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There has recently been a "creepy" new addition to President Donald Trump's inner circle, one that he reportedly insists on keeping close to him frequently, and according to his one-time biographer, First Lady Melania Trump was instrumental in linking up the two men.

Michael Wolff is a longtime reporter and author who has had significant access to Trump over the years, notably writing a series a of tell-all books about the chaos behind the scenes in his first term. Earlier this week, he discussed Trump's new friendship with disgraced director and movie producer Brett Ratner, explaining that the president needs new allies due to all of his other officials becoming scapegoats for his failing administration. He also argued that they are cut from the same cloth, given their past associations with Jeffrey Epstein.

During the latest episode of his Daily Beast podcast, "Inside Trump's Head," Wolff expanded on the situation and revealed how Ratner's connection to a top aide for Melania Trump, Marc Beckman, was the key to gaining entry into Trump's inner circle. Beckman has served as an adviser to the first lady for two decades, according to The Daily Beast, and also served as a producer on her recent documentary, which Ratner directed.

"The guy who has become Melania’s sort of main adviser, chief of staff, marketing guru, COO of Melania Enterprises... apparently knew Brett Ratner, and that was the connection,” Wolff explained.

Wolff noted further that Ratner was a baffling choice for the first lady associate with, let alone to direct a feature film about her, given his sordid history and her desperate desire to distance herself from Epstein allegations. Photos from the Justice Department's Epstein files disclosures show the filmmaker alongside the late sex trafficker with his arms around an unknown woman. Ratner claimed that he was engaged to the woman at the time, and that he "had never been in contact" with Epstein before or after the photo.

Allegations of Ratner's improper behavior predate the Epstein story, however. His career was put on ice in 2017 after numerous women, including actress Olivia Munn, accused him of sexual misconduct. It has only been in recent years, thanks to his connections to Trump, that he has found his way back to major projects. He is set to return to the Rush Hour franchise soon, after the president reportedly demanded that a new sequel be greenlit.

“Can you imagine any other first lady’s office approving Brett Ratner?” Wolff's co-host, Joanna Coles, said. “I mean, I’m not saying that Steven Spielberg would have done it, but there are so many directors that could have done this.”

She added later: "I got a note from a producer friend yesterday who’s been at the Cannes Film Festival saying that she... saw Brett Ratner showing everybody his photographs of his new best friend Donald Trump in China."

“Are we going to pretend dude isn’t wearing a mask?”

Retired US Navy Vice Admiral Robert Harward appeared on the Fox News show “America’s Newsroom” with Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino earlier this week to defend US President Donald Trump’s war in Iran, but clips of the interview have now gone viral—sparking wild conspiracy theories and people desperate for an explanation—as it looks like Harward was wearing a high-quality silicon or latex mask the entire time.

One really has to see it to believe it, especially in an age of deep fakes and other online misinformation. However, as people pulled recordings from their own devices and verified that the circulating clip of the broadcast had not been doctored, the questions only deepened.

“What in the Jim Carey have I just been looking at?” asked one social media user in response to a clip highlighting the appearance of what looks like the seam of a mask at Harward’s neckline.

Harward is a regular guest on Fox News and other right-wing media outlets, using his status as a former Navy SEAL to add credibility to his hawkish views on foreign policy.

Here is the full 10-minute and unedited segment that includes Harward as it was posted to YouTube by Fox News:

With so many images and previous clips of him available, online sleuths were providing side-by-side comparisons to make the case for the mask theory—even as they poked fun at the absurdity of the situation.

Meanwhile, skeptics like Adam Keiper, editor of The Bulwark, insisted that what appeared to be a mask was actually just an optical illusion caused by the particular lighting in the Fox News production setup.

“Dying of laughter seeing so many [online commenters] taking seriously the notion that this Fox News guest was wearing ‘a very realistic face mask’—because they see his neck and they apparently have no idea how lighting and shadows work,” said Keiper.

“I laughed too,” said one respondent to Keiper’s post. “Then I watched the actual Fox clip. Either they manipulated the clip before uploading, or he had neck surgery. I try hard not to fall for conspiracies and vet everything I can. But something strange is going on here.”

