pete hegseth impeachment

President Donald Trump has suffered an embarrassing defeat to former President Barack Obama in a new national poll exploring masculinity.

The Bulwark and Pablo Torre Finds Out released a poll, which found that 59 percent of American adults view Obama as a stronger role model for men, while only 37 percent said the same of Trump.

Trump was right at the bottom of the list when respondents were asked whether he represented a positive example of masculinity. 55 percent said the president was not a strong male role model, leaving him with a negative 18-point net rating.

However, Obama earned a positive 28-point net rating, which is a huge 46-point gap between the rival presidents, which puts the spotlight on how the public feels about Trump’s desire to portray himself as a political strongman.

The results were not split across party lines, as 23 percent who voted for Trump identified Obama as a stronger male role model.

Trump finished last among the politicians, athletes and entertainment figures who were included in the survey.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth performed slightly better than the president, but only 28 percent of respondents considered the Pentagon chief a strong role model for American men, while 39 percent disagreed.

With younger adults between the ages of 18 and 29, Hegseth plummeted, with 34 percent rejecting his image as a strong male role model.

The Bulwark report shows a contradiction between Hegseth’s efforts to project masculinity and toughness and how the public views him.

The Pentagon chief has put an emphasis on his masculinity ideals, such as proposing a testosterone replacement program and physical fitness tests, along with his war on beards.

He has also fat-shamed people whom he considered overweight and frequently participates in physical training with military personnel.

Actor Matthew McConaughey had one of the strongest ratings, posting a positive 33-point net score, followed by Obama at 28 points and NBA legend LeBron James at 25 points.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom didn’t fare well with a negative two-point net rating, with 35 percent identifying him as a strong male role model and 37 percent disagreeing.

YouGov carried out the online poll of 1,417 U.S. adults between 10th and 14th October. The results were weighted to reflect the adult population, and the margin of error reported was 3.6 percentage points.

Trump has frequently attacked Obama, describing him as a "weak leader," but has recently complimented his ability to walk down the stairs of the White House as he deals with the physical decline that usually comes with advanced age.

The latest ridiculous freakout from President Donald Trump and his MAGA followers has once again exposed just how "stupid" they think their voters are, according to the hosts of MS NOW's Morning Joe.

Earlier this week, at a midterm rally in Ohio, former President Barack Obama took a brief aside to mock the overly gold renovations that Trump has done to the White House, and the Oval Office in particular, calling it out with a pointed comedic jab.

"What's with all the gold? He's got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened up a Cheesecake Factory," Obama said.

Certain right-wing pundits attempted to spin that remark as Obama making fun of the Cheesecake Factory restaurant chain, arguing that it exposed him as snobbish and out-of-touch with everyday Americans. Other observers countered these criticisms, pointing out that the reference to the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was the actual point of the punchline. Trump himself appeared rattled by the remarks during his own rally appearance, defending his ability to renovate buildings "very good, [and] very beautifully."

During the Tuesday morning broadcast of Morning Joe, co-host and former congressman Joe Scarborough went off on Trump and the other MAGA acolytes for their attacks on Obama's remarks, arguing that it shows how much contempt they have for the intelligence of their voters.

"The fact that they take a very funny Barack Obama joke and go, 'Oh, the guy whose middle name is Hussein has stepped into it,'" Scarborough said. "We can now say he's un-American for making fun — no, not making fun of The Cheesecake Factory, making fun of all the fake gold that Donald Trump has slathered all around the White House. So it's again, time and time again, they think their viewers are so stupid that they're not going to be able to connect things... 'They closed the rural hospitals, my trucking company's out of business, but he made a joke about Donald Trump that had the words "Cheesecake Factory" in it. I'm voting for the Republicans.' Like, do they really think people are that stupid?"

"Well, it's the desperation," co-host Willie Geist said. "As one host said yesterday on Fox News, this is the deplorables moment, just like [with] Hillary [Clinton]. This is it. Again, as Joe just said, no, it wasn't a joke about The Cheesecake Factory. It was a joke about Donald Trump's supergluing pieces of cheap gold all over the White House and making it look as cheap as it does. The other part of this is, do they really want to have a contrast about who the elitist is? If we're comparing Barack Obama to Donald Trump, the guy who is building a ballroom bigger than the white house, the guy who wants to build an arch, who wants to take over the Kennedy Center, the guy who lives in a castle by the sea, the guy who made [$2.3] billion since he took over[.] Do you really want to have that conversation here?"

National security reporter Ken Klippenstein is hearing from more sources inside President Donald Trump's administration that his Justice Department is trying to craft a "contingency plan" to possibly intervene in the Nov. 3 election.

Three officials with knowledge of the discussions inside the administration revealed that there is a "doomsday" scenario that some think is "improbable but not impossible."

Recently, Trump has even hinted that Trump might do something major if there are things like foreign interference, claims that noncitizens voted or other chaos at the polls, said Klipperstein.

“Nobody knows what the president might do if the midterms don’t go his way," said one intelligence official who served in the first Trump administration.

