The Federalist

Two Lives Upended By Vindictive Prosecutors Underscore The Need For Anti-Weaponization Fund

YesterdayFar Right

Jim Troupis and Dr. Ron Elfenbein, dragged through hell by abusive prosecutors, underscore the need for the DOJ's Anti-Weaponization Fund.

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Bloomberg Politics

5 hours ago

Texas GOP Primary Upends Senate Race

Attorney General Ken Paxton benefited from a late endorsement from President Donald Trump and enthusiasm from Republicans’ MAGA voters to a historic blowout victory in the Senate primary runoff over incumbent John Cornyn. Bloomberg News Texas Bureau Chief Julie Fine and The New York Times Texas Bureau Chief David Goodman joined Christina Ruffini and David Gura on Bloomberg This Weekend to discuss how hard will the Republican establishment rally behind him after backing Cornyn in a bitter campaign that burned through more than $100 million? Many GOP leaders had argued that Paxton would be a weaker nominee because of his past legal and personal woes. But Senator Ted Cruz and Governor Greg Abbott quickly came out with statements supporting him. His opponent in November will be James Talarico, who’s been building his war chest since winning the Democratic primary outright in March. (Source: Bloomberg)

Center

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GOP's anti-"woke" playbook faces ultimate test in Texas

Axios

7 hours ago

GOP's anti-"woke" playbook faces ultimate test in Texas

The Texas Senate race has become a national laboratory for anti-"woke" politics, testing whether voters still recoil from the language of 2020 amid the economic pain of 2026.Why it matters: Republicans came away from 2024 convinced they had won more than an election — they had broken through on culture, turning Democrats' progressive language and identity politics into symbols of elite detachment.The durability of that culture-war coup is now an open question, as the GOP tries to redeploy the same playbook in a far more hostile midterm environment.Zoom in: Texas has produced a Senate race in which both parties see the other nominee as the perfect caricature of everything voters hate about the opposition.For Republicans: Texas state Rep. James Talarico offers the dream target — a young, viral progressive whose old comments can be stripped of context and turned into a one-man museum of "woke" Democratic excess.Republicans have seized on Talarico's 2021 floor speech declaring that "God is nonbinary," along with past comments on racism, whiteness and trans children, to cast him as a radical disguised as a Texas preacher.The attacks already are veering into sexuality- and masculinity-coded territory: Talarico's opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, has mocked him as "Low-T," while White House adviser Stephen Miller falsely labeled him as Democrats' "first transgender Senate candidate."Talarico has conceded that he "missed the mark" on some "cringey comments," while insisting his underlying principles — that "racism is immoral and wrong" and that "trans people deserve dignity and equality" — flow from his Christian faith.For Democrats: Paxton is a scandal-scarred Trump ally whose legal and ethical baggage could turn even a red-state Senate race into a referendum on Republican corruption.Paxton was impeached by the GOP-led Texas House in 2023 — then acquitted by the Texas Senate — over allegations that he abused his office to benefit a donor.He spent nearly a decade under indictment on fraud charges before reaching a pretrial deal in 2024, and has been plagued by whistleblower claims, a now-closed federal corruption probe and a very public divorce tied to allegations of adultery.Talarico's campaign wants to make Paxton the face of Republican impunity — arguing that his scandals are not distractions from the race, but the clearest evidence of what the GOP has become.Between the lines: Republicans believe Texas will prove the anti-"woke" playbook still works. Democrats believe prices, Paxton and two years of Trump have changed the terms of the fight.An influx of new residents — plus signs of buyer's remorse among Latinos who backed Trump — has cracked open a once-unthinkable Democratic scenario: Texas as the path to a Senate majority.Flashback: The Trump campaign's most memorable 2024 attack ad turned trans rights into a broad indictment of Democratic priorities, ending with the now-famous tagline: "Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you."Testing by Harris' top super PAC found the ad — which highlighted her 2019 support for taxpayer-funded gender-transition surgeries for prisoners and detained immigrants — moved viewers 2.7 points toward Trump.The big picture: The ad worked because it converted one obscure policy position into a sweeping theory of Democratic "wokeness": a party fluent in elite cultural language, but alien to voters' daily lives.But it didn't work in isolation: The Biden administration's handling of inflation, immigration and affordability were already making Democrats look out of touch before "they/them" gave the GOP the perfect slogan.Today, those forces have flipped: Trump is now 52 points underwater on inflation, turning the economy from a tailwind into the central threat to his party's midterm survival.The bottom line: Texas will be the ultimate test of whether the GOP's anti-"woke" strategy can survive the transition from insurgency to incumbency.

Center Left

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One America News Network

7 hours ago

DHS chief wins battle for Delaney Hall amid anti-ICE protests

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed victory after New Jersey’s governor ordered state police to manage the chaotic demonstrations blockading Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Delaney Hall detention center in Newark.

