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Before he joined President Donald Trump's Cabinet, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick jointly owned a business with convicted child predator Jeffrey Epstein.CBS News reported Friday on new revelations contained in the Department of Justice's (DOJ) latest release of documents from Epstein's two federal investigations showing Lutnick and Epstein acquiring a company in 2012. One document shows both Lutnick's and Epstein's signatures on a document purchasing stakes in the now-defunct digital advertising company Adfin. Epstein signed on behalf of his entit

The Gothamist reports a Manhattan federal judge may have ended President Donald Trump’s attempted extortion of New York and New Jersey residents.Judge Jeannette Vargas’ ordered the Trump administration to “unfreeze funding for the sprawling Gateway project on Friday, paving the way for work to resume on a new set of Hudson River tunnels,” the Gothamist reports.The decision came in the aftermath of a lawsuit filed by the New York and New Jersey attorneys general against the federal government, arguing that the White House’s order to withhold the funds was il

National Review writer Jeffrey Blehar says he’s certain President Donald Trump did indeed demand his name be slammed onto blue state airports in exchange for previously appropriated federal transportation money.“The president is a proud shakedown artist and is completely shameless about it — just ask Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Machado,” said Blehar. “So, I don’t doubt for a moment that Trump floated this quid pro quo, knowing what I already do about the man’s character and governing philosophy.”

With President Donald Trump more than a year into his second term, one of the loudest voices of the MAGA movement is now admitting that conditions for Americans may continue to worsen well beyond where they were during former President Joe Biden's administration.In a recent interview with the New Yorker, Shapiro — who is a co-founder of far-right news outlet Daily Wire — told the outlet's David Remnick that while he agreed with many of Trump's policies, he was cautious about the state of America with Trump in the White House. When Remnick asked Shapiro if he felt Trump was "hone

President Donald Trump’s former attorney Ty Cobb warned that the latest outrage of Trump posting photos of the Obamas as apes is only the latest example of the president’s mental deterioration reaching a tipping point.“He has drained 250 years of dignity out of the [Oval] office with acts like this,” Cobb told MS NOW host Ari Melber, adding that Trump’s unmonitored “late night screeds” are the purest representation of Trump’s failing mental health.“At that hour there's nobody …

It may already be too late for Republicans to keep both chambers of Congress under their control after this November's midterm elections, according to one of President Donald Trump's former chiefs of staff.In a Friday interview with NewsNation's Connell McShane, Mick Mulvaney — who served as acting White House chief of staff in President Donald Trump's first administration for more than a year — said the racist AI-generated video Trump posted to his Truth Social account on Thursday night may be the final nail in the coffin for Republicans' m

Former Republican National Committee spokesperson and Bulwark podcaster Tim Miller is arguing that Republicans and people inside the White House are fretting that an unstable President Donald Trump is hurtling his party toward defeat in November.The discussion arose as part of a conversation about U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s admission that she was "inseparable" from U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard while she was on the ground for the raid of 2020 ballot documents in Fulton County, Georgia.“The world is watching and they're saying W.T.F.? Like, what is happening?”

Since posting a racist AI-generated video to his Truth Social account on Thursday night, President Donald Trump has blamed the now-deleted post — which depicts former First Couple Barack and Michelle Obama as apes — on an unnamed staffer. But CNN host Jake Tapper remains unconvinced.In a Friday monologue on his show "The Lead," Tapper noted that likening Black people to apes is an "age-old, blatantly racist trope" that the president and his staff were almost certainly aware of at the time the video was posted. He al

President Donald Trump, his team, and his allies are "saboteurs" who are "wrecking" all the institutions that brought America prosperity and prestige, says a fascism expert who warns that the president may take action to disrupt — or even cancel —a future election.Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and a scholar of fascism, is an expert on authoritarianism and strongmen. She spoke with Politicon's James Carville and Al Hunt on Friday.When asked whether it is "accurate" to call Trump a fascist, Dr. Ben-Ghiat replied, "He's got many fascist qualities, and they're recycling Nazi slogans now," she observed

Washington Monthly Politics Editor Bill Scher says the panic voters are feeling at President Donald Trump’s midterm election meddling is probably premature.“Be vigilant, be imaginative, but also remember that everything Trump is doing to impose restrictive voting measures is backfiring on Republicans, just like his previous efforts,” Scher said.According to Scher, Trump betrayed his own panic about the upcoming midterm elections when he “vented” his debunked 2020 election conspi