“It’s just a shadow!” Keiper exclaimed as others remained unconvinced.

President Donald Trump's stranglehold on the Republican Party was evident when a long list of incumbents he was angry with — including Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and at least five Indiana State Legislature lawmakers — were recently voted out of office via GOP primaries. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), a former Trump critic turned staunch ally and supporter, bluntly told NBC News that for Republicans, the message is: "if you try to destroy" Trump, you will be destroyed yourself. But Republican primaries and general elections are two very different things, and GOP strategists interviewed by The Hill are arguing that while Trump's dominance of the party remains undeniable, he could be a huge problem for Republican candidates in the 2026 midterms.

Reporters Amie Parnes and Julia Mueller, in The Hill, explain, "President Trump's grip on Republican primaries appears tighter than ever as a string of GOP officeholders who came under his wrath fell to defeat in contests over the past month in Indiana, Kentucky and Louisiana. Yet there's a disconnect for the party, which is facing alarm bells about its standing as it heads into the midterms. Trump’s approval ratings are down amid voter unhappiness with the war in Iran and the economy, and Trump's power in a GOP primary may not be enough to prevent heavy Republican losses in the fall when more independents and Democrats are also casting votes for the House and Senate."

GOP strategist Susan Del Percio believes that her party is facing major challenges as the November elections draw closer.

Del Percio, a Never Trump conservative and frequent guest on MS NOW, told The Hill, "It’s simple: He has a hold on the Republican base, which you see come out in primaries. Most primary voters are Donald Trump voters, but not all Donald Trump voters are primary voters. They only show up every four years for Donald Trump….

Republicans are in bad shape. The primaries will have very little effect on what happens in November, except for the candidates Trump put up."

Del Percio added, "At the end of the day, candidate selection will be where his influence begins and ends."

Similarly, Republican strategist Doug Heye told The Hill, "The MAGA base is not the broader electorate."

A GOP consultant, interviewed on condition of anonymity, was even more blunt than Del Percio.

The consultant told The Hill, "It's a very challenging environment for Republicans. It's live by the sword, die by the sword. Trump is not the leader of the Republican Party; he is the Republican Party. There's nothing better than a Trump endorsement in a primary…. But it's shaping up to be a 1000-pound albatross around your neck in the midterms."

Another GOP insider, also interviewed on condition of anonymity, warns fellow Republicans that Trump's ability to sway hardcore MAGA voters in primary battles doesn't mean that independents and swing voters will view him favorably in the general election in November.

The insider told The Hill, "In a way, the president hasn't done us any favors. We need independents to turn out for us. We don't need the base."

When outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) decided not to seek reelection in the 2026 midterms, he likely avoided the fate that Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and at least five Indiana state lawmakers recently suffered when they were voted out of office via GOP primaries. Trump was angry with Massie, Cassidy and the others, railing against them relentlessly and endorsing MAGA primary challengers — and Massie realized he was in danger as well. But Tillis plans to serve out the rest of his term, and he candidly spoke his mind about the Trump administration and the state of the Republican Party during an interview with Politico's Jordain Carney.

Although the conservative senator isn't a full-fledged Never Trumper, he hasn't been shy about criticizing the president at times. And he attacked a variety of Trump administration and MAGA policies during the interview, giving fellow Republicans what Carney described as "a dose of bitter medicine."

"Every time I've disagreed with the president," Tillis told Politico, "it's been almost exclusively because I think it's divergent from Republicans' interest in getting reelected this November. Every single time. The health care policy that got airdropped in the 'big beautiful bill,' I knew it was going to be a problem. It is a problem now. Now, everybody sees that. That's why I objected to the reconciliation last year. The reason I'm objecting to the ballroom and the slush fund for the DOJ — bad politics, really bad timing, bad policy. I mean, that's the trifecta. Every time I have opposed this president is because I believe it's at odds with getting Republicans reelected."

Tillis offered a scathing critique of Pete Hegseth's performance as defense secretary, once again calling for him to be fired.

