stolen election

With the Republican Party directing an increasing amount of its frustration at itself as the midterm campaign moves forward, two of President Donald Trump's most important political advisers are now being criticized for the way they've spent their time in the later stage of the campaign.

CJ Warnke, who is a democratic strategist, stated on X on Wednesday that the Republicans were "p—— off" regarding James Blair and Chris LaCivita.

The reason for the anger is that Blair and LaCivita, who are assisting in the leadership of Trump's congressional campaign effort, went to Republika Srpska, the Serb-majority region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to give advice to its government, which is aligned with Russia, before the election in that area.

Politico’s Playbook highlighted the Republican reaction on Wednesday, noting that the episode had not been well received within the party since GOP candidates now have to face an increasingly difficult political environment.

One source told Playbook’s Megan Messerly, “We are out here fighting for our lives and these dudes are in some random ass country made up of too many consonants no one has ever heard of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars while telling all of us to chill out because they’ve got it. It’s legitimately shocking.”

The situation is particularly sensitive since Blair runs MAGA Inc., the super PAC that supports Trump and which is expected to carry out heavy spending in the congressional elections, and LaCivita, who is Trump's co-campaign manager in 2024, holds the position of senior adviser with the organization. The amount of money that MAGA Inc. had left by the end of August was $415 million, according to The New York Times.

The Times stated that both Blair and LaCivita had each received hundreds of thousands of dollars via a law firm in Washington which had been engaged by the Republika Srpska government.

A White House source reportedly told Messerly, “Not a good look. I think Chris is doing what Chris has always done — and my guess is after 2 years on the campaign and 2 more in the WH James wanted a taste of [money] … and honestly I think it may p—— DJT off.”

A representative of MAGA Inc. said that the two individuals had continued to take part in the U.S. campaign while they were overseas.

“James and Chris hosted a team call with race captains on Saturday morning to go over recent survey data,” spokesman Alex Pfeiffer told the Times.

Meanwhile, Republicans have little room for distractions because races once regarded as relatively safe are now becoming competitive.

This week the Cook Political Report altered the status of the Kansas Senate race from Lean Republican to Toss Up and assigned a Democratic bias to other significant elections as well.

Jessica Taylor, the editor of the Cook Senate report, said Trump had become “a drag across the board even in deep red states,” citing high fuel prices and ongoing cost-of-living pressure.

The controversy involving Blair-LaCivita also comes about in the context of months of discontent within the GOP over the party's strategy in the midterm elections. According to Bloomberg in April, Republican operatives and members of Congress had already begun searching for someone to blame since the setbacks caused by redistricting had complicated the Republicans' plans, and a great deal of their frustration had been directed at Blair.

It is reported that Blair and LaCivita responded to the leaks from a Republican strategy meeting by criticizing the attendees and then getting them to sign non-disclosure agreements.

Since Election Day is less than a month away, their annoyance has once again shifted towards them and the political map is expanding.

The debate over who should be in charge of their overseas assignments is once again showing up as a symptom of a wider problem confronting the Republicans. Since an increasing number of races now need to be dealt with and financed, the Republican operatives are becoming more and more divided as to who should be responsible for getting the party into those situations.

Pete Hegseth, the United States Secretary of Defense, has faced intense scrutiny surrounding his role since he was announced at the start of President Donald Trump’s second presidential term.

There have been a host of missteps, public gaffes, outrageous comments, inflammatory statements and cringeworthy viral videos that have further made many question if he is fit to be in his position — and now high-ranking military officials have reportedly followed suit.

According to a recent interview with the New York Times, Iraq war veteran and Times Opinion columnist David French spoke with former Special Forces officer Mike Nelson about Hegseth’s approach to military leadership, and the pushback he has received.

During the conversation, French pointed out that Hegseth fired certain generals for following orders handed down by the Trump administration, which has ultimately led to ill feelings and distrust.

”I’m so glad you raised the generals, because I had a conversation with one of the fired generals not long ago, and this person pointed out that, in essence, they were fired for following orders,” French began.

