President Donald Trump threatened Thursday to take over Washington, D.C., on a federal basis if democratic socialist Janeese Lewis George wins next week's Democratic primary for mayor.

Trump told Oval Office reporters he wouldn't like it if Lewis George prevails, reported The Washington Post. Currently, Lewis Georg is leading the polls.

“We are not going to get ICE off our streets by fearing this president. We are not going to protect our rights or Home Rule by obeying in advance. Threatening Home Rule because you do not like how residents vote is an attack on democracy itself. The people of DC elect the mayor of DC. And they want someone who will stand up to Donald Trump,” Lewis George responded.

While Trump has the authority to temporarily seize control of the city's police department and deploy the D.C. National Guard — like he did last year — he is legally barred from unilaterally revoking the city's right to self-government without congressional approval, The Washington Post reported.

Trump has not explained his opposition to Lewis George beyond her association with democratic socialist policies.

Watch the video below.

Trump's lawyers urged a federal judge to reject an effort to reopen the dismissed lawsuit that led to the $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, according to a new court filing.

Attorneys for Trump, his sons, and the Trump Organization argued in the Southern District of Florida filing that a group of 35 former federal judges have "no standing" to challenge the settlement that ended the case and created the anti-weaponization fund.

Trump sued the IRS for $10 billion after a contractor leaked his tax returns, which led to the settlement with an agency he oversees as president. However, the judges' theory that the settlement was collusive "is not a legal standard," the filing added.

"It is a policy objection dressed as a fraud claim," the filing described the judges' case. "It does not warrant the extraordinary remedy of reopening a closed case."

The defense of the fund comes shortly after Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told a House Appropriations subcommittee that the Department of Justice would not move ahead with it. Blanche declined to put that in writing, however.

The White House quietly elevated Chris Klomp to chief of the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, counselor in February, effectively installing him as Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s handler to prevent the vaccine-skeptic from derailing GOP midterm prospects.

Democratic senators suspect Klomp was promoted to babysit RFK because the White House doesn't trust him, sources told Politico, given Kennedy's unpopular vaccine policies and unorthodox beliefs.

Klomp has wielded significant power, including selecting a pro-vaccination Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director over Kennedy's anti-vaccine preference and negotiating 17 drug-pricing deals.

Kennedy allies characterize the HHS secretary as more of a figurehead, while Klomp functions as the real chief operating officer.

A former senior HHS official alleged Klomp is out of control, trying to fire people without Kennedy's knowledge.

Trump praised Klomp, describing him as a real star, while Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is reportedly mesmerized by him.

HHS disputed the figurehead characterization, insisting Kennedy is actively engaged in departmental decisions.

Watch the video below.

A GOP group failed to prove a university violated its First Amendment rights by banning it for alleged antisemitism, the New York Times reported.

The University of Florida College Republicans were banned by the school from its Gainesville campus in March after a photo circulated showing two people giving a Nazi salute, the Times reported.

Members denied involvement with the photo, but the group was already accused of antisemitic and racist behavior, according to the Times. The University of Florida argued that it booted the group because a statewide campus Republican organization withdrew its charter, and the Gainesville branch no longer had any official affiliation, the Times reported.

Federal judge Mark Walker, from the U.S. District Court in Tallahassee, tossed a lawsuit brought by the group after finding that they didn't have enough evidence to show the University of Florida violated its free speech rights, according to the Times.

Walker also determined that the university had cause because the Republican Party of Florida or its campus affiliates never gave the group permission to use the term "Republican," per the Times, which couldn't immediately reach the lawyer for the college Republican organization for comment. The University of Florida declined to comment for the Times.

Insider editor Michael Weiss cautioned that any Iran deal President Donald Trump signs based on leaked details would constitute a "major humiliation" for the president.

According to Iran's Mehr News Agency, the proposed agreement grants Iran $300 billion in reconstruction money and $24 billion in cash — half before negotiations begin — while addressing only a ceasefire extension with no substantive progress on missile programs, financing, or terrorist proxy support.

Weiss described the deal as merely an agreement to keep talking, not an actual resolution. He suggested Trump has developed buyer's remorse, realizing he was duped into the whole endeavor after regime-change plans collapsed.

“I mean, this would be an utter humiliation. I could see why Trump would want JD Vance to go to a signing ceremony instead of Donald Trump,” Weiss laughed.

He characterized Trump as wanting "out of" the conflict entirely, having already shifted focus to Cuba.

