pentagon leak

President Donald Trump may have instructed his former personal lawyer (and now full-time Department of Justice head) Todd Blanche to threaten Democrats for daring to probe allegations of corruption, but Trump is rapidly losing his teeth, according to Trump’s biographer.

Michael Wolff is a longtime author and reporter best known for his extensive coverage of Trump's political career, including several books about his first term and another about his return to office. And now Wolff says he’s seeing history repeat itself in the second Trump administration — with similarly pathetic consequences for Trump.

The Trump administration is attempting to push back against incoming Democratic leaders with a letter from the president's top lawyer "taking an aggressive — and hugely controversial — stance" against the party's new oversight plans.

But good luck defending a homefront with no army, said Wolff in a Thursday night “Inside Trump’s Head” podcast.

“[After January 3^rd] … we are going to see Trump and the Trump Administration go to war with the Democrats and with Congress, but there's going to be problems with that,” said Wolff. “Nobody [competent] works for the Justice Department anymore.”

“So many people have been leaving,” said show co-host Joanna Cole.

“Right. Most of the people he has had on his side to wage war are leaving. It is going to be Donald Trump and [Chief of Staff] Steven Miller. That is it.”

Normally, Trump could also count his defense attorney from his hush-money conviction as being in his corner — since Trump brought him on as Attorney General. But Wolff said Blanche “is in deep, and he's got to start protecting himself” from legal liability.

“We've seen this before. This is exactly what happened after the loss of the election in 2020,” Wolff continued. “The entire White House — anybody who was semi-professional got out of there as fast as they could and he was left with Rudy Giuliani and his band of nutcases. ... even Stephen Miller left him, and he only came back after January 6th. He came back, made his amends, but he was not among that group of Rudy Giuliani crazies who came to stand behind Donald Trump.”

“And I think we're going to see this again,” concluded Wolff. “Stephen Miller will be in the Rudy Giuliani role and the other true believers — people who have nowhere else to go — will be beside Trump and everybody else will be, ‘I'm out of here.’ Susie Wiles, case in point.”

Liberal political commentator, journalist and Vox co-founder Ezra Klein says MAGA took a brutal hit last week after the midterms delivered a resounding smack. The Trump economy had already been hammering away for years at the young generation that elevated MAGA and made it look so durable on social media, and Klein told the “Thursday Bulwark Daily” podcast that the blue wave unquestionably rang MAGA’s bell.

But nobody should get their hopes up that the legion that comprises the Make America Great Movement and the president who leads it are down and out — not with President Donald Trump with two more years in office.

And even then, other personalities have inched along behind the trail Trump blazed, and these lieutenants are waiting in the wings to claim the MAGA mantle.

“I just want to say, I don't, I feel like it's over. I mean, there's a big fight ahead. Like, so people should not check out,” said Bulwark podcaster Tim Miller. “I mean, the last two years of Donald Trump's might end up being the most dangerous two years, or he might descend into dementia and just want to go golf and build an arch.”

“Well, even if he does descend into dementia and want to golf and build an arch, that's not what Stephen Miller, his new chief of staff is going to want to do,” cautioned Klein. “I think it's really important to realize Donald Trump is not just a person, he's a staff. And what he did is he just made Stephen Miller officially, functionally the prime minister.”

Miller agreed, and then admitted “Donald Trump could be replaced by something dangerous and powerful.”

“I think that conceivably something from the right could emerge from outside this administration that challenges [Vice President] J.D. Vance effectively,” said Miller, citing personalities like entertainer Tucker Carlson. “There's not really a clear leader yet, but I don't think it's impossible that that happens. It doesn't mean we're out of the danger. That just means that we've turned the chapter.”

Right-wing influencers are definitely catching their breath, with some going quiet while others are lamenting that Republicans have lost young men for a generation.

But even a weakened Republican Party is determined to elevate it’s MAGA elements, with the promotion of far-right firebrand Jim Jordan as new minority leader.

Former MAGA lawmaker Joe Walsh described his “old friend” Jorden as a proponent of the debunked argument that the 2020 election was stolen, that brown and Black immigrants should be kept out of America, that America is a Christian theocracy and that “Democrats are evil.”

Worse, Walsh said Jordan in charge means the GOP will “double down” on MAGA philosophy, regardless of whether or not voters approve of it.

Meanwhile, a battalion of MAGA podcasters and entertainers have been honing their arguments, despite being temporarily humiliated by voter backlash.

And Trump is not finished as a force “wielding power in American life,” said Klein, even if he was “finished as the structuring, organizing, cultural principle of American life.”