“In other words, the Biden administration handed down some edicts and some orders regarding D.E.I. — diversity, equity, inclusion and other things — and as loyal soldiers, whether they agreed or not, they saluted and they carried out those orders,” he said. “And Hegseth comes in and essentially says: Well, if you were carrying out the orders that were the priority of the previous administration, you’re woke, you’re weak, whatever, and you’re gone.”

French continued, adding: “And one of the fears that was expressed to me by this former general was that, well, does that then set a precedent that if you are a general officer and you follow the orders of an administration, that the next administration will come in and purge you, replace you with general officers who have to then follow their orders, who will then only be purged by the next administration?”

He also pointed out the precedent that firings set generals on edge with questions about job security.

“It strikes me that the Trump administration is setting a precedent here that if actually carried out by other presidents would be catastrophic for the integrity of the military,” he said.

“And it’s setting a precedent that, given enough time under the current administration, could be catastrophic for the idea that merit matters as much as political fidelity. But it was very chilling to me to hear the general essentially say, ‘I was fired for following a lawful order.’”

Nelson then offered his take on why generals are rejecting Hegseth’s guidance, while offering insight to the legality of the matter.

“A lot of the criticism that Hegseth has steered toward these generals — who implemented, as you said, the lawful orders of the previous duly elected president and the civilian leadership through the secretary of defense — focus on two things, largely. Well, three things, I guess: D.E.I. in general — kind of a big umbrella — the Covid-19 vaccine mandate and the withdrawal from Afghanistan,” he stated.

“Everything that was just listed, we can disagree with or think were bad ideas or conducted poorly, and all of them were lawful orders from the duly elected president through the civilian leadership,” Nelson said.

”Right now, there’s a great deal of discussion about generals rejecting Secretary Hegseth’s guidance,” he continued. “There are two places that I have concern about legality: One being the overall legality of the war with Iran, and the second being the Sept. 2, 2025, boat strike, at the beginning of Operation Southern Spear.”

Nelson noted that although he (and other generals) may vehemently disagree with Hegseth, his practices are indeed legal.

“I think it’s fair to say that I disagree and think that most of Secretary Hegseth’s stuff or ideas are bad ideas — counterproductive and potentially damaging in the long term — but they are legal. And would he want these same generals that he’s propping up to be fired immediately in 2029, in January, because they implemented his orders?” he asked.

Nelson added: “The secretary needs to remember that his predecessors gave legal orders, whether he agreed with them or not, and he is in a position now to implement new policy, and that’s fine. We may disagree with it, but they are legal orders.”

As President Donald Trump hits the campaign trail, he's inadvertently revealing some of his biggest physical and emotional problems to his audiences.

One such viewer is clinical and forensic psychologist Dr. John Paul Garrison, who has been doing his own analysis based on his observations of the president. Known as "Dr. G." on social media, Garrison frequently analyzes nonverbal communication, detailing social and physical cues that alert him to possible health concerns.

Looking at the rally Trump held in Nebraska, Garrison said he noticed "Trump's increase in impulsivity as well as his poor judgment."

That opinion comes from the comment Trump made offering up cities like Los Angeles and San Diego as possible nuclear targets for Iran. The comment exploded across the internet and the political class as they questioned whether it would have been a "joke" if former President Barack Obama had said about places like Oklahoma and Alabama.

These impulse control issues are all part of what Garrison says "are the physical manifestations of [Trump's] decline."

"We've seen him slurring words. We've seen his arm spasming over and over again. And what we're going to be looking at today is significantly poor judgment," he prefaced.

Trump's comments to allow American foes to "take out" LA and San Diego "not only demonstrate impulsivity but severely poor judgment. And that's exactly what we look for when someone is experiencing neurological decline. I've been showing you a lot of physical manifestations."

Earlier this week, Garrison explained the slack-jaw problems Trump has suffered from that make it difficult to pronounce words properly. He finds that these vocal flubs come at or after a jerking motion Trump's body appears to make.

"But the judgment is also getting much, much worse," Garrison said.

Trump's White House tried to deflect the criticism by deploying the usual claim that it's "just a joke" and that the "left can't take a joke."

