for Sen. Darline Graham Nordone (R-SC) and Michael Alfonso, the son-in-law of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who is running for Congress in Wisconsin. In some cases, the president has joined multiple tele-rallies for the same candidate, such as Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL), whose Senate campaign drew separate tele-rally appearances from the president in May and June. In other cases, Trump has opted to join multiple tele-rallies on the same night, such as Monday.”

But as the Examiner reports, “the actual efficacy of the tele-rally, at least compared to in-person stumping from the president, remains to be seen. Trump-backed Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) lost his primary last week just days after the president called into a tele-rally in support of his reelection campaign. Trump’s April 20 tele-rally with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) in Virginia also failed to stop the state’s ballot initiative that would have granted Democrats a favorable electoral map. The Virginia Supreme Court struck down the new map after the initiative passed.”

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Trump’s DC golf fantasy faces a sinking reality as major flaw is exposed

President Donald Trump appears to be teeing up another Reflecting Pool fiasco with his bid to renovate a DC golf course sitting at sea level.

Mother Jones writer Stephanie Mencimer said Trump’s bird’s-eye view of a municipal golf course at East Potomac Park, known to locals as Hains Point, is hiding from him the scale of the project he’s adopted — and its water hazard.

Trump wants to transform the local links into a world-class golf course worthy of PGA tournaments, saying construction on the new course will begin September 1. But Mencimer said any local with a fishing pole can see the problem with this plan.

“Let’s be honest,” said Rebecca Miller, executive director of the DC Preservation League, which has sued the Trump administration over its plans for the golf course. “The island is sinking.”

The environmental realities of East Potomac present major obstacles to Trump’s endless, badly planned ambition. Ed Stierli, Vice President of Government Affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, says when he saw the early renderings of Trump’s course, “One of the first questions I had was: Are they completely ignoring the landscape here?”

“The simple answer is yes,” said Mencimer. “Much of East Potomac lies at sea level within a 100-year floodplain, and various studies have found that the artificial island has sunk at least five feet since its inception. Meanwhile, the water level around it has risen more than two feet thanks to climate change and other contributors. Today, it’s not uncommon for the river to top the seawall and come up 25 feet inland after a big storm or high tide, leaving picnic tables marooned like rafts on a small lake.”

The Potomac River already so regularly floods local sidewalks that it has drowned the city’s dreams of a modern swimming facility. And Mencimer and landscapers say it will surely wash out Trump’s golf fantasy and escalate the president’s losing battle against water with the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

“Good grief,” said Mark Mungeam, the president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, who is familiar with Trump’s plans but was unaware of the extent of the sinking. “That speaks to the folly of this project.”

Making matters worse is years of underfunding and neglect by Congress, which has left the nearly 150-year-old seawall surrounding the East Potomac Park crumbling. The sidewalk that runs around the perimeter of the 2-mile-long peninsula has already tumbled into the water in many places and is fenced off for safety reasons.

“For years, Republicans in Congress have starved all national parks for funding, creating a backlog of more than $2 billion in needed repairs just in DC. But in 2020, it passed the Great American Outdoors Act to try to address the neglect. Even the $500 million the bill allocated for projects related to the National Mall ahead of America 250, though, wasn’t enough to save East Potomac Park from being swallowed up by the river,” wrote Mencimer.

And it does not help that the whole island is composed of dredgings and waste soil with “a very high water table,” according to Peter Feldman, a hydrologist who did a stint at EPA working on the Superfund program. Putting a golf course there, he says, “would seem to be a poor idea generally.”

When the city tried to upgrade the aging facility on the island it had to watch sump pumps, get gulped down by the island’s soupy soils and excavations that caved in and threatened workers’ safety. Ultimately, the city lost $14 million in taxpayer money,

And if Trump’s “hasty and ill-conceived construction” fills in too much of East Potomac Park, Mencimer said the chronic flooding will simply move elsewhere, possibly even to nearby parts of the National Mall, such as the Jefferson Memorial, where taxpayers just spent more than $100 million rebuilding the seawall.

And when the Trump administration fails—and it will—advocates like Save East Po consultant Alex Rosen says Trump will “dig a bunch of plumbing, they will move a ton of earth, and they will make a bunch of changes” before realizing the water table will beat them.

If that happens, Rosen predicts the administration will “throw their hands up and say ‘oops, our bad’ and leave behind a big, expensive mess that renders East Potomac unusable long after Trump leaves office.”

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Trump's Air Force One decoy story exposes another big lie: analysis

The new report about President Donald Trump's plane switcharoo inadvertently revealed a discrepancy in one of the administration's previous claims about Iran's military capabilities.

The administration, including the Secretary of Defense, claimed in March 2026 that the U.S. was quickly able to achieve "uncontested airspace" in Iran and total control over the skies there.

"This is not [an] endless nation-building ... quagmire — it's not even close," Pete Hegseth said during a briefing on March 10. "Our generation of soldiers will not let that happen again, and nor will this president — who very clearly ran against ... never-ending, nebulously scoped missions; those days are dead. Instead, we're winning decisively with brutal efficiency, total air dominance and an unbreakable will to accomplish the president's objectives on our timeline."

“We literally have planes flying over Tehran and other parts of their country; they can’t do a thing about it,” Trump claimed March 24.

As TIME reported in April, Trump claimed that Iran doesn’t “have any spotters, they don't have anti-aircraft, they don't have radar." He went on to say that U.S. aircraft were “just floating over the top looking for whatever we want, and we're hitting it."

Then two American planes were downed within hours of each other.

"An F-15E fighter jet was shot down over southern Iran on the same day as the Iranian military claimed it brought down an A-10 Thunderbolt with a surface-to-air missile near the Strait of Hormuz," the report recalled.

The U.S. then rushed a search and rescue mission.

CNN's Aaron Blake noted on X that Trump's recent revelations about Air Force One deliver further evidence that the U.S. doesn't have any control over Iran or its skies.

"It sharply undercuts what Trump and Hegseth claimed about Iran's capabilities. They have said Iran had no ability to shoot down aircraft, citing 'uncontested airspace.' That's a far cry from fearing Iran could take down AF1 over Turkey," said Blake

Trump has claimed that Iran has "no navy,” “no military,” “no air force” and “no anti-aircraft systems." Yet, Iran has been able to scare Trump into flying in a decoy plane, and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, despite the U.S. deploying more than 20 warships to the Middle East region to maintain a naval presence, U.S. Central Command posted to X in July.

