December 4, 2025 at 5:55 PM EST
Ex-JAG officer reveals how Trump's Pentagon officials breached 'red line you cannot cross'

One retired Judge Advocate General Corps (JAG) officer says officials in President Donald Trump's Pentagon may have been aware they were breaking international law when carrying out a controversial strike in September. During a Thursday interview with CNN, Dan Maurer -- a 22-year U.S. Army veteran who served as a military attorney -- broke down how legal experts within the Department of Defense regularly advise top commanders of sensitive missions before a strike is carried out. He explained that the process is particularly relevant given the recent closed-door testimony of Admiral Frank M. Bradley, who led the September 2, 2025 operation in which two survivors of a boat strike in the Caribbean Sea were killed in a secondary strike.

December 4, 2025 at 5:12 PM EST
'Throwing Americans aside': Trump ripped for focus on ballroom while cost of living spikes

The White House reportedly will be submitting plans for President Donald Trump's $300 million ballroom to a federal planning commission later this month, after the East Wing of the White House has already been demolished and as the president replaces the project's top architect. "The 90,000-square-foot ballroom will dwarf the White House itself, at nearly double the size, and President Donald Trump has said it will accommodate 999 people," the Associated Press reported on Thursday.

December 4, 2025 at 4:14 PM EST
Fox host admits layoffs under Trump at highest point in decades

Layoffs in the United States have surpassed 1.1 million in 2025, according to a new report. And even one Fox Business host who is typically in President Donald Trump's corner is taking notice of the dire economic picture heading into 2026. During a Thursday segment on Fox Business, Maria Bartiromo - who Trump was reportedly considering naming as his running mate in 2024 -- read the details of the report aloud on her show, and remarked to panelist John Lonski that she had previously pressed Trump about the impact of new technology on jobs.

December 4, 2025 at 3:23 PM EST
Top House Republican caught on hot mic criticizing GOP colleague

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) was recently heard discussing California's mid-decade redistricting plans -- which included criticism of one of his Republican colleagues for running against an incumbent GOP member of Congress. Spectrum News reporter Cassie Semyon posted the clip of Issa's remarks to X on Thursday, in which he's heard speaking to someone whose face is not shown about the upcoming Republican primary in California's newly redrawn 40th Congressional District. That race pits Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) against Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.) due to new district lines imposed by California's Prop 50, which voters overwhelmingly approved in November.

December 4, 2025 at 2:36 PM EST
Republicans 'making fools of themselves' as reality threatens to 'shove them out of power'

John Harwood says the Republican Party's current opposition to popular "Obamacare" subsidies for millions of Americans is on track with the party's stubborn grip on the wrong side of arguments throughout history. "They said Washington lacked the competence to run [the Social Security System], that the nation couldn't afford it, that it would impoverish the working class," Harwood tells Zeteo. "A 'cruel hoax,' declared the Republican Party's leader."

December 4, 2025 at 12:11 PM EST
Trump-era 'brain drain' pushing core agency into deep crisis

After President Donald Trump returned to the White House on January 20, his administration aggressively downsized a long list of federal government agencies with the help of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its then-leader, Tesla/SpaceX/X.com head Elon Musk. Trump claimed that his goal was reducing "waste, fraud and abuse," but critics of the Trump Administration/DOGE cuts argued that they were robbing the agencies of crucial personnel they need in order to function properly -- from the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) to the National Weather Service (NWS) to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

December 4, 2025 at 11:28 AM EST
Trump ally 'gave away the game' by ignoring request for public Jack Smith testimony

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) "prefers secrecy to sunlight" when it comes to his probe of former counsel Jack Smith, writes MS NOW's Steve Benen. House Republicans, led by Jordan, subpoenaed Smith for a closed-door deposition on December 17, 2025, as part of their oversight investigation into his probes into President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents.

December 4, 2025 at 11:24 AM EST
Conservative dismantles MAGA claim that obeying 'laws of war' is 'woke'

In MAGA media outlets, the Trump Administration's Venezuela policy is repeatedly defended as a willingness to put American interests above "wokeness" -- including a series of military strikes against Venezuelan boats in the Caribbean that U.S. President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claim were being used to smuggle illegal drugs to the United States. Hegseth insists that his priority is defending the U.S., not being "woke." But in a biting column published on December 4, the New York Times' David French counters that there is nothing "woke" about obeying the "rules of war" that the Pentagon has adhered to over the years.

December 4, 2025 at 10:56 AM EST
'Apprentice' president guts US apprenticeships after big promises: labor official

Washington Monthly writer Anne Kim reports the president and former star of "The Apprentice" vowed to "reach and surpass 1 million new active apprentices," before surrendering his commitment to funding cuts, grant cancellations, and layoffs. Trump directed the Department of Labor to deliver his commitment to surpass 1 million new active apprentices within 120 days in an April executive order, but Kim reports that deadline has passed, "with no evidence of progress or even a plan to reach the one-million apprenticeship milestone."

December 4, 2025 at 10:52 AM EST
Democrats look to throw Trump's 'bullying' tactic back in his face

A top Democratic leader in Virginia said that the legislature will move forward with a redistricting effort that could eliminate as many as four Republicans from the House of Representative, citing the need to hit back against President Donald Trump "bullying" other states to do the same against Democrats. State Rep. Don Scott, the Democratic Speaker for the Virginia House of Delegates, spoke about the situation during a recent appearance at a meeting of the Virginia Property Owners Alliance. He suggested that the planned gerrymander could go so far as to produce nine Democratic districts and only one Republican, a loss of four seats for GOP. He also stressed that the Virginia Democrats would have preferred not to take this step, but that they were forced by Trump's coercion of red states.

December 4, 2025 at 5:40 AM EST
Why I'm done being silent about Trump's supporters

I have cut back on the time I spend on social media since last year's terrible elections. It might be the only good that's come from one of the worst days in American history. A once thriving Twitter account is now dead and buried. I simply can't be anywhere the ghastly Elon Musk and his phony hate-mongers. The place is an overflowing trashcan full of so many lies, and awful things, it's a wonder it hasn't self-combusted.

December 4, 2025 at 5:25 AM EST
Trump's 'mental decline' on display with 'deranged obsession': House lawmaker

WASHINGTON -- A pair of top Democrats in the House of Representatives slammed President Donald Trump's "deranged obsession" with attacking Somali-Americans on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Trump said he does not want Somalis in the United States because "they contribute nothing," the AP reported. His most recent attack follows a report by the conservative outlet City Journal that accused Somali Americans of committing fraud in Minnesota, the report added.