Watch the video below.

Conservative CNN pundit Scott Jennings embarrassingly lost his attempt to defend Trump as his name came off the Kennedy Center.

"Are we upset that the president of the United States took an interest in the Kennedy Center?" Jennings asked while on a CNN roundtable.

"A lot of people are upset about that, yes," CNN host Abby Phillip responded.

"Why?" Jennings followed up before taking a shot at Trump opponents. "They've never been able to stand the fact that Donald Trump won the White House the first time, and especially the second time."

Phillip quickly countered Jennings' argument by pointing out why people are really upset about Trump's attempted renaming.

"How about Congress established the Kennedy Center as a memorial for John F. Kennedy, and that it is illegal for him to slap his name on it?" Phillip said. "That is why people are upset about it."

Jennings tried to hold up his argument, though.

"But here's the deal, he took an interest in this," Jennings said, referring to Trump.

"What about the laws, Scott?" Phillip asked.

"What about it?" Jennings shot back.

Phillip laughed as soon as Jennings said that, but he kept on going.

"Who cares?" he insisted. "These haters stand out on the street screeching about a name."

"Wow, haters," journalist Cari Champion reacted. "Unbelievable."

Trump's announcement of killing the leader of a Venezuelan gang carries a "chilling" detail, according to a legal expert.

According to Trump, the U.S. military launched a "swift and lethal" strike against the leader of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that was a hot topic during the 2024 presidential election. Ryan Goodman, a chaired professor at NYU and editor-in-chief of Just Security, called out the details in Trump's Truth Social post announcing the strike.

Goodman was alarmed in particular by a line of Trump's post calling the gang a "foreign army."

"If they're this 'army,' what's the limiting principle for stopping that use of state lethal force?" Goodman asked. "More significant and chilling is how far you have to read down this Trump post to learn the individual was not extrajudicially killed inside the U.S."

Additionally, he said the Justice Department's position on the Alien Enemies Act seemed to "fall completely apart," when the president said the strike was coordinated "closely with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well."

Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act against Tren de Aragua in March 2025, claiming the gang acts as an arm of the Nicolás Maduro government. The designation, his administration claimed, allowed him to deport Venezuelan migrants without ordinary due process. A declassified U.S. intelligence assessment contradicted Trump's claim that Tren de Aragua operates under Maduro's control.

"DOJ position - and statute - requires TdA to be acting on behalf of Venezuelan government," Goodman noted.

The Texas Republican Party created a viral moment in all the wrong ways at their convention when they brought a live elephant out to promote Gov. Greg Abbott's re-election campaign — and it began to urinate loudly and dramatically on the floor.

The incident prompted a predictable round of mockery from commenters on social media.

"Governor Abbott closed out his speech at the Texas GOP convention with a live elephant. It then peed on the floor as it left the room. The perfect metaphor for the Texas Republican Party," posted the official account for the Texas Democratic Party.

"The elephant turned the entire convention into a gender neutral Bathroom," wrote the "Organizermemes" account.

"Elephants are smart. Not sure what to tell you," wrote conservative commentator Stephen L. Miller.

Not everyone had a witty quip to offer, though. Many others, including some conservatives, were angry about the way the GOP was mistreating the elephant.

"Good for the elephant. It’s probably overwhelmed and anxious," wrote former Robert F. Kennedy Jr. staffer Link Lauren. "Leave animals out of this stuff. I love my people in the Texas GOP. My home state. But this is a bad look. Not necessary."

"Fascist republicans were parading around an elephant at the Texas GOP convention and it urinated all over the floor after racist murderous scumbag Greg Abbott’s propaganda speech," wrote singer-songwriter Ricky Davila. "Hurray for the Elephant and (expletive) you to the evil bastards who used that majestic animal as a prop."

Perhaps the most furious response came from HuffPost's Yashar Ali.

"Putting an elephant into a convention hall like this is torturing it beyond the full comprehension of any human being, because we do not possess the sensory capabilities elephants do," wrote Ali. "Elephants have the strongest sense of smell in the animal kingdom. They can smell WATER from many miles away. Now imagine putting this poor elephant into an enclosed space with thousands of people, perfume, food, sweat, cleaning products, flooring, and equipment. This elephant was hit with a massive wall of biological information and sensory overload that we cannot begin to understand."

