A Washington congressman has introduced a resolution to censure Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas for standing up and protesting during Donald Trump’s long-winded speech to Congress on Tuesday night.
Dan Newhouse, one of only two remaining House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in 2021, beat the far-right Freedom Caucus and Troy Nehls of Texas to the punch after they announced plans to push for Green’s censure. Newhouse introduced his resolution as "privileged," which requires the House to vote on the resolution within two days.
“Whereas, the conduct of the Representative from Texas disrupted the proceedings of the joint address and was a breach of proper conduct;” the resolution reads. “[A]nd whereas, after numerous disruptions the representative from Texas had to be removed from the chamber by the Sergeant-at-arms; Now, therefore, be it resolved that Representative Al Green be censured.”
Rep. Al Green disrupted Donald Trump’s addresses a joint session of Congress on March 4, 2025.
Green stood up and shouted, “You don’t have a mandate to cut Medicaid” after Trump boasted about his nonexistent electoral mandate. Strangely enough, Newhouse and his fellow Republicans had nothing to say about the crass theatrics during former President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in 2022, when GOP Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia stood up and heckled with glee.
You might even remember the “proper conduct” of Republican Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, who shouted “You lie!” during President Barack Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress in 2009.
Speaking of “proper,” it bears mentioning that Congress revised its 181-year-old hat ban in 2018 to allow religious headwear and head coverings worn for medical reasons. That didn’t stop notorious troll Marjorie Taylor Greene from sporting a MAGA-inspired red cap during Tuesday night’s snoozefest. So unless Greene claims she needs to wear the hat because her conspiracy-filled brain is a medical condition—she violated the rules of the chamber, too.
“The president said he had a mandate, and I was making it clear to the president that he has no mandate to cut Medicaid,” Green told reporters in the hallway after his protest. “I have people who are very fearful. These are poor people, and they have only Medicaid in their lives when it comes to their health care.”
“I've said, I'll accept the punishment,” he added. “But it's worth it to let people know that there are some of us who are going to stand up against this president's desire to cut Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.”
Just two minutes after Green was removed from the chamber for speaking out, Trump made an ironic claim.
“I’ve brought back free speech,” he crowed.
Green’s protest and subsequent removal were impactful in comparison to other Democrats’ choices to hold up signs and wear pink suits. He garnered the most headlines and once again exposed Republicans’ utter hypocrisy.
President Donald Trump on Monday once again came to the aid of murderous Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, cutting off over $1 billion in military aid the United States was set to provide Ukraine to help the country beat back Russia's violent invasion.
Trump's move unequivocally benefits Putin, whose incursion into Ukraine threatens all of Europe.
Ukrainian servicemen collect damaged ammunition on the road at the front line near Chasiv Yar town, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, on Jan. 10, 2025.
“I feel betrayed, but this feeling is not really deep for some reason. I was expecting something like that from Trump’s side,” a Ukrainian soldier fighting in Russia’s Kursk region told the Associated Press of Trump’s aid pause.
His rage at Ukraine took an ugly turn on Friday, when Trump berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. Trump paused the aid because he wants Zelenskyy to apologize for the Oval Office spat, even though it was Trump and Vice President JD Vance who were the instigators.
But abandoning Ukraine and helping Russia could be politically disastrous for Trump, according to a new poll conducted by Civiqs for Daily Kos.
While Trump has blamed Ukraine for starting the war, the poll found an overwhelming 76% of registered voters say Russia is responsible for starting the conflict. Even a majority of Republicans (62%) say Russia is responsible for starting the war.
What's more, a plurality of voters (49%) say that it’s "very important" for the security of the U.S. that Ukraine wins the war, with another 13% saying it's “better” for Ukraine to win. Only 1% of voters think it's important for U.S. security that Russia wins.
Russia, meanwhile, is cheering Trump’s moves, a sign they feel his decisions are helping them in the conflict. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov even said that Trump’s decisions “largely coincides with our vision.”
Democrats are slamming Trump for ignoring Congress and siding with Putin over an American ally.
"This is *illegal,*" Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania wrote in a post on X of Trump's pause on aid to Ukraine. "Congress appropriated these funds to support our allies in Ukraine who are fighting for their lives[.] Every dollar of aid must be released immediately. Trump’s disrespect for the rule of law is disgraceful and un-American."
Others sought to remind Americans that it's not the first time Trump has paused aid to Ukraine.