"There was nothing body language-wise that would suggest that he was joking," Garrison said. "There was no smile. He wasn't looking around at the audience and laughing or putting his arms up or doing anything that would make you believe that what he said was a joke. This goes to show how impaired his decision-making abilities are because he seems to think that's an acceptable loss. A small price to pay to put it in his words."

He confessed that he found it more terrifying that the audience seemed to find it acceptable to nuke two of America's large cities.

The second clip brings Natalie Harp on stage with him. She's become controversial lately after a book detailed her obsession with Trump that unnerved his chief of staff and members of the Secret Service.

Garrison said another sign Trump is having trouble regulating his behavior is that he has "over-the-top reactions," says words "too loudly" and "reacts more than he intends to because he's not able to inhibit it as well as used to."

"Another thing that we saw is that he was having a hard time putting his hand in his jacket to get his pen because he has a hard time controlling his right hand," Garrison added.

So, he brings out Harp as if he wants to show her off, Garrison explained. "And there's something he says at the end that shows that that's actually factually exactly how he's thinking about this. But to him, this is exactly what he wants. He wants somebody to come and present this to him. He wants this to be a spectacle. And given all of the talk about Natalie Harp, this is an extremely poor idea"

Ironically, Trump makes a backhanded comment about former President Joe Biden, saying that he could "never sign anything." What Garrison sees, however, is that while Trump is signing the order, he's struggling to "keep his mouth closed and his jaw keeps shifting to the left."

Then when Harp walked away it appeared he was "checking her out, which once again shows impulsivity and extreme lack of judgment."

Garrison went on to talk about Trump's increase in agitation when he's confronted by reporters questioning his assertions with facts, like his claims of widespread voter fraud.

Once he loses power, "punishing" President Donald Trump for his worst transgressions might "feel good," but as a prominent ex-official and first-term whistleblower explained for The i Paper, Democrats must go further and enact "monumental" changes to stop another president like him.

Miles Taylor previously worked as the chief of staff for the Department of Homeland Security during Trump's first term, rising to the office of chief of staff before leaving in 2019. He first made headlines, however, for penning an anonymous New York Times op-ed about being part of the "Resistance Within the Trump Administration." Since departing the White House and going public with his identity, he has emerged as a vocal critic of his former boss.

In his latest piece for The i Paper on Wednesday, Taylor cited a recent report from The Washington Post detailing how "Trump’s opponents are drawing up the most sweeping overhaul of the presidency since the Watergate scandal," involving "bills to rein in emergency powers, insulate the Justice Department from the White House, bar a president from taking foreign payments and more clearly outlaw the punishment of people for their speech."

As Taylor explained further, he is "one of the reasons why it’s necessary."

"On 9 April last year, Donald Trump sat down in the Oval Office and signed a piece of paper with my name on it. The memorandum stripped me of my security clearance and ordered the federal government to investigate me. As he signed it, he told reporters he thought I was guilty of 'treason,' a crime punishable by death," Taylor wrote. "Of course, my real offense was quitting his administration and speaking out about his penchant for corruption. The irony — of a man abusing his power to punish someone who warned that he’d abuse his power — was not lost on me."

He added later: "In nearly 250 years, no American president had ever put his signature to a written order directing the machinery of the state against a named private citizen for what he or she had said."

Taylor noted that, unlike many of his friends, he is not so eager to see "the favor returned" on Trump, to see "the next Democratic president to pick up the same pen on day one and sign orders directing the Justice Department to investigate Trump, his family and his enablers, by name, for alleged corruption." While he is strongly in favor of investigations, "they should come about according to the rule of law, based on evidence of crimes — not because a president says someone is guilty first and investigates them second."

As he explained, turning Trump's own "weapon" around on him would do nothing to stop the next president like him, which is why he instead supports the "sweeping" reforms quietly being drafted by Democrats.

"If the next president can do to Trump what Trump did to me, then the one after that can do it to someone else, and the American presidency becomes a revenge machine that changes hands every four years," Taylor added. "The lesson of the past two years isn’t that the wrong man got hold of this power. It’s that no one should have it, whichever party they belong to."