Former Naval War College Professor Tom Nichols wrote in July that the American people deserve to know the truth about what's happening in the war and these details are merely part of a larger attempt by the administration to hide their missteps.

"This opacity seems to be by design: The president and his lieutenants appear unwilling to admit that they started, and are now losing, a war with one of America’s most dedicated enemies, and obfuscating probably seems less damaging than admitting this painful truth. Of course, some of their statements are merely mistakes. Some are spin. Others are exaggerations. But many of them are flat lies that Trump and his appointees dump into the public square seemingly without hesitation," wrote Nichols.

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Trump judge delivers major blow to his 2020 election denier allies

An Arizona judge who has previously expressed sympathy for President Donald Trump's election deniers just delivered a major blow to them.

A judge in Arizona — who already dismissed charges against Trump allies for their role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election results — has rejected their effort to block the state from trying to re-indict them," tweeted Politico journalist Kyle Cheney on Tuesday.

In his ruling, Judge Sam J. Myers argued that "the Court has considered the requests for a dismissal with prejudice contained in the Defendants’ responses to the State’s Motion to Dismiss and in Defendant John Eastman’s Motion to Dismiss Pursuant to A.R.S. §13-12-751(B) and the joinders thereto. Defendants have cited, among other factors, the passage of time, the amount of money spent, the stress caused to the Defendants, fundamental fairness, and the interests of justice."

He concluded, "While the Court does not discount the significance of those circumstances, the Court finds that the interests of justice do not require a dismissal with prejudice."

This continues a pattern of Trump and his supporters being disappointed in the courts. More than 20 judges from both parties have unanimously rejected his efforts to force states to share voter information with him, characterizing his efforts as a threat to democracy and the separation of powers between the federal government and states. Trump's politically-motivated prosecutions have also decimated the judiciary's trust in his Department of Justice, with experts saying that many suspect his prosecutors lie to the courts in order to do the president's bidding.

“Ordinarily, the first order of business would be restoring DOJ's political independence and restoring DOJ's credibility in the courts, but it doesn't seem that Blanche is super interested in either of those,” CNN legal analyst Elie Honig told CNN anchor Brianna Keilar on Monday. “Those are the two biggest issues facing the department right now — the fact that they have undertaken and are still in the midst of several prosecutions aimed at people, in large part or entirely, because they are political enemies of the president.”

This leaves the door wide open for prosecutors to bring fresh charges against the defendants, extending a costly and stressful legal battle they desperately hoped to escape. Legal experts note that this decision highlights a growing fatigue among judges who are increasingly unwilling to shield political actors from accountability. As public confidence in the justice system wavers amid accusations of political bias, this ruling serves as a stark reminder that even sympathetic courts draw a hard line at stopping active prosecutions. The defense now faces a steep uphill climb to avoid a second round of indictments in Arizona.

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The 1980s pop culture phenomenon that explains the entire MAGA movement

The perfect way to fully grasp President Donald Trump and his movement is through professional wrestling, a new book by David Shoemaker says.

The Bullwark sifted through Why Hulk Hogan Matters in which the writer uses a "literary theory" to explain wrestling.

"What I want to do today is take Shoemaker’s work one step further and extrapolate it out to politics," wrote Jonathan V. Last.

The long-time journalist and author used 1980's wrestler Hulk Hogan as the perfect comparison to Trump by using the term "kayfabe." It's the acting piece of professional wrestling, which uses fake rivalries and staged events to keep the franchise propped up.

Shoemaker calls it an example of "not a fraud but a folk art." Last thinks this is the perfect explanation for how politics fell victim to kayfabe.

"Kayfabe is, it turns out, the mode of the demagogue. The demagogue always pretends to speak for the imagined true people. The authentic Volk. This is true in all times and places: In Germany in the 1930s (the Völkisch movement). In Myanmar in the 1960s (Burmanization). In America today ('heritage Americans')," Last described.

Trump is no different, using kayfabe in his 2016 campaign with perceived beefs on both sides of the political aisle. Trump even brought pal and former wrestling promoter Vince McMahon into his campaign.

"Where American politicians had previously felt the need to pantomime earnestness and consistency, Trump was openly playacting. He would insult an opponent’s wife and call the man a liar one day, and then embrace him the next day after the man submitted," recalled Last. "And the audience accepted this because they accepted that Trump was working in kayfabe. Trump realized that voters could behave like wrestling fans. They could know that the show was scripted and still care."

Watching the ordeal, Last said, was like watching Marines fight Roman legionaries. Yes, the two are fighters, but they're playing by different rules. In Trump's case, politics wasn't about the business of governing and building a better society. It was a show and voters were the audience.

"[W]restling is about narrative authority—who gets to embody the story a culture wants to tell itself," Shoemaker explained in the book.

In another Shoemaker book Last cited, the author described the "historic" battle between Hogan and Andre the Giant. The descriptions of the men included outlandish height and weight for both men. If it sounds familiar, it's the same kind of embellishments that Trump uses to boast his height is 6'3" and weight is 238 pounds. Several athletes who have their height and weight measured by the team also claim 6'3" and standing beside Trump, they're remarkably taller.

"Trump has understood this imperative in ways that never occurred to another American politician. It’s why he lies about the size of his inauguration crowds. Why he exaggerates everything to world-historical scale. Why he never appears without being covered in makeup. Why he wears his hair the way he does. Why, when he announced his intention to run for president, he paid actors to show up and make it look like a crowd of supporters," Last explained.

Shoemaker's description of Hogan's embellishments could easily be swapped out with Trump's.

"Hogan didn’t just lie the way wrestlers lie—inside the ring, for the sake of a story. He liked the way people lie when they’ve spent so long playing a character that the character starts freelancing in real life. His lies weren’t usually malicious or strategic. They were expansive. Improvisational. They sprawled," the book said.

Last went on to compare some of the photos of Hogan and Trump from the start vs. more recently. The perfect example is looking at Trump's official photos. The first photo appears softer; Trump has a big smile, capturing his desperation to be loved. The second photo shows him staring down the lens; a determined frown and increased sharpness give the image a harshness.

