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Raw Story
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[l] at 8/26/26 8:39am
Outrage erupted on MS NOW host Wednesday morning as news broke that social media giant Meta had been awarded a slap-on-the-wrist settlement agreement in its highly watched court case.“Meta and a coalition of state attorneys general have settled a major federal trial centering on allegations that the social media giant misrepresented the extent of child-related mental health harms caused by apps like Facebook and Instagram,” CNBC reported early Wednesday morning. In a case where experts agreed it could result in hundreds of billions being awarded, Meta is walking away with an agreement to pay a maximum $16.68 billion.That led MS NOW’s Stephanie Ruhle to lose her cool and rail against the attorney generals she argued failed to do their jobs.“If the company lost, Meta could have faced hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars in damages,” she said.“I get that on its face people are going to be like, wow, it could be $16 billion,” she explained. “$16 billion is not much. We thought it was going to be hundreds of billions."Yale School of Management Dean Jeffrey Sonnenfeld was also appalled.“It's unbelievable,” he blurted. “ This was, you know, a $1.4 trillion lawsuit that here you have 29 states, red states and blue states combined that — and it's being tried in Oakland, California, by a very good attorney general…somehow they've dropped the ball on this, because this was this was a home-court advantage for Rob Bonta, the attorney general, a Democrat, and, of course, California, a blue state.”“This was a very favorable setting, and everybody was anticipating this is going to be billions of tens of billions of dollars, not this near 16 billion,” he continued. “It is a mere 16 — that's two weeks of revenues."“That’s just peanuts!” Ruhle interjected. - YouTube youtu.be
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[l] at 8/26/26 8:23am
President Donald Trump answered a question about honoring Dolly Parton by telling a radio audience the late country music star had liked him personally.Trump appeared on the Glenn Beck Show on Wednesday, where the conservative radio host asked the president why he had lowered the nation's flags for a singer. Parton died Tuesday at 80, and Trump ordered American flags to half-staff that evening in a post on Truth Social, The Hill reported."And for the first time in history, you said we should lower our flags, and you declared that our flags should be at half-staff," Beck said. "That's never been done before. Why'd you do it for her?""Never," Trump replied. We've done this, you know, lowering, but as I understand it — I've heard that from a couple of people. I'm a little surprised."Flags will remain lowered until sunset on Sept. 1, a weeklong tribute that Newsweek noted is longer than the mourning periods Trump ordered for close allies, including the late Sen. Lindsey Graham and activist Charlie Kirk."I mean, she was amazing," Trump continued of Parton. "And to lose her, it's like you lose a member of the family. You know, we all knew her so well. I knew her a little bit.""She wasn't a very political person. She really liked me, I will tell you," Trump insisted.Parton spent her career refusing to take political sides, Newsweek reported, telling audiences she had as many Republican fans as Democratic ones.She turned down the Presidential Medal of Freedom three times, according to NewsNation, declining the honor twice during Trump's first term and once under former President Joe Biden."I liked her a lot, and I thought it was a natural thing to lower the flags," Trump told Beck.
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[l] at 8/26/26 8:09am
The U.S. Army paid General Dynamics $533 million for an artillery factory that failed to produce a single usable shell.Instead of efficient, state-of-the-art production lines, half a billion dollars in taxpayer funding paid for machines that kept failing in bizarre ways, former workers told ProPublica’s Jesse Coburn. Giant robot arms would catch fire. The Texas factory’s signature device often cracked the steel meant for the shells. And workers regularly had to take a sledgehammer to certain machines to try to make them function properly. But the machines still botched nearly every shell.The boondoggle, which included a real-life dumpster fire, was described as an “absolute disaster,” by one former official who worked in an Army office overseeing the project. The official, like others interviewed for the story, spoke on the condition of anonymity.In a detailed statement, the Army told ProPublica it exercises “rigorous oversight” and that, “where vendors fail to meet contract specifications” — as at the General Dynamics artillery factory — ”we are evaluating contract performance, seeking recoupment of funds, and pivoting resources.”General Dynamics declined an interview request, but the company has said it “met or exceeded requirements,” according to a Department of Defense inspector general report. In a statement, a company spokesperson told ProPublica its reporting “fundamentally mischaracterizes the circumstances,” but did not respond to a request to specify our reporting’s alleged errors.To chronicle what went wrong, Coburn interviewed 36 people who’ve worked for the Army, the Pentagon, General Dynamics and the White House, and he reviewed internal company documents as well as photos and video from inside the factory. Here are the lapses in planning and execution Coburn’s reporting uncovered — and some of the consequences of those mistakes.The Red FlagsThe Army awarded the project to General Dynamics in a rushed process despite significant unknowns.When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the Biden administration rushed to boost production of artillery shells to support Ukraine’s war effort. General Dynamics was the only company producing the 155 mm metal shell bodies in the U.S. at that time, mainly in a century-old facility in Pennsylvania.The company could have simply replicated the facility’s traditional manufacturing method, which dated back to the time of the Korean War, to ramp up production. But General Dynamics proposed using a state-of-the-art production line from Repkon, a Turkish company virtually unknown in American defense.Repkon said other countries were already using its machinery to build an older, simpler model of the artillery shells. But it wasn’t clear the Turkish equipment could work with the particular steel used to make the Army’s newer model of 155 mm shells. And Repkon said the Army and General Dynamics could not inspect full artillery production lines in action, citing customer privacy.Repkon did not respond to requests for comment.The Department of Defense did not competitively bid the project.The Army could’ve insisted that General Dynamics more fully demonstrate that Repkon’s machines could perform the desired work. But that would’ve taken time, and — as a former Army official told Coburn — “there was incredible pressure to go fast.”In November 2022, the Army gave General Dynamics the first in a series of contract awards for the artillery factory. Then, Congress granted the Department of Defense the power to award money for Ukraine-related causes without some of the usual contracting safeguards meant to ensure taxpayer money doesn’t go to waste. That meant the Army could give General Dynamics no-bid awards and the company could start work on the project before finalizing the contract terms with the government.The U.S. ended up ordering three Repkon production lines — instead of just one — without knowing for certain whether they could make shells that met the Army’s specifications. (The Army said it selected General Dynamics because of the company’s unique artillery production experience).The Army did not thoroughly vet the proposal before approving it.Both the Army and General Dynamics sent staffers to Turkey to inspect the Repkon machines. But they never inspected a full production line in action, and they didn’t send enough experts who could identify potential defects in Repkon’s equipment, four former General Dynamics and Army officials told ProPublica.The Army also didn’t require General Dynamics to demonstrate it could use Repkon’s equipment to complete the entire production process and make shells that met the service’s specifications. (The Army said that “formal testing could not occur prior to full machinery installation.”)In 2024, leaders from the Army and General Dynamics gathered in Texas to celebrate the factory’s opening. But the machines were barely functioning.Here’s how the rushed planning from the Army and General Dynamics played out in the factory.The ConsequencesIn Texas, robotic arms caught fire and smashed into equipment.Twelve former factory workers told Coburn that problems quickly piled up inside the factory. Machines meant to begin giving the shells perfectly smooth noses would, instead, mangle them into swirls that looked like soft-serve ice cream.The robotic arms had a tendency to swing out of control, smashing into things around the factory. Workers talked about the arms going “rogue.” Sometimes, a machine in the factory would be seen moving on its own, controlled remotely by someone in Turkey, spooking workers in the Texas factory.Workers said smoke hung in the air inside the factory, and it’d reach desert-like temperatures when the furnaces or forging presses were on. Making matters worse, walls cracked, water flooded in when it rained and employees said the foundation of the buildings appeared to be shifting or sinking beneath them.As progress at the artillery plant continued to stall, paranoia grew and rumors swirled among the American workers that the Turkish employees from Repkon might be purposefully sabotaging the machinery.“It was astonishing how little progress we would make, month after month, year after year,” one former worker told ProPublica. “People started speculating, ‘I wonder if they’re spying on us.’” (The Army said it has no evidence of sabotage or spying.)General Dynamics failed to meet a number of milestones at the facility, including failing to perform scheduled first article tests, which would’ve demonstrated the factory could produce shells that met the Army’s requirements.The Army hasn’t required General Dynamics to pay the money back.General Dynamics, one of the world’s largest defense contractors, and Repkon haven’t been held publicly accountable for the taxpayer-funded failure. The Army also hasn’t made General Dynamics pay back the money. (The service said it will recover funding from the project by getting unspecified discounts from General Dynamics on production orders.)In August 2025, the Army halted work on two of the three production lines at the factory. But the Army didn’t unilaterally terminate the contract awards. In December 2025, the government paid the company $26.3 million in “progress payments” for two production lines — although the lines had never made a usable shell.The Army says it won’t spend any more money on the artillery plant. But since the Army partially halted work at the factory last summer, the same unit of General Dynamics responsible for the struggling facility has won contract awards worth $2.5 billion, according to the Army. (The service said this was for “distinct production lines and critical national defense requirements” unrelated to the Texas factory.)Having experienced the failure of a little-proven technology in its factory, General Dynamics has announced it will team up with yet another unheard-of partner promising technological innovation. The new solution? Artificial intelligence.Read our full investigation here.
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[l] at 8/26/26 7:47am
Pro-MAGA radio host Jesse Kelly accused Republicans of committing malpractice by sitting on campaign cash with the midterm elections roughly 10 weeks away.Kelly made the charge on the Aug. 24 broadcast of "The Jesse Kelly Show," adding in a post on X that he felt the GOP seems to be waving the white flag.The radio host sourced his outrage to a conversation with President Donald Trump's former press secretary Sean Spicer."Why are we not unloading all this money? What are we saving the money for? Are we saving it for 2028? What has happened? This is malpractice," Kelly said."Sean Spicer told me the GOP is sitting on a gargantuan amount of money — a gigantic amount of money. We are 70, 71 days, something like that, away from the election, and they're not spending it," the host said."Same thing's happening in Michigan. Same thing's happening in North Carolina. Same thing's happening in Georgia."Federal filings show a version of what Spicer described, the Election Law Blog reported.Trump's MAGA Inc. super PAC held nearly $404 million at the end of July, Bloomberg reported. It spent nothing that month to help Republican candidates.Its outlays went instead to consulting fees, bank charges, credit card payments and an event photographer, according to those filings.Texas shows the gap, the Texas Tribune reported. Democratic state Rep. James Talarico has spent more than $25 million on advertising since late May. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton spent $119,000. The race is deadlocked, according to Emerson College Polling, which found Paxton at 47% and Talarico at 46%.The super PAC did spend once this month, the Washington Times reported, but not on a battleground.MAGA Inc. put nearly $830,000 behind Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) on the last day of a Republican primary runoff, the Washington Times reported. It was the group's first major outlay since November 2025.Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), who lost that runoff, accused outside PACs of spending $8 million against him, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported."Brings me back to our discussion about Jared Kushner meeting with Hakeem Jeffries, already trying to hash out some common ground. Are we already giving up on November?" Kelly said.
