A Democratic congressman wants to fight fire with fire by turning President Donald Trump against a cabinet member who has been hiring one of the president's enemies.

"What Pete has done, he claims unfaltering loyalty to Donald Trump, but then he's hiring people who Donald Trump has fired, who he's disparaged," Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) said about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a Saturday interview on "The Daily Beast Podcast."

Crow grilled Hegseth during a hearing earlier in the week, and accused him of "repeatedly going behind the president's back." At one point, he focused on Hegseth's hiring of his personal lawyer, Tim Parlatore, a former Trump ally turned foe.

"In the case of Tim Parlatore, this is a lawyer who used to serve a lawyer for Donald Trump and his campaign, and was fired by Trump, called a liar, and disparaged by Donald Trump," Crow said. "Something bad happened with Parlatore and Donald Trump's lawyer and the White House."

Crow explained to The Daily Beast that his goal was to get Hegseth fired. During the hearing with Hegseth, Crow brought up that Parlatore had an office in the Pentagon and how he was hired without Senate confirmation or White House vetting.

"I was in part speaking to Donald Trump," Parlatore said. "I was highlighting for the White House that Pete Hegseth is grabbing people and putting them in key political positions where they are able to make tremendous amounts of money."

Crow has made it no secret that he wants to see Hegseth go, or how he feels about him.

"He's worse than incompetent," Crow told The Daily Beast. "He's a vengeful individual who not just lacks the qualification, but has a meanness to him and a corruption of his heart and soul."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's damning slip-up during his Congressional testimony last week revealed just how little President Donald Trump's war in Iran has accomplished, according to a former federal prosecutor.

Glenn Kirschner, a former Department of Justice prosecutor, argued during a new episode of his "Justice Matters" podcast that Hegseth accidentally admitted something important during an exchange with Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA). Hegseth seemed confused as to whether Iran's nuclear facilities had been "completely obliterated" during a strike on them last year, as he claimed during the hearing, or whether the country still had nuclear capabilities that warranted another strike.

Kirschner said that the exchange showed just how little the war in Iran has accomplished, other than killing military troops and raising prices for consumers at home.

"If you have aspirations and ambitions to someday in the future try to develop a nuclear weapon, the threat is not imminent," Kirschner said. "So what [Hegseth] did was lie to the American people about the need to go to war against Iran because there was no imminent threat, by [his] own admission."

"Really, the only thing [Hegseth] accomplished was getting our service members injured and killed, getting innocent Iranians — including an entire school full of young girls— killed, creating global economic havoc on the energy front, and making it so that Americans can't afford to fill their gas tanks," he said. "That's all you've accomplished."

President Donald Trump's decision to yank military support from a key U.S. ally is yet another sign of his rash, ill-tempered leadership, a military expert warned.

"What I see instead in the order withdrawing 5,000 troops from Germany is a decision that treats a complex, carefully constructed force deployed far from the United States as if it were a simple number to be adjusted," wrote former Army commander Mark Hertling in a Saturday piece for the Bulwark.

"It has all the hallmarks of a decision made by a petulant senior leader looking for short-term retribution regardless of long-term strategy," he added. "And I see echoes of a previous mistake—which I believe contributed to instability in Europe and which I wish I had done more to prevent."

The decision came after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized Trump's negotiations to end the war in Iran. Merz said the U.S. was being "humiliated" by the Iranian regime, a comment that has gotten deep under Trump's skin.

Hertling cast doubt that "a thorough review" of the decision really took place, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in justification of the move. It's "more likely" a way for Trump to retaliate against Germany for declining to get involved in the war in Iran, according to Hertling. Trump said on Saturday that "we're cutting a lot further than 5,000" troops.

"There is a persistent myth that Europe hosts a large, excess pool of American troops—most of them sitting in Germany, eating schnitzel and drinking beer, waiting for something to do. That’s simply not true," Hertling explained. "Germany houses critical intelligence centers, logistics hubs, maintenance facilities, and command-and-control headquarters that underpin global operations."

Having the U.S. military in Germany also allows it to "lily pad," or respond quickly to a crisis not just across Europe but in the Middle East and in North Africa, Hertling wrote. U.S. Special Operations Forces monitor terrorist networks and cyber threats from Germany, he added.

"You can’t convince me any of these considerations were present in the review Secretary Hegseth mentioned," Hertling argued. "It doesn’t pass the common sense test."

According to Hertling, if the U.S. had stepped in to stop the Russian invasion of the Ukrainian Donbas region in the 2010s, "a single U.S. armored brigade—coincidentally a unit of about 5,000 soldiers—may have prevented the first Russian invasion of Ukraine and the devastating war that followed."

The Supreme Court's most recent opinion is a sign that things are "going to get worse," according to one election expert.

Marc Elias, a voting rights attorney, argued during a new episode of the "Democracy Docket" podcast that the Supreme Court's ruling in Louisiana v. Callais effectively "gutted" what remained of the Voting Rights Act. The decision struck down Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibited states from racially gerrymandering their election maps. The court's new requirements, according to Elias, are nearly impossible to meet.

Elias also warned that the battle to prevent many states from racially gerrymandering their maps is just getting started.

"This is beyond a farce," Elias said. "This is beyond insulting. This is beyond just striking down the Voting Rights Act. This is the kind of gaslighting and misdirection that, frankly, is beneath what we should expect from the highest court in our country."

"But the challenges that are in its wake, the follow-on effects from this decision, are going to be even worse," he added. "We're just seeing them in the days that have followed."

After the Supreme Court handed down the Callais ruling, lawmakers in Louisiana and Alabama began efforts to redraw their maps. The Florida GOP has also begun the process of approving a new election map.

The Republican Party of Utah has been vying to defeat Justice Diana Hagen in the state's judicial retention election this fall, but the recent actions of a long-time GOP operative may have undercut those efforts, according to a new report.

