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The Seven Republicans Who Voted With Democrats in Attempt to Block Trump’s White House Ballroom

Jun 5, 2026Center Left

The ballroom has been the source of much debate since Trump had the East Wing of the White House demolished last year to make room for the grandiose design.

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Trump’s unprecedented $37B failure exposed as secret meeting details leak: report

Raw Story

26 minutes ago

Trump’s unprecedented $37B failure exposed as secret meeting details leak: report

President Donald Trump's escalating military campaign against Iran is achieving the “opposite” of its intended effect, according to a senior U.S. official cited in a New York Times report Saturday.“The official said the strikes have the opposite effect of what is intended, keeping Iran cohesive and allowing Iranian leaders to focus attention on an external threat,” the Times’ report reads.The assessment came after insiders leaked details to the Times about a Friday meeting between Trump and his top advisers and Cabinet members, where officials weighed whether or not to escalate the war further. According to the Times, few, if any, in Trump's inner circle believed intensifying the bombing campaign was wise.A separate senior official who was briefed on the discussion expressed doubts that resuming major combat operations would push Iran back to the table at all.The “private deliberations” focused on what officials warned was the Pentagon’s “shrinking inventory of Patriot interceptors and other air defenses,” the Times reported.“Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has cautioned privately that resuming major combat operations against Iran was doable but that it would dangerously deplete interceptors available to the military’s Central Command, which is responsible for operations in the Middle East, the officials said,” the Times’ report reads.Earlier this week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a congressional committee that Trump’s deeply unpopular war against Iran had cost taxpayers $37.5 billion so far.The internal skepticism adds to a growing list of signs that the administration's approach to Iran isn't producing the results Trump has publicly promised, even as the financial and human costs of the conflict continue to climb.

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Appeals court denies Trump’s bid to allow $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas

US news | The Guardian

55 minutes ago

Appeals court denies Trump’s bid to allow $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas

Three-judge panel of Democratic appointees let stand lower court’s ruling that fee constitutes an unlawful tax A federal appeals court on Friday rejected a ⁠bid by Donald Trump’s administration to halt a judge’s order preventing it from imposing a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas for ⁠highly skilled foreign workers.The Boston-based first US circuit court of appeals declined to put on hold a lower court judge’s ⁠8 June ruling in a lawsuit filed by 20 Democratic state attorneys general, striking down the fee on the ‌basis that it ‌constituted an unlawful tax Congress never authorized. Continue reading...

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Trump blasted after critics suspect he plagiarized joke during ‘excruciating’ WHCD speech

Raw Story

1 hour ago

Trump blasted after critics suspect he plagiarized joke during ‘excruciating’ WHCD speech

President Donald Trump faced backlash Saturday after critics accused him of recycling a joke that had circulated online for decades during his speech Friday at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.During the event, Trump joked about a text message a senator apparently received from his wife, who said, “when you get home, I want you to immediately come up the stairs and make love to me.” Trump then recalled that the senator said “I can’t do both.”As flagged by the progressive media organization MeidasTouch, Trump’s joke – which the president later claimed to have thought was “the only thing good in this whole frickin’ stupid speech they wrote” – had existed for decades.“Trump (well, his writers) recycled this joke,” reads a Saturday post from MeidasTouch’s X account. “It appeared in a Brad Paisley song released in 2007, a Tampa Tribune article back in 2000, and has been shared numerous other times on the Internet throughout the years.”The recycled material was just one part of what reviewers widely panned as a flop performance. CNN reported that Trump bombed at the dinner, even attempting to meta-joke his way out of it, though his self-deprecating jokes also fell flat.Writer Nick Bryant summed up the reaction bluntly on X."I don't think anybody would label him the comedian-in-chief. Excruciating to watch," Bryant wrote.In his rambling remarks, Trump insulted journalists by name, repurposed old nicknames for political opponents, and made a string of fat jokes that fell flat, and at points appeared to grow frustrated with his own writers over the material he'd been given.Trump (well, his writers) recycled this joke. It appeared in a Brad Paisley song released in 2007, a Tampa Tribune article back in 2000, and has been shared numerous other times on the Internet throughout the years. https://t.co/9ptq6G8tXX pic.twitter.com/QIRjT3Kvn1— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) July 25, 2026

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Onlookers rejoice as federal court slaps down Trump’s attack on mail-in ballots

Raw Story

3 hours ago

Onlookers rejoice as federal court slaps down Trump’s attack on mail-in ballots

A federal court dealt a major blow to President Donald Trump’s efforts to limit the use of mail-in ballots for the upcoming midterm elections, sparking a chorus of celebration among Trump administration critics.On Saturday, The U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to block a lower court order that prohibited the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) from carrying out the president’s executive order on mail-in ballots. Signed in March, Trump’s executive order would require states to send the federal government a list of all its voters it plans on sending absentee ballots. The USPS could then refuse to deliver mail-in ballots to any voters not on the list, essentially forcing states to fork over private and detailed voter information to the executive branch.With Trump’s efforts to restrict mail-in ballots hitting another hurdle on Saturday, a number of onlookers celebrated, including Kristen McKnight, an advocate for survivors of abuse and a retired clinical psychologist.“Good news,” McKnight wrote Saturday in a social media post on X.Craig Goedecke, an amateur weather observer and retired photojournalist, not only celebrated the federal court’s decision Saturday, but argued that the ruling boded poorly for Trump’s other top priority, the SAVE Act, his controversial voter ID bill.“Back the F off from our mail ballots. Your SAVE Act crap is over. The First [Circuit] Court denied your request to allow the USPS to move forward,” Goedecke wrote Saturday in a social media post on X.“It’s illegal. Our election. Our votes. Our mail-in ballots. Not yours. You are not rigging our election… and the Senate is not passing it.”Good news.👇 https://t.co/zRdfxQkw8I— Kristen McKnight (@kristenmcknight) July 25, 2026

