An ousted White House official is considering a campaign against a defiant GOP Senator to return to Trump's orbit, per a new report.

According to a New York Post exclusive, former advisor Corey Lewandowski is plotting to court President Donald Trump with a campaign that would pit rumored lover and former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem against Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD).

Thune has reportedly been a headache for Trump because of the stalled SAVE America Act, a proof-of-citizenship voting bill. Thune's seat will be up for election in 2028, when Trump will be out of the White House, but Lewandowski is reportedly plotting to return from "political exile" by pushing Noem for the Senate seat, The Post wrote. Thune told reporters earlier this week that his "assumption" is that he plans to run for re-election.

"Corey is looking for ways to get back in good with President Trump," an anonymous Republican strategist told The Post. Lewandowski told conservative podcaster John Fredericks in late June that Thune is "very susceptible to a very serious Republican primary challenge," The Post noted.

"The American people will be looking at someone who has a proven history of winning an election in South Dakota to maybe challenge John Thune," Lewandowski added.

According to The Post, multiple Republicans say that Lewandowski, a former campaign advisor for Trump, considers remaining in Trump's good graces to be essential, not just for him but for his public affairs firm, Lewandowski Strategic Advisors.

"He values that relationship more than anything else," an anonymous source told The Post. Noem, however, flatly said during a statue unveiling on Friday, "I'm not planning to run for Senate in 2028."

When The Post reached Lewandowski for comment, he said, "President Trump carried the state of South Dakota by nearly 30 points. The people of that state overwhelmingly support his agenda for America."

Lewandowski added, "No politician is immune to the will of the voters," and said every Senator should pass Trump's SAVE America Act. "I would encourage every incumbent senator to achieve this objective," he told The Post.

Noem and Lewandowski were spotted together in Minnesota, riding bikes, shopping and eating together, earlier this week, sparking more rumors about their relationship.

The unveiling of a bronze statue for a fired Trump Cabinet secretary is turning into an opportunity for online roasting.

Trump's former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem received a bronze statue in honor of her governorship of South Dakota, according to a post on X by CSPAN. Noem was ousted from the Trump administration earlier this year as her department dealt with the fallout of violent federal immigration enforcement and a scandal involving her husband, Bryon Noem (who wasn't at the unveiling ceremony).

Onlookers reacted to the unveiling of the statue, which depicts Noem with a cowboy hat and a horse, by recalling how Noem shot her dog, Cricket, her rumored affair with DHS advisor Corey Lewandowski, and more.

Journalist and political commentator William Coffin joked, "Bryon's statue unveiling was less well attended," and posted an AI-generated image poking fun at Bryon's reported cross-dressing.

The X account Prison Mitch similarly posted an AI-generated image of a statue depicting Noem pointing a gun at a dog, and wrote, "Now Cricket gets to watch Kristi Noem do it all over for eternity."

"Cricket would like a word," wrote progressive advocate and lawyer Jordan Rhone.

"Think everyone watching this held their breath for a sec when second figure was being unveiled," David Freedlander, a political columnist and features writer for New York Magazine, joked, referring to the unveiling of the horse.

"They forgot the dead dog at her feet," historian Brooks D. Simpson reacted.

"After they showed Noem first, I was expecting to see her husband with his freak fetish or Corey Lewandowski next to her as a part of the statue," right-wing influencer Ian Miles Cheong posted.

"Nice of them to include Corey in the statue like that," joked political commentator Andrew Donaldson, referring to the horse.

Filmmaker Cam Miller simply reacted to Noem's statue by writing, "But...why?"

The Justice Department is refusing to return $2,000 in restitution paid by Felicia Konold, a pardoned Arizona Capitol rioter.

The DOJ argues her conviction was final when she received President Donald Trump's pardon and hasn't been vacated, CNN reported Friday.

Konold, who pleaded guilty to obstructing law enforcement and served 45 days in prison, joined the Proud Boys in breaching police barricades on Jan. 6.

The DOJ distinguishes between rioters with pending appeals at pardon time who are allowed to drop restitution payments, and those like Konold, whose convictions were already final.

This selective enforcement contradicts the Trump administration's simultaneous push for a now-defunct $1.776 billion fund, allegedly compensating victims of "weaponized prosecutions."

The fund drew bipartisan criticism before the Senate pressured acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to rescind it. He suggested, instead, that alleged victims pursue civil lawsuits.

A D.C. appeals court is weighing related challenges from multiple defendants.

Watch the video below.

Far-right Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback's latest stunt has President Donald Trump's Justice Department stepping in against him.

A hedge fund manager who has built up a cult following among young Republicans, Fishback is a long-shot candidate challenging Trump's endorsed pick for the race, Congressman Byron Donalds. And this week, Fishback tried to shake up the race by announcing that Donalds is under federal investigation for trafficking.

During a news conference in Tallahassee, Fishback claimed that a whistleblower notified him of a "disturbing pattern of behavior" from Donalds. "This government whistleblower, who approached my campaign, has confirmed that this investigation has now expanded to include U.S. Congressman Byron Donalds, who, along with Cory Mills, is under investigation for federal sex trafficking," said Fishback, claiming it stems from an overseas trip the two made.

But on Friday, the Justice Department's "rapid response" account stamped this out on X, dispensing with typical prosecutorial norms about not confirming or denying ongoing investigations.

"Falsely accusing someone of being under investigation is a dangerous form of weaponization," stated the account. "This claim is not true. Congressman Byron Donalds is not under investigation."

Fishback has ginned up outrage repeatedly for his overtly racist comments, including claiming that Donalds, who is Black, would "turn Florida into a Section 8 ghetto," and even telling a Black questioner he "should be lynched" when confronted with allegations he himself engaged in sexual misconduct.