These are just a few examples. Last goes further into the ways in which the audience is part of the scheme too. Without enablers those who live a fake existance in and out of "real life," there is no audience. It's why Last thinks that "Trumpism is forever," even once Trump disappears. Millions of Americans joined the MAGA world and dedicated their lives to embracing the clothing, attitudes, catch phrases and any other pieces of identity.

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'Resign today': Calls grow for Mike Huckabee to step down over groveling

Sen. Chris Van Hollen on Monday called on Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, to resign after repeatedly failing to condemn mistreatment of American citizens by the Israeli government.

In a video posted on social media, Van Hollen (D-Md.) recounted instances of US citizens being detained or abused by Israeli security forces, along with Huckabee’s lack of response.

“On his watch, we continue to see American citizens being mistreated, wrongfully detained,” Van Hollen explained, referencing the recent detentions of 20-year-old American citizen Sama Safi and 16-year-old Adam Karakrah.

Van Hollen added that he and more than two dozen fellow US senators have urged Huckabee to hold Israel accountable for “the killings of nine Americans over just the last four years” by either Israeli settlers in the West Bank or members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

“And yet, no accountability,” said Van Hollen. “No justice.”

The Maryland Democrat further called out Huckabee for failing to abide by his professed compassion for the Palestinian Christian community.

“We’ve seen an increase in violent settler attacks on Christian villages in the West Bank, and we’ve seen those attacks conducted with impunity,” he said. “And when asked about this, Ambassador Huckabee said, ‘Well, look at me. I’m a Christian and I think I’m doing OK here in the Holy Land.’”

“And that exposes the entire problem,” Van Hollen continued. “Because what Ambassador Huckabee is talking about is visitors to the Holy Land, Christian visitors, including evangelicals who come on the kind of tours that Ambassador Huckabee used to lead. Well, what about the Christians who have lived in the Holy Land for thousands and thousands of years?”

The senator then speculated that Huckabee simply “doesn’t care” because “he’s become a complete apologist for the most extreme Israeli government in history.”

“He should be defending Americans and defending American interests,” Van Hollen concluded. “He’s failed to do so. He should resign today.”

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Trump put lives at risk with 'cloak-and-dagger' Air Force One trick

President Donald Trump's recent Air Force One ruse might seem "non-controversial — and even kind of cool, in a cloak-and-dagger sort of way," but as one CNN analysis argued, the situation actually appears to have put lives at risk.

After departing from Turkey last month, reports revealed that the administration had opted to fly out on an older Air Force One model, instead of the one recently gifted to him by Qatar. This was down to the fact that the new model still lacked sufficient security measures, and concerns emerged about Trump being targeted by Iran.

Now, new reporting has revealed that Trump was actually covertly "transferred via a catering truck to a smaller Air Force C-32A" to fly from Turkey to the U.K., where it was then set up to look like he had been on the older Air Force One all along.

Writing about the incident for CNN on Tuesday, senior reporter Aaron Blake broke down why this ruse raised "some very real issues and questions," including the possibility that it put the lives of reporters in danger.

"While it’s understandable to take extensive measures to protect the president, this plan left many people — including reporters and administration staffers — on the legacy Air Force One as unwitting and unknowing decoys very much in the line of fire," Blake wrote. "The questions from there are: Was there any alternative to that, such as allowing everyone else to fly out on other airplanes? Why were reporters not informed? (Sometimes such information can be shared on an embargoed basis, in which reporters have the information but can’t publish it. Of course, the Trump administration doesn’t trust the press.) And lastly, what precautions were taken to protect the legacy plane?"

Former Secret Service agent Robert McDonald said during an earlier CNN appearance that "There’s going to be questions now" about the administration's efforts, or lack thereof, to protect the planes that Trump was not on. Blake also noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio ignored CNN reporters when they asked about this issue on Tuesday.

Blake raised several other issues with the administration's handling of the situation, including the way in which it continued to lie about swapping Trump onto a different plane even after the danger had passed, and the way in which the whole affair "sharply undercuts Trump’s claims of Iran’s weakness."

"On a broader level, this development thickens the plot on an already confusing saga involving Air Force One, security concerns and the White House’s efforts to tamp down that story — including by issuing controversial subpoenas to New York Times reporters," Blake added. "There were already valid questions about the initial decision to not let Trump fly his Qatari-gifted plane back from Turkey. If the plane wasn’t as safe as the legacy plane, why was Trump flying it at all, particularly in foreign airspace? It suggested Trump’s desire to get the coveted new plane in the air might have led to cut corners (which is a theme with him)."

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Jake Tapper issues grim warning about Trump’s 2026 plans

With the United States' 2026 midterm elections less than three months away, GOP strategists are sounding the alarm about President Donald Trump's weak approval ratings and the strong possibility that Democrats will retake the U.S. House of Representatives — although they are hoping that Republicans will at least hold the U.S. Senate. And CNN's Jake Tapper, in a thread posted on X, formerly Twitter, early Tuesday afternoon, August 11, warned that Trump is quite capable of doing something to interfere with the midterms.

Tapper, in his X thread, was responding to a video of Wayne Allyn Root of the pro-MAGA Real America's Voice declaring, "You have the right to declare a national security emergency for elections. If you do this in the next month, we will get photo ID, proof of citizenship and a limit to mail ballots."

Trump replied, "Let me just say stranger things have happened. I'll leave it at that."

Tapper tweeted, "There is zero reason to not take Trump at his word that he and his team are planning something alarming to disrupt the midterms and beyond."

The CNN host also posted, "We've been covering this for months. Maybe it would sound implausible in a pre-Jan 6 2021 world. But now that we know what's possible, warning signs are there. Just look at what we know about. Now ask yourself what we don't."

Tapper isn't the only one who is warning about the possibility of Trump finding ways to interfere with the midterms if they aren't going his way. Former CIA Director John Brennan, during a Tuesday appearance on MS NOW, commented that he "wouldn't be surprised" if Trump tried to interfere with the midterms election results. Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett, the same day, told MS NOW's Alicia Menendez that Trump is already "actively engaged in an election theft."

PBS News' Liz Landers, also weighed in on Root's comments — tweeting, "I asked the president about this back in February when we reported on a proposed executive order that was floated by his allies outside the White House to declare a national emergency regarding elections."

