trump reflecting pool

Multiple former officials during President Donald Trump's administration and those who work on Capitol Hill are attacking Sean Parnell for lying in a biography.

Parnell, a senior Pentagon official, is being considered for secretary of the U.S. Army. According to Politico's "Playbook," Parnell's Pentagon bio says “he played a pivotal role in the passage of the MISSION Act,” a bill intended to give veterans health care options that Trump signed in 2018.

According to five former Trump administration officials, one current and one former Capitol Hill staffer involved in passing the bill, Parnell had "no direct role" in getting the bill passed. In fact, one former official called it "simply false."

The MISSION Act was the 2018 measure to reform the Veterans Administration during Trump's first term.

According to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Parnell helped draft the bill's language and met with members of Congress and veterans across the U.S.

Parnell is also facing accusations from his ex-wife, Laurie Snell, who testified that he had an affair, that he was "tracking" her and that he also sent "harassing" text messages.

While trying to coordinate a visit for their daughter's birthday, he called her “a liar and a manipulative sociopath,” as well as “erratic."

Reading the text messages aloud in court, she said that she asked him to stop saying such “mean, awful things.”

He told her, “no one is bullying you at all,” she said.

She also alleged that “[Parnell] tried to choke me out on a couch and I literally had to bite him” to get free, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported at the time.

“He was strangling me,” she said. She cited some of the profane names that he called her. She also told the press that he slapped one of the children hard enough to leave marks through their child's shirt.

Parnell called the accusations false.

Parnell also faces criticism from tighter Pentagon press restrictions, which critics argue curb independent scrutiny. After a federal judge struck down major parts of the Pentagon’s earlier policy in March restricting the press, Parnell signed the replacement rules that ultimately closed the longtime "Correspondents' Corridor," moved reporters to an outside annex and mandated that journalists be escorted in the Pentagon. He has said that these are all due to national security. The Pentagon has appealed the court rulings.

New claims out of the White House are "mind-boggling," according to a new analysis from MS NOW, and further expose President Donald Trump's "remarkable combination of incoherence and incompetence."

Trump recently hosted a controversial state visit from Chinese President Xi Jinping last week, after which David Perdue, the U.S. ambassador to China, made the "mind-boggling" claim that the president had asked his counterpart if he wanted to purchase American military hardware. Trump himself later denied hearing about such an offer, but also added, "they’d probably like to buy it because we do make better equipment than that, so maybe it’s a good idea."

Perdue's explanation came as he broke down Trump's conversation with Xi about U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, a longstanding point of contention with China. Trump supposedly tried to downplay the relationship, as Perdue explained it, arguing, 'Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world,' before he then “actually asked President Xi, would he like to buy some at one point?' Official statements from the White House and State Department did not dispute that Trump brought up the idea to Xi, but stressed that no official offer is in place.

"This scenario, if true, is mind-boggling," MS NOW reporter Zeeshan Aleem wrote. "And if Perdue’s claims are not true and he was saying something false, that’s a significant and confounding problem, too, because it would not just be a major lie, but a foolish one... China is the only country in the world that threatens the U.S.’ status as the world’s preeminent military power, and the U.S. takes great pains to guard its technological edge against its rivals... Selling highly coveted U.S. arms to China would undermine the U.S.’ military advantage. It is common sense to not empower a country that lands on the opposite side of a lot of global geopolitical jockeying. Given that, for example, Trump asked Xi to curb assistance to Iran, it would not make sense to boost Beijing’s arsenal."

He added further: "If Trump made the offer, it would demonstrate total incoherence on China policy in the administration. Under the One China policy that has governed U.S. policy since 1979, the U.S. officially acknowledges China’s position on Taiwan but maintains informal diplomatic ties with the island nation, and crucially, routinely supplies it with billions of dollars worth of defensive arms... If the U.S. were to sell arms to China, it would undermine that entire calculation and would be akin to scoring an own goal."

