December 26, 2025 at 10:03 PM EST
Trump admin's 'eerie' holiday posts 'may have violated the Constitution': analysis

New Republic Associate Writer Edith Olmstead argues President Donald Trump's administration violated the Constitution while it was haunting the internet with holiday images invoking Christian nationalism. "The Department of Homeland Security's tasteless holiday sh"""posting may have just violated the United States Constitution," Olmstead said, citing the federal agency's official X account publishing multiple Thursday posts that appeared to violate the Establishment Clause, which prohibits government actions that favor one religion over another.

December 26, 2025 at 8:56 PM EST
'Flashing signs': Psychologist says Trump exhibiting 'immense cognitive decline'

President Donald Trump's behavior and appearance is increasingly subjected to scrutiny about whether the commander-in-chief is able to serve out the remainder of his second term. Now, one psychologist is worried that the president is rapidly declining in public. The Daily Beast reported Friday that psychologist Dr. John Gartner, who is a former professor at Johns Hopkins University, believes the president has been increasingly exhibiting "flashing signs" of an "immense cognitive decline."

December 26, 2025 at 8:25 PM EST
'At least we haven't invaded': White House officials say Trump nearly launched a war

President Donald Trump spent the Christmas holiday bombing Nigeria with overpriced and scarce long-range Tomahawk missiles -- between social media attacks on Somali immigrants, rationalizing his attempted 2020 election steal and reposting calls to jail his political opponents. But Zeteo reports Department of Defense officials were originally worried Trump's attacks on Nigeria were going to be more of a protracted war, or worse.

December 26, 2025 at 7:40 PM EST
'Definitely the actions of an innocent man': Trump mocked over Epstein files meltdown

Critics of President Donald Trump say he managed to slam the release of more Epstein files while simultaneously demanding his Department of Justice release even more files to embarrass Democrats. "Now 1,000,000 more pages on Epstein are found," Trump complained in a Friday post to Truth Sociall. "DOJ is being forced to spend all of its time on this Democrat inspired Hoax. When do they say NO MORE, and work on Election Fraud etc. The Dems are the ones who worked with Epstein, not the Republicans."

December 26, 2025 at 6:59 PM EST
Trump is actively causing 'harm' to this deep-red state's key industry: WSJ

President Donald Trump's signature trade policy is wreaking havoc on the economy of one of the reddest states in the country, according to the Wall Street Journal. In a Friday editorial, the Journal argued that the recent decision by the Jim Beam distillery to halt production at its Claremont, Kentucky facility for all of 2026 can be chalked up to Trump's tariffs. While the distillery didn't outright blame tariffs for its decision, the Journal pointed out that Canada has continued to hold off on its importing of Kentucky bourbon, which has dealt a significant blow to the Bluegrass State's signature export.

December 26, 2025 at 5:45 PM EST
Republican behind Epstein files law raises money from Trump calling him a 'lowlife'

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has become a frequent target of President Donald Trump's ire, with the president repeatedly singling him out due to his role in advancing the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act. Now, Massie is cashing in on those attacks. Trump spent much of Christmas Day posting to his Truth Social platform, posting missives against his political opponents and rehashing debunked conspiracy theories about his 2020 election loss. But Massie was also included in Trump's posting spree, with the president at one point calling the Kentucky Republican a "lowlife," according to The Hill.

December 26, 2025 at 5:27 PM EST
'He doesn't care about you': Trump ripped for proposing marble armrests at Kennedy Center

After bolting his name over the name of the president for which it memorializes, President Donald Trump now plans to replace armrests at the Kennedy Center with slabs of rock. "Potential Marble armrests for the seating at The Trump Kennedy Center. Unlike anything ever done or seen before!" Trump announced on Truth Social on Friday.

December 26, 2025 at 4:42 PM EST
Trump's former pardon attorney slams his 'reckless' forgiveness of crimes

The Department of Justice (DOJ) official in charge of evaluating potential candidates for presidential pardons is accusing President Donald Trump - her former boss - of turning the pardon process on its head. In a Friday op-ed for the New York Times, Liz Oyer, who was the DOJ's pardon attorney under former President Joe Biden and for the first two months of Trump's second administration, condemned Trump's approach to the clemency process and accused him of abusing his Article II powers. Oyer observed that Trump is using the "unfettered executive power" to grant pardons in a way that has served to "degrade, corrupt and politicize the justice system.

December 26, 2025 at 3:32 PM EST
'Give Republicans a taste': Legal experts propose next Democratic president's Day 1 agenda

The first year of President Donald Trump's second term has been rife with examples of the president doing something previously believed to be illegal until it was eventually upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). Now, two legal experts are arguing that the next Democratic president should take advantage of the new vastly expanded presidential powers sanctioned by the nation's highest court. In a Friday article for Slate, legal journalists Mark Joseph Stern and Dahlia Lithwick laid out how the next Democrat to be elected president of the United States should govern in their first 24 hours, under the new legal boundaries SCOTUS granted the White House under the Trump administration. Stern argued that because SCOTUS has blessed the "unitary executive" theory that all powers delegated to the executive branch and federal agencies can be unilaterally exercised by the president, the next president -- he named Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) as a stand-in example -- should take after Trump's example and "wield those powers aggressively."

December 26, 2025 at 2:47 PM EST
"?4 major stories that went under the radar due to Trump's 'flood the zone' strategy

President Donald Trump has seemingly wedged a decade's worth of head-spinning decisions, feuds, gaffes and scandals into his first year back in the White House, and according to a year-end analysis from The Independent , at least four "outrageous" stories got buried in obscurity amid the onslaught of news. As the outlet noted, Trump and the wider MAGA political movement are well-known for adhering to Steve Bannon's "flood the zone" strategy, which involves inundating the press and observers with so much newsworthy content that they cannot keep up, allowing some objectionable things to skate by unnoticed.

December 26, 2025 at 11:57 AM EST
Philly paper details Trump's shocking 'avalanche of outrages'

While he may have managed to score reelection last year with a popular vote lead, Donald Trump's "avalanche of outrages" over the course of 2025 have reaffirmed that he is "unfit for office," according to an extensive and scathing breakdown from the editorial board of the Philadelphia Inquirer. As the board noted at the start of its new piece, it "spent 2024 warning of the dangers a second Trump administration could bring." As his first year back draws to a close, the board argued that none of his shocking decisions and actions have been surprising; it's only surprise about it all has been "the speed with which he has upended the American Experiment."

December 26, 2025 at 11:53 AM EST
Military expert schools Fox News reporter who cheered missiles sent into Nigeria

President Donald Trump sent bombs into Nigeria Thursday, but one military expert was forced to school a Fox News host who cheered the expensive weaponry. Fox News correspondent Lucas Tomlinson cheered, "U.S. Navy destroyer launching Tomahawk cruise missile into Nigeria targeting Islamic State on Christmas."