President Donald Trump's Justice Department suffered a humiliation on Thursday as prosecutors were forced to withdraw subpoenas against New York Times reporters.

But buried in the brawl with a federal judge in D.C. over the matter was an exchange that had ominous implications for acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, legal expert Lisa Rubin told MS NOW's Katy Tur.

For starters, said Rubin, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian "told them that there are federal regulations that demand that where the Department of Justice subpoenas either the news media or a third party for information relating to a member of the news media, they have to take all reasonable steps to obtain that information from another source." Only for prosecutor Sean Buckley to admit that hadn't happened.

Ultimately, said Rubin, the judge gave Buckley a choice: "You either withdraw these subpoenas or I will quash them. At that point, Sean Buckley asked for an adjournment of the hearing" and ducked away to make a call before allowing the subpoenas to be withdrawn.

But this isn't where the revelations end, said Rubin.

"The other thing that I think is important for our viewers to know is that subpoenas like this, by regulation, have to be authorized by the Attorney General of the United States. And indeed, Judge Subramanian [got] an admission from Mr. Buckley" that Todd Blanche personally signed off on the whole thing.

That, she added, "was a stunning admission, given the ongoing debate about whether Todd Blanche is going to get confirmed. And as you and I have discussed on air, there are still two votes very much hanging in the balance with respect to Mr. Blanche's nomination."

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President Donald Trump threw a curveball at Saudi Arabia.

According to The Washington Post, Trump added a bombshell condition in a supposedly finalized civil nuclear agreement with the Middle Eastern nation. As of Thursday morning, it now requires the kingdom to normalize relations with Israel and join the Abraham Accords to receive U.S. nuclear technology.

Trump announced the condition via Truth Social, stating, "The Civil Nuclear Deal (There will be no enrichment of material!) being made between the United States Department of Energy and Saudi Arabia, which pertains only to non-military use such as the ones that Iran and UAE (and others) already have, will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords."

The move has thrown the entire agreement into chaos.

Saudi Arabia has consistently refused to join the Abraham Accords if there is no guarantee of Palestinian Statehood, the Middle East Institute wrote. Saudi leaders previously pursued normalization with Israel before the October 7 Hamas attack, but talks have since stalled, the report added.

The nuclear deal itself has generated congressional controversy over proliferation risks and weapons capability expansion.

Watch the video below.

A MAGA lawmaker got testy with a reporter on Thursday after he was pressed over President Donald Trump's behavior during the dignified transfer of four military service members killed in the Iran war.

MeidasTouch reporter Pablo Manríquez asked Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) to comment on Trump not bowing his head while the dead troops were brought to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, as other leaders were showing reverence to the men and women who had made the ultimate sacrifice.

Van Orden appeared annoyed and seethed over the question.

"You people need to quit politicizing our war dead," he said.

"It’s absolutely disgusting. And you're trying to get clicks by it, and that’s shameful. We’re done," Van Orden said, walking off from the reporter on Capitol Hill.

President Donald Trump complained at an EPA headquarters event Thursday that staff had given him "the lowest seat," repeating a grievance that drew international attention at the G7 summit last month.

The event was an expansion of Trump's Ratepayer Protection Pledge — a voluntary initiative first announced during his State of the Union address and formalized with tech companies in March.

The pledge requires AI companies and data center developers to cover their own energy and infrastructure costs rather than passing them to consumers.

Trump made his feelings known early.

"They gave me the lowest seat I've ever sat in," Trump said at the event. "They do that on purpose."

"I don't think it was Chris that did it," Trump said, walking it back slightly and nodding to Energy Secretary Chris Wright. "Chris wouldn't do that."

Trump's annoyance with having the shortest seat surfaced last month at the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains.

The president was caught on a live microphone struggling with a chair he said was lower than everyone else's at the table, according to International Business Times. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney resolved the standoff by offering Trump his own seat, which Trump accepted.

The Thursday event at the White House marked a significant expansion of the data center pledge.

It now spans more than 200 organizations — including 23 governors, more than 150 utilities and cooperatives, and 28 data center developers — covering roughly 80 percent of the power delivered to American homes and businesses, according to the White House.

The expansion comes as public opposition to data centers has surged ahead of the midterm elections. The Associated Press reported the pledge's first round in March did little to comfort voters already grappling with affordability concerns.

"Poll after poll shows Americans turning against data centers," analyst Paul Waldman argued. Trump "seems to have decided to become the face of an issue on which he's on the wrong side of two-thirds of the public."

Back at the podium Thursday, Trump was candid about the limits of his own grasp on the policy.

"Nobody's ever explained to me why it's so much electricity, why you need so much," Trump said at the event. "Nor did I care that much, to be honest with you."

President Donald Trump suggested on Thursday that tech companies need to overcome resistance to AI data centers.

Trump made the remarks at a speech unveiling his "Ratepayer Protection Pledge" at the Environmental Protection Agency.

"You have to convince your communities how great these things are," said Trump. "You can't fight it. You have to go with it."

The construction of data centers around the country, encouraged by the Trump administration as it fast-tracks them past environmental rules, has emerged as a hot-button issue, with many projects becoming politically poisonous and overwhelming majorities of voters across partisan lines opposing construction near them.

Some people object to data centers over their perceived waste of local resources. Others have come to view the issue as a proxy for the spread of AI technology in general.

