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Bulwark founder Sarah Longwell and writer Jonathan Last say President Donald Trump’s Freedom 250 debacle is unraveling fast as nearly all big names on the playlist have leapt from windows to avoid the Trump stain. But both agree that this kind of chaos and collapse is par for the course in Trump’s ‘Ideocracy-style’ style America.“[The artists] all said that the White House lied to them about what it was,” said Longwell. “... [T]hey tried to sell it to them that it was bipartisan, that this is just celebrating America. And then, of course, it was on the White House la

Social media critics were not quite ready to accept White House claims of President Donald Trump’s “excellent health” this weekend.Citing the results of a recent examination, a Friday memo from Trump’s physician Dr. Sean Barbabella asserted that Trump “remains in excellent health, demonstrating strong cardiac, pulmonary, neurological and overall physical function.”To some, the news came as a surprise considering Trump is the oldest person ever elected to the White House, with his 80th birthday arriving in June. To others, the claim was outright comedy.“

New York Times columnists say the “you only live once” (YOLO) caucus of the Republican Party is preparing to upset Trump’s plans just as his beleaguered GOP Congress slides into a Democratic changeover in November.“John Cornyn (R-Texas) is a member of the Senate Republican leadership team, but having lost his re-election bid, he’s now eligible to join the Louisiana Republican senator Bill Cassidy, who lost his primary

Semafor political reporter Dave Weigel says President Donald Trump is exactly the kind of albatross a struggling Republican candidate does not need when trying to sell a message to voters for the 2026 midterms.“Donald Trump doesn't seem to care about winning the midterms,” said MS NOW “Weekend” co-host Eugene Daniels. “It seems for him it is about keeping his vise grip on the Republican Party. And there's evidence after evidence after evidence that is mounting that shows that that is probably true, that he doesn't seem to care.”“If he cared, he'd probably spend a lot more time helping his party legislate and figure out a different bill, other than just the [

The New York Times reports Trump has no intention of making his presidential library a reservoir for review of his administration, as other presidents have done.“In his determination to own and control every document in his future library, the president is working to shield his administration’s inner workings from public view,” reports Times writers Elizabeth Williamson and Minho Kim.“Mr. Trump had said that the $1 billion project, the priciest presidential library yet, could include a hotel and retail sales outlets. But more disturbing to historians and government watchdogs is his determination to own and control every document a presidential library would contain,” said the Times. �

On the afternoon of May 7, former Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman walked into his county board of elections. What happened next — aside from going unrecognized — would perhaps strike some who know Kittleman as surprising.Kittleman, 67 and a lifelong Republican, ended his affiliation with the Republican Party — the party of his father and grandfather.“I was driving home from work one day, and I just happened to drive by where the Board of Elections is… and I went, hey, today’s a good day,” Kittleman said during an interview this week in a Clarksville restaurant.“You would think that a former county executive walking in to change affiliation, the person at the desk phone woul

Judging by interviews President Donald Trump doesn’t sound eager to envision a world without him in charge, and he’s slow to acknowledge up-and-coming lieutenants who are eager to take the reins.The New York Times reports that when confronted with the prospect of Vice President JD Vance as MAGA’s next crowned leader, Trump is loathe to discuss it openly — even as his own personal brand struggles to reclaim the supremacy it once held with legions of

The federal government keeps claiming there is massive fraud in its medical aid programs, but has been less than forthcoming about where it is and what's being done about it. Moreover, officials argue that if fraud were stopped, the federal deficit would disappear.Instead, an outwardly partisan anti-fraud campaign has featured Vice President JD Vance in the starring role of tagging Democratic states as uncaring or incompetent about finding fraud. It all seems especially galling when the examples that Vance promotes generally are the result of already-run state investigations or the prospect of fraud possibility, inevitably involving programs by or for immigrants already barred by law from receiving benefits.

Last week my neighbors brought me an envelope with a “MAGA priorities survey” enclosed. A solicitation for money disguised as a survey, it opened with a four-page cover letter from Trump. The survey drills down on ‘Biden’s sky-high mortgage rates,’ and ‘reckless spending binge’ even though we’re 1.5 years into Trump 2.0. It blames Biden for ‘today’s affordability squeeze,’ despite Trump’s idiotic tariffs, his $94 billion war in Iran, and

When the history of the sordid and cruel megalomaniac who now occupies the Oval Office is written, it may well be that his deal with himself to set up a $1.8 billion fund for reimbursing anyone he feels was harmed by the federal government is chronicled as the final straw. Why not Trump’s absurd tariffs, which are really import taxes passed on to consumers? Why not Trump’s needless war against Iran, which caused prices to soar and is unlikely to result in a better deal on its nuclear ambitions than the one struck by Obama? Why not his cruel ICE and Border Patrol dragnets? Why not the Epstein files or do