Trump obsesses over his own mortality after Lindsey Graham's death: report

Sen. Lindsey Graham's sudden death earlier this month sent President Donald Trump reeling and sunk him into an obsession with his own mortality.Graham, at 71, was nearly a decade younger than the president and had remained visibly active — traveling, campaigning and working — right up until his death, and that contrast has clearly unsettled Trump, reported the Washington Post. In public remarks, he's repeatedly expressed disbelief that someone so energetic could be gone so quickly, telling NBC he "thought he was just going to live forever."“A lot of people can’t do it at all," Trump told “Fox & Friends” on July 13. "A lot of people, when the camera goes on, they’re terrible. I see it all the time. I watch people. Most people aren’t very good, and he did it and he did it with pride and he did it because he loved our country."Privately, according to people familiar with his comments, the 80-year-old Trump has pressed aides on whether Graham's grueling travel schedule — including a return trip from Ukraine shortly before his death — might have played a role, and has turned to genetics and family history for explanations, invoking what he called a "racehorse theory" of inherited strength and stamina.“His father died just about at the same age,” Trump told Newsmax on July 13. The introspection comes at a moment when Trump's own mortality has already been unusually present in his mind. Graham's death fell just before the second anniversary of the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, an event Trump says he still revisits by watching footage of it repeatedly, describing his survival as a "miracle."He has also faced more recent threats, including a reported Iranian-linked threat this month that prompted him to switch planes, and an attempted shooting near a White House correspondents' event in the spring.“Because of the position I’m in, I’ve done quite a bit of research into the word ‘assassination,’ Terrible word. And they go after consequential presidents,” Trump told CBS in April, after an attempted shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. “I wasn’t worried. I understand life. We live in a crazy world.”Those around Trump describe him as subdued in the days following Graham's death — a notable shift for a president known for near-constant motion and activity.Even so, he hasn't fully stepped back from politics: He's called on the Senate to pass a cryptocurrency bill "in honor of" Graham, despite the senator not having sponsored it.

With the Saudi Deal, Trump Risks Aiding and Abetting a Nuclear Arms Race

The agreement appears poised to upend Washington’s decades-long nonproliferation strategy.

Republicans have to ‘counter’ Democratic narrative of Trump family profiting while Americans suffer: Bob Cusack

Washington Examiner executive editor Bob Cusack said Republicans must effectively counter Democrats’ argument that President Donald Trump and his family have financially benefited while ordinary Americans continue to struggle with high costs. Cusack’s comments come after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) argued that Republicans have failed to deliver on campaign promises to lower costs, […]

Trump DOJ's conduct called 'unlawful,' 'unethical' and 'unseemly' by federal judges

Across the country, federal judges are calling out Department of Justice lawyers, questioning in unprecedented ways whether they can be trusted to tell the truth or uphold centuries-old legal norms.From Washington, D.C., to Rhode Island to Oregon, federal judges nominated by presidents from both parties, including Donald Trump, have zeroed in on what’s called “the presumption of regularity.” It essentially means that judges must presume that the government — whether it be federal prosecutors, an IRS auditor or an FBI agent — did their jobs according to the rules and in good faith.Until Trump’s second term, which has seen an exodus of veteran DOJ lawyers and a transformative shift in priorities from issues like enforcing civil rights to instead defending a mass deportation agenda, this foundational tenet had rarely been discussed in federal courtrooms, former judges, lawyers and scholars say. But as Trump’s DOJ exhibits behavior that judges have called “unlawful,” “unethical,” “unseemly” or otherwise dishonest, adherence to that bedrock standard is now being questioned.ProPublica reviewed hundreds of cases since Trump retook the White House in which judges criticized the actions of DOJ lawyers and found more than 40 in which they explicitly referenced the presumption of regularity. In many cases, judges have expressed frustration that they can no longer take the government at its word.“Judges simply don’t believe the representations that are being made by United States attorneys, assistant United States attorneys and the like,” said John E. Jones, a former federal judge for the District of Pennsylvania, appointed by President George W. Bush.“I don’t think in the annals of the Department of Justice, in the history of jurisprudence in the United States, we’ve ever seen anything close to this.”In Rhode Island in May, Trump-appointed federal Judge Mary McElroy rebuked federal prosecutors’ conduct — saying they withheld information and misrepresented facts — as she quashed their requests for a subpoena in their investigation into a hospital’s care of transgender children. The judge alleged the DOJ had inappropriately claimed its investigation was operating out of Texas to secure subpoenas targeting sensitive medical records of patients in another state and that it falsely claimed the Rhode Island hospital hadn’t communicated with the department.“The discrepancy between the honorable conduct expected of federal prosecutors and DOJ’s tactics in this case is unsettling,” McElroy wrote. “The Court cannot help but share the sentiment that ‘[t]he presumption of regularity that has previously been extended to [DOJ] that it could be taken at its word — with little doubt about its intentions and stated purposes — no longer holds.’”Judges have emitted a chorus of condemnations against the legal basis for some of Trump’s political agenda, including the mass firings of federal workers, an immigration dragnet that has imprisoned hundreds of U.S. citizens and retribution campaigns against the president’s political enemies.In doing so, federal judges are imbuing forceful language into their orders in a way that scholars say signals to the Trump administration that the third branch of government is losing trust in the Justice Department.“I don’t think in the annals of the Department of Justice, in the history of jurisprudence in the United States, we’ve ever seen anything close to this.” Former federal Judge John E. Jones, a George W. Bush appointeeFederal judges rarely grant interviews, and none of the judges who criticized the Justice Department in their orders granted interviews to ProPublica.In a statement, a spokesperson for the DOJ said its attorneys are “dedicated public servants who represent the United States with integrity, in accordance with their ethical obligations and the law.”“The Department stands firmly behind the professionalism and good faith of its attorneys,” said spokesperson Kiersten Pels. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.Federal judges have found that the government filed statements generated by artificial intelligence that referenced nonexistent case law, wrote briefs that ignored facts and filed declarations with inaccurate dates, the ProPublica review shows.In one case, the government included documentation claiming a detainee had been convicted of marijuana possession in 2009. That detainee, the judge noted, citing what she called the government’s persistent “sloppiness,” would have been 4 years old.“This Court will no longer blindly accept statements of fact from [the U.S. government] unless they are made under oath by an individual with personal knowledge,” Judge Christine O’Hearn, a President Joe Biden appointee, wrote in New Jersey while reviewing a writ of habeas corpus petition filed by a man who claimed he was unlawfully imprisoned by immigration officers.