A political commentator flagged a potential probe that has the potential to "destabilize" President Donald Trump if it keeps moving forward.

During an episode of his podcast, progressive political analyst David Pakman said that Rep. Yassamin Ansari's (D-AZ) request for a House Oversight investigation into Barron Trump's ties to arrested influencer Andrew Tate poses a real threat to the Trump family.

Tate and his brother were arrested last month by U.S. Marshals and face a possible extradition to the United Kingdom, where they've been accused of dozens of sex crimes. Barron Trump and Andrew Tate reportedly communicated as far back as 2024, according to Pakman, though Barron has not been accused of any crime connected to the Tate brothers.

Ansari sent a letter to Rep. James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, in late July demanding an investigation into whether Barron knew of the Tate brothers' crimes. Pakman doesn't look into the possibility of Comer pushing an investigation forward, but he says that if Democrats take control of the House after the 2026 midterms, it presents a more damning scenario for the Trumps.

"Just because you're the president's son doesn't mean you're immune from scrutiny," Pakman said. "Imagine for a second Democrats win in 2026 and Barron gets a subpoena. Trump will flip out."

Pakman noted Trump's outbursts when an "ordinary associate" of his is investigated. "He goes, 'It's treason. The prosecutors are deranged. The judges are corrupt.' Barron is in a different category. Donald and Melania Trump have guarded Barron very intensely."

When a YouTube creator with autism speculated in 2016 that Barron might be autistic, "Melania Trump threatened legal action. The video was removed, and she later said that it caused irreparable damage," Pakman pointed out. "When Barron attracts any public attention, this family flips out."

Trump perceives "any kind of political conflict as personal humiliation," so Pakman predicts that "a subpoena against Barron Trump would destabilize Trump in a way you can't even imagine."

Stephen Miller's wife used to be involved with a disgraced former congressman she later criticized, per a new report.

According to reporting by Sources Say, right-wing podcaster Katie Miller had a former fling with Eric Swalwell. Miller was in a relationship with Swalwell a decade ago, when she interned and then worked as a congressional staffer in her early 20s, Sources Say reported.

The relationship took place years before Miller married her husband, the White House deputy chief of staff, in 2020, reporting by The Daily Beast noted.

However, Miller and her husband were vocal critics of Swalwell when he faced sexual misconduct allegations and ultimately dropped out of the California gubernatorial race.

The past relationship surfaced because Swalwell's team allegedly leaned on it in a fight over Department of Justice records, according to Sources Say. Miller said she was unaware that the past relationship was discussed with the DOJ.

FBI Director Kash Patel moved this year to release files documenting Swalwell's contact with suspected Chinese intelligence operative Christine Fang. Swalwell's team argued the release was an attempt to weaponize the FBI, and pointed to his history with Miller to press the point, Sources Say reported.

Swalwell sent Patel a cease-and-desist letter branding the planned release a bid to smear him and sink his run for governor, and warning it could expose the FBI to legal liability, Sources Say reported. Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi — who oversees the FBI as head of the Justice Department — ultimately declined to authorize the release, according to the outlet.

Bondi told Sources Say her only contact with Swalwell concerned death threats against his wife and children. Swalwell has denied that Bondi tipped him off about the FBI's plans, Sources Say reported.

Sources Say reported that Stephen Miller accused Democrats in April of keeping "blackmail files" on their own members after the misconduct allegations against Swalwell emerged.

Swalwell resigned his House seat that month after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct, including one allegation of rape, per The Daily Beast. He has denied the allegations.

A sleepy Colorado farm town that voted overwhelmingly for President Donald Trump has become ground zero in the national fight over immigration and a flashpoint in the battle for the U.S. House.

Hudson, a one-stoplight town 45 minutes from Denver, is set to house the Big Horn detention center inside a shuttered prison on its edge. Run by private prison giant The GEO Group under a $529 million contract, the facility could hold up to 1,200 detainees and nearly double Colorado's immigrant detention capacity when it opens as early as next month.

The prison sits on the border of Colorado's Eighth Congressional District, held by Rep. Gabe Evans, a Trump ally and one of the most vulnerable Republicans in Congress, whose district office in Greeley has drawn protests. Evans supports immigration detention centers, and his Democratic challenger, state lawmaker Manny Rutinel, is running on a pledge to "stop ICE from terrorizing our communities."

Democrats are betting that anger over Trump's deportation campaign and the cost of living can flip the seat and help them retake the House.

Protesters have bused in from Denver to pack town meetings, shouting "Shame!" “You’re Nazis!” and waving anti-ICE signs. Meanwhile, many locals welcome the jobs and the enforcement, The New York Times reported Friday. Kerry Shaklee, a longtime resident and member of the town's planning commission, called the center a "travesty."

“These people don’t pay taxes here,” Tracy Trevarton, a Hudson resident, told the newspaper. “We can’t even get in here and conduct our own business. It’s tearing our town apart.”

“It’s against every fiber of my being,” Barbara Mills-Bria, a retired engineer who drove from suburban Denver to a raucous council meeting on Wednesday, told the Times.

Town Manager Bryce Lange has said the privately owned prison was approved by voters years ago and still holds a certificate of occupancy. Opponents disagree. Last month, a faith group and a neighbor sued the town, arguing the site isn't zoned for a detention center and could strain water, roads and emergency services 12 miles from the nearest hospital.

In a 2-1 ruling, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a preliminary injunction blocking construction of President Donald Trump's $400 million White House ballroom project, marking the third court to halt it.

