Fox News host Brian Kilmeade couldn't hide his disgust Thursday morning when his own network flashed an "Iran Deal Soon?" graphic on screen — audibly groaning and declaring the talks a "dead end" just seconds after reading the optimistic chyron off a teleprompter.

"Ugh!" Kilmeade blurted before pivoting sharply from the network's framing. "The problem is there are no talks. Hezbollah's backed out of it. I see that as a dead end."

The @BadFoxGraphics account, which tracks Fox News graphics and on-air moments, captured the clip and said Kilmeade had thrown "cold water on producers' efforts to again predict an imminent Iran deal."

President Donald Trump claimed back in 2020 he'd have a deal with Iran "within four weeks" of being re-elected. It never happened. After returning to office, he gave Iran 15 days to reach an agreement in February 2026 — then launched airstrikes on the country. By late May, he was declaring on Truth Social that a deal had "been largely negotiated" — only for officials to walk that back within 24 hours, NPR reported. A Situation Room meeting last weekend ended with no announcement.

Now Trump is hinting the war could wrap up "as soon as this weekend" — a claim Kilmeade, reading from his own network's script, couldn't stomach.

President Donald Trump is digging in on several controversial priorities despite knowing he's "paying a price among Senate Republicans" — who, multiple insiders told The Washington Post, are growing increasingly "tired of carrying that weight.”

“It’s been one self-inflicted wound after another,” a Republican strategist told the Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “Senate Republicans are tired of carrying that weight and making excuses for things they can’t make excuses for.”

Trump faced a new GOP “rebellion” early Friday after Senate Republicans refused to advance a bill backed by the president, one that would extend a controversial surveillance program. They also took 18 hours to advance the Trump-backed reconciliation bill to fund federal immigration enforcement agencies in what Punchbowl News described as the “consequences of Trump’s recent moves,” including his “anti-weaponization” fund and ousting of Republicans he deemed disloyal.

However, according to an adviser close to the president, Trump is keenly aware that his actions are sparking a schism within his own party, but is pressing on unfazed — and “with a blend of indifference and hostility,” the Post reported — for one reason.

“Trump is not of a mind to change course on Iran, the fund or his Cabinet picks to make Republicans’ lives easier on the campaign trail or to smooth relations with Capitol Hill,” the Post reports, citing the advisor who spoke with the outlet under the condition of anonymity.

“The president recognizes he’s paying a price among Senate Republicans for endorsing victorious primary challengers to Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX), but he also believes the senators who are voting against him probably would have done so anyway. Trump does not think he needs Congress as much as the lawmakers think he does, the adviser said.”

Bolstering Trump's position is the upcoming midterm elections, where analysts have offered grave predictions for Republican performance, and thereby giving him little incentive to "accommodate" GOP lawmakers' "concerns" by backing off his more controversial positions.

“And with House and Senate Republicans expected to suffer significant losses in November, the president feels no need to accommodate them,” the Post’s report reads, paraphrasing the adviser’s remarks.

An Oregon judge lost patience with a government lawyer's defense of plans to mint a 24-karat gold coin bearing President Donald Trump's likeness.

A retired Portland attorney filed a lawsuit earlier this year challenging the proposed coin, arguing that federal law plainly prohibits the images of living people on U.S. currency. U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut repeatedly interrupted U.S. Justice Department lawyer Kathryn Barragan during a hearing on the case Wednesday, reported the Oregonian.

“What’s the purpose?" Immergut interjected. "I don’t want the long-winded version."

Barragan was arguing that an 1866 amendment eventually became law first head of the Bureau of Engraving & Printing put his own portrait on a 5-cent paper note, but plaintiff James Rickher urged the judge to block the U.S. Mint from making the Trump coin because federal law requires anyone portrayed on currency to be deceased.

“The prohibition is designed to avoid political self-promotion," Rickher argued. "The word ‘deceased’ is unambiguous."

Rickher, the retired attorney, told the court the law does not distinguish between coins intended for circulation or coins intended for commemoration and collection, but Barragan argued that the plaintiff lacks the "personal stake" necessary to bring his challenge and asked the judge to toss his lawsuit.

The government lawyer also argued that his challenge was premature because the U.S. Treasury secretary hasn't formally approved a final design for the coin, which would have a proposed face value of $2,026 in honor of the nation's 250th anniversary, but Barragan told the court the estimated sale value of the 47 coins planned for production would be $90,000.

Immergut, a Trump nominee, asked Rickher to give his best argument to justify his legal standing to intervene, and the novice coin collector said he hoped to protect the integrity of the coin collection market as a participant because the Trump coin would drive down the value of his personal collection.

“The structure of the coin market would be destroyed by a sovereign who is supposed to be following the law but issuing a coin that is illegal,” he explained.

Barragan, a 2022 Harvard Law School graduate who's worked a little over a year for the DOJ, told the court that three coins in history had been produced bearing a living person's image, but Rickher argued those had also violated the law but no enforcement was taken.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) sparked another wave of liberal outrage after becoming the first Senate Democrat to clear the path for one of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees during the president’s second term, Punchbowl News reported Friday.

Fetterman has become something of a pariah among Democrats after routinely siding with Republicans on various issues, including matters related to immigration enforcement, Trump’s war powers and Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. And on Friday, Punchbowl News confirmed that he had waived his right to block Trump’s lifetime nomination of a federal judge in Pennsylvania, sparking fury among a major liberal and anti-Trump advocacy organization.

“These are not normal times, and any senator who thinks that this is standard operating procedure and that any of these nominations are normal course of operations is deluding themselves,” said Josh Orton, president of the organization Demand Justice, speaking with Punchbowl News.

“If Democrats truly believe that we have to stand up to Trump’s attacks on the rule of law, they have to do so in every room — not just on Twitter and not just on TV.”

Fetterman cleared the path for the Trump-tapped Antonio Pozos to serve as a lifetime federal judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, doing so by turning in his blue slip, a process that waives his right to oppose Pozos’ appointment.

“It’s the first time in Trump’s second term that a Senate Democrat has turned in a blue slip for one of Trump’s judicial picks,” Punchbowl News’ report read. “The move is already setting off yet another battle between Fetterman and his numerous critics on the left, who demand unyielding opposition to Trump, particularly on lifetime appointments to the federal bench.”

President Donald Trump has turned an unlikely issue into one of his most personal legislative priorities — and he is spending real political capital to make it happen, according to a report Friday.

The 79-year-old has been making direct phone calls to Republican lawmakers, lobbying them to support the so-called Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent across the country, reported Politico.

