News & Politics

President Donald Trump is reportedly planning on delivering a speech in the near future amplifying his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him — and social media users on X are raising the alarm.

“Things are about to get very, very, very bad,” posted podcaster Chris Mowrey. Similarly Shannon Watts, the New York Times bestselling author of “Fired Up,” wrote that this means there will be “a Civil War instead of midterm elections.”

Journalist Pedro L. Gonzalez struck an ominous note by pointing out that Trump also plans on declaring Georgia’s two senators, Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, to be illegitimate.

“If this is true it just shows that Trump is becoming more and more authoritarian, but the stupid kind of authoritarian who can’t even mask regime lies in a convincing way and so it’s obvious to everyone that he is terrified of his opponents (Ossof [sic] is a viable presidential candidate for Dems, one with more appeal than Vance) and also the average voter, which is why he keeps shamelessly pushing the SAVE America Act,” Gonzalez argued.

Policy consultant Adam Cochran also posted a lengthy analysis about the report, poking several holes in Trump’s arguments about supposed 2020 election fraud.

“Doesn’t work like that,” Cochran said. “First off, there was no fraud, but you seized the ballots and the paper back ups to make sure no one could question it.”

He added, “Second, the Constitution has no way to nullify a swearing in. Only peer expulsion. Third, this sudden ‘announcement’ is when Trump is down by two senators and desperate to pass a bill. Lastly, Trump had 64 court cases to try and litigate the election, including in Georgia. No case turned up any evidence, including after an audit of these ballots.”

Cochran concluded, “Trump’s own lawyers and advocates then admitted to making up the conspiracy about this county, and were charged for it. Part of the court evidence included their own email records of coming up with the plot.”

Melanie D'Arrigo, the vice president of legislative affairs for New York’s chapter of the National Organization for Women, was more succinctly than Cochran while likewise noting that his claims about Georgia had been litigated.

“The same Georgia election where Donald Trump was indicted by a jury of his peers for trying to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to ‘find 11,780 votes,’ to overturn the state's 2020 presidential election results?” D’Arrigo wrote. “That election?”

Meanwhile Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican congressman from Illinois, simply said that the reporting if true would be “insane. INSANE.”

Trump has made a number of efforts to avoid losing the 2026 midterm elections, from unsuccessfully trying to pass the SAVE America Act to require voters to show proof of citizenship and likewise unsuccessfully attempting to get the US Postal Service to decide who can send by ballots by mail to purging voters from the rolls and threatening to send ICE to intimidate voters at the polling places.

“Someone should read to him ‘Lost, Not Stolen,’ a 2022 report by eight conservatives (two former Republican senators, three former federal appellate judges, a former Republican solicitor general, and two Republican election law specialists),” conservative columnist George F. Will wrote for The Washington Post on Monday. “They examined all 187 counts in the 64 court challenges filed in multiple states by Trump and his supporters. Twenty cases were dismissed before hearings on their merits, 14 were voluntarily dismissed by Trump and his supporters before hearings. Of the 30 that reached hearings on the merits, Trump’s side prevailed in only one, Pennsylvania, involving far too few votes to change the state’s result.”

Will added, “Trump’s batting average? .016. In Arizona, the most exhaustively scrutinized state, a private firm selected by Trump’s advocates confirmed Trump’s loss, finding 99 additional Biden votes and 261 fewer Trump votes.”

One of President Donald Trump’s golf clubs has a major pest control problem — literally.

“When a Loudoun County health official visited the Trump National Golf Club Washington D.C.’s restaurant last month, the inspector spotted some invaders,” reported by NOTUS' Dave Levinthal on Monday. Levinthal proceeded to describe a health inspector report chronicling “large quantity of small flies” at a storage room near the employee restrooms, as well as a number of health issues.

The potential hygiene hazards included “several food items stored at a temperature above the required 41 degrees Fahrenheit minimum. That included the blue cheese (54 degrees), sausage links (51 degrees), sausage patties (49 degrees) and pasta (49 degrees).” The report also noted that the grill’s employees improperly stored “raw steak, fish and burgers above ready-to-eat foods such as tortillas and sauces.” The snack bar also created a potential health risk, as “the health official deemed the sink’s chemical sanitizer solution exceeded regulations for maximum strength level.”

This incident is part of a larger pattern with Trump’s various construction projects.

“Two other Trump-owned clubs, Trump National Golf Club Westchester and Trump National Golf Club Hudson Valley, both in New York, received recent health citations earlier this year,” Levinthal wrote. “In Illinois, the Trump International Hotel in Chicago also found itself bedeviled by flies, among other health issues, NOTUS reported in March.”