The court rejected the Trump administration's argument that no court has authority to stop the demolition, stating "the bold assertion that the Executive can act with utter lawlessness, destroying treasured national landmarks and harming the interests of individuals, and that no court can stop it flouts our constitutional order," records show.

Trump demolished the entire East Wing in October 2025 without congressional approval to make room for the 90,000-square-foot ballroom.

The court ruled "each President is a temporary tenant, not the owner, of the White House," meaning Congress must authorize construction.

The court dismissed the government's claims the ballroom would be hidden by trees as "[p]ure fiction."

A 14-day stay allows the Trump administration to seek Supreme Court emergency review.

Watch the video below.

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A federal judge just handed President Trump's Department of Housing and Urban Development its third courtroom defeat this year over efforts to reshape how billions in homelessness funding gets distributed nationwide.

U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy ruled Friday that HUD issued its latest funding notice for the $4 billion Continuum of Care program in a "procedurally invalid manner," blocking the agency's newest attempt to overhaul the program, Politico reported.

HUD Secretary Scott Turner has repeatedly criticized the existing system for prioritizing "Housing First" policies, which place people into housing without requiring sobriety or treatment as a precondition. "We are stopping the Biden-era slush fund that fueled the homelessness crisis," Turner previously said, defending the planned changes.

But advocates say the pattern of legal losses tells a different story about HUD's approach.

Mary Frances Kenion, chief equity officer for the National Alliance to End Homelessness, noted this marks the second time her organization has had to sue over an unlawful funding notice from the agency. “What that tells us is that [HUD has] a pattern of not following the law, just based on the decisions that have been handed down by the court to date,” she told Politico.

The legal fight stretches back to November 2025, when HUD first tried rescinding a Biden-era notice and replacing it with rules that would have cut funding for permanent supportive housing while pushing transitional shelter models requiring work or addiction treatment. A December 2025 court order temporarily blocked those changes, forcing HUD to reinstate the original funding terms in January.

Advocates estimated the scrapped overhaul would have put roughly 170,000 people — including families, seniors, veterans and people with disabilities — at risk of losing housing assistance altogether.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez on Friday lauded this week’s $567 million judgment against Meta Platforms Inc. as “historic” and wide-ranging, but also railed against decades-old laws that he said continue to limit his office’s ability to protect kids online.

New Mexico First Judicial District Judge Bryan Biedscheid late Thursday issued a 68-page ruling that ordered the social media giant to pay for an abatement fund to address the harms it has caused to the state’s youth through its online platforms, particularly Instagram.

In ordering the fund’s creation, Biedscheid agreed with plaintiffs that Meta was creating a “public nuisance” in the state by creating addictive algorithms and an online environment that facilitated connections between kids and child predators. Of the $567 million the judge ordered Meta to pay, $420 million is designated for “treatment” of harms the platform caused.

A Meta spokesperson told Source NM that the company would appeal the ruling. Torrez said Friday that the appeal process could take “months, if not years” to play out. The attorney general said he will urge Biedscheid to order the company to pay the judgment while litigation resumes regarding other changes the judge ordered the company to make.

The ruling marks the end of the second closely watched trial New Mexico brought against Meta. In March, a jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million after agreeing with Torrez’s office that the company had violated state consumer protection laws.

Torrez, in a news conference Friday, said the combined $942 million in judgments against Meta should send a message to the world that “companies of this size and scale can actually be held accountable.”

But he also said laws his office sued under are woefully outdated in confronting the modern internet and a 2026 economy that is largely shaped by giant tech companies. For example, the state’s consumer protection act has not been updated since 1970, he said.

“Why does that matter? It matters because that statute was built for a totally different world,” he said. “It was built for a totally different economy, and it didn’t conceive of or understand or anticipate companies of this size and scale, or the business practices that they engage in.”

New Mexico Department of Justice rests case in second phase of Meta child safety lawsuit

Other laws that Torrez cited as antiquated include Section 230, a provision in a 1996 federal law that protects companies like Meta from being liable for content their users publish on their platforms and a 1998 law that prohibits platforms from collecting data on children under age 13 without their parents’ permission.

The judge repeatedly cited Section 230 and the First Amendment as reasons he could not order Meta to make changes to its algorithm, as well as rein in potentially addictive features like “infinite scroll” and videos automatically playing when they arrive in users’ feeds.

The judge also said the Child’s Online Privacy Act of 1998 — another law Torrez said was outdated — meant he could not legally order Meta to impose stricter age verification for young children seeking to use the platforms.

The state’s lawsuit had urged the court to order Meta to greatly strengthen the steps it takes to verify users’ ages, including with the help of artificial intelligence and other tools. Biedscheid ruled that the state’s hopes rested on “unproven technology” and, if implemented, would unfairly disadvantage Meta versus other similar social media companies.

Because of the 1998 law, he wrote, “It is the Court’s conclusion that it cannot order Meta to request children to submit personal data or be passively tracked online, even for age-verification purposes.”

Biedscheid further wrote that it is beyond his court’s jurisdiction to impose the age-verification requirements, writing that “regulatory solutions to these problems lie in the executive and legislative branches and not with this Court.”

While Torrez said he believes the judge’s ruling on the matter was a “misapplication” of federal law, he agreed that the next steps required to protect children online lie outside of the courts.

The ruling marks “an opportunity to rely on and incorporate rapidly advancing and evolving technology into a proposed legislative solution, which my office will be presenting to the New Mexico Legislature in the coming weeks,” Torrez said.

He also called on Congress to heed what he said is growing discontentment from social media users about the outsized role companies like Meta play in influencing policy and daily life.