The National Review reported on Saturday that Utah's Republican Gov. Spencer Cox has been campaigning to unseat Hagen, whom he appointed to the Utah Supreme Court in 2022, after the court ruled against Utah's GOP-controlled legislature in several cases and criticized its actions. The report includes a quote Cox gave to local news outlet Deseret News that reads: "If people don’t like decisions that are coming out of our Supreme Court ... the appropriate way to deal with that is to vote against those judges in a retention election.”

The Utah GOP appeared to receive a boon to their efforts when a complaint was filed against Hagen with the Utah Judicial Conduct Commission, alleging that she sent racy text messages to a local election attorney.

Those claims were filed by Michael Worley, who, the report noted, had applied for a clerkship under Hagen but decided instead to work in the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. But Worley never produced the text messages in question, which left the commission with no choice but to "prefer the sworn denials by Judge Hagen over hearsay and documents it couldn’t review."

The report also suggested that the efforts may have damaged the Utah GOP's credibility.

"If we can safely conclude anything, it’s that nobody has come out of this mess looking particularly good," the report reads.

One of the main methods of obtaining abortion medication for those living in states with bans is now blocked nationwide, after a federal appeals court decision issued Friday afternoon.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a U.S. Food and Drug Administration rule from 2023 that allowed mifepristone, one of two drugs used to terminate a pregnancy before 10 weeks and to treat miscarriages, to be dispensed without an in-person visit with a health provider.

In the years since, states with abortion access have increased their telemedicine offerings to prescribe the medication remotely and send it through the mail. Many of those states also enacted shield laws to prevent officials from states with abortion bans from prosecuting or investigating their providers — meaning many patients have been able to receive the medication across state lines.

The block will remain in effect as the lower court case proceeds, but the FDA could file an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in the coming weeks.

More than 27% of all abortions were provided through telehealth appointments in the first six months of 2025, according to the Society of Family Planning, a research and advocacy group that publishes a report called #WeCount. Nearly 15,000 abortions per month were provided under shield laws during that same time frame, according to the report.

Louisiana Republican Attorney General Liz Murrill sued the FDA in October, seeking to strike down the 2023 provision, and the lower court declined to do so in early April. U.S. District Judge David C. Joseph said then that the stay was premature while the FDA completed a safety review of mifepristone, but allowed state officials the opportunity to re-file the motion after that review was complete. The state appealed that decision to the 5th Circuit.

“Every abortion facilitated by FDA’s action cancels Louisiana’s ban on medical abortions and undermines its policy that ‘every unborn child is human being from the moment of conception and is, therefore, a legal person,’” Friday’s decision said.

There were no dissenting opinions among Judge Leslie Southwick, an appointee of former Republican President George H.W. Bush, and Judges Stuart Kyle Duncan and Kurt D. Engelhardt, both appointees of Republican President Donald Trump.

Without access to telemedicine and the opportunity to receive the medication through the mail, people in 13 states with near-total abortion bans may have to travel to another state to get an abortion.

There is a misoprostol-only abortion pill protocol that some providers can use, but it is slightly less effective and requires a higher dosage, which can increase side effects.

“Reinstating in-person dispensing requirements would force people to travel farther, take more time off work, and absorb costs that are simply too high. For people living in states already hostile to abortion access, many of which are home to Black women and families, this is not health care,” said Regina Davis-Moss, CEO of advocacy group In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda, in a statement.

Murrill said in a statement on Friday that former Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration facilitated “illegal mail-order abortion pills.”

“Today, that nightmare is over, thanks to the hard work of my office and our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom. I look forward to continuing to defend women and babies as this case continues,” Murrill said, crediting the advocacy legal organization that helped in the case.

The court also found Friday that the 2023 rule injures Louisiana by causing it to spend Medicaid funds for emergency care for women harmed by using the drug. The state identified $92,000 paid by Medicaid for two women who needed emergency care in 2025 from complications “caused by out-of-state mifepristone.”

Numerous studies have shown mifepristone is safe to use, with very low complication rates. A combined review of 10 years’ worth of studies between 2005 and 2015 found that severe outcomes requiring blood transfusion and hospitalization occurred in less than 1% of cases.

“We are alarmed by this court’s decision to ignore the FDA’s rigorous science and decades of safe use of mifepristone in a case pursued by extremist abortion opponents. We are reviewing the court’s order in detail,” said Evan Masingill, CEO of GenBioPro, one of the main manufacturers of mifepristone, in a statement. “We remain committed to taking any actions necessary to make mifepristone available and accessible to as many people as possible in the country, regardless of anti-abortion special interests trying to undermine patients’ access.”

Stateline reporter Kelcie Moseley-Morris can be reached at kmoseley@stateline.org.

Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Tim Lambert for questions: info@penncapital-star.com.

President Donald Trump's claim that Iran hasn't "paid a big enough price" for the war stirred doubt and ridicule, as people reacted to one of his recent Truth Social media posts.

"I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but can’t imagine that it would be acceptable in that they have not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to Humanity, and the World, over the last 47 years. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Political analysts and observers reacted to the news on social media.

"Translation: Iran told Trump to get lost," journalist Nancy Levine Stearns suggested on X. "Americans will keep paying high prices for Trump's dumb war."

"What people aren't fully realizing yet is that Iran is sending the US their terms for the US surrender," Darren Staley wrote. "Iran has won. Trump is now deciding how much winning by them he can allow without looking like a pussy."

Writer Polly Sigh called Trump a "f------ lunatic" in response. "Gaslighting is America’s greatest pastime," chimed in legal analyst Maryam Jamshidi.

"Hang on, I thought you 'decimated them'?" David Smuts said, pointing out Trump's previous claims.

"I am just so tired of him interrupting my perfectly nice evening with his blithering on his stupid social media site," Barbara Hoffmann wrote.

Political analysts and observers brutally mocked President Donald Trump on Saturday after his latest attack on Democrats immediately blew up in his face.

