CBS owner Paramount Skydance is now seeking another megamerger that would put more media under Ellison family control.
As Trump's iron grip on the Republican Party crumbles in real time, the President struck a defiant tone in a statement Friday morning.
The horrified wife of a Navy veteran who allegedly viciously beat an elderly Trump superfan described his dark and violent past.
Trump's actions produce some short-run gains for his personalist brand of politics, but as the fall election approaches, they portend a divided and disabled Republican Party against energized and progressive Democrats.
Sarah Kellen, the former personal assistant to Jeffrey Epstein who told Congress Thursday she was repeatedly raped and abused by the convicted sex trafficker, has named three of his alleged accomplices — and the identities have sent shockwaves through political and celebrity circles.According to Tara Palmeri's The Red Letter, Kellen identified celebrity hairstylist Frederic Fekkai, former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, and the late fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier during her closed-door, transcribed interview with the House Oversight Committee. The Miami Herald's Julie K. Brown — the journalist whose reporting helped bring down Epstein — independently confirmed that Kellen accused Levine of sexually assaulting her.Levine, a Democrat who ran for Florida governor in 2018, has previously denied having any meaningful relationship with Epstein. But DOJ files tell a different story — emails show him referring to the disgraced financier as "a great guy" and signing off as "Your friend, Philip" even after Epstein's 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. Ghislaine Maxwell, in a DOJ interview, called Levine her "very good friend." Levine has not responded to the new allegations.Fekkai's ex-wife, Elizabeth, pushed back on the claims. "There's no f------ way," she told Palmeri. "He's a lot of things, but he's not abusive." Epstein victim Johanna Sjoberg, however, testified in 2024 that she overheard Epstein ask Fekkai if he could "find some girls for him." Fekkai has not commented directly.Demarchelier, who died in 2022, was a fixture on Epstein's Lolita Express flight logs and was accused by multiple models and former assistants of pervasive sexual harassment during his lifetime.The disclosure marks a significant milestone in a survivor-led push that has been building for months. Last September, a group of Epstein survivors gathered on Capitol Hill and announced they were compiling their own list of abusers after growing frustrated with the government's failure to act. "We know the names. Many of us were abused by them," one survivor said at the time. "Now together as survivors, we will confidentially compile the names who were regularly in the Epstein world." Kellen's testimony appears to be on the list arriving on Capitol Hill.Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) confirmed Thursday that the three names Kellen provided were ones investigators "hadn't heard before," calling her testimony "by far the most substantive and productive interview" the committee has conducted. He promised to release the transcript as quickly as possible.The committee has not officially released the three names. No charges have been filed against any of the men named.
Gabbard is the fourth cabinet member to leave under Trump's second term
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard resigned Friday, citing her husband’s battle with a rare form of bone cancer. “My husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer. He faces major challenges in the coming weeks and months. At this time, I must step away from public service to…
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, whose anti-war views spurred tension with the White House, said she was resigning from the post to help her husband confront a bone-cancer diagnosis.
Critics were left dumbstruck on Friday after President Donald Trump characterized a taxpayer-funded settlement he reached as an act of selflessness, a remark that some noted had also severely undercut his own past remarks.On his social media platform Truth Social, Trump complained Friday morning that he “gave up a lot of money” after agreeing to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service in exchange for a nearly $1.8 billion settlement, with the funds earmarked for payouts to those who allege to have been unfairly targeted by the Biden administration’s Justice Department.Trump said that in lieu of a personal payout that could have been an “absolute fortune,” he instead opted to “help others” who were “badly abused by an evil, corrupt and weaponized Biden administration.” His remarks also come after he previously claimed to not be “involved” in the creation of the fund.Trump’s framing of securing a nearly $1.8 billion payout from taxpayers to potentially secure payments for the president’s donors or violent Jan. 6 Capitol rioters, critics argued, was stunning.“Not content to just rip us all off, he expects praise for it,” noted author Jennifer Erin Valent in a social media post on X.Others, like podcast host “Hal for NY,” whose videos on YouTube have amassed more than 71 million views, pointed to what appeared to be a glaring contradiction Trump made in his remarks.“Funny, because he told us he had nothing to do with it. Now he wants a thank you?” they wrote in a social media post on X to their nearly 18,000 followers.And Joanne Carducci, a prominent Democratic political commentator, wrote to her more than 1 million followers on X: “I thought he said he had nothing to do with the slush fund?”I thought he said he had nothing to do with the slush fund? 🧐— Jo (@JoJoFromJerz) May 22, 2026