When confronted with accusations of sub-par work at his various businesses and renovation projects, Trump has a history of trying to blame the people who point them out. He is waging prosecutions widely regarded as frivolous against individuals who he, without evidence, has accused of sabotaging his attempt to renovate the Reflecting Pool. The president argued that vandals had slashed a “350-foot gash” into the project when in fact the pool was recently drained and no such gash appeared. The pool, which is supposed to reflect people’s images, has instead turned green while algae blooms proliferate there.

Trump has been accused of giving projects to cronies through no-bid contracts instead of finding the highest quality service for the lowest bidder.

“Those looking for a simple phrase to help summarize Donald Trump’s second term could do worse than ‘no-bid contract.’ Indeed, it has been difficult to keep up on all of the assorted projects championed by the president that have bypassed the normal bidding process the federal government has relied on for many years,” MS NOW analyst Steve Benen wrote in June.

He added, “Reflecting Pool renovations? No-bid contract. Applying gold-toned coating to horse statues by the Lincoln Memorial? No-bid contract. Repairing ornamental fountains in Lafayette Park? No-bid contract."

A Republican senator who President Donald Trump recently threw under the bus is now throwing a top Trump official’s words back in his face — and over an issue that economically impacts every American.

“I recall Secretary Rubio saying that would not be proper for any country. Am I wrong?” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told NOTUS journalist Igor Bobic regarding Trump saying the United States will toll the Strait of Hormuz. Ever since Trump invaded Iran, the Strait of Hormuz has been hotly contested, with Iran’s throttling of the key waterway raising prices on essential products like oil and fertilizer for ordinary Americans.

Cornyn was referring to how Trump recently announced that the United States will be the new so-called “guardian of the Hormuz Strait” and as such start collecting a 20 percent toll on ships that transit across the globally-utilized shipping route.

“The Hormuz Strait is OPEN, and will remain OPEN, with or without Iran,” Trump posted on his Truth Social account. “We are reinstating the THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE, so named because it is only stopping Iran’s ships or customers from entering or leaving. All other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait.”

He added, ”The U.S.A. will be, from this point forward, known as ‘THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT,’ but as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20 percent on all cargo shipped, for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World.”

Trump’s remarks clearly contradict Secretary of State Marco Rubio promising that America would follow international law, which prohibits the charging of tolls and fees on the waterway.

“That’s the law,” Rubio said in June. “It’s an international waterway. No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway.”

He continued, “That’s existing international law. That’s the way it is in international waterways all over the world and that’s the way we’ll expect it’ll be here.”

Cornyn may have personal as well as political reasons to draw attention to Trump’s seeming flip-flop on the issue of Strait of Hormuz tolls. In May, despite Cornyn overwhelmingly supporting Trump’s agenda in the Senate, the president endorsed Cornyn’s primary challenger, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who ultimately prevailed. By contrast, Rubio has risen in Trump’s estimation as a potential 2028 presidential candidate to succeed him instead of Vice President JD Vance, who has reportedly fallen out of Trump’s favor because of his voiced skepticism about invading Iran.

Ever since Trump invaded Iran, Americans have suffered from rising prices due to Iran’s actions shutting down the Strait of Hormuz. Speaking with AlterNet in April, White House spokesperson Kush Desai argued that the economic pain caused by the Iran war will be temporary.

“President Trump has been clear about short-term disruptions as a result of Operation Epic Fury, and the Administration went into this military engagement with a plan to mitigate these disruptions to America’s long-term economic resurgence," Desai told AlterNet at the time. "As energy markets begin to stabilize, historic tax refund checks hit the mail, and the rest of the Trump administration’s pro-growth agenda continues taking effect, Americans can rest assured that the best is yet to come.”

President Donald Trump and his children have long faced accusations of corruption, as the Republican leader openly and his progeny openly do business with foreign countries despite the appearance of conflicts of interest. Now one of those controversial business deals — a planned resort in Albania that would destroy an ecologically-protected flamingo sanctuary — just saw a plot twist that left a conservative commentator literally laughing out loud.

“Should we talk about the Albania resort?” The Bulwark’s Will Sommer told his colleague Tim Miller. Sommer was referring to the attempts by Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner to purchase islands in Albania from an alleged mob-linked figure, prompting widespread protests that have threatened Prime Minister Edi Rama’s regime. After reviewing the history of the fight over the Albanian 1,400 hectares, Sommer and Miller described the latest news report: that Artur Shehu, the businessman who sold them the land, never actually owned it in the first place.

