Melania gives Congress private deadline as she works around Trump's team: report

First lady Melania Trump gave Congress a private deadline to pass her signature foster care bill, and she is pursuing it largely outside the usual White House channels, according to a new report in Politico. At a bipartisan roundtable with the House Ways and Means Committee in April, the first lady publicly called foster care legislation a "moral imperative." Then, behind closed doors, she set a target, Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) told the outlet: "I want this on Donald's desk by the August recess." The Fostering the Future Act, which expands housing, education and workforce help for young people aging out of foster care, passed the House unanimously.The Senate has not moved it out of committee, and lawmakers are set to leave Washington around Aug. 10. At a White House picnic the day the House passed the bill, both Trumps urged the Senate to hurry. "Hopefully, it will quickly pass in the Senate," the president said. He has not publicly pressed senators since.The deadline reflects a first lady who increasingly operates on her own track. Her office, not the State Department, has led her effort to reunite children displaced by the Russia-Ukraine war, negotiating directly with Moscow and Kyiv, the White House said. She has also shown a willingness to diverge from the administration's message. She broke with the White House on Epstein, calling for survivors to testify as the president's team tried to move past the scandal, and last week put her own spin on a Supreme Court ruling her husband celebrated, voicing support for the LGBTQIA+ community.A recent book recounted how she resisted Trump's overhaul of the White House grounds and lost.

‘A total disappointment’: revelers face unbearable heat at Great American State Fair

Attendance had been thin to Trump’s ‘unbelievable’ event before an increase on Friday – and then the high temperatures swept inEven by Trumpian standards, the event was promoted with intense hyperbole: nothing short, the US president suggested, of the “the most unforgettable birthday party any country has ever seen”.“It’s gonna be great,” Donald Trump proclaimed on the opening night of the Great American State Fair, the centerpiece of the US 250th anniversary celebrations. “It’s gonna be unbelievable.” Continue reading...

Justice Department defends decision not to release, unredact more Epstein files

The DOJ’s response came in the final hours of a court-ordered deadline to remove redactions in at least a dozen documents.

Justice Department defends decision not to release, unredact more Epstein files

The Justice Department (DOJ) declined on Thursday to release additional unredacted records from its investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, telling a federal judge that it has already adequately complied with the law. The DOJ’s response came in the final hours of a court-ordered deadline to remove redactions in at least a dozen documents…

Congress Can Still Ban Birthright Citizenship. Here’s How.

The Supreme Court has committed a grievous moral and legal error in Trump v. Barbara, the landmark case on birthright...

Time for Congress To Make the Right To Carry a National Right

‘So dumb!’: Reporter who nailed Trump over Epstein unloads another thundering beatdown

Reporter Katie Phang recently nabbed a huge win against interim AG Todd Blanche and his crusade to keep the Epstein files under wraps. After months of stalling by the administration of President Donald Trump and ignoring the letter of a new law demanding the release of the sex-trafficker’s files, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan opened the floodgates on Trump’s longtime friend. Sullivan sided with former MS NOW show host Katie Phang in her lawsuit demanding the Trump administration adhere to the Epstein Transparency Act.Now, fresh off her big win, Phang tells “Left Hook” podcaster Wajahat Ali that Blanche, Trump and his entire crew appeared to be a bunch of idiots who had no real plan to protect Trump from being implicated in the Epstein files.“They're damned if they do and damned if they don't,” howled Phang. “You either produce it and now we have information that I and others can track down and do more reporting on, or you don't … it means they're trying to hide s——.”“If I were them I'd comply,” Phang told Ali. “I'd say ‘here are the names of the co-conspirators. Here are the names of the bad people that sent these terrible f—— emails. Here are the names of possible perpetrators. Have a nice day.’ But they are so dumb the way that they play this game. They had no f—— strategy and p—— off a federal judge like Emmett Sullivan … [who] told [Trump conspiracist] Michael Flynn to his face ‘you are a traitor to this country.’”Sullivan’s ruling means Blanche now must explain to a court why he shouldn't be forced to release names redacted from emails and documents that reference potentially damning videos and allegations of abuse of minors. Also included in redacted info includes the potential names of Epstein’s co-conspirators, as well as potentially damaging FBI interview notes from a victim who claimed Epstein introduced her to President Donald Trump when she was only 13.Phang told Ali that she had no doubt Sullivan put Trump administration in terrible danger.“Starting last year right … in the spring of 2025 they convene in the situation room about the Epstein files and it's not just the vice president of the United States, JD Vance there,” said Phang. “It was also then-attorney general Pam Bondi. It was FBI director Kash Patel. It's the deputy director of the FBI, Dan Bongino. It was then-deputy attorney general Todd Blanche. … It's the White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. It's the White House council … and a slew of other people. If something [fatal] had happened to that situation room pretty much … the entirety of the trump administration upper echelon would be f—— exterminated.”“The fact that you convene all those people repeatedly in the Situation Room you don't have to be a Rhodes scholar to figure out that there is something politically toxically horribly bad for the President of the United States [in those files],” she said.Phang added that she deliberately targeted Blanche in the suit to make him the prime target.“Unlike in other lawsuits when the DOJ is being sued and they parade in some junior federal prosecutor who has to go hat-in-hand to sit there and explain what happened or why they didn't do it, I only sued one person,” Phang said gleefully. “So, Todd Blanche … is gonna have to show up. You can't just send in some lackey.”

MS Now's Donny Deutsch MELTS DOWN over socialist takeover of the Democratic Party: 'It's a DISASTER!'

Liberal MS Now commentator Donny Deutsch lambasted the socialist takeover of the Democratic Party in comments on the progressive cable news network.The panel was discussing whether Democrats would be able to find their footing while the president is facing criticism over the Iran war and high inflation, when Deutsch went on a tirade about the party's focus.'Right now every Republican strategist is salivating on what these people have said in the past, and they're going to wallpaper with it.' "Well, Democrats have gone off the rails. ... What matters to people is affordability. And Democrats right now are focused on two things. They're focused on anti-Semitism and socialism," Deutsch said."Not all Democrats," host Stephanie Ruhle objected."Not all, but that's where the energy of the party is, when you look at the two candidates that got elected in the last week," he responded. "One of them talks about that there was not — that firebombing in Colorado was not anti-Semitic. I mean, would not acknowledge that, when it was a firebombing of people holding a vigil for hostages by Hamas."He was referring to Melat Kiros, who won the Democratic primary for Colorado's 1st Congressional District, and then cited Darializa Avila Chevalier, the winner of the primary in New York's 13th Congressional District."Another candidate in New York, who has been well documented, was at an October 8 rally, a pro-Hamas, pro-Palestinian rally," Deutsch continued."This is ridiculous, and they're both running on anti-American, socialistic, 'Let's blow up — let's abolish ICE, let's abolish prisons, let's abolish everything, let's abolish the police.' It's insane," he added."And the Republicans are going to tar them with this. This is the problem. Even though they are a small sector of the party, right now every Republican strategist is salivating on what these people have said in the past, and they're going to wallpaper with it," Deutsch said. RELATED: 'They're animals': Trump UNLOADS on 'godless Communists' taking over Democratic Party "Democrats are going down a bad path. They're electing these democratic socialists," he concluded. "It's a disaster. No matter what you think of it, wherever your politics are, it's bad strategy."Video of Deutsch's comments were posted to social media, where they were widely circulated.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!