In many GOP-dominated states, like Florida, the debate over data center construction has created deep fractures in the Republican coalition, with Republicans from various wings of the party at each other's throats over how to handle development.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt ignited an internet firestorm Thursday after commenting that the new Saudi nuclear deal would put America First.

During a White House press conference, a reporter pressed her to explain why this negotiation was underway.

"Why does Saudi Arabia get a civilian nuclear deal but Iran doesn’t get a civilian nuclear deal?" the reporter asked.

"This agreement in particular, as it's been discussed thus far, does give priority access for American companies and the Saudi nuclear energy program, which will ultimately benefit American industry workers and supply chain," Leavitt said. "So, the deal that has been discussed thus far and will continue to be discussed absolutely puts America first, and that's obviously very important to this president."

Political experts and commentators weighed in on Leavitt's remarks.

"Remind me again, where 15th (sic) of the 19 9/11 hijackers were from? Remind me again of which government was known and found to have been associated with the 9/11 attacks? Oh! That’s right, Saudi Arabia. But yep it’s about ‘Murica 1st!" Democratic strategist Corbin Trent, former communications director for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and former Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) team member who now runs the Super PAC A Fight Worth Having, wrote on X.

"15 of the 19 9/11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia? As was the mastermind, Osama bin Laden," Sarah Larchmont, progressive political commentator, wrote on X.

"Saudi Arabia flew planes into American buildings on 9/11 and chopped up a journalist they didn’t like," wrote Jim Stewartson, writer and political commentator, in a post on X. Stewartson was referring to the murder of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi, who was targeted by a hit squad with ties to the highest levels of Saudi Arabia's government.

"A $1B Trump complex is not putting America first. Anything that prioritizes a Trump or billionaire pocket over the security and wellbeing of the American people is not America first," political scientist Natascha Dea Burdeinei wrote on X.

"Actually, it puts Saudi Arabia first and the Trump family benefits," X account PNW Area Man, who frequently comments on politics, wrote on X.

A Secret Service member of the Vice Presidential Protective Division faces potential criminal inquiry for allegedly leaking information about Vice President J.D. Vance.

The leak involved the security detail's mockery merchandise, according to CNN sources and Daily Beast reports.

The detail created coins, stickers, and badges mocking Vance with slogans including "Bobcat OTR Survivors Club" and "Advance. OTR. Repeat," according to MS NOW.

Bobcat is Vance's Secret Service codename.

The suspected leaker has been placed on administrative leave, according to a statement by U.S. Secret Service Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi. Additionally, he explained, the individual faces "potential criminal inquiry, involving allegations of compromising operational and information security."

In a statement shared with NBC News, Guglielmi added, “While we will not comment on the specifics of this matter, one principle is unequivocal: any conduct that potentially threatens the safety of a protectee will not be tolerated.”

The leaks revealed widespread frustration within Vance's security detail over what they characterized as hastily arranged personal and family travel requests.

Watch the video below.

Federal prosecutors in President Donald Trump's Justice Department have withdrawn a controversial set of subpoenas against New York Times reporters.

According to the Associated Press, the subpoena withdrawals "followed a remarkable back and forth between a visibly irritated Judge Arun Subramanian and government attorneys. They come at a time when the Trump administration is vigorously going after news organizations whose reporting and coverage it doesn’t like — and also trying to crack down on leaks inside the government."

The subpoenas applied to three New York Times reporters who broke news about security problems with the Qatari jet intended to be the president's new Air Force One.

The leak of that information prompted a massive scramble at the DOJ to find who was responsible for spilling it, which focused on trying to extract it from the reporters themselves, a move that some have argued likely violated the DOJ's own press freedom guidelines.

In the exchange in court, Subramanian said he "otherwise would have granted the newspaper’s request to reject the subpoenas because laws and regulations pertaining to subpoenas served on journalists maintain that they should be issued as a last resort in an investigation," forcing DOJ's hand to withdraw them.

A legal expert told CNN on Thursday that President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers' attempts to prosecute former special counsel Jack Smith could backfire.

David Aronberg, former state attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida, responded to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, who has requested the Department of Justice consider criminal charges against Smith. Jordan has alleged that Smith misled Congress about the phone records obtained from members of Congress during the 2020 election investigation.

Smith, who formerly prosecuted Trump, now faces possible prosecution himself. The DOJ has said it will investigate all evidence of criminal conduct.

Trump has weighed in on Jordan's request, posting "Justice at last?" on his Truth Social platform.

Aronberg argued that Smith did not lie to Congress.

"They're trying to twist Jack Smith's words to make it look like he lied, but he did not," Aronberg said. "What we're seeing here is a political game, not a serious matter for the courts."

"If you want to blame Jack Smith for not proactively offering more information to anticipate what the senators and members of the House were thinking at the time, then so be it," Aronberg added. "But it's not a crime. And so this is political retribution, but it's not going anywhere. We saw what happened with Letitia James and James Comey already. This is going to result in more egg on the faces of prosecutors if they decide to."

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was implicated in a cover-up, lawmakers concluded on Thursday as a member of Jeffrey Epstein's circle evaded questions from a House committee.

Former Barclays CEO Jes Staley appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as part of its investigation into the late convicted sex offender Epstein. The session was voluntary — Staley was not under oath — and Democrats said that alone told the story.

Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA) said Staley "stood at the center of Jeffrey Epstein's inner circle" and immediately turned the hearing into a fight over Blanche's pending Senate confirmation as attorney general.

"The wealth, the power, and the privilege that individuals like Jeffrey Epstein and Jes Staley enjoyed have shielded them from accountability," Walkinshaw said.