Trump raged at Democrats like Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and former Attorney General Eric Holder in a new Truth Social post for committing allegedly "treasonous" activity by trying to stop his attempt to overhaul the U.S. election system. In the post, Trump called the Democrats "human garbage" and suggested, without evidence, that the party was full of "highly dishonest" people. His statements came just days after the White House called on Democrats to tone down their rhetoric after the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

"They’re no good for our Country, they almost destroyed it, and we don’t want to let that happen again!" Trump wrote in the post. "These are highly dishonest people who are, in many ways, treasonous, in that they are trying to destabilize the United States of America in what, some would call, a War."

Analysts and observers reacted to the post on social media.

"And it’s even stupider because Trump is accusing Obama’s AG of rigging the *2020* presidential election when Trump was president," Eric Columbus, senior editor at Lawfare.com, posted on Bluesky.

"At a certain point, is he going to notice that the Republicans aren’t doing what he’s telling them to?" ex-journalist Helen Kennedy posted on Bluesky.

"Calling Democrats 'treasonous' and 'human garbage' would’ve been a big deal in any other era. Now it’s just another f------ Saturday," journalist Matt Novak posted on Bluesky.

Trump lost his cool when he saw Fox News covering a late-night host and his interview with a Democratic governor.

Comedian Bill Maher interviewed California Gov. Gavin Newsom in an episode of his HBO show "Real Time" on Friday. In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump blasted the interview as well as Fox News for covering it the next day.

"I hate seeing Fox, and other Conservative Outlets, constantly making Low Rated Bill Maher 'relevant,'" Trump wrote. "Bill Maher is weak and ineffective person who I got to know very well during my dinner with him."

Maher dined with Trump at the White House last year, but that hasn't kept the two from trading blows since then. Trump is usually the one starting the fight, though.

In his Truth Social post, Trump said that Maher was "nervous, scared, and the first words he uttered as he entered the Oval Office were, 'Can I have a drink?' It was very endearing but, at the same time, absolutely pathetic."

His post also referred to "Gavin Newscum, an admittedly Low IQ person." Trump railed against the interview between Newsom and Maher, saying the late-night host was "defenseless, and totally deficient. Either he didn't have the knowledge, or he choked."

Maher isn't the only late-night host who has to deal with Trump's random ire. ABC and Disney are defending Jimmy Kimmel from calls by the president to have him fired and from the first lady to apologize for a small joke. However, Trump ended his latest tirade by saying, "Bill Maher is a MORON, though slightly more talented than Jimmy Kimmel."

President Donald Trump raged at Democrats, whom he described as "human garbage," who are fighting against his election scheme.

Last week, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced that former Attorney General Eric Holder was joining a Democratic task force that will identify "threats" to the upcoming midterm elections. The task force was formed at a time when Trump was trying to ram through his SAVE America Act, which sought to end mail-in voting in most cases and place new documentary requirements for voter registration.

"So ironic that Cryin’ Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are hiring SLEAZEBAGS like Barack Hussein Obama’s Crooked former Attorney General, Eric Holder, and others of that ilk, to look into Voter Integrity, when this same group of Human Garbage RIGGED the 2020 Presidential Election," Trump wrote in a new Truth Social post.

Trump also called on Republicans to fight back.

"GET TOUGH REPUBLICANS — THEY’RE COMING, AND THEY’RE COMING FAST!" he added. "They’re no good for our Country, they almost destroyed it, and we don’t want to let that happen again!"

"These are highly dishonest people who are, in many ways, treasonous, in that they are trying to destabilize the United States of America in what, some would call, a War," he continued. "Republicans must TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, and approve all of the necessary Safeguards we need for Elections to protect the American Public during the upcoming Midterms. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

President Donald Trump is itching to fire one particular "deeply unpopular" cabinet official, but doing so could spell the end of his administration, according to one of the president's biographers.

Journalist Michael Wolff, who has written four books about Trump, argued during a new episode of "Inside Trump's Head," a podcast he co-hosts with Joanna Coles of The Daily Beast, that Trump wants to fire Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. because of his anti-vaccine policies, which Wolff said are "deeply unpopular everywhere." However, firing Kennedy may prove to be too much for Trump to handle, as he is closely aligned with another MAGA heavyweight who is ready to take Trump's base from him.

"They don't want to fire him because ... the MAHA constituency is significant, they feel, to the Trump base," Wolff said. "So they want him to go away but not go away mad."

Wolff also noted that Kennedy is close with MAGA commentator Tucker Carlson, who is reportedly considering running for president in 2028. That alliance could be enough to bring down Trump, if Kennedy is released from the administration, he added.

"Tucker has become their enemy, and there's only so many enemies in their own base they can afford," Wolff said.

President Donald Trump suggested on Saturday that he wouldn't accept a peace deal from Iran before he even read it.

"I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. "They have not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to Humanity, and the World, over the last 47 years."

Trump said he "can't imagine" the deal would be "acceptable," leaning towards the idea of continuing hostilities in Iran.

Earlier in the week, Trump rejected an Iranian offer to reopen the Stair of Hormuz, and he chose instead to extend the U.S. naval blockade there and postpone nuclear talks.

Trump issued an ominous threat to a key U.S. ally while speaking to reporters on Saturday.

When a reporter asked why Trump is removing 5,000 troops from Germany, the president said that the scale will be larger. His comments come after GOP leaders rebuked Trump for the current reduction of troops, arguing that it "sends the wrong signal" to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We're going to cut way down," Trump said. "We're cutting a lot further than 5,000."

The withdrawal of armed forces from Germany comes as the U.S. fights a war in Iran but struggles to recruit allies into the conflict.

The far-right can't hide its disdain for a parody of one of their own, while plenty of others had no problem enjoying the jokes.

The Onion released its first clip of the new and, for many, improved Infowars since taking it over. The parody news site released a skit on Saturday by Comedian Tim Heidecker where he imitates conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his too-loud, raspy voice, and pretends to sip human blood to mock Jones' frequent hawking of questionable health supplements.

While right-wingers like podcast host Matt Forney called it "trash" in a post on X, journalist Dean Blundell described Heidecker's performance as "perfection."

"Tim Heidecker is a genius," educator Jen Shultz praised. Political analyst Rachel Bitecofer celebrated that "they found an impresionist to troll Alex Jones."