In fact, Trump paused military assistance to Ukraine in his first term, after the country refused to follow his orders to launch a politically motivated investigation into then-presidential candidate Joe Biden. That pause is what led to Trump’s first impeachment.
Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California
"Some of us remember the last time Trump paused aid to Ukraine ..." Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California, who ran the first impeachment effort against Trump, wrote in a post on X.
However, Republicans are cheering Trump for cutting off aid.
"By cutting military aid to Ukraine, President Trump is driving a knife right through the foreign policy UniParty. We should all be thankful for that," Rep. Brandon Gill, Republican of Texas, wrote in a post on X.
The Republican response is angering Democrats, who are not optimistic that GOP leaders will push Trump to do the right thing and assist Ukraine in its existential battle.
"Let's remember—congressional Republicans held up Ukraine aid for over six months, allowed for Russia to go on the offensive. So even before Donald Trump was president, congressional Republicans were not doing the things necessary to support the most vital fight in defense of democracy in the world today," Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said in an appearance on MSNBC. "So I'm just gonna be honest with you—I don't have a lot of faith that Republicans are gonna do anything except just offer some mild criticism of Vladimir Putin."
Murphy added, “We’re going to need for them at some point to support additional defensive aid for Ukraine—more weapons, more economic aid—and they weren’t willing to do that before Donald Trump was president, I’m not sure why they’d be willing to do it now, when Donald Trump is literally taking Russia’s side in this conflict.”
President Donald Trump is set to meet face-to-face with the man he’s repeatedly trashed online. During his first Cabinet meeting, Trump confirmed that he would meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenkskyy on Friday, during his visit to Washington, D.C. And it’s sure to be uncomfortable to watch after his awkward bilateral with French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this week.
Trump said the session with Zelenskyy aims to solidify a deal that would give the U.S. $500 billion worth of Ukraine’s rare earth mineral rights in return for financial and military support.
While the details of the negotiation remain unclear, Zelenskyy told reporters he’ll review the deal’s draft text. He said the text should include a line guaranteeing “security guarantees for Ukraine” from future Russian attacks—a critical point given Trump’s recent history of wavering on U.S. commitments to Ukraine and cozying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Puti and Trump sure seem chummy.
“Of course, this agreement is about economics. But I asked for there to be at least an understanding that we are seeing things the same way and that all of it is part of future security guarantees,” said Zelenskyy at a news conference on Wednesday, later adding, “My question will be very direct: if the United States will stop support or not? Can we buy weapons? If it’s not aid, can we buy weapons directly from the United States?”
When Trump was asked plainly by reporters earlier on Monday, the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, if he thought Putin was a dictator, Trump couldn’t muster the words.
“I don't use those words lightly,” he said instead.
But Trump has more than just a recent history of parroting Russian talking points.
He’s gone on despicable tirades against Zelenskyy online, calling him a “dictator” on Truth Social and siding with Russia on its desire to rejoin the esteemed G7 forum. In an unprecedented move on Monday, the U.S. voted with Moscow-friendly nations at the United Nations against a resolution to condemn Russia for the war in Ukraine.
During his first term in office, Trump called Ukraine “corrupt.”
The last time Zelenskyy and Trump met in person was in September 2019 at the U.N. Their “improper” quid pro quo phone call in July 2019 led to Trump’s first impeachment. Zelenskyy visited the White House in September during Joe Biden’s administration only a month before the election took place.
“Support for our state and people guarantees of peace and security—this is the key to ensuring that Russia will no longer destroy the lives of other nations,” Zelenskyy said in an address to the Ukrainian people on Wednesday. “I will meet with President Trump. For me and for all of us in the world, it is crucial that America’s assistance is not stopped.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the former Senate Republican leader who is in large part responsible for helping destroy American democracy, will announce on Thursday that he is not running for reelection, the Associated Press reported.
“Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate,” McConnell will say in a speech on the Senate floor, according to prepared remarks obtained by the AP. “Every day in between I’ve been humbled by the trust they’ve placed in me to do their business here. Representing our commonwealth has been the honor of a lifetime. I will not seek this honor an eighth time. My current term in the Senate will be my last.”
It’s hard to pinpoint the worst things McConnell has done in office, because he’s done so many horrendous things. McConnell is responsible for breaking the Senate, weaponizing the filibuster to keep legislation from passing.