Blanche has served as acting attorney general since April, NPR reported. His Senate confirmation for the permanent post remains uncertain, with Democrats unified in opposition.

Walkinshaw said Blanche had the power to reopen the Department of Justice's investigation into Epstein and pursue individuals like Staley, who face what the congressman called "credible accusations of rape and sexual abuse" — but "refuses to do it."

"Any member of the United States Senate who votes to confirm Todd Blanche is complicit in the cover-up of the Epstein files," Walkinshaw said.

Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) echoed that charge, calling the voluntary format a deliberate shield.

"This is a failure by the majority to conduct a real investigation under oath," Stansbury said.

Lawmakers said Staley claimed inside the hearing room that he could not remember the details of his sexual encounters with women connected to Epstein.

"He could not recall," Stansbury said. "Over and over again, he could not recall."

Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) described an email exchange in which Staley told Epstein he needed something while in London. Shortly after, she said, a woman received an email from Epstein containing the address of Staley's hotel room.

"There are clear fact patterns here that Mr. Staley is conveniently not recalling," Ansari said, "because he is not under oath, because he is not compelled to answer, because of the agreement that he has with the Republicans."

Staley first met Epstein in 2000, when he ran JPMorgan Chase's private bank and Epstein was a client, according to Reuters. He later became CEO of Barclays, but resigned in 2021 after U.K. regulators launched a probe. Last year, a British court upheld a ban barring him from the U.K. financial industry, ruling he had misled investigators about ties regulators found went "beyond professional."

"I don't know how else to feel besides disgusted — by both humanity and what we are calling a justice system, led by Todd Blanche, who is engaging in this cover-up," Ansari said.

One Democratic lawmaker is fed up with how the GOP is handling the investigation into the crimes committed by disgraced financier and convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, joined CNN's Brianna Keilar on "CNN News Central" to discuss an ongoing interview of former Barclays CEO Jes Staley before the committee on Thursday. Garcia said that Staley was untruthful with the committee during the interview, a problem that was created by the way committee chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) structured the interview.

"[Staley] is denying having any sort of close relationship or friendship with Epstein, which is completely ridiculous," Garcia said. "And all we have to do is read exchanges where literally there is reference to a best friendship there."

Garcia noted that the committee possesses thousands of pages of documents outlining Staley's relationship with Epstein, which Garcia characterized as "close."

However, the committee seemed to have problems with getting Staley to be forthcoming about their relationship because he was not under oath, meaning there are few, if any, ways for lawmakers to hold him accountable for lying.

"He, like others that we've interviewed, is not under oath, and, I think, is empowered to not be fully honest with the committee," Garcia said. "And so what we have said is ... we're going to bring back [these witnesses] under oath to answer these questions. It's ridiculous and, quite frankly, shameful on the investigation that Chairman Comer continues to not have witnesses under oath."

A Border Patrol agent was indicted after court documents said he "accelerated" his vehicle into a suspect who was walking calmly and posed no threat to officers.

Border Patrol agent Raymundo Ramos Jr., 41, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to MyRGV. A Cameron County grand jury indicted him on June 10, MyRGV reported.

Ramos was working as a Drug Enforcement Administration task force officer on Jan. 31, 2025, when the incident occurred during a joint immigration enforcement operation in Harlingen, Texas, a joint investigation by the Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department Offices of Inspector General confirmed.

The agent's target that day was Alejandro Martinez-Castaneda, a Mexican national whom officers were trying to arrest for an immigration violation, according to MyRGV.

Ramos told a Harlingen police investigator that Martinez-Castaneda was running away, so he drove toward him to make the arrest, hit his brakes, and his vehicle slid into him, MyRGV reported.

Surveillance video from a home on East Fillmore Avenue showed Martinez-Castaneda walking — not running — when Ramos's vehicle struck him, according to KRGV. Investigators said they heard no sound of braking on the video and found no skid marks at the scene, MyRGV reported.

A homeowner who witnessed the crash said Ramos drove "super quick" and struck Martinez-Castaneda with no lights, sirens, verbal commands, or other officers present, according to MyRGV.

Martinez-Castaneda told investigators that he never tried to run.

The witness said Ramos "accelerated in his direction, drove directly toward him and hit him with his vehicle," and that he never saw emergency lights activated, MyRGV reported. Martinez-Castaneda said he spent four days in the hospital and later had surgery on his back, neck and leg.

A federal special agent who reviewed the case concluded that Ramos's use of force "was not within the scope of a Law Enforcement Official's authorized use of force," MyRGV reported.

The agent noted that Martinez-Castaneda was "walking calmly in a non-threatening manner" and posed no danger to the public, according to MyRGV.

Ramos declined a voluntary interview with investigators in March 2026, according to MyRGV.

His attorney, Nat C. Perez, is seeking to move the case from state court to federal court — meaning a federal judge, not a state one, would handle it.

Perez argued that because Ramos was carrying out a federal immigration operation, he has a federal defense against the state charges, MyRGV reported.

Court documents note that federal agencies reviewed the incident internally and allowed Ramos to keep working for roughly a year before the state prosecution began, according to MyRGV.

Ramos is scheduled for arraignment on Aug. 3 in the 445th state District Court in Cameron County. No federal charges have been filed, according to court records.

Sen. Darline Graham Nordone (R-SC), appointed to fill her late brother Lindsey Graham's South Carolina seat with President Donald Trump's endorsement, faces fierce backlash from MAGA supporters over a $100 donation to state Sen. Katrina Shealy, who opposed abortion restrictions.