CNN anchor Jake Tapper held a Trump’s supporter’s conflicting arguments to the fire on Thursday’s episode of “The Lead with Jake Tapper.”

Once a Democratic Illinois governor with a history of supporting liberal programs, Rod J. Blagojevich was arrested in 2008 after prosecutors made the case that he schemed to sell a Senate seat being vacated by Barack Obama after his presidential election.

Blagojevich was impeached, unanimously removed from office, convicted and then jettisoned by his own party. But President Donald Trump commuted the former Democratic governor's 14-year criminal sentence for corruption after eight years.

On Thursday, Blagojevich had nothing but praise for Trump and his policies. But Tapper could not see why, considering the governor’s own contradictory liberal agenda.

“So you pride yourself on looking out for working people in your time as governor,” Tapper told the former governor. “… [O]ne of the achievements that you're proudest of is free public transportation for seniors and the disabled, and I'm wondering how that ethos matches with your support of President Trump. I understand your personal support of President Trump for getting you out of prison, but the political philosophy you had, how does that square with how Trump governs?”

“Well, I think it actually does,” said Blagojevich, who was on CNN hawking his new book. “… I was probably left of center. But I think I was practical. And when I saw an opportunity to be able to help people, I felt that was my job as governor.”

“I would say you were a social welfare Democrat,” inserted Tapper. “I'm sorry for interrupting, but if I had to characterize it, that move with the public transportation, that was like in the tradition of LBJ or FDR. And I just don't see President Trump in that light.”

But rather than argue the issue, Blagojevich launched into a list of his socialist bona fides, reminding Tapper that Illinois was the first state in American history in 2005 to give every Illinois child affordable health care and give 153,000 uninsured women access to mammograms and pap smears.

“That's my point. You're making my point,” said Tapper, looking perplexed.

“But I don't see President Trump that different,” said Blagojevich, citing Trump’s no taxes on tips or overtime, which was one of the selling points of his controversial Big Beautiful Bill that heaped more debt on the government and concentrated tax cuts to upper income brackets.

Tapper pointed out to Blagojevich, however, that Democrats claimed historic gains in the House and Senate, primarily due to their economic and social safety net messaging, while Trump was “resoundingly rejected by the electorate.”

To that, Blagojevich pointed out that he did not predict “there would be a blue wave.”

“I thought the Democrats would win the House and the Republicans would win the Senate,” Blagojevich said, “and I clearly got that wrong.”

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President Donald Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has reportedly lost many of the valuable political and business connections that helped make him into a power broker during the second administration of his father, President Donald Trump.

"Donald Trump Jr. has lost his lucrative gig at the prediction market Kalshi," reported by Erkki Forster on Thursday. "The 48-year-old’s exit from the company comes as newly empowered Democrats have vowed to investigate President Donald Trump and his family’s business dealings with the prediction industry and crypto markets."

Forster added, "However, a Kalshi spokesperson said Don Jr.’s departure was a response to his venture capital firm, 1789 Capital, increasing its stake in rival prediction market Polymarket. Kalshi experienced meteoric growth since hiring Don Jr. as the president’s regulators embraced prediction markets."

A Kalshi spokesperson told The Daily Beast, "We have mutually agreed to end Don’s advisory role after his firm’s significant investment in a competitor this past summer. We are grateful for his contributions in helping us market Kalshi to more customers."

Shortly after Republicans lost the 2026 midterm elections, Donald Trump Jr. found himself under regular criticism from individuals who opposed Trump's method of governing.

Earlier this year, students at Emory Law School shouted taunts at the Trump family.

"This country has rebuked you!" protesters shouted at Donald Trump Jr. as he attempted to preach his message on the University of Georgia campus, according to a video captured by TMZ. They also shouted, "We won the House and the Senate!"

“Around the same time, Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment company controlled by Mr. Lutnick’s family and overseen by his sons Brandon and Kyle Lutnick, helped one of the lead investors working with Dominari on the Kazakh deal raise $210 million in new capital for a related entity,” The New York Times wrote. “Such rounds of fund-raising typically net Cantor millions of dollars in fees.”

Trump Jr. has specifically faced heated criticism for allowing his 2026 wedding to be funded by a Russian oligarch.

"The president has also privately complained to aides that his son Donald Trump Jr. exhibited bad judgment for allowing Russian businessman Umar Kremlev to pay for his post-wedding party in the Bahamas," a November report said.

“We have mutually agreed to end Don’s advisory role after his firm’s significant investment in a competitor this past summer. We are grateful for his contributions in helping us market Kalshi to more customers,” a Trump Jr. spokesperson told the Daily Beast, continuing that those who wished to speak with Don Jr.’s could do so in August.