“I think these are the highs and lows of doing business in a country like Albania, you know,” Sommer told Miller. “On one hand, maybe you can get them very quickly, the deeds.”

Laughing, Miller told Sommer he “almost spit out my coffee” at the comment “highs and lows of Albania,” then allowed his colleague to continue with his point.

“But on the other, those deeds might not be real,” Sommer warned Miller. “So basically what's going on here is that there is a village, as I understand it — there's a village involved here, and the villagers say, ‘Well, no, actually this is our land, you can tell because we all have houses and we live here.’ But he claims, ‘No, I have the deed.’ And so the allegation is that he basically forged the deeds and sold — then he said, ‘Okay, Jared and Ivanka and various Gulf sheikhs, you give me the money and here's your deed, and now you can build your resort.’”

After Miller expressed disbelief that the Rama administration did not do more to weed out any potential legal issues with the deal, Sommer characterized it as a dispute in which “Jared and Ivanka say, ‘I will enter that on the side of the cocaine trafficker.’” He also pointed out that the issue has harmed Albania’s standing with the European Union, which it wishes to join, both because it threatens wildlife and because security forces beat up a Greek citizen protesting the resort.

“I don't think it's worth it, Albania,” Sommer said, with Miller adding “you gotta feel for the flamingos. Innocent bystanders, all this — they just want their land.”

In June, the UK-based Independent ran a story covered by reporter Zana Cimili about how Albania became involved with the Trump children.

"Albania's government champions the Adriatic Coast development as a transformative venture for the nation, aiming to boost its high-end tourism sector and support its bid for European Union membership," Cimili said. "However, the project, which encompasses an abandoned island and a stretch of seafront on Albania's southern coast, has sparked criticism from environmental groups and detractors of the long-serving Socialist Prime Minister, Edi Rama." Since late May, Cimili added, "excavators and other heavy machinery have entered the area, opening access routes, digging into the sand, clearing land among pine trees and installing fencing, Environmental groups from Albania and elsewhere in Europe condemned the work, with one prominent local group charging that long-protected habitats are being 'irreversibly destroyed'…. Albania's state anti-corruption agency has confirmed it opened an investigation related to the project but has not disclosed details."

Cimili continued, "The government says the land earmarked for the project is privately owned. But competing claims have emerged questioning the privatization — a common type of legal dispute."

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is realizing that anything legislative might be shut down for the rest of the summer.

Politico reported on Monday that Johnson's leadership circle has realized there's no chance of passing anything immigration related. Politico's Meredith Lee Hill reported that sources told them, "A handful of House GOP hardliners tell us they will tank the rule this week without a plan on [immigration] and more as Johnson struggles to regain control of the House floor."

Johnson already sent the House members home early ahead of the July 4th recess after "the last GOP floor meltdown," Hill added.

On Monday, Johnson was at Camp David with White House officials and legislative affairs staff as they worked through what was next. All Johnson would say, however, is "further specifics will be provided later in the week."

Hill said that "moderates and even some hardliners still need to be convinced."

So, the first step is to stop the internal revolt in the GOP, reported Politico.

Some, like Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), are following President Donald Trump's orders that anything passed must include his voting-related "SAVE America Act." She was responsible for bills being blocked from votes before the July 4 break, leading to the GOP frustration and early exit.

Trump's "Safeguard American Voter Eligibility America Act" has become his red line, meaning the Republican agenda is stalled out until Trump backs down or Republicans force vote in the bill.

Speaking in an interview last week, Rep. Craig Goldman (R-Texas) said, “Not one member can understand the thought behind it. The hope is that when we come back, we start moving legislation again.”

Another issue is that hard-line conservatives wanted a strong immigration bill, and they got a handshake agreement on it from Johnson. However, the speaker hasn't delivered. So, those Republicans are threatening their own blockade of the House floor, too. Most Republicans have agreed that they can't sign off on the bill that the far-right members are demanding.

The House leadership is so concerned that they're calling the White House to beg for help, the report said. Vice President JD Vance is being dispatched to the caucus lunch on Tuesday to lean on those who refuse to play ball. Most of those GOP members, however, are in safe seats and have already advanced through GOP primaries. It gives the White House zero leverage over them, whereas Trump could persuade GOP lawmakers ahead of their primaries by threatening to pick their opponents for endorsements.

One way the leadership has tried to convince the members is by passing a number of toothless bills critical of things like the Supreme Court ruling on birthright citizenship or condemning sanctuary cities. They aren't laws, however, and serve little purpose other than congressional finger-wagging.

