generalized anxiety disorder

Trump 'asleep at the wheel' as US faces worst terrorist threat in decades: ex-DHS official

President Donald Trump and his appointees — including Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, FBI Director Kash Patel and federal prosecutor Jeanine Pirro — often paint themselves as zealous defenders of national security. But according to former Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor, national security is suffering greatly under Trump's second presidency—and the United States is the most vulnerable it has been since the al-Qaeda terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

In a late June interview with Zeteo's John Harwood, Taylor warned about "people who want to kill Americans" and added, "We are less prepared to stop them than at any point since 9-11."

The conservative Taylor served in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) during Trump's first administration, but he later became quite critical of Trump publicly and is now very much in the Never Trump camp — rooting for Joe Biden in 2020 and Kamala Harris in 2024.

The U.S., according to Taylor, is "asleep at the wheel" from a national security standpoint.

Harwood asked Taylor where the greatest national security threats are coming from, to which he responded, "You'd normally, in the national security realm, you worry about holidays. Why? Because terrorists love holidays. They see it as a prime opportunity to capture the public horror. And so, whether it was the Fourth of July or Halloween or Christmas or New Year's, those were the periods when the Department Homeland Security and FBI — we were on heightened alert."

The former DHS official continued, "I mean, people hear that terminology all the time, but there's a reason why you were on heightened alert. That also means, if you work in those agencies, you are used to holidays being destroyed. I can remember Christmas Days and New Year's Days where I was sitting in the basement of a family member's house for four hours dealing with the response to one of these things."

Taylor noted that during the United States' 250th anniversary celebrations, law enforcement agencies "will rightfully be concerned." And when Harwood asked if they would be more concerned about foreign terrorists or domestic terrorists, he replied, "I think both."

Taylor told Harwood, "I think that there's an equal measure of potential threats from Iranian proxies…. Terrorist organizations like ISIS and al-Qaeda still have the capability and intent to attack the United States. But also, domestically. There are a wide range of domestic extremist organizations that might want to use the 250th to make a statement. That includes organizations that are opposed to Donald Trump."

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Trump looted nearly $1 billion from 'struggling' National Parks to pay for vanity projects

In March, President Donald Trump claimed that a series of flippant White House renovations costing $1.3 million were “paid for by me,” but new reporting in the Atlantic has revealed that, in fact, American taxpayers footed the bill in the form of funding looted from the already struggling National Parks Service. What's more, Trump has diverted a total of nearly $1 billion to cover his D.C. vanity projects, forcing the Parks Service to cancel hundreds of badly needed improvements.

As reporter Michael Scherer explains, “The pathway that connects the White House residence to the Oval Office has long been paved in Tennessee flagstone. Every president since Harry Truman made the 45-second commute, and made it without complaint, until Donald Trump. The dun rock would not do. Instead, Trump wanted polished African granite, carved in Italy, with a flamed-finish stripe — slightly raised, to prevent slips — running down the middle. As workers tore up the flagstone last March, a reporter asked Trump who was paying for the enhancements. ‘Paid for by me,’ he replied. But that wasn’t true.”

According to budget documents from the National Park Service obtained by Scherer, “the walkway replacement cost taxpayers $689,232, and is part of a $1.3 million project that included repairing adjacent stone and masonry and providing new hardware for nearby doors. A year earlier, in a separate ‘Rush project at request of POTUS,’ the Park Service spent $347,503 to remove and replace the stucco on the colonnade wall, a project that cleared the way for Trump to affix gold frames and plaques mocking some of his predecessors.”

This, notes Scherer, is a massive shift of taxpayer funds away from National Parks across the country, and as a result, “parks have had to cancel needed repairs, slash their budgets and operate with fewer employees. Taxpayer spending on projects in the National Capital Region has increased 92 percent over the past year… The windfall draws on revolving maintenance accounts and more than $100 million in fees collected almost entirely from National Parks elsewhere.”