The newly sworn senator attempted damage control on social media, declaring, "As a mother, I know that welcoming children into this world is God's greatest gift," according to the Daily Beast.

"I'm proud to be pro-life and stand up for the unborn and expecting moms," she wrote.

She published a list of seven anti-abortion bills she supports, though some duplicate existing laws.

MAGA supporters created.

"You’re good friends with Katrina Shealy, the former South Carolina state senator who is PRO-ABORTION and OPPOSED the Heartbeat bill—AND you even donated to her campaign," replied Kelly McCarty, a social media influencer.

"Lies," user Teri wrote, "Your BFF is disgraced former state senator Katrina Shealy who was famous for consistently blocking pro-life legislation during her tenure."

"Seems you are having a hard time with the truth," user Jon Lee Pettimore commented, "Just words, you donated to pro-abortion SC candidates.. You do realize that public record?"

Watch the video below.

A Democratic lawmaker and veteran called out President Donald Trump on Thursday, dubbing him and his team "an absolute clown car" as Americans' frustration over the Iran war mounts.

Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) told MeidasTouch that as the Middle East conflict grows, it appears increasingly clear that Trump and his administration do not have a strategy for the war — and it's costing more lives as a result.

House lawmakers on Thursday voted to pass a war powers resolution, rebuking Trump's war. Ryan described his annoyance over the conflict, arguing that lawmakers do not want to send the "next generation" to another military conflict in the region.

He also described his anger over Trump's behavior at Dover Air Force Base on Wednesday during the dignified transfer of four fallen military service members who died in recent days following strikes.

"You see there's a photo with every leader with their head down, bowed, and he’s just staring off into the abyss. It’s just pathetic," Ryan said.

"What do you expect from a five-time draft dodger who has no clue what this is? The American people see this," he added.

"This is a guy that has never served a single day in uniform but is willing to send other people’s kids to fight in his wars while his own sons are profiting off all these defense companies’ stocks that they own," Ryan said. "It’s absolutely disgusting. It's absolutely un-American and every Republican needs to vote yes on this war powers resolution or else their name is on this. I think increasingly, the blood of our fallen is certainly on Hegseth's hands and Trump's hands, and every Republican who continues this war and doesn't stop it today — they're accountable for that."

A Republican senator admitted that Americans were feeling "pain" from President Donald Trump's decision to launch a war against Iran.

Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) appeared Thursday on Fox News, where he told anchor Sandra Smith that fuel costs would go back down once hostilities cooled after the unraveling of the memorandum of understanding signed last month.

"It's important, I don't discount it," the Indiana Republican said. "I hear from Hoosiers that talk about high gas prices, and we want gas prices to come down, and the good news, as you saw when the president signed the short-term [memorandum of understanding] with the Iranians, you saw gas prices immediately go down; now they are creeping back up."

The 14-point framework agreed to by the Trump administration mandated a permanent ceasefire, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and 60 days to negotiate a nuclear agreement, but the terms of that memorandum are effectively dead with the resumption of military strikes.

"We know that as soon as we strike a deal and end Iran's ability to have a nuclear weapon and we can finish the war," Banks said, "we know gas prices will immediately go down to where they need to be, lower than we've ever seen before because of President Trump's energy policies."

"This is temporary," he added. "I feel the pain. I hear this from Hoosiers as well. Gas prices will go down as soon as Iran does the right thing and ends their nuclear program."

Four months into his tenure as the head of the Department of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin is not meeting White House expectations.

According to a report from NBC News, the former Republican senator from Oklahoma serving as secretary of the troubled agency is getting buffeted on all sides over making moves that have not been okayed by the White House.

Mullin's problems stem from a fundamental violation of White House protocol: making major policy decisions without explicit presidential approval. Administration officials are openly critical of his independence, viewing it as tone-deaf to the way things are handled.

The breaking point came when Mullin unilaterally ordered ICE agents nationwide to halt vehicle stops following fatal shootings in Texas and Maine. The policy pause was announced without White House consultation—a cardinal sin in Trump's command structure.

As the report noted, Trump reversed Mullin's decision within 24 hours, publicly contradicting his own DHS secretary and asserting that traffic stops remain essential to immigration enforcement.

"We must be strong, tough and smart and we CANNOT give up one of ICE's most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!" Trump declared on social media. "Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal's hands."

Administration insiders were blunt about Mullin's "misstep," telling NBC News, " "The decision to pause vehicle stops was '100%' a bad move and that it was done without White House sign off."

The message to cabinet secretaries is unambiguous: check with the president before implementing major policy shifts. "Every Cabinet secretary knows that they have to come to the White House for major policy decisions," the official stated. "The president sees, hears, reads everything."

According to NBC News, "Mullin misspoke in a CNN interview last month about a Supreme Court ruling on immigrants from Haiti and Syria, saying roughly 350,000 could be eligible to apply for legal status when they weren’t, annoying some in the administration, the DHS official said."

Questions about Mullin's fitness for the role are mounting like his predecessor, Kristi Noem, with NBC pointing out that Trump cycled through four homeland security secretaries during his first term, frequently blaming them when border crossings spiked.

There are currently no announced plans to replace Mullin, the report states, but internal concerns are escalating over his choice of Lance Schroyer to lead ICE. Schroyer, nominated as ICE director, is viewed as dangerously "unprepared" for the role.