On the Senate side, the spending battles are “as dead as Woodrow Wilson,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), according to Politico.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is facing heated protests for her support of a policy that critics say led to a wrongful death on Monday.

“Protestors descended on Sen. Susan Collins’ Biddeford office Monday following a deadly shooting that authorities said involved federal immigration agents,” reported Portland Press Herald's Rachel Ohm on Monday. “Dozens of people crowded the entryway of the Main St. office Monday afternoon shouting ‘Vote her out!’ On the street, others carried signs reading, ‘NO ICE’ and ‘Melt ICE.’”

On Monday morning, a 26-year-old man from Colombia was killed by ICE agents at a shooting in the Maine community of Biddleford. Collins is being held partially responsible for his death because the five-term incumbent voted in June to support a $70 billion funding bill for Border Patrol and ICE agents.

“The protest outside Collins’ office was part of a larger demonstration about the shooting,” Ohm reported. “Around noon, about two dozen protestors marched into Collins’ office, but were shooed out minutes later as police arrived.” They reported shouted accusations such as saying Collins was at fault for the shooting and that the officers blocking the protesters were fascists.

Collins has in general been the focus of much criticism for her attempts to depict herself as a moderate while working in lockstep with much of the Trump administration’s agenda. Last month civil rights attorney Azaleea Carlea wrote in the Portland Press Herald about Collins vouching for future Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh that “Mainers cannot and will not forget Sen. Susan Collins’ critical role in dismantling the nearly half-century-old constitutional right, causing cruelty and chaos to ensue. Either she was foolish or a hypocritical [sic]. Either way, she is not fit to serve another term in the U.S. Senate.”

Similarly, Collins was harshly criticized in June for saying she had not read the roughly two-page memorandum of understanding that Trump was touting as having ended his ongoing war against Iran. Collins serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee and yet insisted she had “not yet had a chance to read it." The X account Collins Watch, which regularly criticizes the senator, wrote that “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."

Collins is also harshly criticized for relying heavily on billionaires in her reelection big. At least 79 billionaires donated to Collins’ fundraising network between January 2025 and May 20, 2026, a number that rises to 97 if one includes billionaires’ spouses as well. Overall they had donated $9.8 million to Collins’ campaign overall since 2025, comprising roughly one-third of what groups supporting Collins have raised from all donors.

President Donald Trump went on an incoherent rant on Monday that once again put on display his apparent difficulty staying focused on a single subject.

While speaking on the TV program “Fox & Friends” on Monday, Trump meandered away from discussing the two-year anniversary of the assassination attempt against him in Butler, PA in order to talk about co-host Ainsley Earhardt being engaged to his longtime friend, Fox News personality Sean Hannity.

“Well, let’s put it this way. So I’ve known Ainsley longer than the two of you. I’ve known her through a great gentleman, a very handsome man named Sean Hannity,” Trump told “Fox & Friends.” “She seemed to be attracted to him for whatever the hell reason, right?”

He continued, “So I’ve known her for a long time. And I once told her a long time ago, I said, ‘This is a very dangerous—being president is a very dangerous profession.’ I said, ‘Why didn’t you tell me that, Ainsley? I wouldn’t have run.’”

The Daily Beast called the president's answer "bizarre." In the past, Trump himself has characterized his meandering style in interviews as "the weave," while critical journalists have accused the mainstream media of "sanewashing" Trump by refusing to emphasize the unusual way he answers questions.

"As applied to Trump," Columbia Journalism Review's Jon Allsop wrote in 2024, "the idea is that major mainstream news outlets are routinely taking his incoherent, highly abnormal rants — be they on social media or at in-person events — and selectively quoting from them to emphasize lines that, in isolation, might sound coherent or normal, thus giving a misleading impression of the whole for people who didn't read or watch the entire thing. ... If journalists are sometimes sanewashing Trump, why are they doing it?"

This is not the first time in recent days that Trump has made gaffes which raise questions about the 80-year-old politician’s fitness for office. Speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a NATO summit last week, Trump referred to Iran as “the Islamic Republic of Japan” and mistook Zelensky for Russian President Vladimir “Putin.”

“There was absolutely and utterly no awareness that he had said the wrong country's name… You can even see him emphasizing this fact,” psychologist and body language expert Dr. John Paul Garrison said at the time. “He does that when he feels very strongly about something. You can see he's raising his eyebrows right here — he wants everybody to hear what he's saying. And there's no attempt to correct this. He has no idea based on everything I'm seeing that he just said the wrong country's name.”

