Pam Bondi's attempt to dodge a congressional subpoena on the Jeffrey Epstein case stunned liberal political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen, who fumed on his show Wednesday evening she shouldn't be allowed to get away with it.

"In an update that, albeit predictable, reeks of corruption, the Justice Department has announced that Pam Bondi will not be appearing for her scheduled sworn deposition on April 14th," said Cohen.

Justice Department officials are arguing that because Bondi was fired as attorney general, she no longer has a role in the issues Congress has subpoenaed her to testify on, and thus will not be attending. But this explanation doesn't make any sense, Cohen said.

"A point that ranking member Robert Garcia said to me just days ago," said Cohen. "First, the subpoena that we put in place does not have any mention of whether the fact, you know, she's AG or not. The subpoena is for Pam Bondi. And so whether she is in the position or not, she legally is required to appear before the Oversight Committee on April the 14th, which is a date that [Oversight Chair James] Comer set for her to come."

"James Comer was prepared to hold the Clintons in contempt. They showed up and now it's Pam Bondi's turn," said Cohen. "And I know that shame is virtually nonexistent in today's Republican Party, but it's still going to be especially difficult for James Comer to square that circle if he decides that the rules only apply to Democrats. So Pam Bondi and the DOJ can play all the games they want. But one thing is abundantly clear. They are afraid of what will happen when Pam Bondi is under oath. And all that's doing is making it even more evident that they've got something to hide."

This comes as Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Nancy Mace (R-SC) fire off a furious, bipartisan letter to Comer demanding that he go on record saying Bondi is still required to testify.

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Well, 8 PM Tuesday came and went, to paraphrase TS Eliot, “Not with a bang but a whimper.” In the latest episode of Trump’s reality show presidency, he decided he’ll give Iran “another two weeks” (we’ll get to that in a minute) to open the Strait of Hormuz because something something Pakistan something.

Some are suggesting it was a predictable TACO — “Trump Always Chickens Out” — while others, including at least one retired general who was on MSNOW, say sources tell them that the commanders at CENTCOM simply and bluntly refused to carry out his and Whiskey Pete’s orders to commit massive war crimes.

In either case, it shouldn’t surprise us that Trump has backed down. Throughout his entire life, this nepo-baby has only been good at two things beyond inheriting and squandering his father’s money.

The first has been manipulating the press to get publicity for himself, a skill he fine-tuned in the 1980s (as I detail in The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink) and has been on display throughout this Iran debacle (and the entire past decade).

He started with the New York tabloids and talk shows, then graduated to a national stage when he began accusing Barack Obama of having been born in Kenya. Now he does it daily from the White House and his tacky golf motel in Florida.

You could argue that he came by this skill honestly, driven by his being raised by a psychopathic father and a distant, sickly mother. He never felt loved, and never learned how to love, turning all his efforts into getting attention — which he translated into approval and love — from others. His deep sense of being unloved and unworthy underlies and drives much of his own psychopathy.

And his literal hate for anybody — particularly women — who doesn’t completely defer to him shows up almost daily in press conferences and on his helicopter and plane trips when he slaps down mostly-women reporters with epithets like “piggy” and “you’re stupid” for having had the temerity to ask him a non-flattering question or one that may reveal his criminality or ignorance.

His other, second skill was learned: NBC spent literally millions of dollars teaching Trump how to be a reality show host, which is the other role he’s playing now.

There can be little doubt that this cruel narcissist got pleasure and a deep satisfaction from telling people less powerful than him, “You’re fired,” but it was NBC’s producers and media consultants who taught him how to raise expectations, heighten tension, drag out a tease, and the importance of always rebooting the show at least every two weeks, lest the public forget the storyline and move on.

His perverse delight in turning others’ lives upside-down by firing them, first experienced in real time on The Apprentice set, now translates into the callous way he jettisons anybody in his orbit he doesn’t consider appropriately obsequious; Pam Bondi is just the most recent in a long list of people he went out of his way to humiliate.

His Cabinet meetings similarly reflect his lessons learned doing TV for NBC when he’d gather people around a table in the boardroom TV set the network had to create because his actual offices in New York were so shabby. He’d go around the table giving each contestant an opportunity to not only make a case for their business idea, but also to slather him with praise and adoration.

Above all, both of these trainings taught him the importance of dominating the news cycle with the tease, which is what we’ve been seeing this past week in particular.

When he was just a pathetic, always-failing hustler in the Big City, he’d wake up every morning asking himself what he could do or say that’d get him on Page One or Page Six of The New York Post; now his question is how to dominate every night’s coverage of the evening news. Or every news show, all day, if possible.

Threatening genocide certainly pulled that one off:

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

That insane message should have immediately provoked articles of impeachment from any and every congressional Republican with even a fragment of loyalty to our Constitution, the rule of law, and humanity itself. Instead, we got a very revealing, deafening silence.

The problem with suggesting genocide — and the reason why no other American president has been stupid and reckless enough to try this in our entire history — is that America making such a threat establishes for every despot in the world that mass killing is now okay again. International law and the Geneva Conventions don’t mean a thing; when you’re a star, they let you do it.

Putin’s bloody, vicious attack on Ukraine is now justified; if America can threaten it, why are you criticizing Russia? And when Xi decides to take Taiwan, who will dare stand up to him when he threatens nuclear annihilation? Not to mention the dozens of tinpot dictators who now feel similarly liberated.

