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.

REPORT: Acting DNI Bill Pulte Fires Dozens of ODNI Staff for Politicizing Intelligence, Insubordination, Gross Misconduct

The funniest part of the MSNBC report about the issue is their claim that Pulte has not been in office long enough to know who the Deep State embeds are. “I have a real question of how he would know this. This isn’t a guy who is familiar with intelligence,” said the former official, who […] The post REPORT: Acting DNI Bill Pulte Fires Dozens of ODNI Staff for Politicizing Intelligence, Insubordination, Gross Misconduct appeared first on The Last Refuge.

What Is Iran Building Now in the Zagros Mountains?

When Teen Chaos Meets a Country Afraid to Say No

'You're screaming in front of children!' Right-wing activist all he can handle in Philly

A right-wing influencer got more than he bargained for during a livestream in Philadelphia when a passerby challenged him in a heated, curse-laden exchange.Jack Posobiec was in Philadelphia on Friday outside Independence Hall as the city held its Red, White, & Blue To-Do, a citywide patriotic celebration tied to the July 4 weekend. As Posobiec was in the middle of his stream, a man in a purple shirt can be heard off-camera shouting, "You are the enemy!"Posobiec, a Turning Point USA-aligned influencer and Human Events host known for spreading the debunked "Pizzagate" hoax, has long crusaded against birthright citizenship. The clash came days after the Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship in a 6-3 ruling, striking down Trump's executive order, a defeat that drew fury from Trump allies.Posobiec invited the angry gentleman to join him on camera as the man shouted curse words over the right trying to overturn birthright citizenship."Sir, there's no cursing. No cursing," Posobiec insisted. "Can you do no cursing?"The man delivered a blunt response."Probably not."The man informed Posobiec that his mother was English and his father was Irish."Do I get to stay in the country when you guys pass laws that kick out all the Irish and all the Italians and all the people of color?" the man demands to know, pointing a finger.The man added that conservatives have four votes to overturn birthright citizenship, echoing warnings from some analysts that the fight is far from over."Oh I can't wait. It's gonna be great," Posobiec exclaims. "For illegal aliens. You understand it's for illegal aliens, right?"The man fired back, "It's not. You guys are white anglo-saxon protestant white supremacists."The passerby got more agitated, accusing Posobiec of voting for the wrong people when the far-right provocateur insisted he was "Catholic and Polish.""I'm not allowed to vote for who I want to, Sir?" Posobiec retorts. "How is that freedom?""You vote for someone who wants to kick you out of the country," the bewildered man responds.As the man starts shouting obscenities again, Posobiec insists birthright citizenship will be overturned because it's unlawful."We're having a great day, and you're screaming in front of children!" Posobiec complains.Crazy lib tried to scream at the Poso family in Philly Even my kids were dunking on him pic.twitter.com/xMy3L9bdSN— Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) July 3, 2026

Europe Has Replaced Most US Cuts Within NATO, Top Commander Says

European NATO allies have mostly replaced the assets that the US has cut from its rescue plans in case of a war in Europe, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe Sir John Stringer said in an interview.

Hakeem Jeffries Reminds Radicals To Hide America-Hating Until After Election Day

A political civil war is rocking the very core of the Democratic Party. On one side are upstart rebels — Jihadi-loving socialists who hate America and want to drag it down to destruction. On the other side are traditional moderate Democrats, Jihadi-loving socialists who hate America and want to drag it down to destruction, but ...

MAGA reporter declares: 'Uncool' State Fair debacle is the 'end of Trump'

On Friday, a prominent MAGA journalist called it: “The State Fair debacle is the end of @realDonaldTrump as a cultural force.”Alex Berenson – a veteran journalist who gained MAGA fame for his vocal COVID denial and voted for President Donald Trump in 2024 – posted this declaration to social media along with a photo of an almost completely empty National State Fair, at the center of which stood a mini mockup of the Commander in Chief’s crumbling triumphal arch. “Trump has always been uncool in a cool way,” Berenson continued. “He’s so in love with himself and his own awful taste you appreciate him even if you hate him. But this is just a box-office bomb, and it makes him look so old.”His dismal assessment comes amid rampant reports of the fair’s many disappointments. The event – much touted by Trump in the weeks preceding it – has been characterized by thin to nonexistent crowds, prompting the crowd-size-obsessed president to fly into a rage and fret that no one will show up to his 4th of July rally. His own supporters have called it “really disappointing,” “unnecessarily vanilla,” and “like a silent protest.” Even Fox News ditched the affair after wasting too much airtime on “live shots of empty grass.”The National State Fair is part of the wider celebrations marking the United States’ 250th birthday, which have been plagued by controversy, scandal, and failure for months. In May, the fair concert series fell apart within hours of its lineup announcement as musicians quit, saying they’d been misled about the event’s pro-Trump connotations. Somewhere along the way, Trump decided the Reflecting Pool needed to be painted, and that debacle spun out into Algaegate. This and other projects have been riddled with accusations of no-bid contracts and shady dealings. Berenson’s assertion that the end of Trump is nigh comes as the MAGA movement descends into “civil war.” The president has lost some of his most important political and media allies, like Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene. The ‘Relectant Right’ who played a key role in his 2024 election have soured. And even the white working-class voters who are his most loyal support base have drifted away. Overall, Trump’s approval ratings have plunged to historic lows, increasing to just 37 percent in recent days.