He later concluded: "Trump knows what’s coming. He has reportedly promised to pre-emptively pardon all his top administration officials before he leaves office. That tells you that he fears the tables turning and that he’s already working on how to escape accountability. While pardons can shield his people from federal prosecution, they cannot stop Congress from investigating, and they cannot stop Congress from writing into law the guard-rails everyone assumed were already there. That’s the mission. I want the order Trump signed against me to be both the first and last of its kind in American history. Punishing him would feel good. But making sure no president can ever do it again would be worth far more."

President Donald Trump said he would travel to the states in the closest races in the final weeks before the midterms, but his early travel plans suggest otherwise.

On Friday, Republican governor nominee Bruce Blakeman will hold a campaign visit in Syracuse, New York, meaning another city has been added to the list of places not aligned with the president's decision to focus on the country's most competitive races.

Aaron Blake, a senior reporter at CNN, pointed out this inconsistency in a tweet on X.

As Blake wrote on X, “Trump last month spoke repeatedly about how he was going to all 35 of the most competitive races and how he wouldn't have time for less-competitive races. Since then, he's gone to Alabama and Oklahoma, and is now going to New York for a candidate trailing by double-digits.”

“It’s all about 35 races,” Trump said at a recent White House dinner with Republican lawmakers. He later vowed, “I’m going to go to every one of those 35 places.”

New York’s governor’s race certainly doesn’t fit Trump’s initial plans as the numbers suggest.

A poll released by the Marist organization on Wednesday showed that Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul was ahead of Blakeman, with 53 percent of registered voters supporting her as against 42 percent supporting him. The same survey indicated that Trump was very unpopular in the state, with 38 percent of people saying they approved of the way he was doing his job and 60 percent disapproving.

Republicans down the ballot don’t appear to stand much of a chance either, as 44 percent of New York voters told Marist their congressional vote would mainly be a vote against Trump, compared with 22 percent who said it would mainly be a vote for him.

Syracuse is strategically important. According to the Marist poll, Blakeman has led Hochul in the upstate area, and New York has a number of House districts that could help determine control of Congress. Trump's appearance might serve to energize Republican voters.

Republicans made the same argument about their first rallies in October. Party officials said the rally in Oklahoma could reach voters in neighboring Texas via the Dallas-Fort Worth media market, just as Mobile, Alabama, is near the Florida Panhandle.

However, the new travel schedule differs from the one Trump originally promoted.

As Election Day approaches and Republicans face a tough legislative map, the president has chosen to focus on races where he is most needed. After three visits as part of this effort, he is now spending time in two solidly Republican states and trying to help a candidate in New York who is 11 points behind.

President Donald Trump's latest midterm rally caused major alarm after his remarks about major cities being destroyed, and as former CNN correspondent Jim Acosta argued, these "dangerous and insane" comments show that he is fully descended into "desperation mode."

During a rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, this week, Trump attempted to persuade voters that the major inflation caused by his war with Iran was worth it. As he made his pitch, he jokingly suggested that he would be fine with it if Iran attacked and wiped out Los Angeles and San Diego, two major West Coast cities in California led by Democrats, calling it a fair price to pay.

"It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe,” the president said. “They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay, and it’s going to be over very soon. It's essentially almost over with, and they might keep going a little long. You know, they always say they have a big threshold for pain. They need it.”

Acosta appeared as a guest on the latest episode of the "Fast Politics" podcast, where host Molly Jong-Fast asked for his reaction to Trump's alarming rally remarks.

"It sounds like we have a 25th Amendment crisis in this country," Acosta said. "He absolutely stepped in it big time... There are unhinged and deranged comments that he makes from time to time, [but] I mean, this is as bad as it gets. This is bottom-of-the-barrel stuff to say that, well, you know, we have to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon, or else, you know, they could take out LA and San Diego. Why is he singling out these two cities, and why is he going after California? It's always, you know, he always goes after blue states. And, you know, to suggest, to fantasize about two massive American cities, any American city, being taken out by a nuclear weapon, to me, is just, it's as dangerous and insane as it gets."

Acosta later argued that all of Trump and the GOP's attempts at "monkeying" around with supply chains and gas taxes in a scramble to lower gas prices before the midterm elections will not possibly be able to "bail them out" in time. With that in mind, Acosta added that he has "seen [Trump] in this mode before," where he and all the people around him are getting "frantic."