"Elephants also sense sound and vibration through their FEET, not just their ears," he added. "In the wild, they can communicate with each other from miles away just by sensing communication through their feet. Now imagine what that elephant is experiencing in a convention hall: thousands of human footsteps, sound systems, equipment, metal clanging, concrete, and more. A confusing hell. Finally, hard artificial surfaces, in this case the convention hall floor, are terrible for elephants."

Annette Dombrowski and Chris Tackett, three-time Trump voters from Ohio, expressed deep disappointment with the president during interviews with MS NOW’s Alex Tabet on Friday, citing economic struggles and unfulfilled campaign promises.

The interviews came as a Conn-Selmer manufacturing plant in Eastlake, Ohio, announced closure, with Trump ally John Paulson sending jobs to China, according to reports by “Morning Joe," co-host Jonathan Lemire.

Dombrowski, a plant worker, reported experiencing panic attacks over job losses.

“I've had a couple this past week and I get very emotional over it," she said, "I don't want to work anymore, but I can't afford to retire.”

Dombrowski doesn't think Trump understands her situation because he has not lived it. She criticized his failure to lower grocery prices, noting weekly increases despite his campaign pledges.

Truck driver Chris Tackett, also a three-time Trump voter, said, “He's literally backtracked on every single pitch point he had during his election. All we heard was ‘drill, drill, drill’ during the election. And now all we're getting is drilled into the dirt with these prices. So, I'm not a fan of him.”

Tackett directly addressed Trump: "You've had a year to make it better at this point. Make it better."

Watch the video below.

The U.S. launched a military strike against the leader of a Venezuelan prison gang, Trump announced in a Truth Social post.

"At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Niño Guerrero, the infamous leader of Tren de Aragua," Trump wrote.

Tren de Aragua was at the center of unfounded claims that Venezuelan gangs took over a Colorado city amid the 2024 presidential race.

"Joe Biden opened our Southern Border to millions of Illegal Criminals," Trump wrote, adding that the strike was "coordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela...Tren de Aragua terrorists no longer have safe haven in Venezuela."

World Cup audiences showed their anger with the United States by booing renditions of the Star-Spangled Banner.

Canadian spectators at a watch party jeered nonstop during the U.S. National Anthem at the opening of the U.S. versus Paraguay match in Los Angeles, according to a social media video.

Those boos followed heckling and hissing as the U.S. flag came out during the opening ceremony of the Canada versus Bosnia match in Toronto earlier in the day, per more video.

Trump was notably booed during his appearance at Madison Square Garden when the Knicks played the Spurs during Game 3 of the NBA Finals.

Ben Domenech, the husband of Meghan McCain and opinion editor at the right-wing Daily Wire, told The New York Times' John Guida in an interview published Friday that the GOP should be a lot more concerned about losing Senate races, and particularly that they are too quick to take the Maine race for granted.

This comes after progressive oysterman and harbormaster Graham Platner sailed to an easy win for the Democratic nomination to take on longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins, overcoming a long series of stories about drama in his life and his unsavory past relationships with women, which the GOP hopes will damage him in the general election.

"The interesting thing about this whole focus on Maine is that if you talk to Senate Republican staff and consultants, they’re actually less worried about it than other states," said Domenech. "This is partially because of Platner’s shall we say unique collection of scandals and challenges, but it’s also because of enormous faith in Collins as a survivor."

This may be a little premature, Domenech warned.

"Top Republicans should actually be more concerned," he said. "Platner clearly has energy behind him. He speaks to a desire on the left for a strong message, and he’s shown no signs of bowing to pressure to get out for a more centrist-coded candidate." No one should count Collins out, Domenech continued, but everyone is way too quick to assume this will play out the same as in 2020, "when she came back from what seemed like a deep hole by keeping her campaign hyperlocal."

Domenech went on to add later in the conversation that the GOP thinks it's found the formula to survive the cycle — but he's not so sure.

"Parties that lose midterms tend to learn lessons about this sort of thing," said Domenech. "But Republicans still seem to think that, thanks to redistricting and their advantages in fund-raising, they could buck historical trends and hold on, perhaps even in the House. They’re just scared about gas prices. Personally, I’m skeptical."

A furious GOP Senate aide fired off at Trump for ignoring the issues that matter ahead of the midterms, the conservative Daily Mail reported Friday.

"People are p— the f— off that prices are too high and things are too expensive," a senior GOP aide told the Mail. "I'm just not sure the president really cares or if he's really in tune with what's going on on Capitol Hill."