Speaking with AlterNet in May, psychiatrist Dr. Henry Abraham (formerly of Tufts University) elaborated on the traits Trump has displayed which suggest he may be declining. Abraham co-signed a May letter from a group of 36 top physicians and mental health experts urging Congress to investigate Trump’s health and remove him from power through the 25th Amendment if necessary.

“There has been a frightening progression of symptoms,” Abraham told AlterNet. “These include grandiosity without moral safeguards, paranoia, impulsivity, vindictiveness, easy misperception of being harmed, moments of omnipotence, uncontrolled rage, and sole control over the use of nuclear weapons in a time of war. As a psychiatrist reviewing these, I can only say ‘Yikes!’”

This Wednesday, July 15 and Thursday, July 16, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee will have a chance to grill Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche — who President Donald Trump has nominated to take over the position permanently. Blanche's nomination is complicated by the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-Kentucky) illness, and former federal prosecutor Barbara McQuade is saying that Democrats have a long list of tough questions they can ask Blanche. But according to The Bulwark's Bill Kristol, the Jeffrey Epstein scandal may be Blanche's greatest vulnerability of all during his Senate confirmation hearing.

"This week, Blanche will be appearing before the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, making the case for his confirmation as attorney general," the Never Trump conservative explains in The Bulwark. "There are, needless to say, many important issues to raise with Blanche, who has been shameless in turning the United States Justice Department into Trump's personal law firm. But if Democratic senators want to stop him — or if, failing that, they at least want to weaken him and the Trump administration's assault on the rule of law — the Epstein coverup should be their focus.

As we saw after the failed attempt to stonewall the Epstein case, and as we have seen since in the none-too-successful coverup, the Epstein case matters to the public. And the public isn't pleased with what they've seen from the Trump administration."

During Blanche's confirmation hearing, Kristol notes, Democrats will have an opportunity to highlight Blanche's role in an Epstein-related meeting with Trump officials.

"A year ago, on July 17, 2025, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche hurried to an emergency evening meeting in the White House Situation Room with his fellow Trump administration apparatchiks," Kristol writes. "Its location might suggest it had to do with national security. It didn't. It was about the political security of Donald Trump. Ten days earlier, the Trump administration had tried to close the door on the Jeffrey Epstein matter. The Justice Department and the FBI had announced that the Epstein investigation was complete, that nothing further could or should be done, and no new documents would be made public. But that effort to stonewall was already falling apart. Now, it had to be replaced with a more elaborate coverup."

Kristol continues, "Orchestrating that coverup was the point of the Situation Room meeting. A week later, Blanche flew to Florida to meet with Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell and ensure she continued not to talk. A week after that, Maxwell was transferred to a cushy federal prison."

If survivors of Epstein's crimes are present during Wednesday's hearing, Kristol emphasizes, it will be a bad look for Blanche.

"It's also likely that when Blanche testifies on Wednesday, Epstein survivors will be present," Kristol observes. "Will Blanche, who has refused to meet with them, acknowledge them? Will he apologize for the botched redaction process over which he presided that exposed them to further pain and harassment? Will he repudiate Trump’s dismissal of them? On Thursday, Democrats intend to use their limited ability to call witnesses to have at least one courageous Epstein survivor appear. That testimony could be the highlight of the hearing."

Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-South Carolina) death over the weekend complicates many of President Donald Trump's priorities, from the SAVE America Act to the nomination of Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche to take over that position permanently. The Trump White House is hoping to see Graham's U.S. Senate seat filled as soon as possible, and they're making it clear that Rep. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) is the last person they want.

The possible contenders, according to Axios reporters Marc Caputo and Andrew Solender, range from Mace to Darline Graham Nordone (the late senator's sister) to Rep. Joe Wilson (R-South Carolina). And Nordone is Trump's top choice for the seat.

"President Trump wants South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham's sister to fill his seat on an interim basis after his unexpected death early Sunday," Caputo and Solender explain in Axios. "Why it matters: Trump has a close friendship and working relationship with South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R), who's expected to make the temporary appointment today. Before Trump's announcement that he favors Darline Graham Nordone to serve her brother's term the rest of the year, Trump's advisers were sending signaling that Graham Nordone likely would be the pick."

In a July 13 post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote, "I recommended, to Governor Henry McMaster, Lindsey Graham's wonderful sister, Darline, to serve as interim Senator from the Great State of South Carolina. This would be a fabulous tribute to Lindsey, who loved her dearly! President DONALD J. TRUMP."

According to a Trump official interviewed on condition of anonymity, the White House has zero desire to see Mace appointed to the Senate seat Graham held for many years.