“If Congress woke up and did its job and passed and updated a refreshed version based on the world we live in now and not the world we had in the 1990s, we could address these issues,” he said. “We can’t address them as long as Congress and legislative bodies are sitting on the sidelines.”

In addition to imposing financial penalties, Biedscheid’s ruling ordered Meta to make some of the following changes to its platforms:

Source New Mexico is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Source New Mexico maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Goldberg for questions: info@sourcenm.com.

New Jersey's attorney general is opening a civil rights investigation into Delaney Hall, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Newark, after a third detainee died in custody within months.

Attorney General Jennifer Davenport issued investigative subpoenas Friday against the 1,000-bed facility, which is run by private prison company GEO Group and was the first federal detention center to open under President Donald Trump's second term. The probe will examine whether staff violated detainees' civil rights amid mounting reports of squalid conditions, including spoiled food, denied hygiene products, and blocked health inspections, Politico reported.

The latest death involved a detainee who reportedly suffered a seizure during intake and was released from ICE custody on the spot before dying at a hospital — a technicality that, according to Rep. Rob Menendez (D-NJ), allowed ICE to avoid formally reporting it as an in-custody death.

A separate detainee, Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, died after his family says he lost 30 pounds over six weeks at the facility and wasn't receiving medication for diabetes, high blood pressure, and epilepsy, all while sharing a crowded cell with roughly 10 other detainees and one toilet.

Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill has publicly called for Delaney Hall to be shut down entirely, saying state health inspectors were denied full access to the site. Protests and hunger strikes have plagued the facility for months, sparking clashes between demonstrators and officers and even leading to the arrest of Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ).

The Department of Homeland Security has flatly rejected the allegations, insisting detainees receive proper meals, medical care and hygiene supplies.

"There is NO hunger strike at Delaney Hall," DHS said in a statement.

An earlier DHS-commissioned inspection found the facility met 17 of 22 federal detention standards, though it's unclear whether that review addressed the specific medical and sanitation complaints now central to Davenport's investigation.

The MAGA movement has grown so menacing that even loyal Republicans now fear for their lives, veteran GOP strategist Rick Wilson said this week.

Speaking with Wajahat Ali on the "Left Hook" podcast — the same conversation in which he predicted a Republican midterm blowout — the Lincoln Project co-founder recounted what happened to a former client, a member of Congress who backed Jeb Bush, then Ted Cruz, before endorsing Donald Trump late in the 2016 primary. He was no radical, Wilson said.

The trouble started at the lawmaker's first town hall after Trump's inauguration. A man in a red hat demanded to know whether the congressman would vote with Trump 100 percent of the time. When the lawmaker said he would put his district first, "his wife had received 10 death threats about their children," Wilson said.

Wilson argued the overwhelming share of political intimidation now comes from one direction, estimating that 99 percent of the threats, doxxing and swatting he sees originate on the right. Everyone who has pulled a gun on him or pounded on his door over the past decade, he claimed, has been MAGA. Across a 35-year career, he counted exactly one death threat from a Democratic-leaning person — a man who turned out to be severely mentally ill. Now, he said, he gets one every day or two.

"You can be murdered if you oppose Trump. That's okay with the MAGA base," Wilson said, describing Republican officeholders as living in terror of the president.

Wilson tied the menace to a party fracturing in once-solid red states, with Trump himself now facing what could sink the GOP this fall.

Republicans are "tearing their hair out" as President Donald Trump stomps on the midterm messaging, a New York Times journalist said.

During an appearance on CNN, Lulu Garcia-Navarro spoke about the GOP's frustrations as Trump blames them for voters' anger ahead of the midterm while praising himself.

"They are tearing their hair out. They are absolutely apoplectic," Garcia-Navarro said. "They have tried to get President Trump on message."

During an interview with Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman, Trump said that voters are "not angry at me," but "they are angry at Republicans." On CNN, former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson noted that Trump wouldn't admit to being down in the polls or unpopular with voters, and "he's going to blame it on Republicans," adding, "Rest assured, if the midterms are bad for Republicans, he will say it was because he was not on the ballot."

Garcia-Navarro agreed, adding that Republicans have "tried to get President Trump on message" ahead of the midterms. "He has completely stepped on that message over and over again," Garcia-Navarro said.

"He's also made it impossible for them to separate from him because they actually do need his base to show up for them," she said. "But then they can't actually go out and try and attract new voters because he's like a lodestone around their necks."

Republicans' dependence on a president they can't get on message puts them "in an impossible situation," Garcia-Navarro said. "As you look at the midterms, it's really hard for Republicans."

Garcia-Navarro said "the only saving grace" for Republicans is attacking faults in the Democratic Party platform and a boost from redistricting.

"Ultimately, it's going to have to be not just a blue wave, but a blue tidal wave in order to sort of get past some of these structural things," Garcia-Navarro said.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) announced he plans to vote to confirm acting Attorney General Todd Blanche despite acknowledging concerns about "apparent lawfare" and lawsuits against President Donald Trump's political enemies.

"All considered, I will vote for Mr. Blanche," Cassidy said, adding, "I'll be criticized for this vote."

And he was.

During MSNBC’s postmortem analysis, national security reporter David Rohde said, "This is a referendum on Donald Trump's second term, which has unprecedented corruption."

"I think this vote puts our midterm elections in danger and our democracy in danger."

More significantly, MS NOW business analyst Ron Insana highlighted, “If I heard Senator Cassidy correctly, he said that the president will now be in charge of the Justice Department and not the other way around," adding, "It will not be independent.”

Watch the video below.