Tillis told Politico, "I suspect that Hegseth cast aside concerns he was hearing from some of the finest people that ever served in uniform and took his cowboy-ish approach to going into Iran. I'm glad the president did what he did in Iran; I'm not glad that he has Hegseth advising him on the details…. I'd love to see Pete Hegseth fired because he's incompetent and doing a horrible job."

During the interview, Tillis criticized Trump's "anti-weaponization fund" as "an embarrassment" — calling for Congress to "nuke it." And he was highly critical of U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigations of outgoing U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and others.

Tillis told Politico, "I’m thinking about the picture that right now is the only basis I have for a new indictment against (former FBI Director) Comey. Some of the other bogus lawsuits from now no-longer-acting acting U.S. attorneys. All that, I want to know whose fingerprints were on it. I don't think big DOJ knew about the Powell investigation, so I wouldn't hold that against them; that was a boneheaded move in the bowels of DOJ. But anything where they were in the decision loop, yeah, they got a lot of questions to answer to get my support."

This has been a challenging week for Senate Republicans, and they are reaching a “breaking point” with President Donald Trump over fears for their own “political survival,” reports Punchbowl News.

One prominent Senate Republican had just lost his primary race to a Trump-backed opponent when the president snubbed another prominent Senate Republican to endorse his ultra-MAGA rival in Texas — leading to fears the Democratic candidate could win that longtime red seat.

Then on Thursday, Senate Republicans met with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche for nearly two hours. Reporters said it did not go well. Republicans are furious over not just the president’s $1.8 billion compensation fund for alleged victims of DOJ weaponization during the Biden administration — but also for the timing the White House chose to announce it, disrupting their efforts to pass a critical reconciliation bill so thoroughly Majority Leader John Thune sent them home.

“Eventually,” Punchbowl reports, “Senate Republicans were going to prioritize their own political survival over President Donald Trump’s wants and needs. They have. But it just might be too late.”

Now, some say, the prospect of the GOP losing control of the Senate seems more likely than it did just a few months ago.

“Many Republicans fear Trump is determined to bring them down with him — along with their shared legislative agenda,” Punchbowl observed. “Senate Republican leaders are now coming to grips with the reality that advancing Trump’s priorities may be in conflict with their efforts to retain the majority.”

Punchbowl cites an “erosion of good will” between Senate Republicans and Trump that has been “building steadily for months over campaign strategy disputes, uneven White House messaging and Trump’s attempts to get rid of the filibuster.”

The White House “isn’t making life easier” for Capitol Hill Republicans.

Some see the president’s actions as severely limiting the Republicans’ ability to pass their agenda — and his.

Political journalist Isaac Saul this week noted that Trump has successfully managed to oust several congressional Republicans — with one more possibility on the way — but by doing so he has severely imperiled his critical majority in the U.S. Senate.

“One understated reality of what Trump has done: He basically just nuked his Senate majority for the next six months,” wrote Saul.

The enmity between the Senate GOP and the White House has become so great that one reporter on Thursday point-blank asked Trump if he is “losing control” over Senate Republicans.

“I don’t know,” Trump replied. “I really don’t know.”

Republicans on Capitol Hill are fuming this week as President Donald Trump's latest corrupt cash grab has thrown a massive wrench into the prolonged process to pass a vital budget bill, per The Hill.

This week, the Justice Department announced it would settle Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS by establishing a $1.776 billion fund to pay out to individuals the government has supposedly targeted for their political beliefs. This setup has been interpreted by many as a means to hand out more cash to Trump, his allies and his supporters. The settlement also included the unprecedented promise that the IRS would never again audit Trump or any members of his family.

The announcement quickly became a lightning rod for controversy, with a growing chorus of Republicans either calling for the fund to be killed or expressing intense skepticism about it. On Friday, The Hill reported that GOP lawmakers had raked acting Attorney General Todd Blanche over the coals at a hearing, and also "made it clear that a budget reconciliation bill to fund immigration enforcement won’t move until their concerns are resolved."