The aide's concerns came as the November midterms approach, which could cost the GOP Senate its majority. The Daily Mail noted recent controversial moves by Trump, like the appointment of Bill Pulte as acting Director of National Intelligence, his UFC cage match on the White House lawn, and the creation of his anti-weaponization fund.

"Between the Pulte nominations and anti-weaponization fund, the White House has definitely gone rogue and instead pushed priorities without talking to Congressional leadership," another senior GOP aide told The Daily Mail, bringing up that Trump hasn't even seemed to consult Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD).

"We're begging the White House to focus on issues to help Republicans in the midterms," the second aide continued. "But it feels like it's falling on deaf ears."

A third senior GOP congressional aide agreed, saying, "The president's fiery public demands of Congress often seem disconnected from his staff's more deferential posture when dealing with GOP leadership and moderates," The Mail reported.

The congressional aide also complained about "wild swings in who gets thrown under the bus week by week," according to the Mail.

A senior GOP House aide put some of the blame on Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) for hurting House Republicans by defending Trump.

"Speaker Johnson has relied so heavily on Trump to lead the conference and clean up his messes that it's no wonder Trump has taken more of an active role in dictating what he wants to see from Congress," the House aide told The Mail. "Is it good for the institution? Not really, but Speaker Johnson is the one to blame for weakening the speakership."

A fourth Senate GOP aide concluded, "If our coalition falls apart, we will not be able to advance the president's priorities."

Mark Zuckerberg's $14 billion AI gamble hit a wall, and his own employees are losing it on internal calls.

One Meta worker interrupted a livestreamed presentation to thousands of colleagues this week, blasting the company over an open mic and demanding the call's leaders pass along a personal message to a Meta AI executive: "Tell him that he's a piece of s---," according to a recording reviewed by Wired.

A presenter buried their face in their hands, witnesses said. Other employees commented on the "spicy" opening before the meeting was muted.

The outburst was just one symptom of what the outelt described as record-low morale across Meta following CEO Mark Zuckerberg's AI restructuring — which included roughly 8,000 layoffs and the forced reassignment of about 6,500 engineers and product managers to a new unit called Applied AI.

"It's literally the gulag," a current employee told Wired. Another said the menial work is "soul-crushing." Engineers say they have no choice but to join or leave the company entirely, and some have begun referring to themselves as "draftees."

The discontent comes weeks after more than 1,600 Meta employees signed a petition demanding the company halt its program monitoring U.S. workers' clicks and keystrokes to generate AI training data. The new Applied AI unit is part of Zuckerberg's sprawling, multibillion-dollar push to compete with rival AI firms.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) fired back at President Donald Trump after losing her South Carolina gubernatorial primary race, vowing revenge by leaving office in January 2027.

Mace lost to Trump-backed Lt. Gov. Pam Evette, reported The Hill.

Mace posted on X, "People keep asking me: 'Will you get revenge on Trump for ending your political career?' The answer is yes. I'll be adding to the unemployment number in January."

Mace believes she lost Trump's endorsement to Evette after calling for the release of the Epstein Files.

Actor Rob Schneider, a Trump supporter, unexpectedly voiced support for Mace on X, to which Mace responded, "Never thought I'd get my Congressional send-off from Deuce Bigalow."

"Don't worry sir, I promise to be more of a menace than ever. There is nothing to hold me back." she posted on X.

Evette and Attorney General Alan Wilson will face off in a June 23 runoff.

Watch the video below.

A federal judge in Massachusetts scorched President Donald Trump's Interior Department on Friday for orders to remove all exhibits pertaining to race, sexuality, and climate from national parks — and issued an order to reverse all of it.

U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, went into painstaking detail about the significance of the exhibits being torn down under the so-called "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History" order by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

"The National Park system ... serves as a cornerstone of public learning, providing rich and informative signs, exhibits, and interpretive waysides on topics ranging from civil rights to environmentalism," wrote Kelley, citing "the echoes of abolition in John Brown’s Fort in Harpers Ferry ... the genesis of the modern LGBTQ+ civil rights movement at the Stonewall National Monument ... [and] the retreating ice of Glacier National Park."

The park system, she continued, is sometimes called “America’s largest classroom,” and to that end, "the Government’s stewardship of these park sites ... carries a responsibility to present history in full rather than in favored fragments."

Unfortunately, she continued, "Under the guise of promoting American dignity, this Administration seeks to share a limited history by ordering the removal of all signs, displays, and interpretive exhibits at National Parks that do not align with its preferred narrative, thereby telling half-truths."

