Major oil group claps back at Gavin Newsom’s Chevron attack with reality check about gov’s driving

Senate Republicans Might Push Back on Two of Trump's Priorities

Despite Trump’s Oil Blockade, Quiet Resistance of Daily Life Continues in Cuba

People who have withstood 64 years of economic blockade won’t simply raise a white flag at the latest sign of adversity.

'Alarm bells' ringing after Trump backs Republicans into a corner: GOP strategists

President Donald Trump's stranglehold on the Republican Party was evident when a long list of incumbents he was angry with — including Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and at least five Indiana State Legislature lawmakers — were recently voted out of office via GOP primaries. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), a former Trump critic turned staunch ally and supporter, bluntly told NBC News that for Republicans, the message is: "if you try to destroy" Trump, you will be destroyed yourself. But Republican primaries and general elections are two very different things, and GOP strategists interviewed by The Hill are arguing that while Trump's dominance of the party remains undeniable, he could be a huge problem for Republican candidates in the 2026 midterms.Reporters Amie Parnes and Julia Mueller, in The Hill, explain, "President Trump's grip on Republican primaries appears tighter than ever as a string of GOP officeholders who came under his wrath fell to defeat in contests over the past month in Indiana, Kentucky and Louisiana. Yet there's a disconnect for the party, which is facing alarm bells about its standing as it heads into the midterms. Trump’s approval ratings are down amid voter unhappiness with the war in Iran and the economy, and Trump's power in a GOP primary may not be enough to prevent heavy Republican losses in the fall when more independents and Democrats are also casting votes for the House and Senate."GOP strategist Susan Del Percio believes that her party is facing major challenges as the November elections draw closer.Del Percio, a Never Trump conservative and frequent guest on MS NOW, told The Hill, "It’s simple: He has a hold on the Republican base, which you see come out in primaries. Most primary voters are Donald Trump voters, but not all Donald Trump voters are primary voters. They only show up every four years for Donald Trump….Republicans are in bad shape. The primaries will have very little effect on what happens in November, except for the candidates Trump put up."Del Percio added, "At the end of the day, candidate selection will be where his influence begins and ends."Similarly, Republican strategist Doug Heye told The Hill, "The MAGA base is not the broader electorate." A GOP consultant, interviewed on condition of anonymity, was even more blunt than Del Percio.The consultant told The Hill, "It's a very challenging environment for Republicans. It's live by the sword, die by the sword. Trump is not the leader of the Republican Party; he is the Republican Party. There's nothing better than a Trump endorsement in a primary…. But it's shaping up to be a 1000-pound albatross around your neck in the midterms."Another GOP insider, also interviewed on condition of anonymity, warns fellow Republicans that Trump's ability to sway hardcore MAGA voters in primary battles doesn't mean that independents and swing voters will view him favorably in the general election in November.The insider told The Hill, "In a way, the president hasn't done us any favors. We need independents to turn out for us. We don't need the base."

‘He was a quitter!’ Trump slams back as GOP senator issues harsh reality check

Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) issued President Donald Trump a blunt reality check on Friday that he may face “the most miserable two years” of his life should Republicans perform poorly in the upcoming midterm elections — a warning that apparently didn’t sit well with Trump.The president quickly took to social media to lash out at the North Carolina Republican.“People don’t remember that Thom Tillis, the weak and ineffective Senator from the Great State of North Carolina, a State I won, including primaries, 6 consecutive times, didn’t have the courage to fight it out in the Senate, remain in place, and run again for office, a thing he desperately wanted to do,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.“I called him a ‘Nitpicker,’ always fighting against the Republican Party, and ME, mostly on things that didn’t matter. When I told him that I would not, under any circumstances, endorse him for another run, too much work and drama (he couldn’t have won, anyway!), he immediately quit the race and publicly announced that he was going to ‘retire.’”Since Tillis announced his plans to retire, he’s remained a thorn in the side for the president, often breaking with his colleagues in openly criticizing Trump, most recently over his nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, which could see violent Jan. 6 Capitol rioters receive large payouts using taxpayer dollars.“Stupid on stilts,” Tillis recently said, describing the Justice Department’s Trump-backed “anti-weaponization” fund.“The media said how brave he was to take me on, but he wasn’t brave, he was just the opposite – HE WAS A QUITTER!” Trump continued. “Now he can have all the fun he wants for a few months, with some of his RINO friends, screwing the Republican Party. In the end it will only get bigger, and better, and stronger, than ever before!!!”

