Paxton breaks with Texas GOP with ‘strong’ support for IVF
Center Right
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is splitting with the state GOP over in vitro fertilization after it became a line of attack in his battleground Senate race. Paxton stated a more centrist position on IVF as polls show a tight race ahead of the November general election, saying he supported the procedure. The development sets […]
President Donald Trump is hemorrhaging support from a key business community as they express "buyer's remorse," according to a new report. NBC News reported on Friday that support for Trump from Latino business owners has seemingly fallen off a cliff during his second term. Latino voters were one group that swung heavily in favor of Trump during the 2024 election, and some business owners interviewed by NBC said they supported Trump because of his economic agenda. However, Trump's immigration policies and tariffs have changed their minds, according to the report. It cited recent polling data that showed support for Trump among the Latino business community had dropped from 69% to 39%. That could prove costly as the 2026 midterm elections approach. "The very guy that we thought would fix things for me, and make my life better, these circumstances are even worse now," Javier Palomares, CEO of the U.S. Hispanic Business Council, said in an interview with NBC News. NBC News' Valerie Castro characterized the sentiment as "buyer's remorse." "They're really rethinking the choices they made," Palomares added, referring to the business owners the USHBC represents. "We're kind of stuck right now. That's not to say that it's too late."
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wasted no time swiping back at President Donald Trump on Friday after he said that she "begged' him to take a photograph together, a spat that left one GOP strategist completely flabbergasted. Brad Todd, a veteran GOP operative, discussed Meloni's sharp rebuke of Trump during a segment on CNN's "The Arena." Meloni released a video statement in which she said Trump's comments were "completely made up." She also canceled an upcoming trip to meet Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Miami, Florida. "I am frankly astonished," Meloni said. "I don't know why the President of the United States behaves like this towards his allies. It is not the first time, moreover."Meloni's response earned her cheers across the globe. Todd reacted to the back-and-forth during the CNN segment. "I'm equally flabbergasted by this because Giorgia Meloni is Donald Trump's best ally in Western Europe," Todd said. "And furthermore, they share many of the same populist viewpoints and perspectives. And so, to the extent he's always said he wishes Europe would conform more to his view of how things should operate, she's the poster child for that. She's exactly the person for it. So it is odd to me." "But partnership does not always come easy to President Trump. And in order to continue to have that relationship with her, it would require being an equal partner, much like he has to be an equal partner with John Thune. And that's just not his favorite paradigm," he added.
With Senate Republicans nearing their goal of running out the clock on passing legislation to ensure election integrity in America, President Donald J. Trump took to Truth […]
More than 160 troops have contracted influenza at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas in the past few weeks following Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision earlier this year to end mandatory flu vaccines for service members, a source familiar with the matter told The Hill on Friday. The Air Force told The Hill that the…
A diplomatic firestorm erupted Friday after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni accused President Trump of fabricating a story about her — and her government responded by canceling a planned diplomatic visit to Washington.The dispute traces back to comments Trump made to Italian channel La7, claiming Meloni had "begged" him for a photo together at the G7 summit, reported Reuters. "She's probably happy I talked to her," Trump said, according to the network's dubbed translation. "I didn't have to talk to her. I felt sorry for her."Meloni didn't hold back in her response to the 80-year-old Trump's characterization of the encounter."Donald Trump's statements are completely made up," Meloni said. "I am frankly astonished. I don't know why the president of the United States behaves like this towards his allies. It is not the first time, moreover.""I can only say it is disappointing that he does not show the same determination with the enemies of the West and of the United States, whose leaders he instead treats with far greater indulgence," she added. "There is one thing he should remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg."Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani scrapped his planned U.S. visit, writing on X that Trump's "serious and offensive words" toward Meloni "offend the whole of Italy."Journalist Antonello Guerrera characterized it on X as, "All hell breaks loose between Donald Trump and Giorgia Meloni."Giovanbattista Fazzolari, a close Meloni ally and government undersecretary, went further, suggesting Trump was actively damaging the transatlantic alliance. "It is unclear whether out of intent or ineptitude he is wrecking the historic relations between the United States and Europe," he said.The clash undercuts what had looked like a thaw between the two right-wing leaders, who appeared friendly just days earlier at the G7. Video showed them in close conversation on a shared sofa. That followed earlier tension this year, after Meloni criticized Trump for attacking Pope Leo over his comments on the Iran war — a rebuke that prompted Trump to accuse her of lacking courage.Meloni had once been among Trump's most prominent European allies, the only EU leader to attend his 2025 inauguration.