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[l] at 8/26/26 7:37am
Laughter erupted on MS NOW Wednesday morning as news broke two Republican Dan Sullivans — one endorsed by a fellow Dan Sullivan — would compete for a single Senate seat in a charade that could cost the GOP its control of the chamber.Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher running for the seat occupied by Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan of Alaska, has won a spot on the general-election ballot on Tuesday, possibly paving the way for ex-Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) to swipe a seat Republicans can’t afford to lose.With co-host Willie Geist stating the Sullivan confusion could lead to votes being “siphoned” off from the incumbent, Jonathan Lemire claimed there was an “important update.”“The senator, Dan Sullivan, the incumbent, Dan Sullivan, just picked up an endorsement from the former mayor of Anchorage, whose name is, I kid you not, Dan Sullivan,” he reported to laughter.“No, no, no!” Geist exclaimed over the off-screen laughter.“Yesterday, former Anchorage mayor, Republican Dan Sullivan has weighed in with his endorsement of Senator Dan Sullivan, which is hysterical,” Lemire pressed on over more laughter. “Points to a lack of names, I guess, in Alaska.”“Even without this confusion, this was going to be a fascinating race to watch and one that Mary and Democrats feel like they can win even without the Dan Sullivan factor,’ Geist remarked.”Even without the ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm ' type of vibes that we have going on here,” Democratic strategist Adrienne Elrod added with a smirk. ”I mean, look, to your point, Willie, without the two Dan Sullivans on the ballot, this was already a race that Republicans were nervous about because Mary Peltola is the prime candidate that you want as a Democrat running. She's got strong ties to the state, she's raised a lot of money, she's beloved across the board: Democrats, Republicans.” - YouTube youtu.be
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[l] at 8/26/26 7:27am
A longtime conservative warned that President Donald Trump is laying groundwork to interfere with the November midterms, and identified one particular scheme to allow Republicans to keep their majority no matter what voters say.This week's Supreme Court ruling on mail-in ballots is just one visible piece of a broader effort by Trump and his MAGA allies to subvert the midterm election, which starts in just four weeks with early voting in some states, wrote The Bulwark's Mona Charen."The polls and projections look good for Democrats, this is not an ordinary election year," wrote Charen, who was a staffer in Ronald Reagan's White House. "Trump is weakened and flailing, yes, but he remains determined to prevent a free and fair election in November if he possibly can. And he does not lack for lackeys."The Justice Department demanded voter rolls from 48 states from 2025, although most states resisted in ongoing litigation, and Trump gutted the cybersecurity agency protecting elections from foreign interference while also ranting that China had stolen the 2020 election from him."Meanwhile, Trump instructed Republicans in red states to engage in naked, midcycle gerrymandering," Charen wrote. "There was no pretense that this was an effort to respond to Democratic gerrymandering. Several states with Democratic majorities like California and Virginia had recently taken steps to limit partisan gerrymandering. Regarding Texas, which was the first state to salute smartly and carry out Trump’s wishes, Trump said: 'Just a simple redrawing; we pick up five seats.'"Charen raised the possibility of ICE agents at polling places, referencing Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche's comments questioning objections to the idea, and then speculated about another scenario the president's allies could carry out."There's another possibility, too, one that would require more coordination among Republicans willing to do anything for Trump — but we’ve seen that kind of destructive devotion before," Charen wrote. "If governors and secretaries of state in the right combination of states find reason — however flimsy or farcical — to avoid certifying November’s vote by the time Congress convenes on January 3, it’s possible that the rump House that assembles could have a Republican 'majority.'""That 'majority' could elect a speaker, and that speaker could thereafter delay seating rightfully elected Democrats even after their elections are certified, as Speaker Mike Johnson did for many weeks after a special election in 2025," she added.
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[l] at 8/26/26 7:03am
President Donald Trump's economic record has been so bad that one analyst concluded he must have wrecked it on purpose.Rather than resulting from external shocks, the 80-year-old president's economic struggles stem largely from his own administration's decisions, MS NOW's James Downie argued Wednesday.The column opens with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's exasperated response Monday, while announcing new sanctions on Iran, to the suggestion he might have deliberately damaged the economy: "Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?" Downie argues he might have unwittingly made a reasonable point."Bessent may think that’s still a self-evidently ridiculous question," Downie wrote. "George W. Bush didn’t want a Great Financial Crisis, nor did Herbert Hoover seek to start a Great Depression. Surely no White House would deliberately hurt the global economy.""Yet for the first time ever, that’s not the case," he added. "At home and abroad, the past few days have laid bare the extent to which President Trump’s troubles on the economy are self-inflicted."The 30-year Treasury bond yield hit a 19-year high last week, prompting Bessent to expand government debt buybacks. Yields dipped only briefly before returning to prior levels, which the columnist attributes to investor concern over the $40 trillion national debt — a debt load it says traces substantially to the Bush-era and Trump-era tax cuts, citing an analysis from the Center for American Progress' Bobby Kogan.The columnist also points to Trump's decision to allow 300,000 tons of tariff-reduced beef imports just before the midterms, framing his stated goal of lowering ground beef prices as a tacit admission that American consumers, not foreign exporters, have been absorbing tariff costs.On the Iran conflict, Downie notes continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz, sustained high oil prices, and reports that companies are raising prices on goods including beer, french fries, paint and packaging to offset rising costs.The piece further highlights renewed U.S.-Canada trade tensions, with both countries announcing new tariffs. It quotes economist Paul Krugman's observation that the U.S. economy relies on Canadian goods more than commonly recognized, citing Canadian oil exports to the upper Midwest and electricity supplying roughly two million homes in Maine.It comes as no surprise then, he argued, that July data shows retail sales fell for the first time in nine months and job losses in the broader economy."Presidents usually get far too much credit or blame for the state of the economy," Downie wrote. "But in Trump’s case, the causation is much clearer. And it means a key part of his political image is backfiring."
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[l] at 8/26/26 6:50am
A federal judge rejected the Trump administration's bid to invoke executive privilege as former FBI Director James Comey's daughter seeks to find out who fired her and why. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman denied the request in a written order Tuesday in Manhattan, where former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey is suing over her 2025 termination.He denied it "largely for the reasons stated in Plaintiff's opposition," Furman wrote, adopting her lawyers' answer to the privilege claim as his own.Executive privilege was the first reason the Justice Department gave in June when it argued that the case should be paused.Discovery would "immediately implicate executive-privilege issues," the department said. Forcing the issue would set "coequal branches of the Government" on a "collision course," the department warned, quoting the Supreme Court.But Comey's lawyers called the privilege argument "premature and unfounded," noting the cases the department cited involved records that personally concerned the president or vice president."In sum, Defendants cannot use executive privilege as a sword, rather than a shield, to forestall or foreclose discovery," her lawyers wrote.Furman found the discovery she seeks "relatively targeted," and said any burdens could be handled through the court's "traditional discovery management toolkit."Comey alleges she was fired because of her father, a longtime target of President Donald Trump, or her perceived politics, her complaint says.A memo sent by email at 4:57 p.m. on July 16, 2025, removed her immediately, citing only Article II of the Constitution, and the government has since conceded she was an "outstanding" employee not fired for cause."All I can say is it came from Washington. I can't tell you anything else," then-interim U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton told her, according to her complaint. The government now says former Attorney General Pam Bondi fired her, but her lawyers wrote that no government record shows Bondi ever directed it.Their initial disclosures named no witnesses at all, not even Bondi, her lawyers wrote.James Comey was himself indicted in 2025 by a prosecutor Bondi installed, Lindsey Halligan, and a judge dismissed the charges after finding her appointment unlawful.The Justice Department is appealing that ruling.
