April 16, 2025 at 11:56 PM EDT
Trumpism echoes right-wing 'outlaw' Timothy McVeigh -- 30 years after the OK bombing

This week, it will be 30 years since the Oklahoma bombing. On the morning of April 19 1995, anti-government right-wing extremist Timothy McVeigh parked a Ryder truck loaded with 5,000 pounds of agricultural fertilizer and diesel fuel at the front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. At 9am, McVeigh lit two separate fuses - in case one failed. Two minutes later, the bomb exploded, killing 168 people (including 19 children) and injuring close to 700.

April 16, 2025 at 11:30 PM EDT
'Demoralizing': Woman handcuffed and fined $12K after hanging up on mental health hotline

If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting "988." Overcome by worries, Lynette Isbell dialed a mental health hotline in April 2022. She wanted to talk to someone about her midlife troubles: divorce, an empty nest, and the demands of caring for aging parents with dementia.

April 16, 2025 at 11:22 PM EDT
'I could not abide': Military mom suing Trump admin over her kids' 'right to learn'

Jessica Henninger wants to protect her children from the political climate that briefly closed their school library at Fort Campbell and led to books being removed from the shelves. "There's a very fine line between having your children be aware of what's going on in the world around them, and not burdening them with adult things," Henninger said. "But " when (Black History Month) projects are canceled after you've completed them " they notice that stuff."

April 16, 2025 at 11:08 PM EDT
Why Trump voters will love him even more if he faces public protest over Social Security

In a recent edition, I wrote about how most people most of the time choose to believe in the existence of certain eternal rules that powerful figures must obey, and how they continue to believe in these rules even as powerful figures break them over and over again. As if proving my point, a reader replied with a commonly held opinion that holds that Donald Trump's attacks on Social Security are going to be a bridge too far for his own supporters. The cracks are showing, this reader said. If even a fraction of magaland breaks away, it's over.

April 16, 2025 at 10:09 PM EDT
'Lock them up': Senator calls on Supreme Court to enforce Trump order with jail sentence

One Democratic member of the U.S. Senate is urging the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) to enforce its recent order on President Donald Trump's administration -- even if it means putting someone behind bars. Earlier this month, SCOTUS issued a 9-0 decision calling on Trump to "facilitate" the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the administration admitted was mistakenly put on a plane to an El Salvadoran prison for terrorists. On Wednesday, Colorado Newsline reported that Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) is now expressly demanding the nation's highest court force the administration to comply with a contempt ruling.

April 16, 2025 at 5:45 PM EDT
'What are you doing?' Conservative fears recession unless Congress stops 'lunatic' Trump

As tariff threats continued to pummel market numbers Wednesday, political commentator and Atlantic Senior Editor David Frum offered a dire prediction on what the endgame will eventually look like. "It ends probably with a recession," Frum told MSNBC "Deadline White House" anchor Nicolle Wallace. "It ends with probably the next Congress trying to remove some of the tariff authority from Donald Trump's hands, and they may or may not be successful. Remember, [Trump] gets to veto if they pass a law removing tariff authority, so you need enough members of Congress to override the veto."

April 16, 2025 at 4:34 PM EDT
'Deeply corrosive to the rule of law': High-ranking senator blocks Trump's top prosecutors

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is repairing connections with liberal allies by blocking the confirmation of Trump's nominees for top New York federal prosecutors. "Donald Trump has made clear he has no fidelity to the law and intends to use the Justice Department, the U.S. Attorney offices and law enforcement as weapons to go after his perceived enemies," Schumer said in a statement. "Such blatant and depraved political motivations are deeply corrosive to the rule of law and leaves me deeply skeptical of " Donald Trump's intentions for these important positions."

April 16, 2025 at 4:28 PM EDT
'Ticking time bomb': Pro-Trump investor says trade war could end GOP control of Congress

On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned that President Donald Trump's tariffs could spike inflation and harm economic growth. But one investor who has publicly backed Trump believes there could also be a political cost next year. In a CNN interview, Canadian investor Kevin O'Leary -- also known for his role on the CNBC show "Shark Tank" -- opined that most of Trump's tariffs would be quickly reversed after negotiating with trade partners. But he was less optimistic about the prospect of a deal being worked out with China. And he warned that the longer Trump's standoff with China went on, the worse his party would fare in next year's midterm elections.

April 16, 2025 at 3:42 PM EDT
'Untethered to the law': Ex-prosecutor sounds alarm about Trump's latest 'egregious' move

Attorney and author Shan Wu is writing in the Daily Beast that Trump is demanding the power to prosecute individuals and whole groups of people alike without either the benefit of court or legal language. Trump is using executive orders at "a record-breaking" pace to "further personal grievances" that are untethered to the law," says Wu. This includes his presidential memoranda accusing his own former officials, Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs, of crimes including, in the case of Taylor, treason -- which carries a potential death sentence.

April 16, 2025 at 2:23 PM EDT
'Cannot and will not support': 12 Republicans just dealt a blow to Johnson's budget bill

President Donald Trump is hoping that Republicans in Congress will pass a "big, beautiful bill' sooner rather than later and get it onto his desk for signature. But within House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-Louisiana) caucus, there are some major differences over what should or shouldn't go into the bill. And Senate Republicans don't necessarily see eye to eye with House Republicans on the megabill that Trump envisions.

April 16, 2025 at 12:11 PM EDT
'Economic downturn': Financial experts outline ways to survive Trump's 'fiscal hell'

With President Donald Trump continuing to push steep new tariffs on a long list of countries, some economists fear the return of stagflation -- a painful combination of inflation, high unemployment and low economic growth. Stagflation played a major role in President Jimmy Carter's landslide defeat in 1980 and continued to haunt President Ronald Reagan during his first few years in the White House. Fears that Trump's tariffs will lead to an inflation while causing prices to soar are not going unnoticed by retirees or would-be retirees, many of whom are watching their 401k retirement plans plummet in value.

April 16, 2025 at 11:25 AM EDT
Why only a 'narrow slice of right-wing' Christianity is safe from Trump's fundamentalist push

President Donald Trump reiterated his support for far-right white evangelical fundamentalists when, on February 7, he announced the creation of a task force on "anti-Christian bias" and the new White House Faith Office (WHFO) -- which is being headed by the Rev. Paula White, an evangelical known for promoting the "prosperity gospel." White is a controversial figure within Christianity. The "prosperity gospel" claims that God rewards the faithful with money and material gains, but White's Catholic and Mainline Protestant critics point out that the Bible is highly disdainful of materialism.