January 31, 2026 at 11:01 AM EST
News anchors blast Trump using lackeys to 'scam' taxpayers for $10 billion

MS NOW "The Weekend" hosts Jonathan Capehart and Eugene Daniels raked President Donald Trump for using his own government-appointed zealots to wrangle $10 billion from U.S. taxpayers. "President trump has filed yet another lawsuit, this time targeting his own government," said Capehart. "On Thursday, Trump announced he is suing the IRS and the Treasury Department over the alleged leak of his 2019 tax return and is seeking $10 billion in damages."

January 31, 2026 at 9:56 AM EST
Americans on the hook for an extra $6 billion -- thanks to Trump: report

President Donald Trump appears blind to consumers' rocketing electricity costs, reports the Washington Post. If anything, the president appears willing to make consumers pay even more for their monthly power bills to protect his favored industry. "On energy policy, the administration's most obvious sin has been picking losers," reports the Post. "It has attempted to halt construction for offshore wind developments, even some that were nearly complete, and suffocated massive solar projects with red tape. As the nation clamors for more electricity, this oppositional attitude makes no policy sense."

January 31, 2026 at 9:04 AM EST
'Total clowns': Critics roast White House's bungled Epstein files release

While critics deny Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche's claim that the 3.5 million files the Trump administration released on Friday were all the department had, others are too busy lambasting the malicious clumsiness of the release. Bulwark podcaster Tim Miller and Bulwark editor Sam Stein say the administration's stuttered, idiotic drip of information was curated specifically to hurt certain people and protect others.

January 31, 2026 at 8:52 AM EST
Trump resents being forced to say he's sorry

Independent journalist Don Lemon was arrested this morning. So was Georgia Fort, also an independent journalist. Both covered a January 18 church protest in Minneapolis. It's unclear what they've been charged with. It's also unclear whether the federal agents who arrested them had the authority to. The US Department of Justice went to one judge. He said no. Then to another. He also said no. Then it went to a court of appeals. That panel said no, too. The Post quoted one of the judges: "There is no evidence that those two engaged in any criminal behavior or conspired to do so."

January 31, 2026 at 8:45 AM EST
Billionaires are trying to defeat a congressman you've probably never heard of

Democratic Rep. John Larson of Connecticut is an irreplaceable leader in the fight to expand Social Security. As the top Democrat on the Social Security subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee, he combines deep policy expertise with passionate advocacy for Social Security's 67 million beneficiaries and its 185 million contributors. Rep. Larson's signature legislation, the Social Security 2100 Act , would increase Social Security's modest benefits for everyone. It also includes additional targeted increases for the most vulnerable. And it is paid for by requiring millionaires and billionaires, who currently stop paying into Social Security after their first $184,500 in income, to finally pay their fair share.

January 30, 2026 at 9:57 PM EST
GOP-appointed judge smacks down Trump admin for hiding government spending: report

Law & Crime reports a federal judge called out President Donald Trump's administration for violating a court order demanding access to hidden spending plans. In win for transparency groups, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, first appointed by President Ronald Reagan and later by Presidents George H.W. Bush and Clinton, had to school the Trump administration over what it could and could not hide from the public.

January 30, 2026 at 9:35 PM EST
MAGA hurls racist attacks at Trump official

One high-ranking member of President Donald Trump's administration is now being subjected to a fusillade of racist insults from Trump supporters. MS NOW columnist Ja'han Jones wrote Friday that Madhu Gottumukkala -- who is Trump's acting head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) -- is the latest target of far-right rage after he was caught in a scandal. According to Politico, Gottumukkala uploaded sensitive government documents to a public version of ChatGPT. None of the documents were classified, but they were reportedly classified as "for official use only."

January 30, 2026 at 8:48 PM EST
Trump loses in court again after judge blocks attempt to restrict voting

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports a federal judge on Friday blocked federal agencies from requesting citizenship status when distributing voter registration forms. The decision amounts to the latest derailment of President Donald Trump's far-reaching executive order seeking to change the face of voting in national elections. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly (an appointee of former President Bill Clinton) ruled that the Constitution's separation of powers give states authority over setting election rules, with some input from Congress -- not the White House.

January 30, 2026 at 8:22 PM EST
Conservative Hollywood media mogul slams Trump's 'dictator-like' move

The recent arrest of journalist Don Lemon has set off alarm bells within the media world - including from one prominent media executive with ties to President Donald Trump. In a Friday segment on his gossip site TMZ, founder Harvey Levin lamented the Trump administration's indictment of Lemon - a former CNN anchor -- and suggested Trump was taking a page from the authoritarian playbook.

January 30, 2026 at 8:04 PM EST
The real reason Donald Trump didn't fire Kristi Noem

President Donald Trump may have fired Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem if she ran the agency during his first term. But his second term is different -- possibly due to the first high-profile appointee Trump fired. In a Friday article for The Independent, correspondent Andrew Feinberg wrote that Noem may have to give thanks to Gen. Michael Flynn (Ret.), who served as Trump's first White House National Security Advisor. Flynn's tenure was short-lived, and he was let go after just 22 days on the job after he was found to have had back-channel communications with Russia's ambassador to the United States and lied about it to the FBI.

January 30, 2026 at 5:28 PM EST
Trump official traveled to Epstein's island years after claiming he cut ties: NYT

One member of President Donald Trump's Cabinet apparently sought to travel to convicted child predator Jeffrey Epstein's private island, according to a newly released document. The New York Times reported Friday that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick sent an email to Epstein in 2012, telling him that he and his family were going to be in the Caribbean and asking if they could meet for lunch. Epstein responded through an assistant, who gave Lutnick information about Epstein's "Little Saint James Island" in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

January 30, 2026 at 5:15 PM EST
Melania Trump exchanged affectionate emails with chief Epstein accomplice

The New York Daily News is reporting on new "gushing" emails from the latest trove of documents from the Epstein files, showing First Lady Melania Trump with an apparently strong relationship with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell (who was convicted for procuring victims for Jeffrey Epstein) two years before Melania married now-President Donald Trump. "Dear G! How are you?" Melania asked in one email to Maxwell, dated October 2002. "Nice story about JE in NY mag. You look great in the picture."