WATCH LIVE: Trump meets with Netanyahu at White House

President Donald Trump on Tuesday morning is meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, shortly before the two leaders join a slew of other high-profile figures attending the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) funeral in Washington, D.C. Trump and Netanyahu are meeting around 11 a.m. at the White House. Their meeting […]

Living in Michigan Can Be Tough in Election Years. Here's How the Trump-Backed Candidates Are Doing.

Panicked Trump allies at 'DEFCON1' over fears Iran war will spiral out of control: report

A crucial meeting in the Oval Office on Tuesday has allies of President Donald Trump on edge that it could lead to an expansion of the unpopular war in Iran.Benjamin Netanyahu is coming to the White House with a singular objective: convince Trump to escalate military operations against Iran, reports Politico. The Israeli Prime Minister, who reportedly helped incite the initial February attack along with the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), is once again maneuvering to push the president toward a more aggressive and durable conflict.Trump's anti-interventionist America First base is bracing for impact after the "pivotal" meeting. Steve Bannon expressed their collective alarm: "Netanyahu has had twice as many visits to the White House in 18 months as Churchill had in all of World War II — with every one of them a disaster for America First."The Iran war has already dragged on for five months with no resolution in sight, the report notes. The U.S. and Iran briefly suspended tit-for-tat strikes over the weekend amid cautious hopes for a ceasefire. But Trump continues threatening "massive attacks," keeping the door wide open for renewed escalation.Netanyahu's seventh visit to the White House since Trump took office signals his desperation to lock in permanent war. America First allies fear this meeting could transform a temporary conflict into a years-long Middle East quagmire.According to the report, "The meeting comes as new polling shows that a growing share of the president’s base no longer believes the war is worth its economic costs. And Republicans are increasingly resigned to the fact that the war will likely still be hanging over voters in some form when they head to the polls in November."That led Curt Mills, executive director of American Conservative magazine, to describe the meeting as "DEFCON 1.""Netanyahu is going to argue for the essential logic of escalation," Mills explained. "If Trump is not willing to give the memorandum of understanding a chance and if Trump is not willing to walk away from the conflict entirely without a resolution—then I think we probably will escalate, and that's what we've been seeing these last couple of weeks."Trump's own allies acknowledge Netanyahu wouldn't be doing his job if he didn't push for military expansion. But that's precisely what terrifies them: Netanyahu will succeed, dragging Trump deeper into a conflict that's already hemorrhaging support within his base.

Trump rebukes Netanyahu ahead of Oval Office meeting, says ‘I know exactly what’s going on’ at Pickaxe Mountain nuke site

President Trump publicly rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday after The Post reported that the leader of the Jewish state is expected to present Trump with evidence that Iran is pursuing nuclear technology at its subterranean Pickaxe Mountain site.