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Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was called out by name in a recent ruling by Judge Kathleen Williams just days ahead of his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee

Speaking about the ruling on CNN, host Dana Bash and senior justice correspondent Evan Perez reported that there were a few Justice Department prosecutors named by the judge for possible disciplinary action.

As Perez reported, "The judge is calling out this entire thing, saying that this was essentially an attempt to defraud the court, because this was not really an adverse litigation. This was not the president suing an adverse party, but rather because the president controls the Justice Department and his own former personal lawyer essentially was involved in this, that there was really no two separate sides on this."

But then Blanche got his own take down from the judge.

"The day after the dismissal, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified before Congress," the ruling reads. "In response to a question as to why the 'settlement agreement' had not been provided to this Court for review, he replied that 'there is no judge' because the case had been dismissed and, therefore, there was 'no mechanism' for reviewing the 'settlement agreement.'"

"On that same day," the judge continued, "Acting Attorney General Blanche issued an 'order' (the 'Release Order') which referenced the 'settlement agreement' and released the President, his relatives, companies, and affiliates from 'any and all claims, counterclaims, [and] causes of actions; that 'have been or could have been asserted' against Plaintiffs that arise out of '(1) any matters that were raised or could have been raised in the Case or the Pending Agency Claims; (2) Lawfare and/or Weaponization; (3) any matters currently pending or that could be pending (including tax returns filed before the Effective Date) before Defendants or other agencies or departments.'"

Blanche's name and signature were on the "Release Order," she added.

"On June 2, 2026, in testimony before the United States House of Representatives, Acting Attorney General Blanche advised that the Anti-Weaponization Fund would not be moving forward," the judge added. "He did not, however, commit to a similar termination of the audit and immunity protections set forth in his Release Order. Six days later, President Trump nominated Mr. Blanche to permanently serve as Attorney General of the United States."

Blanche has continued to refuse to sign a legal document asserting that the slush fund is dead.

"She also points out that after Todd Blanche said that the fund was dead, he has refused to say in writing that it is dead forever, that there is not some other version of this that could be resuscitated," Perez said. "Of course, Dana, all of this is important timing because, of course, Todd Blanche is headed for his confirmation hearing on Wednesday before the Senate."

Bash confirmed, "This judge is effectively saying that Todd Blanche, who is the acting attorney general and is going to be, as you mentioned, up on Capitol Hill this week, for confirmation to be the permanent attorney general, maybe should be disbarred. Right?"

Perez agreed that the judge was "referring him to the Bar Associations."

CNN's Jake Tapper issued a strong fact-check after claims from President Donald Trump's secretary of defense alleged there were people leaking information from the department.

According to Secretary Pete Hegseth, leaks put their brave American soldiers in danger.

"I have delegated tasking authority to ⁠the [Department of Defense's] Office of ⁠General Counsel, empowering OGC to request and ⁠receive all information, records and support across the department concerning media leak investigations," Hegseth said ⁠in an X video.

Tapper responded with, "I know of one leak that put our brave pilots at risk!"

He posted a link to the full inspector general's report revealing that Hegseth used the Signal app to leak classified information to his family outside the Pentagon.

He specifically quoted the significant finding that "The Secretary sent nonpublic DOD information identifying the quantity and strike times of manned U.S. aircraft over hostile territory over an unapproved, unsecure network approximately 2 to 4 hours before the execution of those strikes. Using a personal cell phone to conduct official business and send nonpublic DOD information through Signal risks potential compromise of sensitive DoD information, which could cause harm to DOD personnel and mission objectives."

The full report also had screen captures of the secretary's message that outlined every detail about conditions and the mission ahead of the U.S. strike in Yemen against Houthi rebels.

Hegseth risked "endangering U.S. troops by using the Signal messaging app to share military plans before the first attack in Yemen," the IG ruled.

Tapper went on to cite the reports finding that "if this information had fallen into the hands of U.S. adversaries, Houthi forces might have been able to counter U.S. forces or reposition personnel and assets to avoid planned U.S. strikes…”

“Even though these events did not ultimately occur, the secretary’s actions created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed U.S. mission objectives and potential harm to U.S. pilots," Tapper added from the report.

"Some call them whistleblowers. When they’re alerting the public to government lies and malfeasance, for instance," Tapper later added.

The ongoing saga of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool continued Monday as the water drained, revealing the damage that was visible. Thus far, there is no 350-foot gash in the lining.

Photos from Washington D.C., activist Joe Flood and Democratic Party strategist Matt Rein show the slow process of the pool draining. Rein's photos in particular show that as the pool drained along the parts of the pool that were reachable by the public, there were no gashes.

U.S. District Attorney Jeannine Pirro has charged individuals with intentionally damaging the pool. In one case, Olympian David Hearn was accused by Pirro at a press conference of “forcefully and violently” pulling up the Reflecting Pool liner "with both hands." But the charging documents only say he "maliciously did injure, break and destroy certain property."

"The president said that somebody took a box cutter—" a reporter began to ask during Pirro's press conference.

Pirro agreed, "Yeah." She added, "Someone intentionally did a tremendous amount of damage to the pool, and you can actually see where all the cutting is. They took a sharp object and cut for many feet along the pool."