And the bonus for Trump is that nobody’s talking about his allegedly raping 13-year-olds, his sons getting into the defense contractor gravy train, his bitcoin and selling-pardon grifts, his destroying the White House’s East Wing, his hanging his picture all over DC like he’s Saddam, his inflation, the price of gas, his hanging Putin’s picture in the White House along with our past presidents, or any of the other daily obscenities and indignities his regime visits upon us.

Trump thinks he’s living inside a reality show, one of the few things he knows how to do well. Sociopaths and psychopaths, after all, don’t see other humans as real people like them with actual hopes, dreams, and feelings. They think they’re the only “real” person in the world, and only their emotions matter. Everybody else is simply a prop on the set, here to facilitate their whims.

His limited mental capacity and inability to feel empathy prevent him from understanding the consequences of the things he’s done, from his illegal tariffs to his war-crime bombing of little boats in the Caribbean, to his joining accused war criminal Netanyahu in attacking a country that represented no threat whatsoever to America (and was on the verge of giving him a better deal than they had Obama).

He’ll never understand; he’s simply not capable of it. Any more than he could understand the damage he did to the women he assaulted or the girls who claim he raped them, the small-business contractors he stiffed, the customers he conned with his multiple grifts — from his fake university to the worthless merchandise he hawks to his crypto scams — or the victims of the MAGA cult he fashioned around himself to bleed dry financially and then discard when the votes and dollars were in.

But America and the world will pay the price, and it won’t be paid easily or quickly. It’ll take at least a generation for this nation to heal from the damage Trump, his billionaire buddies, and his GOP toadies have done.

A pair of lawyers were aghast on Wednesday as they discussed living conditions in the largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas during a new podcast episode.

Lisa Landau and Emerson Argueta from the Feerick Center for Social Justice at Fordham Law School discussed a recent tour of the Camp East Montana detention facility in El Paso, Texas, on a new episode of the "Legal AF" podcast with Ray Brescia. They described the conditions as "startling" and "abysmal" after interviewing 40 people at the facility.

"One of the most striking things is that these folks who have been really funneled down to Texas from across the country where they've been scooped up by ICE while they're parking their cars after they've finished work, while they're in their garden in the back of their homes," Landau said. "These are people who didn't have criminal records. These are people who've been working in jobs that are needed in our communities, and they're part of our communities."

Argueta added that he saw several people living in "abysmal" conditions.

"The most common complaint that we heard from the folks we interviewed was the lack of enough food and the poor quality of food," he said. "We also heard about delays or even no access to medical care, even when detainees were reporting symptoms like fevers, toothaches, or even following operations to their gallbladders, which requires a special diet."

"We heard that there are abysmal ratios of bathrooms to detainees that barely meet the national detention standards," he continued. "The hygiene, the cleanliness of those facilities, are not up to standard. But worse still, we heard stories of prison guards instigating physical fights among and against detainees."

President Donald Trump posted a late-night screed on Wednesday targeting media outlets like CNN and The New York Times for their coverage of the peace plan for the war in Iran.

Yesterday, Trump announced that the U.S. and Iran had agreed to a two-week ceasefire while they negotiated a potential peace plan. Both the New York Times and CNN reported on a 10-point peace plan that would allow Iran to collect a toll from ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz, require the U.S. to withdraw all of its troops, and potentially give Iran the ability to continue enriching uranium.

Trump lashed out at that coverage on Truth Social.

"The Failing New York Times and Fake News CNN each reported a totally FAKE TEN POINT PLAN on the Iran negotiations which was meant to discredit the people involved in the peace process," Trump wrote. "All ten points were a made up HOAX - EVIL LOSERS!!! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN."

Former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly exploded at NewsNation host Chris Cuomo on Wednesday after Cuomo delivered a brutal fact-check on air.

The two men squabbled over recent comments from IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi about Iran's nuclear capabilities. Grossi recently reported that Iran had up to 60% enriched uranium, but that the IAEA was never able to go in and verify the claim. O'Reilly accused Cuomo of taking Grossi's comments out of context, and Cuomo fired back.

Cuomo read from his previous statement about Iran's nuclear capabilities, explaining that the Iranian regime had several more "complex" steps to go through until it would have a functioning atomic bomb.

"That's the context!" Cuomo exclaimed.

O'Reilly became agitated and told Cuomo he could "believe what you want to believe."

That's when things got heated.

"Just say you were corrected and let’s move on," Cuomo said.

"I’m not going to say that because it wouldn’t be true. You made the mistake!" O'Reilly shot back.

"No, I didn't make a mistake," Cuomo said.

"Well, keep quiet for just a moment!" O'Reilly said sharply.

"No, it’s my show pal! You don’t like it? You can go," Cuomo said.

The arrest of an ex-Army employee accused of leaking classified material to the press sparked outrage on Wednesday night.

FBI Director Kash Patel announced on Wednesday that the FBI had arrested 40-year-old Courtney Williams of Wagram, North Carolina, for allegedly leaking classified information to a reporter for a book. The indictment adds that Williams posted classified information on her social media pages. Williams' arrest happened just days after President Donald Trump said whoever leaked information about an American F-15 fighter jet being shot down in Iran should be imprisoned.

The FBI said Williams worked in a Special Military Unit from 2010 to 2016 and held a Top Secret / Sensitive Compartmented Information security clearance.

Political analysts and observers were outraged over the arrest and shared their reactions on social media.

"The FBI is incapable of solving real crimes, like all the murders on Fort Bragg involving elite soldiers trafficking drugs, so they settle for retaliating against courageous whistleblowers like Courtney Williams, whose only 'crime' was telling the truth about Delta Force," journalist Seth Harp posted on X.