“He’s a big fan of it,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who got a call from the president on the issue. “He said, ‘Do you still think this is a good idea?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I do, I think it’s a great idea.’”

The effort scored an early victory last month when the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 48-1 to insert a permanent daylight saving time amendment into a surface transportation bill. Trump celebrated on social media, calling it a "very nice WIN for the Republican Party."

Whether that win survives contact with the full House and Senate is another matter entirely.

Republican majorities in both chambers are thin, and opposition is already forming. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), who blocked a similar measure on the Senate floor last October, has not indicated he has changed his position, and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee with jurisdiction over the bill, said plainly, "I've already heard from people over here who don't like it."

The broader transportation bill will also require Democratic support to pass, and even Democrats who voted for the amendment in committee are hedging. Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) said her constituents are focused on grocery prices and healthcare costs, not clock-changing. The daylight saving time provision, she added dryly, "probably should have been debated in the light of day."

What makes the president's push unusual is not the policy itself — bipartisan efforts to resolve the daylight saving time debate have circulated for years without success — but the intensity of his personal engagement.

Senior White House officials describe it as a genuine priority, grounded in arguments about public health, economic disruption and the particular misery of resetting a toddler's sleep schedule twice a year.

“The overall thrust of the policy is just to stop dealing with the health issues and the various pieces of economic dislocation that occur when we have to change our clocks, and if you’re a parent, the absolute holy hell of having to adjust your children’s internal clocks with the changing of the time, so we think it’s a win-win-win,” said a senior White House official.

“Win for the president, win for the American people, and a win for everybody who has to go through this really inconvenient process," that official said. "We’re going to keep working the bill hard.”

As the U.S. Supreme Court prepared to determine the fate of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in the landmark case, Louisiana v. Callais, MAGA groups and conservative nonprofits connected to far-right megadonors that filed briefs in support of weakening the historic civil rights law took in record-breaking amounts of dark money, according to new research.

Seven nonprofits with various ties to President Donald Trump, conservative megadonor Leonard Leo or other wealthy right-wing figures who filed briefs in the Callais case took in nearly $105 million through donor-advised funds, a dark money vehicle, between 2021 and 2024, according to new analysis from progressive watchdog group, True North Research.

That’s seven times the donor-advised funding those groups received in the previous three-year period, according to the research. Of those nonprofits, the Trump-aligned America First Legal Foundation took in by far the most money from donor-advised funds — more than $58 million since it was co-founded in 2021 by Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff; Mark Meadows, former White House chief of staff during Trump’s first term; and Gene Hamilton, former deputy White House counsel in Trump’s first presidency.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller speaks during a roundtable on anti-fraud initiatives with Republican state attorneys general on May 26, . REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

“It's disturbing that the same far-right funders and political agents who built the far-right faction of the [Supreme] Court to impose their agenda on us all are continuing to spend big now to change even the contours of elections, and it's making it harder for people to cast their votes and easier to get their politicians in power to do their bidding and impose their agenda,” said Alyssa Bowen, deputy executive director at True North Research.

“The courts wasn't the end game. The courts are one powerful, powerful means to get their agenda done in other ways.”

Ultimately, the Court sided with Callais, determining that the Louisiana congressional map redrawn in 2024 to create a second Black-majority district was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

The map was originally redrawn because a federal court determined in 2022 that a new congressional map based on the 2020 census was not representative of Louisiana’s one-third Black population and a potential violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination. The 2022 map had only one in six districts reflecting a Black majority.

Scholars, legislators and voting rights advocates have called the April decision a “gutting” and “indefensible evisceration” of the Voting Rights Act.

'Impose their agenda'

True North analyzed seven conservative groups who filed amicus curiae briefs questioning Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, including the America First Legal Foundation, California Policy Center, Judicial Watch, Landmark Legal Foundation, Pacific Legal Foundation, Project on Fair Representation and Public Interest Legal Foundation.

Amicus curiae translates to “friend of the court,” and such briefs are submitted by organizations and individuals — not parties to the lawsuit — seeking to influence a case’s outcome by providing relevant perspectives, research and expertise relevant for consideration.

But, sometimes those briefs are inaccurate. Justice Samuel Alito recently came under fire for citing a misleading brief in the Callais case.

"It's not just that the these dark money groups are indicating to the Court that the case is important, but oftentimes, the far-right justices on their court are drawing information and citations from these these groups that are, if not incorrect, then factually misleading," Bowen said.

The majority of the nonprofits did not immediately respond to Raw Story's email request for comment.

“MAGA is obviously super interested in this case because of the election element," Bowen said. “Leonard Leo is because of likely hoping that they can help elect far-right candidates that will impose their agenda on people through participatory politics.”

Other landmark and hot button cases such as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which overturned the federal right to abortion, and United States v. Skrmetti, which upheld Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors, saw a flood of amicus curiae filings, Bowen said.

“When there's big money involved, we do generally tend to see a huge influx of filings from the far-right,” Bowen said.

Some of these nonprofits have various ties to the Trump administration, conservative megadonors and voter suppression efforts.

For instance, the Public Interest Legal Foundation was condemned by civil rights groups for alleged “deceptive tactics promoting voter suppression” and was chaired by Cleta Mitchell, who has pushed false claims of voter fraud and was part of Trump’s call to Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” more than 11,000 votes in the 2020 election.

The group has received at least $2.4 million from DonorsTrust, a donor-advised fund with ties to Leo’s network, and the Bradley Foundation, a conservative charitable foundation which has awarded over $1 billion in grants.

The 85 Fund, a Leo organization which includes the Honest Elections Project, gave $400,000 directly to the Public Interest Legal Foundation.

In response to questions from Raw Story, the Public Interest Legal Foundation shared a statement applauding the Callais decision.

“The now defunct map was drawn for one purpose only – race,” said J. Christian Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation in the statement.

“The Constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of race,” Adams continued. “This opinion should be placed alongside other great moments of courage from the high court – Brown v. Board, Loving v. Virginiaand Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.”

Judicial Watch, which extensively directs public records requests at federal courts, leading to the release of then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's emails, has been frequently cited by Trump in relation to election fraud claims.

After the Callais decision, Judicial Watch and the Allied Educational Foundation filed a new amici curiae brief "asking the court to eliminate woke, race-based congressional districting and ban the use racial preferences in drawing up 'majority-minority' congressional districts," according to a Judicial Watch press release sent in response to Raw Story's questions.