He is also responsible for stealing not one but two Supreme Court seats from Democratic presidents. In 2016, McConnell gleefully blocked former President Barack Obama from being able to fill the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, refusing to give Obama’s nominee a hearing, let alone a vote on the Senate floor because he said it was too close to an election. Then in 2020, he conveniently said that rule no longer applied when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, confirming Donald Trump’s pick to fill Ginsburg’s seat just eight days before the 2020 election.
It wasn’t just the Supreme Court that he helped stack. McConnell blocked dozens of Obama’s lower court nominees, holding those seats vacant so that Trump could fill the seats after he was elected. And he shepherded through Trump’s judicial nominees, including ones that were blatantly unqualified.
Even more galling is that when Trump won a second term in November, McConnell then cried foul when federal judges decided to no longer retire to keep Trump from choosing their replacements, accusing them of playing politics with the judiciary.
Trump and McConnell
“They rolled the dice that a Democrat could replace them, and now that he won’t, they’re changing their plans to keep a Republican from doing it,” McConnell, the master of playing politics with the judiciary, said in a speech on the Senate floor.
McConnell stepped down from GOP Senate leadership in 2024, saying it was time to pass the torch.
“One of life’s most underappreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter,” McConnell said in February 2024. “So I stand before you today ... to say that this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.”
Since then, he’s seemingly found his spine, criticizing Trump’s worst impulses and voting against Trump’s unqualified and dangerous Cabinet nominees, including now-Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and now-Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Yet McConnell voted for Trump in 2024, even though he thought Trump was, in his own words, a “stupid … narcissist.”
And Trump wouldn’t even be in the Oval Office now if McConnell had done the right thing in Trump’s 2021 impeachment and voted to convict Trump of inciting the insurrection at the Capitol and bar him from running for the presidency again.
McConnell believed Trump was responsible for the attack, saying that the insurrectionists, “were provoked by the president and other powerful people, and they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like.”
But McConnell voted against convicting Trump, and did not work to convince other Republican senators to vote to ban Trump from seeking federal office in the future.
Ultimately, McConnell has been a menace in American politics. He will not be missed.
The future of the National Park System is in doubt as Donald Trump’s federal hiring freeze has put popular sites like Yosemite National Park in limbo and opened the door to privatizing federal monuments and lands.
Trump’s heavy-handed freeze not only stopped the hiring of workers, it rescinded employment for many who had already received job offers. The staffing situation was characterized as “catastrophic” by former Yosemite Superintendent Don Neubacher.
Summer camping reservations are on hold, impacting park sites from June 15 to July 14. This news comes on the heels of Yosemite officials’ announcement that a new reservation system has been delayed indefinitely. The system was supposed to be fully implemented this year and promised to eliminate the long lines and waits park visitors have faced in recent years.
“We understand the impact this has on visitors who are planning camping trips to the park,” read a statement on Yosemite’s official Instagram page. “We are grateful for your patience. Our goal is to release these campground nights as soon as possible and we will provide at least a seven-day advance notice before reservations go on sale.”
Now, Trump has teamed up with billionaires and the authors of Project 2025 to craft a much more robust plan to dismantle our country’s administrative state, which includes carving up as much federal land as possible. Their interests are far more naked and ambitious than those of Trump’s first administration.
Trump ssidekick Elon Musk and his goon squad at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency continue to illegally hamstring congressionally funded programs. The endgame is to force taxpayers to pay billionaires (like Musk) and their private businesses to do the things that our government already does—and could do—for its citizens.
President Donald Trump has done nothing but inflict harm and terror since reentering the White House in January, and history suggests he’ll face a backlash in the 2026 midterm elections.
Historically, the president’s party usually loses congressional seats in midterm elections. In 2018, halfway through Trump’s first presidency, the public slapped the Republican Party with a 40-seat loss in the House, ultimately leading to years of hearings and two impeachments. In 2022, while Democrats beat expectations, they still lost enough House seats to slip into the minority. Ironically, that bodes well for their chances of retaking the House in 2026, especially given their dominance in a recent special election.
However, the Senate is another matter entirely.
This past week, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report released its early Senate ratings for the midterms, which suggest the GOP majority will be impenetrable.
Republicans hold 22 seats that are up for reelection, and 19 are listed as solidly Republican, meaning those seats are all but certain to remain in the GOP’s hands (short of a miracle or a Mark Robinson-type figure running). An Ohio seat held by Sen. Jon Husted, who replaced Vice President JD Vance, is rated as “likely” Republican, meaning Democrats have a chance, if a slim one, of picking it up. After all, the party hasn’t won a statewide race in Ohio since 2018.
