June 9, 2025 at 8:23 PM EDT
'Wild take': JD Vance slammed for 'cheering on' Trump's 'banana republic tactics'

Vice President JD Vance faced backlash on the social platform X Monday after he told California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) to "do your job," in response to Newsom's comments condemning President Donald Trump's recent remarks. The exchange began after Newsom reacted strongly to Trump's statement calling for the governor's arrest, which Newsom described as a dangerous escalation.

June 9, 2025 at 5:48 PM EDT
'We are less safe': Former DHS official blasts Trump's 'racist policies' on MSNBC

President Donald Trump's promise to make American communities safer by deploying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to round up and detain immigrants may be doing the opposite, according to one former ICE leader. During a Monday segment on MSNBC's "Deadline: White House," Jason Houser - who served as ICE's chief of staff during former President Joe Biden's administration -- said Trump's "racist policies" are only making public safety worse. Houser expanded on a New York Times op-ed he wrote in April, in which he said that ICE under the second Trump administration was "burning thousands of federal law enforcement hours on operations that privilege political objectives over public safety."

June 9, 2025 at 5:27 PM EDT
'Ugly and worrisome': Expert blasts White House for touting May jobs report

Despite the White House touting May's jobs report as a sign of economic strength, a closer look reveals a sharp decline in federal employment under the Trump administration -- reversing a year of government job growth under former President Joe Biden and shifting all 2025 job gains to the private sector. In an article for Townhall published Monday, economist EJ Antoni noted that the number of jobs in the federal government (excluding the postal service) "has now fallen every month this year, bringing the number of federal payrolls down to the lowest level since November 2023."

June 9, 2025 at 5:07 PM EDT
'We've seen this playbook before': Critics warn new White House attacks are despot moves

Advocates warn in Newsweek that attacks by the Trump administration and their surrogates are the same tactics used by strongman regimes in Hungary, Russia and El Salvador. President Donald Trump is sending his officials to investigate private nonprofits' internal operations and cutting federal funding for nonprofit organizations for a reason. There is also purpose behind House Republicans passing new taxes on philanthropies that fund nonprofit work.

June 9, 2025 at 5:04 PM EDT
'A warning sign': Trump under fire for new violent slogan as he sends Marines to LA

President Donald Trump has unveiled a new slogan amid the ongoing protests in Los Angeles, warning critics of his deportation policies, "If you spit, we will hit"""a statement critics say could incite violence. As tensions rise, Trump is escalating the federal response, expanding the National Guard presence and now ordering U.S. Marines into the city. Although Trump has not cited any specific incidents of protesters spitting, critics warn his rhetoric risks escalating tensions and could invite increased use of force by law enforcement and U.S. military personnel""who were deployed to Los Angeles over the objections of Governor Gavin Newsom.

June 9, 2025 at 4:40 PM EDT
Tom Cotton gives up the game, saying he hopes LA protests fuel support for 'Big Beautiful Bill'

The 1,037-page Republican budget bill appears to be on life support in the U.S. Senate after multiple Senate Republicans have spoken out against it. But one Republican senator thinks the ongoing protests in Los Angeles could help resuscitate it. Axios reported Monday that Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who is chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, believes the L.A. protests may have breathed new life into the GOP's efforts to revive H.R. 1 (also known as "The One Big Beautiful Bill Act"). The nation's second-largest city has seen massive demonstrations over the weekend in response to several Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, and Cotton believes the legislation's provisions regarding immigration could help win over GOP holdouts.

June 9, 2025 at 11:59 AM EDT
'Rising worry': Trump's trade war is increasingly jeopardizing a major campaign promise

Although Donald Trump's narrow victory over Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in 2024 was far from the "landslide" he claims it was -- he won the national popular vote by roughly 1.5 percent -- his emphasis on inflation and the economy helped get him past the finish line. Trump blamed Harris and then-President Joe Biden for inflation, and his messaging worked: Three Rust Belt states that went to Biden in 2020 -- Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin -- went to Trump in 2024.

June 9, 2025 at 11:33 AM EDT
Busted: Republicans quietly slip 'religious freedom' clause into funding bill

House Republicans have inserted anti-LGBTQ language into a $66 billion must-pass funding bill for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, effectively granting civil immunity under federal law to individuals and organizations that discriminate against same-sex couples""by citing a religious or moral belief that marriage should be limited to one man and one woman. It also bans the federal government from taking a range of actions against those who hold and act on anti-same-sex marriage beliefs.

June 9, 2025 at 11:27 AM EDT
How 'aspiring dictator' Trump has declared war on his political enemies: analysis

Salon Senior writer Chauncey Devega warns the authoritarian tide is "rising very quickly in America," with President Donald Trump threatening to use his "big beautiful bill" as a weapon or revenge against his enemies, namely the Democratic Party. During a recent trip to Capitol Hill to whip up support for his "big beautiful" budget bill, the president admitted to reporters that "We're going to make a couple of tweaks".I mean, we don't want to benefit Democrat governors."

June 9, 2025 at 10:22 AM EDT
Gunning for Social Security: Analyst says GOP 'not satisfied with massive reductions to Medicaid'

During his 2024 campaign, Donald Trump insisted that cuts to Social Security and Medicare were not on the table. But after Trump hired Elon Musk to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Tesla/SpaceX/X.com leader drew a great deal of criticism for describing Social Security as a "Ponzi scheme." And Democrat Martin O'Malley, who served as commissioner of the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) under former President Joe Biden, predicted that the Trump Administration/DOGE layoffs at the SSA would result in seniors not receiving their benefits on time.

June 9, 2025 at 9:32 AM EDT
'Not about our jobs': Federal workers just launched a protest against 'harmful' Trump policies

Hundreds of workers at the National Institutes of Health on Monday openly protested the Trump administration's cuts to the agency and consequences for human lives, writing in a sharply worded letter that its actions are causing "a dramatic reduction in life-saving research." In a June 9 letter to NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, NIH workers said they felt "compelled to speak up when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human safety and faithful stewardship of public resources."

June 9, 2025 at 6:06 AM EDT
Trump's latest move is a danger to all of us

Now that Trump's tariffs have been halted, his One Big Beautiful Bill has been stymied, and his multibillionaire tech bro has turned on him, how does he demonstrate his power? On Friday morning, federal agents from ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Drug Enforcement Administration conducted raids across Los Angeles, including at two Home Depots, a doughnut shop, and a clothing wholesaler, in search of workers they suspected of being undocumented immigrants.