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[l] at 8/26/26 6:44am
The Trump administration has repeatedly claimed it is targeting the Iranian government and coming to the aid of the nation’s people by waging all-out war on the Middle East country, but an analysis of US policy changes announced this week indicates that ordinary Iranians will bear the brunt of the pain from the White House’s new economic assault.The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) noted that the first actions that the Trump administration has taken under its so-called Operation Economic Outcast “are aimed squarely at ordinary Iranians and at severing personal, familial, academic, and cultural relationships between Americans and Iranians.” The group noted that the Trump administration has “suspended key humanitarian exemptions from existing sanctions on Iran designed to allow Iranian Americans to send personal remittances to family in Iran, to allow universities to enroll or offer scholarships to Iranian students, and to allow for sports exchanges involving American and Iranian athletes.”NIAC went on to cite specific examples:31 CFR § 560.544: Allowing universities to recruit, enroll, and educate students who are ordinarily resident in Iran, and offer them scholarships;31 CFR § 560.550: Allowing Americans to send personal, non-commercial remittances to non-sanctioned persons in Iran.31 CFR § 560.554 and Iran General License G: Allowing academic and educational exchanges between the US and Iran.Iran General License F: Allowing for friendly matches and other sports exchanges involving the US and Iran.“We have had decades of sanctions underscore that collective punishment is strategically and morally wrong,” said NIAC president Jamal Abdi in a statement. “Iranian civilians have grown poorer while the government elite has been unscathed.”US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared earlier this week that the Trump administration is “launching an economic onslaught against Iran’s financial connections around the globe” with the stated goal of severing “every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone.” Bessent said the administration has given “every country” a “defined timeline to shut down activities we have identified.”NIAC said Tuesday that “rather than devote US resources to strengthening sanctions exemptions for ordinary people and making the sanctions ‘smarter’ by targeting them against decisionmakers and bad actors, the administration is making our sanctions dumber and even more blunt.”“This is a radical revision to the Iran sanctions architecture: ending the ability of Iranian Americans to send their family any remittances, blocking universities from enrolling Iranian students, ending sports exchanges,” said Ryan Costello, NIAC’s policy director. “It is senseless, punitive collective punishment.”The intensified economic warfare comes after months of an illegal, widely unpopular, deadly, and economically destructive war that Trump and his Israeli counterpart, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, launched in late February.Esmaeil Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said Tuesday that the new US economic assault is “about annihilating the most foundational rules of international law and the UN Charter—namely, respect for the sovereign equality and self-determination of all states.”“When a bully declares that every bank, company, port, and government must choose between obeying Washington’s whims or facing American vengeance, this is no longer just about Iran,” Baghaei wrote in a social media post. “No decent state that values its sovereignty and national interests will accept the normalization of such grand lawlessness and systemic bullying.”
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[l] at 8/26/26 6:30am
President Donald Trump's handpicked head of the Federal Reserve is already under the microscope before he gives his first major address at the Fed's annual meeting.According to a report from the New York Times, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh will be watched closely by skeptics who believe he has been far too mysterious about his plans and whether he will let Trump pull his strings.His speech, scheduled for Friday at 10 a.m. Eastern, is the biggest draw of the three-day conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.The address will give Warsh an opportunity to "articulate his own framework for thinking about the economy, the policy choices in front of the Fed as it contends with elevated inflation and how he is assessing seismic changes," and allow him to address significant economic shifts, such as productivity gains from artificial intelligence, that could influence the country's growth prospects.However, Warsh's intentional vagueness about his economic views has created confusion "both inside and outside the Fed," overshadowing his broader ambitions to enact sweeping changes at the institution.Anil Kashyap, an economist at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, said clarity is "essential.""You won't accomplish anything if you are unwilling to tell people how you think the economy works," Kashyap told the Times. "You have to have a mechanism that you think explains why if you're going to do something differently, it's going to turn out better. And that means you need to pick a lane on various issues.""The honeymoon's over," Kashyap added.A majority of Fed officials maintain their forecast that inflation will decelerate in the latter half of the year, suggesting the central bank can afford to be patient before taking action. Markets have "started to question" Warsh's willingness to follow through on inflation concerns, particularly given the administration's worries about borrowing costs and affordability challenges ahead of the midterms.Deirdre Dunn, head of global rates at Citigroup, said market confidence has shifted, when speaking with the Times. "Earlier this summer, the market felt more confident that the Fed would walk the walk — now, there is some slight jitteriness that the perceived hawkishness from Warsh was more about talking the talk," Dunn said.
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[l] at 8/26/26 6:17am
Kid Rock is at the center of a power play between high-ranking military brass, according to a new report.Days before Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth abruptly fired Gen. Randy George as Army chief of staff in April, the four-star general was told by his own second-in-command, Gen. Chris LaNeve, that the Pentagon chief wanted the military's investigation into an unauthorized helicopter flyby of the rock musician's Tennessee estate stopped, three people familiar with the matter told the Washington Post. The account, reported for the first time, adds a new dimension to the mystery surrounding George's ouster — and puts LaNeve, who is now vying to replace George permanently, directly inside the episode.George had wanted to follow standard protocol and determine whether safety regulations were violated during the March 28 flyby of Kid Rock's estate, the people said.LaNeve, the Army's No. 2 officer, conveyed that Hegseth did not want the review to proceed, but George later told colleagues he was troubled by the exchange. George, now retired, declined to comment through a spokesman.Two AH-64 Apache helicopters buzzed Kid Rock's home outside Nashville at low altitude, footage the 55-year-old musician, whose real name is Robert Ritchie, shared online alongside criticism of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.Army officials at Fort Campbell grounded the pilots and opened an investigation, which also examined a helicopter that flew low over a "No Kings" protest against Trump in nearby Clarksville the same day.Hegseth, however, swiftly shut down the investigation, cleared the aircrews, and later flew in an Apache with Kid Rock himself.LaNeve's alleged role in relaying Hegseth's wishes could now complicate the very promotion he's seeking.He has served as acting Army chief of staff for nearly five months, but President Donald Trump has yet to formally nominate him, amid resistance on the Senate Armed Services Committee.Because nominees need unanimous Republican support to advance without Democratic votes, a single holdout can block him — and that holdout, according to three people familiar with Capitol Hill dynamics, is Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, a retired Army National Guard officer who was already skeptical of Hegseth's own confirmation and is not seeking re-election.LaNeve has also faced separate congressional scrutiny, including sharp questioning in May over the Pentagon's cancellation of an Army brigade's deployment to Poland, when he declined to explain the decision, saying he wasn't on the military's "policy side."Hegseth's spokesman, Sean Parnell, dismissed the new reporting as a "regurgitating" of a "tired, old story," and Hegseth called LaNeve "precisely the kind of leader the U.S. Army needs right now."Pentagon officials say they are "coordinating with our Senate partners" on timing for a formal nomination.Hegseth has removed more than two dozen top officers since January 2025, several of whom — including Mingus — were seen as plausible chief-of-staff contenders before their exits.