The Pacific Legal Foundation, founded by Ed Meese, former U.S. attorney general under President Ronald Reagan, frequently challenges diversity, equity and inclusion policies. The nonprofit applauded the Callais decision as it "reinforces the fundamental principle that the Constitution defends individuals, not racial groups," said Christopher Kieser, Pacific Legal Foundation senior attorney, in a statement.

"States cannot draw voting districts based on race, and by rejecting group-based rights, the Court has strengthened both the rule of law and democratic accountability," Kieser said. "All voters’ rights are equally important, and this ruling makes certain that elections are about individuals—not racial blocs.”

As for donations, Pacific Legal Foundation said it "welcomes support from anyone who supports our mission to protect the rights guaranteed by the Constitution," said Kyle Griesinger, Pacific Legal Foundation media relations director, via email.

"Our contributions have increased across the board in recent years; it's not unique to donor-advised funds," Griesinger said. "As we have grown through the support of our donors, we’ve been able to do more to defend the individual rights of everyday Americans."

'Evade the spotlight'

Donor-advised funds are considered a dark money vehicle as they allow donors to make anonymous contributions. Donors benefit from immediate tax deductions even if funds are distributed at a later time.

“Donor-advised funds enable wealthy individuals to influence policy, including arguments before the Supreme Court, without being in the spotlight themselves. These are vehicles that are very powerful, moving huge sums of money into advocacy efforts without the public really being able to understand who's bankrolling them in the first place,” said Michael Beckel, money in politics reform director at Issue One, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on reducing the influence of money in politics.

“Donor-advised funds provide a shield for donors who want to evade the spotlight, and they are increasingly playing a major role in how money moves into advocacy campaigns on both the right and the left, and this is a very, very clear example of groups who are making arguments before the highest court in the land, and the public not really being able to connect the dots about who is making those arguments or why they are making those arguments."

True North’s analysis looked at a range of donor-advised funds, some associated with right-wing causes, and others through financial institutions.

The analysis included the Donors Capital Fund, DonorsTrust, Fidelity Charitable, Knights of Columbus Charitable Fund, National Christian Charitable Foundation, National Philanthropic Trust, Donor Advised Charitable Giving, Vanguard Charitable, the Servant Foundation (The Signatry), and the Bradley Impact Fund, aligned with the Bradley Foundation.

“Regardless of whether it is an ideologically coded donor-advised fund or a donor-advised fund connected to a financial institution, it’s still a mystery who is calling the shots, why they're investing so much money, what they might have as their own agenda,” Beckel said.

The White House is banking on President Donald Trump's 80th birthday bash — featuring an Ultimate Fighting Championship battle royale on the White House lawn — to help win back a voter bloc that helped propel him to a second term in office.

Trump and UFC President Dana White are putting the finishing touches on an unprecedented fight card scheduled for the White House South Lawn June 14.

But polls suggest the demographic the spectacle is aimed at impressing has already checked out, reported CNN.

The event, framed as part of America's 250th birthday celebrations, will feature eight American fighters and two major title bouts before an estimated 85,000 spectators on the Ellipse. White has been insistent that the spectacle is apolitical. "I don't care if you're the furthest crazy left, or the furthest crazy right," he said. "If you are an American, you will enjoy this show."

The numbers, however, tell a more complicated story. According to the Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics, roughly one in four men under 29 now approve of Trump's job performance — well below the national average — and just 15 percent believe the country is headed in the right direction. Only 10 percent of young men identify as MAGA, and fewer than three in 10 want Republicans to control Congress.

Trump carried men under 30 in 2024, having lost the demographic by double digits four years earlier. That turnaround was driven in part by a media strategy shaped by White himself, who introduced the then-candidate to a network of podcasters, streamers and online influencers capable of reaching disengaged young men at scale.

“I felt like that if the president stayed on Fox he wasn’t going to win,” White said. “What I do know is he can sit on a three-hour podcast and be relatable to a lot of people.”

Now some of those same figures are turning. Joe Rogan, who endorsed Trump days before the election, recently said supporters feel "betrayed" over the war with Iran. Comedians Theo Von and Andrew Schulz, who each hosted Trump for interviews on their podcasts during the campaign, have also grown critical of the administration.

John Della Volpe, who has directed the Harvard Youth Poll for over two decades, said young men are responding less to ideology and more to their daily circumstances — rising costs, an unaffordable housing market and anxiety over artificial intelligence reshaping their job prospects.

"The cultural part works," Della Volpe said, "but it's trumped by the experience."

While acknowledging the struggle to retain backing from younger men, a senior White House adviser dismissed the significance of these numbers in determining the election's story.

“There’s other ways to reach those audiences, and we will,” the adviser said, “and we will cobble a coalition together by hook or by crook.”

CBS News head Bari Weiss has created a powerful new enemy within the network after her controversial decision to revamp the popular “60 Minutes” newsmagazine with a mass firing that blew up into front-page news.

According to media watchdog Status, the conflict has evolved from a news division firefight into a corporate-wide crisis, with CBS Entertainment chief Amy Reisenbach leading the charge against Weiss's sweeping changes.

Reisenbach has privately told associates that Hollywood creatives are expressing alarm over Weiss's direction for the network, and she herself believes the news chief is inflicting "significant damage on the broader CBS brand" — creating headaches for other company leaders, including herself.

The fallout extends into major business problems, according to the Status report. Reisenbach has reported that showrunners are approaching her in panic mode, questioning why they should continue developing broadcast programs for a network whose leadership appears to be abandoning linear television. New "60 Minutes" Executive Producer Nick Bilton's characterization of linear TV as "a rapidly melting ice cube" has only amplified those concerns.

Even more damaging is that Hollywood insiders have expressed concern that Weiss is steering CBS toward what they perceive as a more MAGA-friendly editorial direction — a characterization that has spooked creative talent.

Reisenbach is far from alone. Dozens of senior figures inside David Ellison's Paramount, the parent company, share the view that Weiss is damaging the corporate brand. Some have gone further, believing she should be removed from her position entirely.

The internal revolt comes as CBS News battles a five-alarm crisis threatening the survival of "60 Minutes," the flagship news program. After Weiss fired the show's senior leadership team and correspondents Scott Pelley, Cecilia Vega, and Sharyn Alfonsi, other senior figures have begun evaluating their own departures.

A CBS spokesperson declined to comment to Status's Oliver Darcy on the internal discord.

President Donald Trump faced a new GOP Senate “rebellion” early Friday, and one that included “more than just the usual suspects” in what Punchbowl News described as a “potential preview of what’s to come as Republicans seek distance from Trump with November approaching.”