Instead of National Parks, the money has gone to Trump’s disastrous Reflecting Pool debacle, the refurbishment of fountains, coating statues with gold and his $1.6 million Fourth of July fireworks display — which he has vowed will be the largest in history — among other efforts in D.C. According to Scherer, Trump’s requests for billions more have been rejected by Congress.

“As Trump attempts to adorn his immediate surroundings with taxpayer-funded improvements, other parks are going without,” explains Scherer. “Park Service employees I spoke with describe a quiet crisis unfolding as the Interior Department’s regular budget shrinks and political appointees redirect the dwindling funds. More than 900 Park Service projects that were expected to be funded this year never received the money, according to internal records. They include a $1.5 million roof-replacement project at the Yellowstone Center for Resources to halt pest invasions and water leaks, more than $3 million to continue operating the free-bus system in Acadia National Park and a roughly $424,000 guardrail replacement on the cliff edge of Black Canyon in Colorado’s Gunnison National Park, a project needed to rectify a ‘significant safety hazard for visitors.’”

“The president is prioritizing D.C. at the expense of parks throughout the country,” said Emily Douce, a lobbyist for the National Parks Conservation Association. “There is $24 billion of maintenance needs throughout the National Park Service system, and adding these new vanity projects just adds to the need.”

The numbers that Scherer lays out are shocking. According to “dozens of pages of budgetary documentation,” there has been “an $854 million, or 68 percent, decrease in spending on projects in park regions outside the Washington area in the first eight and a half months of fiscal year 2026, compared with the full prior fiscal year. That includes a $235 million decrease in spending in Pacific West parks such as Yosemite, a $254 million decrease in the Intermountain Region parks such as Yellowstone, and a $33 million decrease in Alaska. During that same period, spending around Washington increased by about $100 million, not counting about $310 million in donations that the Park Service received from allies of the president, most of which is going to fund a new White House ballroom.”

A Park Service employee who was not authorized to speak with the media told Scherer that some parks and projects have had “nearly 70 percent of their approved anticipated project funds pulled back,” forcing them to delay making crucial repairs to historic structures, hiring interns, and ensuring that trails are wheelchair accessible. “It means that signage and exhibits won’t be improved,youth programs can’t be offered, that a trail is not improved,” said the employee.

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Trump has reason to worry as warning lights flash in deep-red America

President Donald Trump is now starting to lose ground in deep-red areas of the country that wer once considered to be his stronghold.

Trump's trade war, the Iran war, affordability and a slew of corruption allegations are taking their toll on red America.

The Daily Beast cited a collection of polls showing flashing warning lights for the scrambling Republican Party as the November midterm approaches.

"Even if Democrats are unsuccessful in flipping districts in Trump country, their ability to largely close the gap in deep red parts of the U.S. offers a surge of hope to Democrats praying for a blue wave come November," the report noted.

Internal polling shows positive signs for Democratic Arizona congressional candidate Jonathan Nez, who is in a district that Trump won by 15 points in 2024. Nez is now within striking distance of GOP Rep. Eli Crane.

The National Journal’s Hotline revealed the poll, which shows Crane in a statistical tie with his Democratic challenger. Nez is at 41 percent and Craine at 44 percent. There are nine percent of voters left undecided.

Nez is a re-run campaign, having lost in 2024 by nine points, but Trump is so far underwater in the district that it appears his coattails are pulling Crane down with him. A whopping 56 percent of the district disapproves of the job he's doing.

Arizona isn't the only place. One normally red Republican district in upstate New York, where Trump won by 20 points in 2024, now has Democratic candidate Blake Gendebien one point behind his GOP opponent, Politico reported.

The seat is currently held by GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik, who won in 2024 by a whopping 24 points. Now, GOP candidate Anthony Constantino is close to losing.

In northern Pennsylvania, the 8th district is low-hanging fruit for Democrats. It's another match-up where the Republican, Rep. Rob Bresnahan, is in trouble.

CNN's John King visited the district, where he met a local farmer who said she's seeing more and more people show up at her pro-Democratic Party events.

Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti is currently two points above the GOP congressman. The district was won by Trump in 2024 by eight points. But when Bresnahan won in 2024 it was with about 6,000 votes. It is seen as one of the top ten races in the U.S. that Democrats believe they can flip from red to blue.

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Republican strategist warns Americans should 'fear' lame-duck Trump

As President Donald Trump rages into the lame-duck period of his reign, a prominent Republican campaign strategist is sounding the alarm that Americans should “expect the final two years of Trump’s term to be both frightening and historic.” And by “historic” she means not only the major events that may come to pass, but is nodding to “Mad King George,” whose tyranny the American colonies had to fight a whole revolution to escape.

This is according to GOP campaign strategist Myra Adams, who, writing for the Hill, points out that England’s George III — known as “Mad King George” — spurred on the American Revolution in part by “preventing colonial legislatures from passing laws for the public good. It topped a list of grievances that made up most of the Declaration.”

“This year’s 250th anniversary is marked by revolutionary irony,” notes Adams. “One could argue that President Trump is channeling King George by committing similar ‘usurpations,’ such as impounding money appropriated by Congress and refusing to sign two bipartisan pieces of legislation that serve the public good. First, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is a key provision that leaders warn jeopardizes national security if not renewed. Second, Trump canceled plans to sign a housing affordability bill addressing the nationwide crisis.”

After defeating the crazed British monarch, the American Founders “established three equal branches of government with checks and guardrails to prevent future elected presidents from usurping power if they exhibit mad-king-like behavior. One notable guardrail is the midterm elections, when the electorate can vote to remove the president’s party from control of Congress. New legislators and senators can then rein in the chief executive by defunding programs, blocking actions, and voicing discontent with unpopular wars initiated by the president… At its most extreme, Congress can remove the president through impeachment by the House and conviction in the Senate. “

After the mid-terms, a twice-elected president enters their “lame duck” phase, in which they can never run for president again. But in the case of Trump, asserts Adams, Americans “can expect him to defy that denigrating label, which embodies his greatest fears: weakness and dwindling power. Now watch the president’s controversial pre-midterm meddling as lame-duck Donald poses a unique set of dangers nationally and globally.”

Trump, with “no filter” and a “messianic mindset,” has already suggested that he will challenge any constraints on his actions. As the Hill previously reported, he has “insisted there are ‘no limits’ to his power … in a new interview about his takeaways from the Iran war.” Trump has also argued that “the one thing” limiting his power is “my own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

Now, warns Adams, he’s bringing that outlook to the midterms and his remaining time in office.

“After the midterms, if Republicans lose control of the House, Senate, or both, Trump, as the face of the Republican Party, is likely to lash out and seek scapegoats,” writes Adams. “We can expect legal challenges to 'rigged' elections and further campaigns of retribution against his enemies. Perhaps Trump will find or manufacture an excuse to deploy the military domestically by declaring martial law, anything to prove he did not lose… Conversely, if Republicans retain full control of the House and Senate, Trump will act on his no-limits-on-power mandate with epic fury.”

However the midterms turn out, says Adams, “Expect the final two years of Trump’s term to be both frightening and historic…I fear for our nation, given that 59 percent of Americans believe ‘Trump is mentally, physically unfit to serve effectively,’ according to a Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll. In late April, a Fox News poll found that among registered voters, 60 percent thought Trump lacked the temperament to be president, 55 percent believed he lacked mental soundness, and 57 percent said he lacked the judgment to be president.”

“Watch how America’s foundation is tested by a lame duck who believes his power has no limits,” she warns in conclusion. “Meanwhile, Trump appears increasingly unstable amid declining health. He commands the world’s strongest military and acts against his ‘subjects,’ like the mad king our Founders rebelled against and designed a government to prevent.”

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Why a federal judge’s stern rebuke was so humiliating for Trump DOJ: legal expert

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz became yet another target of the Donald Trump-era U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) when the offices of him and other Democratic officials in that state received immigration-related grand jury subpoenas. But those subpoenas were invalidated by U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz — a development that attorney Lisa Needham describes as a major humiliation for the Trump DOJ.