Just one day after Trump judge Jeffrey Kuntz allowed Trump’s lawsuit against the BBC to proceed, the same judge demanded the president answer potentially embarrassing questions about his family’s money under oath.

An October ruling from U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett mandated that President Donald Trump answer questions about his family’s money, despite Trump’s lawyers clearly fighting to keep the president from taking the stand. Trump’s team has already canceled an Oct. 16 scheduled deposition. Prior to that, BBC lawyers said the initial proposed date for the deposition was for July, but they didn’t hear back until several follow-up requests. Eventually, they settled on October 16.

The litigious president sued the broadcasting company for $10 billion, accusing the network of defamation and violating Florida's deceptive trade practices law over the BBC-produced documentary, Trump: A Second Chance, which chronicles the fallout from Trump's January 2021 U.S. Capitol attacks.

But such a $10 billion price tag warrants the BBC to argue if it is necessary, which brings into question Trump’s wealth — of which the president is apparently unwilling to share with a court in sworn testimony.

“With two months of discovery remaining, the BBC still has not been able to depose, and does not even have a schedule to depose, the most central figure in this case: Plaintiff himself,” BBC’s attorney Charles D. Tobin wrote in the filing. “Those delays have flouted the cooperative spirit of discovery and precluded the BBC from obtaining the evidence necessary to robustly litigate its defense.”

Still trying to stay off the stand, Trump’s team submitted an expedited motion to stay Judge Lett’s order and his December deposition and discovery deadline. But District Judge Kuntz appears to be forging ahead.

“Given the looming discovery deadline, the logic logistical constraints of arranging the deposition … the parties shall comply with current scheduling deadlines,” proclaimed Kuntz on Thursday, adding that any additional changes that are to be made, or presidential appearance to be delayed, must be submitted in writing “on or by November 16.”

Knowing Trump’s history of stalling, U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett warned Trump’s lawyers weeks ago that the entire suit could be thrown out if he does not comply and take the stand.

But I Paper reporter Simon Mark, says Trump’s foot dragging to the stand is the equivalent of “blood in the water” to BBC attorneys.

"Little by little, week by week, the BBC is humiliating Donald Trump in a Florida courtroom that lies just 15 miles from his much-prized golf resort outside Miami,” said Marks.

Despite the size of Republicans’ spanking last week and President Donald Trump’s direct involvement with it, NBC News is still having a hard time finding Republicans with the strength to state the obvious.

“I’ll have to get back to you,” said first-term Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Colo., when asked if Trump’s Iran war and tariff policies got him slaughtered by 15 percentage points last week. “… We’re still looking at all the data,” he said Wednesday.

Evans won his district just two years ago — a startling reversal.

Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., similarly, made no bones about how thoroughly Republicans were trounced in the midterm election, but he was unwilling to point fingers at one of the most unpopular Republican presidents in recent history.

“We forgot those people out there are hurting, and they vote,” said Justice. “We got our ever-loving butt handed to us.”

But when asked about Trump’s influence NBC News said Justice “hesitated” to answer.

“Look, everything plays a part in the whole deal,” said the senator.

NBC News then prodded Justice specifically about the role of Trump’s highly unpopular war in Iran. Justice replied that Trump was given advice about Iran and processed the situation “as best he possibly can.”

“The remarks capture the Republican zeitgeist on Capitol Hill after the party suffered one of its biggest electoral disasters of the century, losing over 40 House seats and at least eight Senate seats, some in deep red territory,” reports NBC News. “The results and the exit polls tell a clear story: A country that elected Trump in 2024 to lower the cost of living deemed him a failure on that core promise, blaming his policies for making things worse and punishing Republicans from coast to coast.”

But even though Republicans who spoke on the record claim they “want a course correction,” “shell-shocked lawmakers are deeply reluctant” to point to Trump. NBC News added that Trump’s Republican Party is even less willing to “use their power on Capitol Hill to change [Trump’s] policies that drove up the costs of gas, diesel and food,” in the first place.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., for example, told NBC News that the 2026 beat-down was the result of “an economic election,” and he played down the role of the Iran war on the economy that drove GOP defeat.

“I don’t think that Republicans lost every single statewide election in Texas because voters thought that America’s foreign policy was too interventionist,” argued Kennedy, adding that Republicans and he should be “looking for self-examination.”

But does Trump also need to do some self-examination, NBC News asked.

“I don’t have any advice today for the president,” Kennedy answered.

“The[se] early responses indicate that Republicans on Capitol Hill — at least the ones who survived the election — will remain loyal to Trump as he enters his final two years.”

This also appears to include Republicans that Trump got bombed out of office, like Evans.