Chronicles Magazine's Pedro L. Gonzales, the same day on X, warned, "I don't know if he will go through with it, but Trump absolutely wants to declare a national security emergency to sabotage the midterms in favor of the GOP. And there's no reason to believe that any major conservative institution from Heritage to Claremont would oppose it. The new right has lost the plot and does not recognize limits on what can be done to, in their delusional minds, 'save' the country, even and especially if that means blowing it up."

Gonzales was referring to the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank that was founded in 1979 and has taken a decidedly MAGA turn in recent years.

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Trump replaced Secret Service with 'political operatives': biographer

President Donald Trump has politicized the Secret Service, and the decision to endanger journalists as part of a newly reported Air Force One ruse was made out of “political” considerations. This is according to bestselling Trump biographer Seth Abramson, who took to social media on Tuesday to urge the press to recognize the true nature of the president’s use of his security agency.

“Here’s where I tell you — as a Trump biographer — something media isn’t. Something I’ve published reports on,” posted Abramson. “Trump long ago replaced the leadership of his Secret Service detail with political operatives. So putting the journalists he hates in danger was partly a political call.”

This is in reference to new bombshell reporting that before returning from his recent visit to Turkey, an “Iranian assassination threat” prompted Trump to switch planes secretly via a catering container, flying back to the U.S. on a military plane while the press corps was left to their fates on Air Force One. These revelations have many questioning whether the president placed the lives of journalists at risk in the face of credible danger.

“Stop calling it a decoy plane. It was a bait plane,” Abramson pleaded with the media, sharing an article from the Washington Post that detailed how Trump’s secret flight differed from a similar subterfuge used by former President Bill Clinton. In Clinton’s case, however, the danger had only been theoretical rather than based on an actual threat, and the press was made aware of the situation. “When a threat is only hypothetical, it’s a decoy plane. This happened once before — with press knowledge. When a threat is known to exist, leaving the press to face it uses them as bait. Tell the truth.”

Abramson went on to assert that on January 6, 2021, “Trump’s politicization — in the most literal sense — of his security team led to the Secret Service indirectly aiding and abetting the attack on the Capitol. What looked like security decisions were political. Same thing here.”

According to the Washington Post, the only sign to reporters on Air Force One that something was amiss was the unusual demand that they keep their window shades closed. As the Post reports, “Asked why reporters had been instructed to lower the window shades on the plane in Turkey, Trump said that it was ‘because you’re probably on a dangerous flight because of the sleaze bags that we have to deal with.’ Trump said that he has a ‘threat all the time’ against his life, and that he is ‘number one’ on Iran’s ‘list.’ ‘But if I go, you go. Right?’ Trump suggested to reporters. ‘Perhaps someday you want to change professions.’”

Whether called “bait” or “decoys,” many reporters have taken issue with the matter. Veteran reporter Jake Tapper, for example, wrote that he “flew to Afghan[istan with] different president on AF1. An insurgent missile struck Bagram runway before landing. Weather was bad so planned Marine 1 trip to Kabul scrubbed. We were [with the] president the whole time. Our safety wasn’t treated any differently from his. We were never decoys.”

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How Brett Kavanaugh paved the way for Trump’s brazen Supreme Court defiance

More often than not, the U.S. Supreme Court's 6-3 right-wing supermajority has been favorable to President Donald Trump's positions — from presidential immunity in Trump v. the United States to overturning Roe v. Wade with Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. But Trump remains bitter over High Court decisions that weren't favorable to him, angrily railing against rulings on tariffs and birthright citizenship and looking for ways to get around rulings he doesn't like. And according to Slate's Alex Romero, Justice Brett Kavanaugh — the second of three conservative justices Trump appointed during his first term — helped pave the way for the president's defiance of SCOTUS.

"Last week," Romero explains in analysis for Slate, "President Donald Trump continued his defiant stance against the Supreme Court's birthright citizenship decision from earlier this summer, firing off two new executive orders about which people born in the U.S. should be declared citizens. Despite losing at the Supreme Court on the legal issue in late June, the Trump administration remains committed to twisting a long-settled constitutional question into a tool to keep Black and brown people out of American life. The conservative legal movement, at first skeptical of Trump's original executive order attacking birthright citizenship, has now fully embraced the cause. And the cause's survival can all be traced back to our Supreme Court's unwillingness to give the Trump administration the overwhelming legal defeats it deserves."

In Trump v. Barbara, the High Court struck down the president's executive order on birthright citizenship, which most of the justices said was protected by the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment. But many liberals and progressives, along with some right-wing Never Trump conservatives and libertarians, argued that the ruling could have been much more emphatic — and that it was way too close for comfort.

"It's not unusual for President Trump to try to ignore or twist a legal ruling on an issue he lost on," Romero observes. "The better question is why he thinks the effort will succeed. After all, there are other areas where Trump has quietly retreated after a court loss or public outcry. The reason the president persists is that despite all this history, text, and precedent, only five of the nine justices read the 14th Amendment as protecting birthright citizenship in Barbara. The narrowness of that margin was and continues to be a scandal. Justice Brett Kavanaugh sided with Justices Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito in saying they would rule that the Constitution does not protect birthright citizenship for children of immigrants who don't have permanent legal status or are temporary visitors."

Romero continues, "Kavanaugh, in a separate opinion joined by nobody, thought the executive order only contradicted a federal statute that Congress could change. Let's be clear: This Court was one vote away from doing Dred Scott for yet a new group of people who lack political power. All in defense of an order that has been rightly condemned as 'blatantly unconstitutional.' Barbara…. is also a symptom of a Court that operates in a lopsided manner that favors the administration. This is especially true in the immigration context."

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Trump ramps up war with Supreme Court as he bucks 'final word' on priorities

From presidential immunity to abortion rights, critics of the U.S. Supreme Court's 6-3 right-wing supermajority have accused the justices of being overly deferential to President Donald Trump. Yet Trump is furious with the High Court for parting company with him at times, including key rulings on tariffs, the U.S. Federal Reserve, and birthright citizenship.

And according to the Washington Post, he is ramping up his campaign to get around SCOTUS rulings he doesn't like.

"Over the past few weeks," journalist Julian Mark reports in the Post, "President Donald Trump has made it clear that he will not take Supreme Court decisions as the final word on some of his most cherished priorities. The president has introduced new tariffs, renewed efforts to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook and issued new executive orders to limit birthright citizenship. While experts said the moves do not signal outright defiance of the High Court, they nonetheless push the limits of the rulings that Trump lost earlier this summer."