Senate Republicans failed to advance a bill to extend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a law that permits national intelligence agencies to monitor overseas communications without a warrant, including those of Americans. A priority for Trump, the bill failed to advance due to insufficient GOP support, which itself was “prompted by” Trump’s nomination of Bill Pulte — who has no intelligence or national security experience — to serve as director of National Intelligence, Punchbowl News reported.

“I don’t think he thinks about the impact on this and the timing,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) of Trump, Punchbowl News reported. “I don’t think he’s connecting that. Which is unfortunate, because [FISA] really has had an impact.”

The vote to advance the bill to extend FISA ultimately failed with a vote of 47-52, and that followed an 18-hour marathon session in the Senate to advance the GOP reconciliation bill to fund federal immigration agencies, one that Punchbowl News described as an “arduous process” that, again, faced GOP opposition prompted by Trump’s actions.

“The marathon voting session on the reconciliation bill laid bare the consequences of Trump’s recent moves, from the toppling of two GOP incumbents to the political toxicity of the White House’s handling of an ‘anti-weaponization’ fund for his political allies,” Punchbowl News’ report read.

“What was supposed to be a straightforward reconciliation bill to fund immigration enforcement became a major headache for Senate GOP leaders because of this controversial fund. Republicans and Democrats alike tried to add language to the measure to ban the fund.”

Even Senate Majority Leader John Thune shared a blunt assessment as to who carried the blame for the Senate GOP’s challenging night.

“This would have been done several hours ago if we weren’t having to deal with some of the issues around the fund, which doesn’t exist — which is the point we’re making,” a “frustrated” Thune said, Punchbowl News reported.

Viewers angry over CBS's cancellation of Stephen Colbert's "The Late Show" are making their displeasure known, with Byron Allen's replacement program "Comics Unleashed" hemorrhaging more than half its audience — and competitors Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon capitalize on the exodus.

According to The Daily Beast, the viewership just days after CBS pulled the plug on Colbert tells a devastating story for the network's late-night strategy.

Kimmel's show experienced a dramatic surge, drawing 2.185 million total viewers on June 1—a 53-percent year-on-year increase. In the coveted 18-49 demographic, ABC's late-night leader captured an eye-popping 295,000 viewers, representing a staggering 178-percent increase from the same night last year.

Fallon's "Tonight Show" came in a distant second with 1.301 million total viewers, though that was still a respectable 10-percent year-over-year increase. The NBC program pulled in 194,000 viewers in the 18-49 demo, a 14-percent improvement from last year.

CBS, meanwhile, cratered. Allen's "Comics Unleashed," which debuted a day after Colbert's departure, drew only 628,000 total viewers — a catastrophic 65-percent drop compared to the same time slot last year. In the crucial 18-49 demographic, the show managed just 82,000 viewers, according to the Beast report.

The report notes the financial structure of Allen's arrangement insulates CBS from the direct financial damage. Under a "time buy" deal, Allen purchased the 11:35 p.m. time slot directly from CBS and covers all production costs while retaining the right to sell advertising himself. That arrangement means Allen—not the network—absorbs the financial consequences of the poor ratings.

A source told The Daily Beast that this model actually benefits CBS by allowing the network to program the late-night slot without exposure to audience and advertiser volatility, even as the show itself collapses into irrelevancy.

With his Freedom 250 concert series in shambles after a mass exodus of performers, President Donald Trump has pivoted to what a campaign-style rally — and his newly revealed musical guests are really scraping the barrel.

Trump announced the "Rally to End All Rallies" Thursday night on Truth Social. It is scheduled for June 24 in Washington, D.C. — one day before the now-gutted Great American State Fair was set to open.

AN original concert — dubbed Freedom 250 — turned into a farce as headliners learned the event carried explicit political ties to Trump — a fact many said they weren't told upfront. Milli Vanilli singer Fab Morvan became the latest to walk, joining Martina McBride and Bret Michaels. The event's website now lists zero performers.

The replacement event's lineup reflects how dramatically Trump's musical options have narrowed. Country singer Lee Greenwood, 83, will open the proceedings with his 1984 signature track "God Bless the U.S.A." — the same song he has performed at Trump events since 2016. Three of Greenwood's top five songs on Spotify are variations of the same tune.

Trump also tapped tenor Christopher Macchio, whom he compared to the late Luciano Pavarotti, to perform classical selections. Macchio currently draws 571 monthly listeners on Spotify and 2,000 YouTube subscribers.

Flo Rida, Vanilla Ice, and Freedom Williams of C+C Music Factory have not yet withdrawn from Freedom 250.

I started in radio news as a teenage reporter at WITL-AM/FM in Lansing, Michigan, then the number one station in the capital city. I began reporting from the Capitol and City Hall, and was writing and reading the morning newscasts within a year.

The station owner was a hardcore Goldwater Republican, our news director was a liberal but Libertarian-curious Democrat, and I was a long-haired anti-war hippie member of MSU's Students for a Democratic Society.

I did the news there for years, and nobody ever told me how to spin it or what to insert or delete. I knew that I couldn’t bias it to reflect my own opinions: the news — accurate, factual, honest information — was sacred.

It was also the cost of our broadcast license, and we all knew it. The widely misunderstood Fairness Doctrine’s main demand was that radio and TV stations “program in the public interest,” and that was widely understood to mean straightforward, reliable, faithful-to-reality news at the top and bottom of every hour on radio and an hour-long news block in prime time on TV.

We did this — and embraced the Fairness Doctrine — because we knew it was part of the price of freedom, of democracy in our republic. When Thomas Jefferson said he’d rather live in a country with newspapers and no government than in one with a government but no newspapers, he wasn’t knocking government; he’d help create ours and was its president for 8 years. He was talking about the vital importance of an honest and free press.

Part of that honesty came from the competition; there were multiple stations in Lansing and most had an in-house news operation like ours, and the ones that didn’t ran the CBS or AP radio newscast twice an hour. Honesty and clarity were essential to getting and maintaining an audience, as well as hanging onto our license.

Reagan ended the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, and now Trump and his oligarch enablers are trying to bury the entire concept of honest, straightforward news.

Over the past year and a half, we’ve watched Brendan Carr, Trump’s hitman at the FCC, go to CPAC conferences and brag about how he’s going to assault stations that say things he and Trump dislike. He’s trying to intimidate ABC affiliates into muzzling Jimmy Kimmel — again. And he succeeded in taking down Stephen Colbert.

And a Trump-adjacent billionaire nepo-baby has acquired CBS and is systematically stripping it of its journalistic integrity, starting with the evening news and now gutting the nation’s number-one news magazine show, 60 Minutes.