But two races “lean” toward Republicans, according to Cook. That means they should be the best pickup opportunities for Democrats. They are held by Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. While the races could be grabbable, Collins won her 2020 reelection by 8.6 percentage points, despite that Democrat Joe Biden won Maine by 9 points in that same election. Meanwhile, Trump has carried North Carolina thrice.
There’s also Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who looks likely to retire. But he represents a deep-red state that Trump carried by more than 30 points in 2024.
Worse, in the 2026 same midterm, Democrats face a tough Senate landscape. According to Cook, the party will defend two “toss-up” seats, and both are in states Trump won last year: Georgia (Sen. Jon Ossoff) and Michigan (an open seat now that Sen. Gary Peters is retiring).
Then there’s Minnesota. Democratic Sen. Tina Smith announced on Thursday that she would not seek reelection. Of course, Democrats have a deep bench of good prospective candidates for this seat, and Cook rates it as a “Likely Democratic” seat, but the party will no longer have the advantage of an incumbent running and Republicans will probably spend big on the race.
Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota
Democrats also face a potentially competitive race in New Hampshire. While incumbent Democrat Jeanne Shaheen comfortably defeated her Republican opponent by nearly 16 points in 2020, Trump came within 3 points of winning the state in 2024. Due to that, Cook rates the seat as only “Lean Democrat.”
What complicates matters further for Democrats is that their toss-up and “lean” seats are arguably more vulnerable than either of the “Lean R” seats held by Republicans. That means the odds are higher that the GOP will keep or even increase its Senate majority in 2026.
It’s also important that Democrats don’t lose sight of other states where the president came within 10 points of winning in 2024: New Jersey (Sen. Cory Booker), New Mexico (Sen. Ben Ray Luján), and Virginia (Sen. Mark Warner). While Cook rates these seats as “Solid Democratic,” the party should at least be cautious and, at the very least, not express annoyance toward voters who simply want them to put up a fight.
Indeed, Democrats will have a lot on their plate in 2026. And it doesn’t help that polls show their voters aren’t too pleased with them, while Trump 2025 is so far stronger than he was in 2017. As CNN reported earlier this week, Trump’s second-term approval rating had been in the green for his entire term so far—while he had only 11 such net-positive days during his first term.
The good news, of course, is that Democrats are primed to take back the House due to Republicans’ precarious majority, which currently sits at 218 seats to Democrats’ 215. (Two vacancies, previously held by Republicans, are expected to go to the GOP once their special elections happen.) Unseating the GOP’s House majority will be especially easy if Trump’s approval fades (as it should) and if people turn on his policies.
But even if Democrats retake the House, that would make for a divided Congress, and the Senate arguably matters more. A compliant, GOP-controlled Senate will steadily confirm Trump’s judicial appointments (including potential Supreme Court vacancies). Trump likes to keep score, too, so he will likely try to confirm more judges than Biden did when Democrats had control of the Senate.
Still, a divided Congress is better than a united Republican-led Congress that’s slinging a wrecking ball into the federal government.
Another week of Donald Trump's presidency is in the rearview. And like the two weeks before it, it was filled with lawless actions, lies, and ridiculous behavior that Republicans lined up to defend.
Trump threw Ukraine under the bus and appears likely to let murderous Russian dictator Vladimir Putin seize control of the sovereign nation. He also fired more independent watchdogs, let more corrupt politicians off the hook, slashed grants to medical research, and he even said he might ignore court rulings blocking his unlawful actions.
And like the pathetic lapdogs they are, Republicans defended every move.
After multiple federal judges of all ideological stripes blocked some of Trump’s executive actions, Republicans pushed the country further into a constitutional crisis by backing Trump when he suggested he’ll ignore those court orders and do whatever he wants.
“It seems hard to believe that a judge could say, ‘We don’t want you to do that.’ So maybe we have to look at the judges. ‘Cause I think that’s a very serious violation,” Trump said on Tuesday.
Trump likely got this idea from his own vice president, who wrote in an X post on Feb. 9 that judges shouldn’t be allowed to stop the president’s executive power.
“If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” he wrote.
And other Republicans agreed with the false statement that the courts are not allowed to check the president’s power—when that’s exactly what the Constitution dictates.
“Of course the branches have to respect our constitutional order but there’s a lot of game yet to be played. This will be appealed, we’ve got to go through the whole process, and we’ll get the final analysis. In the interim, I will say that I agree wholeheartedly with Vice President JD Vance, my friend, because he’s right,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said during a news conference on Tuesday.