"I am enjoying the new Infowars," podcast host Brian Shapiro wrote. "I have a feeling Alex Jones won't like it," Brian Krassenstein quipped. "Tim Heidecker has perfected his Alex Jones," writer Corey Atad posted.

Conservative blogger Sara Radovanovitch said Heidecker was "embarrassing himself." MAGA podcast host Kyle Seraphin called Heidecker a "cringe comic."

Former Proud Boys member Mike Lasater commented that "you can tell Tim doesn't understand Alex at all," and "his comedic talents are being sidelined."

A Democratic Congresswoman issued a dark warning on Saturday after the Supreme Court delivered "a devastating blow" to Americans in its latest decision.

Last week, the Supreme Court invalidated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in its opinion in Louisiana v. Callais. The ruling effectively paved the way for states to racially gerrymander their election maps, according to some experts, and states like Louisiana and Alabama have already leaped at the prospect of redoing their maps.

Rep. Yvette Clark (D-NY) told Rev. Al Sharpton on MS NOW's "PoliticsNation" that the Supreme Court's ruling is "a devastating blow" that will impact Americans for generations to come.

"This is a devastating blow," Clark said. "There's no doubt about it. We can't sugarcoat it. This is something that will impact communities for generations to come, if Congress does not act."

"So we have a very serious matter before us," she continued. "And it's going to take state-by-state litigation, voter registration at a massive level, to overcome what these folks have cooked up. And massive turnout following that."

Give me the confidence of a mediocre MAGA man hiding behind his false bravado.

Seriously, I wish I had whatever lack of awareness these men possess so that I could just skate through life and never have to face any consequences from anything I say or do.

This week, women watched our voting rights being ritualistically gutted by the mediocre MAGA men on the Supreme Court. At the same time, we’ve witnessed multiple MAGA sycophants publicly declare their love for a convicted felon Epstein Bestie who whines when anyone makes a joke about him.

Acting Attorney General Todd “Thank You Sir, May I Have Another” Blanche proved himself to Trump by moving Jeffrey Epstein’s side piece and fellow sex trafficking rapist, Ghislaine Maxwell, to a Club Fed instead of putting her on Death Row where she belongs. Here’s Blanche--clearly just seconds after extracting himself from his new office inside Trump’s alimentary canal--giving Juliet’s balcony soliloquy a run for its money.

Ew. My cringe has cringe.

Another Trump suck-up who sucks at his job is CNN’s resident smug frat boy, Scott Jennings. Aside from being the worst part of every panel discussion helmed by the long-suffering Abby Phillip, who really should have had enough by now, Jennings has never once landed a point based on facts.

Like all mediocre MAGA “men,” Jennings is easily baited and triggered, mainly because there’s a part of him that knows Trump is all of the worst things. But Jennings isn’t being paid to be authentic; he’s paid to scream over anyone who dares to speak ill of Dear Leader.

Jennings was famously owned by Leigh McGowan, aka “I Am Politics Girl,” during a segment where he showcased his patented MAGA disregard for facts and human life.

That exchange led to this screenshot, which now lives on my phone because we are all Leigh whenever Scott Jennings opens his smug frat boy mouth.

But then the internet got another gift on Thursday night, thanks to another gifted political commentator, Adam Mockler. A rising star in the Democratic influencer space, the 23-year-old Mockler was speaking truthfully about the situation in Iran when Jennings began to use his usual smug tactics. Aside from talking over Mockler, Jennings muttered something about him “being up past his bedtime,” because the show airs at 10 P.M.

And then this happened.

Yes, the same smug frat boy who whines about Democrats being mean to Trump dropped an expletive live on CNN because he’s a giant babyman.

The Jennings/Mockler moment set off a social media firestorm, with the kind of meme game that could make you appreciate that the internet exists. They don’t even need words to capture the MAGA default setting of self-victimization anytime the truth about Trump hurts their delicate snowflake feelings.

“Mooommm! He’s telling the truth about Trump again!”

Or, “Moooomm! He took the last piece of meat loaf, and you said I could have it!”

This one is also good and embarrassing for him, because you can see how the father of four sons probably treats his own kids.

Jennings whined that Adam’s hand was “in his face, which clearly isn’t the case, but at least we have this evergreen reply to him from now on.

Seriously, for one second, you thought, “Oh, I love the internet!”

The fallout from this encounter is accumulating A LOT of MAGA snowflakes on the ground, by Smug Scotty’s fellow Trumpsimp, FCC sycophant Brendan Carr, was tweeting on Friday night about how he would essentially let Trump punch someone in the face while dropping F bombs, but Jimmy Kimmel isn’t allowed to say that Melania Trump has “the glow of an expectant widow.”

Brendan seems to have forgotten he once had a firm grasp on how the First Amendment works. I’ve repeatedly asked him what’s changed for him over the last seven years, because the Constitution remains the same, but he keeps ignoring me to chat with his fellow MAGA bullies instead. Weird!

Feel free to screenshot that and use it to haunt Brendan Carr’s replies, because MAGA receipts are my favorite kind of receipts. Using their own words against them will forever be the best tactic.

Trump held another ego rally on Friday night at The Villages, aka Ground Zero for Geriatric MAGA, because his approval rating is at an historic low and he has to show the world he can still draw a crowd. Only a full-on cult would accept this behavior from the Commander-In-Chief of the allegedly most powerful military on Earth.

Donny Dementia once again bragged about acing a cognitive test that no other president ever had to take because no one was concerned their brains had turned to rancid tapioca pudding. He also did an impression of what he classified as a transgender woman weightlifter. Just imagine the reaction from MAGA if any Democrat behaved like this.

But as a result, we have this to use at our leisure to show MAGA what their guy really looks like instead of those AI memes he posts in the middle of the night, where he has defined abs and friends.

Trump was joined by another mediocre MAGA man, “Dr.” Phil McGraw, whom we wouldn’t know existed without Oprah (Same for Dr. Oz, and really, that’s two YUGE strikes, ma’am).

