"But Wiles conceded that attacking targets on Venezuela’s mainland would force Trump to get congressional approval. 'If he were to authorize some activity on land, then it’s war, then [we’d need] Congress.'" - WH Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Nov 2, 2025 interview www.vanityfair.com/news/story/t...

So for months they have tried to blame the entire fentanyl crisis on Venezuela and the indictment only mentions cocaine, which they pardoned a different guy for weeks ago

New from me, covering for @brianbeutler.bsky.social at Off Message: Trump has us living in a distortion field. He's openly coddling a *child sex trafficker*, apparently so she won’t tell what she knows. We've blown past it instead of sounding the alarm. www.offmessage.net/p/the-5-alar...

Turns out Hegseth forced Adm Holsey out of his command because, at least in part, of friction over the so-called “drug boat” strike campaign.

🚨 My first SCOOP for @ms.now: Mike Johnson has secretly been working to tank a provision to mandate IVF coverage for active duty service members from the Defense Reauthorization Bill—even as Trump has pledged to expand access. Here's what to know 👇

New from me, covering for @brianbeutler.bsky.social at Off Message "Maybe it was blind luck that led this group of national security-oriented lawmakers to bait Trump into a debate over war crimes just as the Post was working up a story about potential war crimes" www.offmessage.net/p/mark-kelly...

WH Press Sec on Trump's dehumanizing tirade against Somali immigrants, where he called them garbage: "Epic moment" www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/u...

Yesterday, Trump defended the Saudi Crown Prince in the Oval Office. He said he had “nothing” to do with the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. But I reviewed a call while serving on Trump’s NSC that I believe would be of interest to the Khashoggi family and the American people. Release the transcript.

For me it was the fact that when the President was asked about releasing a record of the debasement and humiliation of girls and women, he somehow reflexively resorted to language intended to debase and humiliate a woman.

The Trump administration is going to make it harder for the public to learn about wrongdoing by withdrawing protections for whistleblowers. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

I’ve been thinking about this exchange all weekend. Even with everything else, the fact it hasn’t brought politics and the news in general to a screeching halt is surreal. There’s a new book “Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows” about how collective knowledge drives collective action, or inaction. /1

In case after case—Comey, James, Maxwell,Homan, J6, etc—Pam Bondi has shown that she runs DOJ on behalf of Trump, personally. Now that Trump is resigned to releasing the files he fought to bury, the question HAS to be: Has Bondi altered or destroyed records in her possession to protect Trump?

"Like Trump, some of the most prominent players on the American right have talked openly about Orbán providing a blueprint for a Christian nationalist takeover of the federal government." www.msnbc.com/news/news-an...

Rhodes amassed weapons to use on Jan 6 and was convicted of seditious conspiracy. Trump freed him from prison. Now, using Trump’s “invasion” rhetoric, Rhodes urges Trump to use his militia as a private army. www.rawstory.com/amp/stewart-...

Had a lot of fun on @the1a.org with @jwhitepubradio.bsky.social and @toddzwillich.bsky.social. A productive conversation. the1a.org/segments/if-...

The GOP said its overhaul of Medicaid was aimed at reducing fraud and getting more adult beneficiaries to work. Among the likely side effects: fewer services and doctors for treating sick children.

Kudos to @brianbeutler.bsky.social, somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/o...

Trump was absent from public view for a week. We still don't know why. Everyone's missing the story, and it's nuts. 🧵 www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/u...

NEWS: ICE's Chantilly office is a "black box" where conditions are increasingly dire, attorneys & a relative of person detained tell @msnbc.com - 1 meal a day = a single burrito - some 40-90 ppl crammed into room, sleeping on concrete - Some held as long as 7 days www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/v...

“‘Terrorizing the workforce’ is a phrase I heard a lot this week. And that may indeed be the point.”

The letter, for Epstein's birthday, includes a message depicting a fake exchange between Trump and Epstein: "Enigmas never age" "wonderful secret."www.wsj.com/politics/tru...

No mention of Trump’s “Shylock” slur in this NY Times article about his “victory lap” speech in Iowa. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/u...

Minutes after we published this article, Sean Hannity removed a video from his Instagram account that falsely claimed to show an explosion at the Fordow nuclear facility in Iran. The post had been up since Saturday night and viewed over 5 million times www.wired.com/story/donald...

Trump chooses the timing of salient announcements like this. This one obv has the added effect of pushing down tonight’s cable coverage of embarrassing developments like Elon Musk’s “kill the bill” and escalation in Russia.

NEW: In the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case, Judge Xinis grants the plaintiff’s request to file a motion for sanctions. Motion due June 11.

New from me, still filling in at @brianbeutler.bsky.social's Off message: A user's guide to Trump's budget bill in the Senate: Medicaid, the parliamentarian, WH disinfo and what's at stake for the future of the GOP. open.substack.com/pub/brianbeu...