"The entire government is infested with Iranian & Russian hackers because you fired everyone in cyber. You nabbed a leaker. Valhalla, dips---. See you in court," political writerJim Stewartson posted on X.

"Keep an eye on this," lawyer and political strategist Ford O'Connell posted on X.

A new report warns someone may have known the Iran ceasefire was coming before Donald Trump told the world, and profited off that knowledge.

That's the explosive implication of a new Associated Press report that revealed that at least 50 newly created accounts on the prediction market Polymarket placed massive, well-timed bets on a U.S.-Iran ceasefire on April 7 — hours before Trump announced the deal on Truth Social — netting hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit.

The bets came even as Trump was threatening to wipe out "a whole civilization" if Iran didn't comply with his demands. The public ostensibly had no indication that a deal was imminent.

One wallet, created the morning of the announcement, dropped roughly $72,000 in bets and walked away with $200,000 in profit. Another, created the day before, cleared $125,500. A third, created just 12 minutes before Trump's post, made nearly $50,000.

The pattern mirrors previous episodes, including mysterious bets placed before the January capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, that have repeatedly raised insider trading alarms in Congress.

Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT) didn't mince words: "It’s highly unlikely that these are good-faith trades; it’s much more likely that these are insiders with access to information ahead of the public. Without some kind of restrictions, there is nothing stopping government or military officials from profiting from their positions."

Democratic strategist Mike Nellis wrote on X, "Lock ‘em up."

David Clinch, co-founder of Media Growth Partners, wrote on X, "People need to go to jail for this."

Bill Speros, senior betting analyst for Bookies.com, wrote on X, "If I can trade on @Polymarket using a VPN from Florida, then anyone from anywhere in the US can do it. That is clear. These concerns will have to be addressed eventually before it fully launches in the US. The calls are coming from inside the house."

Ben Yelin, an attorney, wrote on X, "We should be far angrier about this s--- and we need hearings."

MS NOW's Jen Psaki broke down many of Vice President JD Vance's answers to reporters concerned about the details of the Trump administration's "ceasefire" with Iran — and was taken aback by many of his answers, particularly his explanation why the United States was okay with considering a "right to enrichment" of nuclear materials to Iran on some level, something Trump insists isn't actually on the table even as Iran treats it like a done deal.

"Vance ... was today being asked a very valid question about when the Strait would reopen," said Psaki, rolling the clip.

"Mr. Vice President, Iran is continuing to block the Strait of Hormuz. Do you have an expectation of when that strait is going to be open?" asked a reporter.

"Well, we've already seen an increase in traffic today," said Vance. "Hopefully we'll see an increase in traffic tomorrow. We actually think that we are seeing signs that the straits are starting to reopen."

"Okay, so we've seen an increase in traffic today. That's what the vice president just said," said Psaki. "As I mentioned before, Bloomberg reports that just three ships were observed leaving the region, at least two of which had ties to Iran. Iran is publicly claiming that the Strait remains closed. They're continuing, as far as we know, to charge fees to people who want to go through. But J.D. Vance has nothing to worry about. All signs are positive. Then he was asked another perfectly valid question from a reporter about Iran's claim that the U.S. has already violated the agreement."

"What do you make of him tweeting that out before negotiations?" asked a reporter.

"Let me just say this," said Vance. "I actually wonder how good he is at understanding English, because there are things that he said that, frankly, didn't make sense in some in the context of negotiations that we've had."

"Okay, so just to unroll unpack that one, the speaker of Iran's parliament said that the U.S. violated the deal, and JD Vance's answer was, well, he just needs to brush up on his English, maybe it was a translation issue," said Psaki. "Again, JD Vance is the official who is supposed to sit across from the Iranians in these negotiations in just a few days. Now, if you thought that was a reach, just listen to how JD Vance tried to explain away the differences between Iran and the U.S. on the question of nuclear enrichment."

"The second thing Ghalibaf said, which again, I found fascinating, is he said, we refuse to give up the right to enrichment," said Vance. "And I thought to myself, you know what? My wife has the right to skydive, but she doesn't jump out of an airplane because she and I have an agreement that she's not going to do that, because I don't want my wife jumping out of an airplane."

"I have so many questions, like, what on earth are you talking about?" said Psaki. "Also, are you saying that you trust the Iranians won't enrich uranium even if they have access? Just like you trust your wife won't jump out of a plane? I still don't think it clears anything up. I don't know where that came from."

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Donald Trump's judicial nominee for Montana has become the first pick of his second term to be declared "not qualified" by the American Bar Association, and the reason was straightforward: she simply hasn't been a lawyer long enough.

Katie Lane, nominated to serve as a federal judge in Montana, received a "not qualified" rating from a majority of the ABA's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary on Wednesday, according to Reuters. The committee cited her less than nine years of legal experience, well short of the 12 years the ABA typically requires, and her lack of substantial courtroom and trial experience.

The ABA was careful to note that Lane is well-regarded by her peers. Committee chair Pamela Roberts said roughly 200 members of the bench and bar were consulted, and Lane "is viewed as a talented lawyer, indeed at the top of her peer group."

But talent, the committee concluded, doesn't substitute for experience.

Lane, who is in her 30s, graduated from George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School in 2017. Her resume includes conservative clerkships, Jones Day, the Montana attorney general's office, the hard-right firm Consovoy McCarthy, a Ted Cruz Senate internship, and a stint at the Republican National Committee.

Trump's administration has already tried to sideline the ABA by restricting its ability to vet nominees. The bar association has continued publishing ratings anyway.