The official told Axios, "If Mace ends up in a runoff, we'll drop $2 million on her head to keep her out. All we want is a Republican who is sane and can work with the White House."

NOTUS reporter Oriana Gonzáles highlighted that quote on X, tweeting, "this is… quite the quote about Nancy Mace."

Another Trump official, also interviewed on condition of anonymity, had an equally scathing comment on Mace — telling Axios, "POTUS wasn't a fan already, but putting herself out as a candidate while everyone was absorbing the news of Lindsey's death was in poor taste, even for Mace."

Mace believes that Trump's allies are unfairly singling her out in light of the fact that

Mark Lynch (Graham's GOP primary challenger) and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-South Carolina) also floated their own names as possible contenders.

Mace told Axios, "Two men announced they were running to replace Lindsey Graham yesterday — within hours of his passing. I wasn't one of them. The pearl clutching by people afraid I will run hit a new high."

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was called out by name in a recent ruling by Judge Kathleen Williams just days ahead of his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee

Speaking about the ruling on CNN, host Dana Bash and senior justice correspondent Evan Perez reported that there were a few Justice Department prosecutors named by the judge for possible disciplinary action.

As Perez reported, "The judge is calling out this entire thing, saying that this was essentially an attempt to defraud the court, because this was not really an adverse litigation. This was not the president suing an adverse party, but rather because the president controls the Justice Department and his own former personal lawyer essentially was involved in this, that there was really no two separate sides on this."

But then Blanche got his own take down from the judge.

"The day after the dismissal, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified before Congress," the ruling reads. "In response to a question as to why the 'settlement agreement' had not been provided to this Court for review, he replied that 'there is no judge' because the case had been dismissed and, therefore, there was 'no mechanism' for reviewing the 'settlement agreement.'"

"On that same day," the judge continued, "Acting Attorney General Blanche issued an 'order' (the 'Release Order') which referenced the 'settlement agreement' and released the President, his relatives, companies, and affiliates from 'any and all claims, counterclaims, [and] causes of actions; that 'have been or could have been asserted' against Plaintiffs that arise out of '(1) any matters that were raised or could have been raised in the Case or the Pending Agency Claims; (2) Lawfare and/or Weaponization; (3) any matters currently pending or that could be pending (including tax returns filed before the Effective Date) before Defendants or other agencies or departments.'"

Blanche's name and signature were on the "Release Order," she added.

"On June 2, 2026, in testimony before the United States House of Representatives, Acting Attorney General Blanche advised that the Anti-Weaponization Fund would not be moving forward," the judge added. "He did not, however, commit to a similar termination of the audit and immunity protections set forth in his Release Order. Six days later, President Trump nominated Mr. Blanche to permanently serve as Attorney General of the United States."

Blanche has continued to refuse to sign a legal document asserting that the slush fund is dead.

"She also points out that after Todd Blanche said that the fund was dead, he has refused to say in writing that it is dead forever, that there is not some other version of this that could be resuscitated," Perez said. "Of course, Dana, all of this is important timing because, of course, Todd Blanche is headed for his confirmation hearing on Wednesday before the Senate."

Bash confirmed, "This judge is effectively saying that Todd Blanche, who is the acting attorney general and is going to be, as you mentioned, up on Capitol Hill this week, for confirmation to be the permanent attorney general, maybe should be disbarred. Right?"

Perez agreed that the judge was "referring him to the Bar Associations."

A federal court judge got "really worked up" in a ruling against President Donald Trump and his Justice Department on Monday.

Legal analysts posted the ruling in Trump's IRS case, in which the judge decided the lawsuit and creation of $1.8 "anti-weaponization fund" was improper as Trump was in control of both sides of the negotiations and litigation.

One of the findings from the judge is that the plaintiff's attorney, Alejandro Brito, is being referred to the Florida Bar for an investigation to decide whether disciplinary actions are warranted. Another attorney, Daniel Z. Epstein, "will be denied for one year" admission "pro hac vice in the Southern District of Florida."

According to legal reporter Chris Geidner, who runs the Law Dork substack, "Judge Kathleen Williams also sanctions Trump's lawyers, issues monetary sanctions and harshly criticizes DOJ's 'untenable' conduct."

Trump legal foe Norm Eisen took a victory lap, commenting on BlueSky, that the ruling "Knocks out any legal basis for the $1.8 billion, Also undermines the accompanying settlements, And opens the way to ethics [and] financial SANCTIONS."

Among the comments from the judge includes the accusation that Trump "abused the judicial process" in what amounts to a sham case just to have "access to taxpayer funds and exemption from audits and other investigations."