Aleem also noted that, despite the alarming nature of the alleged offer, it was on some level "not surprising at all" coming from Trump, given that "he lacks even a rudimentary knowledge of how things like trade and diplomacy work, and has an even poorer grasp of — or commitment to — U.S. traditions in those spheres." It would have also fit with his well-established tendency to flout long-standing ties with democratic allies in order to better align himself with authoritarian states, whose leaders he openly admires.

"The capitals of the world are always watching Washington closely," Aleem concluded. "This episode shows a president who seems to have fewer and fewer wits about him — and a staff that lacks the competence or willpower to make up for it."

On Monday, the FBI deputy director who was leading up the 2020 election integrity probe resigned with just 35 days until the Nov. 3 election. It came just days after a report that tens of thousands of FBI agents and officials had their personal records stolen by hackers. So, the resignation of FBI co-deputy director Andrew Bailey "raises a lot of red flags," one veteran journalist reported.

Speaking to MS NOW's Stephanie Ruhle, Carol Leonnig said that while President Donald Trump's administration claims it's taking the FBI hack "seriously," it's unclear whether it'll ever actually be capable of tracking down and prosecuting the hackers.

"There's nothing they can do to kind of close the barn door, right? There's nothing that can be done," Leonnig said. "You can't hide that information after it's leaked out. It's kind of like your credit card or your Social Security number. Once it's out there, you're in trouble."

Bailey's resignation was yet another piece of bad news. It made Leonnig wonder if it's one of the reasons that Trump keeps banning MS NOW because they're revealing so much bad news about the president's administration.

"The FBI is the premier law enforcement agency in the world, full stop, even though it's under a lot of challenge under the directorship of Kash Patel," continued Leonnig. "Now, this organization, which had two deputy directors installed."

She explained that this isn't normal.

"These two people were installed because the White House was concerned that Kash Patel, as a director, had no experience in the FBI, which the president knew when he appointed him and nominated him and when the Senate confirmed him. But here he is in that job. So these co-deputy directors were installed once to help Dan Bongino. If anybody remembers the famous conservative podcaster," Leonnig added, explaining that Bongino, who has now left, lacked the necessary experience for the post, which is why extra people were needed.

"I'm told by sources that [Bailey] was frustrated that an idea that was floated to him months ago, actually at the end of 2025, that he would eventually replace Kash Patel," Leonnig explained. "That wish never came true. And he was like, okay, you don't want me as a director. I'm out."

In public, Bailey has said that he was leaving to "spend more time with his family."

The reporter noted that it's an important thread to pull on, as Bailey was so involved in "overseeing election-related crimes and misconduct." There is a lot of pressure from the White House to prosecute election fraud for 2020, alleging that there was a widespread problem.

Ruhle asked if that was a red flag to her, and Leonnig agreed.

"It raises a lot of red flags. I'm not saying that I know with certainty," she said. "But I agree. It raises red flags. And as I say, it's a thread we should pull on about all of these people who are leaving, who had election-related sort of authority or portfolios, because it's happening across the Justice Department where people are saying, wait a minute, I don't want to do what the White House is directing the Department of Justice to do, when it might involve my professional reputation for life, my law license."

There's also a concern about future congressional investigations. Leonnig said that some of these people who resigned could end up as part of the Oversight Committee's questioning of those "who were ordered to do things by the white house that made them uncomfortable for lack of facts."

President Donald Trump is seeing a weakening of support among certain Latino voters in Florida, a group that had helped him bolster the Republican coalition in 2024, as his administration's immigration enforcement moves further into the South Florida communities.

A Washington Post article states that Republican lawmakers in parts of Florida with a large Latino population are having to justify their support for Trump as they deal with voters who are dissatisfied with the way immigration enforcement is being managed. This tension is particularly apparent in Miami-Dade County, since Trump had won over Kamala Harris by more than 125,000 votes in 2024 following years of Republican support among Hispanic voters.

Rep. María Elvira Salazar of Florida, a member of the Republican Party, is one of the clearest examples of this. The representative, who covers a district that is about three-quarters Hispanic, put out a campaign advertisement this month explicitly asking Trump to alter his course.