Storied journalist and 60 Minutes reporter Scott Pelley isn’t taking it lying down, even though it’s a virtual certainty that he has the standard non-disparagement clause that most media operations now require for talent, which forbids them to ever speak ill of their former employer should they leave for any reason. He’ll probably get sued for it, but he’s a man committed to the truth.

Trump, Ellison, Weiss, the billionaire owners of Sinclair, the billionaire Murdoch family’s Fox “News,” the 1,000+ billionaire-owned radio stations across the country, the billionaire-subsidized podcasters, and billionaire-owned social media sites like Facebook and X that have apparently been algorithmically slanted toward Trump’s neofascist movement are all following an ancient script.

Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, and Franco all seized control of the news in their countries in their first year in power. It took both Putin and Orbán two or so years, because they wrote a new script for the takeover: sue the news outlets and reporters into bankruptcy for “defamation” or “slander,” then have friendly oligarchs take over the outlets.

Orbán even came to CPAC in Dallas to tell Republicans that they should do the same thing as he had done by turning America’s media over to right-wing billionaires. He also told the American CPAC conference in Budapest four years ago, during the Biden administration, that they should do the same in America when Republicans next seized control of the US government:

“Have your own media,” he said. “It’s the only way to point out the insanity of the progressive left. The problem is that the western media is adjusted to the leftist viewpoint. Those who taught reporters in universities already had progressive leftist principles.”

He added:

“Of course, the GOP has its media allies, but they can’t compete with the mainstream liberal media. My friend Tucker Carlson is the only one who puts himself out there. His show is the most popular. What does it mean? It means programs like his should be broadcast day and night. Or, as you say, 24/7.”

Thus, this is now the Putin/Orbán/Trump formula:

— Manufacture a crisis.
— Declare an “emergency.”
— Seize powers the Constitution doesn’t grant.
— Bypass Congress.
— Bully or ignore the courts.
— Use masked, secret police and the military against your own residents.
— Send people to foreign concentration camps.
— Build concentration camps within the United States.
— Prosecute lawyers and judges.
— Assert control over universities.
— Merge corporate and state interests.
— Cow the media into silence about your corruption and crimes.
— Then call it all “law and order.”

Trump is 18 months into his project and he’s already taken down the Voice of America, defunded PBS and NPR, seen the Washington Post and LA Times acquired by sycophantic billionaires, and turned CBS over to a nepo-baby billionaire who’s going after CNN next. As Jefferson pointed out, this is how democracies are fatally corrupted, which is apparently Trump’s and his billionaire enablers’ goal.

Combine that with a capture of the police and prosecutorial agencies of the government so, like in Putin’s Russia, they can harass and prosecute anybody who dares speak up against their destruction of our way of life, and you have the classic formula for turning a democratic republic into an oligarchic dictatorship.

The classic symbol of authoritarian governance dating back to ancient Rome and Caligula — violence as entertainment — will come to the White House as musclebound men will beat each other bloody and senseless for spectacle and the amusement of our 80-year-old “president” on our nation’s birthday.

Masked thugs snatching people off the street without warrants and putting them into concentration camps in violation of the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Amendments also plays well for the fascist Klan-remnant Republican base, so long as the people they beat, pepper spray, or murder are either dark-skinned or “liberal agitators.”

We’re now way down the road to the complete destruction of America, all in less than two years, as I wrote and warned of in The Hidden History of American Oligarchy in 2020.

The courts are packed with Trump toadies, thousands of lawyers have been purged from government, the FBI is now weaponized against Americans, Blacks and women are being pushed out of senior military commands by an openly white supremacist Defense Secretary, our history is being whitewashed in national parks, museums, and every federal property, and Trump’s face hangs, 60 feet tall, on multiple federal buildings.

And now they’re coming for the news. If it falls, recovering our republic will be possible — the examples are Hungary with Peter Magyar and Volodymyr Zelenskyy being elected in Ukraine — but very, very difficult. It will take years and cost a fortune both in work, cash, and probably blood, as it did in those two countries.

But we can gain courage from our heroes of this moment. Scott Pelley is unintimidated, telling us bluntly that the new owner and management of CBS tried to force him to lie to us on the air and spin stories so they could please wannabe-Emperor Trump. When they tried to lie their way out of the PR mess Pelley created for them, he immediately called out their falsehoods.

This crisis isn’t limited to CBS: the same nepo-baby billionaire who’s taken over that network also, according to Bernie Sanders, now owns, controls, or soon will control:

“TikTok, Warner Bros., Paramount, DC Studios, The Discovery Channel, CNN, CBS, HBO, BET, Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, Nickelodeon, MTV, Cartoon Network, Food Network, Travel Channel, Investigation Discovery, Animal Planet, Comedy Central, Showtime, TBS, TLC, HGTV, and more.”

Oligarchy and monopoly are two sides of the same anti-democratic fascist coin. They’re always tied together.

As anti-democracy billionaires continue their march across the American media landscape and pour billions into elections, it falls to us to resist.

To register our discontent with those outlets. To boycott them. To demand that our politicians start breaking up the monopolies that Reagan legalized when in 1983 he ordered the SEC, FCC, and FTC to stop enforcing the antitrust laws that went all the way back to the 1890s (leading to three decades of “merger mania”).

Monopolies are destructive, but media monopolies are pure Putin-style poison.

We all must become truth-tellers, regardless of whether our platforms are, like mine, on radio, TV, and Substack, or if the place we can make our mark and speak our voice is on social media, the local newspaper’s letters to the editor, financial or volunteer support for a fighting progressive politician, or the town square with a protest sign.

We are all Scott Pelley.

President Donald Trump has reached a "moment of demarcation" that signals the end of his presidency is near, according to one of the president's biographers.

Michael Wolff, who has written four books about Trump, noted during a new episode of "Inside Trump's Head," a podcast he co-hosts with Joanna Coles of The Daily Beast, that Trump has had a "rough couple of weeks" as his losses continue to pile up. Wolff pointed to issues such as Congress curtailing his war powers in Iran, and his seeming inability to escape the Jeffrey Epstein saga.

"I've more and more understood this and appreciated this, and I think it's an important moment. It's a moment of demarcation," Wolff said. "It's a 'two things can be true at the same time' moment. Trump is going to continue to be mendacious and dangerous and damaging to all kinds of things, but at the same time, very clearly, as clearly as can possibly be, this Trump enterprise is coming apart. And I think we're right at the center."