Far Right

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With Luka Doncic as centerpiece, Lakers need to prioritize these areas

New York Post

7 hours ago

With Luka Doncic as centerpiece, Lakers need to prioritize these areas

The Lakers’ priority of building a roster that better fits around superstar Luka Doncic is obvious. It was a talking point last summer. It has been again entering this offseason, which is the first summer they’ll have the salary and roster flexibility to construct a team around Doncic that best fits his needs. And there...

Right

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Trump tears apart his number two and refuses to crown him as MAGA's future

Alternet.org

8 hours ago

Trump tears apart his number two and refuses to crown him as MAGA's future

Judging by interviews President Donald Trump doesn’t sound eager to envision a world without him in charge, and he’s slow to acknowledge up-and-coming lieutenants who are eager to take the reins.The New York Times reports that when confronted with the prospect of Vice President JD Vance as MAGA’s next crowned leader, Trump is loathe to discuss it openly — even as his own personal brand struggles to reclaim the supremacy it once held with legions of largely racist, antisemitic MAGA men.Citing information from more than a dozen anonymous White House sources, the Times reports that Trump “has told several allies that Mr. Vance has never won a tough race without his help. (Mr. Trump’s endorsement got Mr. Vance over the finish line in a tight race for an Ohio Senate seat.) He has brought up the number of vacations Mr. Vance has taken as vice president. (Mr. Trump does not generally take them.)” The president has also has repeatedly mentioned the vice president’s initial opposition to starting Trump’s wildly unpopular war with Iran and has even pointed this out in front of. Vance, saying “I’m more of a peace person than you are — but I had to do it,” according to the Times. And Trump has also questioned his decision to send a delegation led by the vice president to an international negotiation — which ultimately failed to end Trump’s war.Trump, says the Times, has “zeroed in on moments when Mr. Vance might not look the part,” such as when Vance almost dropped Ohio State’s national football championship trophy on a White House lawn. And Trump has “continued to needle … Vance on matters of substance and style, from criticizing his shoes to ribbing him for his tendency to interject in conversations.” Last November, Trump even openly mulled why Vance “was not more subservient, like the officials who work for President Xi Jinping of China,” says the Times.“Why don’t you behave like that?”. Trump asked Vance during a breakfast for Republican senators. “JD doesn’t behave like that! JD butts into conversations! I want to have that for at least a couple of days. OK, JD?”Trump may not appear happy with the idea of a MAGA world with a hole where the aging Trump once stood. But neither, apparently, are critics eager for Vance to sidle into the encroaching Trump-shaped void as Trump hits 80 and routinely nods off at public events.“Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, who is widely seen as a likely 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, has repeatedly accused Mr. Vance, who was born in Middletown, Ohio, of overstating his blue-collar roots and misrepresenting himself as a product of Appalachia,” reports the Times. In an interview, Beshear accused Vance of “governing in a way that only hurts the places he claims he was from.”“JD Vance doesn’t have a real bone in his body,” said Beshear. “Last week he’s appointed the fraud czar, and this week he’s defending a new $1.7 billion slush fund for the Trump administration to give to their allies.”

Left

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Federal Judge Halts Trump’s $1.8 Billion Slush Fund in Major Blow

The New Republic

8 hours ago

Federal Judge Halts Trump’s $1.8 Billion Slush Fund in Major Blow

A federal judge on Friday temporarily suspended the Trump administration’s plans for a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund—an attempt to pay President Trump’s friends, allies, supporters, and anyone else who felt wronged by the previous administration.The order, sent down by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, states that the president is not allowed to pursue “the creation or operation of the Anti-Weaponization Fund, which includes the transferring of money to the Fund; the consideration of any claims submitted to the Fund; and the disbursing of any funds from the Fund.”The Department of Justice fund has been met with protest from both Democrats and Republicans alike for its deep conflicts of interest—given that this all came about after Trump sued his own IRS for $10 billion, then settled for this fund for people who acted in his name. This ruling came after former January 6 prosecutor Andrew Floyd and the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sued the Trump administration on the grounds that the settlement was “a jaw-dropping act of presidential corruption,” which was “designed to funnel $1.776 billion in taxpayer dollars from the Treasury’s Judgment Fund to purported victims of what the President considers ‘lawfare’ and government ‘weaponization.’” The issue will be adjudicated on June 12, when Brinkema will decide whether to issue a more lasting suspension. This story has been updated.

Left

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Anti-ICE protesters pooling cash for riot gear, military-grade goggles to fuel Newark mayhem

New York Post

9 hours ago

Anti-ICE protesters pooling cash for riot gear, military-grade goggles to fuel Newark mayhem

The tools were necessary for their battle against the "ICE Gestapo," one group wrote.

Right

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Man charged with assaulting federal officers after allegedly biting ICE agents at Newark anti-ICE protest

Latest Political News on Fox News

9 hours ago

Man charged with assaulting federal officers after allegedly biting ICE agents at Newark anti-ICE protest

A New Jersey man faces federal assault charges after allegedly biting two ICE officers during an anti-ICE protest outside a Newark, New Jersey, detention facility.

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