President Donald Trump's new fluffy look was driving speculation and rumors about his hair on Friday.

Trump appeared to have a hair transformation for the second time over the last three days, The Daily Beast reported. Memes and chatter online circulated Wednesday after Trump spoke about the economy in Las Vegas, with his locks looking different from previous weeks.

The internet had plenty to say as photos and videos captured the new coif.

"Trump is regrowing his own hair! A medical miracle!" Journalist Molly Jong-Fast wrote on X.

"IT'S A MIRACLE! Trump has a full head of hair again today," journalist Aaron Rupar wrote on X, sharing a clip from Trump at a roundtable with his Cabinet discussing the mining industry.

"Here’s a close-up look of Donald Trump as he goes to Trump National Golf Club Bedminster for the weekend: Look at his hair! It’s a mess and almost falling!" Political commentator Lucas Sanders wrote on X.

"Lol wow," Acyn Torabi, senior digital editor at MeidasTouch, wrote on X.

"Oh my," Keith Edwards, political strategist and commentator, wrote on X.

A conservative advocate had her own words thrown back at her as she went after a local journalist on social media.

In a post on X, Colorado political figure Erin Lee went after local journalist Kyle Clark for quoting her, which led to Clark posting a video of her calling for kids to be "covered in the blood of Jesus."

Lee is the founder of Protect Kids Colorado, which has led state ballot initiatives to restrict participation in school sports and access to gender-affirming surgeries, according to reporting by Colorado Newsline. On Friday, she posted on X that Clark, a veteran news anchor, "has put out stories that I am a cult leader who covers children in blood."

She said he gave her "zero evidence or chance for comment," and wrote, "So I choose not to live in fear of him. I'm not even a republican. But I do welcome anyone & everyone to support our non-partisan, common sense initiatives...I can handle taking criticism from all sides for choosing to build a broad, non-exclusive coalition for the greater good of protecting kids."

Clark responded to the post, writing, "I've never said you're a 'cult leader who covers children in blood.' I've accurately quoted you as saying your ballot initiatives about trans kids are a 'spiritual battle' for children to 'cover them in the blood of Jesus.'"

He included a video of Lee saying, "If we all arm our children with truth and cover them in the blood of Jesus...I truly believe we will win this spiritual battle."

Clark followed up on his post by adding, "Not sure where the 'cult leader' claim is from," as he posted a video of the segment to which Lee was responding.

"I have accurately reported that your organization, Protect Kids Colorado, was founded 'under the guidance' of self-proclaimed Christian nationalist prophet Lance Wallnau," Clark wrote. The segment included a clip of Lee speaking on The Lance Wallnau Show, where she said, "Gender-ideology is our state-mandated religion," because of Colorado's passage of "insane radical constitutional law."

President Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform on Friday evening to throw a temper tantrum after federal court decisions declared his demolition of the White House East Wing to build a ballroom illegal.

The decision, in which the judges decried Trump's "utter lawlessness," already earned a Trump rant earlier in the day — but he wasn't done just yet.

"Two Judges, one appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, the other by Sleepy Joe Biden, said in a ruling on the desperately needed SECURE Ballroom/Military Complex, including a major DronePort on the roof, that 'Each President is a temporary tenant…of the White House,'" wrote Trump in a rage, without providing any evidence or clarification on how the ballroom serves a "military" purpose.

Trump, being a real estate mogul for most of his life, particularly seemed to take issue with that "tenant" label.

"We are not tenants, who pay rent and do all other things that a tenant must do, we are PRESIDENTS, elected by the people of the United States of America, and have many rights, including the right to fix, renovate, secure, protect, and beautify the White House grounds, which has been built and rebuilt, renovated and rerenovated, repaired and, simply, MADE BETTER, many times since 1792, and never needing the permission of Congress, or anyone else, to do so," said Trump.

He went on to add that the court ruling is a "National Security Threat at the highest level" and "also a National Disgrace."

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine has started to tell multiple top Trump advisers privately that he is "looking for an off-ramp" from the Iran war, CNN reported on Friday.

Three sources have said that the existing military options could end up backfiring and the conflict has reached a crossroads where air power alone "is unlikely to achieve President Donald Trump’s stated objectives."

Caine has expressed this to several key Cabinet members. Two sources revealed he has spoken directly about those concerns with CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance.

"I think it is just his way of protecting the military," one source told CNN.

Trump has repeatedly been reluctant to send ground troops into Iran, and has favored airstrikes instead, which he believes can pressure Tehran into a deal on his terms.

But Caine and other cabinet officials privately doubt that strategy will work, according to multiple sources familiar with recent discussions, and have been quietly exploring alternative options that still fall within the president's stated red lines, according to CNN.

Former NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom announced Friday that he is declaring for the 2027 WNBA Draft, a stunt critics dismissed as political theater aimed at inflaming the debate over transgender athletes in women's basketball.

In a video posted to X, Freedom said his circle had "carefully examined the WNBA's eligibility criteria and governing framework surrounding self-identification and inclusion."

"Based on the current guidelines, I can and am officially declaring my eligibility for the upcoming WNBA draft in April 2027," he said.

Freedom was the third overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft and played 11 seasons with the Jazz, Thunder, Knicks, Trail Blazers and Celtics before being waived by Houston in 2022. He became a U.S. citizen in November 2021, legally adding "Freedom" to his name and building a post-basketball profile around right-wing activism.

The stunt comes after Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham drew national attention after telling ESPN she wanted "to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn't have to go against biological men."

Since then, Fever coach Stephanie White, Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve and Golden State Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase have voiced support for more inclusive policies. Valkyries forward Gabby Williams told reporters she would welcome a transgender athlete on her team or against it.