DHS insiders describe Schroyer's knowledge of immigration law and policy as "extremely limited." Multiple officials privately worry his nomination hearing will expose dangerous gaps in his expertise.

The nomination has generated friction at the highest levels. White House border czar Tom Homan and other senior officials are reportedly unenthusiastic about Schroyer's selection.

"Homan and others aren't particularly thrilled with him," according to administration sources.

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt should be fielding questions about Jared Kushner's $2 billion tie to Saudi Arabia, a media expert fumed Thursday.

Judd Legum, founder of the Substack Popular.info, took to social media to share his disgust after Leavitt was grilled about President Donald Trump's controversial nuclear deal at a White House press conference.

His frustration appeared in the form of a list of news outlets that covered the US-Saudi nuclear deal without mentioning that Jared Kushner, Trump’s senior White House aide, is getting paid by the Saudi government."

Legum's list included The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Associated Press, Reuters, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, The Guardian, Semafor, The Washington Post, Fox News, The New York Post, BBC, Newsweek, and MS NOW.

Kushner launched his private equity firm Affinity Partners shortly after leaving the White House in 2021 after Trump's first administration, reports show.

The Florida-based company received a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, multiple reports show.

The deal drew scrutiny from ethics watchdogs given Kushner's role shaping U.S.-Saudi relations, including his involvement in defending MBS after the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

On his Substack, Legum dubbed the coverage, "A media blackout for Kushner’s corruption."

President Donald Trump's $10 billion BBC defamation lawsuit threatens to expose his repeated legal losses to attorney and former special counsel Jack Smith during sealed grand jury proceedings.

The BBC filed a reply brief Wednesday, asking Chief Judge James Boasberg to unseal rulings from the Smith investigation in which courts uniformly rejected Trump's attempts to shield witnesses from testifying under presidential executive privilege.

According to the Smith report, between August 2022 and March 2023, courts rejected Trump's privilege claims in five sealed proceedings, covering 14 witnesses.

Trump is now asserting identical privilege claims to block the BBC from reaching the same witnesses and evidence regarding January 6 incitement allegations, per the reply brief.

The BBC told Boasberg it would be fundamentally unjust to allow Trump to hide behind "already-rejected privilege claims."

Additionally, U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett of the Southern District of Florida ruled Trump must surrender financial records tied to more than 400 companies, Politico reports.

The trial is scheduled for February 2027.

Watch the video below.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is facing mounting pressure from within the MAGA movement over the fate of Andrew and Tristan Tate, the manosphere influencers arrested last week on sex trafficking charges, according to a new report.

Rubio holds the authority to block or allow the Tate brothers' extradition to the United Kingdom — a decision that has become the focus of an increasingly vocal campaign from prominent figures on the right, The Bulwark reported Thursday.

Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ) has emerged as one of the most outspoken advocates for the brothers, according to the report.

Hamadeh described their prosecution in both the UK and Romania, where they have for years faced rape and sex trafficking allegations, as politicized "lawfare" and called on the Trump administration to refuse extradition of the dual American-British citizens.

Other right-wing figures, including podcaster Nick Fuentes and commentator Patrick Bet-David, have echoed similar defenses, with Bet-David going so far as to call the Tates an inspiration to fatherless children.

The pressure comes despite — or perhaps because of — a documented pattern of goodwill between the Tates and figures close to Trump, the Bulwark reported.

The brothers have reportedly had friendly exchanges with Barron Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and Trump-aligned official Ric Grenell reportedly engaged with Romanian officials during the years the Tates were barred from leaving that country, shortly before travel restrictions were lifted.

The Tates were also reportedly socializing with administration figures in Washington just days before their arrest.

At a press conference this week, Rubio declined to say whether the State Department would intervene, telling reporters he didn't see a role for the department "at this moment" and that he wouldn't "opine on something that's still working through a legal process."

That carefully hedged language has left open the possibility of future involvement, even as both Rubio and Trump are reportedly not currently planning to act on the brothers' behalf, the Bulwark reported.

Adding to the pressure, Tate attorney Joseph McBride — a MAGA-aligned lawyer who has also represented Jan. 6 defendants — has been amplifying supportive commentary from administration-adjacent figures online, including a tweet from GSA official Paul Ingrassia referencing the "presumption of innocence."

President Donald Trump's "fix is in" rhetoric could compel his biggest fans to skip voting, a new analysis contends.

Miles Taylor, chief of staff in the Department of Homeland Security during the president's first term, argued Thursday that Trump's constant pushing on the SAVE America Act is fundamentally flawed.

That's terrible news for GOP candidates on the November ballot who are already looking at an uphill battle, Taylor said.

Trump's approval ratings have collapsed to disastrous levels, recent reports show.

A recent poll shows just 30 percent of Americans approve of his performance—catastrophic territory achievable only when millions of your own supporters have abandoned you. Most damaging: his economic approval ratings hit their worst marks of either his term.

With that in mind, Taylor argued Trump was making a big mistake.

"The real headline is that the president is sabotaging his own side’s turnout in the very act of seeking to meddle in the election," he wrote. "It’s like a burglary that’s backfiring in real time. Trump is trying mightily to break into democracy’s back door but making such a racket with his crowbar that he’s woken up the whole neighborhood."

Pointing to Trump's infamous 2024 claim he would fix elections "so good, you're not gonna have to vote," Taylor argued the president's boast will boost complacency when he should be pushing for his MAGA fans to get off the couch.

Meanwhile, Trump has motivated Democrats.

