The Naval Observatory residence is now home to more than Vice President JD Vance and his family. Reports indicate that chickens have come to roost at the […]
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that nearly 100 vessels have used the Jones Act waiver granted by President Donald Trump, which allowed refiners to use foreign-flagged ships to transport fuel between United States ports. The Jones Act waiver “has been used enormously,” Wright said in testimony Wednesday before the House Science Space and Technology […]
As the future President Donald Trump's slush fund remains uncertain, a new report from Politico revealed that one of his top Justice Department officials plotted to cash in on it.The DOJ first announced the "anti-weaponization" fund as part of a settlement for Trump's lawsuit against the IRS, claiming that it would pay out to people who were supposedly targeted by the government for their political beliefs. Following a wave of bipartisan backlash to the fund, particularly over the possibility that it could pay out to Jan. 6 rioters, a federal judge in Virginia issued a temporary ruling to block its implementation, though it remains a possibility that it could be revived, even after reports that the administration was moving away from it due to the backlash.According to a Wednesday report from Politico, while the fund was still an active concern, a top official with the DOJ was planning to claim a payment from it, based on his time as a congressional staffer. The situation raised alarms at the agency, as he was set to be involved in the communication strategy surrounding the fund."The official, Patrick Davis, raised his plan to file a claim with others at the DOJ in May because he viewed it as a conflict," Politico revealed. "DOJ officials were concerned by Davis’ recusal request in part because he was responsible for communicating the department’s reasons for setting up the fund to lawmakers. Davis works as the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, a Senate-confirmed position, and previously served as a top aide to Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa."The outlet continued: "His plan to make a claim from the fund stems from his time as a congressional staffer. He had his phone and email records subpoenaed when he was investigating 'Russiagate,' the yearslong probe into Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election and Trump’s alleged ties to Moscow. It’s unclear how much money Davis would have sought from the halted fund, if any, but the proposed fund would have also offered formal apologies."“[Davis] has relationships with the senators, and it was a very tough time for him to back out,” one anonymous official close to the situation told Politico. “In a very fraught moment, with legislative affairs and stuff with the Hill, DOJ needed to have the head of [lega] affairs involved.”When reached for comment, the DOJ told Politico that "out of an abundance of caution, Davis temporarily recused himself on a precautionary basis and after internal consultation, it was decided that recusal was not necessary for a number of reasons," while also taking the opportunity to once again smear the Russian collusion investigation as a "hoax."
The $70 billion funding package for immigration enforcement was passed without Democratic support.
President Donald Trump is signing a bill on Wednesday to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. The House passed the Secure America Act in a party-line vote on Tuesday after the Senate approved the measure last week. HOUSE REPUBLICANS PASS IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT FUNDING BILL IN PARTY-LINE VOTE The $70 billion reconciliation […]
President Trump on Wednesday morning will sign the Secure America Act, a GOP-led bill that funds U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol through 2029. House Republicans passed the reconciliation package, a major victory for the Trump administration, on Tuesday. The nearly $70 billion bill, which advanced in the Senate on Friday after…
President Trump on Wednesday morning warned Iran that it will not get away with attacks on U.S. allies Kuwait and Bahrain. “They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!” he posted on Truth Social. With gas prices stuck above $4…
Immediately following the unanimous guilty verdict against 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony for the first-degree murder of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf, a family representative blamed the "all-white" jury for the verdict, despite the fact that just seven members of the 12-person jury were white. The post WATCH: Karmelo Anthony Family Spokesman Falsely Blames ‘All-White’ Jury for Guilty Murder Verdict, Claims ‘Black Lives Do Not Matter in the Criminal Justice System’ appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Other members of President Trump’s Cabinet began to consider Vice President JD Vance a “conspiracy theorist” as he pushed for the release of the Epstein files and an interview with Ghislaine Maxwell in the midst of their panicked attempt to snuff out the biggest controversy of Trump’s second term.New reporting from The New York Times reveals that while the Cabinet remained staunch in their public defense of Trump, there was chaos behind the scenes last year over Trump’s deep connections to the sexual predator. Vance played a large role in the internal discord, as he seemed to be the loudest voice pushing “the darkest theories about Epstein and a cabal of predators hidden within the country’s ruling class”—leading White House chief of staff Susie Wiles to call him a major conspiracy theorist.When Trump’s Cabinet learned that The Wall Street Journal was set to publish their story on Trump’s birthday letter to Epstein, the team met in the Situation Room to discuss their options. Vance pushed for the administration to fully release the files quickly, suggesting that they have Epstein coconspirator Ghislaine Maxwell either do an interview with Tucker Carlson or testify before Congress. In Vance’s mind, this would solidify Trump’s alibi and secure confidence with their MAGA base—which happened to care very much about the Epstein files. Both plans were struck down and the team pointed out that Maxwell would want something in return. “Pardoning Maxwell, a trafficker of young girls, would create a huge P.R. problem,” Communications Director Steven Cheung argued. “We can’t offer Ghislaine Maxwell anything,” said White House deputy chief of staff James Blair. “A, I don’t know why we would. And B, if we give Ghislaine Maxwell any sort of break whatsoever and then she turns around and says nice things about us, or says nice things about us and we give her a break, it will undermine the entire point of her saying good things. That will feed the conspiracy theory, period. If there’s nothing for her to say that hurts us, we shouldn’t have to offer her anything.”The report makes it abundantly clear that there was no consensus on how to handle the political tsunami of the Epstein files, as it also details the falling out between former Attorney General Pam Bondi, former FBI Co-Deputy Director Dan Bongino, and FBI Director Kash Patel. The drama between them came to a head after a tumultuous few months in which Bondi went from claiming she had Epstein’s client list sitting on her desk, to handing out big white binders to MAGA influencers, to then claiming there was essentially nothing new in the files. “You fucked this thing up from the start,” Bongino screamed at her a day after the DOJ memo claiming there was nothing more in the files to be released. “The way you’ve been talking about this—that dumb fucking charade with the Epstein files, the ‘They’re on my desk’ nonsense, all the promises to the folks out there.”While it’s unclear where Vance stands among Trump and the rest of the Cabinet now, it’s clear that he’ll have to answer for the internal decisions made last summer for the entirety of his political career.