Needham, in scathing analysis for her Public Notice column, argues, "One thing that is becoming increasingly clear as President Trump's second term grinds on is that the lower courts have had enough and aren't interested in entertaining the administration's persistent lawlessness. In a truly remarkable setback for the Department of Justice, the chief judge of the United States District Court in Minnesota, Patrick Schiltz, quashed six grand jury subpoenas targeting state and local elected officials, saying they 'were not issued to investigate, but to harass, coerce and retaliate.'"

Walz, who was Democratic nominee Kamala Harris' running mate in the United States' 2020 presidential election, argued that the subpoenas were politically motivated — and Schiltz expressed similar views in his biting rebuke of the Trump DOJ.

Needham emphasizes that it's rare for a federal judge to throw out federal grand jury subpoenas.

"When it comes to grand jury subpoenas, the government enjoys a remarkable amount of deference from the courts," Needham writes. "Those subpoenas are presumed to be reasonable, and a party challenging them has the burden of overcoming that presumption of regularity. Additionally, unlike search warrants, grand jury subpoenas don't require a showing of probable cause. Because of this, it's very hard to get out from under a grand jury subpoena. Courts can quash them if 'compliance would be unreasonable or oppressive.' This usually involves an overbroad demand, where the government asks for tons of records that have no meaningful relevance to the case. Courts can also quash a subpoena if the 'dominant' purpose of it is improper. Investigations initiated out of malice or with the intent to harass fall into this category. You will probably not be surprised to learn that these subpoenas managed to run afoul of both of these."

The attorney continues, "But the evidence showing that the subpoenas were issued 'as part of an unconstitutional effort to coerce Minnesota officials into assisting the federal government with enforcing civil immigration laws and to harass and retaliate against them for failing to do so' was so strong that the court quashed the subpoenas for that reason alone."

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'Trump wears thin after a while': Evangelicals bail on lame-duck president

As the latest polls show plunging support for President Donald Trump among evangelical Christians — the group that has remained most loyal to him through three elections — experts say it’s because a growing number of them are beginning to question his “cult of personality” and asking themselves whether they “have to keep supporting everything he does.”

As Stephanie Ruhle of MSNOW reports, “Evangelicals have stood with Donald Trump through thick and thin,” with over 80 percent voting for him in all three presidential races. Most have even stuck with him through his fight with the Pope. But now, “his hold on the group may be starting to slip. A recent poll from Reuters shows his approval rating with evangelicals is now 52 percent. Back in August the number was 61 percent.” Just before the war with Iran, it was 69 percent. In March 2025, it was even higher at 82 percent. In other words, Trump has seen a dramatic collapse among one of his most essential support groups.

According to Ruhle’s guest, journalist McKay Coppins, who has spent 15 years reporting on the evangelical movement, in order to understand this erosion, you have to look at how evangelicals have evolved to accommodate Trump’s decidedly un-Christian-like behavior.

“There are a couple of things that have changed in the last decade or so of evangelical politics,” says McKay. “When I first started covering them, they were all about family values, character, moral leadership. It was like the white noise of social conservative politics. You would hear the same stuff over and over again. When Donald Trump arrived on the scene, that started to change, and for obvious reason, Donald Trump is very clearly not a moral exemplar, not a Christian example. And so the rhetoric started to pivot. For conservative Christians who wanted to justify their support for him, they started to talk more about populism, cultural issues, about grievance, about political power. And for a while that relationship worked pretty well.”

As long as Trump continued to deliver on conservative social issues, explains McKay, that bargain held. “But Donald Trump is now entering his lame-duck stage, and he hates to hear us talk about that. That's the kind of thing that gnaws at him: the idea that he is fading in relevance. But he is, and evangelicals are looking to the future, and they're starting to wonder: Do we have to keep supporting everything he does? Do we have to be zealous in our adherence to this cult of personality? Maybe not.”

According to McKay, evangelicals have become frustrated with Trump over a number of issues, such as the war with Iran and questions surrounding immigration and refugees. Many Christian ministries in places like Texas, Florida, and Tennessee have long provided assistance to refugees, and Trump’s violent deportation program is “alienating to a lot of evangelicals.”