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Michael Goodwin: The media’s anti-Trump bias was on full display at re-do of White House Correspondents’ Dinner

New York Post

3 hours ago

Michael Goodwin: The media’s anti-Trump bias was on full display at re-do of White House Correspondents’ Dinner

The president came, he saw, he joked, he insulted and talked too long. And yet, Donald Trump’s presence was the major reason why the White House Correspondents’ dinner was such a smashing success.

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CNN Complains After Trump Lampoons Media, Critics During White House Correspondents’ Dinner

The Daily Caller

3 hours ago

CNN Complains After Trump Lampoons Media, Critics During White House Correspondents’ Dinner

‘Honest, accurate journalism may sometimes irritate politicians’

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'Planemaxxing': report finds U.S. blew classified cash on fancy and unsafe Trump jet

Raw Story

5 hours ago

'Planemaxxing': report finds U.S. blew classified cash on fancy and unsafe Trump jet

The U.S. government quietly spent hundreds of millions of dollars so President Donald Trump could fly in an unsafe plane with a chandelier, according to a new report. The $400 million jet donated by the Qatari royal family was recently grounded after security measures — which Trump himself approved — proved unable to withstand a credible threat from Irani proxy forces, the New York Times reported Saturday."The reversal exposes the potential risks that the government took to satisfy Mr. Trump’s demand for an aircraft befitting the grandeur he believes should accompany his office," the Times reported. Trump was reportedly entranced by the double-decker jet's luxurious features, namely a bedroom bedecked in leather and a lounge with sued seats and a chandelier, the Times reported. His desire to fly in luxury meant the 747-8 plane was overhauled in just about eight months — while experts told the Times it should have taken several years. "Trump was personally engaged in making decisions about the retrofitting of the donated plane," sources told the Times, "giving the final approval on the features and security measures that would be included."That tight deadline bumped up the price tag, the Times reported. The government was forced to spend "hundreds of millions of dollars" on top of publicly acknowledged $400 million to buy training equipment in time for pilots to fly the 747-8 plane, according to the report. "The Pentagon has tried to mask the total price tag — including from Congress — by taking the funds from a classified budget for nuclear modernization," the Times reported. The rushed effort caught up with Trump in Turkey earlier this month when the Secret Service identified a credible threat from which the new Air Force One plan could not protect him, the Times previously reported.The White House earlier this week announced that the Qatari jet would be taken out of service for what the White House declared to be “PLANEMAXXING."

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‘Trump was entranced’: Staggering security lapses traced back to Trump’s vanity deadline

Raw Story

5 hours ago

‘Trump was entranced’: Staggering security lapses traced back to Trump’s vanity deadline

President Donald Trump's insistence that a Qatari-donated jumbo jet be ready to serve as a temporary Air Force One in time for the nation's 250th birthday led to the omission of several key security features found on the current presidential fleet, a New York Times investigation revealed Friday.Trump demanded the retrofitted 747-8 be ready by July 4, compressing what would normally be a multi-year security overhaul into just eight months, according to the Times. Trump personally signed off on the plane's features and security measures, according to people familiar with his role who spoke to the Times on condition of anonymity.“President Trump was entranced,” the Times’ report reads, referencing the president’s deep and personal involvement in the project, which the outlet found he gave “final approval on features and security measures that would be included.”Missing from the retrofitted jet: a lower-level exit door used for high-risk situations, a second auxiliary power unit and the infrared countermeasure system designed to detect and jam incoming missiles, according to public Air Force records and photographs reviewed by the Times.Frank Kendall, who oversaw the Air Force One modernization program as both Pentagon acquisition chief and Air Force secretary under President Joe Biden, said the omissions carry real risk."People need to be aware it has a lot of shortfalls compared to Air Force One; they do add a measure of risk," Kendall said.The Pentagon has also worked to obscure the project's true cost – including from Congress – by drawing funds from a classified nuclear modernization budget known as Sentinel, the Times found. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) accused the administration of using the maneuver to dodge oversight."They have declared this work to be a national security secret that cannot be divulged even to appropriators," Murphy said. "That is absolutely unacceptable."White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the aircraft, calling it "fully mission-ready and safe for presidential travel today."

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The Seven Republicans Who Voted With Democrats in Attempt to Block Trump’s White House Ballroom

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The Seven Republicans Who Voted With Democrats in Attempt to Block Trump’s White House Ballroom

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