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[l] at 8/26/26 6:03am
President Donald Trump's Treasury secretary is failing at the one job the president desperately needs him to do: keep Wall Street in the administration's corner, according to a new report.Politico revealed Wednesday that Secretary Scott Bessent took a hit to his "credibility" with his attempts to manipulate the bond market and may never recover. Belief in the Treasury secretary's abilities as a steward of U.S. financial markets has collapsed after he "surprised traders" with a new bond-buying plan designed to lower the interest rate the federal government pays on long-term debt. According to the report, the move "sparked a brief market rally' that sent rates down from near two-decade highs. However, those effects were temporary, and traders "were left uncertain about what Bessent might attempt next."Treasury markets are "the lifeblood of the global financial system," Politico reported.Now some of Bessent's longtime allies, including former mentor and Wall Street powerhouse Stanley Druckenmiller, have criticized the maneuver as a mistake that could push borrowing costs higher, "erode guardrails against excessive federal spending," and undermine confidence in U.S. debt assets over time, the report stated.Mohamed El-Erian, a professor at the Wharton School and chief economic adviser at Allianz, expressed concern that investors have overlooked the federal government's fiscal and trade policies due to private sector growth and strong earnings. But that confidence could falter if Treasury continues intervening in debt markets during periods of relative stability."I'm worried," El-Erian, a previous booster of Bessent told Politico. "The intervention in the bond market takes us to a different place if it continues."The Treasury secretary positioned himself as the nation's leading bond salesman, leaning on his background as a Wall Street trader and economic historian to project authority and stability to markets. If traders lose confidence in his ability to manage the federal government's debt, it would diminish his capacity to stabilize markets during stress and hinder the U.S.'s ability to borrow at favorable rates.Mark Dowding, the chief investment officer at BlueBay Fixed Income, said the market is not granting "Bessent the credibility that he wants to believe that he has."The dollar fell following the announcement of Treasury's buyback plan, and the price of gold has risen — a combination that often signals increased risk to U.S. assets. According to Dowding, "that really is speaking to the fact that some damage has been done to U.S. policy credibility."
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[l] at 8/26/26 5:49am
The IRS has no public record of a lobbyist-run nonprofit raking in millions of corporate dollars to fund a July 4th-themed reality show starring a member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's newly released "The Great American Road Trip" — in which he takes luxury vacations funded by companies his department regulates — has hidden its finances behind a Delaware-based nonprofit run by lobbyists whose clients benefit from Duffy's department and a spokesperson for his son-in-law's campaign. Brendan Glavin, of the transparency watchdog group OpenSecrets, told Raw Story Great American Road Trip, Inc. is part of an alarming trend.“Nonprofits are being hijacked for political activity,” he told Raw Story. “It’s certainly concerning.”Months of determined reporters' searches for financial information about Great American Road Trip, Inc. — the 501(c)(4) that funded the series featuring Duffy, his reality-star alumna wife and their nine children — are limited to a two-page tax report filed in Delaware and a filing correcting a typo in the nonprofit’s name.The nonprofit does not appear in the IRS database of tax-exempt organizations, nor does it appear on Candid, an online database of nonprofits, nor a nonprofit database maintained by ProPublica. It does not appear in the IRS’s business files in Delaware, where it is incorporated, nor in Washington D.C., where it is located.Media requests for access to finance documents have not been heeded. Tori Barnes, the former General Motors lobbyist who runs the nonprofit, didn't respond to an NPR request for an identification number, and told Politico in May that the nonprofit hadn’t filed an initial Form 990 because it wasn’t yet due.It could be months before the IRS publishes the Great American Road Trip, Inc.’s financial filings because 1) the agency is “notorious” for delay and 2) the nonprofit has the right to request an extension on its deadline, according to Glavin.What’s more, the IRS — the agency with the most access to information about such nonprofits — has a strong incentive not to investigate them. “If you get involved, you’re putting your career at risk for potential political blowback,” Glavin said. “It’s in the IRS’s best interest in some cases to not actually go after these groups.”Despite these roadblocks, Politico managed to unearth a corporation tax filing in Delaware dated June 23, 2025 that lists the corporation's address as Barnes’ $2 million home in Washington, D.C.That document lists Max Docksey — campaign spokesperson for Duffy’s son-in-law Michael Alfonso’s congressional campaign in Wisconsin — as a director. Alfonso’s campaign has received at least $1,000 from General Motors’ PAC.Another director, Mark Bednar, successfully lobbied Duffy for a national security contract worth $1.5 billion for his client, Peraton, to modernize the nation’s Air Traffic Control System in December. When, in June, the Transportation Department released a four-page response to mounting scrutiny over the yet-to-materialize show, it admitted it paid for Duffy’s flights when he also conducted official business.Examples of official business included “meeting with air traffic controllers.”Politico also unearthed a corrected certificate of incorporation — changing the name from Great America Road Trip to Great American Road Trip —that includes a promise from the directors. “No part of the Corporation's net earnings may inure to the benefit of or be distributed to any director,” the document states. Whether or not they have kept that promise remains unclear because so little information has been released.The show itself only aired on Aug. 19, despite the department’s and the nonprofit’s stated mission to encourage family road trips during the summer of the nation’s 250th anniversary.Pew Research analysis shows about half of U.S. public school students have already returned to class. “Summer is nearly over and the American people haven’t seen a single episode of this reality TV show,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), told Forbes earlier this month. “So what did the corporate sponsors who helped fund this road trip actually pay for?” Murray is not the only person to raise concerns that Duffy was gifted hotel rooms, a cruise, white-water rafting and ski trips from corporate sponsors regulated by his department.Those sponsors include United Airlines, Royal Caribbean, Shell, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Lyft, as well as Boeing and Toyota, both of whom the Wall Street Journal reports donated $1 million each. Barnes refused to disclose the nonprofit’s budget for the show to the Journal, but Forbes estimated sponsors could have spent as much as $5 million. Barnes told The Atlantic that Duffy had “absolutely nothing to do” with nonprofit fundraising.These denials did not prevent Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, from accusing Duffy of an ethical violation and requesting the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General investigate potential violations of federal gift and travel rules.Specifically, CREW raised concerns Duffy had violated federal law banning executive branch officials from accepting gifts from businesses they regulate and using taxpayer funds to support his trips.CREW’s thorough investigation included multiple sources — news reports, social media commentary, federal law citations and press releases — but no financial records."Secretary Duffy may have used government resources to promote the project," the watchdog group wrote in a recent demand to the federal government for more information. "And accepting travel from companies with business before DOT potentially implicates even more significant corruption and misconduct concerns."Six Democratic U.S. senators called on the Transportation inspector general to open an official investigation in June, accusing Duffy of accepting “gas, lodging, and other travel expenses from a non-profit funded by the very companies the Secretary regulates.” When Forbes asked for comment, Duffy’s assistant Nate Sizemore said in an email, “career ethics officials cleared every aspect of the Secretary’s participation in the Great American Road Trip.”