In Trump's first term, 10 nominees received "not qualified" ratings. Lane is the first of his second term.

President Donald Trump's Department of Justice just gave him the power to destroy his administration's records if courts don't intervene, according to a new analysis.

David A. Graham, a staff writer at The Atlantic, wrote in a new newsletter article that an official memo from the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel concluded that the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional. The law was signed after the Nixon administration and requires presidential administrations to preserve documents related to their work and decision-making.

Graham expressed alarm at the OLC's opinion memo.

"If the opinion stands, it will allow Trump to destroy the records of his administration’s actions, or take records with him at the end of his term," he wrote. "Combined with alleged violations of PRA in his first term, this could make Trump the most poorly documented president since at least Richard Nixon, and perhaps going back even further. (As my colleague Henry Grabar writes, the actual library part of his planned presidential library is an afterthought at best.)"

"Yet Trump’s habit of making policy without deliberation, and often with stream-of-consciousness speeches and posts on social media, means that his administration is a paradox: simultaneously one of the most transparent and most opaque in American history," he added.

President Donald Trump's apparent surrender on free passage in the Strait of Hormuz has earned him the rage of a new group: oil industry executives.

According to Politico, Big Oil officials "are reaching out to the White House, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President J.D. Vance to protest allowing Iran to charge tolls through the strategic Strait of Hormuz as a condition of peace talks, said one industry consultant granted anonymity to discuss relations with the administration."

Iranian tolls were proposed as part of the deal that caused Trump to back down from his threats of genocidal force. When asked about them, he has not shut down the idea, even suggesting the United States could jointly enforce the tolls alongside Iran in exchange for a cut.

This has horrified the global oil industry, which sends around 20 percent of all its output through the Strait of Hormuz and which would see limited supply and increased prices if passage were limited or came with a toll for a prolonged period of time.

"Oil industry representatives met with senior administration staff in the State Department on Wednesday morning to raise concerns, said one person who said they attended the meeting," according to the report. "Among their points: Conceding to Iran’s request would add $2.5 million to each shipment in tolls and higher insurance rates, a cost that would be passed on to consumers. Giving Iran control of Hormuz could set precedent for countries like Singapore and Turkey to charge tolls on important trade routes on the Strait of Malacca and Bosporus. And paying the toll could put companies in legal jeopardy for violating sanctions on Iranian officials."

One person close to the talks said of the potential toll of Hormuz, "We didn’t have to do that before — and I thought we won the war. Any place you have access to the administration, you ask, what are you guys thinking?"

All of this comes as Republicans in general and even some MAGA loyalists begin to raise serious alarms about the scope of concessions the White House is apparently willing to make with Iran, as the ceasefire agreement on the table lopsidedly benefits the regime over all else.

The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board raked President Donald Trump over the coals Wednesday, for claiming victory over Iran when he has achieved no such thing.

"Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance said the cease-fire is conditioned on Iran’s striking a deal, but it sure sounds like the President wants the war over. 'A big day for World Peace! Iran wants it to happen, they’ve had enough! Likewise, so has everyone else!' he posted on Truth Social early Wednesday," wrote the board. "Will Mr. Trump really start bombing again if Iran draws out talks? Given the risks to oil prices, count us skeptical. This President can change his mind in a minute, but this sounds like the end of this round of hostilities."

The board then took stock of what has actually been accomplished as a result of the war, and the answer is not a great deal.

On one hand, they wrote, Trump significantly damaged Iran's military and likely set back its nuclear capabilities. However, "the biggest disappointments are Iran’s continuing threat to the Strait of Hormuz and what happens to its enriched uranium stockpile. Mr. Trump is sending confusing signals about both that Iran is contradicting."

The fact is, wrote the board, Trump couldn't guarantee Iran hands over its uranium without a ground invasion, and the Strait of Hormuz is now under greater control by Iran than it had been before the war started, with discussions of them even charging a toll for shipping traffic. Trump suggested, rather than stop it, the U.S. could get in on a cut of the revenue.

"Freedom of navigation has been a bedrock U.S. principle for centuries. China would be pleased if that principle were abandoned in case it has designs on the straits of Taiwan or Malacca. If Iran retains a veto over traffic in the Strait, that would count as a U.S. defeat," wrote the board. "It would also mean a new risk premium is likely to be built into the global price of oil, despite the sharp plunge in the price on news of the cease-fire. Before the war the global price was close to $65 a barrel. Will the new floor be $80, at least for some time?"

Ultimately, the board concluded, Trump "put himself in this position" by overpromising and underdelivering: "His inconsistent rhetoric on the war — claims of victory amid threats of unleashing 'Hell' and an end to Iran’s 'civilization' — raised global fears and undermined support at home and abroad. The next test for Mr. Trump will be whether he takes his two-week cease-fire deadline seriously. If he does, and Iran plays its usual games, then he really will have to 'finish the job.'"

MAGA darling Allie Beth Stuckey roasted President Donald Trump's spiritual advisor on a new episode of her podcast, "Relatable," on Wednesday.

Last week, Trump's spiritual advisor, Paula White-Cain, compared the president to Jesus Christ during a speech at an Easter celebration at the White House. Stuckey said White-Cain's comments were not only "anti-biblical" but were also "heretical" and could prevent Trump from receiving the true majesty of Christ in his heart.