The WNBA's collective bargaining agreement contains no self-identification standard. The Washington Times reported that Article XIII, Section 1(a) of the 409-page agreement states only that "only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA."

Right-wing reaction was swift.

Conservative activist Riley Gaines called the declaration "genius" and "perfect," while CelticsBlog writer Noa Dalzell called it "embarrassing behavior."

Ex-CNN anchor and broadcaster Piers Morgan piled on, posting on X: "Brilliant… now let's see how keen the @WNBA stars are for men to play in their League."

Conservative activist Robby Starbuck offered a more theatrical take, writing on X: "Introducing your next WNBA MVP: Miss Enes Kanter. She's brave, strong and ready to ball. The @WNBA will of course start a bidding war for the best talent they've ever had… right? They definitely mean it when they say there's no athletic difference and bio men must play… right?"

OutKick founder Clay Travis chimed in, "Amazing. Well done."

Texas businessman John Gannon expressed regret for supporting President Donald Trump in 2024.

His shift in perspective comes after federal immigration officials detained his Venezuelan fiancée, Yasmín Suárez Reyes, in July.

During an interview with CBS News on Thursday, Gannon admitted he expected Trump's mass deportation campaign to target only criminals, but instead discovered "they are picking up law-abiding citizens" and "destroying families, jobs."

According to Common Dreams' Brad Reed, ICE agents detained Suárez Reyes at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston without explanation, "swarming" and "wrestling her off into a car," according to Gannon.

“This is like the Gestapo,” Gannon said.

Her attorney, Anne Kennedy, told CBS News Suárez Reyes entered legally, had a pending asylum case, work permit, and no criminal record, yet remained jailed for nearly two weeks.

Gannon urged Trump to "go after the criminals" but "leave the mom and pops and the kids alone."

Critics offered little sympathy, with journalist Molly Knight noting Gannon opposed the policy only when it affected him personally.

Watch the video below.

A former Republican operative signaled that midterm elections could deliver a major wake-up call for the GOP.

Rick Wilson, co-founder of the anti-Trump organization The Lincoln Project, described in a Substack video conversation with journalist Wajahat Ali how Republicans and President Donald Trump might soon confront a new reality.

"They're going to get blown out in the House," Wilson said. "Now, is it going to be a 40-seat blowout? It's probably not. The other redistricting s--- has given them a few of those seats. But I think you're going to see a lot of seats that are going to end up being much bigger."

"You're going to see some real surprises as the map expands," Wilson explained. "You're going to see some states where the Democrats have no business performing like they do. And I'm going to take a very counterfactual point from a lot of establishment folks right now. I think El-Sayed is going to blow it out in Michigan."

Backlash against Trump, and the GOP leaders who have supported him, could spur that shift.

"People who have decided they're going to imitate Trump, even in very red states and districts, and try to be a mini-Trump, eventually run into a wall," Wilson said.

"They're going to ride Trump all the way down," he said.

And although it's unclear what exactly might happen in the Senate, it might be closer than Republicans want to admit, Wilson added.

"I'm not going to say that we're going to get it, but we're going to tie it. And I'll take a tie ballgame at this point," he said.

Former Republican strategist Tim Miller had some choice words for Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) after he announced he would be the deciding vote to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general.

All of this, he noted for MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace, stems from the GOP's utter inability to say no to President Donald Trump, driven by their voters continuing to stick with him in large numbers.

This differs somewhat from former President George W. Bush's second term, said Miller, because "when Bush's numbers went down after Katrina, as the war started to turn, as the economy started to get bad in the second term, they went down kind of with everybody, like Democrats went from 12 percent support to two and independents from 50 to 20 and Republicans from 90 to 70. Like it went down across the board."

While some Trump supporters have peeled off, it's not nearly to the same extent with "the core MAGA base," said Miller. "And so you have these candidates who I do think are scared of ... if they try to get away from him too much, then they'll doom themselves, if they stick with him too much, they'll doom themselves."

None of this, however, explains Cassidy's vote, added Miller, since he was already ousted by Trump in his own primary and has nothing left to lose.

"Cassidy today to me looked like a man that had lost all self-respect, a completely broken shell of a man," said Miller. And, he added, "the quote that really stuck with me from the speech was, before you even explain why he's going to confirm Blanche, he was like, people are going to criticize me for this. They always do. And he's like, he's doing this woe is me thing on the Senate floor."

In other words, said Miller, his attitude was "oh, these guys always, no matter what I do, I'm gonna get criticized. I'm gonna get yelled at. So why do the right thing? Why not just do the easy thing?" This way at least, he can avoid angering anyone at the "Baton Rouge country club" and can go lobby for GOP-aligned corporations next year.

"Is the juice worth the squeeze? Maybe not," added Miller. "Or do they have the respect of backbone to do it, the intestinal fortitude to do it? Not really."

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President Donald Trump is seeing a key group among his core voters turn against him and the MAGA movement, according to a report.

A piece published by The Contrarian on Friday focused on how religious and Christian voters are souring on Trump and how pastors are entering red state races to beat GOP and MAGA candidates.

"White Christian Nationalists who form the backbone of the MAGA movement are outraged that a pro-choice, professed progressive Christian would challenge their claim to theocratic dominance," wrote Jennifer Rubin, referring to Rev. Adam Hamilton, the Democratic Senate nominee running in Kansas.

"It is painfully ironic that those who claim to care so much about 'Christian values' and a 'Christian nation' are getting bent out of shape when a pastor such as Rev. Adam Hamilton becomes the Democratic candidate for Senate in Kansas, alongside other moderate to progressive faith leaders running in other races across the country," Paul Raushenbush, CEO and president of the Interfaith Alliance, told Rubin.