Later that day, he said that the courts should back off of Trump altogether.
“I think that the courts should take a step back and allow these processes to play out. What we’re doing is good and right for the American people,” Johnson told reporters, specifically referring to the cuts co-President Elon Musk is trying to make with his fake agency, the Department of Government Efficiency.
Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah
"I don't believe judges, courts have the authority or power to stick their nose into the constitutional authority of the president,” Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said.
“These judges need to back off and get out of the way of what the executive branch is doing to administer the government,” Roy said on Fox News.
Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah also expressed agreement that courts don’t have the power to challenge Trump’s executive orders.
“These judges are waging an unprecedented assault on legitimate presidential authority, all the way down to dictating what webpages the government has. This is absurd,” he wrote on X.
Rep. Darrel Issa, Republican of California, claimed that “nowhere in our Constitution is a single federal judge given absolute power over the President or the people of the United States.”
But, of course, the Supreme Court ruled in the landmark 1803 Marbury v. Madison case that the judiciary has the power to declare laws or actions unconstitutional.
On the other hand, Sen. Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota seemed to acknowledge that ignoring court orders is wrong, but he simply couldn’t bring himself to criticize Trump.
“I think what you're seeing right now is the natural give and take between branches of the government,” he said.
A handful of other Trump sycophants went a step further, saying that they would launch an impeachment effort against the judges who block Trump's actions.
“I’m drafting articles of impeachment for US District Judge Paul Engelmayer. Partisan judges abusing their positions is a threat to democracy. The left has done ‘irreparable harm’ to this country. President Trump and his team at @DOGE are trying to fix it,” Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona wrote on X, referring to the federal judge who blocked Musk from accessing Treasury data.
And Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia wrote on X that he is backing Crane’s efforts.
“The real constitutional crisis is taking place in our judicial branch. Activist judges are weaponizing their power in an attempt to block President Trump’s agenda and obstruct the will of the American people. [Crane] and I are leading the fight to stop this insanity,” he wrote.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia called for the impeachment of another federal judge who blocked Trump’s freeze on congressionally appropriated federal funds.
“This judge is a Trump deranged Democrat activist. Below is proof he is not capable of making good decisions from the bench. He should be impeached,” Greene wrote on X.
Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio backed those efforts, saying the judges blocking Trump’s actions “should be mocked and ignored while articles of impeachment are prepared.”
“These clowns are undermining every lower court, leaving the sole burden on SCOTUS. This is not sustainable. Sadly, excesses in judicial and executive authority are a symptom of the real problem: Congress keeps failing to take action. Time for #DeedsNotWords,” he wrote on X.
Meanwhile, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, once a fierce defender of watchdogs, was fine with Trump axing the inspector general of the U.S. Agency for International Development who said that Trump's unlawful shuttering of the agency let hundreds of millions of dollars worth of food aid go to waste.
Grassley said that he "should have been fired," and gave Trump a workaround to make the firing legal.
"I'm just trying to make the president's job easier," Grassley said, completely ditching his past watchdog advocacy to bow down to Trump.
Other GOP lawmakers chose Trump over their own constituents, who are being directly harmed by the president’s actions.
Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio said that Trump’s decision to drastically cut back National Institutes of Health funding for medical research institutions is a good thing, even though it would decimate institutions in his own state and beyond.
“Well, I think what happens is the president is exactly right. I think if you ask the average American if we were spending a billion dollars to cure childhood cancer, how much of the billion dollars would go towards during childhood cancer? They’d probably say a billion. The idea that 60% goes to indirect cost and overhead is insane. And so I applaud the president,” he told the Bulwark
And Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri said that Trump's funding freeze, which is hurting farmers who are not being paid for contracts, is just a "little bit disruptive."
“But that's what this administration promised whenever they were coming to Washington,” Smith said on CNN, “is that they would be disruptive.”
Rep. Jason Smith dismisses farmers in his state who are getting stiffed by the US government not fulfilling contracts: "Right now it's a little bit disruptive, but that's what this administration promised whenever they were coming to Washington is that they would be disruptive."
President Donald Trump insulted Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and questioned his childhood battle with polio after the senator opposed anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation Thursday to be the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
When asked by a reporter whether McConnell’s past bout with polio influenced his “no” vote, Trump responded, “I have no idea if he had polio. All I can tell you about him is that he shouldn’t have been leader.”
The president added, “[McConnell’s] not voting against Bobby, he’s voting against me.” He later called McConnell “a very bitter guy.”
