Administrator asked about those 'who are suffering from the very serious ailment'
The Justice Department signals a retreat from defending the blatantly corrupt scheme, which provoked vigorous objections from Republican lawmakers.
Eyebrows were raised on Tuesday as Dr. Mehmet Oz responded to questions about why President Donald Trump had an increased number of medical exams, prompting skepticism surrounding the commander-in-chief's overall health.Oz, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator, was filling in for Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt at the White House press briefing when Daily Mail reporter Elina Shirazi pushed for Oz to respond."This is the fourth checkup that the president has had," Shirazi said. "He's supposed to have one a year. He's had several CT heart scans. What are the doctors looking for?"Oz responded and said the visits to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center were "just a routine regular exam." The trained cardiothoracic surgeon then said the president's vitals were looking good."His cholesterol, his blood pressure, all the numbers are certainly in excellent parameters," Oz added. "That amount of energy and that amount of mental acuity does not exist in a vacuum. The president has unique abilities to just keep going at all hours of the day with remarkable strength."But the internet was not convinced."'We know he’s healthy because he enjoys taking the same dementia test over and over' might not be the best argument," Emmy-nominated writer and comedian Mike Drucker, who has more than 182,000 followers, wrote on X."'Going to the doctor is fun.' That's where we're at now with this administration's lies," anti-Trump organization The Lincoln Project wrote on X."Dr. Oz really just said that Trump has gone to the doctor 4 times because he does so well there and 'likes the results.' The scariest thing about this is that this man is actually a real doctor who heads up the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. We are so screwed!" Writer and social media commentator Brian Krassenstein wrote on X."The thing that every Trump appointee has in common is a bottomless appetite to debase themselves in service to Dear Leader. When this era mercifully ends, clips like this will be used as evidence of our national mass delusion, which I imagine is a common theme in all post-authoritarian societies," political scientist and author Josh Zingher, who has more than 3,000 followers, wrote on Bluesky.“We know he’s healthy because he enjoys taking the same dementia test over and over” might not be the best argument https://t.co/6Xdz1S81p8— Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) June 2, 2026
Trump announces the White House Correspondents' Dinner is rescheduled to July 24 at the Waldorf Astoria following the April assassination attempt.
President Donald Trump received immediate backlash Tuesday over his pick to replace outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard – and just hours later, the nominee may already be in trouble after a GOP senator ousted by Trump last week voiced concerns, according to one Senate reporter.Trump’s nominee was Bill Pulte, currently the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Pulte has no prior intelligence or national security experience, and his nomination was immediately scrutinized by liberal and conservative critics alike.Pulte will need to be confirmed as National Intelligence director by the Senate, but according to NOTUS Senate reporter Igor Bobic, one GOP senator – Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who lost his primary election last week to his Trump-backed opponent — is already skeptical.“YOLO watch,” Bobic wrote in a social media post on X, referencing the abbreviation for the slang term “you only live once.” “Cornyn says he doesn’t believe Bill Pulte is qualified to serve [as National Intelligence director]. And he says he has ‘serious concerns’ with the reconciliation bill.”Cornyn is just one of several outgoing GOP lawmakers who, after either resigning or losing their re-election bid due in part to Trump’s interference or threats of interference, may feel less compelled to go along with the president’s agenda.YOLO watchCornyn says he doesn’t believe Bill Pulte is qualified to serve at DNIAnd he says he has “serious concerns” with the reconciliation bill— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) June 2, 2026
Bill Pulte, who does not have any national intelligence experience, is nicknamed ‘Little Trump’ among some Donald Trump’s decision to appoint Bill Pulte as the acting director of national intelligence has set off alarm bells in Washington, as a staunch Trump loyalist with little government experience who has shown an eagerness to retaliate against the president’s political rivals will now sit atop the US intelligence apparatus.Pulte, whose grandfather started PulteGroup, a major residential homebuilder, had no government experience before Trump appointed him to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), an under-the-radar regulator that oversees the government lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Shortly after arriving at the agency, he began to gut it, firing sizable chunks of the boards of both and appointing himself as chair. Pulte had no government experience before being appointed to the role and does not have national intelligence experience. Continue reading...