"GOP senators pressed Blanche during a tense meeting in the Capitol’s Mansfield Room to accept guardrails to limit who could get paid by the fund and vented their anger over the attorney general’s refusal during a hearing Tuesday to rule out the possibility that people convicted of crimes related to Jan. 6, 2021, could receive payouts, according to several people familiar with the meeting," the outlet explained. "But Blanche resisted the Republican lawmakers’ demands to limit who would be eligible to get paid by the fund, further fueling the frustrations of senators in the room."

One anonymous GOP senator described the hearing as "a screaming-fest," with The Hill noting that it also became a chance for infuriated lawmakers to rip into a top Trump administration official "over a litany of issues that they believe have made it tougher to defend their majority in the upcoming midterm election." The anonymous Republican also singled out Trump's endorsement of scandal-ridden Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate primary as "the straw that broke the camel’s back" for many lawmakers growing fed up with him, given that the move makes it increasingly likely that Democrats will be able to win the seat in November.

Another source close to the situation called the confrontational meeting "toxic," adding that Sen. Thom Tillis "was really going in on him," as well as Sen. Rand Paul.

“The fund is an issue but it turned into a general airing of grievances, like the administration’s priorities keep shifting,” the source said. “There’s also been a lack of communication between the hill and the executive [branch] on a number of issues.”

“Imagine that, a fund that is set up to compensate people who assaulted Capitol police officers and other responding agencies. People that had pled guilty to physical acts... may actually be able to get compensated," Tillis said prior to the hearing. "How absurd does that sound coming out of my mouth?”

“So the nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops? Utterly stupid, morally wrong – Take your pick,” former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement following the hearing.

Sen. John Fetterman might claim to be a Democrat, but according to a New York Magazine report, bombshell leaked texts have exposed why he is increasingly President Donald Trump and MAGA's favorite: he basically sounds like a Republican already.

This week, New York Magazine published a new piece about Fetterman digging into the relationship with "little-known writer," David Safier, who has "encouraged and counseled" the senator in his staunch support for Israel, as the rest of the Democratic Party has moved to a notably more critical stance. Within the report, as highlighted by The Daily Beast on Friday, were a number of leaked text messages in which he sounds much more in line with typical conservative talking points, "mocking free healthcare, dismissing the Epstein files as a 'nothing burger' and calling Democrats hypocritical for their outrage at the killing of nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis."

The New York Magazine report noted that Fetterman's staff in Washington D.C., had grown "incredulous and exhausted" by the start of 2026, claiming that he "was acting like a Republican" in private. In January, for example, he sent a report to his staff which showed that the average annual cost of healthcare for Americans was around $4,000.

“How should it cost? Free?” he texted. “I don’t understand what affordability it is.”

When speaking about the fallout of the Epstein files, Fetterman said that there was nothing to them and that the worst of the revealed materials were about former President Bill Clinton. Experts had previously warned that the Trump administration would try to manipulate the release of the files so as to make Trump's enemies look worse than his allies and himself.

“Epstein was a nothing burger," Fetterman wrote to a staffer in January. "Worst pics I’ve seen were from Clinton lol.”

In the wake of Alex Pretti's death at the hands of immigration agents in Minneapolis earlier this year, Fetterman argued to a staffer that it was hypocritical for Democrats to make certain arguments in his defense.

“Kyle Rittenhouse brought a gun to a protest,” Fetterman wrote in the message. “He was roundly condemned for that. Why are now democrats defending the nurse it was legal to carry. Both legal weapons. Square that.”

As the Daily Beast noted, Pretti never fired the gun that he had, while Rittenhouse did, fatally injuring two men after traveling to the scene of a protest.

Fetterman's significant drift to the right since entering office has seen his popularity with Democrats drop to historically unprecedented levels. This has fueled some rumors that he might switch parties, with reports suggesting that some prominent Republicans are egging him on. Despite feeling abandoned by Democrats, Fetterman himself dismissed those rumors and said that he would make for a "s—— Republican."