McConnell has voted against several of Trump’s recent Cabinet picks, including Tulsi Gabbard (for director of national intelligence), Pete Hegseth (for secretary of defense), and Kennedy. In the cases of Gabbard and Kennedy, McConnell was the only Republican to buck the president. With Hegseth’s vote, however, two other Republican senators—Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska—joined him in voting against Trump’s nominee.
In addition to calling Trump a “despicable human being,” a “narcissist,” and “stupid” in a recent biography, McConnell has blasted Trump’s sweeping use of tariffs. He said they were “bad policy” and would raise prices.
Trump’s “aggressive proposals leave big, lingering concerns for American industry and workers,” McConnell wrote in a Wednesday op-ed for Louisville’s Courier-Journal.
Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky
McConnell wasn’t always this big of a thorn in Trump’s side, though. At the beginning of Trump’s first term, the senator helped Trump confirm hundreds of judges and fill three Supreme Court vacancies—moves that will shape the judiciary for a generation. (Notably, in 2016, McConnell helped block Merrick Garland, whom then-President Barack Obama nominated to the Supreme Court, from getting a hearing.) McConnell was also instrumental in Trump’s 2017 effort to pass sweeping tax cuts for the wealthy.
Despite minor disagreements, the Republicans’ relationship didn’t turn icy until the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. McConnell called Trump “practically and morally responsible” for the insurrection, but ultimately, he did not vote to convict the president.
The two also squabbled over the party’s failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act during Trump’s first administration. (More recently, McConnell said the repeal effort against the law seems “largely over.”) And they have traded a fair share of nasty personal attacks. Despite this, McConnell still endorsed Trump’s reelection bid.
McConnell, who will turn 83 this month, is up for reelection in 2026, but it’s unclear whether he’ll run again. He’s suffered a series of falls as of late, including two last week. A spokesperson for the senator suggested that “the lingering effects of polio in his left leg” contributed to it, but said the fall would not disrupt McConnell’s “regular schedule of work.”
It makes sense, then, that McConnell would vote against Kennedy, an alleged animal abuser with a history of attacking vaccination and promoting bogus conspiracy theories. Shortly after his confirmation, Kennedy appeared on Fox News and confirmed there were plans to cut the number of HHS employees. Notably, Kennedy said those who have been “involved in good science” (whatever that means!) have “nothing to worry about.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine nut now in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services
“If you care about public health, you’ve got nothing to worry about. If you’re in there working for the pharmaceutical industry, then I should say you should move out and work for the pharmaceutical industry,” he said.
On Thursday, Trump questioned McConnell’s mental acuity and said “he’s not equipped” to lead the GOP. This is the Trump way: viciously attack anyone who doesn’t do your bidding, regardless of how they’ve helped you in the past. It’s also a classic authoritarian tactic, and given that Trump is a petty narcissist, it’s not shocking that he’s going after McConnell.
That said, McConnell doesn’t deserve a pat on the back for voting against just a handful of Trump’s awful nominees. The senator’s pushback is not just politically convenient—he’s no longer Senate majority leader—but it also comes far too late in the game.
Maybe McConnell feels guilty for elevating Trump and is voting against the Cabinet picks as a way to make up for his past transgressions. Either way, given how much he helped Trump to get to where he is now, he’s just as complicit in the downfall of American democracy.
A new book details Donald Trump’s paranoia during his 2024 presidential campaign over a potential assassination threat from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Reports that Iranian operatives had access to surface-to-air missiles led Trump and his advisers to use his staff as a decoy in a plane switcheroo, according to Politico’s Alex Isenstadt.
The threat stemmed from Trump’s first-term decision to assassinate Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in January 2020. The revelations are in Isenstadt’s upcoming book, "Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump's Return to Power." The reporter was given access to the Trump campaign’s inner circle, and Isenstadt reveals that Trump was so afraid that he secretly switched planes to travel to an event—leaving some of his staff feeling like bait.
Trump’s fear was stoked by foiled assassination attempts at a Pennsylvania rally and at his Florida golf course. While neither of the incidents were linked to Iran, Trump’s security detail had him fly on billionaire buddy Steven Witkoff’s plane after the Florida attempt while the rest of his staff took his privately owned plane, dubbed Trump Force One. According to Isenstadt, staffers didn’t find out about the new security arrangement until they were on board Trump Force One.