Epstein reporter 'fleeing the country' as home becomes target of alleged 'attacks'

Journalist Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, whose reporting has uncovered a number of previously unknown revelations about Jeffrey Epstein, said on Thursday she will be “fleeing the country” after claiming her home was targeted in "attacks" by those she believes are "unhappy about" her Epstein reporting.Valdes-Rodriguez’s reporting has largely centered around Epstein's compound in New Mexico, formerly known as Zorro Ranch, that is reportedly central to the disgraced financier’s disturbing plot to “seed the human race with his DNA.” The compound is also alleged to be the burial site of “two foreign girls,” according to an FBI tip, and may have been used to surveil two U.S. nuclear weapons labs, Valdes-Rodriguez previously reported.“It appears my home has been located by, well, whomever is unhappy about my reporting about Zorro Ranch and the local cover up here and the military intelligence roots of the child sex trafficking operation Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were running here in New Mexico,” Valdes-Rodriguez wrote earlier this week in a post on Substack. “This morning, I was hit in my home office by two episodes of what I later learned were likely Direct Energy Weapon attacks. Look up Havana Syndrome. My symptoms are consistent with such attacks, and entirely new. We wasted no time in leaving the house, for good.”Valdes-Rodriguez said that she would be “staying in safe houses” indefinitely until her move out of the United States. However, on Wednesday, she claimed to observe suspicious vehicles driving outside her home, which she noted was on a cul-de-sac in a rural town that typically saw little traffic.“Yes, it has come to this,” Valdes-Rodriguez wrote. “We kind of figured it might.”There was no verification that her suspicions of attack were genuine.Okay, folks. It appears my home has been located by, well, whomever is unhappy about my reporting about Zorro Ranch and the local cover up here and the military intelligence roots of the child sex trafficking operation Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were running here in New Mexico. This morning, I was hit in my home office by two episodes of what I later learned were likely Direct Energy Weapon attacks. Look up Havana Syndrome. My symptoms are consistent with such attacks, and entirely new. We wasted no time in leaving the house, for good. We will be staying in safe houses while we finish plans to permanently relocate abroad. The hardest part will be transporting our pets. It is very expensive. I am going to set up a gofundme to help cover that expense and a security detail until we are out of the USA. Yes, it has come to this. We kind of figured it might. - Alisa Valdes-RodriguezRead on Substack

Friendly fire hits Trump officials as 'drama' forces shutdown of Tulsi Gabbard group