"Every lever he pulls to 'tilt' the playing field risks convincing his own voters they don’t need to show up at all," he wrote before predicting, "Again, each of these election-rigging maneuvers tells the MAGA base: relax, the fix is in! Unfortunately for the Republican Party, the data shows its voters are getting the message. They’re becoming more indifferent."

He then quipped, "The president wanted to mount the biggest midterm election operation in modern history. Well, congratulations, Mr. President. You did it. Your 'get out the vote' operation is massive. The only catch is that it’s inspiring the opposition, not your own team."

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Thursday that President Donald Trump has used Truth Social to announce changes to the Saudi nuclear deal, sparking backlash online.

Leavitt told reporters during a White House press conference that Trump had made the public comments despite the fact that he had not consulted them this time.

"As you know, the president just put this statement out a few hours ago," Leavitt said. "I don't believe he's had a call with MBS in the hours since. However, this is something that he has raised in previous conversations and has also said many times in the past."

Social media users responded to the change.

Journalist Aaron Rupar shared a clip from the press conference and noted the significant shift.

"Leavitt confirms that Trump is unilaterally changing the terms of the Saudi nuclear deal via Truth Social posts without even contacting any Saudi officials," Rupar wrote on X.

Others were quick to point out the president's move.

"This is why Trump is a failure on the world stage," Vince Wilson, a YouTube creator and liberal political commentator, wrote on X. "It’s all theatrics."

U.S. politics and culture historian Joanne Freeman suggested Trump's post represented a repeating pattern.

"He will never stick with any deal," Freeman wrote. "He will never accept that he has lost…anything. He sees nothing but himself. Pretty clear by this point."

Oeishik a political commentator, with more than 11,000 followers, openly mocked Trump's tactic.

"That's one way to do diplomacy, I guess. In this upside-down world," Oeishik wrote.

Denison Barb, a progressive commentator with more than 19,000 followers, responded on X, When you have a demented old man at the helm no one knows what's going on."

Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) sparked ridicule Thursday after citing a dinner at Vice President JD Vance's home as evidence he was meeting his oversight responsibilities on the Iran war.

During a Thursday broadcast on Fox Business, host Stuart Varney asked whether the Senate should step in and exercise more control over the conflict.

"I was at Vice President Vance's residence recently having dinner, talking about Iran, so we have lots of opportunity to do oversight," Daines said.

"That is not oversight," Laura Rozen, a national security journalist, fired back on X.

Former NBC News host Chuck Todd quipped, "When was the VP placed under oath for this oversight dinner, before or after the first course?"

The war began with U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Feb. 28, and Democrats have forced roughly 10 war powers votes in the Senate since, according to CBS News — with most Republicans voting to block them.

Vance hosted Republican senators for dinner on June 24, The Hill reported, hours after President Donald Trump publicly clashed with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) over Cassidy's vote for a war powers resolution the previous day.

Just hours following that dinner — and a separate Situation Room briefing with Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff — Cassidy reversed his vote on a nearly identical resolution, CNN reported.

Daines voted against the resolution that passed the Senate 50-48 on June 23, according to The Hill, and showed no signs of wavering Thursday.

"I think it's unconstitutional, and I'll be voting against it," Daines said.

An Agriculture Department push to root out "fraud" in the nation's largest food aid program is facing unexpected resistance from two Republican-led states that say the administration's own numbers don't add up, according to a new report.

Ohio and Georgia, the first states examined under the initiative led by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, told USDA's inspector general that its fraud-detection methods were flawed and its findings inaccurate, according to documents obtained by Politico.

“The basis for Ohio’s disagreement is twofold — proper audit procedures were not followed, and 2) the specific data requested by OIG was insufficient and as a result does not accurately reflect Ohio’[s] administration of SNAP," the state said in a response to the inspector general's initial findings.

The pushback complicates months of public messaging from Rollins, who has repeatedly claimed "significant fraud" in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, including unverified assertions that beneficiaries are driving luxury cars.

In Ohio's case, the inspector general initially flagged $59.7 million in potential fraud. After the state disputed the findings, that figure was cut to $13.3 million — and Ohio is contesting even that number. State officials say at least 93 percent of the original claims weren't fraud at all, but routine administrative matters. One flagged case involved a person over 110 years old, wrongly suspected of being a fraudulent recipient; Ohio provided Social Security records confirming the person was alive and eligible.

Georgia's dispute was even sharper. The inspector general initially estimated nearly $300 million in potential fraud in the state — a figure later reduced by about 95 percent after Georgia challenged the underlying data, according to a former USDA employee familiar with the review.

Former department officials say the pattern suggests legitimate payments and clerical errors are being swept into fraud totals. Alan Shannon, a former USDA payment accuracy specialist, said he's never seen the agency characterize routine errors this way, calling the approach "highly unusual," and another official with the agency criticized the administration's efforts.

“It concerns me when they’re potentially inflating the findings and undermining public trust in the programs,” said Stacy Dean, the former deputy undersecretary of USDA’s Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services division.

“They’re there to enhance public trust in the programs by being that watchdog, but when they don’t take the time to check their work and to be sure of its accuracy, they can erode public confidence in these critical nutrition programs.”

USDA Inspector General John Walk defended the process, saying preliminary findings are shared with states as part of a normal back-and-forth before final conclusions are reached, and pushed back on the characterization of the exchanges as "disagreements and disputes."