For someone to have made such a gash, it would be along the side, unless someone jumped into the pool and began cutting the bottom.

The reporter asked Pirro if there were photos confirming her claims.

"When I file a charge, I'll be happy to show you a picture. All right? What I'm trying to do is we're trying to find out who did it. Okay? And until we get to that point, I'm not going to be able to get to that point. I'm not going to be able to you know, discuss anything more than there was tremendous damage that was caused," Pirro said at the time.

President Donald Trump went further with his box-cutter conspiracy theory, saying, without proof, that "vandals" had sliced the gash into the pool.

"No, we had vandalism ... no, vandals," Trump said at the end of June when asked about it. "We have a 290-, I think 300-foot slit right through, probably a box cutter or a knife of some kind."

For a few weeks leading up to the July 4 celebration, Trump hired a company that used a "nanobubble technology" to fix the algae problem in the Reflecting Pool. It was successful and the nanobubblers were removed for the big fireworks display. Within days, the algae was back and has remained for the past week.

Federal agents have shot and killed another person, this time in Maine.

According to the Bangor Daily News, agents working for United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shot and killed a man in Biddeford, which is a little over 15 miles south of Portland. Thus far only one person has been pronounced dead.

Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, who represents Biddeford, released a statement after the incident detailing everything he knew thus far and noting that he expects the FBI to take over the investigation, as they have with all shootings involving federal agents.

“These are the details that I have at this time. I will provide further updates, as they are relayed to me,” Fecteau said.

It's the second person killed by ICE in less than a week. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who has lived in the U.S. for decades, was driving his construction crew to a site in Houston, Texas, when he was killed.

According to a PBS report, Salgado Araujo's family noted he was inches from getting his full status after living in the U.S. for 35 years. He was well aware of what to do when approached by ICE agents, and his son said he was worried that his father could have been scared if he was approached by unmarked vehicles or officers who weren't in uniform, because the men were going to steal his tools.

The deaths are only the latest in the violent immigrant crackdown since President Donald Trump entered office and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin took over the department. Trump had campaigned on getting "criminals" out of the U.S. The Bangor Daily News said that of the nearly 200 detainees in the state, only 11 had criminal convictions. They said it "[undercuts] the Trump administration’s claim that it was targeting the 'worst of the worst.'"

This equals nine people who have died under Mullin's leadership, an AP report cited. At least 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025 alone. So far, 19 have in 2026, Axios cited.

Veteran campaign consultant James Carville is warning that Democrats need to keep their eyes open for Republican hijinks as the election nears.

The Daily Beast reported that Carville was responding to listener emails for his podcast, "Politics War Room," when someone asked about Speaker Mike Johnson "playing games" with the swearing-in of Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva, despite her winning the special election after Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Az.) passed away. The younger Grijalva was ultimately sworn in, but Johnson appeared to be dodging a discharge petition, forcing the bill over releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files

The listener expressed fear that Johnson could refuse to swear in Democrats if they take over Congress. It's a very real concern, agreed co-host Al Hunt.

Both men suggested that Democrats begin speaking with the "best" lawyers now so they are prepared to go to court. Hunt cautioned, "There's nothing that they won't do" to cling to power.

Carville said he agreed. "And also just send as many early warning things as you can. Warn people they’re going to try this. The best defense against all this is an early warning system, some version of NORAD."

NORAD runs the early warning system, prepared to respond if the U.S. is under attack.

“You cannot talk about it enough. It’s too dangerous, and they’re going to try. You have to have not just good lawyers. You have to have good preparation. You’ve got to be ready to go when it happens, to stoke what I think would be huge outrage in this country,” Carville said.

Carville acknowledged that it's a heavier lift than many might believe, particularly when compared with other kinds of election-specific hijinks.

"I’m not saying they’re not going to try, but I think it’s going to be very hard for them to do, very hard, particularly when you’re forewarned," he explained.

“But they’re going to try, no question," Hunt maintained.

Despite Republican success with mid-decade redistricting and gerrymandering to eliminate Democratic-leaning seats, the GOP is still expected to lose the House in the election. There is an overwhelming anger from voters with Congress over the inability to accomplish legislative solutions to deal with the affordability crisis, the government shutdowns and stop Trump's war in Iran.

Grijalva blasted Johnson in her first speech on the House floor, saying, “One individual should not be able to unilaterally obstruct the swearing-in of a duly elected Member of Congress for political reasons."

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The abrupt passing of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham took almost everyone by surprise, but as one doctor pointed out on Fox News, his family medical history may have put him at a much higher risk of a major medical episode, especially considering his recent excursion to Ukraine.

Graham, a South Carolina Republican, built a reputation over the last decade as a staunch political ally of President Donald Trump, especially when it came to his recent war with Iran. This marked a shift from earlier in his career, when he was notably opposed to Trump's 20216 presidential run, and considered himself a close ally of the late Sen. John McCain, one of Trump's most hated Republicans.

On Saturday evening, reports emerged that Graham had passed away following a "brief and sudden illness," with later reports indicating that he died from cardiac arrest. During a Sunday appearance on Fox News, Dr. Marc Siegel, a senior medical analyst for the conservative network, revealed that the senator had a close family history of heart disease, with his father dying from a heart attack when Graham was just 20.

