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Trump’s $1.8 Billion Fund Tests Constitutional Limits

May 20, 2026Center Left

The deal the president reached with his own subordinates relies on a mechanism created by Congress that legal experts had warned was subject to manipulation.

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Red flags fly after Trump 'lays the groundwork' for election plot: 'This is about pretext'

Raw Story

2 hours ago

Red flags fly after Trump 'lays the groundwork' for election plot: 'This is about pretext'

President Donald Trump may have just laid down the tracks for one of his boldest election plots yet, according to one political analyst. John Heilemann, an MS NOW political analyst, said on Sunday's broadcast of "Deadline: White House: Weekend" that Trump's recent national address about election security was an attempt to "lay down the tracks" for his next wave of lies about the election results."I think he's just trying to lay down the tracks on which he can make false claims in the future," Heilemann said. "For him, it's enough to have said those things publicly so that when he does what he's going to do, whatever that turns out to be in November, he can look back and say, 'I told you so. I said, this was rigged. You didn't believe me. You didn't listen to me. But it was rigged then, and it's rigged now ... This is an illegitimate election. And here's what we're going to do going forward.'" Heilemann noted that recent polling appears to back up his assertion. A recent poll from The Economist and YouGov found that 67% of Americans, including 77% of independent voters, thought Trump was trying to sow doubt about American elections during his national address rather than back up his claims of election interference with concrete facts. "So, all of this is about pretext, not about persuasion, and not about some kind of good faith attempt to govern," he added. "It's about ... laying the groundwork for what comes nextcomes next."

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Trump allies offering startling advice to GOP candidates with midterms just 100 days out

Raw Story

2 hours ago

Trump allies offering startling advice to GOP candidates with midterms just 100 days out

People close to President Donald Trump are giving GOP candidates some startling advice as the midterms approach, according to new reporting. MS NOW's Jake Taylor revealed on Sunday's edition of "Alex Witt Reports" that Trump White House insiders are quietly telling GOP candidates to distance themselves from the messaging Trump has put out about the war in Iran. Taylor pointed to the consistent negative polling about the war and Trump's public messaging that the war is going well as reasons allies have put forward for candidates to create the airspace. "They're advising, whether they're incumbents or challengers, Republican candidates to essentially not talk about the war the same way President Trump is," Taylor said. "They're encouraged to actually put some distance [and] space between the way Trump talks about the war and the way they do, because they're aware they don't have a winning strategy when it comes to the midterms."Taylor's report underscores the growing divide between Trump and the Republican Party over the war against Iran. Several Republican lawmakers have sharply criticized the president for launching the war without Congressional approval, although that feeling has yet to metastasize into an official vote to curtail Trump's war powers. "Obviously, we are just 100 days out [from the midterm elections]," Taylor said. "Every bit of messaging on this matters. And the Republicans around Trump know that, and that's why they're encouraging others to distance themselves from his language in this moment."

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Jeffries pivots to Trump and GOP when asked about noncitizens on New Jersey voter rolls

Washington Examiner

3 hours ago

Jeffries pivots to Trump and GOP when asked about noncitizens on New Jersey voter rolls

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) sidestepped a question about New Jersey’s disclosure that thousands of noncitizens were mistakenly registered to vote, instead criticizing President Donald Trump and Republicans over election messaging. “I continue to have confidence in state and local authorities in making sure that there’s going to be a free and fair election […]

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RealClearPolitics - Homepage

3 hours ago

Trump Right To Recognize Collapse of Trust in US Elections

President Trump is right to recognize the collapse of confidence surrounding American elections. It's time to make amends.

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'People are scared': MAGA senator lashes out at Trump over 'hair trigger' tensions

Raw Story

4 hours ago

'People are scared': MAGA senator lashes out at Trump over 'hair trigger' tensions

A MAGA Senator took to the airwaves to call out President Donald Trump for hypocrisy. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) admitted on "Face the Nation" Sunday that he was not "comfortable" with Trump's newly announced and already problem-laden nuclear deal."We're bombing a country to keep'm from getting a nuclear weapon," said Kennedy. "But we're signing a deal with another country...that the world perceives as possibly, someday leading to a nuclear weapon."The countries, of course, are Iran — which Trump ostensibly started to dismantle their nuclear program — and Saudia Arabia, the nation Trump wants to allow to enrich uranium.The U.S. struck the deal Wednesday but hit a snag over the Saudi government's relationship with Israel. Less than 24 hours after announcing the deal, Trump added a condition that the Saudis normalize those relations. Experts warn the deal could trigger a cascade of nuclear ambitions across the Middle East, The Wall Street Journal has reported, and critics note the Saudis gave Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner's private equity firm $2 billion."Face the Nation" host Margaret Brennan noted Sunday that any deal would have to be approved by Congress, which prompted Kennedy to list off his concerns. "The world's on a hair trigger," Kennedy said. "The world looks at what's going on in Ukraine, the Middle East, the world looks at America's relationship now with Europe."He added, "People are scared." The Louisiana lawmaker is hardly the first U.S. senator to vent frustration with Trump this week. White House demands that Majority Leader Sen. John Thune (R-SD) do more to pass the SAVE America Act — a non-citizen voting ban critics describe as redundant and dystopian — have infuriated GOP members of the Senate. "Instead of pointing the finger at Republicans," Thune said, "they might think about going after the people who are stopping it on the floor, which is the Democrats."Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) added, "I have 1000 percent confidence in Thune, and anybody in the White House who thinks he's not a good leader isn't qualified for their job.""This idea that he can just command members of the Republican conference to get in line is just a fantasy," responded Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). “It’s creating a circular firing squad for Republicans.”Kennedy himself added, “John can’t put a gun to people’s heads."