"It should be common knowledge that no single political party has a lock on religion," Raushenbush continued. "American history is full of people of faith being active in the political arena for both conservative and progressive causes."

Rubin also pointed out that the Texas Democratic nominee for Senate, James Talarico, is a religious leader. Talarico is running against a Trump-backed candidate, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Hamilton is running against incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), whom Rubin described as "a MAGA foot soldier who has rubber-stamped every unfit nominee, approved every unpopular Donald Trump policy, and parroted every right-wing talking point."

According to Raushenbush, "what is driving the Christian Nationalist movement nuts right now is that progressive faith leaders are claiming their proud tradition in America and running - and winning - on a moral vision for our inclusive, just, and diverse democracy that clearly attracts voters across partisan divides."

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) relied on fantasy excuses to justify confirming Todd Blanche as President Donald Trump's attorney general, CNN's Jake Tapper said on Friday — and it's not the first time either.

Cassidy ultimately casting aside his public doubts was a "real puzzler," Tapper said, citing two reasons for that.

First, there is Cassidy's constant concerns about the "weaponization of the Justice Department." Cassidy addressed this in his speech announcing his vote, said Tapper, but the answer he gave is bizarre. Specifically, he argued that Blanche has made a convincing case he would not be a "yes man" for Trump and "would be precisely the person to push back" on him.

"If you believe that I have a Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Bridge to sell you, because there is literally no evidence of Blanche, once Trump's personal attorney in the Stormy Daniels case, ever standing up to President Trump," said Tapper. "Not with the prosecutions of the likes of Don Lemon or Lisa Cook or James Comey or Letitia James."

Blanche did not show any independence when he slow-walked the Epstein case file release, or helped bury criminal investigations into ICE officers who killed people in Minneapolis, Tapper added.

But there's another reason this is such a surprise, said Tapper, and it's because "politically, he doesn't need to vote for Blanche. Cassidy is a dead man walking."

"He's already out of a job," noted Tapper, because Trump endorsed against him and he got clobbered in his primary. Moreover, he said, "if you're getting deja vu, Cassidy was also the deciding vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary last year, despite Cassidy's major reservations. Cassidy is a doctor and RFK Jr. is the opposite of a doctor. That turned out not so well."

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Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) announced her opposition to confirming Todd Blanche as attorney general, leaving Republicans without margin for error.

With Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) expected absent and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) also voting no, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who lost reelection to a President Donald Trump-backed challenger, emerged as the decisive vote, according to reports by Common Dreams' Jake Johnson.

In a statement, Murkowski cited Blanche's handling of Epstein files, immunity protections for Trump and his family, statements to anti-abortion groups, and targeting of individuals including senators.

“I am also keenly aware that the Department’s nearly $2-billion dollar slush fund — which likely would have rewarded January 6 protesters — is only off the table because this nomination is pending and the Senate has leverage. Once we vote, that will end, and there is no telling what the future holds,” Murkowski added.

Cassidy, who met with Blanche but hadn't previously disclosed his position, stated Blanche must be "an attorney general who just happens to have been Trump's personal attorney," not the reverse. He later revealed in a dramatic decision he would vote to confirm Blanche despite some misgivings.

Cassidy previously voted to convict Trump for inciting January 6 but cast the deciding vote confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

Republicans hoped to confirm Blanche before the August recess.

Watch the video below.

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Twelve Jan. 6 defendants sued the federal government Friday for $1 million each, claiming the Capitol riot was a government "trap" designed to create the "appearance of a riot."

The complaint, filed in federal court in Washington under a law that allows citizens to sue the government for wrongful acts of its employees, names 12 plaintiffs whose Jan. 6 prosecutions ended in pardons, acquittals, or dismissals.

The filing landed three days after a federal judge dismissed the last Jan. 6 criminal case at the urging of President Donald Trump's Justice Department, saying he did so "reluctantly" — the same case that once put one of the 12 plaintiffs behind bars for more than four years.

The suit claims the government engineered the Capitol breach months before it happened, according to the complaint filed by the Ticktin Law Group.

"Long before January 6th, in fact, going back at least to September of 2020," the filing says, conspirators held Zoom meetings and plotted "to turn a peaceful protest of the conservative J6ers...into the appearance of a riot."

"Those seditionists...actually plotted to break some of the windows of the Capitol Building so that their compatriots and foreign participants would enter the Capitol Building to unlock and open the doors of the Capitol so that the anticipated protestors outside would be herded into the Capitol Building," the complaint says.

The filing names a specific window-breaker — never publicly identified — as the trigger man, the complaint says.

"Another never-identified instigator, wearing a red 'MAGA' cap with a price tag still affixed, broke and smashed the first window of the Capitol on the West side, to allow infiltrators to climb through the windows," it says.

"The plan was a trap to identify and destroy the tip of the spear of opposition to the election rigging," the filing says. "The psy-op was genius."

The suit repeatedly cites the pardons Trump provided to January 6 defendants when he took office in 2025.

One of the 12 plaintiffs, Oath Keepers member Roberto Minuta, was convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 54 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta. Trump commuted his sentence on Jan. 20, 2025, and his convictions were wiped away when Mehta dismissed the final Jan. 6 case Tuesday at the Justice Department's request.

Writing in his dismissal order, Mehta expressed sharp disagreement with the outcome.

"Today's epilogue diminishes the gravity of that day, denigrates the work of the prosecutors and law enforcement officers who secured these convictions, and excuses criminal acts that caused a centuries-long pillar of our democracy — the peaceful transfer of presidential power — to buckle," Mehta wrote.