Similar policies have led to the Trump administration's removal of slavery exhibits from the original Presidents House in Philadelphia, which was also ordered illegal by a court.

All of these removals, Kelley wrote in her opinion, add up to "government-sanctioned erasure and rejection of their histories. It strips the sites of the context that gives them meaning. It degrades the public’s trust in the government, as the Executive Order ignores congressional directives and carelessly razes decades of efforts in the pursuit of its unilateral agenda. These harms are, in all senses of the word, irreparable."

Trump lost his last-minute effort to stop the removal of his name from the Kennedy Center, according to CNN.

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Trump administration's emergency stay request to delay the removal, CNN reported. The decision came as crews were already removing the lettering on the Kennedy Center.

According to CNN, the appeals court didn't explain its reasoning for turning down the Trump administration's request.

A long-simmering rift inside Florida's Republican Party erupted into open warfare on Friday, as far-right activist Laura Loomer unleashed a barrage of social media posts accusing Gov. Ron DeSantis of recruiting a fringe candidate to sabotage Trump-endorsed Rep. Byron Donalds.

In a series of posts on X, Loomer trained her fire on James Fishback, a 30-year-old investor running in the GOP gubernatorial primary, and on former DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw. She accused the governor's team of working with figures she labeled "Neo Nazis and the Muslim Brotherhood" to undermine the race.

"Ron DeSantis recruited James Fishback to run for Governor of Florida after Donald Trump refused to endorse DeSantis's wife," Loomer wrote, claiming the governor is "allergic to getting a real job and wants to have a taxpayer funded salary for the rest of his life."

Trump endorsed Donalds last year and reaffirmed that backing last month. DeSantis has pointedly declined to get behind Donalds and has floated his wife, Casey DeSantis, as a possible successor.

Loomer also alleged in a separate post that Pushaw, whom she described as Fishback's former girlfriend, helped engineer the candidacy at DeSantis's direction. Pushaw told NBC News last month that she is not working for Fishback's campaign, calling the reporting "simply not accurate."

The broadside came hours after DeSantis publicly criticized the Florida GOP for keeping Fishback off the stage at a June 27 sanctioned debate. Only Donalds met the party's polling and fundraising thresholds.

"It's counterproductive when you try to engineer an outcome," the governor said.

Loomer pounced on the line, noting that DeSantis himself signed legislation in 2023 tweaking Florida's "Resign to Run" law to clear the way for his own failed presidential bid against Trump.

"Ron DeSantis is the biggest piece of s--- in Florida," Loomer raged.

Fishback, who has called Donalds a "slave" to his donors and praised followers of white nationalist Nick Fuentes as "impressive," trails Donalds badly in polling. A Republican Party of Florida survey this month put Donalds at 38.8% and Fishback at 4.1%.

Conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson alleged Thursday that President Donald Trump ordered the FBI to shut down its investigation into Thomas Crooks, the man accused of attempting to assassinate the president in 2024.

In his Thursday interview with Mario Nawal, a Lebanese-Australian entrepreneur and prominent podcast host, Carlson claimed former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino told him in December that Trump halted the probe.

Carlson explained he pressed Bongino about Crooks' online presence, which he alleges the FBI misrepresented as nonexistent, according to Newsweek. But Bongino allegedly became hysterical and eventually told him, "Take it up with Trump, he's the one who shut down the investigation."

Carlson said he found no legitimate explanation for Trump shutting down an investigation into his own attempted murder.

The claim comes as fresh scrutiny surrounds the assassination attempt, including newly obtained emails between Crooks and a Butler County Sheriff's deputy, in addition to omissions in toxicology reports.

Bongino vehemently denied Carlson's account Friday, calling him a lying "nepo baby" on X.

“He’s like Teddy Ruxpin, you put a coin in his back and he tells you a story,” he added.

Watch the video below.

Florida Democrats got a surprise bit of good news on Friday: they're running unopposed in a heavily Hispanic, Orlando-area state House district currently held by the GOP — because the incumbent Republican failed to file her paperwork properly.

According to Gabrielle Russon of Florida Politics, "Rep. Paula Stark failed to qualify for re-election in House District 47, so Democrats will win back a blue seat they have long sought out."

Stark, a two-term Republican elected in the 2022 GOP wave election and one of the very few Republicans in the legislature to oppose a ban on government-funded diversity parades, did not file her campaign finance disclosure in time for the deadline, meaning that her candidacy was ruled ineligible.