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Sen. Kennedy says Trump likes daily strikes on Iran: ‘Sometimes you have to kill a few chickens to scare the monkeys’

The Hill News

4 hours ago

Sen. Kennedy says Trump likes daily strikes on Iran: ‘Sometimes you have to kill a few chickens to scare the monkeys’

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) on Sunday said President Trump likes the daily strikes on Iran, which paused going into the weekend after nearly two straight weeks of attacks on Iranian infrastructure. “I think we ought to continue the blockade and starve them out,” Kennedy said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” with Margaret Brennan. “I…

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Biographer says Melania legal battle exposes 'Trump law in a nutshell'

Alternet.org

5 hours ago

Biographer says Melania legal battle exposes 'Trump law in a nutshell'

First Lady Melania Trump is engaged in an ongoing legal spat with an outspoken former biographer of her husband, and according to said author, her approach has "Trump law in a nutshell" and exposed how the family uses courts to "harass and intimidate" their enemies.Michael Wolff, the longtime author and reporter who has extensively covered the political career of President Donald Trump, filed an anti-SLAPP lawsuit against the first lady earlier this year, after she herself threatened to sue him over his comments about her connections to Jeffrey Epstein. In May, Trump-appointed New York District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil dismissed Wolff's suit, ruling that he would have to wait for an actual defamation suit from Melania Trump before filing his own response.Later still, Vyskocil warned the first lady against plans to seek sanctions against Wolff's legal team and an effort to force them to pay her legal fees, explaining that the bar for such a motion was high and urging her to take matters outside of the legal system."I wonder if it’s in the interest of the parties to continue litigating in this court," she said. "I think sometimes people get so caught up in the fervor of the moment that they don’t really stop and think about the cost-benefit analysis of motions that are contemplated and the burden you put a court to."Nevertheless, this past week, the first lady's team filed a motion for sanctions against Wolff, moving forward with her plan to seek payment. “Plaintiff filed a patently meritless lawsuit and used it to harass Mrs. Trump in public,” the motion read. “Plaintiff and his counsel asserted a legally frivolous claim, propped it up with factual contentions that lacked any evidentiary support, and used them to run a political and commercial campaign. They should pay for Mrs. Trump’s fees and expenses incurred for the process they abused.”During the latest episode of his Daily Beast podcast, "Inside Trump's Head," the author touched on this latest development in his legal dispute with Melania Trump, saying that one might have expected that she and her lawyers "would have their tail between their legs," after Vyskocil's warning, "But instead, they actually have gone through."In doing so, Wolff explained, the first lady has exposed the whole playbook behind her husband's approach to legal warfare."And, of course, nobody knows what’s gonna happen there," Wolff said. "But the larger point is that they will have added months and months and months to the legal calendar... and countless expense. So that is... Trump law in a nutshell—delay, harass, intimidate, exhaust, and avoid... testifying at all costs."Elsewhere in the episode, Wolff claimed that his lawsuit had caught everyone in the White House off-guard, citing conversations with a source inside the administration. His success raising $837,000 for the legal battle via GoFundMe also allegedly scared "the bejesus out of... Melania and her lawyers."

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'Deadly mistakes': Trump border czar gets pummeled on-air for shrugging ICE answers

Raw Story

5 hours ago

'Deadly mistakes': Trump border czar gets pummeled on-air for shrugging ICE answers

A high-ranking official in President Donald Trump's administration was subjected to ridicule and scorn Sunday after he struggled to answer basic questions.CNN anchor Dana Bash asked White House Border Czar Tom Homan about Immigration Control and Enforcement officers in Texas and Maine who fatally shot unarmed fathers this month. "Do you know specifically what happened to the officers involved in the Texas and Maine shootings?" Bash asked. "Are they on administrative leave?""I don't know, specifically," he said. "The policy would be to put them on administrative leave."Bash pressed, "But as border czar, you don't know for sure if they have been?"Homan shrugged and said, "No."Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, was killed during a traffic stop in Texas on July 7 — FBI claims that he had drugs in his car were later disproved.Joan Sebastian Durán Guerrero, 25, was fatally shot in Maine on July 13 by an ICE agent identified in reports as David Brouillette, an Army veteran whose two ex-wives have accused him of abuse.Bash quizzed Homan on this point. "One of the ICE officers connected to the fatal shooting in Maine was accused of abuse by two ex-wives…Should someone with those issues be an ICE agent?" asked Bash.Homan replied, "No, if those are facts, I don't think he should have ever cleared vetting."Homan's admissions of ignorance stunned onlookers who expected greater detail from an official who oversees Trump's mass deportation initiative."If Tom Homan doesn't know he should be fired on the spot," replied X user Craig Carl. "This is a blatant lie or gross incompetence.""ICE has vetting?" political commentator Mike Bates quipped. "Who knew!""Feckless lying stupid sack of s---," fumed Lizzie Cochrane.Even Bash joined in on the bashing, as video shows, when Homan declared, "I wouldn't say that mistakes were made.""We've seen with our own eyes that mistakes were made," she said. "Deadly mistakes were made. At least 5 of them."

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Trump’s $1.8 Billion Fund Tests Constitutional Limits

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Trump’s $1.8 Billion Fund Tests Constitutional Limits

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