And for others, concludes McKay, the issue may simply be that “Donald Trump wears thin after a while.”

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Bolton attorney tears apart Trump in blistering statement after client's guilty plea

On Friday morning, June 26, former National Security Adviser John Bolton entered a guilty plea to illegally retaining classified information related to his work in the first Trump administration. But Bolton's attorney, that same morning, gave a scathing opinion of the indictment.

Lowell, according to journalist Scott MacFarlane, said, in his statement, "Ambassador Bolton did what real leaders do. He took responsibility for a mistake he made, thereby saving the government resources to pursue a case that could expose additional sensitive information. By contrast, President Trump thumbed his nose at the classified information laws, took actual classified documents to his Florida mansion, interfered with the investigation of that conduct, and has never accepted any accountability for his conduct. Ambassador Bolton, whose offense was only keeping a diary which contained classified information, kept a record to preserve history, but Donald Trump kept secrets to serve himself."

According to NBC News reporters Owen Hayes and Rebecca Shabad, Bolton "faces a prison sentence of up to 60 months and has agreed to pay $2.25 million, prosecutors said. He is set to be sentenced October 28."

Hayes and Shabad note, "Bolton described the national security information that he retained as an electronic diary entry that he shared with two members of his family. Bolton was originally indicted in October 2025, charged with eight counts of transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of retention of national defense information. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and faced up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine per count, and three years of special release."

The NBC News reporters point out that in 2025, Lowell said of the case against Bolton, "The underlying facts in this case were investigated and resolved years ago. These charges stem from portions of Amb. Bolton's personal diaries over his 45-year career — records that are unclassified, shared only with his immediate family, and known to the FBI as far back as 2021."

Hayes and Shabad report, "Last fall, Bolton was the third Trump critic to be indicted by the Justice Department, which also charged New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey in separate cases on charges of mortgage fraud and lying to Congress, respectively. After a federal judge dismissed the charges against James, the DOJ twice failed to re-indict her."

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'Trump fever is breaking' as GOP privately fears 'administration is dead in the water'

DC insiders, including some in the White House, have begun referring to President Donald Trump’s administration as “Weekend at Bernie’s” due to its shambling, farcical nature. What’s more, it’s become clear that “Trump fever is breaking.”

This is according to Salon White House correspondent Brian Karem, who, based on conversations with wide-ranging figures on Capitol Hill and in the administration, describes a zombie presidency that continues to stagger forward while the chief executive dozes and his aides try to maintain the illusion of normalcy, all while onlookers are aware of the facade.

As Karem explains, Trump’s recent actions have torpedoed the Republican agenda, prompting members of his own congressional caucus to openly view him with “anger and derision.” In the words of one Republican representative, “It’s a f—— s–— show, isn’t it? It’s always about him. That’s his only idea. He’s nuts.”

This, says Karem, is the sign that “Trump fever is breaking.” Not only are top voices in the GOP pushing back against him, but they’re now considering their options for “when the day finally comes that the 80-year-old president is no longer around.”

“Some of us are wondering if it will be sooner than later,” a junior member of Congress said, noting that some “have started to refer to the whole enterprise as ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ — referring to the legendary 1989 comedy in which two aides try to pass off their dead boss as alive.”

While some of the president’s opponents like to raise the specter of impeachment, few in DC think this is likely — at least until after the midterms, depending on how they turn out. Instead, says Karem, “members on both sides of the aisle, and even members of Trump’s staff, are more concerned that the president will roll over like a cockroach and start spouting gibberish (if he hasn’t done that already) or that he simply won’t survive his full term, which still has 940 days to go. In both cases, ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ is the proper analogy. ‘This administration is dead in the water,’ another Republican congressman told me.”

As a result, writes Karem, “Behind the scenes, there’s a lot of scrambling among Republicans that’s starting to look more like panic than strategy.” They’re infighting over who will be Trump’s heir, and frantically attempting to paint Democrats as “communists” following a handful of far-left electoral wins in New York City, “even as they try to keep the ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ routine going.”