To his credit, Trump fully checked out as soon as Foghorn Leghorn really got going.

Instead of being embarrassed by any of Trump’s antics, MAGA will just keep bullying anyone who challenges their cult narratives. They wrap themselves in their false pearl-clutching manufactured MAGA outrage and act all put-upon if you make them face the reality they’ve been willfully ignoring for over a decade.

Just like Dear Leader.

The move to pull funding from a South Carolina historically Black university outraged online commentators, as they're shocked by the retaliatory move.

Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette supported calls by GOP state reps to stop funding South Carolina State University because it rescinded an invitation for her to speak at commencement. In a public statement, she said that it was an example of "silenced freedom of speech," but onlookers weren't buying it. Congressional candidate Randi White called Evette a "racist turd" in a post on X.

"You losing a commencement slot isn’t discrimination against conservative views," Matthew Boedy wrote. "No one is silencing your speech, especially not a government institution."

"Dear Senators, HB. 5018 is sitting in Senate Finance and aims to update the salaries of officials such as the Lt. Gov.," South Carolina State Rep. Hamilton Grant wrote. "Perhaps we should defund her salary."

South Carolina political journalist Jamie Harrison pointed out that "when she served as president of her company, she promoted it 'as a female-owned professional employer organization.' Guess only certain types of diversity are now problematic."

Evette is also running for South Carolina governor, touting her ties to Trump along the way, but podcast host Ronald Martin assured Evette in an X post that, "You will never be governor."

Oil executives handed President Donald Trump a searing defeat in his effort to lower energy costs for Americans ahead of the midterms, according to a new report.

The Washington Examiner reported on Friday that executives from Exxon Mobil and Chevron said they have no plans to increase production, which could help lower pump prices. Their comments come after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright called on oil companies to increase their production earlier this month.

Exxon’s chief financial officer, Neil Hansen, has said the company has no plans to increase production because it is already operating in "high gear."

At the same time, Chevron’s finance chief Eimear Bonner said the company is planning to “grow free cash flow, not grow production.”

“You wouldn’t expect us to be changing our plans significantly on the back of eight weeks of disruption,” Bonner said.

Energy costs have skyrocketed since the Trump administration began the war in Iran. As of Saturday, the national average price of a gallon of gas stood at $4.43, up from $4.08 just a month ago, according to data from AAA.

Two of the top GOP leaders issued a rare rebuke of President Donald Trump on Saturday after the president sent "the wrong signal" to his Russian counterpart, according to a new report.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) issued a joint statement in which they bashed Trump's decision to remove 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany, the Washington Examiner reported. Trump made the decision after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized Trump's negotiations with the Iranian regime.

“The reality remains that even as allies move toward spending 5% of GDP on defense, translating that investment into the military capability needed to assume primary responsibility for conventional deterrence will take time,” the joint statement reads in part. “Prematurely reducing America’s forward presence in Europe before those capabilities are fully realized risks undermining deterrence and sending the wrong signal to Vladimir Putin.”

Instead of withdrawing the troops entirely, the two Republicans urged Trump to send them eastward, closer to the border with Russia, and to "coordinate with Congress," according to the report.

A quarter of immigration arrests since August were labeled by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as “collateral,” a type of arrest and detention that’s been challenged in court as an end run around civil rights.

Public outrage and lawsuits over the arrests may be tamping down the large-scale sweeps that foster them, but tens of thousands were arrested this way between August and early March.

Immigration arrests are usually based on warrants obtained ahead of time, showing either a removal order from immigration court or evidence of a crime or charge that makes the person subject to deportation.

But collateral arrests can result from street sweeps and raids in which a person is singled out for questioning based on appearance or proximity to someone wanted on a warrant. That person could be taken into custody if agents think they may be subject to deportation and also likely to flee if released.

Labeled for the first time ever, the collateral arrests are reported from August to early March in ICE arrest data obtained by the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by Stateline. In that time there were about 64,000 collateral arrests, a quarter of the 253,000 total arrests by ICE.

About 70% of the collateral arrests were for people with immigration-related crimes or violations alone, compared with 41% for arrests with warrants. Less than 2% of those with collateral arrests were convicted of a violent crime, one-third the rate of other arrests, and only 18% were convicted of any crime, compared with 33% for other arrests.

The collateral arrests contributed to an overall pattern of lower and lower shares of arrests for serious crimes, and more for immigration offenses alone.

Arrests climbed from about 12,000 in January 2025 to more than 40,000 in December, but fell back to 30,000 this February. The share of people with only immigration-related crimes and violations rose to more than half in December and January, the peak months for collateral arrests, and the share of violent criminals fell from 10% to 4% of arrests in that time.

ICE announced a new policy in January to issue warrants in real time if agents think an immigrant is deportable and “likely to escape,” though that policy faces a court challenge.

Total arrests and collateral arrests have been falling since December, whether because of the new policy or because of cutbacks in the large-scale street sweeps that tend to produce them.

One factor is public outrage over raids sweeping up noncriminals in places like Minneapolis and Chicago, said Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, an associate policy analyst for the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.

“The sort of large operations within big cities, as they were occurring, seems to have subsided somewhat,” Putzel-Kavanaugh said. “After the kind of public outcry following Minneapolis, it seems as though, at least for now, that tactic has kind of been paused.”

The Trump administration’s focus on mass deportation opened the way for more collateral street arrests with less investigation, she added.

“If it’s a more targeted arrest, they would take the time to sort of essentially have an investigation. It’s a pretty resource-intensive way that just would not yield the kind of numbers ICE was being told to produce,” she said.

The new policy was filed in court papers in February as a response to a lawsuit over ICE sweeps in the District of Columbia last year, alleging ICE agents “have flooded the streets of the nation’s capital, indiscriminately arresting without warrants and without probable cause District residents whom the agents perceive to be Latino.”

The case resulted in a preliminary injunction in December requiring a halt to warrantless arrests without establishing probable cause that the person is living here illegally and is a flight risk.