Axios reported Monday that Trump's new lawsuit in Alaska is only one of the lawsuits Attorney General Todd Blanche plans to file. So far, he's also attacked California, trying to remove 20,000 voters from the rolls at the last minute. This is happening while the DOJ is also trying to indict Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook; after the FBI raided Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-Minn.) Washington residence; after the DOJ indicted Virginia state Sen. Louise Lucas (D), a big Trump critic; and as the department is making a third go at indicting former FBI Director James Comey.

Blanche has even admitted openly that he could move to block a state from certifying the election results.

“Yes, of course there’s scenarios that we could all come up with hypothetically, you know, some doomsday scenario, for example, right?” he told reporters.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon told "60 Minutes" that everything would remain normal “absent some shocking contingency that is unexpected."

"These remarks, sources explain to me, are not just rhetoric. There really are contingency plans," said Klippenstein.

Foreign cyberattacks by pro-Trump hackers in Russia, for example, could spark action from the Justice Department.

“If we need to put in federal controls as opposed to state controls,” Trump said way back in February. “If they can’t do it honestly and it can’t be done properly and timely, then something else has to happen."

Trump went on to say that there is a need for federal controls over elections and not leave it up to the states, despite the role of the states being outlined in the U.S. Constitution.

A few weeks after that interview, Trump met with state governors about the possible "doomsday plan." The DOJ began preparing scenarios that would trigger federal action.

"Under the law, the Attorney General may seek a temporary restraining order or injunction when a violation has occurred or there are reasonable grounds to believe that one is imminent," Klippenstein warned. "The Justice Department could also ask a court to delay finalization of a particular election as part of its argument that the law has been broken."

"Reasonable grounds," he noted, is a judgment call that will depend on which court and which judge is overseeing the case.

“There is no general presidential or attorney-general power to suspend elections or veto a state’s results simply by alleging fraud,” one government lawyer says. “The administration would need to identify some statutory violation, present supporting evidence, and justify whatever particular remedy it is requesting.”

Even if the DOJ can come up with something, the lawyer said, “There is no law covering a federal government takeover."

The former Trump intelligence official asked whether Trump could even sign a classified emergency order to justify intervention.

“Could Doomsday involve some continuity of government argument? You just never know with Donald Trump," he said. “If all else fails,” Trump could put “pressure on officials, undertake unsupported litigation, or even issue unlawful executive orders.” That could then provoke a riot like Jan. 6.

Still, the planning inside the DOJ continues, the government lawyer said.

President Donald Trump and his administration have been linked to an unprecedented $377 billion in alleged corruption and abuses of power, according to a new documentary examining 100 episodes of potential misconduct since he returned to office.

Corruptionland investigates allegations of corruption and details each instance with an interactive map on the website. The documentary is also free to stream.

The documentary is led by Miles Taylor, a former senior Department of Homeland Security official during Trump’s first administration, who said, “For two years, Trump’s scandals have hit one at a time, and each one gets buried under the next.”

Taylor described the findings as “a tangled web of alleged corruption,” which he says amounts to $377 billion and is unprecedented in American history; he continues:

“Even that number undersells it, because you can’t put a price on the president’s revenge agenda and his weaponization of federal power. Every American deserves to see the full picture before they vote, and now they can.”

The $377 billion figure is based on a published methodology that values public funds, private benefits, and transactions involved in the 100 cases examined.

The investigation looks into court filings, government documents, congressional records and published reports. It also covers the actions by Trump’s administration that can’t be measured financially, such as the removal of government watchdogs and allegations of retaliation against political opponents.

In the documentary, Taylor joins Donald Sherman, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, on a tour of the National Mall, using locations around the capital to explain the alleged misconduct.

Other contributors include former Justice Department pardon attorney Liz Oyer, former FBI official Chris O’Leary, journalist Terry Moran and Democratic Rep. Jason Crow.

The filmmakers also examine how Trump has dismantled the traditional guardrails to protect against government misconduct and describe how congressional oversight, inspectors general and ethics attorneys have been either “purged, captured or sidelined.”

Taylor also accuses Trump of using his federal government to come after him personally due to his criticism of the administration. The documentary arrives as polls have shown Americans are concerned about corruption; some surveys have shown those concerns are only eclipsed by concerns over the rising cost of living.

A September Gallup survey found that 89 percent of Americans believe corruption is widespread in government, including 83 percent of Republicans and 91 percent of Democrats.

Democrats have used corruption attacks on the campaign trail to convince voters they can’t trust their GOP officials.

The film comes just a week before the midterms, as voters have expressed their concerns and will likely have corruption on their minds when they vote on November 3.

President Donald Trump went off at Sen. Susan Murkowski (R-Alaska) last weekend, and political experts think it foreshadows what's to come.

The New Republic's Greg Sargent chatted with longtime Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg for the "Daily Blast" on Tuesday. The two couldn't help but notice Trump has manufactured his own election downfall and is desperately trying to find someone to blame while also trying to salvage whatever he can.