With Stark disqualified from the ballot, the only candidates running for HD47 are a pair of Democrats: Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida President Jorge Figueroa, and state investigator Anthony Nieves.

It's the latest coup for Florida Democrats as they struggle to regain their footing after years of devastating losses.

In recent months, Democrats have also won back control of the mayoralties of Miami and Boca Raton, as well as the state legislative district that includes Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.

A commercial airline pilot received a baffling response from the FAA after Trump's UFC lights blinded them while landing, MeidasTouch reported.

The pilot spoke anonymously about how powerful lights from the UFC octagon on the White House South Lawn filled the cockpit during a landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. It was "10 times worse than any laser illumination event," the pilot told MeidasTouch.

Landing an aircraft relies heavily on visual references, according to MeidasTouch. The pilot filed reports with the Federal Aviation Administration and NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System.

FAA personnel told the pilot to contact the White House about the safety concerns. MeidasTouch noted that the pilot's reports "raise questions" about how well the fight's organizers coordinated with aviation authorities, considering the illuminated UFC setup's proximity to the "busiest flight corridors."

The FAA recently recommended blinking red lights for Trump's triumphal arch because of how close it is to busy D.C. flight corridors. MeidasTouch also brought up heightened concern ever since an American Airlines flight fatally collided with a U.S. Army helicopter last year.

Nobel Prize-winning economist turned liberal political commentator Paul Krugman broke down for MS NOW's Ari Melber on Friday evening why the SpaceX IPO valuation that just made tech tycoon Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire stinks to high heaven.

'You make several critiques," said Melber. "I wonder if you could start with kind of what I've read to be your most conservative kind of math critique, which is you basically lay out why you don't think this thing is worth what it claims to be worth."

First of all, Krugman said, "Imagine that ... Musk had a spiritual awakening and went to a monastery somewhere. What's left? What is SpaceX? It's a medium-sized satellite launch company? That's an okay business, but it's not a huge business, attached to a really bad AI model. Grok is, by all accounts, terrible ... and that in turn is bolted to what's left of Twitter, which has been turned into a, you know, a right-wing, Nazi-infested wasteland."

It defies belief, Krugman continued, to imagine that company is "worth almost as much as Microsoft, you know, which is are supplying the software that, you know, like it or not, the world runs on. So this is crazy, the valuation. There's no conceivable way."

Musk has a track record of making lofty promises on everything from self-driving cars to Mars colonies.

Ultimately, he said, "this is all it really is a Ponzi scheme," but unlike most Ponzi schemes where all the suckers have to choose to opt into it, "People are being forced effectively to buy into SpaceX because the indexes are including it, even though by the normal rules they should not," and there are now even "universities that have 10 or 15 percent of their endowment invested in SpaceX."

The bottom line, Krugman concluded, is that "this is a rigged system ... this is genuine rigging. Clearly the the system has all been tilted into producing this absurd valuation that makes the world's first trillionaire."

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Paramount Skydance's greenlight to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery will lead to a major shakeup at CNN, warned a political strategist.

The upheaval coming for CNN will make recent events at CBS look like peanuts, political strategist Chai Komanduri said on MS NOW. While Paramount awaited approval from the Trump administration for the Warner Bros. deal, CBS ended "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" and ousted a slew of "60 Minutes" anchors and producers.

"Now, if you can replicate that on CNN, and you can diminish and downsize the voices in opposition to Trump or the criticism of moves of the administration, that gives Trump a lot more power," Komanduri said. "The stories that we have heard out of CBS News will be peanuts compared to the stories that will probably come out from CNN."

He warned Kaitlan Collins, the CNN correspondent who has been the target of Trump attacks, and said the Trump administration is "very much interested in who gets to be the CNN White House correspondent."

The Trump Department of Justice gave Paramount CEO and MAGA ally David Ellison the thumbs-up to acquire Warner Bros. for $110 billion. One of the most notable Warner Bros. properties is CNN, along with streaming services like HBO Max and Paramount+, and the Warner Bros. movie studio, MS NOW anchor Ari Melber noted.

Komanduri added, "One thing Trump wanted was control of CNN," and "that was his entire interest in the deal. Donald Trump and the DOJ weren't interested in who was going to be the next Batman."

Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill reported that Iranian negotiators have enlisted senior psychologists to assess communications intended for President Donald Trump during ongoing peace talks with Washington.