Given that Graham had completed a trip to Ukraine immediately prior to his sudden passing, Siegel said that he was at an elevated risk of cardiac arrest, given his family history and advanced age.

"A long plane flight from Ukraine increases his risk of blood clotting,” Siegel said. “There’s 350,000 per year out-of-the hospital cardiac arrests. Only 10 percent of them make it because, as you can imagine, you can’t get there fast enough to restart the heart right away.”

He added: “The vast majority don’t make it, and most of the time it’s heart disease that causes this... Now, none of that is known, and I'm not suggesting that's the cause, I'm giving you the statistics of what's likely. Especially at his age, you start to see sudden heart disease occurring, and sudden heart attacks occurring right around that age.”

Graham, 71, was only three years older than his father was at the time of passing from a heart attack.

President Donald Trump is "stuck" in a conflict that appears doomed to swallow up his presidency, and according to his one-time biographer, it is all because he has run up against an enemy who knows precisely "how to play him."

Michael Wolff is a longtime reporter and author, best known for his extensive coverage of Trump's personal and political histories, including a series of books about the chaos of his first term. In the latest episode of his Daily Beast podcast, "Inside Trump's Head," he touched on the disintegration of Trump's Iran ceasefire deal, making a bold proclamation about where the ordeal ranks across his entire political career.

“This is the worst mistake he has made," Wolff said, adding that the Iranians have been able to play Trump by way of "trolling," later adding. "These presidents get into these forever wars, and they can’t get out of them."

Wolff argued that Trump now finds himself trapped in the sort of foreign conflict that can "bring presidencies down," something that Iran is keenly aware of.

"These presidents get into these forever wars, and they can’t get out of them," he added.

Wolff further claimed that Trump had effectively told Iran, "I’ll give you any kind of agreement you want if you just stop this war," even going so far as to offer to pay them, something he had relentlessly attacked former President Barack Obama for supposedly doing with his Iran deal.

“They keep coming back,” Wolff said of Iran. “This is a whole process of trolling Donald Trump.”

Trump has now threatened to attack Iran with "1000 Missiles" if they attempt to assassinate him, even reportedly laying out instructions for Vice President JD Vance on how to approach the situation if he is killed. Wolff suggested, however, that "the death thing is probably more clearly related to his polling numbers than it is to whatever threats the Iranians are making."

Wolff also noted that the notion of threats against his life "does get under [Trump's] skin, and he is somewhat paranoid about this."

Veteran journalist Simon Marks made similar arguments last week, suggesting that Trump "fundamentally lacks the skills and temperament to successfully manage a diplomatic deal with" a country that operates like Iran, which does not operate anything like the world of New York real estate dealing that he is used to, and is not interested in giving him something he can tout as a victory.

More critics in the technology space have begun to get their hands on one of President Donald Trump and his family's biggest scams, the "Trump phone," and their reactions have been brutal so far, with some tarring the cheap device as "awful" and "deeply unserious."

First launched over a year ago, Trump Mobile was an initiative launched by The Trump Organization, claiming that it would be able to sell an affordable-yet-premium smartphone, the "T1," made entirely in the U.S., in keeping with the president's aggressive anti-imports agenda. In the months since then, the idea has appeared to devolve rapidly, with the design going from the one initially shown, looking like an all-gold iPhone, to the version that is now being sent to the press, which is an old HTC model with cheap plastic parts painted gold. The packaging also touts that it is merely "assembled" in the U.S., suggesting that the parts were made overseas.

Despite around 600,000 customers placing a deposit, phones have yet to actually ship to customers. Finished models have, however, gradually made their way into the hands of mobile reviewers, and the results have been rough.

In a video for Android Authority, reviewer C. Scott Brown said that, while the phone was not as bad as he had anticipated, it was still "awful, and not worth your money." Throughout the video, Brown further trashed the phone for its "gaudy" faux-gold look, which he noted actually looks "mustard yellow" most of the time; its "very, very cheap" plastic shell; its "dated" curved screen; and its main chipset, which was first released back in 2023 and "was pretty mediocre even back then." The phone also notably comes with Truth Social preinstalled.

In another video, this time for The Verge, reviewer Dominic Preston summed up the T1 as "deeply unserious" as far as modern smartphones are concerned. This tacky ethos, he explained, was evident in the "T1" watermark included in the corner of every picture taken with the phone right out of the box, a setting that users must manually turn off. Preston also touched on the fact that the phone is a reskinned HTC model, making it "dated right out of the gate." None of its features or specifications were "notable or novel, or even impressive for a $500 phone," either.

"The most important thing here is actually that I don't trust Trump Mobile to support this phone in any meaningful, ongoing way," Preston concluded. "I don't know if this phone will ever be updated to Android 16, let alone 17 or future versions we haven't seen yet. I don't even know if it's going to get security patches. There's a real risk that anyone who buys this phone will have an out-of-date, insecure device within months, not years."

He added: "This is not a real phone. And we don't have to treat it like one anymore."

President Donald Trump is more and more beholden to a "dangerous addiction," according to his one-time biographer, and it is one that has both defined his entire political career and could endanger his future.