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[l] at 8/26/26 5:42am
Supporters of losing Republican Senate candidate Ralph Norman booed President Donald Trump's name during his concession speech Tuesday night, an unusually raw moment of grassroots frustration with the president's intervention in a South Carolina primary.Sen. Darline Graham defeated the congressman in the state's GOP special primary runoff after Trump campaigned aggressively on her behalf, holding an in-person rally and repeatedly urging his Truth Social followers to back her, and The Daily Beast highlighted the reaction to the president's name from Norman's supporters.Graham won with 52.5 percent of the vote to Norman's 47.6 percent, according to the Associated Press. Trump declared victory on Truth Social at 8:44 p.m.: "Darline Graham Wins! Endorsed by President Trump."The winner told her supporters that "South Carolina truly is Trump Country," while Norman, a 73-year-old congressman who also lost the GOP gubernatorial primary in June, took the stage saying he hadn't prepared a concession speech because he believed losing "was not in the cards." The crowd cheered when he said, "I hate it for the state."The tone shifted sharply when Norman turned to Trump's role in the race. "But you know, the president got involved. He has that right. That's his prerogative," he said — a line that drew loud boos from his own supporters. Norman tried to smooth it over, insisting "his policies are good" while admitting, "I never understood why he got in this race ... I don't like it, but I'll accept it."He also aired grievances about the money spent against him, noting roughly $8 million in PAC spending backed his opponent while his campaign relied on South Carolina donors and his own funds.Norman closed by pledging tepid support for the winner — stumbling over her name at the podium, prompting laughs from the crowd and a visible reaction from his wife, Elaine, who appeared to shout "Whatever her last name is!" He said his next chapter "won't be in the political arena."The booing adds to a rockier-than-expected run for Graham, who was appointed to the Senate after her brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham, died last month at 71, and had never held elected office before this race.Last week she was booed on a debate stage after saying "national security is not my thing" when asked about Taiwan and the South China Sea. She has since claimed no one she's spoken with while campaigning has raised national security concerns with her. - YouTube www.youtube.com
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[l] at 8/26/26 5:33am
Republicans this year quietly cut millions of dollars of funding for the late and beloved Dolly Parton's children's book charity, according to multiple reports.Imagination Library, the nonprofit founded by Parton that sends free books to children across the world, faces an uncertain future in Indiana and Missouri as Republican lawmakers limit public funding, Newsweek reported Wednesday.The charity, meanwhile, has vowed to carry on."The work ahead has never felt more meaningful, and we will carry it forward as she lifts us all up," the charity said in a recent post. "Dolly, we will always love you."State funding for the program was removed from Indiana's budget last year at a time when more than 125,000 local children were enrolled, according to Newsweek.Missouri froze enrollment in the Imagination Library on July 1 after the program was subjected to a major budget cut, a local news outlet reported.Dolly Parton's Imagination Library received just $2 million in state funding for fiscal year 2027 — down from $6 million in 2026, according to that report.Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has distributed more than 300 million books since it was founded and serves more than 3 million children, according to Newsweek. Parton's family announced Tuesday she'd died after a brief battle with cancer.
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[l] at 8/26/26 5:18am
The foreign press, horrified by conditions in the U.S. under President Donald Trump, agree one action has been the “most shocking," a British journalist appearing on MS NOW said Wednesday morning.During a segment on “Morning Joe” on the interview with the family of Alex Pretti, gunned down by ICE agents while trying to help a woman to her feet in Minneapolis, co-host Jonathan Lemire asked Katty Kay for comment."We know that the new head of DHS, who succeeded [fired] Kristi Noem, Markwayne Mullin, is under a lot of pressure right now from the right who think that he's gone too soft on deportations and needs to ramp those up ahead of the midterms,” Lemire remarked. “The buck stops with President Trump,” Kay observed. “But this is Stephen Miller's policy, this is what he wants. He wants the deportation numbers stepped up every day. And it's his policy, which is the reason that you've had killings in Minneapolis, killings in Houston, killings in Texas, killings in Maine as well. And it's because he has these deportation quotas because he's so fixated on them.”“I had a dinner the other night here in London with a group of foreign journalists, and I was asking them, what's the most shocking thing that's happened in America in the last year and a half of the Trump administration?” she added. The answer? “Minneapolis, and the killing of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.”“They knew the names,” she pointed out. “This story has traveled right around the world, and it's part of the reason that people are looking here in Europe, back at America and saying, is this the country we recognized? Is this the country we can be an ally with? Because there seems to be this lawlessness and a breakdown of the rule of law.”“And Alex Pretti’s mum is right. What did he do to deserve this? Under American law? Nothing,” she concluded. - YouTube youtu.be
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[l] at 8/26/26 5:07am
A federal judge's order has added a new hurdle in President Donald Trump's race to take control of the midterm elections.A divided Supreme Court ruled on Monday that 23 states and the District of Columbia had not met the legal bar to challenge the president's executive order restricting mail ballots, finding the underlying Postal Service rules were not yet final enough to sue over, but one day later U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani delivered a setback, reported the Washington Post.The high court's conservative majority sided with the administration's argument that the case was premature, though the unsigned order stopped short of endorsing the policy itself. "The Court's disposition of this application does not mean that any measure taken by the Government to implement the Order will necessarily be lawful," the majority wrote. "On that score, time will tell."The court's three liberals dissented, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson warning the ruling "needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections."However, Talwani, who in June sided with the League of Women Voters and other voting rights groups in blocking Trump's order, found this week that the administration violated her preliminary injunction by issuing new Postal Service implementation rules — which had been set to take effect Wednesday.The administration argued it had not technically violated the injunction because it stipulated the rules would not be enforced for November's election unless Talwani's order was lifted.Talwani rejected that reasoning, writing that "these arguments ignore the court's explicit directive not to 'initiat[e] or complet[e]' rulemaking," and that the administration "cannot contend that they misunderstood the scope of the court's order." She did not impose sanctions, noting her injunction had already blocked the rules regardless.The two rulings, issued a day apart in separate cases, leave the Trump administration in an awkward position – cleared of one procedural obstacle by the nation's highest court, but still bound by a lower-court injunction a judge says it already breached.Both sides say the fight is far from over. The states behind the Supreme Court case say they will continue litigating, and the underlying dispute in one or both cases could return to the justices.States are weeks away from mailing ballots for elections that will decide control of the House and Senate, and election officials have warned that implementing major changes this close to voting risks confusion and could mistakenly disqualify eligible voters.