"We have talked about the problems with Paula White's theology on this show many times," Stuckey said. "I believe her to be heretical, and while I am sure she is accomplishing some really good things that I as a Christian can be thankful for ... that doesn't mean she's never said something true, but she often says things that are not true, that are anti-biblical. And I think we need to be able to hold those truths at the same time and call her out when she is wrong."

She also hit back at White-Cain's comparing Trump to Jesus.

"The comparison to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, to Jesus Christ, is just unnecessary and just not true," Stuckey said. "I don't even think this was the time to compliment Trump. You could have done that. You appreciate that he's hosting this. You're glad that he cares about religious freedom, which I think is true. I think that's true without comparing him to Jesus. Let's not do that, and let's not name it and claim it at the end, because that's not something that we have the right or the authority, or the guidance to do."

Kristi Noem swore the $70 million luxury Boeing 737 she bought with taxpayer money was all about deporting immigrants, and now that she's been fired, the plane — complete with a queen bed, kitchenette and cream leather seats — will be used by Cabinet members and possibly the first lady.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed Wednesday to The Washington Post that the Boeing 737 Max 8, purchased by Immigration and Customs Enforcement before new DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin was confirmed, will be "available to Cabinet members who need secure command and control and rapid long-range mobility."

The Wall Street Journal reported that White House officials rather than DHS will control who gets to fly on it, and that Melania Trump will be among those with access.

The plane became a flashpoint last month when Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) displayed photos of its interior during a congressional oversight hearing. Noem, visibly flustered, claimed she didn't recognize the bedroom and insisted it was being refurbished to remove it.

"It's mandated from Congress," Noem insisted at the time, arguing the purchase would save taxpayers "hundreds of millions of dollars."

Noem was ousted shortly after amid mounting scrutiny over her spending habits — including a staggering $200 million contract for ads featuring herself on horseback at Mount Rushmore.

She now holds a newly made-up title: "Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas."

Justice Sonia Sotomayor publicly criticized Trump-appointed Justice Brett Kavanaugh for failing to understand the real-world impact of the administration's immigration enforcement policies.

Sotomayor, appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2009, spoke at the University of Kansas School of Law.

She criticized Kavanaugh's concurrence supporting an emergency order that paused lower court rulings indefinitely, allowing immigration agents to profile people based on language, occupation, race, and location, as reported by Bloomberg Law.

Sotomayor noted Kavanaugh characterized immigration stops as "temporary," suggesting his privileged background prevented him from understanding how, even brief detentions, harm hourly workers who lose income needed to feed their families. She criticized his concurrence for relegating citizens' and legal residents' interests to a single sentence.

Kavanaugh suggested "apparent ethnicity" as a "relevant factor" in immigration enforcement before attempting to walk back the remarks, though legal experts dismissed his clarification as insufficient given his earlier endorsement of racial profiling.

Watch the video below.

Political analysts and observers were outraged on Wednesday after President Donald Trump posted an all-caps rebuke of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, on Truth Social.

"NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN. REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!" Trump wrote.

Trump posted the screed after meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. The meeting occurred less than a day after Trump declared the U.S. and Iran had agreed to a two-week ceasefire in their war.

Trump had previously criticized NATO's unwillingness to help the U.S. reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that accounts for 20% of the global energy trade.

Political analysts and observers reacted to Trump's screed on social media.

"The commander-in-chief of the world‘s deadliest killing force is out of his damn mind. Sleep lightly, my friends," journalist Mark Jacob posted on Bluesky.

"NATO allies were there for America after 9/11," Jeopardy champion Hemant Mehta posted on X.

"Trump still thinks Greenland is Iceland," Susan Carroll, a book editor, posted on X.

"Articles of Impeachment have been filed. There's also Section 4 of the 25th Amendment. The tools are there," journalist Jessica Coggins posted on Bluesky.

A federal judge has paused the Trump administration's decision to terminate temporary protected status (TPS) for Ethiopians who came to the United States, ruling that former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem didn't follow the legal procedure for doing so.

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy of Massachusetts penned a scathing analysis of the decision to eliminate TPS under the Trump administration, finding that it certainly wasn't appropriate in the case of Ethiopia, where people would still face substantial danger if forced to return there.

"As of the date of the executive order, entitled 'Protecting the American People Against Invasion,' seventeen countries had TPS designations. In the twelve months between the issuance of the order and filing of this suit, Secretary Noem announced the termination of twelve TPS countries — every single TPS country for which she conducted a periodic review during that period," wrote Murphy. "Perhaps it has been a banner year for disaster recovery and geopolitical stability worldwide. The evidence, and common sense, suggests otherwise."

Indeed, he wrote, "The administrative record is replete with evidence, including reports by DHS itself from as recent as August and September of 2025, that armed conflict and natural disasters continue to create dangerous conditions in Ethiopia."

In other words, per American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, "Judge Murphy rule[d] that Secretary Noem flagrantly ignored the legal requirement to carry out a meaningful consultation with other agencies about whether conditions in a country had actually changed for the better before making her decision to terminate TPS for Ethiopia."

This comes mere weeks after Noem was fired from her position and replaced with Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin — reportedly at least in part because Trump was outraged she shifted the responsibility for a $200 million taxpayer-funded ad campaign of herself onto the White House.

Donald Trump went after a decades-old U.S. military alliance on Wednesday in an all-caps Truth Social tirade, declaring NATO useless and taking a bizarre swipe at Greenland in the same breath.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte reportedly met privately with Trump on Wednesday, with discussions expected to focus on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and smoothing over Trump's fury at the alliance for sitting out the Iran war, while the strait closure sent gas prices soaring. It wasn't immediately clear how the meeting went, but Trump didn't hold back his thoughts on social media.