Michael Wolff is a longtime reporter and author, best known for his extensive coverage of Trump's personal and political dealings, including a series of books about the inner workings of his first administration. In the latest edition of his Daily Beast podcast, "Inside Trump's Head," he touched on Trump's appearance at the latest NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, and argued that his conduct there reveals the addiction that most defines him: attention.

"He’s not about policy. He’s not about accomplishments. He’s not about ‘America first,’ he’s certainly not about cooperation, which is the nature... of NATO,” Wolff explained. “It’s just about attention... He arrives there, and it’s, ‘What do I do to claim all of the attention? Then coming back to Greenland, then coming back to dismissing everyone, dissing Europe. So essentially, how could he not but become the center of attention here?”

Wolff even suggested that Trump might have allowed his recent ceasefire deal with Iran to disintegrate in order to better steal the spotlight at the summit. His visit was marked by attacks against a parade of long-established U.S. allies, including. Spain, France, Germany, Italy and the U.K., taking aim at them for refusing to participate in his war, for allegedly not spending enough on NATO and for opposing his calls to annex Greenland.

"You have to understand that there is no meaning beyond that. It’s not about anything else," Wolff continued. "What has this 10 years of the Trump era been about? It has just been about what gets him attention."

"I mean, it is strange when you hear earnest and utterly sincere journalists trying to make sense out of what he does," Joanna Coles, Wolff's co-host, said, further suggesting that his attention-obsessed nature must stem from a lack of it in his childhood.

In response, Wolff countered: "He has always gotten too much of it, and that has created an addiction which obviously has to be... satisfied with ever more attention."

He added: "Our foreign policy is not to cooperate with our allies because... our allies are irrelevant, we are the focus, we must be the focus, and by we Trump means ‘I’ must be the focus. That then becomes... the profile of America’s place in the world... No other interests matter, no other nations matter, no other leaders matter."

President Donald Trump has been unusually quiet about the health scare surrounding GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell, and according to new analysis from The Daily Beast, this is because the situation is confronting him with his biggest current "existential fear."

McConnell, the former Senate Majority Leader who built a legacy out of hardline obstruction against Democratic legislative priorities, was rushed to the hospital in mid-June after being found unresponsive at his home. Later reports indicated that he suffered cardiac arrest and was given CPR. He has remained hospitalized since then, and despite his staff's insistence that he is recovering well, their lack of transparency about the situation has prompted rampant speculation that the senator might be near death or dead already, with the details kept quiet to control how his seat is eventually filled.

During the latest edition of "The Daily Beast Podcast," the outlet's executive editor, Hugh Dougherty, touched on Trump's low-key response to the situation, noting that when the president was recently asked about McConnell on Air Force One, he "did not want to dwell on the topic."

"No, I have no—I have no idea,” Trump said. “I have no idea how he’s doing.”

Dougherty explained that, however a potential McConnell departure would play out, it would be a "dangerous distraction" that Trump desperately does not want to deal with.

“I think Donald Trump is aware that a dangerous distraction from the Senate is really bad, and Donald Trump’s big existential fear of a Democratic Senate is [that] they impeach him,” he said. “That’s what is motivating him.”

Dougherty continued, touching on Trump's obsession with passing the SAVE America Act to impose strict new voter ID laws: "He is desperate for this to happen. Mitch is absolutely an obstacle to this. Whatever state Mitch is in, Mitch is an obstacle to this. But equally, the distraction, the difficulty, the crisis that is created by the departure, in whatever way, of Mitch McConnell from the Senate, he doesn’t need. So I think we can see why he’s been incredibly quiet about this.”

Dougherty also explained why the process of replacing McConnell could become much messier than most people realize. Per Kentucky laws, if McConnell either resigns from office or dies before August 3, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear would be required to call a special election to fill the seat. In other states, the governor would simply appoint a replacement outright, but the Republican-led state legislature in Kentucky changed those rules in 2024, specifically out of concerns that Beshear would replace McConnell with a Democrat.

Beshear, however, has previously stated that he does not recognize that new law and finds it unconstitutional, and has not confirmed how he would approach replacing McConnell. As Dougherty explained, he could try to ignore the law and name a Democratic replacement, prompting a court battle that could leave the seat vacant for months.

Concerns are also mounting among MAGA Republicans that a special election could see a non-Trump loyalist elected to the Senate, like Rep. Thomas Massie, who remains popular statewide despite being ousted from his House seat by a Trump-backed opponent.

Former George Bush speechwriter and GOP insider Tim Miller is quick to say how thoroughly Senate and House Republicans have surrendered Congressional power to President Donald Trump and the White House since his return to office more than a year ago.

In fact, Miller says the only way the party has actually managed to stymie Trump since his return to office more than a year ago was by accident.

Speaking to MS NOW anchor Jackie Alemany Miller said he found it hilarious that Trump’s enabling GOP onle recently threw Trump entirely by accident over recent legislation.