But, asserts Karem, “the palace is on fire and the king is asleep — literally. Photos of Trump asleep in public are everywhere and drive home the agonizing ‘Bernie’s’-themed memes being shared among GOP staffers…Trump is increasingly lethargic, unintelligible and addicted to cosplaying commander-in-chief for the cameras. White House reporters, meanwhile, are preparing for the day — perhaps a day when they serve as pool reporter — when they get the call about a calamity befalling the president. That might happen.”

With all this in mind, Karem forecasts, “the ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ regime can’t possibly last much longer.”

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'Stonewalled': Trump hitting a brick wall with his latest obsession

President Donald Trump continues to double down on his voter fraud fixation, repeating the widely debunked claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him and pressuring the U.S. Senate to pass the SAVE America Act as soon as possible — even if it means ditching the Senate filibuster. But according to Axios reporter Brittany Gibson, Trump's voter fraud claims are not serving him or fellow Republicans well.

"President Trump's voter fraud crusade is crashing into the limits of his power ahead of November's midterm elections," Gibson explains in Axios. "Why it matters: Trump has made cracking down on alleged mass voter fraud a priority, but his election-related executive orders are stalled in court and his legislative fix is stuck in the Senate…. Senate Republicans have defied Trump on the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote."

Gibson continues, "Trump has retaliated by threatening not to sign any legislation without it. But Senate Republicans insist they don't have the votes to pass it, even if they tried to gut their own rules in the process."

The Axios reporter emphasizes that resistance to his voter fraud obsession is coming not only from GOP lawmakers, but also, from federal courts that have "stonewalled" him.

"A D.C. court, on Monday, blocked Trump's expansion of the SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) database — to scan local voter files for noncitizens," Gibson reports. "The new database created a centralized list that includes data on U.S. citizens, not just immigrants. Another district court in Boston ruled, on Wednesday, against the implementation of one of Trump's first executive orders demanding a citizenship verification at registration. "

Gibson adds, "The administration is expected to appeal. This could eventually escalate the cases to the Supreme Court, which recently ruled in Trump's favor on immigration policy-related cases."

Trump's "defeats" in court, according to Gibson, "have raised the stakes for passing the SAVE America Act" — which he is describing as a "national emergency."

"Instances of voter fraud are rare, but searching for cases has become a priority for the executive branch," Gibson reports. "ICE agents and attorneys have been querying local election officials for specific voter files for 'ongoing cases.' They've obtained voter files in Webb County in Texas and Forsyth County in North Carolina. The Homeland Security Department installed election integrity activist Heather Honey, best known for questioning elections and voter rolls accuracy in Pennsylvania and Arizona, as a deputy assistant secretary. The Department of Justice is also suing multiple states to gain access to their voter rolls."

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Brother of White House aide torches her 'unhealthy' obsession with Trump

The brother of a White House aide is calling his sister's boss a "national embarrassment" as he speaks out about her obsession with President Donald Trump that has now popped up in two books.

The Daily Beast and The Daily Mail reported that a family feud has become public after White House aide Natalie Harp’s brother spoke out, saying he is humiliated by her "very unhealthy" relationship with the president.

The new book by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan reported that Harp drafted a string of love letters to the president that she would leave in his "personal spaces." This was prior to joining the White House staff.

"You are all that matters to me," she gushed in one letter. In another letter, she wrote about being "unworthy" of him.

It was enough that it concerned Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who reportedly asked herself, "Where am I?" the book said.

Mr. Harp said he was shocked to learn about the obsession and that a friend showed him The Daily Mail's preliminary story about a "glamorous new assistant" in the White House.

The two Harp's don't speak, so he told the Daily Mail, "I had no idea. And so it just kind of caused some cognitive dissonance. I don’t understand why my sister, or anyone, could want to work for Trump.”