"And it all sort of brings this together in his falling poll numbers, the fact that he is in trouble on all of the foundational policies of his administration — that he could fix the economy," Wolff said. "Immigration was his issue, the issue that was fueling him instead of the issue that is causing him now so many problems, so many problems with his base, the health care issues also causing him problems. It's one problem after another after another that he cannot surmount."

President Donald Trump stunned a political analyst on Thursday during a "pathetic moment" in the Oval Office.

Trump held a press conference in the Oval Office on Thursday, where he announced a new $700 billion initiative to boost coal production using the Defense Production Act. One reporter asked Trump about communism during the press conference, a topic that Trump seemed excited to discuss because he had just written a Truth Social post about it, according to David Pakman, host of the liberal political commentary show "The David Pakman Show."

"You had some stern words for communism on your Truth Social ..." the reporter began.

"I just wrote that. Did you like it? Did you think it was well written?" Trump giddily replied. "You want to read it? Do you have it? It's on Truth Social."

Trump then launched into an aside about how he's given bigger speeches than Martin Luther King Jr.

Pakman was taken aback by the affair, and shared his reaction in a new YouTube video.

"It's all completely untrue," Pakman said. "And who cares about the truth at the end of the day? Minor details."

Trump's pick to temporarily take over as the country's top spy chief had a bizarre past, according to reports that dug up his old antics.

Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte used to host an event where people were slapped with sex toys, according to reporting by The Daily Beast. He was also accused of influencing Trump's posting of a Christ-like image of himself earlier this year, The Beast added.

Pulte, who's also the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, appeared at an event with internet influencer PP from "ThePPShow" and was awarded a novelty trophy saying "Bill Pulte F—" on one side and "Only the Young" on the other side, according to The Daily Beast, which noted it was in part a reference to a Taylor Swift song.

In a resurfaced video of the event, Pulte blurted out “I like only the young,” before exclaiming that the trophy “looks pretty bad—” as it was handed to him. He then dropped it after getting “too excited,” he said in the video.

He was pressured off the board of Pulte Homes, his grandfather's company, because of his self-promotion, the New York Times reported.

Pulte, who used to hold shares of Bed Bath & Beyond, wore bulletproof vests, saying he was afraid that anti-Bed Bath & Beyond forces might try to kill him, the Beast reported. He tried to claim the company wasn't really bankrupt and could still be saved in 2023, but the company went bankrupt anyway that year, The Bulwark reported.

The FHFA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence didn't respond to The Daily Beast's request for comments.

Disgraced former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) is now accused of making threats against a reporter who broke the story that he is under investigation at the Justice Department for insider trading.

The allegation is that Santos publicly announced he would attend President Donald Trump's most recent State of the Union Address, then placed a large bet on the gambling platform Kalshi that he would not show up, and ultimately did not show up. Kalshi froze Santos's accounts after detecting suspicious trades and referred the matter to the DOJ and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which the Trump administration uses as the regulator of choice for so-called "prediction markets."

According to NPR's Bobby Allyn, while researching the story, he reached out to Santos via email for comment and received a response from a blocked number, after which things turned aggressive.

"My lawyers have been calling the Department of Justice all day, and they can't find any investigation," Santos told him.

He then refused to consent to the call being recorded, and warned Allyn that, "this story is going to get you a gun in your face" — which Allyn interpreted as a threat on his life.

Santos, who was elected to Congress in 2022, almost immediately became a lightning rod for controversy after it emerged he had fabricated his entire campaign biography, from his ethnic background to where he went to school. He then came under federal investigation for campaign finance irregularities and fraudulent use of his campaign donors' credit cards, among other financial crimes.

He was expelled from the House in a landslide bipartisan vote in late 2023.

One of President Donald Trump's staunch allies on the Georgia State Election Board resigned on Thursday, according to a new report.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Janice Johnston, who helped push Trump's election conspiracies in an effort to change state voting laws, resigned because of "family and personal responsibilities.” Johnston was a key ally as Trump spread the narrative that he had won the 2020 general election, speaking out against employees at the Fulton County Election Board.

“While I may be leaving the board, I’m not leaving the cause,” Johnston said. “My commitment to election integrity remains as strong as ever, and I’ll continue supporting efforts that strengthen confidence, transparency and trust in our elections.”

Her resignation happened at a time when Trump and the GOP are gearing up for a significant battle in the midterms. The GOP has redrawn several state maps in an effort to blunt Democratic gains. But recently, some experts have started warning the GOP that it may be on track to lose both the House of Representatives and the Senate after the election results are tallied.

"During her tenure on the five-person state board, Johnston and a new majority voting bloc tested the limits of its rulemaking authority ahead of the 2024 presidential election, including required hand counts of ballots and election inquiries," the report reads in part.

"The Georgia Supreme Court rejected those and other changes pushed by the majority, ruling that the appointed board cannot create rules that conflict with or go beyond laws passed by legislators," it added.

President Donald Trump's Department of Justice may be staring down another loss in a high-profile case against one of his political foes, according to one expert.

On Thursday, CNN reported that John Bolton, the first Trump administration's national security advisor, had entered into a plea agreement with federal prosecutors over a case stemming from classified information that was contained in his memoir. Tom Dupree, a former deputy assistant attorney general, told CNN's Kaitlan Collins that the Trump DOJ will likely see the case as a loss because Bolton will likely avoid serving time and may only be punished with probation.

Collins noted that recent cases involving former government officials similar to Bolton's ended with the officials paying a fine and receiving one or two years of probation.

"That is something that will not escape the attention of the district judge," Dupree said. "When judges make these sorts of sentences, they look at comparable cases. They try to see how the Justice Department prosecuted similar cases in the past. And so the fact that people who did at least arguably the same type of stuff got suspended sentences or probation, that sort of thing, that will be very significant to the judge."

"At the same time, you can see the Trump Justice Department pushing hard for at least some sentence of incarceration on John Bolton," he added. "My suspicion is that, from the Justice Department's perspective, if all Bolton gets is probation, they will view that as a loss."

A candidate who keeps adding a Nazi salute to his ballot name and losing is once again running for office.

Richard Mayers filed to run for Illinois governor and asked that he be listed on the statewide ballots as "Richard Benedict (Sieg Heil) Mayers" and listed his party as the "Germanic Aryan Supremacy Smokers, Gamblers," according to local reporting.

The Democratic and Republican Parties of Illinois teamed up earlier this week to petition against his nomination, according to the State Journal-Register, an Illinois newspaper.