Salazar told Trump in the advertisement that some of your immigration enforcement actions have gone too far. She also stated that Hispanic voters who had helped Trump get back to the White House now feel betrayed.

A poll conducted by the Republicans and provided to Axios at the beginning of this month showed the division among Hispanic voters in Miami-Dade. Sixty-three percent favoured the deportation of those immigrants who are in the country illegally, while 34 percent opposed it. However, when the question was asked about the way in which deportations were being carried out, only 29 percent approved and 58 percent disapproved.

The figures show that there is a difference between support for more rigorous immigration enforcement and dissatisfaction with certain tactics used by the administration.

The figures cited by The Post indicated that over half of those arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in July had no criminal conviction and no outstanding criminal charges, while Reuters subsequently stated that more than three-quarters of the recent ICE arrests had concerned people who had no criminal convictions or charges.

Salazar is also having a harder reelection fight than the Republicans had originally anticipated. A poll carried out internally by Democratic candidate Eliott Rodriguez showed the two candidates tied at 45 percent, although internal campaign polling may not be reliable and the Cook Political Report still classifies the seat as "likely Republican".

Trump has dismissed Salazar's criticism. He had previously stated in this month that she had become "softer" on the border and maintained that his immigration policies were a major factor in his win in 2024.

Florida is still a firmly Republican state at the statewide level. In 2024, Trump received 56.1 percent of the vote, versus 43 per ent for Harris. However, the response in the heavily Latino part of South Florida gives Republicans a chance to see if the coalition that contributed to that margin will still be there by the 2026 midterms.

President Donald Trump's latest round of ads has been attacked as "demented" and "incredibly illegal, and now, per The Hill, Republican lawmakers are breaking with him yet again to oppose them for crossing a major "red line."

Trump this weekend dropped his latest ad, featuring soundbites from a speech in which he called his political enemies "villains," and vowed to oust "communists" and "marxists" from the country. The 30-second commercial raised many alarms, however, for the disclosure that it was funded by tax dollars from the U.S. government, something that flies in the face of campaign finance laws. This was also the latest in a string of new self-serving ads about Trump, at a time when voters are set to punish Republicans in the midterms for his failures.

According to a report from The Hill Tuesday morning, a number of Republicans in the Senate, while supportive of some of the messaging in the ads, took Trump to task for wasting tax dollars on them.

"It’s a great message, I like the message, but it shouldn’t be paid for by taxpayer dollars," Senate Majority Leader John Thune told the press on Monday.

“It would not have been something that I would have done,” Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, said about the ads. “I know that the White House is not covered by the same guidance that we are, but it’s not something I would have done. I just don’t think it’s right to be using taxpayer money in that way, particularly if it’s tied to political campaigns. I think they need to rethink that strategy.”

Sen. John Cornyn, a noted enemy of Trump, said that the ads crossed a "red line," given how indistinguishable they are from things he and his team released during past campaigns.

"We all know you’re not supposed to use taxpayer money for that purpose," Cornyn said.

In particular, The Hill reported that the new ad was "nearly identical to an online ad that Trump posted to his Truth Social account in January 2024, when he was preparing to launch his presidential campaign."

"In that online ad, he urged supporters to text 'TRUMP to 88022' to support his campaign," the outlet explained.

"If it were me as a senator, it would be a problem,” Sen. John Curtis, a Utah Republican, said. “I don’t know their rules as well as I know mine, but I know mine would prohibit that."

"I don’t think any public official, including President Trump… should spend public money on private ads for themselves,” Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, said on CBS News over the weekend. “The White House sees it differently."

The White House's official response claimed that the commercials were "very clearly not campaign ads," and argued that they were intended to be “a reminder for Americans to love their country and know why it’s worth defending.”

President Donald Trump has weathered innumerable political storms during his time in office, but according to a new breakdown from the New York Times, the "evidence is decisive" that his extraordinary luck is finally running out — with the "most damaging" evidence of all hitting his most important strength.