According to Iranian sources, negotiators believe Trump is legitimately mentally ill and is operating in an impaired mental state, Scahill explained during his appearance on the podcast “Breaking Points.”

The Iranian team developed psychological profiles of Trump's condition and began tailoring messages through psychologists before delivering them to mediators.

Sources indicated this approach yielded progress, describing the interaction in clinical terms, "like they're dealing with a patient."

Trump, turning 80 Sunday, has faced renewed health scrutiny following reports of frequent dozing during cabinet meetings, hand bruising, swollen ankles, and a neck rash.

The latest Iranian strategy reflects international concern about Trump's mental and physical fitness during critical diplomatic negotiations.

Watch the video below.

Federal regulators recently looked into why former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) is sitting on $14.5 million in campaign funds, despite not having run a campaign for office in years.

According to NOTUS' Mark Alfred, "The Federal Election Commission reached out in April to Nunes’ mom, Toni Dian Nunes, who is also his campaign committee’s treasurer, for answers about her son’s stockpile" — as this level of war chest is "extraordinary" for someone who has been out of office for years with no intentions of running again, and is larger than the cash on hand for all but the most prolific sitting members of Congress like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

Nunes, who was known in Congress as a bulldog for President Donald Trump and was seen as running interference on Intelligence Committee investigations of Trump's ties to Russia, left Congress at the start of 2022 to head up Trump's Truth Social platform, which has become the president's go-to website to make announcements and air his grievances.

The former congressman was paid millions to stay on, despite the fact that the site has never been profitable and lost $712 million last year. He was ultimately replaced as Truth Social CEO earlier this year.

However, "All the while, Nunes maintained his campaign account," reaching $14.5 million in cash on hand "even as he pays for 'Professional Legal Services' and some payroll expenses," noted the report. Regulators were particularly alarmed at 16 disbursements made in late 2025, most of which went to the law firm Berke Farah LLP and a former congressional aide.

The FEC instructed Nunes in a letter, “If the disbursements constitute personal use, the committee should seek reimbursement for the appropriate amount of the personal use violation from the beneficiary. If the expenses were incurred because candidate is testing the waters for a future election, please specify to which election the disbursements relate.”

A young woman missing for nearly 11 years has resurfaced in Jeffrey Epstein's files, her name pitched to the convicted sex offender by an alleged recruiter now under investigation in France for human trafficking.

A Der Spiegel and ZDF investigation published Friday identifies the woman only as Michele — her last name withheld at her family's request — who was 22 when she walked out of her mother's home in September 2015 and never came back. Her parents only learned her name was in the Epstein documents when reporters told them.

"I fear she's no longer alive," her mother Annett said. "That something was done to her."

The man who apparently put Michele's name in front of Epstein was Daniel Siad, a Swedish modeling scout whose name appears nearly 2,000 times in the documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice. In one email, Siad described himself as a "fisherman" who catches women for Epstein across France, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe.

"You will love her," Siad wrote to Epstein, according to Der Spiegel — his second apparent attempt to broker an introduction, describing Michele in an earlier message as "the girl you missed from Germany."

Michele's father, Vlado, says he once confronted his daughter after overhearing a call with Siad. "Michele said she worked for him as an escort," he recalled. An ex-boyfriend told the outlet he believed "her drug addiction was exploited."

Siad is under investigation in France, where five complaints have been filed against him, including for human trafficking. Separately, two women — a former Swedish model and a German woman — have accused him of rape. Siad denies knowing them and says he has "never in his life" raped anyone. He denies all wrongdoing. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau has said around 20 suspected victims have come forward in the broader French Epstein probe, about 10 of them new.

German prosecutors are expected to decide soon whether to open a formal criminal investigation into Michele's disappearance — a move that came only after Der Spiegel and ZDF published their findings. As recently as March, German police said they saw "no concrete indication of a crime," despite apparently being aware her name appeared in the files of a convicted sex offender.

Her family is still waiting. "We just want to find her," her father said, "no matter what her situation."

A second cell phone belonging to Michele has been sitting with German police for more than 10 years. Authorities told Der Spiegel a forensic analysis had not been possible for technical reasons — and that they now plan to try again.

A veteran "60 Minutes" producer is bolting after clashing with CBS News boss Bari Weiss over a "white genocide" story, per a new report.

Michael Gavshon worked alongside correspondent Anderson Cooper on a story that debunked Trump's claim of "white genocide" in South Africa, which left him exasperated, according to an exclusive by The New York Post. Gavshon announced that he'll leave the show at the end of June, per a memo obtained by the Post.