Richard Lazarus, a law professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts just outside Boston, told the Post that "without question," Trump is "challenging the bounds of the Court's opinions."

Mark notes that Trump "is not the first president to look for ways around adverse Supreme Court rulings." Former President Joe Biden, for example, was disappointed when the Roberts Court "struck down" his "plan to forgive student loan debt" — and wasted no time announcing a "separate plan to forgive the debt."

But David Super, a law professor at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, told the Post, "Most presidents treated Supreme Court rulings as dispositive of the issues involved rather than as technical documents to be evaded…. The second-term President Trump appears to have much less regard for the other branches of the federal government than the first-term one did."

Mark points out that former President Barack Obama was highly critical of the U.S. Supreme Court's controversial Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, he did so in a "more genteel manner" than Trump — whose administration has "a tense relationship with the federal judiciary more broadly."

"A Washington Post analysis last year found that Trump and his appointees were accused of flouting the courts in more than a third of the 160-plus lawsuits against the administration in which a judge had issued a substantive ruling," Mark observes. "The administration has also sparred with the judiciary over Trump’s picks to lead federal prosecutor's offices."

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Trump throws tantrum after rebuke of his National Guard deployments

President Donald Trump lashed out with a new social media tantrum this week, taking aim at a think tank report that offered a sharp rebuke of his National Guard deployments, per a report from The Hill.

Trump's post was in response to a July report from the liberal-leaning Center for American Progress, which found that his deployment of the Guard to Washington D.C., had "failed to reduce violent crime despite its claims of success." His attack came after the report's author, Chandler Hall, discussed its findings during an appearance on C-SPAN.

Trump's extended post went so far as to threaten the group with a lawsuit, all while also attacking numerous entities he claimed to be funding it, from Walmart to Apple to Goldman Sachs.

"Chandler Hall, representing, on Television, the foolish Center for American Lack of Progress, stated that adding the National Guard to Cities, including our now Great Again, Washington, D.C., had 'NO impact on Crime.' How crazy is that," Trump wrote. "Hall was met with furious dissent. The report is just another Radical Left SCAM, as are the people who fund this gaggle of Lunatics, including George Soros, Bill and Melinda Gates, Google, Apple, Visa, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, WellsFargo, Bank of America, Walmart, Toyota, T-Mobile,and NBC Universal. Foreign support includes the Embassy of Japan, the Korea Foundation, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (Taiwan) and the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates.

He continued: "The Dumocrats love it, and are against anything 'TRUMP.' These people, and others like them, are so bad for our Country. Their stated course is anything to hate or demean 'TRUMP.' This will be met with a lawsuit, which is being drawn now. I am also strongly considering adding some of the contributors to this Fake Organization. Crime is way down since I took Office, and they know it. Liars, at this level, must be held accountable!"

The report, published on July 13, argued that "The second Trump administration is trying to take credit for the historic drop in violent crime across America," even though this trend has been ongoing for years, well before Trump's return to the White House. The administration has tried to use that preexisting trend to "justify expanding policies that are unpopular, ineffective and costly."

"Even though the data clearly show that violent crime and homicides were already dropping in American cities in 2023 and 2024, the Trump administration has continued to threaten city and state leaders and argue that its extreme actions, such as deploying the National Guard to support law enforcement operations, are improving public safety," Hall's report explained. "However, new Center for American Progress analysis finds no evidence that National Guard deployments have reduced violent crime. Moreover, if these deployments are extended and continue through the end of 2026, they could cost American taxpayers more than $1.7 billion."

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Trump 'absolutely knows' he lost in 2020: CNN reporter

In a gubernatorial race in Wisconsin, GOP candidate Rep. Tom Tiffany has adopted President Donald Trump's language about "election integrity." Former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) is similarly trying to paint himself as a moderate in the senatorial race, but continues echoing Trump's messaging.

"If our nation does not have security and confidence in our elections, then we do not have much of a nation at all," he wrote on social media.

Ironically, Rogers was once a CNN analyst and in 2020 he was denouncing Trump's claims as "falsehoods." He even went so far as to accuse Trump of causing the violence on Jan. 6.

"Well, you're damn right he has responsibility," Rogers told Jake Tapper less than a week after the attacks on the U.S. Capitol

But on X, Rogers hedged. In response to Trump's speech to the nation in July, where the president again claimed that the 2020 election was hacked, Rogers posted, "I am thankful for President Trump's commitment to transparency. Make no mistake about it, there is no serious problem with election security in this country."

Mike Lindell is running for governor in Minnesota after years of saying that the 2020 election was rigged.

Trump went to court over 60 times and lost every case trying to fight the election results. There were recounts in several states, and none of them found inaccuracies.

According to CNN correspondent Tom Forman, "Republicans by and large know that. And Donald Trump absolutely knows that he lost in 2020. What this is really about, Pam, is a loyalty test, making people who are running now say you have to acknowledge what I've been saying about 2020, that I was cheated somehow because I don't want to accept it."

He said that the "weird part" is that Trump's losing six years ago could ultimately hurt them today because the overwhelming number of Americans know and believe that Trump lost in 2020. So, when those candidates have to pivot after winning Republican primaries, they have to appeal to that broader electorate.

Forman explained that voters will ask "how can I trust you when you keep insisting on this thing that we know is not true? Donald Trump lost. That's it."

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Trump says documents show voting vulnerabilities, China meddling and fraud - ABC News ›

New twist emerges in Trump’s 'Jazz Jam' fiasco

A judge has ordered the Kennedy Center to pay more than $250,000 in legal fees to a musician who canceled a Christmas Eve concert after President Donald Trump attempted to add his own name to the building. According to Bloomberg, jazz drummer Charles “Chuck” Redd was accused of breach of contract for refusing to host the holiday “Jazz Jam.”