Prosecutors admitted to misconduct in a case involving six lawmakers, candidates and activists in Chicago who were standing in opposition to President Donald Trump's “Operation Midway Blitz." Authorities say group of protesters surrounded an ICE vehicle, pounded on the windows and scratched "pig" into it. But prosecutors were caught trying to hide some of the facts.

"The case had been scheduled to go to a rare federal misdemeanor trial next week after having been winnowed down from six to four defendants in March before prosecutors suddenly announced their decision to drop the marquee felony conspiracy charge late last month," reported Capitol News Illinois on Thursday.

After a meeting in the judge's chambers, U.S. District Judge April Perry accused government attorneys of prosecutorial misconduct before the grand jury. The judge then canceled the trial.

Among the issues is that the prosecutors redacted pieces of the grand jury transcript that would have flagged the misconduct much sooner.

“I have read hundreds — if not thousands — of grand jury transcripts involving prosecutors who are the most junior of prosecutors to several U.S. Attorneys who appeared before the grand jury,” Perry said, according to a record of the sealed hearing. The details were finally made public late Thursday evening. “I have never seen the types of prosecutorial behavior before a grand jury that I saw in those transcripts.”

U.S. Attorney Anthony Boutros appeared personally in court where he asked that the remaining charges be dropped.

He swore that the prosecutors never "acted intentionally" when they redacted parts of the grand jury transcript.

Once the judge was finally able to see the full grand jury transcript, she identified several issues. The first was the prosecutor put her "personal credibility and trustworthiness on the line in support of the charges," the judge said. Another was that the prosecutor excused possible jurors who disagreed with the case.

“I am not trying to deflect blame, but I was with a 20-years-plus senior veteran,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Skiba.

The judge sifted through the transcript, noting, “I remember thinking at the time that I would never make that statement as a matter of personal style. What I did not know then, and what only became apparent as we were discussing dismissing these charges, is that’s beyond personal style, and that is, at a minimum, arguably misconduct.”

Boutros swore he was unaware of what unfolded. He also said that when the grand jurors were dismissed, he immediately shut down the grand jury session entirely. It took three grand juries to get the indictments the DOJ sought.

Still, he was prepared to bring the case to trial, claiming that the charges should still stand.

Perry explained her ruling, saying she didn't want to risk the jury being tainted by protesters. U.S. Attrorney Boutros suggested the judge meant not wanting to “subject the jurors to a mob scene and the chaos that ensued," the report said, quoting the transcript.

“And that’s what this case is about,” Boutros argued, saying that the people surrounding the vehicle were “unacceptable in a civilized society.”

“And it is for the grace of God that that agent moved at two miles per hour,” Boutros continued. “That the agent didn’t panic and step on the accelerator … or pull out his gun and shoot somebody.”

That argument didn't set well with Perry. She explained that her ruling wasn't against the jury taking a field trip to see the scene and being exposed to a "mob."

“Secondly, you are significantly undercutting your mea culpa here by standing behind the charges and continuing to vilify these particular defendants,” Perry added.

She ultimately summarized the case by saying that one should admit to their mistakes, apologize for them and move forward.

"What you do not do is hide it," said Perry.

This exchange comes at a time when the Justice Department is extremely understaffed after an exodus of personnel.

The advocacy group Justice Connection reported that around 5,500 people had left the DOJ by Sept. 2025, either by choice, through buyouts or by being fired. Not all of those were attorneys, however.

“We’re talking about continued misconduct by the U.S. attorney’s office, which continued the prosecution that cost these individuals significant attorney’s fees, significant stress … for what?” Chris Parente, a previous prosecutor working for a local firm said. “I’m sick to my stomach as a former prosecutor. I’m sick to my stomach as a U.S. citizen who has to live in this country with this Department of Justice that is acting this recklessly.”

Things are so bad for President Donald Trump that even former President Herbert Hoover, who was in office as the stock market crashed in 1929, did better than Trump is doing today.

A Fox News poll is so bad that it's sending Trump into a panic spiral, according to MS Now opinion editor James Downie, who discussed it on Greg Sargent's morning podcast for the New Republic. Downie explained that it isn't only about the economy.