"The old chestnut, I have stood on the shoulders of giants, couldn't be more true," Gavshon wrote in the memo. He noted that he spent 34 years at "60 Minutes" and 41 years at CBS News.

The story drew heavy scrutiny from Weiss, who is also blamed for firing correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, executive producer Tanya Simon, executive editor Draggan Mihailovich, veteran producer Guy Campanile, and digital operations chief Matthew Polevoy, the Post reported.

Veteran correspondent Scott Pelley was also fired by "60 Minutes" executive producer Nick Bilton after confronting him and saying that Weiss is "murdering" the show.

The Trump administration has filed an appeal of the order to take President Donald Trump's name off the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — and legal experts immediately noticed the filing was so vitriolic and unprofessional that the president himself likely had a hand in writing it.

"Without the name, 'Trump' on the Building, our fundraising will not only come to a halt, but any and all monies raised or committed would be obligated to be returned, refunded, or terminated," stated the filing, adding that "people and companies, who have given, or will be giving, millions of dollars to the Center were only willing to do so with the name 'Trump' on the Building. Many did it because they loved the concept of two Great Presidents, one Republican, one Democrat, working together as one."

The filing also bemoaned the fact that federal courts have shut down Trump's plan to close the Kennedy Center for a two-year renovation period.

"No one else other than President Trump would be in the position of both rebuilding the Building, and raising the money for its operation," said the filing. "The Building is also in bad shape, and unsightly to look at, a constant source of conversation within the Washington, D.C., area. It is unable to compete with other such venues throughout the United States, but when completed, as planned, will be the envy of the World, something that everyone, including this court, will be proud of."

This filing astonished Norm Eisen, former White House ethics counsel and impeachment attorney, who has been litigating the efforts to stop Trump's changes to the Kennedy Center.

"Donald Trump just filed his emergency stay in the DC circuit to keep his name on the Kennedy Center & it is bat(expletive) crazy," wrote Eisen. "He clearly wrote big pieces himself."

Eisen added that, "We have filed our opposition, fighting for the rule of law & the American people."

The Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin faced criticism after attacking New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani during a press conference.

Mullin said neither gets along, and added, "It's shameful, and hopefully people in New York will wise up and get a true leader in there in a few years."

Critics quickly highlighted the irony of an Oklahoma-based federal official attempting to influence New York City elections regarding its highly popular mayor.

Reactions poured into social media.

"Nothing like an Oklahoman with no ties to New York City trying to tell the city what to think about its highly popular mayor," wrote Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.

"New Yorkers definitely want a plumber from Oklahoma telling them what to do," journalist John Harwood wrote.

"The leader of American Gestapo is both dumb as a rock and purely evil," Norman Ornstein, political scientist and contributing editor for The Atlantic, posted.

The controversy was amplified by reports stating Trump and Mamdani maintain a friendly relationship, texting at least twice weekly.

Watch the video below.

Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, was mocked on Friday after he announced that a batch of UFO videos and materials had been released to the public.

Miller shared the government news in a post on X: "New tranche of UFO files and videos just dropped."

Miller's post comes amid a broader Trump administration push to release UFO files that began on May 8 when the Department of War published the first tranche of declassified records through a new portal called the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters, or PURSUE. The initial release contained dozens of photos, videos, witness accounts, and military records dating to the 1940s.

A second batch followed, and Friday's release marked the third tranche of files.

The Trump administration first announced the project in February after former President Barack Obama's televised remarks about extraterrestrial life renewed public interest in the subject. Critics have accused the administration of using the rolling UFO releases to distract from a growing list of political crises, including Trump's war in Iran, the collapse of his anti-weaponization fund, and ongoing scrutiny of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

And the internet was quick to mock Miller over the announcement.

"Finally. The administration releases Stephen Miller’s birth records," Gov Press Office, the official account for the press office of California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, posted on X.

"They're coming to take you home, you ugly f---!" Progressive political commentator Billie Nelson wrote on X.

"You’re a UFO. Ugly F------- Ogre," political commentator and self-described "Quadriplegic dude" Owen Wheelson, who has more than 44,000 followers, wrote on X.

"Are the Epstein Files included?" Writer and political commentator Derek Cressman wrote on X.

"I’m convinced you’re an alien," combat veteran and Republican civic leader Matthew Paul McCaffery wrote on X.