One plaintiff in the class-action case, José Escobar Molina, said in the lawsuit that agents in two cars pulled up to him as he approached his work truck on Aug. 21, grabbing him by the arms and legs and handcuffing him without asking any questions. Escobar, 47, said in the court papers that he’s lived in the district for 25 years and has had temporary protected status as a Salvadoran native the whole time. He was held overnight in Virginia before being released.

Other lawsuits are also challenging collateral arrests, such as an incident in Idaho in which agents with warrants for five people ended up arresting 105 immigrants at a Latino community event in October.

In North Carolina, four U.S. citizens and a visa holder sued in February, saying they were arrested in the Charlotte’s Web immigration crackdown in November without warrants, as is typical of collateral arrests.

“I have a lot of fear that this will happen to me again. I was essentially kidnapped based only on the color of my skin. That really weighs on me,” said Yoshi Cuenca Villamar, one of the citizens and a North Carolina native, in a statement announcing the lawsuit. He said he was doing landscaping work on Nov. 15 when agents pushed him to the ground and handcuffed him, then held him in a car before releasing him.

One Illinois case that started in the first Trump administration challenged warrantless arrests and traffic stops used as a pretext for immigration arrests. A 2022 settlement required ICE to document “reasonable suspicion” of illegal status before arresting somebody. The case continues since a judge found in February that the new ICE policy of issuing warrants in real time after a detention violates the consent decree.

Shares of collateral arrests

In the months since August, when collateral arrests are now labeled, the District of Columbia and Illinois stand out with high shares of collateral arrests. More than half the arrests in the district were collateral, as were 41% of those in Illinois. There were eight states in which at least 30% of arrests were collateral: Alabama, Maryland, West Virginia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Maine, and Minnesota.

West Virginia, where there was a “statewide surge” of immigration enforcement in January with state and local cooperation, stands out for its high rate of total arrests as well as a large share of collateral arrests.

ICE labeled 1,300 arrests during Operation Metro Surge as ‘collateral’

For the eight months between August and early March, West Virginia had 1,831 arrests, or 1 in 10 of the state’s noncitizen population as of 2024, the latest data available. That’s by far the largest share in the country, followed by 7% in Wyoming (where truck drivers were targeted for immigration arrests in February) and 4% in Mississippi.

West Virginia Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey, in a statement, cited the cooperation of state and local agencies with ICE through the 287(g) program that assists with immigration enforcement. He praised ICE, saying “they have removed dangerous illegal immigrants from our communities and made our state safer for families and law-abiding citizens.”

Few of those arrested in the surge were violent criminals, however. More than half of those arrested during the surge were collateral arrests, and only 1% — nine immigrants — had a violent crime conviction, according to the Stateline analysis. More than three-quarters, about 500 people, had only an immigration-related violation or crime.

Judges didn’t always agree that collateral arrests and detentions in the West Virginia surge were legal under the U.S. Constitution. U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin, a Clinton appointee, ordered two detainees released in January. He noted that “similar seizures and detentions are occurring frequently across the country” without any evidence that they’re necessary, as required by the Constitution.

Stateline reporter Tim Henderson can be reached at thenderson@stateline.org.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com.

A MAGA lieutenant governor supported calls from Republican state lawmakers to pull funding from a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) after it rescinded her invitation to speak at a commencement ceremony.

"The far left has silenced freedom of speech and pushed its radical, anti-American agenda for far too long," South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette said in a public statement on Friday. She was fuming about South Carolina State University canceling plans on Wednesday to have her speak to graduating students, according to local media reports.

"What happened at S.C. State University this week is emblematic of what's happening at institutions across our state and country," Evette's statement read.

A candidate in the 2026 South Carolina gubernatorial race, Evette has boasted that she stumped for Trump in 2024 and that he praised her, according to the Associated Press.

The university's president, Alexander Conyers, explained the decision to nix her speech in a public statement on Wednesday.

"Out of an abundance of caution for safety and with careful consideration, the university has decided to move in a different direction," Conyers wrote, adding that Evette is still welcome "to our campus to engage with our students, faculty and staff in a constructive manner at a later date outside the celebratory nature of commencement.“

Evette clearly wasn't happy. When she talked to local media on Thursday, she blamed the "woke mob." She also saw support from nine GOP state reps who penned a letter on Thursday calling for "no further funding for South Carolina University" in retaliation.

She supported their demand in her public statement on Friday.

"I applaud the members of the General Assembly who, like me, firmly believe that not one dime of taxpayer money should ever go to a school that discriminates against conservative views," Evette wrote. "It certainly won't happen when I'm governor."

The MAGA media world just underwent a "seismic shift," and it revealed that President Donald Trump's impending doom may be just over the horizon, according to two analysts.

On Friday, the MAGA media outlet "The Daily Wire" laid off about half of its staff, according to reports. While the layoffs are notable in their own right, Democratic analyst Adam Mockler and strategist Mike Nellis argued during a new podcast episode on Saturday that the company's downsizing reveals just how unpopular Trump has become.

"Right now, there is a war that many Americans are paying attention to, and many Americans care about," Mockler said. "So if the Daily Wire, which is a company that focuses a lot on the Middle East ... can't hold the attention of the American public on this war, it must be because the war is failing. The war is unpopular, and they don't know how to take a popular position on this."

Nellis argued that the Daily Wire's downsizing revealed how "angry" Americans have become at the Trump administration. He also noted that people appear to be "breaking out of MAGA" to reorient themselves.

"Americans are in alignment that what's happening in the country is bad," Nellis said. "The war is terrible. The economy is a mess. People are mad about the corruption. They're mad about the Epstein files. They're mad about the stupid ballroom that they spent all week trying to build, and with taxpayer dollars, might I add. People are angry."

Political analysts and observers were agog on Saturday after Tucker Carlson had his words thrown back in his face during an interview with the New York Times.

Carlson sat down with the NYT's Lulu Garcia-Navarro for a wide-ranging interview about his work and current relationship with President Donald Trump. At one point, Garcia-Navarro asked Carlson about his previous comment, in which he called Trump the "antichrist." Carlson denied making the remark, but was swiftly reminded of it when Garcia-Navarro read his words back to him.