"They go into desperation mode, and you can see it at these rallies," Acosta explained. "It's why he is coming unglued. He sees what is [coming]... It's like that giant wave in [the film] Interstellar that's way off in the distance, and it looks like a planet killer, and he sees that Interstellar wave coming, and he is so freaked out that they're trying to get the hell out of there in time. And I'm telling you, this is just the beginning of the desperation stage. These next four weeks are gonna be one hell of a ride because he knows..., if it's as bad as it sounds right now, where they lose the House, they lose the Senate, the polls are correct, they lose these important governor's races, and, like Florida and Texas, that's a historic blowout. We've never seen a midterm blowout like the one that is taking shape right now."

The debate between Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Troy Jackson has sparked several clips showing epic failures by the Republican lawmaker, and her own party is sharing some of them.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee posted a clip of the debate in which Collins bragged that she got tariffs removed from road salt. Jackson retorted, "We can't eat road salt." It highlighted Maine's food and fuel problems as families struggle in a difficult economy. Jackson alleged that Collins hasn't done enough to help with basic needs for Mainers.

Yet, Republicans were promoting the video as some kind of "own" on the Democrats and it is confusing those online who see the party as out-of-touch as Collins.

"If you, like many, are confused why Senate Republicans would post this pretty good line by Jackson — they are under the impression it's an own, because they think road salt is the same as table salt," joked one woman.

Polling USA asked, "Y'all understand this isn't a win for you, right?"

Politico Brian Tashman noticed it was also a self-own. "NRSC accidentally admits that Trump’s tariffs raise costs," he said on X.

Progressive policy guru Scott Moore mocked, "A line so good I almost liked a hate tweet."

Democratic strategist and self-described "radical" centrist known as "The Maine Wonk" appeared to feel pity: "The MAGA Cult is so out of touch, they don’t realize this isn’t a [win]."

Another Mainer, Anthony Emerson, said that it's clear Collins did so poorly, "Even the NRSC can't spin this debate demolition."

"The absolute best part of this is the Senate Republicans posting the clip of their own senator getting absolutely bodied thinking it was somehow good for her," another person mocked.

"Brother why would you post this," the GOP was asked by another.

One account with over 61,000 followers ridiculed, "While Dem [communications] staffers may occasionally butcher a sports analogy Republican [communications] staffers have to be reminded not to eat rocks."

A Utah digital organizer commented, "Regardless of everything else crazy about them posting this, it's always so funny when Republicans treat sparing individual items from the Trump tariffs as an 'affordability win.' It's a real 'we're all trying to find the guy who did this' moment every time."

Indeed, Collins' comment comes on the heels of a number of public flubs by President Donald Trump's billionaire Cabinet. Dr. Mehmet Oz drew criticism from Fox News during his appearance when he tried to claim butter only cost about a dollar. Even Laura Ingraham fact-checked him to his face.

It has only been a few months since Vice President JD Vance dismissed affordability issues by saying that groceries “cost what they cost.”

In September, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to spin rising borrowing costs and higher interest rates as “a growth story.” He also promised that someday energy prices would fall: “I don’t know whether it’s today, tomorrow or next week.”

Nevada's Second Congressional District has been reliably Republican, but it now appears to be in play for the first time ever.

The monster district covers the entire northern half of Nevada, including Carson City, Reno, Sparks and the state's rural areas. Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nevada) announced he was retiring in February after 15 years in Congress. Under normal circumstances, the seat would be easy to hand over to another Republican. He now says the seat's competitive for the first time because of a number of scandals surrounding the Donald Trump-endorsed candidate.

"This seat is some kind of competitive like it has never been in the history since it was created," said Amodei when speaking to KPBS. "And you know what I attribute that to? I attribute it to the candidate and the way he's run his campaign."

That candidate is Republican David Flippo, who appears on his campaign signs in his military uniform featuring two Bronze Stars, which his campaign falsely claimed were "for valor." Now he's being accused of moving into the district from Las Vegas to run.

Flippo was set to run for Congress in the Vegas district, but after Amodei announced he would retire, Flippo moved into the district to run in a reliably red seat. With the coveted Trump endorsement, he made it through the Republican Primary.