Mayers previously ran for Congress with the same ballot name. He was removed from the ballot for the First District of Indiana in February after he failed to appear for a hearing challenging his candidacy, Indiana's Post-Tribune reported.

In 2000, Mayers filed ballot referendums in Cook County, Illinois, to urge constitutional amendments that would ban interracial marriage, prohibit the abortion of "healthy white babies," and send Black prisoners "back to western Africa," according to the Chicago Tribune.

"Some of my views are controversial," Mayers told the Evanston Review in 2000. "But I think I could do good in some places."

That year, he also ran in the Democratic primary for Illinois's Third Congressional District.

In 2002, Mayers tried running as a Democrat for the Illinois Ninth Congressional District, but he didn't get enough petition signatures for a nomination, according to the Post-Tribune.

He also put up unsuccessful bids for office in Alaska in 2024 and in Illinois in 1993, 1998, 2007, and 2009, per the State Journal-Register.

President Donald Trump's grip over the House of Representatives continued to loosen on Thursday, as 18 Republicans broke ranks to pass a foreign military aid measure his administration doesn't support, a new report revealed.

According to Politico, the measure, which was also opposed by House GOP leadership, is a "strong show of support for Kyiv and the first time a standalone aid package has passed either chamber during Trump’s second term."

The measure also includes a new round of sanctions on Russia.

Trump has been opposed to standalone Ukraine assistance, as he wants to diplomatically negotiate an end to the war — although so far Russia has categorically defied every attempt to broker a withdrawal from its invasion.

It's the second major rebuke of the president's foreign policy in the House this week. On Wednesday, the chamber voted to restrict Trump's war powers in Iran, with four Republicans crossing over to vote with the Democratic side.

The Ukraine resolution passed with a stirring endorsement from retiring Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), who proclaimed on the House floor, “This is our Churchill moment or our Chamberlain moment, and by God I’m going to choose Churchill.”

Despite the measure sending a significant message, said the report, it "faces long odds of making it to Trump’s desk. The Senate has sidestepped efforts to vote on its own package of Russia sanctions, despite more than 80 senators signing on as cosponsors."

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent became defensive when Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) challenged his claims about the Iran war being over.

During a House Ways and Means Committee hearing, Schneider asked Bessent whether Iran still poses threats to Israel and Gulf allies, given their nuclear and ballistic missile programs remain intact.

Bessent backpedaled, claiming, "The conflict is on pause."

Schneider pressed further, and Bessent snapped, "No. Don't be absurd."

The Wall Street Journal reported President Donald Trump privately told aides he would only end the ceasefire if Tehran kills American troops — contradicting White House claims of decisive victory.

The U.S. and Israel began the war on February 28, after strikes killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, with a ceasefire in effect since April 8.

The exchange grew heated when Schneider raised cost-of-living concerns about beef, coffee, housing, and insurance prices.

Bessent repeatedly interrupted before attacking Illinois, suggesting people flee the state.

Despite the discussions, both officials agreed no president should evade IRS audits.

Watch the video below.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has almost "no way" of securing the permanent AG job, according to a former Fox News anchor.

On CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," Gretchen Carlson weighed in on the idea of Blanche continuing in his post at the head of the Department of Justice after his confirmation hearing.

Carlson pointed out that "the Senate Judiciary Committee holds the power for this nomination," and Blanche's only chance of winning them over is if he gets rid of Trump's $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund.

"You have three people on there who are Republicans who are right now going to probably say no if this fund is not quashed," Carlson said, pointing to Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), and Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA).

Republican senators also notably ripped into Blanche in a private meeting not too long ago over the fund.

"There is no way in hell he will ever be Attorney General," Carlson said, calling those three GOP Senators "the lifeblood of Todd Blanche becoming Attorney General."

Blanche has previously said that the fund is "dead," but Trump refused to rule it out during a recent press gaggle.

Former Attorney General Pam Bondi created a headache for Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that he may not be able to run and hide from, according to one legal analyst.

Last week, Bondi told House lawmakers that Blanche was the one in control of how the Jeffrey Epstein files were being released, according to newly released transcripts. Elie Honig, CNN's senior legal analyst, said on "Anderson Cooper 360" that the statement could prove problematic for Blanche as he seeks Senate confirmation for the full role of Attorney General.

"The timing on that could not possibly have been worse for Todd Blanche to come out today," Honig said.

Blanche has close ties to President Donald Trump, serving as his defense attorney in the New York hush money case. He's also shown a willingness to go up to bat for the president, as illustrated by his back-to-back contentious hearings on Capitol Hill this week.

CNN reported on Wednesday that Trump is considering promoting Blanche as soon as this week.

Honig noted that the Epstein files and other scandals could hinder Blanche's confirmation hearings.

"When Todd comes up for his nomination, issue number one is going to be this weaponization fund, and issue two is going to be the Epstein files, and he can't run and hide from it now," Honig said.

The Kennedy Center is moving to comply with a federal court order to remove President Donald Trump's name from the iconic Washington arts venue.

The center's general counsel instructed staff to immediately change email signatures, letterhead, and documents to reflect the original name — the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — with interior and exterior signage to be changed by June 12, according to reports by CBS News.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled the Trump-appointed board overstepped its authority when voting in December to rename the venue "The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts," according to NBC News.

Judge Cooper said, "Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it."

In addition to its name change, the center remains undecided about whether to proceed with a $257 million renovation scheduled to begin July 5.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum initially resisted compliance. During an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union", Burgum explained he wasn't sure whether the order would be appealed and called it "controversy on both sides."

Trump subsequently posted he would withdraw from the center, calling it "broken, unsafe and busted," according to Spectrum News 1.

Watch the video below.

House Oversight Committee ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) was completely unimpressed with former Attorney General Pam Bondi's efforts to pin all the flaws in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation on her erstwhile deputy Todd Blanche, and told MS NOW's Alicia Menendez that members of Congress ought to call her bluff.

Menendez confronted Garcia with Bondi's testimony this week, in which she claimed it's "100 percent incorrect' to say she's blaming Blanche for shortcomings in the Epstein probe, but then turned around and said "he managed this investigation. And it was a Herculean task with very little error."

"Help me understand what is not said in that statement," said Menendez.

"I don't know what she's thinking," said Garcia. "I mean, give me a break!"

The reality, he continued, is that Bondi "mentioned Todd Blanche almost a hundred times and 50 of those times she directly went back and blamed Todd Blanche for all sorts of problems within the Epstein investigation. She spent her entire interview blaming Todd Blanche, saying he was in charge of the redactions," and she also "refused to take any responsibility" for the shady prison transfer deal granted to Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

If Congress really cares to know the truth, Garcia continued, "We should ask Todd Blanche, because Todd Blanche would probably know" the answer to these questions.