"It is risible to suggest there was ever adverseness between the parties," wrote Judge Williams.

New Mexico civil litigator Owen Barcala posted specifics about the case, encouraging folks to peruse it as it's "a fun read, you can tell the judge really got worked up by what Trump/DOJ was trying to do, but I'm not really sure it invalidates or nullifies the settlement agreement as some people are saying."

"The main holding," he explained, "is that there was not sufficient adversity to support Article III jurisdiction. That means the court never had jurisdiction over this supposed claim and can't enter any orders on the merits. So, functionally, the court can't enter an order directed at the validity of the agreement."

He added, "But the court can enter non-merits orders against the parties in the form of sanctions. This supports the purpose of Rule 11 because, otherwise, a party who files a frivolous case escapes precisely because the case is frivolous. So a court has to have the ability to sanction even after dismissing. The court recognizes this because the sanction is directed toward the parties, not the merits of the settlement fund itself. The parties cannot refer to the purported 'settlement agreement' as a 'settlement' reached in this matter. The last part is important — limited to a 'settlement' in this case."

The ruling is a tough blow, coming mere days ahead of attorney general candidate Todd Blanche's appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he will face questions from lawmakers on the matter.

"Blanche and [Stanley] Woodward were required to recuse themselves from issues related to the [January 6] and stolen documents criminal inquiries (because they represented Trump) and instead those were Exhibits A and B in 'anti-weaponization' claims for settlement," Law & Chaos co-reporter Andrew Torrez remarked on BlueSky.

CNN's Jake Tapper issued a strong fact-check after claims from President Donald Trump's secretary of defense alleged there were people leaking information from the department.

According to Secretary Pete Hegseth, leaks put their brave American soldiers in danger.

"I have delegated tasking authority to ⁠the [Department of Defense's] Office of ⁠General Counsel, empowering OGC to request and ⁠receive all information, records and support across the department concerning media leak investigations," Hegseth said ⁠in an X video.

Tapper responded with, "I know of one leak that put our brave pilots at risk!"

He posted a link to the full inspector general's report revealing that Hegseth used the Signal app to leak classified information to his family outside the Pentagon.

He specifically quoted the significant finding that "The Secretary sent nonpublic DOD information identifying the quantity and strike times of manned U.S. aircraft over hostile territory over an unapproved, unsecure network approximately 2 to 4 hours before the execution of those strikes. Using a personal cell phone to conduct official business and send nonpublic DOD information through Signal risks potential compromise of sensitive DoD information, which could cause harm to DOD personnel and mission objectives."

The full report also had screen captures of the secretary's message that outlined every detail about conditions and the mission ahead of the U.S. strike in Yemen against Houthi rebels.

Hegseth risked "endangering U.S. troops by using the Signal messaging app to share military plans before the first attack in Yemen," the IG ruled.

Tapper went on to cite the reports finding that "if this information had fallen into the hands of U.S. adversaries, Houthi forces might have been able to counter U.S. forces or reposition personnel and assets to avoid planned U.S. strikes…”

“Even though these events did not ultimately occur, the secretary’s actions created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed U.S. mission objectives and potential harm to U.S. pilots," Tapper added from the report.

"Some call them whistleblowers. When they’re alerting the public to government lies and malfeasance, for instance," Tapper later added.

The ongoing saga of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool continued Monday as the water drained, revealing the damage that was visible. Thus far, there is no 350-foot gash in the lining.

Photos from Washington D.C., activist Joe Flood and Democratic Party strategist Matt Rein show the slow process of the pool draining. Rein's photos in particular show that as the pool drained along the parts of the pool that were reachable by the public, there were no gashes.

U.S. District Attorney Jeannine Pirro has charged individuals with intentionally damaging the pool. In one case, Olympian David Hearn was accused by Pirro at a press conference of “forcefully and violently” pulling up the Reflecting Pool liner "with both hands." But the charging documents only say he "maliciously did injure, break and destroy certain property."

"The president said that somebody took a box cutter—" a reporter began to ask during Pirro's press conference.

Pirro agreed, "Yeah." She added, "Someone intentionally did a tremendous amount of damage to the pool, and you can actually see where all the cutting is. They took a sharp object and cut for many feet along the pool."

For someone to have made such a gash, it would be along the side, unless someone jumped into the pool and began cutting the bottom.

The reporter asked Pirro if there were photos confirming her claims.

"When I file a charge, I'll be happy to show you a picture. All right? What I'm trying to do is we're trying to find out who did it. Okay? And until we get to that point, I'm not going to be able to get to that point. I'm not going to be able to you know, discuss anything more than there was tremendous damage that was caused," Pirro said at the time.