“The funny thing about this for … my old people, the more mainstream kind of the old guard Republicans. Oftentimes over the years, they've said, ‘hey, we can't buck Trump on this stuff. We can't vote against tariffs. We can't vote for Ukraine funding because Trump's too powerful. You know, we don't want to lose our seat,’ like it's a political imperative that you stick around with Trump because Trump is so powerful,” said Miller. “But I find it very funny and ironic that by accident on this Housing bill, they bucked Trump because they didn't know that he was going to have this temper tantrum over the SAVE Act, and look at what happened. This thing is now going to go into effect at midnight because Trump's not going to veto it. There's a bipartisan veto proof majority. All Trump's going to do is whine about it on social media.”

Earlier Friday, Trump “boiled over” in a lengthy Truth Social rant, declaring that he would not sign a bipartisan housing bill “in PROTEST” of Republicans’ unwillingness to pass his election overhaul legislation.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) sent the bill, passed with bipartisan support, to the president’s desk, despite Trump blindsiding GOP leaders on the day of the signing ceremony by canceling the event at the last minute.

Still, sending the housing bill to the president’s desk started the inevitable countdown to the legislation becoming law without a successful presidential veto.

Frustrated, Trump blasted a rambling signature refusal, posting, “I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,

But despite this betrayal, none of these Republicans are going to lose their jobs over it, said Miller.

“Like, we've spent ten years being told that they can't have a backbone. They can't demonstrate any courage because they're worried that they'll lose their seat if they do. And here we see on the housing bill that actually, this whole time they could have. Like, Trump’s not as strong as we think.”

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Former governor and ex-Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has given up on his brief dream of becoming president, acknowledging that his brain is shrinking.

The right-leaning Deseret News podcast spoke with Romney in an extensive interview that ended with a question about his 2028 intentions.

The site, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which Romney is a member, spoke with the Donald Trump foe, as the Republican Party enters a kind of identity crisis about life after the MAGA founder.

McKay Coppins asked Romney about a possible campaign as a joke, promising, "just kidding," but it was something Romney wanted to talk about. The often reserved ex-politician issued quite the attack on Trump, without even mentioning his name.

"I'm glad you've raised that," Romney said with a wry smile. "I wanted to announce that I am running one more time."

After they both laughed, Romney explained, "The truth is the truth is, you know, I remember talking to my dad about this. And, you know, in his 80s, he said, 'Oh, I would love to do it again.' And the reality is, sure, I would love to do it again. And this time I might get it right, you know, third time's a charm."

Coppins cracked that "80 isn't what it used to be."

But Romney cited Bill Bryson's book The Body: "He points out that the human brain shrinks by 20 percent by the time you're 80 years of age. Twenty percent smaller, just the size of the brain itself. So I basically think people who are 80 and above really should not be running the world or running the country."

Coppins agreed it was "probably some good wisdom."

Trump, who just turned 80 years old, became the oldest person elected to the presidency in 2024. In the first year of his second term, his gaffes have prompted questions about his mental acuity, forgetfulness and exhaustion.

Despite the tumultuous time in politics and for the Republican Party, Romney confessed he's a pessimist by nature, but his optimism about the U.S. on its 250th birthday comes from his faith in the American people.

Trump's name wasn't mentioned, but he loomed as Romney addressed specific policies he has concerns about, like China, artificial intelligence, and the proliferation of wealth for those who now have the power to buy an election.

"The decay of many of our institutions — that's a challenge," Romney added. "I'm I'm concerned about the amount of money a few people are getting. I mean, the idea that Elon Musk is going to be a trillionaire. What does that mean? We're talking about a thousand billions. And that means, you know, he could drop a couple of billion in a political campaign to support someone who would give him even more power. Uh and he's not just the only one. I shouldn't just pick on him, but there are others are going to [have] hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth [who] they will influence our political system."

Romney also gave a list of some of his favorite recipes he has started cooking in his retirement, including turkey meatballs and ham and beans, a historic soup available in the Senate for the past 100 years.

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While speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the NATO summit earlier this week, President Donald Trump misspoke a number of times, referring to Iran as “the Islamic Republic of Japan” and Zelensky as “Putin.” According to psychologist and body language expert Dr. John Paul Garrison, not only do these “mental glitches” signal a serious health condition, but the reactions of Trump’s onlooking officials reveal much about their thoughts on the president.

According to Garrison — who provides his analysis while watching a play-by-play of the video of the president’s appearance — after Trump made his “Islamic Republic of Japan” slip, “there was absolutely and utterly no awareness that he had said the wrong country's name…You can even see him emphasizing this fact. He does that when he feels very strongly about something. You can see he's raising his eyebrows right here — he wants everybody to hear what he's saying. And there's no attempt to correct this. He has no idea based on everything I'm seeing that he just said the wrong country's name.”

Garrison then looked at the moment from another video’s angle, which showed the reactions of Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

“Bessent,” notes Garrison, “you see him slowly look at President Trump because, I think, he's waiting for him to acknowledge and correct himself. But as we know, President Trump never does correct himself. But other people are catching that and they're looking at him waiting to know how to react because if he's going to laugh and correct himself, people want to laugh along with him. That doesn't happen here.”

Next, Trump referred to Zelensky as “Putin,” then continued speaking as if it were intentional. According to Garrison, “There is no acknowledgement that he said the wrong name. At this point, he has no idea that he did not say Zelensky’s name correctly.” It wasn’t until others in the room started laughing that he realized he’d misspoken.