Ultimately, he added, "what we should have done is seen a video of a deposition under oath. But Republicans refused to videotape the interview. They refused to put her under oath. And that is shameful ... And quite frankly, Pam Bondi is not trustworthy. She was not honest with the committee."

- YouTube youtu.be

One of the pet projects that President Donald Trump likes to tout the most was mocked as 'tone deaf' on CNN.

GOP analyst Sarah Matthews, a former Trump White House deputy press secretary, spoke about the president's obsession with the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after a montage of him calling the landmark "a swimming pool on steroids" and saying about its controversial renovation, "nobody's ever seen anything like it."

Matthews explained, "he's a real estate guy. He loves to build," and "he's looking at these little pet projects, and this is what excites him."

However, even though Trump "probably is bored of talking about Iran. He doesn't want to talk about inflation," Matthews maintained, his comments "couldn't be more tone deaf."

As much as his renovations of the Reflecting Pool get him "jazzed up," Matthews explained that it's the issues that bore him that matter to everyone else.

"What the American people are actually focused on is the affordability crisis that he has only exacerbated with his choice to launch this attack on Iran and raise gas prices," Matthews said.

The Trump administration has a "very serious chance" of losing a powerful weapon against judges, predicted legal journalist Adam Klasfeld.

In a recent episode of Legal AF, Klasfeld spoke about the case against Hannah Dugan, the Milwaukee circuit court judge who distracted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents while she sent the immigrant they were seeking out a side door.

"It's a shocking thing when a judge is arrested," Klasfeld reflected. "It showed the Trump administration's priorities to go after any judge that they believe is standing in the way of ICE enforcement.

She was convicted by a jury of obstructing an official proceeding in December, but her legal team filed a motion for an acquittal of that charge.

"She has a very serious chance of an acquittal here," Klasfeld said, explaining that recent cases have changed the legal precedent establishing ICE arrests with an administrative warrant as an official proceeding.

If a federal judge agrees to acquit Dugan, it will take away "one of the most powerful arrows in the quiver of the Trump DOJ to target judges who want to preserve the integrity of their courthouse," Klasfeld said.

"It can deprive the Trump DOJ of one of the few victories it has had in a high-profile case, particularly a politically charged high-profile case," Klasfeld added. "If an ICE arrest based on an administrative warrant is not a proceeding, then that sword of Damocles hanging over local county and state judges around the country, that is removed. That is removed from the Trump DOJ's quiver."

Political analysts and observers mocked President Donald Trump on Thursday after he announced plans to host a rally in Washington, D.C., on June 24.

"A Rally to end all Rallies!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "We don’t want singers with no talent, but big fees to put you to sleep, we’ve told them all to stay home. All we want is you, me, a few speakers, and the Greatest Music ever played, the same Music you have listened to for years! We will have the fabulous Lee Greenwood introducing me with what has turned out to be one of the Greatest Hits of All Time, GOD BLESS THE U.S.A., and the amazing Christopher Macchio, who will sing Nessun Dorma, Hallelujah, Ave Maria, God Bless America, and others — Not since the legendary Luciano Pavarotti has there been such a voice!"

Trump's rally announcement came as multiple musical artists backed out of performing at his "Great American State Fair" event. The artists claimed they had been invited to a nonpartisan event, only to find out later that the Trump administration was organizing it.

Analysts and observers reacted to the announcement on social media.

"Sounds like a good day to avoid DC," Randy Schulman, publisher of Metro Weekly, posted on X.

"Who the hell is interested?" Donald Blais Jr., a former city councilor in Palmer, Massachusetts, posted on X.

"Yeah, he's definitely dying," Michael McSweeney, an editor and author, posted on X.

"Aka: no one wanted to come sing in my hyper-partisan concert, so I will go yap my hyper-partisan rhetoric to remind everyone what a horrible mistake they made in the 2024 POTUS election," Brian Mistrot, founder of No Bull Media Group, posted on X.

"His people booked the musical acts with no talent and big fees," writer Michael Freeman posted on X.

Four senior oil industry executives warned Trump administration officials about global fuel inventories draining at alarming rates following Iran's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz after U.S. and Israeli military strikes three months ago.

The executives told Politico, significant price spikes could arrive mid-to-late June.

U.S. crude stocks fell 8 million barrels last week —the eighth consecutive weekly decline— and now sit 3% below five-year averages.

Gasoline stocks are 5% below benchmark, while diesel and jet fuel lag 3% under.

Global inventories have declined approximately 500 million barrels at a rate of 5.8 million barrels daily.

Exxon Mobil's Neil Chapman warned crude prices could reach $150-$160 per barrel if declines continue.

National average gasoline prices stand at $4.26 per gallon —$1.28 higher than pre-conflict levels.

The White House denied these warnings, claiming it "does not have a supply problem."

RBC Capital Markets' Helima Croft warned, if the strait remains closed through September-October, industrial shortages will emerge.

Watch the video below.

Former "60 Minutes" correspondent Dan Rather took current CBS News chief Bari Weiss to task on Thursday over her "nonsensical changes" at the network.

Rather argued in a new Substack essay that "60 Minutes" has gone from being the gold standard of broadcast journalism to a "diminished, Trump-approved version" of itself under Weiss's leadership. He argued that Weiss's moves, including the firing of veteran journalist Scott Pelley, suggest she has motives other than her stated goal of bringing the network into the "new media landscape."

"Scott Pelley, who was fired from “60 Minutes” on Tuesday, accused Weiss of 'murdering' the broadcast. I agree and would add that it was premeditated," Rather wrote. "No objective-minded person would destroy something that has been the most successful news program in television history for almost six decades, made tons of money, and is the gold standard for broadcast journalism."

Rather also noted several statistics the network shared in a recent release, like that '60 Minutes' was rated the number-one news program in America in its 58th Season, had its viewership grow 9% year-over-year, and nearly doubled its social media presence.

"With that covetable season, the nonsensical changes at the broadcast clearly are not because it is underperforming, though Weiss is trying to spin it that way," Rather wrote. "She claims the program must change to survive the “new media landscape.” Unless that landscape is on Mars, I don’t know what she’s talking about. You can see for yourself it wasn’t just surviving but thriving, before she blew it up."

"I’m left saddened by the knowledge that this American institution is being killed. Although it can’t be duplicated, I’m hopeful that efforts to build something like it may succeed," he continued.