As Bloomberg reports, “Redd had hosted the Christmas jazz concert at the Kennedy Center for years. After Trump’s appointees to the board of trustees voted to add the president’s name to the center, however, Redd announced he wouldn’t perform. The center then sued him. A judge dismissed the case in June, finding the Kennedy Center was unlikely to win and had retaliated against Redd for exercising his right to public advocacy. The center later eventually removed Trump’s name from the building after losing a separate court fight.” D.C. Superior Court Judge Tanya Jones Bosier found that Redd was entitled to recover legal fees as the “prevailing party,” rejecting the center’s claim that the fee was “out of all proportion to the issue at stake,” and ruling that Redd’s lawyers had asked for “reasonable” compensation.

Over the course of his second administration, Trump has taken an unusually oversized role in the Kennedy Center. In the early days of his term, he fired its board members and replaced them with loyalists like former Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who promptly voted Trump chairman. He went on to become directly involved with programming decisions, naming himself host of the annual honors gala, all of which resulted in a wave of performers canceling events in protest.

Late last year, the Trump-appointed board voted to add his name to the iconic cultural institution, deeming it the Trump-Kennedy Center — a move Maria Shriver, the former First Lady of California and niece of President John F. Kennedy described as “downright weird.” Then on May 29th — Kennedy’s birthday — a judge slapped down the renaming, declaring, “The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”

According to Bloomberg, “The decision Monday marks the latest high-dollar fee ruling in court fights over controversies stemming from Trump’s second term. In recent weeks, judges ordered the US Department of Defense to pay more than $450,000 to attorneys who sued over research funding cuts and directed the National Endowment for the Humanities to set aside money in anticipation of a future million-dollar fee fight.”

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The myth of Trump’s 'Teflon Don' is crumbling around him

The moniker of "Teflon Don" doesn't seem to be holding up for President Donald Trump anymore.

Tuesday morning's "Daily Blast" podcast brought together The New Republic's Greg Sargent and senior editor Alex Shephard to discuss the ways in which Trump's political strength has collapsed under the weight of his bad economic decisions.

Recent polls show just how bad things are for Trump as his approval continues to drop. When it comes to approval on specific issues, things paint an even worse picture.

Trump is sometimes referred to as "Teflon Don," a nickname that highlights his ability to weather scandals, criticism, lawsuits and political controversies because they all slide off of him without seriously weakening his support.

That's no longer accurate after the president started a war with Iran and implemented economic policies that are increasing costs. Trump’s approval on inflation is around 50 points underwater, a level the interview describes as unprecedented for a president in modern polling. Other recent polling likewise shows widespread disapproval of Trump’s handling of the economy.

Sargent and Shephard discussed a key reason that voters returned Trump to office: they wanted lower prices and believed he could manage the economy better than Democrats.

"I don’t think anyone’s seen anything like this before. I think the big story of this presidency is that Trump was elected because voters were mad about inflation after the pandemic, and they blamed Joe Biden and his party, the Democratic Party, and they had rosy visions of Trump’s presidency and they brought him back to office," assessed Shephard.

"Then Trump and the people around him — and I should say many Democrats as well — saw that victory not as a rebuttal, or a refutation against the Democrats. They saw it as an endorsement of his entire cultural, non-economic program," he added.

Now, voters can directly connect Trump’s choices to their own rising bills for groceries, health care and electricity.

"If there’s anything that Donald Trump has proven, it’s that voters forget about what he’s done to the United States of America very, very quickly," said Sargent. "And you’ve got to drive it home over and over ... Trump did this to you. Trump did this to you. Say that, Democrats, right?"

Shephard agreed, noting it's an "over-interpretation of Trump’s return to power."

Both men agree that Democrats must argue a need to offer a clear alternative while tying the affordability crisis, the Iran war, corruption and Trump’s governing record together into one message: prices are high, and Trump’s decisions helped make them that way.

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Former prosecutor tears into Trump over his 'worst appointment' yet

President Donald Trump's latest victory in Congress is a massive "loss" for the country, according to one former federal prosecutor, who further argued that it represents the "worst appointment" yet in a long parade of terrible appointments.

James D. Zirin previously served as a prosecutor for the Southern District of New York and now regularly publishes legal analysis and op-eds for The Hill. In his latest piece for the outlet from Tuesday morning, Zirin tore into the appointment of Todd Blanche as attorney general, calling it an act worthy of "shame" for the GOP-controlled Senate, and lambasted him as the worst of Trump's second term, an achievement with an extremely high bar.

"It is to the shame of the U.S. Senate that Blanche is now confirmed," Zirin wrote. "It is the worst appointment of the second Trump administration. Yes, you heard me — worse than Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard or Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem put together, because he will serve only President Trump, not our precious rule of law."

He added further: "Ask the more than 1,200 of Blanche’s Department of Justice colleagues who urged the Senate to reject his nomination. Ask the 35 former federal judges from across the country who have argued he committed a fraud on the court. Incumbent federal judges have said that the Justice Department under his aegis is no longer entitled to the presumption of regularity. He has lied to the courts once too often. In July, a judge forced Blanche’s prosecutors to withdraw subpoenas served on New York Times reporters at their homes, finding serious irregularities."

Zirin further highlighted the trend of failed grand jury indictments at the DOJ under Blanche, including the failure to convince even "a single grand juror to sign off on proposed criminal charges against six Democratic lawmakers who released a video encouraging members of the military to refuse illegal orders," and the failure to indict a man for throwing a sandwich at a federal agent. The issue, he explained, is "not that he lost," but that even tried to pursue such cases in the first place, asking, "Where is the judgment?"

"Then, there is the elephant in the room: the Epstein files, with the drip-feed, heavily redacted disclosure Blanche handled, not to mention his callous mistreatment of Epstein’s victims," he continued. "A New York Times report by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan exposed that Blanche handled the Epstein case as a matter of politics, and key decisions were made by Blanche in collaboration with the White House."

He concluded later: "In 1940, Attorney General Robert Jackson declared in the prosecutor’s creed that, 'the citizen’s safety lies in the prosecutor who tempers zeal with human kindness, who seeks truth and not victims, who serves the law and not factional purposes, and who approaches his task with humility.' Blanche has been confirmed to serve 'factional purposes.' If he is not 'perfect,' he should not have been confirmed."

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Trump’s scheme to steal the midterms will lose in court. That’s 'by design'

Faced with the prospect of a major midterm defeat, President Donald Trump is “laying the groundwork to seize ballots” and contest the outcomes of elections across the country. This is according to Miles Taylor — deputy chief of staff in the Department of Homeland Security during Trump’s first term — who on Tuesday detailed “how Trump might try to send the FBI to seize ballots & steal the midterms,” and warned that while the scheme will “likely lose in court, losing is actually part of the plan.”