President Donald Trump went further with his box-cutter conspiracy theory, saying, without proof, that "vandals" had sliced the gash into the pool.

"No, we had vandalism ... no, vandals," Trump said at the end of June when asked about it. "We have a 290-, I think 300-foot slit right through, probably a box cutter or a knife of some kind."

For a few weeks leading up to the July 4 celebration, Trump hired a company that used a "nanobubble technology" to fix the algae problem in the Reflecting Pool. It was successful and the nanobubblers were removed for the big fireworks display. Within days, the algae was back and has remained for the past week.

Federal agents have shot and killed another person, this time in Maine.

According to the Bangor Daily News, agents working for United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shot and killed a man in Biddeford, which is a little over 15 miles south of Portland. Thus far only one person has been pronounced dead.

Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, who represents Biddeford, released a statement after the incident detailing everything he knew thus far and noting that he expects the FBI to take over the investigation, as they have with all shootings involving federal agents.

“These are the details that I have at this time. I will provide further updates, as they are relayed to me,” Fecteau said.

It's the second person killed by ICE in less than a week. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who has lived in the U.S. for decades, was driving his construction crew to a site in Houston, Texas, when he was killed.

According to a PBS report, Salgado Araujo's family noted he was inches from getting his full status after living in the U.S. for 35 years. He was well aware of what to do when approached by ICE agents, and his son said he was worried that his father could have been scared if he was approached by unmarked vehicles or officers who weren't in uniform, because the men were going to steal his tools.

The deaths are only the latest in the violent immigrant crackdown since President Donald Trump entered office and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin took over the department. Trump had campaigned on getting "criminals" out of the U.S. The Bangor Daily News said that of the nearly 200 detainees in the state, only 11 had criminal convictions. They said it "[undercuts] the Trump administration’s claim that it was targeting the 'worst of the worst.'"

This equals nine people who have died under Mullin's leadership, an AP report cited. At least 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025 alone. So far, 19 have in 2026, Axios cited.

The sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has set up several problems for the U.S. Senate, and this week's big one is the nomination of Todd Blanche to lead the Justice Department.

On Wednesday and Thursday, President Donald Trump's acting attorney general Todd Blanche is scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to defend himself against a number of missteps, including his flubs in handling the release of investigation files for Jeffrey Epstein. Graham's chair will be empty.

Graham would have been a solid vote to support Blanche and likely a good defender of his during the hearing. Without Graham, the GOP can lose just one more vote, but two key members on the committee also recently lost their primary races thanks in large park to Trump. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) decided to retire after a number of clashes with Trump and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) lost up against Trump's pick, Ken Paxton.

Corny has expressed reservations. Meanwhile, Tillis might be convinced to put his foot down.

After meeting with Blanche in June, Cornyn said Blanche had committed to briefing senators on the tax audit immunity piece of the settlement.

As the Washington Post reports, without Graham and McConnell, there's simply a 1-senator majority, assuming every senator is present.

Bloomberg Law explained on Sunday evening that Blanche is already having trouble with Republicans who want to see him "dispel concerns from some Republicans over his level of independence from White House influence," former Senate aides confirmed.

“This is a devastating loss for America and the people of South Carolina,” Blanche wrote in a post on X about Graham.

One of Blanche's promises to Senate Republicans is that he will not create the $1.8 billion slush fund crafted for Trump's "anti-weaponization fund." One of the agreements in the fund state neither Trump nor his family could ever be audited again by the IRS.

Losing Graham, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, also adds to the problem as it comes to passing what's left of Trump's agenda. At the same time, the absence of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a key member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, means Trump's budget demands could be on pause. Sept. 30 is the funding deadline. If the Senate can't pass either bill, a government shutdown will occur. There have already been two shutdowns this year: one short and one partial, from February 14 to April 30, for the Department of Homeland Security.

Meanwhile, neoconservative Bill Kristol announced a new video hitting Blanche from his political group Home of the Brave. Largely made up of disaffected Republicans and conservatives, the group accuses Blanche of hiding 2 million pages of the Epstein files. It also hangs blame for the transfer of Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell to a "puppies and pilates" prison.

"Home of the Brave is here to make sure Americans know exactly who this man is," Kristol said about the video the group released. "All week, as Blanche gets ready to face Congress, we’re running a version of this video as an ad nationally on Fox News primetime. We’re also blanketing DC with street posters calling on Congress to ask Blanche about Epstein."

Their ultimate aim is to stop the Blanche takeover of the Justice Departmen