New York Post

Ex-CIA chief, Defense Secretary Robert Gates predicts China won’t invade Taiwan anytime soon: ‘Don’t think they want to go in’

6 days agoRight

Former CIA Director and Defense Secretary Robert Gates predicted Sunday that the chances of China invading Taiwan were "pretty low, particularly over the next several years," despite Chinese President Xi Jinping's bellicose rhetoric toward the self-governing island.

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‘This is gonna cost the party’: Rebel Republican scorches Trump’s GOP with dire prediction

Raw Story

48 minutes ago

‘This is gonna cost the party’: Rebel Republican scorches Trump’s GOP with dire prediction

With the midterm elections fast approaching in November, outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) issued a bleak prediction for his party’s chances at the ballot box, and laid most of the blame on the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers he argued were overly loyal to the president.Appearing on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Massie was asked by Kristen Welker whether his defiance to President Donald Trump on pushing for the release of Jeffrey Epstein-related files, deficit-increasing tax cuts and the U.S. war against Iran was “worth it” given his recent election loss.“It was absolutely worth it for me – now, I don’t think it’s going to be worth it for the party,” Massie said.“They've disenfranchised a large portion of that constituency that Trump assembled to get us in the White House. They’ve alienated [the Make America Healthy Again movement] by kowtowing to the pesticide manufacturers and the pharmaceutical manufacturers, they’ve alienated the fiscal hawks by running DOGE out of town, they’ve alienated the people who don’t want to fight another war for other countries.”And, with the midterm elections just over five months away as of Sunday, Massie predicted a bleak outcome for his own party.“And so I’m worried that in November, this is gonna cost the party a lot,” he said. “But for me, it was completely worth it, and I’ve got seven more months to keep going against the grain.”When the swamp and Epstein class couldn’t buy my vote, they bought the most expensive congressional seat ever.I joined @MeetThePress this morning to talk about putting people & principles over parties.I’m optimistic because the younger generation understands what’s going on. pic.twitter.com/kSg2PRjosN— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) May 24, 2026

Far Left

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Truthout

4 hours ago

The Trump Administration Is Shielding Prediction Markets

A recent report found CFTC staff were put on leave after questioning Trump-linked betting markets.

Far Left

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Lawmaker predicts trigger for new GOP crack-up: 'More will start to break away from Trump'

Raw Story

8 hours ago

Lawmaker predicts trigger for new GOP crack-up: 'More will start to break away from Trump'

A senior House Democrat predicted this weekend that Republican members of Congress will increasingly distance themselves from Donald Trump once they return home during recess and face their constituents — and he says the signs are already there."I think that as Republicans come back home after this recess and hear from their constituents, and as they get past their primaries, more and more will start to break away from Trump and some of his draconian and criminal behavior," Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told MS NOW on Saturday.Meeks pointed to the growing revolt in the Senate over Trump's $1.8 billion slush fund — money that could flow to supporters convicted in connection with the January 6th Capitol attack — as an early sign of the fractures to come. Republican senators, he said, were "absolutely right" to call it a nonstarter."You heard these Republican senators and they were absolutely right — this is ridiculous, this is terrible," Meeks said. "Some are retiring and don't have to pay homage to him, others who he has double crossed. And so they seem to be wanting to stand up for what they know is disastrous."Meeks drew a sharp distinction between the Senate and the House, where he sees far less independence. "I can't depend upon the House, because the members of the House — they will do whatever Trump says." But he suggested even that could change as political conditions shift.As evidence that the Republican base is not as monolithic as Trump's primary victories suggest, Meeks argued that Trump's hold is essentially on about 30 percent of the electorate — primary voters — not the broader public that will decide general elections."That's 30% of the individuals," he said. "These are not the individuals that would be able to vote in a general election."The congressman said the pattern — of Republican members privately opposing Trump while leadership runs interference — will become harder to sustain as midterms approach and members face voters directly."It's time for some of the Republicans to stand up and do the right thing by the American people," Meeks said, citing $5 gas prices, rising grocery costs, and health care as the kitchen-table issues driving discontent in districts across the country.

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National Review

10 hours ago

Taiwan: The Small Superpower

If the island nation’s chip production were to be interrupted, the global economy would stop in its tracks. That’s real leverage.

Center Right

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'Jilted' Trump aide stirs outrage by telling ex-Cabinet member to 'shut his stupid mouth'

Raw Story

11 hours ago

'Jilted' Trump aide stirs outrage by telling ex-Cabinet member to 'shut his stupid mouth'

