Trump 'startled and annoyed' as staunch loyalists pushback over 'disaster' deal: insider

White House directly intervened to win $620M deal for company linked to Trump's son

When the Pentagon announced a $620 million loan last year to a small North Carolina startup linked to Donald Trump Jr., defense officials and the company tried to tamp down suspicions of cronyism.The president’s eldest son said through a spokesperson that he wasn’t involved. The Pentagon said Trump Jr. played no role in the record-setting deal. And the startup’s founder told reporters that his company, Vulcan Elements, received no political favoritism.But interviews and Defense Department records reviewed by ProPublica show that the request to loan hundreds of millions of dollars to the firm linked to Trump Jr. was made by Peter Navarro, a White House adviser to President Donald Trump and a friend of Trump Jr.’s.Of the dozens of companies the Pentagon was considering funding at the time, Vulcan’s was the only deal initiated by a top aide to the president, said an official at the Pentagon who was not authorized to speak publicly.After defense officials got the White House request, they asked Pentagon staff to move at an unusually rapid pace, said another person who was involved in the deal at the Pentagon but not authorized to speak about it. The staff worked late nights and with little sleep to get the loan through in a matter of weeks, the source said.“The call came from the White House: We have to get this done,” the person said.The deal is one of many actions by the Trump administration that have helped companies in which the Trump family holds stakes. Government contracts and other benefits have gone to various Trump-linked companies, prompting allegations of self-dealing by Democratic lawmakers and good government experts. But ProPublica’s reporting on the Vulcan loan represents the first time the awarding of a contract from a federal agency has been directly linked to White House intervention.The loan was a massive financial commitment from the Pentagon in its effort to fund companies that could help the U.S. reduce dependence on China’s critical mineral supply chains. The deal was a dramatic win for Vulcan, a North Carolina rare-earth magnet company launched just two years earlier. Estimates of its valuation grew tenfold after the deal was announced. It was also a win for Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm, which took a stake of undisclosed size in Vulcan about three months before the Pentagon announced the deal.And there may be more good news on the way for the president’s eldest son. Among other companies under review for a Pentagon loan was a drone parts manufacturer that Trump Jr. advises and owns a stake in, according to one of the defense officials who spoke to ProPublica.Navarro, who served as trade adviser in Trump’s first term, and Trump Jr. have formed a close bond in recent years. The president’s son visited Navarro in prison while he served time for defying a subpoena from lawmakers investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Trump Jr. was one of the small group of people Navarro dedicated his latest book to for having “my back when it was against the wall.” And a week before the Vulcan deal was announced, Trump Jr. hosted Navarro — now the president’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing — on his streaming show, encouraging his nearly 2 million subscribers to buy Navarro’s book. That interview was not long after word came down from Navarro to Pentagon staff to make the massive loan to Vulcan, one of the defense officials involved in the deal said.Navarro did not respond to questions from ProPublica sent to him directly. Neither did Vulcan. A White House spokesperson said in a statement that the administration is working “in the best interest of the American people,” adding, “The President’s entire team, including Senior Counselor Navarro and officials at the Department of War, is working together and with private industry to secure America’s critical mineral supply chain at Trump Speed.” Trump Jr.’s spokesperson said the president’s son does not discuss companies he has invested in with federal government officials and did not speak to Navarro about Vulcan. He “has no knowledge about how this deal came together,” the spokesperson said. A spokesperson for 1789 Capital, the venture firm where Trump Jr. is a partner, said it also played no role in Vulcan getting the loan and did not learn about the deal before it was public.“No company receives preferential treatment,” a Pentagon spokesperson said. “Outside affiliations, investors, or political connections play absolutely no role in the Department’s funding decisions.”Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer during the George W. Bush administration, said aides to the president should not be intervening in contracting and lending decisions by agencies, particularly in matters that financially benefit the president’s family.“This is our money they’re spending,” Painter said.