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[l] at 8/26/26 4:52am
The Make America something Again movement is beginning to splinter as increasingly angry moms rage at an increasingly hostile White House over one key issue, according to a new report. President Donald Trump's decision to expand production of the weedkiller glyphosate spurred a public spat this month between White House officials and Make America Healthy Again influencers who are threatening to take their voters and walk, the Washington Post reported Wednesday. “That clock is really ticking," Kelly Ryerson, an anti-pesticide activist known as “The Glyphosate Girl," told the Post. "It’s very surprising to me."MAHA frustration has been mounting since February, when Trump signed an executive order expanding the Roundup herbicide, and erupted when Trump aide Heidi Overton was named as his choice to lead the Food and Drug Administration. That the FDA doesn't handle pesticides isn't the point — her promotion is, according to the report."Overton’s nomination has become emblematic of the broader frustrations from some MAHA activists — and turned into a proxy war over the kinds of nominees they are seeking to lead the nation’s health agencies," the Post reported. Alex Clark, a prominent MAHA influencer, told the Post she's concerned the MAHA moms have reached the breaking point. “This is the type of behavior that they see and they see it as this administration is not weeding out compromised individuals from our three-letter agencies [like] we were promised," she said. "They’re losing enthusiasm.”The frustration became public last week when Clark and White House spokesperson Kush Desai fought over Overton's role in the glyphosate executive order and Clark instructed more than 166,000 followers on X to “rise up” on social media. "The public attacks from Clark and others have frustrated White House officials, who say that Overton has been a major advocate for MAHA’s priorities in Trump’s second term," the Post reported. "White House officials also said that some criticism of Overton is based on a misunderstanding of her role."Whether or not the White House can convince MAHA they're on the same side before November's midterm elections remains to be seen, according to the Post. "Some high-profile MAHA supporters say the GOP is on the precipice of losing critical votes in November, warning that some MAHA moms, a key part of the coalition, are planning to sit the midterm elections out," the report stated. "They want to see White House officials more rapidly achieve some of the movement’s goals, particularly around cracking down on pesticides they argue are harmful to children’s health."
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[l] at 8/26/26 4:43am
President Donald Trump's approach to governing borrows heavily from the absolutist monarchies of medieval and early modern Europe, according to a new column, but his own personality defects have exposed the flaws in that system.New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie traces the parallel through Trump's affinity for royal trappings – a gold-draped Oval Office, gilded statues and monuments around Washington, a planned triumphal arch, and a newly built, oversized presidential ballroom carved out of part of the White House – and other features of monarchist rule."To commit lèse-majesté was, and in some places still is, to commit an offense against dignity of the crown," Bouie wrote. "To insult or denigrate or even question the monarch was to undermine the state itself. In the absolutist states of medieval and early modern Europe, lèse-majesté was a high crime, punishable by death."The 80-year-old president has relied heavily on executive orders, which Bouie describes as functioning less like conventional policy directives and more like royal decrees meant to be obeyed without challenge, covering territory — from ending diversity programs to rewriting citizenship rules — well beyond the president's formal authority.Trump has sued several news organizations, including ABC, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, alleging defamation, and has threatened a $5 billion defamation suit against the Center for American Progress over a report questioning whether National Guard deployments to U.S. cities — projected to cost more than $1.7 billion through 2026 — have actually reduced crime."This sense of royal injury extends beyond Trump’s relationship to his political opponents," Bouie wrote. "You see it too in the way he deals with other countries — the way he treats anything short of total submission as an injury to him and thus an injury to the state."That dynamic is on display in his trade war with Canada, one of the closest economic partners for the U.S., Bouie argued."There is no logical reason for this conflict, and it does not serve the interest of people on either side of the border," he wrote. "It is principally a function of Trump’s boundless ego and his monomaniacal obsession with tariffs as the path to national prosperity."That has locked both nations into a destructive trade war and undermined trust between the two neighboring allies, and Bouie argued the episode exposed the flaws in both the U.S. president and the system of governance to which he aspires."The fatal flaw of monarchy is that the strength of the state depends on the personality and capacities of the monarch," Bouie wrote. "It subjects an entire people to the pathologies of that one man or woman: to his dysfunctions, his maladaptations and his twisted sense of self.""Trump was democratically elected," the columnist concluded. "But both his unilateral exercise of authority and his monarchical aspirations are reminders, at the very least, that putting this much power in the hands of one man — in the hands of one ego — is a reliable way to produce disaster."