Campaign leaders tried to assure Trump aides they weren't being used as bait. But if Iranian operatives had access to surface-to-air missiles, several aides wondered, why were they put on board?
Trump has a history of indifference when it comes to the security of friends and foes alike. He has revoked security details for a host of officials from his first administration who have found their way onto his “enemies list.” This includes people like former national security adviser John Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and special envoy Brian Hook—all of whom face the same threat of assassination from Iran for their roles in Soleimani’s assassination.
Trump’s continuing paranoia and vengefulness were apparent as recently as last Tuesday, when he told reporters that Iran “would be obliterated” if he were to be assassinated.
“I’ve left instructions if they do it, they get obliterated, there won’t be anything left,” Trump said.
Trump’s threat to destabilize the region even further has been reiterated by his very unqualified Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. During an interview on “Fox & Friends,” Hegseth said invading or attacking countries or regions that are home to “foreign terrorist organizations” is "on the table.”
Trump’s enemies list goes beyond former Cabinet members directly threatened with assassination by foreign adversaries. It also includes former Trump administration officials facing domestic threats due to Trump and the right wing’s increasingly dangerous lies.
The petty plutocrat has also revoked security details for former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, retired Joint Chiefs of Staff chair Gen. Mark Milley, and former top U.S. health official Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Donald Trump is a Russian asset, whether willing or unwilling. His obsequiousness toward Russian strongman Vladimir Putin during his first term wasn’t just embarrassing—it became a grave national security threat.
Trump literally sided with Putin over his own intelligence agencies. And why wouldn’t he? Russia was a major factor in his 2016 election victory.
Meanwhile, Trump’s first impeachment was literally centered on his effort to blackmail Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, drumming up a fake Hunter Biden investigation in exchange for anti-tank weapons to try to stave off a looming Russian invasion.
Last year, Trump repeatedly promised to end Russia’s war in Ukraine within “24 hours” of taking office, which many took to mean pulling U.S. support for Ukraine and freezing the conflict in its current state—something Russia desperately needs.
Yet a funny thing has happened. Trump slobbered over Putin, believing that he and Russia are strong and mighty, serving as an example for his own imperialist and undemocratic designs. But Russia is not strong and mighty. In fact, Russia has run out of tools to prop up its failing economy. And out-of-control inflation, sky-high interest rates, and lower global energy prices have put Putin in a precarious position.
Somehow, Trump noticed this, and his disdain couldn’t be clearer. We just might have somehow lucked into a pro-Ukraine Trump presidency.
Trump shared his thoughts about Russia’s war in Ukraine on Truth Social Wednesday morning.
I’m not looking to hurt Russia. I love the Russian people, and always had a very good relationship with President Putin - and this despite the Radical Left’s Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX. We must never forget that Russia helped us win the Second World War, losing almost 60,000,000 lives in the process. All of that being said, I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR. Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. If we don’t make a “deal,” and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries. Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way - and the easy way is always better. It’s time to “MAKE A DEAL.” NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!
How does Trump always manage to get so much wrong?
Russia didn’t lose 60 million lives in World War II; it lost 27 million. And, really, seven million of those were Ukrainian, as that total is for the Soviet Union, not Russia. That’s a lot, so why the need to exaggerate it? Probably because the total number of people killed in World War II is around 60 million, and Trump is just too stupid to know the difference—or to fact check.
Furthermore, tariffs don’t mean shit to Russia, since the U.S. doesn’t really trade with them. In 2022, the United States imported just $15 billion in Russian goods and services. Thanks to deep sanctions, what little we exported, like intellectual property (movies and such), was either appropriated by Moscow or just stolen.
But sanctions are something that could be hiked up, which would be a welcome response from the Trump administration.
If Trump really wants the war to end (and to take credit and have statues raised all over Ukraine in his honor), then he needs to do what former President Joe Biden was loath to do: open up the arms spigot and remove all restrictions on their usage.
More specifically, he needs to flood Ukraine with aircrafts—Ukraine now flies F-16s—and long-range missiles.
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump
Russia has endless manpower to incrementally take ground in Ukraine. In October 2024, U.S. intelligence agencies estimated Russian casualties for the entire war at more than 600,000, including those killed and wounded. And that pace has increased year over year as Russia runs out of armor but continues to send soldiers on foot, motorcycle, and even civilian vehicles.
Yet manpower continues to be sourced from Russia’s poorest, more remote regions, insulating the oligarch elites in Moscow and St. Petersburg from direct consequences.