The dispute lands amid a broader administration campaign — backed by Vice President JD Vance and formalized through a March executive order — to publicize fraud in federal benefit programs. It also coincides with SNAP enrollment dropping by roughly 4.3 million people over the past year, following stricter eligibility rules passed by Republicans last year.

With inspections still pending for states including Texas, Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, Ohio and Georgia's experience suggests the administration's final tallies could fall well short of the sweeping fraud claims driving its messaging campaign.

One of President Donald Trump's latest jokes drew criticism from CNN panelists.

During Wednesday's Georgia rally at a high school in Marietta, Georgia, a wealthy Atlanta suburb, Trump claimed Democrats invented the term "affordability." He also said, before his first press conference, he had never heard the word.

Trump told the crowd, "First time I heard it, it was a word, you know, made up by the Democrats: 'affordability.'"

"They said, 'affordability.' I said, 'I've been here one day. Don't worry, I'll take care of it.' And we're taking care of it."

The joke shocked CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront" panelists. Host Erin Burnett called the joke "stunning."

Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson rejected Trump's claim as false, noting, "He doesn't want to talk about the economy right now, but if you look at every single poll, it's still the number one issue that people will vote on. So, affordability is not a hoax."

Carlson criticized Trump for blaming Biden for current economic conditions, as well.

"President Trump promised that on his very first day in office, he would reduce prices for the American consumer. And until he starts focusing on that, he is making the whole scenario for other republicans in the midterms incredibly treacherous," she added.

Watch the video below.

Late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel hit CBS with backhanded praise after its canning of Stephen Colbert sent ratings at its rival network soaring.

In an interview with Variety, Kimmel — whose show airs on ABC — credited an almost 20 percent increase in viewership to the head honchos at CBS who pulled the plug on Colbert's show to gain favor with President Donald Trump.

"The ratings are very strong, which we are very grateful to CBS for their wisdom," he sarcastically told Variety. "We were doing pretty well before that, but that really helped."

According to the Variety report, Kimmel's June performance was historically high: 3.15 million viewers averaged per episode — the show's best monthly audience in 23 years.

Compared to May, viewership jumped 17 percent. Among adults 18-49, the numbers were even more dramatic — a 109 percent surge.

CBS blamed poor performance for its cancellation of "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert," though the decision was widely criticized as being part of its broader effort to appease Trump, whose allies have targeted the network for alleged bias. Colbert's displaced audience appears to have migrated directly to Kimmel's timeslot.

When asked if "orphaned" Colbert viewers found refuge on ABC, Kimmel told Variety, "I've always thought of our show as an orphanage."

Making the case for late-night comedy, Kimmel observed, "It's silly how people go wild about a podcast that's No. 5, and the numbers still don't even compare to a television show. There’s still a lot of people watching late night television, and I include the other shows in that. And there are still a lot of people looking at our shows on YouTube the next day, and there’s a lot of people who are interested in what we have to say."

President Donald Trump's losing the youth vote to a rising politician who has arisen out of left field, according to a new report.

Young Gen Zers who supported Trump in hopes he could ease their sense of institutional distrust linked to the Covid pandemic are now turning toward municipal government for their potential leader, The i Paper reported Thursday.

"Outsider candidates are having a moment because they're appealing to the fact that so many young people feel like everything around them is broken," said Gen Z analyst Rachel Jafanza. "They want something new."

Political scientist David Schultz argued a 2024 youth shift toward Trump appears to reflect a temporary frustration rather than a lasting realignment, particularly as Trump's second term has been marked by broken campaign promises and an unpopular war with Iran.

TikTok creator Clarkson Lawson, who built a following posting pro-Trump content after the pandemic, now describes his politics as center-left, saying many of his earlier views "didn't hold up to debate."

“I didn’t really start posting about politics until after Covid,” he told The i Paper. “Trump’s messaging of ‘institutions are bad, they all need to be burned down’ really resonated with me."

Now, the youth realignment that helped deliver Trump the White House looks less like a permanent shift and more like a coalition in search of its next outsider.

Vice President JD Vance, 41, is widely seen as Trump's heir apparent, but that's not the politician named in the report.

It's New York City's 34-year-old mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has been plunged into a new nightmare as President Donald Trump demolished an effort to escape having his Immigration and Customs Enforcement brutality tied to her, reported The New Republic.

Collins has been immersed in Trump's policies after a killing in Biddeford, Maine, in which ICE agents boxed in a vehicle and shot Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian immigrant described as a devoted father who was in the country legally. His three-year-old daughter was seen crying at the scene.

The dead man reportedly wasn't ICE's intended target, and the agent who fired, David Brouillette, has been described by relatives as violent and mentally unstable, even allegedly threatening violence against his ex-wife.

Collins denounced the killing — but after she backed a $70 billion new slush fund for ICE and "opposed an amendment, offered by Democratic Senator Alex Padilla, that would have required ICE agents to wear active body cameras on duty and made footage available to Congress," the New Republic reported.

That "could now create bigger problems for Collins" as the agents involved in the shooting weren't wearing cameras, according to the report.

Meanwhile, Collins tried to claim credit for a cooling down of tensions. But just hours after she publicly credited herself with getting Trump's Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to halt ICE vehicle stops following a deadly shooting in Maine, Trump blew up her victory lap entirely — ordering the stops to resume immediately.

Polls show Collins is in a tie with Democratic Party challenger Troy Jackson.

With Trump publicly overriding the very policy Collins claimed to have won, her attempt to appear tough on ICE may end up making her look powerless instead, the report concluded: "The violence and the terror are the point. Broadcasting that ugly fact far and wide matters a whole lot more to Trump than Collins’s political survival does.