Punch Bowl News reported Friday that it seems like every time Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) gets ahead, he is thrown back several steps by Donald Trump. House and Senate Republicans don't see eye-to-eye on much, but they can both agree they've been waylaid by Trump just when it seems they're "turning a corner." For Thune has accelerated over the past month. Thune "had just about the worst luck over the past couple of months, getting blindsided repeatedly by a president who sometimes seems not to care that much about the fate of his congressional majorities," the report explained. The holiday edition of the site's morning news explained that Thune had things well in hand before being thrown into a tilt-a-whirl being run by a madman. While lawmakers were desperate to end the government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, Trump began demanding that lawmakers help him fund $1 billion in funds for his ballroom project. Trump initially said that $200 million is all he would need and that he would fundraise to afford it. That has since changed to be $600 million and Trump was only able to raise half of it. There was backlash from Republicans, but in the end, taxpayers must pay for half of it. In another matter, Republicans thought they'd be able to fast-track Trump's choice for the Director of National Intelligence, Bill Pulte. That was scrapped and his lack of support turned Pulte into an "acting" secretary. Trump then shut down the hearing for his real choice that was scheduled for this week. "Thune has seen that even when he does what Trump wants, the favor is rarely, if ever, returned," wrote the Punch Bowl team. Meanwhile, Thune is taking it in stride, managing to only flash "some anger here and there. But his relationship with Trump has clearly taken a hit.On Thursday, Thune said he hadn't spoken to Trump since the previous weekend, so there was no interaction about Trump abruptly trying to stop Jay Clayton's confirmation hearing set for Wednesday. “I’ve never been asked to slow a nomination down before,” Thune told Punch Bowl. “We’re just executing — or trying to execute — on what they had asked us to do. They nominated him.”Instead of Clayton's confirmation, Pulte will take over and start making big changes. There are challenges with that, as Pulte appeared not to know the basics about the post.It remains unknown why Clayton's nomination hearing was stopped, and Republicans were just as "perplexed that Trump was deliberately slowing down his own pick’s confirmation process."The GOP lawmakers have also been public about their dissatisfaction with Trump's Iran deal. Thune had been asking all week for the White House to brief him, but for an unknown reason, he "was consistently stiff-armed."Then there's the infighting in the Senate GOP itself. A closed-door meeting on Wednesday resulted in a battle after Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) began "undermining the GOP majority by continuing to push for the SAVE Act," Trump's flagship voting rights restrictions. Thune made it clear the SAVE Act was dead unless they killed the filibuster, and that's never happening, he made clear. “Everybody knows we’re not nuking the filibuster,” Thune told Punchbowl. “It was on the floor for two weeks. We’ve had now five votes on it, none of which have gotten 60, and SAVE America hasn’t even gotten 50. So at some point, it seems like we ought to start making this an issue with the Democrats rather than with each other. That was the gist of the [lunch] conversation, and that would be my view.”It's a rare rebuke of one Republican by another, the report sussed. Meanwhile, Republicans are preparing to debate a bipartisan housing bill because they want to refocus Trump on issues that Americans actually care about. That hasn't worked in the past, however. Thune, rather than Trump, has been the one to get the blame, even if other Republicans don't think it's right"What’s true is that Trump is never going to accept the limits of the Senate’s legislative power. Thune is always going to have to tell him 'no' when the votes aren’t there. And 'no' is a word Trump doesn’t like," the report closed.