"NATO WASN'T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON'T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN," the president raged.

He then pivoted to Greenland, the autonomous Danish territory he has repeatedly tried to acquire: "REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!"

The post offered no further context.

The outburst comes as Trump's Iran ceasefire hangs by a thread, with Iran already declaring three violations of the agreement before negotiations have even formally begun. European allies have been openly critical of the U.S.-Israeli war, with Spain's prime minister refusing to "applaud those who set the world on fire."

President Donald Trump has spent years championing American steel, slapping tariffs on foreign metals and promising to shield U.S. manufacturers from overseas competition. But a bombshell New York Times report reveals he may have traded a lucrative tariff break for tens of millions of dollars worth of donated foreign steel for his White House ballroom.

According to the Times, Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, the world's second-largest steel maker, donated steel valued at $37 million for Trump's $400 million ballroom project. The steel was produced in Europe.

Two days after Trump publicly praised the donation at a White House event for wealthy donors, his administration issued a proclamation cutting in half the tariffs on automotive steel exported from ArcelorMittal's Canadian plant.

“He said, ‘Sir, I’d like to donate the steel for your ballroom,’” Trump told the crowd at the time. “I said: ‘Whoa, that’s nice.’ And I found out — ‘How much is the steel?’ I called the contractor. ‘Sir, it’s down for $37 million.’ I said, ‘This is a nice donation, right?’”

"Mr. Trump described the metal as 'great steel as opposed to garbage steel, because they dump a lot of garbage around. You know, steel is like everything else, including human beings. Steel could be high quality, and it can be low quality. He wants to make sure it’s high quality,'" the report added.

The timing raised immediate red flags.

A White House official pushed back on any connection between the donation and the tariff cut, calling the link "tenuous." The official declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Trump has doubled steel tariffs to 50 percent, explicitly to block foreign metals and boost domestic producers.

The Steel Manufacturers' Association pointedly noted its members stood "ready to supply the high-quality, American-made steel" the president needed.

President Donald Trump's Defense Secretary may be the next cabinet member to depart the administration, even though he just declared "victory" over Iran, according to one expert.

Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a press conference on Wednesday that the U.S. had achieved a “decisive military victory” over Iran. That's despite multiple reports indicating that Iran has continued to strike U.S. allies in the region, and the Strait of Hormuz remains shut. Meanwhile, details of an agreement allegedly struck between the two countries appear to show the U.S. losing influence over Iran. For instance, the White House has considered lifting all sanctions on Iranian oil and removing all U.S. troops from the country, according to reports.

Amid Hegseth's chest pounding over Iran, a retired U.S. Navy intelligence officer named Travis Akers predicted in an interview with The Daily Beast that the Defense Secretary is on his way out because Trump is looking for a "scapegoat" in the war.

"I think Trump is certainly going to look for a scapegoat because he’ll never accept the blame himself," Akers told the outlet. "He’s going to find someone else to pin it on.”

“There’s definitely going to be a firing in the near future," Akers continued.

A new report claims that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s private diaries contain entries about his battles with "lust demons" and ranking his sexual encounters on a scale of 1-10.

People Magazine reported on Wednesday that a forthcoming biography of Kennedy Jr., written by New York Post reporter Isabel Vincent, included sordid details about his private life that shed new light on Kennedy's character. For instance, the report notes that Kennedy's second wife, Mary Kennedy, gave his journals to a friend of hers as "insurance" before she committed suicide.

One of Vincent's sources told her that Kennedy "gaslit" Mary, an architect, about his infidelities before her death.

"People told me she was the love of his life," Vincent told People Magazine. “The diaries helped me get into his head."

“And Mary still occupies a very important part of his life, even though she’s dead," she added.

Vincent added that she initially told Kennedy she had his diaries in 2013. Kennedy seemed to be in disbelief and threatened to call his lawyer. However, Vincent said nothing came of the threat.

The report was published on the same day Kennedy announced he was launching a new podcast, called the "Secretary Kennedy Podcast," where "nothing is off limits," the Daily Beast reported.

Iranian Parliament Speaker MB Ghalibaf declared the ceasefire and upcoming negotiations as "unreasonable" after accusing the United States of violating Iran's 10-point peace proposal.

Ghalibaf cited three specific violations on X, Israeli attacks on Lebanon, an alleged drone intrusion into Iranian airspace, and U.S. denial of Iran's nuclear enrichment rights.

Trump disputed that Lebanon was part of the ceasefire agreement and denied accepting Iran's 10-point plan as a negotiating framework. Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz again after Israeli strikes in Lebanon.

Ghalibaf took to X, accusing Trump of calling Iran's proposal a "workable basis on which to negotiate," but the violations undermined that foundation. Ghalibaf concluded that with the framework already breached before negotiations began, bilateral ceasefire discussions were unjustifiable.

Watch the video below.

President Donald Trump's administration is planning to axe protections for one of the most iconic symbols of the West: the American Bison.

Bison were once slaughtered to near extinction in the 19th century as part of a campaign of genocide against tribal groups that relied on the wild herds for their way of life. And now, under Trump, the very agency that helped their populations recover is turning on them.

According to Mother Jones, "Acceding to anti-bison grumbling from cattle ranchers and Republican politicians in Montana, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in January proposed canceling leases for buffalo grazing on federal land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The BLM is part of the Department of the Interior, which, for more than a century, has celebrated its role in heading off the extinction of buffalo, which were killed by the tens of millions during white settlement in the West. The Interior Department still sports a buffalo on its official seal."