President Donald Trump has announced who will replace Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.Gabbard announced her resignation as DNI last month after serving in the office for a year and a half. She cited her husband's "extremely rare form of bone cancer" diagnosis as the main reason.'Bill is a great guy who recognizes that the bureaucracy of the intel community must respond to the elected leadership.' Now, Trump has appointed William Pulte to take her place as acting director.Pulte was the head of Pulte Homes, the third-largest homebuilder in the U.S., with billions in revenue, before he was picked by Trump to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency."I am appointing the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and Chairman of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, William J. Pulte, to serve as Acting Director of National Intelligence," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social Tuesday."William has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America, the safety and soundness of the Markets, and over 10 Trillion Dollars at Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, a substantial increase from where it was just 12 months ago," Trump added.Pulte used the resources of the FHFA to find evidence of alleged mortgage fraud committed by some of Trump's most vehement political enemies, including Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James and former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.).Some Democrats cited those investigations as evidence that Pulte will do the same as DNI."I will be a hard NO on FISA Section 702 reauthorization," wrote Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California in a statement on social media. "Whether or not the totally unqualified and corrupt Bill Pulte gets confirmed, trump’s nomination of Pulte has already shown trump would have no problem with weaponizing intelligence against Americans he doesn’t like."RELATED: Pulte calls for investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell — and for his removal Vice President JD Vance praised the decision."Bill is a great guy who recognizes that the bureaucracy of the intel community must respond to the elected leadership (rather than the other way around). He'll do great!" he wrote on social media.For the time being, Pulte will serve as acting director. He will need Senate confirmation to become the official director.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
At the end of this month, Tulsi Gabbard steps down as the director of national intelligence, following a bumpy 16-month tenure as our nation’s top spy. Gabbard was an unconventional fit, as a Democrat opposed to most foreign wars. In President Donald Trump’s second term, with its multiple military operations around the globe, she became […]
President Donald Trump has built his political brand on defying limits, but a series of high-profile reversals in recent days suggests that even he cannot indefinitely outrun the consequences of his most outlandish gambits.The Trump administration signaled Monday that it plans to abandon its $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization fund" following an adverse court ruling — a significant retreat on an initiative that had already sparked a revolt among Republican congressional leaders, and he beat a retreat on renaming the Kennedy Center after himself, reported CNN's Aaron Blake."In both situations, it remains up in the air precisely how much Trump has capitulated," Blake wrote. "But he’s at least telegraphing retreat. Both ideas were wild to begin with — and now the president appears to be dealing with the consequences."On the so-called slush fund, Senate Majority Leader John Thune had called on the administration to "shut it down themselves," while other GOP senators demanded the White House explicitly rule out reviving the fund in the future.The fund, created as part of a settlement resolving Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, was intended to compensate allies who claimed they were victimized by the Biden-era Justice Department. Critics — including a federal judge — questioned whether the two sides of the settlement were colluding, and the fund drew outrage when the administration acknowledged it could benefit Jan. 6 defendants who assaulted police officers.That announcement followed Trump's Friday retreat on the Kennedy Center, where he said he would transfer control back to Congress after a judge ruled that plastering his name on a building memorializing a dead president was illegal. Trump had previously purged the center's board to install loyalists before the renaming — a move that a court found violated federal law.The two reversals fit a pattern. Earlier this year, Trump abandoned his push to seize Greenland amid bipartisan opposition, and his plan to fund a lavish White House ballroom with taxpayer money was stripped from a spending bill after Republican panic over the optics."In all of these cases, Trump was asking the courts and/or Republicans to sign off on what seemed to be impossible requests," Blake wrote. "He was asking them to stomach something drastic because he’s Trump, and they’re supposed to do what he wants.""But when his wild gambits push the envelope too far — and increasingly seem to jeopardize the GOP’s chances in November — they reinforce that Trump isn’t the unrestrained leader of his political movement that he’d like to be," Blake added.Trump, for his part, shows no sign of moderating his ambitions — his appointment Tuesday of a controversial housing official as acting director of national intelligence suggested the envelope-pushing is far from over.