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[l] at 8/26/26 4:34am
Republican lawmakers running for reelection are demanding President Donald Trump give them the same help he just extended to Sen. Darline Graham Nordone (R-SC), according to a new report.On Tuesday, Nordone pulled out a narrow victory over Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) in a runoff, allowing her to be the Republican nominee for the Senate seat her brother Lindsey previously held.That happened, in large part, experts said, because Trump went all in for her with both personal appearances and a large cash infusion.According to a report from Politico, GOP lawmakers in battleground states now want the same treatment.GOP strategists working on critical swing state campaigns are eager for Trump to finally direct his attention to them. "Obviously the president's support is still super powerful," a Republican strategist working on Georgia and several other battleground races told Politico. "The president's operation still has the ability to move the needle in a lot of these states." The strategist added, "Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come that the president is willing to get involved and really start to move the needle in some other places that obviously matter a little bit more than South Carolina."Trump championed Nordone's appointment to her late brother Sen. Lindsey Graham's seat, he coaxed her into the race with an early endorsement, stood by her as she struggled on the debate stage, and flew down to Myrtle Beach for a rare political rally. MAGA Inc., Trump's super PAC, even spent cash from its $400 million stockpile in the closing days of the race.Yet the president hasn't taken a "meaningful step" into the states that will matter in a few short months — even as battleground Republicans have been clamoring for him to spend his MAGA Inc. money."It's now or never. It's put up or shut up time, and it's really time to start to see if he's going to get serious," the GOP strategist said. "You've got September and October to really move the needle here, and it just doesn't seem like there's any sense of urgency, or like we understand that we are down big in some of these states."During her victory speech in Columbia, Nordone acknowledged Trump's heavy hand: "Our victory would not have been possible without you, and we are truly grateful," she said of the president. "South Carolina is truly Trump country."Norman's reaction to the president's participation differed: "The president got involved. He has that right. That's his prerogative," Norman said in his concession speech, as the crowd jeered, Politico is reporting. "His policies are good. I never understood why he got in this race. It is what it is, and I'll accept it."Several national and South Carolina Republicans "expressed confusion" as to why the president would expend energy for the safe Republican seat when his MAGA allies like Mike Collins in Georgia, Ken Paxton in Texas and Michael Whatley in North Carolina are facing tough Senate battles against Democratic opponents."There's the principle," a North Carolina-based GOP strategist complained to Politico. "If you're not Trump and you have these people shoved down your throat, you're like, 'Okay, are you gonna help?'"
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[l] at 8/26/26 3:30am
Thursday, two of the most polarizing wives in the Trump administration reared their tawdry heads. They would be the ghost that is supposedly the first lady, and the imperious woman helping her husband run, err, ruin, the Pentagon.Melania Trump, like Jeanne in Major Nelson’s office, suddenly materialized in the Rose Garden Thursday. It was her first public appearance in quite some time, and only her 38th appearance of the year, by one estimate, and she tried to joke about it: "Good afternoon. I heard you missed me. Here I am."Um, no, Melania, we don’t miss her. And that’s because you add nothing to the actual role of being first lady. Traditional first ladies pick a cause and devote their time and energy to promoting it. Nancy Reagan had "Just Say No," however flawed; Barbara Bush had literacy; Michelle Obama had childhood nutrition. Melania had "Be Best," but to the best of my knowledge, she never talks about it.So yesterday, she spoke about "Fostering the Future," a foster-care initiative that I guess she’s switched to. She resurfaced alongside a $2 million IndyCar and Fox Corp. donation (What a surprise!), which seems worthy - hey, I give credit where credit is due - but why now, and why suddenly try to take the spotlight?Because this initiative conveniently arrived just as the media and the inquiring minds of the public were going gaga over someone else.That someone else is Natalie Harp, aka “the human printer” or human "binkie," who has apparently been busy taking care of Donald’s cartridge, metaphorically and perhaps literally, replacing the cartridge inside the box, or whatever it is, above Donald’s derriere.She has become impossible to ignore, reportedly so eager to stay near him that she once climbed into the trunk of an SUV to keep pace with his motorcade during a foreign trip, and prominent enough in the president's orbit that a certain U.S. senator's cracks about her drew a furious MAGA backlash and a storm on social media.Melania's timing, after a long disappearance ending the same week Harp dominates headlines, is either a remarkable coincidence or a very deliberate one that most likely involved a bribe because everything is transactional with Melania.She does not do anything for free. Amazon paid $40 million to acquire her documentary, which was the most expensive documentary licensing deal in history, plus another $35 million to market it, a film that limped to roughly $16 million at the box office.Trump's own 2025 financial disclosure listed a $10.71 million licensing fee tied to the project. In other words, Melania not only doesn’t do it for free or for a fair price, she’s also a poor return on investment.Consider this. Before the documentary, campaign finance records showed Melania collected $250,000 for a single 2022 Log Cabin Republicans fundraiser and another $237,500 for a 2024 Log Cabin event at Mar-a-Lago. The appearances were quick, in and out, and she didn't even have to leave home for one of them. If anyone knows of a similar deal, please sign me up!So, if I’m thinking about this correctly, the Log Cabin fundraisers were held to play Melania?Which takes us now across the Potomac, to a wife who never seems to disappear. Jennifer Hegseth.The New York Times published a genuinely stupefying story on Thursday about the wife of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. She is a former Fox News producer with no military background, no confirmed security clearance, and, according to the story, has wrapped herself around Petey like a lifting glove.She has, according to the Times, prepped her husband for public appearances, sat in on his meetings with journalists, interviewed candidates for Pentagon jobs, attended sensitive meetings with foreign military officials, and was reportedly included in not one but two Signal chats where her husband shared operational details about strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.In the article, a former Pentagon spokesman called the arrangement "bonkers,” and a Democratic senator put it more bluntly: Hegseth "can't just hand [classified access] to his wife and say, 'here honey, hold my beer.'"And speaking of, the article says that Hegseth also leans on his wife's presence to keep his well-documented drinking in check while traveling, which raises an obvious question: what happens on the days she's not there? Sounds like undisciplined Pete’s liable to go hog wild.The Times reported that Pete says the two “J’s” saved his life, Jesus and Jennifer. I’m so sick and tired of these sanctimonious, hypocritical conservative Christians with oozing self-righteousness whose actions say otherwise.This is a man who renamed the Department of Defense the Department of War, who talks endlessly about "warrior ethos" and "lethality," who encourages hate by sidelining transgender and queer service members and denying promotions to Blacks and women. He recently used a trans slur campaigning in Iowa—while a war’s going on, by the way.And his wife supports this repugnant, demonic creature. Well, birds of a feather.She also apparently is his media advisor, too. What doesn’t she do? Well, in this case, she doesn’t do it well because the guy comes off as an arrogant, know-it-all, conceited, offensive, bigoted jerk.Finally, she homeschools her kids. God bless them. That’s all I will say.Melania and Jennifer might appear to be total opposites. One collects an exorbitant fee and quickly vanishes, while the other stitches herself to her husband and has carte blanche to his office via a private elevator.But they’re both the same. They are divisive like their husbands. They are manipulative in their own ways. And they defy traditional boundaries—not in a good way, by the way. And they both have husbands who are epic failures.Melania can keep phoning it in from Mar-a-Lago because, like her husband, she could give a rat’s ass about average Americans. They are both absent from reality.Jennifer Hegseth should try and take a page from Melania and be absent herself. Because her husband is going to be remembered as the worst defense secretary in history, and she’s going to get some of the blame for just how badly she managed it.

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