Trump offers Ghislaine Maxwell interview with own lawyer as proof against Epstein claim

President Donald Trump has refiled his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal — and to bolster his case, he's leaning on a key witness interview conducted by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the president's own former personal attorney.In an amended complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Miami, Trump's lawyers cited a July 2025 interview with Ghislaine Maxwell as evidence that the Journal's reporting was false. What the filing doesn't mention is that the interview was conducted by Blanche who was serving as Deputy Attorney General at the time and has since been elevated to Acting Attorney General — and who granted Maxwell limited immunity to participate.The lawsuit centers on a July 2025 Wall Street Journal story reporting that a bawdy birthday letter bearing Trump's name was included in a 2003 album Maxwell compiled to celebrate Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday. The letter, the Journal reported, featured a typewritten note framed by a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman, with a signature mimicking pubic hair. Trump has denied writing it.The amended complaint argues Maxwell's statements to federal investigators undercut the Journal's reporting. "Maxwell has stated, subject to penalty of perjury for lying to a federal officer, that she did not remember President Trump submitting a letter for Epstein's 50th birthday," the filing reads.But when Blanche asked Maxwell directly during the two-day July interview, her answer was notably narrow. "Do you remember President Trump submitting a letter or a card or a note?" Blanche asked. "I don't," Maxwell replied. Asked again, she said, "I do not remember."Her statement came in an interview which came with a limited immunity agreement, after which Maxwell was transferred to a minimum-security prison in Texas — a facility that typically does not house sex offenders.When later pressed on whether Maxwell was a credible witness, Blanche told CNN it was "an impossible question to answer."The original lawsuit was dismissed in April by U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles, who ruled Trump's complaint came "nowhere close" to the actual malice standard required of public figures in defamation cases. The amended complaint attempts to clear that bar by arguing the Journal ignored Maxwell's lack of recollection, buried Trump's denials, and published without ever producing the letter itself.Dow Jones, which owns the Journal, said at the time of the original filing that it would vigorously defend against the suit. "We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting," a spokesperson said.

Trump Admin’s Counterterrorism Strategy Targets Left-Wing Violence Biden Denied Existed

  President Trump signed a new counterterrorism strategy identifying three primary threats to the United States: narco-terrorists and transnational gangs, global jihadists including al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, and violent left-wing extremists including anarchists and anti-fascists. The post Trump Admin’s Counterterrorism Strategy Targets Left-Wing Violence Biden Denied Existed appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Donald Trump just smashed any doubt that he's mentally incapable of leading

Friends,I do not wish Trump ill. While he hasn’t shown a shred of compassion for anyone other than himself, this doesn’t justify our lacking compassion for him.It’s also in the interest of America and the world that he be physically and mentally able to discharge the duties of his office.So we have reason to be concerned about Trump’s visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center early Tuesday for what the White House called a “routine annual dental and medical assessment.”Trump turns 80 next month. I feel entitled to comment on the practical meaning of this milestone because I’ll also turn 80 next month (he was born 10 days before me).Let’s just say that reaching it doesn’t mean altogether good things, unless you consider the alternative.Even in a healthy person, small things begin to break down as one approaches 80. Everything takes just a bit more time and effort. Joints ache. Energy isn’t quite as abundant.The 80-year-old mind isn’t as quick. The frontal lobe’s capacity to remember names goes. (Yesterday, I could barely remember the name of a garage mechanic whom I’ve known for nearly half a century.)Taken separately, such minor frailties are typically no more than a personal frustration, but they begin to mount up. In a president of the United States, they can pose a major challenge to the nation and world.Trump frequently proclaims he’s in excellent health. “Just finished my 6-month physical at Walter Reed Military Medical Center. Everything checked out PERFECTLY,” he wrote on Truth Social early yesterday afternoon. “Thank you to the great Doctors and Staff! Heading back to the White House.”But even “PERFECTLY” is a relative concept for someone ending his seventh decade and beginning his eighth, who’s the oldest person to assume the presidency and the second-oldest to hold the office. (Joe Biden was 82 when he left in 2025.)Presidents aren’t legally required to release their medical records, but, given the effluvium of lies in which Trump permanently floats, we’d be excused if we didn’t entirely trust this PERFECTLY report.Plus, there are his bruised hands, swollen ankles, bouts of drowsiness, exceedingly long blinks during official meetings (some call them “naps”), and erratic — if not off-the-charts weird — behavior.Add in the frequency of his health “checkups.”Tuesday’s visit to Walter Reed was Trump’s third in-person doctor’s visit in a little over a year. His first physical of this term of office was in mid-April last year. He returned in early October for a “semiannual physical.” In early January, he had what was described as a brief dental appointment. Earlier this month, another dental appointment. Followed by his return to Walter Reed on Tuesday for his third “annual” physical in 13 months.Consider also the shifting explanations. In July, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella, Trump’s physician, explained that bruises on Trump’s right hand were “consistent with minor soft tissue irritation from frequent handshaking.” The explanation seemed plausible until the bruises spread to his left hand.Then there’s the changing story about Trump’s scans. In December he told reporters that he’d had an MRI in October but wasn’t sure what part of his body was scanned. “It wasn’t the brain,” he said, defensively, “because I took a cognitive test and I aced it.” Barbabella then issued a memo explaining it had been a scan of his heart and abdomen, and that in both cases the advanced imaging was “perfectly normal.”In January, Trump altered his story to say it was a CT scan rather than an MRI. Why? Trump being Trump, he doesn’t want anyone to know anything about his health that might reveal something he fears enemies and critics might see as a weakness.“In retrospect, it’s too bad I took [the scan] because it gave them a little ammunition,” Trump said. “I would have been a lot better off if [I] didn’t, because the fact that I took it said, ‘Oh gee, is something wrong?’ Well, nothing’s wrong.”What’s he afraid of? Probably that the American public will catch on to his rapidly diminishing capacities.Three years ago, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll, only 28 percent of the public thought Trump insufficiently healthy to hold the nation’s highest office. Earlier this month, the same poll found that 55 percent of the public thought his health insufficient for him to serve effectively.Behind the public’s mounting worries is a growing sense that Trump isn’t mentally all there.Physical and mental health aren’t easily separated, especially as one reaches 80. I often can’t remember where I put my wallet and keys or why I’ve entered a room. I also have less patience than I used to.

