November 26, 2025 at 6:03 PM EST
Trump is 'most responsible' for turning politics into 'social media antics': Karl Rove

Karl Rove -- the longtime Republican strategist behind George W. Bush's presidency -- is lamenting that politics has become cheapened by constant attention-seeking. And he's pinning the blame primarily on President Donald Trump. In a Wednesday op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Rove bemoaned the current state of American politics as "way too loud and much too small." And he observed that rather than dealmaking and legislating, modern-day politicians instead favor "ever more exotic social media antics."

November 26, 2025 at 4:58 PM EST
New videos show immediate aftermath of 'ambush attack' on 2 National Guardsmen in DC

Two members of the West Virginia National Guard were shot in Washington D.C and remain in critical condition as of Wednesday evening. The suspect has been detained and their name has not yet been released. CBS News senior White House correspondent Weija Jiang tweeted Wednesday that the shooting was an "ambush attack," citing additional reporting from CBS' Anna Schechter.

November 26, 2025 at 4:10 PM EST
Speaker 'barely holding it together' and 'crushed by his workload': NYT

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) made several revealing admissions about the stressful and chaotic nature of his job, according to a recent New York Times report. The Times' Annie Karni wrote in a Wednesday article that Johnson turned what was meant to be an easy interview with a friendly podcast host into a spotlight on how he's handling the pressure of being second in the presidential line of succession. While sitting alongside his wife in an appearance on the Katie Miller Pod (hosted by the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller), Karni observed that Johnson gave unusually detailed answers to softball questions.

November 26, 2025 at 3:29 PM EST
Trump's FBI spent $1M on 'special redaction project' ahead of Epstein files release

President Donald Trump may have signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law, but his FBI has reportedly been hard at work keeping certain parts secret ahead of their release. That's according to a recent Bloomberg article, which reported that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has reportedly allocated nearly $1 million in overtime pay to agents in an operation known as the "Epstein Transparency Project," with some reportedly maligning the effort as the "Special Redaction Project." The initiative involved an estimated 1,000 FBI agents working out of a facility in Winchester, Virginia (Jeffrey Epstein's brother, Mark, previously said a "pretty good source" told him the DOJ was redacting the Epstein files in Virginia).

November 26, 2025 at 2:42 PM EST
Trump turned whimsical event into a 'political mess' with historic 'screw up': analysis

Donald Trump took part in the traditional presidential turkey pardoning ceremony on Tuesday, lacing a typically light-hearted and apolitical affair with his typical grievances. Writing for MS NOW about the event, commentator and producer Steve Benen said Trump was "struggling" and "flubbing" his way through the event, turning the simple and fun ceremony into a "political mess." The turkey pardon event involves the president being presented with a live turkey -- or two, as was the case this week -- to which they issue a "pardon," sparing the bird from being killed and eaten at a Thanksgiving feast. Dating back to around the 1940s, these annual Thanksgiving ceremonies became an accepted yearly White House tradition during the presidency of George H.W. Bush.

November 26, 2025 at 12:10 PM EST
Leaked transcript proves 'childlike' selfishness drives Trump

Bulwark reports "The 28-point 'Trump peace plan' for Ukraine -- likely parroted " from a Russian paper slipped to Steve Witkoff by Vladimir Putin " is now an ex-parrot." But Bulwark White House Correspondent Andrew Egger said the release of an October phone call transcript between Witkoff and Putin apparatchik Yuri Ushakov shows the horrifying extent to which President Donald Trump can be manipulated with flattery. "[T]he thing I found most striking about the call was what it revealed about Witkoff's assessment of what motivates the president," said Egger. "Trump, in Witkoff's telling, has no particular asks or sticking points when it comes to this negotiation. Don't have Putin talk about particulars on the call with Trump at all, Witkoff advises Ushakov."

November 26, 2025 at 11:45 AM EST
Crucial swing voters 'no longer fooled' by Trump -- and Republicans are worried

Although Donald Trump's victory over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the United States' 2024 presidential election wasn't the "landslide" he claims it was -- Trump won the national popular vote by roughly 1.5 percent -- his gains with everyone from Latinos to Generation Z to independents got him past the finish line. 2024 marked Trump's fourth presidential campaign and the first time he won the popular vote, and his victory came despite the fact that he was facing four criminal indictments at the time.

November 26, 2025 at 11:36 AM EST
Steve Bannon urges Trump admin to court martial former NASA astronaut

MAGA podcaster and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is daring Secretary of Defense Pete Hegeseth to make good on his threats and to court martial Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) after Kelly appeared in a video with five other Democrats telling members of the military they have a legal right and obligation to refuse illegal orders Mediaite reports. Kelly is a former NASA astronaut and a decorated U.S. Navy combat veteran who served for 25 years, retiring with the rank of Captain.

November 26, 2025 at 11:13 AM EST
Georgia prosecutors drop massive Trump election case

President Donald Trump received a sizeable legal win on Wednesday when Georgia state prosecutors announced that they would be dropping the sweeping election interference case against him for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, CNN reported. As a state case, Trump was unable to order to case halted when he took office in January, as he could for federal investigations against him, instead relying on pressure campaigns.

November 26, 2025 at 10:56 AM EST
Late credit card payments 'highest since Great Recession' this holiday: analyst

It's officially shopping season but CNN analyst Harry Enten says high prices are destroying America's credit cards in the Trump economy. There are 3 million more shoppers between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, according to analysis, but 90-day credit card delinquencies are exploding.

November 26, 2025 at 5:57 AM EST
Trump has declared war on the American Way and there's only one way to fix it

I've been feeling something unusual these past few weeks: optimism. Not naïve optimism or the kind that ignores danger, but the real kind that arrives when you see people waking up, standing up, and refusing to bow before a lawless president who believes rules are for suckers and the Constitution is a mere suggestion rather than the foundation of our republic.

November 26, 2025 at 5:47 AM EST
Trump has lost his mind -- and it's never coming back

This was always going to be one of the most dangerous junctures of Donald Trump's godawful second term, though I admit it arrived a bit earlier than expected. How would the dangerous, ill-bred lout, who's never seen a lie he didn't like, handle it when the truth about him and his failed policies were dragged into the unfiltered light of hundreds of sunny days for all of us to see?