"And in the end, there’s always this: She just voted to fund a whole lot more of it."

The Secret Service agent who revealed how much Vice President J.D. Vance's security detail dislikes him might now face a criminal investigation because of it, according to a new report.

A member of the Vice Presidential Protective Division could face "potential criminal inquiry" over suspicions he shared Vance's security detail involving special coins, stickers and badges made to mock him, according to CNN sources and a Daily Beast report.

MS NOW, the outlet that first revealed Vance's security detail was "fed up," noted the mockery merch features slogans such as “Bobcat OTR Survivors Club” and “Advance. OTR. Repeat."

Bobcat is Vance’s Secret Service codename, according to CNN.

The person believed to be responsible for leaking this detail to the press has been put on administrative leave and Vance’s security detail will now be subjected to an internal review, sources told CNN.

Anthony Guglielmi, U.S. Secret Service Chief of Communications, said, “A member of the Vice Presidential Protective Division is the subject of an administrative investigation, and potential criminal inquiry, involving allegations of compromising operational and information security," he said.

“While we will not comment on the specifics of this matter, one principle is unequivocal: any conduct that potentially threatens the safety of a protectee will not be tolerated.”

House Republican leaders have bottled up a bipartisan bill protecting deepfake porn victims to keep Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) from claiming a win before a possible 2028 presidential run, according to a new report.

The Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act — known as the DEFIANCE Act — would let victims of nonconsensual, sexually explicit deepfakes sue their abusers in civil court. The Senate passed it unanimously twice, most recently in January 2026, according to Senate records.

The bill has nearly 60 bipartisan co-sponsors in the House, according to Politico, where Ocasio-Cortez leads it alongside Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL).

Four people working closely on the legislation told Politico that Republican leaders are 'scuttling' it rather than 'handing AOC a major legislative victory.'

"It's a shame that this bill isn't law because they are unwilling to give AOC a win," one person said. "When you look at it, everything is aligned for it to pass, except that they don't want her to have this."

"We're depriving many, many people of the ability to set their lives right just to prevent one member of Congress from being able to pass a bill," a second person said.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) acknowledged to Politico that no committee action is in the works.

"We're talking to Laurel about it," Jordan said, calling it a "very important piece of legislation" — with no timeline offered.

Politico's Will Steakin reported the bill 'would look splashy on a potential 2028 presidential résumé,' 'boosting AOC's bona fides as the tough-on-Big-Tech Democrat.' Ocasio-Cortez told Playbook this week she is "not ruling out" a 2028 presidential run.

Conservative USA Today columnist Dace Potas warned this week that Ocasio-Cortez has "a legitimate shot at the 2028 nomination" and that conservatives should treat her as "a serious threat."

Lee, the bill's lead Republican, said she has "growing concern" over the stall. "I do not think, on any level, that should be a barrier to us getting a vote on this bill," she said.

In a Rolling Stone interview published in April 2024, Ocasio-Cortez described seeing a sexually explicit deepfake of herself and said her first thought was "I need to get this off my screen."

"As a survivor of physical sexual assault, it adds a level of dysregulation," she said. "It resurfaces trauma, while I'm trying to — in the middle of a f— meeting."

"And once you've seen it, you've seen it," Ocasio-Cortez said. "It parallels the same exact intention of physical rape and sexual assault, [which] is about power, domination, and humiliation. Deepfakes are absolutely a way of digitizing violent humiliation against other people."

President Donald Trump drew an unlikely comparison to a certain Disney princess from CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten on Thursday.

This comparison came after the 80-year-old imposed 50 percent tariffs on most Canadian goods in retaliation for what he calls unfair discrimination against American autos, alcohol and dairy products, despite a Supreme Court ruling in February throwing out most of his tariffs from last year.

Enten told "CNN News Central" that Trump's trade wars remained globally unpopular.

"I feel like I'm in bizarro world, okay, because the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again and hope for a different result," Enten said. "That is just, simply put, not been the case with President Trump in terms of the train has left the station and the American people have spoken. They hate, hate, hate these new tariffs."

Back in November 2024, when Trump was re-elected 52 percent of Americans favored new tariffs on imported goods, compared with 48 percent who opposed them – but those numbers have shifted dramatically, Enten said.

"Then we entered the real world in tariffs, and Americans saw the effects of them," Enten said. "What happened to the opposition to new tariffs, up like a rocket – we're talking 63 percent of Americans now oppose the idea of new tariffs, compared to just 37 percent who favor it. "

"The American people have seen what tariffs have done to the economy, and they simply do not like it," he added, "and have turned against the president of United States who, as I said, it feels like bizarro world because from a political standpoint, it is absolutely insanity. They keep trying to do something that the American people clearly, very much do not like."

Trump's trade war last year sent his poll numbers into a downward trajectory from which they've yet to recover, Enten noted.

"The tariffs were what set Donald Trump off on a pathway to nowhere, on a pathway to a presidency that is a dead end," Enten said. "Take a look at this – Trump's negative net approval rating every single poll since March 29, 2025, that is over a year ago. In fact, days in a row, it's 482 days in which every single poll that meets CNN standards for publication, Donald Trump has had a negative net approval rating."

Trump and his tariffs are just as unpopular in other countries, Enten argued.

"Trump has been under underwater so long on tariffs both here and abroad that the bottom line is this," he said. "It's almost like he is the Little Mermaid. He just doesn't even come up for air anymore!"

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