"Now, in the MAGA era, with Interior reversing the Biden administration’s determination that conservation is a use of BLM land on par with grazing and resource extraction, Burgum has ruled that since bison here in north-central Montana are not being raised for 'production-oriented purposes,' they have no legal right to roam, wallow, or munch grass on land leased from the bureau," said the report. The ruling, if enacted, would force around 950 bison off the pastures they are currently allowed to graze.

Ranchers are celebrating this decision, along with Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, who pushed hard for it — but other experts are warning this could spell disaster.

“Interior’s proposed ruling would put a chokehold on us being able to increase our buffalo herds,” OJ Semans Sr. of the South Dakota Rosebud Sioux told Mother Jones. “We should not have the federal government saying only cattle get affordable BLM leases. It is just so stupid the way they are doing this. It is DEI for cows.”

This comes as the Interior Department under Trump has pushed a number of other anti-environmental policies, including burdensome new restrictions on wind and solar power on public lands and offshore, which even some in Trump's inner circle are starting to fear will kneecap Trump's energy dominance promises.

President Donald Trump is heading into the midterms with ruthless fundraising and a huge war chest, both in his own committees and in the super PACs supporting him, that he can use to protect vulnerable Republicans from whatever onslaught is coming their way. But there's a big problem standing in the way, former GOP strategist Tim Miller told MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace on Wednesday's edition of "Deadline: White House."

"Tim, I know there's a lot of sort of political press around the mega-money machine, but you have to be able to deploy the money competently and strategically," said Wallace. "And I wonder what you make of the money situation right now."

"Yeah, two thoughts on this," said Miller, a frequent critic of the administration. "One, the Republicans are going to have more money this midterm, I think, for the first time in a decade or two ... but the Democrats have actually been better at fundraising since Obama. And so that is something the Democrats are going to have to contend with."

"Donald Trump, if you go back to last year, what was he doing this time last year? Shaking people down, like shaking down CEOs, shaking down the richest people in the world. They were funding his ballroom ... he's still doing that," said Miller. "When he first came in, he was super effective at getting rich people to, you know, do favors for them in exchange for getting a bag for his super PAC. So they're going to have a ton of money."

"Here's the problem, though: like advertising, you need to be able to have something to sell," said Miller. "You know, if the dogs won't eat the dog food — it's the old phrase in advertising — it doesn't do you any good. And right now, if people are experiencing real pain economically, and if people are looking at them and thinking, this guy, you know, doesn't have his eye on the ball at all, and I don't feel like my concerns or grievances or needs are being met. They can run all the ads they want and it's not going to work."

"So what they can do is go into these red districts," said Miller. "Some of those states I was talking about in the last segment, you know, and save ground, right, going to Iowa and, and, you know, smear the Democratic candidate and try to get their number down with Republican voters and they'll probably be able to use their money to do that relatively effectively. And that's what Democrats have to combat."

- YouTube youtu.be

A veteran GOP analyst flagged the "biggest concern" for the Republican Party following Tuesday's special election in Georgia during a new interview on CNN.

Ashley Davis, a former official in George W. Bush's Department of Homeland Security, joined Jake Tapper on CNN's "The Lead," where the panel discussed how Republicans should view the outcome of the special election. Republican Clay Fuller defeated Democrat Shawn Harris for the seat left vacant after former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene retired from Congress. But Fuller's margin of victory was less than half of the 37-point margin President Donald Trump had in the district during the 2024 election.

Tapper asked Davis if Republicans are "terrified" of Democrats closing the gap in Republican districts.

"I don't know if they're terrified," she said, "I talked to a bunch of people today, knowing what happened last night. And, publicly, they are waiting to see how the president helps with that when he gets on the campaign trail."

"Remember, this was supposed to start in January, that he was supposed to be on every week," Davis added. "That's going to be the biggest concern for us Republicans: that Trump gets people off the couch to vote, and his not being on the ticket is going to be an issue."

Pete Hegseth went out Wednesday to sell America on Donald Trump's Iran triumph — and ended up accidentally dismantling it, according to a new analysis.

The Defense Secretary insisted that Trump's threat to erase Iranian civilization is what brought Tehran back to the negotiating table.

"That type of threat is what brought them to the place where they effectively said, ‘We want to cut this deal,'" Hegseth told reporters, preening about American killing power with what New Republic analyst Greg Sargent called "unnerving relish and bloodlust."

But he noted Iran was already negotiating with Trump before the war started.

According to Sargent, citing a New York Times investigation, Trump sabotaged those pre-war talks himself — convinced by Benjamin Netanyahu that the war would be quick and glorious, and by his own team that nothing short of regime change would do. Iran had been prepared to make real concessions on nuclear development, and Trump walked away anyway.

"Trump’s approach to the talks made success impossible—deliberately," Sargent declared.

Iran's regime survived, radicalized, and now negotiates from a position of greater confidence, he said. The ceasefire terms appear more favorable to Tehran than the deal Trump could have had without firing a shot.

"The civilizational threat did not factor into the ceasefire," Center for International Policy senior fellow Sina Toossi told Sargent flatly.

Sargent concluded that despite the war showcasing "awesome technological prowess," it failed to deliver what Trump and Hegseth promised — that American military power and the threat of it could force anyone to do anything. They set out to prove otherwise, he wrote, "and at this, too, they failed miserably."

President Donald Trump supporters on Truth Social called for him to reconcile with former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) after Trump attacked her following her criticism of the Iran war.