Says Garrison, “I've watched President Trump speak for many, many years. What he's doing now seems a lot more like something we call ‘confabulation.’ Confabulation is something we see in patients with neurological problems. Dementia is an example of people who confabulate. Confabulation is basically distorting or fabricating information and believing what you're saying is true. So, for example, if you ask somebody with dementia what they had for lunch, they might tell you exactly what it was and go into great detail and they're totally wrong, but they actually think that's what it was. Based on his behavior, he seems to actually believe what he's saying right now. It's not just him trying to avoid embarrassment. He seems confused.”

And Rubio’s reaction to this is telling, says Garrison, explaining, “Rubio does not have strong reactions. He's very subtle, but he certainly noticed it.” Garrison notes that Rubio turns his head slightly, waiting for Trump to smile and admit the mistake, but the admission never comes, and Rubio turns away to mask his response. “He knows what absolute nonsense that just was. And there's really no good way to react to that. So, at this point, Marco Rubio, from what I can tell, just doesn't want to look at this anymore. So, he looks away.”

At the same time, Bessent “realizes that President Trump is doubling down and saying he meant to say Putin ... the smile leaves his face that second because he knows this is no longer a lighthearted moment where Trump is going to correct himself and they can laugh about it. Trump is trying to be serious here. He is now saying that he meant to say Putin in the first place, and that should be concerning to everybody listening to this.”

Finally, Garrison notes Trump’s own distress, pointing out how the president clicks his thumbnails and clenches his fingers: “I think there's real confusion here. He is fidgeting in a way that shows an intense amount of discomfort ... a significant amount of stress.”

“I think most people watching this are going to think that he was just lying and didn't want to look ridiculous,” concludes Garrison. “But I've seen him get through many, many situations like this, and I've never seen him do it like that. That was highly unusual for him. He appeared confused.”

When The Hill reported, earlier this week, that Senate Major Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyoming) had been speaking to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) — who has been hospitalized for weeks — quite a few MAGA Republicans argued that they weren't being transparent. Democrats called for transparency as well, but MAGA Republicans had an especially conspiratorial tone about McConnell's illness. And CNN's John Berman examined that tone during a Friday morning conversation with Puck News' Leigh Ann Caldwell.

Berman told his guest, "As journalists, we obviously want transparency. We would like to know what is going on with our public figures, and I think voters deserve that transparency. What's a little bit nuanced about this story is how angry some people appear to be online over it, and some of that anger and conspiracy is coming from the right. And I'm curious why that is."

Caldwell told Berman, "Well, the right has broken up with Sen. Mitch McConnell years ago. He is no longer an ally of Donald Trump. And the right is also tying everything that happens in Washington to this SAVE Act, this voter ID, birthright citizen or citizenship bill that the president is obsessed with passing. But the reality is that McConnell's office's silence about this is really feeding into these conspiracies. McConnell's office has historically, very often, given little information about anything. And Sen. McConnell himself is very comfortable in the silence and very comfortable with people saying anything they want about him."

Caldwell continued, "He has built a career on taking all the bows and arrows for his members, and it is one thing that does not bother him. But in this day and age, when you have such an active online conspiracy movement, this is not serving anyone well. And especially now that the governor of Kentucky has now sent a letter asking for more information, and no one is receiving it. He is still representing millions of constituents in Kentucky who have no idea what the status of his health is, and if he will actually be coming back to the Senate, John."

Berman told Caldwell, "Alright. Thank you for laying it out like that. I think I understand it better now, because I was trying to figure out where the scandal, insofar as it was, is here."

President Donald Trump is traveling considerably less in his second term than he did in his previous one between 2017 and 2021. It was assumed the 80-year-old was slowing down or couldn't hack it with the rigorous schedule he once kept. But it appears there might be another reason, Maggie Haberman teased on Friday.

Speaking to CNN's Audie Cornish, Haberman, co-author of the new book Regime Change, explained that the administration is scared.

Reports are unfolding about the shocking revelations that the reason Trump swapped planes in Turkey to fly part of the way back to the U.S. is there were credible threats of a possible attack on Trump's plane.

"This is a president who has survived assassination attempts," Cornish noted. "Does this kind of concern loom large for him?"

Haberman said that those attempts "really radicalized" him and his team.

"The assassination attempts that he faced, in particular Butler, happened around the time that someone had been charged with being part of a murder for hire plot involving or set up by Iranian officials. Allegedly," she said. "And in his mind and in the campaign's mind at the time, it all became one thing."

It's for that reason, Haberman said, Trump and his team saw the new threats from Iran as serious and concerning. These kinds of threats are part of why Trump isn't seen out and about as much.

"You are already seeing a president who does not travel outside the White House that much. Part of it is that, you know, he would tell aides at the beginning of the of the term, 'I'm done campaigning,' but part of it is legitimate security concerns," said Haberman.

Haberman noted that another challenge she sees for Trump is that he is not surrounded by top experts and experienced professionals. For example, she added, those negotiating with Iran aren't well-schooled in nuclear weapons, much less in diplomatic negotiation. It's Trump's son-in-law and his catch-all "envoy for everything," Steve Witkoff.