A task force launched by U.S. intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard to "end weaponization" has fallen apart after "drama" triggered by a memo it circulated that spread false claims — made by a January 6 rioter — against a CIA employee and a former Capitol Police officer. The group's collapse was detailed in testimony submitted to a U.S. Senate committee.Written testimony submitted by James E. Erdman III, a CIA senior operations officer formerly assigned to the Director’s Initiatives Group, to the Senate Homeland Security Committee, chaired by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), contradicts a public statement made by Gabbard in February that the task force “was created as a temporary effort.”“The memo and the ensuing drama that unfolded as a result helped spark a pause in DIG’s work in December 2025, and its ultimate dissolution in January 2026,” Erdman said. “The dissolution of the DIG has halted critical transparency work that the American people voted for when re-electing President Donald Trump.”Olivia Coleman, Gabbard’s press secretary, declined to comment on the record in response to Erdman’s characterization of the wind-down of the Director’s Initiative Group, other than to repeat a statement issued to the media last November. “ODNI followed its obligation to report information received concerning the alleged activities of a member of the Intelligence Community to that person’s employing agency,” the statement said. But an ODNI official speaking on background told Raw Story that the agency has confirmed that the Intelligence Community Inspector General is aware of Erdman's allegations and is working alongside ODNI and interagency partners, to uncover the truth about potential wrongdoing.Erdman did not include his characterization of the circumstances surrounding the dissolution of the Director's Initiatives Group in his testimony before the Senate committee, which was headlned, "Whistleblower Testimony on the COVID Coverup." His statements about the episode are buried in the final two pages of his written testimony.Gabbard’s Director’s Initiatives Group was set up to carry out Trump’s Executive Order 14147 entitled “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government,” which directed her, as the director of national intelligence, to review the activities of the Intelligence Community during the previous administration. Former Attorney General Pam Bondi set up a parallel task force known as the Weaponization Working Group to similarly review the Department of Justice for purported “weaponization,” including actions by the Biden administration to “ruthlessly prosecute more than 1,500 individuals associated with January 6.”The efforts inside the administration to investigate “weaponization” under the Biden administration — or root out perceived political enemies from the federal government, as critics have charged — ballooned into an Interagency Weaponization Working Group, revealed by Reuters in October 2025 and said to have been meeting on a biweekly basis since April of that year. Reuters reported that the Director’s Initiative Group and Interagency Weaponization Working Group shared at least one member, Paul McNamara, a Gabbard aide at ODNI.Erdman’s written testimony to the Senate Homeland Security Committee sheds new light on how the involvement of Gabbard’s task force in circulating a smear against a federal employee wreaked havoc at the CIA and Department of Justice.Steve Baker, who was convicted of misdemeanor parading in the Capitol on Jan. 6 — and subsequently pardoned by Trump — contacted ODNI last October with information for a story for Blaze Media in which he falsely accused Shauni Kerkhoff, a former Capitol police officer who is now at the CIA, of planting pipe bombs at the headquarters of Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee on the eve of the attack.The story quickly unraveled, with Blaze Media ultimately retracting it and firing Baker.Erdman testified that prior to publication of the story, Director’s Initiatives Group members consulted with senior ODNI leadership about how to pass along Baker’s information to agencies that could appropriately investigate.“I remember several of my colleagues that were involved recalling that the DIG was directed to draft a memo with Baker’s information that could be circulated to other agencies,” Erdman wrote. Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Aaron Lukas wound up sharing the memo with his counterpart at the CIA, Michael Ellis, Erdman wrote.On Nov. 4, 2025, Baker and a second Blaze Media reporter, Joseph Hanneman, published an article focused on Kerkhoff’s actions during the Jan. 6 riot.

Trump-obsessed House Dem getting smoked by Mamdani-backed primary challenger

Another congressional foe of President Donald J. Trump could be on his way out with mouthy multi-millionaire Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) badly trailing his primary challenger in […]

Bitter Trump unloads on 'dead person' Colbert as late-night star gets sensational clap out

President Donald Trump delivered a bitter 2 a.m. screed against Stephen Colbert Friday, just hours after the late-night comedian delivered a star-studded final performance to a massive audience."Colbert is finally finished at CBS," Trump wrote. "Amazing that he lasted so long! No talent, no ratings, no life. He was like a dead person. You could take any person off of the street and they would be better than this total jerk. Thank goodness he's finally gone!"The late-night tirade came after Trump had teased on Wednesday that he would make a comment on Colbert's final episode "at a later date."Colbert, 62, closed out his 11-year run on The Late Show in front of a crowd that included Paul McCartney, Paul Rudd, Bryan Cranston, and Ryan Reynolds. Fans who couldn't get into the live audience crowded the street outside the New York City Ed Sullivan Theater, while viewership of the broadcast was expected to be massive.McCartney capped the evening by playing "Hello Goodbye" before he and Colbert together pulled the plug — literally — on the show.CBS announced the cancellation last July, just three days after Colbert blasted the network's MAGA-friendly parent company, Paramount, over its $16 million settlement with Trump. Despite repeatedly savaging Colbert on social media, Trump tried to distance himself from the axing at the time."Everybody is saying that I was solely responsible for the firing of Stephen Colbert from CBS, Late Night," Trump posted last year. "That is not true! The reason he was fired was a pure lack of TALENT, and the fact that this deficiency was costing CBS $50 Million Dollars a year in losses — And it was only going to get WORSE!"Trump's overnight screed recycled language from a 2024 Truth Social attack in which he had written that CBS "should terminate his contract and pick almost anyone, right off the street, who would do better, and for FAR LESS MONEY.""It's heartbreaking to see how one man can silence a whole nation," Joshua McGehee told CNN. "When Colbert can be silenced for being critical, it puts everyone at tension to be themselves and to speak their minds."Alan Tipert said he traveled all the way from Georgia "to witness the death of free speech.""I mean, how silly would it be?" Colbert told People. "The ending of the show aside, which people can speculate about all they want, and I can't argue with their speculations, but we're clowns. How much does it diminish the office of the presidency to even notice what we say?"