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President Donald Trump’s attempt to exact vengeance against his political enemies has been a “Keystone Cops effort,” according to a prominent conservative journalist’s accounting.“Another big loss for the Trump Justice Department in their Keystone Cop efforts to go after their political foes,” observed Tim Miller of The Bulwark. “For all of you know, the awful fascist advances of this administration, the one thing that continues to bring us joy is just the utter incompetence and failure in their effort to weaponize the Justice Department to get revenge against their political foe

Yet another Republican lawmaker is refusing to seek reelection in 2026, when President Donald Trump’s second term experiences its likely-costly midterm elections.Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah) told reporters on Wednesday that he will not seek reelection, saying in a statement that “after prayer, reflection, and many long conversations, I have decided that I will not seek reelection in 2026. I will complete this term fully committed to my work in Washington, DC, and then step away from elected office.”He added, “I began this political journey over six years ago with a simple qu

As President Donald Trump slurred his way through a speech about AI, a conservative group urged people to recognize that “something is seriously wrong with him.”The Lincoln Project shared a clip on X of Trump talking about “the grid.” As he rambles about how “we're fixing the grid,” the president starts to slur, seeming to say “nobody's gonna challenge you or challenge me, I think this was my idea, I said, wait a minute,” although it is unclear. From there Trump says “we will need triple the energy” and continues on that tangent before the clip cuts off.“No one can say thi

President Donald Trump’s Justice Department wants the American people to know that the still-unreleased files of the late Jeffrey Epstein contain “sensationalist claims against Trump.”The Justice Department officials previously said some files included fake or false materials that were sent to the FBI by the public and may “contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump.”“The US justice department [sic] is to release nearly 50,000 ‘missing’ Jeffrey Epstein files this week,”

“I can’t deny it: I’m enjoying the tumult on the right,” said Dispatch co-founder Jonah Goldberg, referring to MAGA’s civil war as factions come to terms with Trump finally turning his lies upon them.“Let’s start with poor J.D. Vance,” said Goldberg, a former senior editor at the National Review. “He has spent the last few years grounding his support for Donald Trump in Trump’s wise rejection of ‘forever wars,’ ‘stupid wars,’ ‘regime change wars,’ etc. Now, he’s stuck trying to explain why this war on Iran is not — and cannot possibly be — any of the above without looking exactly like what he is: a guy who reinven

Karl Rove, a Republican political strategist who famously advised President George W. Bush, supports President Donald Trump’s new war against Iran — but is less impressed with Trump’s messaging.Praising Operation Epic Fury as “a historic act,” Rove argued for The Wall Street Journal that “the effort has showcased military and intelligence brilliance and gutsy leadership. It began with the American president and the Israeli prime minister. It has continued with leaders of half a dozen Middle Eastern and eastern Mediterranean countries.”Rove added, howeve

Politico reports a Republican congressman, who is also a tax writer, destroyed President Donald Trump’s pick for head of the IRS and the Social Security Administration.“This is unacceptable,” Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) told IRS CEO Frank Bisignano after Bisignano offered vague answers to lawmakers’ inquiries about tax-filing season and Trump’s Big Beautiful bill’s impact on it, and other issues.Bisignano got his dressing down at a Wednesday hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee.“You really need to come in here and answer the questi

President Donald Trump will need to figure out how to reimburse the tens of billions of dollars it illegally collected in tariffs, and in a way that provides “efficient justice,” according to a senior judge who ruled on Wednesday.Richard Eaton, a senior judge on the U.S. Court of International Trade, decided in a case filed by the company Atmus Filtration that the trade court’s chief judge had given him jurisdiction over the more than 1,000 companies that have sued for refunds. As such, his decision for Atmus Filtration applies to every company demanding a refund from Trump.“So there is no danger that another Judge, even one in this Court, will reach any contrary conclusions,” Eaton expla

President Donald Trump is expressing “contempt for Congress” by escalating the Iran war without consulting them, according to a recent report.After Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth held briefings for lawmakers on Tuesday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said they anticipated a lengthy military campaign, according to The Washington Post.“I think they have contempt for Congress,” Murphy told reporters. “They have no plans to come to Congress for any authorization, even if they were to insert ground forces.”

International Security Affairs Specialist Robert A. Pape tells the Intelligencer that very smart U.S. leaders have fallen into the trap of over-relying on long-distance missile warfare. And then there’s President Donald Trump.Pape speaks of the “Smart-Bomb Trap,” which ensnares technologically superior power leaders who fool themselves into being overly optimistic about the effectiveness of military might.“[We] are virtually 100 percent successful, tactically, with precision bombs,” said Pape in an interview with Intelligencer’s Benjamin Hart. “