"On the day after Easter, you noted he did not put his hand on the Bible during his swearing-in ceremony as president ...," Garcia-Navarro began.

"Correct," Carlson agreed.

"And I'm quoting, 'Maybe he didn't put his hand on the Bible because he affirmatively rejects what's inside that book,'" Garcia-Navarro said. "And then on a recent show, you went further, saying, 'Here's a leader who is mocking the gods of his ancestors, mocking the god of gods, and exalting himself above them. Could this be the antichrist?'"

Carlson denied saying the word "antichrist," but the NYT played a clip of him saying what Garcia-Navarro read to him.

"I don't know where those words come from, but they never left my lips," Carlson said, doubling down on his denial.

Political observers and analysts were astonished by the clip and reacted on social media.

"What a kook," Jason Kenney, the former premier of Alberta, Canada, posted on X.

"Tucker is such a liar," ex-GOP lawmaker Joe Walsh posted on X.

"Uh oh. Looks like someone’s bag is being threatened, and he’s backtracking like a little b----," John Rocha, a film critic, posted on X. "Maybe he saw what happened to Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wackjob site and is afraid to lose stacks of cash too. I hope we’re finally waking up to the nonsense of all of these circus clowns."

The Ohio GOP is worried that an ex-Trump official's baggage will cost them a chance to take a House seat if she wins the primary.

“She left in the middle of a scandal," said Ohio state Rep. Josh Williams about his fellow Republican Madison Sheahan to the Columbus Dispatch. Williams is running against Sheahan to unseat Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, and he was talking about Sheahan's time as a deputy director at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

According to a new report by Politico, Williams isn't alone. Other Republicans in the race are worried that if Sheahan wins the primary, Ohio voters will be turned off by her role in Trump's large-scale immigration enforcement operations in cities like Minneapolis, Minnesota.

“Republicans have this terrible impression" of ICE, said Alea Nadeem, another of Sheahan's primary opponents, during a debate in April. "As I’m out there knocking on doors, ICE does come up a lot, and it’s really divided the country, even some Republicans."

Sheahan left ICE in January to launch her Congressional campaign, and during the weeks when federal immigration officers shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, according to Politico.

“Primary issues that help you win are a two-edge sword. They can help you in the primary, but they might pose challenges in the fall election,” Ohio GOP strategist Terry Casey told Politico. “There’s obviously [a] debate of what happened in Minnesota and some other things.”

Sheahan's campaign spokesperson, Robert Paduchik, provided a statement to Politico saying, “Attacking her record of executing President Trump’s top priority to defend the homeland is a slap in the face to Ohioans who demanded closed borders and deportations.”

MS NOW host Alex Witt was shocked on Saturday as President Donald Trump's war in Iran created a "domino effect of absolute misery" for Americans at home.

Reports indicated that Spirit Airlines canceled all its flights on Saturday as it ceased operations. The budget airline cited rising jet fuel prices stemming from Trump's war for its decision, but that didn't help the thousands of Americans stranded at airports across the country.

MS NOW reporter Laura Haefeli reported that about 277 flights were canceled on Saturday, including 34 out of Newark International Airport in New Jersey and 18 out of Laguardia Airport in New York. She spoke to one traveler who said she had spent $6,000 trying to get home.

"We're hearing stories just like that here in Newark," Haefeli said. "And of course ... people who right now are in other countries trying to get home are going to be in serious trouble."

Haefeli also noted that the problem with Spirit Airlines "didn't happen overnight." The company had reportedly been in talks with the Trump administration to secure a government bailout of more than $500 million, but those talks broke down over the last week or so.

"The final nail in the coffin seems to be these astronomical jet fuel costs because of the war in Iran," Haefeli said.

Witt was taken aback by Haefeli's report.

"What a domino effect of absolute misery," she said.

Forty-five year old social justice activist named Guido Reichstadter on Saturday morning was still perched atop the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in Washington, DC after first scaling the structure Friday afternoon in protest against President Donald Trump’s disastrous war against Iran, now in its third month, and the rapid and unregulated spread of artificial intelligence technology.

As Reichstadter, who described himself as the father of two children with masters degrees in both math and physics, said in a video posted to social media on Friday: “Hi my name is Guido Reichstadter and I’m currently occupying the top of the Frederick Douglass memorial bridge in Washington, DC.”

“I’m calling on the people of the United States,” he continued, “to bring an immediate end to the Trump regime’s illegal war on Iran and the removal of the regime power through mass nonviolent direct action and non-cooperation.”

In a separate video, he explained he was at the top of the bridge, which rises approximately 168 feet above the Anacostia River at its highest point, “because the government of the United States is engaged in acts of mass murder in my name. And I refuse to be complicit in that.”

While bridge traffic in both directions was closed at times on Friday and overnight, the bridge is reportedly open to traffic Saturday morning, though with some lane restrictions, as law enforcement said a “barricade situation” with the protester continued.

Reichstadter, who has staged high-profile protests in the past, spoke to Al-Jazeera via video stream on Friday to explain his actions and call for an end to the war that he says—and tens of millions of other Americans agree, according to polling—is a colossal failure by the Trump administration.

“I mean, it’s an atrocity, right?” he said, when asked what motivated him. “I woke up on February 28th and I found that hundreds of schoolchildren had been blown apart. I think there are many millions of Americans who reject the war in principle, but whose actions have not yet been sufficient to bring it to an end.”

Democratic members of Congress, both in the US House and Senate, have now brought several War Powers Resolutions to the floor in an effort to end the US attack on Iran, which now includes a naval blockade of the country, but Republican majorities in both chambers backing Trump, those efforts have failed.

Poll after poll, meanwhile, shows that Reichstadter is completely correct in stating that millions of people “reject the war,” but still the war continues even after a 60-day deadline, according to the War Powers Act of 1973, which says the president must either end military operations or get the explicit approval of Congress, came and went on Friday.

On Friday, video showed Reichstadter wearing a t-shirt that read “NO WAR” and he unfurled a large black banner down the side of the bridge’s central arch as part of the protest.