Mr. Harp lives in Nicaragua and described himself as a "long-haired hippie." He said he was always closer to their father, while she was closer to their mother, who is "deeply religious" and "extremely conservative.

“It’s hard to believe that’s my sister and my mom,” Mr. Harp said, “I can’t connect with that vibe, so I’m just going to let it be.”

Their father died by suicide in the summer of the pandemic, July 2020. Mr. Harp said that his sister and mother wanted to tell people he "died in his sleep" rather than that he killed himself.

This isn't the first time Harp has been mentioned in a book about Trump. Biographer Michael Wolff first sounded the alarm about Harp in his book All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America, recalled The Beast. There was so much concern about her that even the Secret Service considered her a “potential danger," the report said.

All of this has prompted Harp's brother to speak out about her "very unhealthy" relationship. "She's just like his fan club."

Miss Harp began at the far-right network OAN, where she spoke to him for the first time in 2019. One of Trump's pieces of legislation allowed Harp to try an experimental cancer treatment, which may very well have saved her life. That said, the Washington Post speculated that this story may not be entirely accurate.

She then became Trump's personal assistant and became the "human printer" because she followed him around with a portable printer, where she could ensure he could read things on paper rather than using technology. Trump infamously refuses to use emails.

The Haberman/Swan book talks about how much Trump reciprocates that love simply because she'll never leave him.

Trump once told his staff that Harp “was the only one who loved him as much as his wife and his kids."

“All of you will go off and make money,” Trump told his team. “She’ll never leave me.”

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Fox News struggles to 'carry water for Trump' with awkward America 250 coverage

The Great American State Fair kicked off on Wednesday night, June 24 with a speech by President Donald Trump on the National Mall in Washington, DC. The Trump administration is touting the Fair, which continues through July 10, as a celebration of the United States' 250th anniversary. But Trump's critics are arguing that the opening felt more like a partisan MAGA rally than an actual celebration of America's achievements as a democratic republic.

One of those critics is Media Matters' Matt Gertz. During a late June appearance on The New Republic's podcast "The Daily Blast," Gertz stressed that turnout at the Great American State Fair's opening was a major disappointment — citing the MAGA themes as a key factor and attacking Fox News' glowing coverage as painfully awkward.

Fox News, according to Gertz, went out of its way to "carry water" for Trump with its Fair coverage.

Gertz told podcast host Sargent, "It's been a tough few months for people who have to carry water for Donald Trump every night…. And basically, they're trying to use what should be a celebration of the Declaration of Independence, of America’s 250th birthday, as a partisan wedge issue, as a cudgel against the Democratic Party, while simultaneously talking up Donald Trump and his ability to pull a huge crowd and get them together for a big rally. So, the failure, I think, of the kickoff event is a pretty big problem for them in the medium term as they try to keep that message going over the next 10, 12 days."

Gertz described attendance on Wednesday night as a major disappointment.

The Media Matters report told Sargent, a former Washington Post columnist, "Originally, this was supposed to be a big concert with a bunch of different artists who were scheduled to play. But as it became more and more clear that these Freedom 250 events are extremely partisan, the artists decided to drop out. And eventually Trump kind of threw up his hands and said, instead of having this concert, we’re going to launch the state fair with what he called the greatest rally ever. It doesn’t seem to have worked out that way."

Sargent pointed out that Trump "seems very sensitive" about the "low turnout" on June 24, lamenting that he "tried to turn a celebration of America's 250th birthday into a Trump rally." When the "Daily Blast" host described Trump's Great American State Fair speech as an "imperial, dictatorial display of self-glorification," he got no argument from Gertz.

The Media Matters reporter told Sargent, "I mean, I think what we have here is a president who does not respect any sort of separation between himself and the country at large. And so, he views the idea of celebrating the nation's birthday as one and the same with celebrating himself. I think there's no clearer way to see that than how he decided to kick off the festivities with what he personally described as a rally speech — a partisan speech in which he sort of ran down what he claims are his accomplishments and talked about himself, rather than the nation, rather than what brings us together. And that becomes more and more fraught as he becomes more and more unpopular."

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