Between this and the Venezuelan TPS ruling, #SCOTUS has now cleared the way for removing more than one million non-citizens who, until now, were *legally protected* against removal. This also ratchets up the stakes in the "third-country" removal case, since many of these folks *can't* be sent home.

You've heard about the scale and variety of the ways Trump is inviting corruption and openly exploiting the presidency for personal gain. It's in the news all the time, but confronting it all in one place is staggering. open.substack.com/pub/brianbeu...

From me, in Off Message: The GAO concluded Trump's killing of the federal EV charger program was a no-brainer illegal impoundment. Now the US has months, not years, to undo the damage to workers and industry. Even if courts reverse it, it's probably too late open.substack.com/pub/brianbeu...

Memory holed: 2 mos ago RFK forced out Dr Peter Marks, FDA’s head of vaccine review & regulation. Marks said: “It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.” amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/03/...

Spent hours working on this post and RFK just...tweeted it out. abcnews.go.com/Politics/rfk...

New from me, guesting on @brianbeutler.bsky.social's Off Message: RFK Jr. and Trump officials are embracing strategic ambiguity to balance anti-vaccine propaganda with responsible-sounding public health policy. That balance doesn't exist. open.substack.com/pub/brianbeu...

“They didn’t let me talk to my attorneys...they didn’t let me talk to my wife.” “They just nabbed me and disappeared me. My body was chained, shackled, treating my like an animal.”

EXCLUSIVE: In their first broadcast interview since his release from ICE detention, Georgetown scholar Badar Khan Suri and his wife, Mapheze Saleh, spoke to @lbarronlopez.bsky.social about Khan Suri's release after nearly two months in a detention facility in Texas. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e4X...

“chicago pope” is one of the shows jack donaghy greenlit when he was tanking nbc

“TeleMessage is largely unknown and untested among cyber experts. NBC News asked five cybersecurity experts about Telemessage. Each said they had not heard of it before learning about Waltz’s apparent use of it Thursday.”

An international trucking logistics firm is buying as much as *** $20 MILLION *** worth of President Donald Trump’s crypto coins to influence the administration’s trade policy. www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...

Trump appears confused here. He is suing Perkins Coie in Florida in a case before Judge Middlebrooks that has been dismissed and resulted in sanctions against him and Alina Habba. Perkins Coie is suing HIM before Judge Howell over his retaliatory executive order.

Hegseth’s judgment & behavior so worried senators that he promised he would stop drinking if confirmed as SecDef. I haven’t heard any reporter ask, “Mr Secretary, since your confirmation, have you had a drink?” Not a troll, it’s the standard Hegseth publicly set for himself.

NEW on CNN: As the White House says SignalGate "case has been closed" we ran through comments of all the top DOJ/FBI officials Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, Dan Bongino, Ed Martin. All called for length prison sentences for mishandling classified information. www.cnn.com/2025/04/02/p...

Looking forward to being a part of this discussion in troubling times

Trump, himself a convicted felon, commutes the sentence of Carlos Watson, co-founder of the now-defunct digital media company Ozy Media, on the day he was to surrender to prison for trying to defraud lenders and investors. @danielledkaye.bsky.social Maggie Haberman www.nytimes.com/2025/03/28/b...

A correction of you were listening to the News Roundup on 1A/ NPR this morning. I incorrectly said Perkins Coie folded to Trump’s demands and agreed to $40 million in free services. Of course I should have said Paul Weiss. Regret the live error.

"Not only are Trump‘s advisors discussing attack plans on Yemen on Signal-their mobile #'s, E-Mail & passwords can be found in commercial databases & publicly available leaks"- @fschmid.bsky.social "Most of these numbers & email addresses are apparently still in use" www.spiegel.de/internationa...

NEW: Mike Walts, the infamous National Security Adviser who added The Atlantic to the Signal group chat, also left his Venmo friends list public. So did White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. read @dmehro.bsky.social and @timmarchman.bsky.social:

.@shaneharris on CNN addresses Ratcliffe's charge that Goldberg implied an "undercover" CIA agent in the Signal chat. "We took out the name of that CIA officer at the CIA's request." The article does not say it's an agent, nor undercover. As Ratcliffe has acknowledged, it's his CoS misdirection

Rep. Jim Himes on the Signal chat strike plans, vicious: "A lot of this suggest a sort of lack of sobriety.... I don't mean that literally."

“This is a worst-case scenario for public health,” Steier said. “It’s a slap in the face to the decades of actual credible research we have.” www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

I'm not saying anything novel here but it really is just truly despicable to watch them use THEIR OWN COLOSSAL SCREW UP to slander the reporter THEY INCLUDED ON THEIR CLASSIFIED GROUP CHAT

Total incompetence, and gross negligence to put a legal point on it: Trump WH "envoy Steve Witkoff was in Moscow, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, when he was included in a group chat with more than a dozen other top administration officials" discussing war plans on Signal.