The complaint also directly challenges the government's account of officer injuries, the filing says.

"The most serious injury to any officer was a broken finger. The most common injury was 'pain.' No officers died as a result of injuries from J6," it says.

"That book is now closed," Mehta wrote Tuesday. Three days later, the plaintiffs opened a new one.

President Donald Trump doubled down on claims Friday that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was vandalized and took another swipe at U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, he commented more about his accusations.

"Now that people are able to see it up close, they are reporting pure VANDALISM at The Reflecting Pool," Trump wrote.

He thanked freelance photographer Andrew Leyden for D.C. media and YouTube for sharing images from the site.

"The material was cut right where the video tape showed, for 300 feet or more," Trump wrote. "People were on their knees with their hands in the water at the exact location of the 'slashes.' Additionally, there were witnesses to the VANDALISM, and the flexible areas of the material were cut with a knife."

He had a few words for Pirro and accusations about Norm Eisen, a prominent Trump critic.

"U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro should re-visit her hastily made decision, especially since it turned out that the 'gentleman' involved is a big player in ActBlue, a disgraceful fundraising SCAM, and is represented by a TRUMP DERANGED SLEAZEBAG, Political Hack Lawyer, Norm Eisen, and CREW, a group that uses 'charity' for political purposes which is, to the best of my knowledge, ILLEGAL!" Trump wrote.

"I have been beating Eisen, a complete LUNATIC, in Court for 10 years, or more. He just keeps coming, but I always WIN!" Trump added.

A former federal prosecutor is suing the Department of Justice after he was fired for an anti-Trump blog, per reports.

According to reporting by The New York Times, right-wing influencers celebrated the firing of Will Rosenzweig last year, but he's now suing the DOJ. Rosenzweig was two weeks away from trying a multimillion-dollar Medicare fraud case when he was targeted by right-wing influencers and then fired by the Trump administration, according to reporting by ABC News.

Rosenzweig, who worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Florida, was fired only hours after MAGA influencer Natalie Winters posted a photo on social media of his LinkedIn account and claimed that he "secretly ran anti-Trump blog for YEARS attacking Trump," according to reporting by CNN.

The Times reported that Laura Loomer posted that Winters "got him fired" shortly after former Attorney General Pam Bondi dismissed him.

His lawsuit, filed in a Miami court on Friday, now demands financial damages and that he get his job back, per The Times. The lawsuit warns that the DOJ is setting a criterion that would only allow people who have always been loyal to the government to work for it, according to ABC News.

Rosenzweig's lawsuit said that his blog was "effectively defunct" by January 2019 and was started before President Donald Trump was elected to office.

"The Department's conduct rests on a single premise: a citizen must forever refrain from criticizing the government and its leaders to remain eligible to serve it," his lawsuit reads. "That rule would force every American who might one day serve to choose between speaking freely now and working for the government later."

The lawsuit claimed that the DOJ violated his right to free speech by firing him. Reports also mention that Rosenzweig was fired amid a sweeping personnel purge in the DOJ and that a growing list of former prosecutors and federal agents have gone to court in an effort to fight back.

"Conditioning public employment on political loyalty, where a party card rather than merit opens the door to a government job, is a way of life in Havana and Caracas," Rosenzweig's lawsuit reads, per ABC News. "It has no place here."

First lady Melania Trump's new Amazon docuseries is drawing criticism before it even airs, following the announcement that her $75 million documentary flopped.

Jezebel's Claire Guinan mocked the news that senior adviser Marc Beckman announced a follow-up series with a "completely different look" and "full new experience for viewers."

Guinan sarcastically remarked Melania was "ready to dust off her sex pest film crew" for more content.

She speculated the series will showcase Melania's hat collection, her cryptocurrency venture, or "lunatic musings on replacing teachers with AI humanoid robots."

“This docuseries could finally prove my theory that Melania is less a person and more a performance artist. A persona, if you will. But if I were betting my Melania coin, I would wager it’s just going to be more regime-sponsored slop,” she wrote.

"Never thought I would be wishing for one less woman in film, but here we are."

Watch the video below.

President Donald Trump's MAGA movement is splintering, as far-right commentator Tucker Carlson unveils his own 10-point plan for America that, despite being ultranationalist and isolationist, repudiates certain elements of the Trump agenda.

But at the end of the day, former GOP strategist Rick Wilson told MS NOW anchor Eugene Daniels, it's all still just the same old slop that the GOP has shoveled ever since Trump took office.

Daniels asked Wilson whether he thinks Tucker made "some good points," noting that there are rumors he could run a third-party campaign for president and fracture the right further. "How do you think Republicans would deal with this?"

Wilson said that "if that manifesto had come out from anyone else," it might have had at least a few points people took seriously even if they don't agree with the entire thing. "But there's an old thing in advertising called the dog food rule. And no matter how pretty the package is, if the dog food tastes bad, you're not going to buy it."

The upshot, he continued, is that Carlson is "trying to package up some other dog food here that most Americans won't accept, and even most Republicans are going to have some variation on."

It's certainly a populist agenda, Wilson noted, touching on things like ending war, lifting farmers and factory workers, and reining in White House corruption. But "while this touches some of that populism in the Trump era, it also runs into the reality that this party has been transformed by Donald Trump in ways that make it a cult of personality in ways that make it much meaner and much, much more prone to cruelty and conspiracy theories."

And the Carlson manifesto, he added, "sounds like it came out of a focus group designed to get center-right voters. But what's behind it ... may not be the same dog food."

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