The group of influencers is also kept extremely small, meaning if someone like Witkoff isn't in the room, they have no clue what is going on. One of the more significant things that happened as a result of that is that Witkoff felt he was close to a deal with Iran, but Trump decided to bomb them out of the blue. The lack of expertise meant that Trump wasn't properly prepared for what he'd face and never crafted an exit strategy.

"It became very clear that foreign policy — as someone said, and we quote them anonymously in the book, is 'whatever Trump says at any given moment,'" said Haberman.

During his first administration, Trump was rushed to the presidential bunker out of fear as a crowd grew near the White House protesting the police death of George Floyd. In his second term, a major project for Trump has been rebuilding the same bunker beneath a giant ballroom.

President Donald Trump suffered another legal setback in the federal courts on Tuesday, July 7 when U.S. District Judge William M. Ray II — a Trump appointee in Atlanta — shot down a grand jury subopeona related to Trump's push to relitigate the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia, a swing state he lost to Joe Biden that year. Former FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann weighed in on Ray's ruling during an appearance on The Bulwark's legal vodcast, emphasizing that Trump got a humiliating rebuke from one of his own federal appointees.

Weissmann told host Sarah Longwell, a GOP strategist and Never Trump conservative who rooted for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in 2024, "The judge… just quashed a grand jury subpoena related to the 2020 election — and that judge was appointed by Donald Trump — saying: And you are not even meeting good-faith standards. ... The main problem with this grand jury subpoena is that not only is there no there there — you haven't articulated anything that sounds criminal[.] There's a five-year statute of limitations."

Longwell asked Weissmann for his insights on legal arguments to use against Trump, and he told her, "I would focus on the complete denial of justice as shown by trying to indict six members of Congress. Judges finding that he engaged in vindictive prosecution. Abrego García. His issuing grand jury subpoenas that get quashed because of lack of good faith regarding the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, the sitting governor of Minnesota, the sitting mayor of Minneapolis. ... Then, I would talk about the people who have been fired at the Department of Justice for doing their job."

Weissmann continued, "I would grill him on: Can you just walk me through why people who are afforded due process — including people who attacked police officers — why it is that you called them, you called this whole group and the way they were treated, a grave national injustice. Can you walk me through why you're saying that all of them got injustice from every federal judge who they were in front of? And it's a whole panoply of judges appointed by Democrats and Republicans in DC — why is that a grave national injustice[?] I mean, you can go on and on. ... There's so much fodder."

Native New Yorker Weissmann, now 68, has a long resumé in the legal world, serving as a federal prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) during the 1990s before serving in the FBI under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Weissmann is also a professor at the New York University School of Law.

Brigadier General John Teichert handed Fox News a harsh reality that President Donald Trump's new Air Force One plane from Qatar isn't equipped to handle the president's high security needs.

Returning from the NATO summit in Turkey, Trump was forced to use the old presidential plane due to a credible Iranian assassination threat revealed by Israel, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

MS NOW reporter Carol Leonnig likewise revealed Thursday that one former national security official believes the new Air Force One isn't fully secure.

“This plane was built for aesthetics, not mission,” they said. “We know about its paint, its leather seats. But we don’t know its capabilities.”

Speaking to Fox, Teichert made it clear: "No matter what you do to retrofit a Qatari jet, it's never going to have the defensive capabilities of a tailor-made Air Force One built from scratch."

"So, it's clear to me that the Secret Service gave some pretty good advice to the president that there is a very real specific and credible threat and he needs to have the most robust and defended capability as possible, especially when leaving Turkey yesterday," he added.

"It goes back to you're never going to retrofit a plan to be as robust as if you make it. You need censors built into the plane. You need active defenses. You need hardening. And all of that really can come from a tailor-made, built-from-scratch plane," Teichert said.

He added that a new Air Force One system built from scratch will have those things, but a new Qatari "built on" won't.

Indeed, Leonnig's reporting cited national security officials who explained that it typically takes years, as well as billions of dollars, to build an aircraft like Air Force One and guarantee its safety and security. In Trump's case, the time and the money were not there.

Trump was given the plane last May and bragged in June that the U.S. “couldn’t build a plane like this.” The plane was built by the American company Boeing. The interior was designed by Alberto Pinto Interior Design. Pinto was also in Jeffrey Epstein's black book, and Epstein was known to visit his studio when in Paris.

There are currently two Boeing jets under construction to become the new Air Force One planes, but they won't be ready for another two years. So, instead of continuing to use the old Air Force One, Trump accepted the Qatari one and said he intends to keep it for his presidential library after leaving office.

Leonnig revealed Thursday afternoon that the president was embarrassed by his need to swap out the new fancy plane. The spicier Air Force One features a new glossy interior, but it lacks key things like the ability to refuel mid-air and defend itself using its own missile-defense systems.

Trump also can't do command-and-control functions that the other Air Force One could protect from. In the case of the older plane, it was built as a kind of “flying situation room." Any president could receive a secure and highly classified briefing while flying on the plane.

CNN anchor Kasie Hunt appeared staggered by her own Thursday supercut that the network assembled of President Donald Trump’s countless claims of Iranian surrender.