As Taylor explains, “Earlier this year, the president’s agents did an obvious dry run for how to steal future elections. On January 28, the FBI raided the election hub in one of the most contested 2020 battlegrounds — Fulton County, Georgia, where Trump was previously indicted for pressuring officials to ‘find 11,780 votes’ that didn’t exist. The president himself said the raid would help him find out who ‘really won’ the 2020 election, despite the fact that those ballots had been counted three times, each time confirming that Trump lost.”

But what should worry states this time around, warns Taylor, is that the plan worked. “After Trump’s DOJ sued Fulton County for its 2020 records and failed, it decided just to go seize them. The FBI quietly went to a magistrate judge earlier this year and sought a warrant to raid the county’s election offices. Their filing rested largely on fraud claims debunked years ago and identified no concrete evidence of a crime. But the judge signed it anyway. Then FBI agents barged in and carted off 656 boxes, including the county’s only copy of its 2020 ballots. And Georgia wasn’t a one-off: the administration has gone after 2020 ballots in Arizona’s biggest battleground county, too.”

The Trump administration, says Taylor, is preparing to do it again. He notes that over the course of his second term, Trump has demanded that states hand over voter lists supposedly to search for registered noncitizens. “But the databases are notoriously faulty,” Taylor warns, “and there is limited oversight over who might get purged, raising fears that legitimate U.S. citizens in key battlegrounds would be dropped from the voter rolls.”

While several red states have complied, 30 states and D.C. refused and were sued by the administration. So far Trump has lost every case, but Taylor asserts that the intention was never to win. “They’re creating a pretext,” he writes. “In my opinion, the Trump administration is preparing the rationale for its future warrant affidavits to go seize ballots in these ‘non-compliant’ states. This will be their logic: We asked X state to let us verify its rolls to weed out fraud; it refused; the courts blocked us; therefore, no one can say whether noncitizens decided this election. So to investigate any fraud claims, we need to go get the ballots themselves.”

“The result would be chaos-by-design,” warns Taylor. “Picture FBI agents carting boxes out of election offices in two or three states with razor-thin margins, races that decide control of the House and Senate. While the ballots sit in federal custody, certification of a victor will be difficult if not impossible. In the meantime, voters will rightfully fret that Trump’s agents are meddling with the results. MAGA candidates on the losing end will refuse to concede, citing the ‘ongoing investigations.’ And the White House will make sure the fog stays thick enough to hand GOP leaders in Congress a pretext to delay seating new members, which will be the final step in preventing a peaceful transfer of power if Democrats win either chamber.”

While the matter will end up in court, once Trump has the ballots, retrieving them could take months of litigation, and “with the ballots in the custody of the feds, they’ll have the upper hand to claim possible ‘fraud’ because they’ll control the evidence,” says Taylor. “In the end, Trump’s team doesn’t care about losing in court. All they care about is fighting the battle in the court of public opinion for two months — between the election on November 3, 2026, and January 3, 2027, when the next Congress is supposed to be seated. That’s long enough to diminish confidence in the results and to create enough justification for Speaker Mike Johnson to secure support from his caucus not to hand over power.”

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Republicans really wish Trump 'would keep quiet' about 1 issue: data expert

CNN data analyst Harry Enten found a buried nugget in recent numbers showing just how much even Republicans have abandoned President Donald Trump on some issues.

Speaking to host John Berman, Enten explained that it isn't merely Trump's scores on handling the war in Iran; it's just how far they've fallen in the last two years.

"You know, sometimes I look at the polling data, and I find a surprising nugget, one that I honestly didn't think existed," said Enten. "But then I dug deep enough and found it. And, you know, there was a great poll question: feelings on Trump and Iran handling Iran. You know, back in July of 2024, 53 percent of voters said they were extremely motivated to vote [also] said they were actually confident, confident that Trump would be able to handle the situation in Iran. Look at where that number is now when it comes to his approval among the same group."

According to the CNN/Pew survey, that number has fallen to 29 percent, a nearly 25 percent drop in just two years.

Enten called it a "giant fall."

"Promises were made, and promises were not kept. They were broken as far as those voters were concerned," said Enten.

Berman called it fascinating to see because Trump "would go on the stump and talk about Iran because it was a net positive issue for him now. Now, it is a negative issue."

Enten agreed, "Republicans wish he would keep quiet about it."

Taking the numbers to a deeper level, Enten explained that they aren't simply about the president, but GOP lawmakers as a whole.

"Party trusted more on wars, conflicts and terrorism: Back in January of 2025, look at this. Republicans were ahead by 18 points. A tremendous advantage. That advantage, because of President Trump, has turned into a disadvantage on a core key question that almost always favors Republicans," Enten said.

He explained that Democrats now enjoy a two-point advantage over Republicans.

"That is a 20-point move that we're seeing towards the Democrats as the Republicans go down, because down goes President Trump. They are simpatico on this one," Enten added.

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Psychologist flags Trump’s 'neurological twitch' not due to 'advanced age'

During an appearance on Monday, President Donald Trump displayed a series of red flags that suggest he may be struggling with “something neurological,” and it’s becoming more noticeable all the time. This is according to clinical and forensic psychologist John Paul Garrison, who later explained why he thinks Trump’s “involuntary” actions can’t be chalked up to old age alone.

The incident in question was an executive order signing in the Oval Office, during which Garrison says that the president appeared “to be exhibiting a wide variety of worsening neurological symptoms,” such as slurring words, getting confused, and falling asleep. As the event started, notes Garrison, Trump began addressing Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., and he noticeably “misses words. He thinks he's saying things correctly, and he doesn't even realize how badly he's messing up what he's trying to say.”

After that, as Kennedy speaks, Trump begins dozing off before snapping back to attention. According to Garrison, “There's some awareness that he is drifting. And he doesn't have the good judgment to realize that everybody's watching him right now. He really is having a hard time thinking through these situations.” Then the president falls fully asleep, before waking with “some confusion,” “nodding his head trying to go along with what's being said.”