Writing for the outlet on Tuesday morning, columnist Thomas Edsall cited the well-established statistical trends underpinning Trump's declining support and the growing certainty that the GOP will get wiped out in the midterms. Per a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, his disapproval among voters is more than twice his approval, 66 percent versus just 32 percent, with some other recent polls putting him just south of 30. His support among some of his most crucial demographics, Latinos and independent voters, is also cratering massively.

"Voters, in other words, are showing a growing determination to repudiate the Trump presidency," Edsall wrote. "Their most direct opportunity to express this determination is electing Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate. At the moment, poll data gives Democrats a strong chance of taking the House and modest but strengthening odds of taking the Senate."

He added later: "Smarter.Vote, a voter analysis website, currently assesses a 73 percent chance of a Democratic takeover of the House, with a post-election makeup of 228 Democrats to 207 Republicans.Smarter.Vote foresees a much closer and more contested Senate outcome, with Democrats now having a 57 percent chance of taking control, with a 51-to-49 majority."

While admitting that election forecasting can often be a "fool's game," Edsall contended that some observers are being "too cautious," arguing that in his "own experience... trends are highly predictive of outcomes — and the trend line now is moving decisively in favor of the Democrats."

The "most damaging" sign of Trump's waning power and luck, however, is the way in which his relevance is starting to crumble, threatening his all-important ability to command attention.

"Most damaging of all for a wannabe autocrat like Trump, who depends on being the center of attention to maintain his power, there are clear signs that the president is losing relevance," Edsall wrote. :On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported on its A.I.-based analysis of nearly 70,000 hours of podcasts with a headline that should make even Trump cringe: 'MAGA Podcasters Are Tuning Out Trump.' 'Mentions of Trump’s name per hour on conservative podcasts have fallen nearly 70 percent from their peak in the run-up to the 2024 election,' The Journal noted, a drop-off that accelerated after late February, when Trump began his war with Iran."

The most recent dispute between President Donald Trump and the press has ended in a court loss and has brought about unity among the major television networks, something that Ben Jacobs says has revealed a political weakness rather than shown presidential influence.

As Jacobs points out in his Slate editorial, the dispute differs from Trump’s previous battles with media companies because the president has not attached the ban to a demand that CNN, MS NOW or Politico can satisfy. Trump barred the outlets from the White House after accusing them of “reporting FAKE NEWS” and saying they should not be able to report “FICTION and LIES.”

The decision took place as Trump's political position declined in the lead-up to the midterm elections; according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll dated September 21, his approval rating was 32 percent, the lowest point in his political career, and the Republicans had been compelled to spend large amounts of money in Iowa and Kansas.

CNN said that Trump's aide Natalie Harp showed him clips of negative media reports before the ban was imposed. According to one source, a graphic from Politico upset Trump and played a role in the decision, a move which surprised the White House advisers.

CNN, MS NOW and Politico brought legal action, and U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly handed down a temporary restraining order which reinstated their access. The judge ruled that the organizations were probably going to succeed in their due process claims.

Trump's media team also encountered a problem when CNN was stopped from carrying out its pool responsibilities, as ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News at first refused to take over. This meant that certain parts of Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit had no regular television pool coverage.

CNN was later included in the rotation again, but the White House once more prevented the network from traveling on Air Force One for Trump's trip to Tennessee on Saturday. The other news networks refused to take CNN's place.

Slate pointed out that the incident revealed a major flaw in Trump’s approach since there is no clear concession that the targeted outlets could be required to make and no obvious point at which Trump could claim that they had gone along.

On Sunday, Attorney General Todd Blanche supported the White House's stance by stating that access is a privilege and not a right, and he also blamed certain media outlets for spreading misinformation.

On Monday, CNN, MS NOW and Politico asked Kelly to leave the restrictions in place while their lawsuit is going on; they argue that Trump retaliated against them for having given them coverage that he did not like and that this amounted to a violation of their First Amendment rights.

Up to now, the confrontation has managed to bring the outlets back to the White House grounds, brought the rival networks together in opposition to selective exclusions, and has decreased the amount of television coverage available to Trump.