White House communications director Steven Cheung unleashed a profanity-laced broadside against former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after Pompeo criticized the Trump administration's emerging deal with Iran — setting off a wave of condemnation from commentators across the political spectrum.Pompeo had posted that the deal "being floated with Iran seems straight out of the Wendy Sherman-Robert Malley-Ben Rhodes playbook," warning it would "pay the IRGC to build a WMD program and terrorize the world." He called it "not remotely America First" and demanded the administration simply "open the damned strait."Cheung, a former UFC communications director, fired back with language rarely seen from an official White House spokesman. "Mike Pompeo has no idea what the f--- he's talking about," Cheung wrote. "He should shut his stupid mouth and leave the real work to the professionals. He's not read into anything that's happening, so how would he know."The statement triggered immediate blowback."I will never get used to this kind of obscenity being used in an official statement by the White House Communication Director," wrote attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick. "The White House no longer aspires to lead from a higher moral vantage point, it seeks to fight in the mud with the pigs."Journalist Brett Meiselas appealed directly to the administration's sense of decorum. "Can you all grow up? You work in the White House. Act like it for once. This shouldn't be a political thing. Just have some decency, man."The spectacle of a Trump aide attacking the man Trump himself chose as his top diplomat drew particular mockery. "Pompeo is so dumb that Cheung's boss made him Secretary of State for nearly 3 years," wrote National Review senior editor Ramesh Ponnuru.The Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes was more pointed about the credibility gap on display: "Yeah, take it from a 1980s-born political hatchetman and ex-UFC comms director, Mike Pompeo — top of his class at West Point, Harvard Law grad, House Intel, ex-CIA director, ex-SecState — is clueless about Iran."Independent journalist Aaron Rupar summed up the broader reaction in blunt terms: "Is it a sign that things are going well when your spokesperson is posting like a jilted incel 8th grader?"Mehdi Hasan simply noted the absurdity for the record: "White House comms director to former Trump Secretary of State," he wrote, quoting Cheung's statement without further comment.Tom Nichols of The Atlantic added dryly: "This sounds totally calm."

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Trump now clashing with a Supreme Court that usually gives him what he wants

Alternet.org

11 hours ago

Trump now clashing with a Supreme Court that usually gives him what he wants

President Donald Trump keeps clashing with the Supreme Court, even though he repeatedly gives them exactly what they want.“With the court preparing to issue major rulings in the coming weeks that will determine the fate of key aspects of the president’s agenda, Mr. Trump has vacillated between combative and conciliatory in his treatment of the justices,” The New York Times reported on Sunday. “He has seemed ever aware and at times resentful of the critical role the justices play in determining the lawfulness of his policies, with the court representing perhaps the one force in American government truly able to thwart his agenda. At the heart of the tension: a president who appears to believe that justices, especially those he appointed, should be loyalists rather than independent actors in a separate, equal branch of government.”The Times added that Trump is “furious” with America’s most powerful bench because it invalidated the sweeping tariffs he passed without congressional approval earlier in his term. He has also attacked the court preemptively in recent weeks as he prepares for possible losses on issues like his crusade to get rid of birthright citizenship.“It would be a disgrace if the Supreme Court of the United States allows that to happen,” Trump said last week. “It’s all up to a couple of people, and I hope they do what’s right.” He reinforced this desire to seemingly intimidate the justices by becoming the first sitting president to attend a Supreme Court oral argument in person, which he did in April for roughly an hour before abruptly leaving. He subsequently took to social media and complained that the Supreme Court had “not even recognized or acknowledged” that he was in the courtroom.Despite Trump’s complaints, the Supreme Court has ruled in his favor far more often than not, from giving him unprecedented presidential powers in Trump v. United States (2024) to a ruling to make it easier for Republicans to gerrymander in Louisiana v. Callais (2026) while not hearing a case involving the Virginia Supreme Court striking down voter-approved new congressional maps when it would make it easier for Democrats to gerrymander.“The president gave a surprisingly frank assessment of his view of the Supreme Court — and how he expects personal loyalty from the justices that he appoints to it,” The New Republic's Matt Ford wrote earlier this month. “In the lengthy post, Trump criticized two members of the High Court for voting in Trump v. Learning Resources, the case that nixed his purported ability to impose hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs under a Cold War-era emergency-powers law. The Supreme Court held 6-3 that Trump had exceeded the powers laid out in the statute…. It would be hard to find a better example than this of Trump's thinking that the justices that he nominated to the High Court should be personally loyal to him."Ford added Trump believes he is entitled to total obedience from Supreme Court justices "simply because he appointed them,” which raises troubling questions about what he has demanded from appointees for lower court positions."If this is his public thinking about the justices," Ford argued, "it casts doubt on whether any second-term Trump appointee can be trusted to place the national interest or the law ahead of Trump's personal and political goals…. If Trump is willing to demand personal loyalty from Supreme Court justices, what about his lower-court nominees?"He added, "The Supreme Court has given him nearly everything that he has wanted over the last two years — and he still isn't satisfied. This is the same Supreme Court that just boosted his party's midterm chances earlier this month by demolishing what's left of the Voting Rights Act."

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‘No defense, only offense’: America’s growing antisemitism problem requires more than silence

Washington Examiner

11 hours ago

‘No defense, only offense’: America’s growing antisemitism problem requires more than silence

As antisemitism rises across the United States, many Jewish Americans are no longer simply asking where extremists stand. They are asking where America’s political leadership stands. That frustration is no longer confined to private conversations inside Jewish communities. It is increasingly becoming part of a public debate as synagogue protests, anti-Israel demonstrations, online radicalization, and […]

Center Right

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These states are fighting prediction markets. The Trump admin is furious

Salon.com

12 hours ago

These states are fighting prediction markets. The Trump admin is furious

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is suing multiple states for trying to rein in Polymarket and Kalshi

Left

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