"This is a strong conservative district," Flippo told NPR. "I was talking with the people that have endorsed me such as Turning Point and other organizations that are on the conservative side. The belief was that this being a conservative district we should get somebody that is more conservative in this seat."

Now it appears that the GOP is starting to panic, dumping in "more than $1 million in TV and digital advertising reservations, according to AdImpact data," the report cited.

Veteran political newsman Jon Ralston quipped, "They must have gotten a poll and had a five-alarm fire at headquarters and said we have to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into that district to save this guy."

Just two years ago, Trump won the district by 14 points. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) added the race to its "red to blue" program, indicating that Democrats believe they could win.

Democrat Teresa Benitez-Thompson has lived in the district since early childhood and has represented it in the state legislature and served as Miss Nevada.

Allegations of being a carpetbagger are just the latest scandal the scandal-plagued Republican is facing.

The Washington Post first reported incidents in which Flippo's campaign made the claim, only to find out it was false. Even a video from an earlier congressional race celebrates Flippo as "a recipient of the Bronze Star that he received for Valor." He never won the medal with the "V" for valor, which represents bravery in battle. Veterans notice and feel strongly about those who make such false claims, known as "stolen valor."

Flippo has tried to blame his staff, claiming he never noticed the false information in his campaign videos, on his website and in other campaign materials. At his press conference, he said a staffer mistook the "V" for valor when it was an award his whole unit received. Flippo told NPR at the time that everything got "edited and convoluted" and he "missed it." Yet it somehow ended up back in his campaign materials.

The photo on his own campaign website shows Flippo with two bronze "V" pins. He has also regularly worn a baseball cap with the "V" next to a bronze star to campaign events, despite openly admitting he didn't earn the medal.

When asked to clarify, he tried to blame it on his grandchildren. Then, in a convoluted statement, he confessed he asked them to put it on his hat.

"You know if you've lived with grandkids, and you know, you kind of know, when you ask them to put those things on your hat," Flippo said before offering further evidence. "Actually, answer me this. I do have another hat that's just like it, because you misplace one or whatever, and that does not have any V devices on it, so and I was like 'where did that other V device go?' So, the grandkids ended up doing that."

The Republicans could be privately considering how much longer they should continue to spend money on Ken Paxton's Senate campaign, as a third leak of an incendiary audio recording threatens to make the MAGA candidate an even greater expense for the party.

The most recent recording, which Axios released on Wednesday, shows Paxton blaming his difficulties in the race against Democrat James Talarico on President Donald Trump's policy towards Iran, high fuel prices and decisions beyond his control.

“Republican Senate campaign committee is def laying the groundwork to abandon him,” X user David Leake wrote in response.

The response comes at a time when Republicans are already having private discussions about what will happen when the large amount of spending for Paxton that is aligned with Trump runs out.

Politico previously reported that senior Republican members of Congress and other GOP officials have been asking Trump's team for more money for Texas. However, following the release of Paxton's first recorded message, some people started to worry that MAGA Inc. might cease its spending when its current advertising reservations expire on October 12.

A Trump associate stated that MAGA Inc. and its affiliated groups intended to spend around $45 million by that date, although they were still deciding how much additional money to commit afterward.

Irritation towards Paxton has led some Republicans to make exceptionally direct evaluations.

“There seems to be very little strategy there,” one Republican senator told Politico. “Sometimes, I think [Paxton] wants to lose.”

One Republican senator compared the race to a “five-alarm fire,” and a Republican campaign strategist called Paxton’s campaign a “slow-moving car crash." Outside spending by Republicans in the race is expected to surpass $200 million.

This latest leak is unlikely to make the decision any easier.

When asked what was bothering him politically, Paxton told his donors, “It’s not tariffs. ... It’s the war, it’s gas prices, it’s diesel.”

Paxton described affordability as "by far our biggest problem" and complained that the factors influencing the race were outside his control.

“I don’t make the decisions, and I don’t ... know what’s behind some of the decisions,” he said.

This is the third recording to have come out of the September fundraiser.