“This is not normal behavior even if somebody is 80,” asserts Garrison. “I get that that's an advanced age, but that doesn't explain when you're sitting in front of lights around a lot of other people how you would fall asleep. What does explain it is either neurological problems, poststroke behavior or some sort of neurological impairment that is causing this. For example, if somebody has a stroke and it affects their hypothalamus or their thalamus or a number of other regions of the brain, it can cause excessive sleepiness. So it's very possible that there is damage in part of the brain that contributes to this behavior. His age truly does not explain this behavior.”

As the event progresses, Trump “just keeps falling asleep over and over again,” says Garrison. “This has been happening for months now, but this is a great example of a time where it's happening very clearly right in the middle of an important meeting… If you count every single time that President Trump drifts off over the course of this entire 40-minute Oval Office meeting, it's dozens of times.” What’s more, notes Garrison, “He's having a very hard time orienting when he wakes up again.”

Here Garrison points out a “neurological twitch” the president sometimes displays. According to Garrison, “He starts becoming incoherent,” and then his elbow twitches outward suddenly. “When he's standing, he's doing it constantly. They're really large motions, but it does seem to be there's an involuntary twitch, which once again, all signs point to something neurological and something serious neurological going on.”

"I really suggest that anybody that truly believes that this is entirely because of his age reconsider that position," Garrison concludes. "Because that absolutely does not adequately explain what we're seeing."

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GOP faces 'growing recognition' that its playbook broke the middle class

Republicans appear to be realizing that President Donald Trump's claims that "affordability" is a "con job" aren't winning messages for the GOP as the November 3 election nears.

Writing for The New Republic on Tuesday, Alex Thomas explained that for years, critics have claimed that Republican economic policies aren't working for the vast majority of Americans. Some have gone so far as to claim that it's outright hollowing out the middle class.

Vice President JD Vance appeared on Joe Rogan's show, where he complained that Republicans allowed Wall Street to turn “every asset of modern life” into a profit machine. So, homes, jobs, health care and basic stability are being treated as investments for the wealthy rather than necessities for working families. Vance explained that this was the reason so many younger Americans are open to socialism. The GOP has spent generations championing deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy, union-busting and free trade. When big banks and mortgage companies were caught making risky financial decisions and companies collapsed, the government swooped in to bail them out. The victims of the banks were not similarly rescued.

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.) has criticized his party over corporate giveaways and drastic cuts to social programs. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) supports restrictions on investors buying up homes all over the U.S. Even Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged that "free and unfettered trade at the expense of our national economy has shrunk the middle class and left the working class in crisis."

Thomas argued that these statements aren't merely minor changes in rhetoric. He believes that they amount to a growing recognition that the old Republican economic model failed millions of Americans.

In a way, Thomas wrote, Republicans are the dog that caught the car. Meanwhile, Donald Trump's economic policies trend toward being a "dedicated transactionalist." He has "stacked up a Jenga tower of economic policies that are largely short-sighted. Not the sort of ideas you would use to rebuild a party platform that has failed, let alone revive a crumbling economy," Thomas wrote.

Calling Trump's economic policies "zaney," at least "as much as they can be coherently understood," Thomas called it a sharp reversal of the Republican doctrine.

Then there is the party’s biggest obstacle: its donors. Vance may talk about restoring worker power and rebuilding private-sector unions, but he will need the billionaire backers when it's time to begin collecting his own campaign war chest.

Vance may compare AI to the Industrial Revolution, but that was also a period that created huge fortunes while workers fought for basic rights. The difference this time is that the industrialists are already in control, the labor movement is weaker and the Republican Party is still dependent on the billionaires who stand to benefit most, Thomas closed.

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Trump has finally crushed the 2 offices that can tell him 'no': ex-official

A prominent former official is sounding the alarm about President Donald Trump's increasingly tyrannical tendencies, writing for The i Paper that he has now succeeded in corrupting the two offices above all that are tasked with telling him "no."

Miles Taylor previously worked as a staffer in Trump's first administration, eventually rising to the office of chief of staff for the Department of Homeland Security. His tenure was most notable, however, for an anonymous op-ed he published in the New York Times, exposing the abuses and excesses that he was witnessing behind the scenes. Since departing in 2029, he has emerged as a vocal conservative critic of Trump and his MAGA agenda.

In his latest piece for The i Paper, published on Tuesday, Taylor sounded the alarm about two recent Trump appointments, which he said represented the corruption of the two offices "more than any others — whose jobs are to tell the president of the United States 'no,'" filling them with yes-men sure to follow his every order.

"The attorney general and the White House counsel," Taylor wrote. "Those jobs exist to keep the president on the right side of the law. This weekend, two men were elevated into America’s top legal jobs after working to build literal monuments to their boss."

He continued: "On Sunday, the President announced that Will Scharf, Trump’s staff secretary and perhaps the chief 'monument man,' will become White House counsel on September 1. Americans know him, if at all, as the man standing over Trump’s shoulder in the Oval Office, narrating executive orders as the President signs them. He also chairs the National Capital Planning Commission, which oversees federal construction in the capital, a role in which he has become Trump’s personal builder. He fast-tracked the White House ballroom. He expedited review of the President’s planned triumphal arch — a 250ft 'Arc de Trump' — and personally argued it should be exempt from the century-old law capping Washington’s buildings at 130ft. Approve the arch, and the leader makes you his lawyer."

The other concerning development was the appointment of Todd Blanche, Trump's former personal attorney, as Attorney General, replacing "the last attorney general was fired for not weaponizing the Justice Department fast enough."

"Blanche is a 'monument man,' too, which is evidently a requirement for elevation," Taylor added. "When preservationists sued over Trump’s demolition of the East Wing (which he tore down to construct a 90,000 sq ft ballroom dedicated to himself), Blanche took on the case. He argued in court filings that construction must resume, portraying the President’s party palace as a matter of national security urgency."

He concluded later: "I can tell you how important these two legal jobs actually are. When I served in the first term, the lawyers willing to say 'no' were the last line of defense. The president would demand something illegal... It was a wall that held — barely — a hundred times over. Trump remembers that wall as vividly as I do. He spent his four years out of power studying where it stood and who manned it. This weekend, he finished solving the problem. The next time he goes hunting for a lawyer with an answer he likes, he won’t have to look very far. The two men who should’ve been whispering 'no' into the President’s ear got his attention by whispering 'yes, sir.' Now they’re seated at his right hand."

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