'What the hell?' Gretchen Carlson unloads on Trump DOJ's latest 'retribution tour'

The Department of Justice's crusade against President Donald Trump's enemies left ex-Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson visibly upset as she spoke about it on CNN."What the hell is the Justice Department doing?" Carlson said, talking about the DOJ's new criminal investigation against E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of sexual abuse. "What are they actually doing for the citizens of the United States of America?"Carlson mentioned her lawsuit ten years ago against Fox News for sexual harassment and stated that the issue reached a "personal level" for her."This is very personal to me that the president of the United States would be coming after somebody who had the courage to come forward," Carlson said. "As a nation, I think that every American should be just really pissed off."Carlson was upset that the DOJ is "wasting time on cases that, according to legal experts, are not credible," and said the cases against Carroll and other Trump enemies are "all to fulfill the mission of one man called the president of the United States, who's on a retribution tour."Carroll has twice won defamation lawsuits against Trump after he called her a liar and denied her allegations. The DOJ has also gone after former FBI Director James Comey, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and anti-ICE protesters.She said, "There are a plethora of other cases" for the DOJ to look into, and believed other Americans should be asking, "What are we doing? What are our tax dollars paying for with this Department of Justice?"

No Way to Make a Deal

The agreement that Trump wants to strike with Iran keeps eluding him.

Scheduled Artists Begin Bailing on Trump’s “Great American State Fair”

Two major performing artists have bailed on President Trump’s America 250 celebrations on the National Mall since the administration included them in the lineup.Freedom 250 on Wednesday announced a list of performers for the “Great American State Fair,” which will take place from June 25 to July 10 in Washington, D.C.Just hours later, Morris Day and the Time dropped out.“Contrary to rumor, Morris Day & the Time will not be performing at the ‘“GREAT AMERICAN STATE FAIR,’” they posted in a graphic on Facebook captioned “It’s a no for me.”Rapper Young MC, best known for his song “Bust a Move,” followed suit, announcing that he’d be refusing to perform at the “Trump-backed” event.“I HAVE INFORMED MY AGENTS THAT I WILL NOT BE PERFORMING AT THE FREEDOM 250 EVENT,” he wrote on Facebook. “The artists were never told about any political involvement with the event. And despite the claims by the organizers that the event is non-partisan, SPIN magazine describes it as Trump-backed.” I hope to perform in D.C. in the near future at an event that is not so politically charged.”The other scheduled acts—the Commodores, Flo Rida, Milli Vanilli, Martina McBride, and Vanilla Ice—have yet to make any announcements. This lineup of artists was already questionable given that most of them haven’t been relevant in years. But now performers who were announced are dropping out, and at least one of them directly blamed President Trump for it. More withdrawals may soon come.

'Dr.' Jill's Dramatic New Spin on Biden's Debate Disaster Fails the Smell Test—Complete With Receipts