One captured Paxton saying that Trump's Dallas midterm convention "dropped our numbers," and another stated that he had “never been in a race where I felt less control” since the campaign decisions were coming from Washington.

Trump subsequently called Paxton a “pain in the ass” while campaigning for him, though he continued urging Republicans to elect him.

Paxton's campaign rejected the latest recording, stating that Texans are already aware that fuel prices are high.

Since Republican operatives were already discussing how much additional money to send after October 12, a third leak has given those who were thinking about when to stop the rescue operation yet another reason to change their minds.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — President Donald Trump is the sixth U.S. president to be named an admiral for the largely honorific Great Navy of the State of Nebraska.

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen bestowed the largely honorific title Monday during a midterms rally headlining Trump. It’s not unusual for governors to bestow the honor on friends or celebrities and dignitaries who visit Nebraska.

After a more than 20-minute speech Monday, Pillen laughed and asked the crowd to “let me have one little fun thing here yet this afternoon before, I hope, I haven’t indulged too long.”

The governor remarked that, as Nebraska’s chief executive officer, he’s also the commander of Nebraska’s Air and Army National Guard. But, tongue-in-cheek since the 1930s, the governor also oversees a “Great Navy.”

“Triple land-locked state — our navy — and oh, by the way, home of the largest, most sustainable underground aquifer in the Western Hemisphere,” Pillen said.

The honor began in 1930 when then-Gov. Charles W. Bryan went on vacation and his lieutenant governor, T. W. Metcalfe, wanted a way to honor his friends, according to the Nebraska State Historical Society. So the acting governor created the Great Navy and named the first admirals.

Trump is at least the sixth U.S. president to be named an admiral and the first since President George W. Bush (2001-09), who was recognized for his service following the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, according to the Nebraska Admirals Association.

The other honored presidential admirals: Ronald Reagan (1981-1989), Gerald Ford (1974-77), Harry S. Truman (1945-53) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-45).

Other famous admirals listed by the association:

• Gene Autry, the “Singing Cowboy.”
• Comedian and radio/TV star Jack Benny.
• Comedian Johnny Carson.
• Talk show host Dick Cavett.
• Actor Bing Crosby.
• Actress Sandy Dennis.
• Screenwriter and director Costa Dillon.
• Queen Elizabeth II, who served from 1952 until she died in 2022.
• Basketball player Julius Erving.
• Astronaut and former U.S. Sen. John Glenn, who represented Ohio.
• Former Secretary of Defense and former Sen. Chuck Hagel, who represented Nebraska.
• Mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to summit Mount Everest.
• Comedian and actor Bob Hope.
• Animator and filmmaker Chuck Jones.
• Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
• Advice columnist Ann Landers.
• Gen. Douglas MacArthur, a U.S. military leader during World War II and the Korean War.
• Comedian and actor Bill Murray.
• Former U.S. Sen. and former Nebraska Gov. Ben Nelson.
• Golfer Jack Nicklaus.
• Husker legend Tom Osborne.
• Golfer Arnold Palmer, nicknamed “The King.”
• Olympian Mark Spitz, a nine-time gold medalist in swimming.

The honor is among Nebraska’s highest civic honors as a largely honorary designation. The award carries no military rank, duties, pay or other special privileges.

Pillen’s office also allows a process to request admiralships. At least the nominator or nominee must be a Nebraska resident. No self-nominations are accepted. The governor has “full discretion” for any requests.

An admiralship appointment reads as follows —

“Know Ye, that reposing special trust and confidence in the patriotism valor, fidelity and abilities of _________ and knowing him to be a good fellow and a loyal friend and counselor I have nominated and do appoint him an Admiral in the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska. He is therefore called to diligently discharge the duties of Admiral by doing and performing all manner of things thereto belonging. And I do strictly charge and require all officers, seamen, tadpoles and goldfish under his command to be obedient to his orders as Admiral — and he is to observe and follow, from time to time, such directions as he shall receive, according to the rules and discipline of the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska. This commission to continue in force during the period of his good behavior, and the pleasure of the Chief Admiral of the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska. Given under my hand in the City of Lincoln, State of Nebraska, this _________ day of _________ in the year of our Lord.”