That economic instability, on the other hand, hits those oligarchs in the only place it matters, and a continued 10% inflation rate is taking a bite out of everyone’s earning power.
How long can the czar remain in power if his people are starving?
Meanwhile, the country’s banking system is on the verge of collapse as Moscow forces them to lend to the military industrial complex—at levels that far exceed their ability to cover the risk. With their inability to access foreign reserves due to sanctions, they are isolated and exposed. Wary of being caught up with retaliatory sanctions from the United States and the European Union, China is steering clear.
While Russia still has significant financial reserves to cover its massive defense-related budget deficits, they are on pace to be depleted by 2030, according to an analysis by Janes—and that’s assuming energy prices don’t crater.
Saudi Arabia has been threatening to open the spigot, and if Trump’s policy to encourage additional domestic drilling pans out, global prices might further tumble to Russia’s great peril. And additional Western sanctions on oil and on countries that help Russia circumvent sanctions (cough, cough, looking at you, India) will further tighten the noose.
Long-range missiles would help accelerate Russia’s economic woes. Ukraine’s biggest war gains the past year came from systematically targeting Russian economic engines like refineries and factories. On the ground, Ukraine needs to merely hold the line, extracting a steep price on Russian advances. But if they want to win the war, it will be with long-range missiles.
Unfortunately, Trump didn’t threaten that, but once Putin ignores Trump’s demands for “A DEAL,” it would be a logical next step to ratchet up the pressure. Someone might even whisper in his ear—with their fingers crossed behind their back—that if he helps end the war, a Nobel Peace Prize is on the table.
Trump’s 180-degree turn on Putin clearly stems from Russia’s weakness not only in Ukraine, but also in Syria following the country’s humiliating defeat.
One Russian Telegram channel claimed that secret negotiations between Russia and Trump representatives in December failed when the Americans made demands that Putin was unwilling to meet.
All media, public authorities and controlled leaks of [Russian] economic data not only abroad, but also inside the country, the main goal was to convince first the ruling group of Biden, and in the last few months of Trump, about the normal state of the Russian economy, its moderate growth, the absence of critical problems, and the ability of the Russian Federation to continue the confrontation as long as necessary.
For example, our group had all the real indicators of the Russian Federation – a growing decline in GDP by 1-4%, inflation growth of up to 25% over the last year, etc. The main figures for the public space were carefully adjusted, the emerging holes were quietly filled with reserves from the National Wealth Fund. While there was a high probability of reaching an agreement with the US by demonstrating ‘muscles’, it was much more profitable and cheaper to demonstrate them with hidden doping.
There was a categorical ban not only on discussing serious restrictions and deprivations for the population, but also on actually working out such measures – because of possible leaks and confirmation of the ‘weakness’ of the Russian economy for US analysts.
The main scenario assumed that the newly elected U.S. president, who had his hands ‘untied’ at the beginning of his term, would be convinced of Russia's ability to continue the conflict throughout his presidency would want to resolve the crisis quickly, and that this would be the best time for agreements.
There were tense secret negotiations between Russia and Trump's representatives through almost all of December, but the conditions put forward by the Americans were completely unacceptable for the pro-Chinese elite group in Russia, which at this stage has the greatest weight [...]
China will not allow an agreement with the US (probably, China leaked the real data of the Russian economy to the US, hence such tough conditions from their side), it will not only receive resources below the cost price and supply its products with 200-300% markup but it will also solve its geopolitical task – talking about friendship and partnership of the Russian Federation, Russia's forehead will hit the US and the EU, bargaining for agreements for itself and preventing its open conflict with the US.
That is quite the conspiracy theory.
The United States doesn’t need China to know the state of the Russian economy. Heck, I’ve linked to a bunch of Western media sources and analysts who have had their finger on Russia’s true economic situation throughout the entire war.
But the underlying point is quite interesting. Not only is it against China’s interests for the war to end, but Russia is also reliant on it for just about everything right now. Plus, China loves to see EU and U.S. dollars and assets spent on Putin’s theater rather than on Taiwan.
The end result is a weak Russia and a pathetic Putin, groveling before North Korea for weapons and manpower. And if there’s one thing Trump abhors, it’s weakness.
By aligning himself against China, Republicans’ favorite geopolitical boogeyman du jour, Trump is further susceptible to influence from pro-Ukraine voices inside the GOP and his administration.
If he wants to end the war, Trump needs to give Ukraine the means and permission to further target Russia’s failing economic engine. Long-range missiles are the way to do it.