Trump threatened to halt everything he's doing for Alaska if they vote Democratic, which Sargent said is clearly part of the president's freakout over losing the U.S. Senate. If the GOP loses Alaska, Sargent said, he has to believe that it's because the GOP has lost the Senate along with it. Alaska could be one of the last Senate races to be called unless there are recounts or extremely close counts.

"Yeah, look, he's had a really bad few weeks," said Rosenberg of the president's downfall. "The inflation reports were terrible. The job report is terrible. Brent crude is up at $115 a barrel today. The Middle East war is getting worse. I mean, nothing has gone right for him in these final few weeks before the election. And we've seen it play out in the polling."

Every report on the new Trump polling showed the president hit a "new low."

"So, the battlefield underneath him has deteriorated in the last few weeks, and I think they are genuinely now starting to panic," Rosenberg said.

Trump recently offered a $1 million reward for anyone finding voter fraud. If there's widespread fraud, Sargent noted, many people will get $1 million checks.

"He's been erratic on the stump. He looks terrible," Rosenberg said about Trump. "He's bloated, and even the makeup is not helping him. MAGA just got their butts kicked in Serbia and Brazil. And the other thing is that there's been an incredible amount of bad news spinning out of the White House. People fighting. People getting fired. It feels like they're closing with chaos instead of strength. And you're starting to see it in how they're approaching the final ad spend in the race and also what they're doing with his time."

They walked through the high early voting numbers, which are generally a good sign for Democrats. Higher turnout generally bodes well for Democrats, while lower turnout suggests Republicans are likely to do better.

Meanwhile, Trump has lost big with key demographics that made up his coalition in 2024, namely Latino voters. Their voter participation is up 41 percent compared with the last midterm election in 2022, Rosenberg said. Meaning, the share of the early vote as of now is that much higher among Latino voters than it was in 2022.

That surge isn't coming only from Texas and California; it's happening everywhere, Rosenberg said. The raw numbers, he read, show that the Latino vote share is up 35 percent in Texas, 44 percent higher in California, 15 percent in Arizona, 25 percent in New Mexico, 35 percent in Colorado, 51 percent in Illinois, 84 percent in Virginia, 70 percent higher in New York, 45 percent higher in Nevada, 59 percent in New Jersey, 58 percent in Georgia.

"So, all that means is this is a universal trend. It's not surprising, frankly, given how Trump and Stephen Miller have targeted disproportionately Hispanic families and Hispanic communities. His dismal treatment of people in Latin America ... To me this is a very significant event and it's one of the reasons that places like Texas are so competitive. You know, the old line is waking a sleeping giant. Well, Donald Trump sure looks like he's woken a sleeping giant in politics," Rosenberg explained.

President Donald Trump and his allies are already preparing to sow doubt in the upcoming midterm election results and have unleashed a stream of claims seemingly in preparation for a wipeout, according to a new investigation.

The Washington Post has identified more than 7,000 statements sowing the seed of doubt about election integrity from nearly 600 prominent conservative social media accounts, podcasts, and other media outlets this year.

The report found that they are doubling down on accusations of noncitizens on the voter roll and mail ballot fraud. The report found that these claims have doubled since last year, even though both noncitizen voting and mail ballot fraud are rare.

The accusations are coming from influential supporters of the president, including former White House strategist Steve Bannon and MAGA commentators with over a million followers on social media.

Bannon claimed on his podcast, The War Room, that Democrats are cheating with illegal immigrant votes. “Illegal aliens can vote en masse,” he said, adding: “They understand that if you restrict it to American citizens, it’s impossible for them to win. They have to cheat to win.

Per the report, Trump has made over 300 public statements questioning the election integrity during his second term, including continuing his lie that the 2020 election was stolen and allegations of mail ballot and voter registration fraud.

Trump announced Monday that he would offer a $1 million reward for information about election fraud that leads to a conviction.

Despite all the claims, the results tell a different story. For example, in Nevada, the administration claimed that as many as 16,000 noncitizens appeared on voter rolls. They then provided the state with 185 names to investigate, only to find that they were all citizens.

They also took the issue beyond social media and into the courtroom. The Justice Department attempted to block 20,000 ballots in California based on allegations of noncitizen voting; however, the court blocked the attempt on Monday.

Federal lawyers have also asked a court to block certification of the election result in Alaska if the Republican candidate loses, due to the Republican incumbent and an independent sharing the same name, Dan Sullivan.

Former Election Assistance Commission member Ben Hovland warned that post-election litigation could come from Trump's DOJ rather than campaign attorneys. He pointed to Trump and his allies filing lawsuits and attempting to block the result of the 2020 presidential election.

A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos survey found that just 28 percent of Americans believe Trump would accept the outcome of the election if Republicans lose.

Democrats are already preparing for the possibility of legal battles and attempts to block certifying results. Rep. Pete Aguilar said his party has found 162 potential strategies the Republicans will use to challenge the election.

Intelligence committee Democrats have also prepared for the possibility that Trump could allege foreign interference with the vote count.

The midterm election day is in one week, and all the evidence points to legal court battles and a plethora of social media accounts claiming fraud before any ballots are counted.