Before scaling the bridge, Reichstadter also spoke with journalist Ford Fisher to explain his motivations and what he hoped to accomplish with his one-person direct action:

Reichstadter stayed on the bridge overnight, even as fireworks exploded overhead from a nearby Major League Baseball game.

In his statement concerning AI, Reichstadter said he wanted to “urgently warn the people of the US and the world of the imminent danger we are in of crossing a point of no return towards the development of artificial intelligence which poses the risk of catastrophic harm to humanity, including human extinction.”

“I call on the governments of the world to take immediate action to end this danger by permanently banning the development of artificial general intelligence and machine super intelligence,” he said. “I also call on the people of the world to exert all possible influence through nonviolent action to compel their governments to end this danger with all possible speed.”

Economic analyst Henrietta Treyz left MS NOW’s Alex Witt stunned on Saturday after issuing a dire prediction about the American economy, particularly as it relates to the ongoing surge in energy costs.

Witt queued up a clip of President Donald Trump claiming that gas prices – which recently reached a four-year high of $4.30 per gallon – would soon fall as his war against Iran ends, and despite peace talks between Washington and Tehran having reached a stalemate. She then asked Treyz, were the war to “end tomorrow,” how soon Americans could expect prices at the pump to fall.

“At the earliest, you're not getting regular flow through the Strait of Hormuz until September, so my calculation is that, on the trajectory we're at right now, we should be expecting $4.90 gas by the end of next week,” Treyz said. “We are on track to get to $5 or even above by Memorial Day.”

Treyz went on to warn that even in a best-case scenario where the United States and Iran manage to negotiate an end to the conflict and fully re-open the Strait of Hormuz – a critical shipping waterway through which 20% of the world’s oil trade flows – the impact of the war would almost certainly be felt by Americans and their pocketbooks far beyond September.

“Even if you take out the 300% increase in insurance costs [for oil tankers] and you clear the backlog of ships, you have to deal with the reality that 80 of the largest refiners and energy producers on the earth have been bombed, including the world's largest [liquefied natural gas] facility,” Treyz said.

“So it's going to be not just that long to get the strait cleared, but years until those facilities are back up and running and we're near anything with a $2 in front of it for gas.”

Visibly taken aback, Witt asked Treyz to clarify her statement.

“So you're saying how long until we get something with a $2 in front of it per gallon of gas? You're saying years?” Witt asked.

“I'm saying years,” Treyz responded. “It's gonna be years.”

“Wow,” Witt uttered after an extended pause.

In a “private meeting” on Tuesday, President Donald Trump met with several of his top officials to discuss ways to address a growing vulnerability that may prove politically toxic for Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.

"Gas prices are surging, voter backlash is building, and inside the White House, the options to lower prices at the pump are dwindling," the Post reported.

Attending the secret meeting was Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and multiple “energy executives,” with the purpose of the gathering being to discuss potential steps to combat soaring gas prices, sparked by the president’s war against Iran, according to an anonymous White House official.

Options available to the Trump administration to lower gas prices, however, appear to be “dwindling,” the Post reported.

“As the conflict stretches into its 10th week, the White House has exhausted many of the policy levers the federal government can use to mitigate surging gas prices, and the options that remain carry other economic and political risks for the president,” the Post’s Cat Zakrzewski wrote.

Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich recently warned that his own party was on track to lose the midterm elections this year due in large part to surging gas prices, which this week reached an average of $4.30 a gallon, the highest per-gallon cost since 2022.

Political scientist and scholar Norman Ornstein warned of an impending “double-triple whammy” about to hit Americans’ finances on Saturday, one he attributed directly to what he described as an “insane policy” of President Donald Trump’s.

The policy in question was the Trump administration’s ongoing war against Iran, which has already sent gas prices skyrocketing to levels not seen since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Ornstein warned, however, that the current price increases were only the beginning.

“As we go further on, and as demand for oil inevitably is going to have to drop because the supplies are going to be not there, then we're going to see gas prices go up even more,” Ornstein said Saturday in an appearance on MS NOW’s “Velshi.”

“And let's face it – the fertilizer shortage during planting season means that we're going to have food shortages and more increases in prices there. The double-triple whammy of this insane policy going forward is going to hit voters harder than what we've seen up to now.”

Ornstein also warned that the cost of the war – which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed this week to be $25 billion as of Wednesday, though officials have said the true cost is likely closer to $50 billion – would further drive up inflation, only exacerbating the cost spikes he predicted Americans will soon be confronted with.

“The cost of the war itself [is] much more than the $25 billion that they've suggested – our bases have been decimated, we're talking billions more!” Ornstein, an emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said on “Velshi.”

“We're going to have to replenish all of our armaments, and we're going in the wrong direction there, we're not prepared for a 21st century war. That's going to add to budget deficits, this $1.5 trillion crazy Pentagon budget, which also will increase inflation and add to our costs.”

Despite President Donald Trump’s recent demand that Israel halt its bombing campaign of Lebanon amid his administration’s efforts to secure a peace deal with Iran, the Israeli military confirmed that it had carried out “about 50 airstrikes” targeting what it claimed to be Hezbollah infrastructure sites, NBC News reported Saturday.

Last month, Trump issued an unusually fierce demand to Israeli leadership, declaring Israel to be "prohibited by the U.S.A” from “bombing Lebanon any longer.” A key demand of Iranian leaders in their negotiations with the United States has been that Israel halt its siege on Lebanon.

Earlier this week, Trump took a softer approach, telling Israel’s Channel 12 that he had personally asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “act in a more targeted way in Lebanon,” adding that the level of destruction Israel has caused “gives Israel a bad image,” Drop Site News reported.

Despite Trump’s pleas, Israel has continued to carry out intense strikes on Southern Lebanon, leveling entire “neighborhoods in towns and villages,” per NBC News, with its latest barrage of strikes killing at least seven people on Saturday, and despite Israel having agreed to a ceasefire with Lebanon at the behest of Trump.