Greene called for Trump's removal after he threatened to obliterate Iran's civilization.

Trump responded by mocking Greene on Truth Social, calling her a "traitor," referring to her as "Marjorie Brown," and praising her successor Clay Fuller as a "very large improvement over his deranged predecessor."

Trump loyalists expressed disapproval of the public feud.

On Truth Social, DBailey wrote, "fought hard for you," while another criticized Trump for attacking her, stating it made him "look bad."

Several supporters argued that Trump should focus on domestic priorities like inflation, housing affordability, and student loan relief. Others criticized Trump's foreign policy priorities and alleged ties to Israel, suggesting these issues demanded attention instead of attacking Greene.

Watch the video below.

Former Attorney General Pam Bondi received a shot across the bow on Wednesday during a segment on CNN.

Bondi has been under fire for attempting to avoid being deposed next week regarding the Department of Justice's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. She was removed from her job last week amid ongoing tensions between the White House and the DOJ over the handling of the files.

On Wednesday, the Department of Justice said Bondi will not testify before the House Oversight Committee next week as planned.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who sits on the committee, told CNN's Jake Tapper on "The Lead" that they still have the votes to get Bondi to testify. Not only that, but Bondi may have to appear anyway because of how the subpoena compelling her testimony was written.

"I'm confident Pam Bondi will eventually show up. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and I drafted the subpoena, and it was for Pam Bondi as an individual, not Pam Bondi as Attorney General," Khanna said.

Khanna also noted that Republicans appear to be playing games with Bondi's testimony, considering how they chased after Hillary and Bill Clinton's testimony.

"We still have the votes to get her to be able to testify. And we'll have another vote," Khanna said. "Look, I know Jim Comer. I like him on a personal basis, but he was Captain Ahab in chasing Hillary Clinton to testify. And Hillary Clinton has been out of office for 20 years. So certainly he can have Pam Bondi come and testify and answer why they haven't released the Epstein files."

President Donald Trump's social media site, normally nothing more than a platform for himself to rant and his most avid fans to admire him, is plunging into warfare, as MAGA fans turn on each other over Trump's moves in the Iran conflict.

According to The New York Times, "Thousands of users on the social media platform, which Mr. Trump created in 2022, have responded to the president’s drumbeat of posts with a mix of frustration, disbelief and outrage. They have written that they feel betrayed by the expanding war in Iran and ashamed when Mr. Trump used an expletive on Easter to make demands of the Iranian government. Some were so perplexed by his military interventions that one declared they 'make zero sense.'"

Trump established Truth Social in response to his removal from other social media platforms following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. These platforms ultimately allowed him back on a few years later, but he has mostly continued to rely on Truth Social as his platform for communicating with the public.

He often uses it to go after whatever random person is annoying him at any given moment, like rock star Bruce Springsteen.

One "committed anti-leftist" account called @Ultra_MAGA_King said, "You’re utterly destroying your presidency with this nonsense. It’s probably too late to course correct at this point. A shameful waste of a great start."

Another account, @AuthenticAmerican, wrote, "Mr. President you are losing me as a supporter with this kind of behavior. I have supported you for so long and I am just to my point where I am ready to wash my hands of supporting you. I have been put through a lot of garbage for supporting you since 2016."

"Mr. Trump’s announcement that he had reached a deal on a two-week cease-fire did little to assuage critics, the analysis showed. Thousands of comments criticized Mr. Trump for backing down on his threat while receiving little in return," noted the report. "While the president’s deeply loyal base has shown a willingness to overlook points of disagreement, cracks have shown more frequently during his second term" — particularly since the Jeffrey Epstein controversy began.

MAGA has grown increasingly divided over the Iran war and President Donald Trump's decisions — something right-wing influencers have spoken out against even more vocally in recent days, CNN reported on Wednesday.

During a live broadcast, CNN anchor Kasie Hunt played a clip from MAGA podcaster Megyn Kelly, who openly criticized Trump in a fiery, expletive-heavy monologue.

And CNN let the curse words fly unedited.

"I don't know about you, but I am sick of this s---," Kelly said in the clip. "I'm just, I'm sick of it. Can't he just behave like a normal human? I mean, honestly, like the president is playing 3-D chess. Shut up. F------ shut up about that s---. You don't threaten to wipe out an entire civilization. We're talking about civilians just casually in a social media post. This is completely irresponsible and disgusting."

Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist, described the sentiment among MAGA supporters. He also added that Kelly's comments were not solely hers, but something that echoed among the president's base ahead of the midterms.

"I think he still has very strong support amongst his base," Madden said. "And he still commands and can mobilize his base very quickly. But is he losing a faction of it? Yes. And Megyn Kelly's sentiment, if that's shared by 15, 20, 25% of that MAGA coalition, that's problematic when you're heading into a 2026 election environment where base motivation is a huge part of how you calculate victory, because if you add it in."

Madden expected that other factors would drive conservative voters to potentially question Trump's leadership, which could be reflected in November. And that the Trump administration could have a serious problem coming.

"And also one other thing I'd say is this didn't start with Iran," he added. "Second Amendment and Fourth Amendment voters because of what happened with the immigration enforcement in Minneapolis. They had a lot of sort of clamoring and sort of grumpiness with the president. So this is a sort of a little bit of a trend that the White House has to be very careful about, because also right now, if you look at the numbers with independents, we're going to be the swing part. And that's why they call them battleground districts. That's, you know, the president's support with those voters, which he actually did pretty well with in 2024, has been declining. So there is a very real political calculation problem here that the White House is facing."