President Donald Trump has now started to lose what's left of his coalition from the 2024 election, according to CNN data analyst Harry Enten.

Speaking to co-host John Berman on Tuesday, Enten showed another shocking bombshell number that is destroying support for Republican candidates.

"The target group of voters is white, non-college voters," Enten explained. "They were the heartbeat of President Trump's three presidential campaigns. And right now, the Heartland is ripping the heart out of Donald Trump's presidency because just take a look at these numbers right here. Okay? White non-college voters on Trump. He won those or he was leading against Kamala Harris among white non-college voters just before the 2024 election by 25 points. But down he goes."

Enten revealed that Trump is now suffering the biggest loss among former presidents in their second terms. George W. Bush was down 1 point in 2006 when the GOP lost big.

"And what happened to him? His party lost the United States House, and it also lost the United States Senate, in large part because a lot of voters who had previously been voting Republican decided to vote Democratic," said Enten.

Trump's problem is that he was heavily reliant on non-college white voters to help elect him. In fact, Enten said Trump was more reliant on them than any other group.

"No wonder he's so low," said Enten. "Now, even they have turned on him."

When asked about inflation, the white non-college voters supported him by 24 percent in 2024, but now it's bad enough that all Enten could say was "oh my goodness gracious." Trump is now down 39 points as the election nears.

"This is deep into the Iowa [Rob] Sand -39 points. What is that, Johnny B.? That's a change of 63 points in the wrong direction on the key issue that got Donald Trump reelected to a second term, among the key group that got him reelected," Enten said.

Co-host John Berman said that this might be the key reason Trump is pressing for a $50 billion Iowa steel plant so close to the election. But Trump must do something because it appears that for the first time in 20 years, Iowa could have a Democratic governor, if prediction markets are to be believed.

At the end of March, Kalshi said there was a 48 percent chance Sand could win the governor's race. Today that sits at an 83 percent likelihood.

President Donald Trump has robbed "the GOP of a chance" to put their focus on competitive midterm swing states, per Politico, as he hits the campaign trail to put out political "fires" in states he once carried with ease.

In a piece published Tuesday morning, Politico reported that Trump is set to spend the next month campaigning for Republican midterm candidates in "Bastions of conservatism — including Alabama, Alaska, Iowa, Ohio and Texas," as the party faces growing odds of major upsets. The hope is that Trump's presence will help convince his "die-hard supporters" to show up on Election Day, given the long-established trend of MAGA backers who only vote when Trump is on the ballot.

This push is not seen as an all-around positive, however, with "each trip to play defense in red strongholds robs the GOP of a chance to put Democrats on the back foot in states that are traditionally competitive." The mere fact that these stops might be necessary is exposing something the Republican Party has "feared for months: that even a gerrymandered House map and whopping cash advantage won’t be enough to save the House or Senate from Democrats."

"The problem is that the fires are everywhere right now," one anonymous GOP donor told Politico.

"On a scale of 1 to 10,” another anonymous source close to the White House said. “10. In Alaska, because of the obvious situation of what happened in the primary, and in Ohio, because [Jon] Husted is proving not to be a compelling candidate.”

Ohio and Alaska are of particular concern to Republicans, as their candidates show signs of floundering against notably strong Democratic opposition. Politico noted that Trump's planned Trip to Alaska represents "a significant commitment of time and presidential resources that underscores how dire the situation is for Republicans."

Some of these trips are also designed to help across multiple states, with Trump's stop in Alabama crossing over into a west Florida media market, and his stop in Oklahoma expected to bleed over into Texas.

"They recognize how precious the president’s time is,” a second source close to the White House told Politico. "The reality is we have more field to cover than they do. That’s just a fact. We are defending more than [Democrats] are.”

Another GOP source told the outlet that the party is in "a bad spot for a multitude of reasons," primarily including poor candidate quality, an issue that bedeviled them in the 2022 midterms as well. The source, however, also noted that Trump "definitely is the biggest culprit because of how much the trade war has affected the farmers and the Iran war has affected the farmers and rural people."

"It’s his fault," they stressed.