Hunt played the massive clip after Trump’s latest claim on Wednesday that Iran’s leaders were yet again slavering for an end to the war that Trump began — despite the regime’s apparent acceptance of more U.S. air strikes and the closing of the pivotal Strait of Hormuz.

Trump claimed Wednesday that Iranian leaders had “called a little while ago,” and they wanted “to make a deal so badly.” But this boast was nothing new. And network videographers had plenty of material to choose from to prove it.

“We went back and took a look, of course, at what … Trump himself has said over the period of days. I want to play for you what that has sounded like over the course of the last several months,” said Hunt in a tone of warning.

And then it came.

“They want to make a deal.” — Trump, March 23

“… and they want to make a deal so badly.” — Trump, March 24

“They want to make a deal so badly.” — Trump, March 25

“I do see a deal in Iran.” — Trump, March 29

“It's looking very good that we're going to make a deal.” — Trump, April 16

“This process should go very quickly.” — Trump, April 17

“We're going to end that war very quickly.” — Trump, May 19

“We're in the final throes of what will be a very, very good deal.” — Trump, June 9

“And they want to make the deal a lot more than I do.” — Trump, June 11

“We have our deal done with Iran, and it should be successful.” — Trump, June 16

“We're, uh, making an amazing deal with Iran.” — Trump, June 23

“They want to make a deal with us very badly.” — Trump, June 25

“They're dying to make a deal. They're giving us a lot.” — Trump, June 26

“They want to make a deal so badly.” — Trump, July 8

With a short laugh, Hunt then turned to National Review Online founder and conservative pundit Jonah Goldberg.

“Uh, Jonah Goldberg, on that note. I mean, what kind of deal has the U.S. gotten out of this?”

“There's no deal,” Goldberg said flatly. “Even the MOU wasn't a deal. It was a deal to talk about coming up with a deal that was going to last 60 days, that was never going to be extended.”

Trump, meanwhile is catching mounting rage from American voters, legislators and the international community over the war he started, which is driving up global and U.S. energy prices. And as gas prices again creep up due to Iran’s willingness to close the Strait of Hormuz, Trump and the Republican Party’s chances of surviving the November mid-terms appears increasingly dicey.

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A CNN panel revealed that the President Donald Trump is calling Cabinet-level secretaries at all hours of the day and night to ask for their opinions on design.

On Thursday, workers hung a massive canvas over the White House featuring an image of the president's planned renovations to the White House columns.

The North and South Portico columns were done in the Ionic style, and features scrolls (which look like swirls) at their tops. It matches the same design repeated in the embellishments all over the outside of the White House.

Speaking about the planned renovations on Thursday, CNN's panel noted that Trump is so focused on his Washington D.C. makeover that he's calling Interior Secretary Doug Burgum at midnight and 8 a.m.

Trump sees it as the "foundation of his legacy," CNN's Betsy Klein said. "This is just the latest example of him trying to impose his style and taste on Washington D.C."

Wall Street Journal reporter Josh Dawsey said that the whole city looks like a construction project because there are so many things Trump is doing. He called the work "staggering."

"And if you talk to people in the White House, he spends so much time on these projects. You saw Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, did an interview with Jonathan Martin from Politico, [where] he said '[Trump is] calling me at eight in the morning. He's calling me at midnight. He's calling me all day long, asking me about all of these various projects.' And the president is so focused on these projects, and maybe you love the president and think this is what he should be spending his time on. I just don't know that in midterm elections it's going to be the number one issue for voters. I guess we'll see."

The panel agreed that the crowds when Trump is out and about aren't as enthused about his construction projects as they are about other issues.

Former CIA Director Leon Panetta made clear that he was skeptical of President Donald Trump‘s claimed reason for switching planes for his journey home from Turkey at this week's NATO Summit.

On Wednesday, New York Times reporter Shawn McCreesh asked Trump specifically why he wasn’t flying his prized new Air Force One back to the U.S., despite Trump lauding the $400 million gift from the Qatari royal family.

Panetta argued that the foreign-derived plane was a clear security threat.

“I've always been concerned about security issues with this kind of plane that's built by another country, regardless of the fact that … we may have good relations with that country,” Panetta told MS NOW anchor Katy Tur on Wednesday. “The fact is that for from a security point of view, you have got to be concerned that there are going to be efforts to try to gather intelligence. “I'm sure they've reviewed the whole plane, but as somebody involved with security, I would be very concerned about making sure that the president's security is protected. The only way to do that is by having that plane made in the United States and carrying the equipment that is provided by the United States.”

“I don't I don't think there's any question that there are security concerns here,” continued Panetta. “What they are we don't know, but I'm sure that's involved.”

“Have you ever heard of a situation where the president switches planes like this?” Tur asked Panetta.

“It’s a brand new plane,” Panetta barked. “If there's a maintenance issue with a brand new plane that raises even more concerns. I don't think this is about maintenance.”

“This is a cover story of some kind to try to deploy one plane to Britain and have the president return to the old plane. That was Air Fforce One there. There's more going on. I think the war in Iran may have some something to do with it. He is in turkey. It's right next to Iran there,” said Panetta. “There does have to be some real concerns about the president's security. Even [Trump] himself basically admitted the concern about his personal security. So, for all of those reasons, I think that decision was made to try to protect the safety of the presidency.”

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