"Although that is the most outstanding number," he noted, in general there is a "total collapse."

"You see a big movement, particularly as you said on the economy, in the last two to three months as gas prices have spiked because of the Iran war. And it’s brought down his opinion polls in general. We’re seeing more and more movement towards sort of the mid-thirties or even low thirties. That is traditionally the floor for any president. And it takes a lot of effort to reach those numbers—a lot of almost deliberate incompetence," said Downie.

Sargent read through the specifics, detailing that Trump's numbers on inflation are at just 24 percent approval and 76 percent against. The two recalled how bad things were for George W. Bush after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, leaving people stranded and dying in one of the largest cities in the U.S.

Even when it comes to issues like border security, where Trump and the GOP have traditionally been successful, the president is faltering. Sargent explained that it isn't an anomaly.

The historic lows are being confirmed across the board by data analysts and the "American Research Group poll, which was the first that I’ve seen that put Trump at 31 percent approval," echoed Downie.

The political adage "it's the economy, stupid," only goes so far. According to the panelists, there is no subject on which Trump is succeeding.

"And then I think also more generally, Trump kind of set himself up for this," said Downie. "He promised prices would come down on day one. He promised no more forever wars. He promised basically to a lot of voters that their lives would be sunshine and rainbows the moment he was back in office. And not only has it not happened, but he has been very publicly working against improving their lives and prioritizing things like the slush fund and his arch and his ballroom."

Sargent added that Trump is quickly losing ground with people like non-college white voters and rural America. "Men are turning against him."

"We’re used to thinking of Donald Trump as unpopular, and he has been an unpopular president throughout his entire term. But no president has ever been this unpopular at this point in his term," Downie added.

The danger isn't simply that these voters won't abandon the GOP; it's that they may not come out to vote at all in November.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is desperate to land the job permanently, and according to a new report from Politico, to do so, he has launched his "most audacious move yet" in a bid to cement the Justice Department as President Donald Trump's personal law firm.

Blanche, who previously served as Trump's personal attorney, was appointed as an acting replacement at the DOJ following the ouster of Pam Bondi in April. Since then, he has made several high-profile moves, which observers have chalked up to his attempts to curry favor with Trump and land the full-on AG job.

"When Todd Blanche announced charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center last month, critics accused him of placating President Donald Trump in an effort to secure the attorney general job permanently," Politico explained on Friday. "Blanche weathered similar criticism about a week later, when the Justice Department indicted longtime Trump foe James Comey a second time, accusing him of threatening the president’s life with an Instagram photo of seashells."

Now, Blanche and the DOJ have spearheaded a wildly controversial new settlement for Trump, closing out his suit against the IRS by establishing a $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization" fund, to be paid out to individuals who have supposedly been targeted by the government for their political beliefs. Despite that claim, it has been widely interpreted as a means for funneling money to Trump's allies and supporters. The settlement also contains the unprecedented provision that neither Trump nor his family can ever be audited by the IRS ever again.

In its Friday report, Politico summed up this settlement as Blanche's most blatant attempt yet at gaining Trump's favor, further citing comments from a lawmaker, who said that the move gave the president a "get-out-jail-free card" for tax fraud

"The second measure in particular struck many as Blanche’s most audacious move yet, designed not just to punish the president’s enemies or compensate his supporters, but to provide a personal, lasting benefit to Trump himself," Politico explained.

“Trump had his personal lawyer, who he installed atop the Justice Department, give him a get-out-of-jail-free card for past, present and future tax fraud,” Rep. Don Beyer wrote in a post to social media.

For now, all of these moves from Blanche appear to be having the intended effect, though there has yet to be any sign that the proper attorney general gig is his.

"At the White House, Blanche’s actions are winning raves," Politico revealed. "'He’s the guy everyone loves,' said a senior administration official, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. Asked if anyone is poised to replace him, the official laughed and said 'no.'”

“He gets along with everyone, he pushes, he racks up wins," the source added. "He’s building out a record that people can point to, and building out a record that follows what the president laid out on the campaign trail.”