This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Amid reports that a firing for Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was imminent, President Donald Trump on Wednesday said ousting Powell was "highly unlikely," despite calling him a "knucklehead."
"I don't rule out anything, but it's highly unlikely, unless he has to leave for fraud. I mean it's possible there's fraud involved."
The New York Times reported Wednesday that Trump had drafted a letter to fire Powell, and asked Republicans if he should send it and indicated that he likely would.
"He's a knucklehead," Trump told reporters Wednesday in the Oval Office. "We like to say it like it is."
"He's always been too late, hence his nickname 'Too Late.' He should have cut interest rates a long time ago. Europe has cut 'em 10 times in a short period of time. We cut 'em none."
"I think he does a terrible job. He's costing us a lot of money, and we fight through it. It's almost, the country's become so successful it doesn't have a big impact. But it does hurt people wanting to get a mortgage, people want to buy a house. He's a terrible Fed chair."
In an interview with the "Just the News, No Noise" television show to be aired Thursday night on Real America's Voice, Trump said of Powell: "I'd love if he wants to resign. … That would be up to him."
"They say it would disrupt the market if I did (fire him). But you know, there are many people who say he should be removed because of the fraud of what he's doing at the Fed, with regard to the $2.5 billion he's spending, $2.5 billion to, I guess it's a renovation. I don't know. I'm very good at that stuff. I should go look at it."
The president was commenting on reports that Powell's renovation of his headquarters in the nation's capital has skyrocketed $700 million over budget to $2.5 billion.
"It's like one of the most expensive buildings in the world," Trump told the program.
"He's putting all sorts of parks on the top of the building, and this that. And I guarantee the contractors are making a fortune. No, this is not a guy. This is a guy always recommended. He was recommended to me by (former Treasury Secretary) Mnuchin, and he never worked out good."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
President Donald Trump is blasting his longtime political critic Adam Schiff, calling the Democrat senator from California "a scam artist" in the wake of new mortgage-fraud allegations.
In a Truth Social post Tuesday, Trump said: "I have always suspected Shifty Adam Schiff was a scam artist.
"And now I learn that Fannie Mae's Financial Crimes Division have concluded that Adam Schiff has engaged in a sustained pattern of possible Mortgage Fraud.
"Adam Schiff said that his primary residence was in MARYLAND to get a cheaper mortgage and rip off America, when he must LIVE in CALIFORNIA because he was a Congressman from CALIFORNIA.
"I always knew Adam Schiff was a Crook. The FRAUD began with the refinance of his Maryland property on February 6, 2009, and continued through multiple transactions until the Maryland property was correctly designated as a second home on October 13, 2020.
"Mortgage Fraud is very serious, and CROOKED Adam Schiff (now a Senator) needs to be brought to justice."
On Saturday, Schiff slammed Trump and his Department of Justice on MSNBC, saying: "Their modus operandi, and it comes from the top, the fish rots from the head, is Donald Trump whose real view, his life view, is yes he's crooked and yes he's a liar, but everyone is crooked, everyone is a liar, everybody does it. It's just that he's the crook and the liar of the GOP."
As WorldNetDaily reported in April, Schiff, most famous for leading impeachment efforts against Trump over disproven Russian collusion claims, announced he was writing to the White House to demand answers about allegations of insider trading.
In January, Schiff was caught on video sleeping during a Pam Bondi hearing.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The discovery by FBI Director Kash Patel of a room where the bureau under Joe Biden at "hidden" evidence from sight of both the public and Congress could spur his announced investigation into the weaponization of the government against President Donald Trump.
Trump has been targeted before and during his first term, and then between his terms, by Democrat lawfare that often used the power of the government against him. For example, the SWAT team raid on his Mar-a-Lago home when the actual dispute was over custody of presidential papers – hardly a threat to life and limb.
A report at the Gateway Pundit explained, "According to a report by JustTheNews, Barack Obama, John Brennan, James Clapper, James Comey, and other high-level Obama-era operatives have been named in the investigation, which shows a coordinated criminal conspiracy to target political enemies, shield Democrat allies, and manipulate multiple presidential elections — from 2016 through 2024. But it gets better: The probe may now shift jurisdiction to Florida — thanks to none other than Special Counsel Jack Smith's own raid on Mar-a-Lago."
Just the News said the investigation is being "cheered by lawmakers" and could be helped by Patel's recent revelation about the discovery "of a room where the bureau had 'hidden' evidence from public and congressional view."
On a podcast with Joe Rogan, Patel called it a "vault" or "lockbox."
"The discovery that the FBI stashed away evidence in politically hot probes like Russiagate could help prosecutors convince a grand jury that government officials were engaged in a coverup or an effort to deprive civil liberties, experts said," according to the report.
"And while the discovery of the evidence vault and the emergence of the conspiracy probe are shrouded in some secrecy, their existence has buoyed Republicans in Congress who long believed prosecution of government actors behind scandals like Russiagate and Biden family corruption was warranted."
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said, "They put America through unbelievable, really historic political turmoil, knowing that the entire narrative was completely false. I felt these people were criminals for many years now. I mean, the fact that they knew this…the whole Russiagate was a conspiracy hatched by the Clinton campaign back in 2016. President Obama was briefed on that. I mean, they all knew."
In fact, Russiagate was created when Hillary Clinton apparently wanted to divert the public's attention away from her own scandal, in which she put government secrets on an unsecured computer server in her home. Her campaign worked with a legal team, an "opposition research" organization, foreigners and more to fabricate claims about Trump's 2016 campaign colluding with Russia, a claim for which there was no evidence.
Just this week, the FBI "quietly launched" a review of a decade of Deep State and Democratic Party activities, the report said, "ranging from ginning up the Trump-Russia collusion to examining special counsel Jack Smith's pursuit of Trump."
The result could end up being presentations to a grand jury about evidence of a criminal conspiracy to influence three straight presidential elections, against Trump.
The "grand conspiracy" case at the FBI, under way for only a few weeks, also could get a shot in the arm if Trump would declassify two "yet-classified troves of evidence that identify key pieces of the alleged conspiracy dating back to the summer of 2016," the report said.
Patel said only weeks ago even then more Russiagate information was being discovered.
He blasted the Democrat agenda under Joe Biden: "That's how vindictive and vicious the former leadership structure was. Not only did they bastardize the FISA process and lie to the American public, they withheld and hid documentation and put it in rooms where people weren't supposed to look. And it's a good thing that we're here now to clean it up, and you're about to see a wave of transparency."
The two troves of details that remain secret include information added to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz's probe of Hillary Clinton's improper email server, and another cache attached to Special Counsel John Durham's final report in 2023 about the DOJ's probe of Russiagate.
Further, CIA Director John Ratcliffe already has dispatched a criminal referral to Patel related to possible crimes by Barack Obama's CIA director, Brennan, the report explained.
Among the possible subjects for investigation are Brennan, Comey and Clapper.
Just the News noted, "All of this — combined with the secretive documents recently unearthed at the Hoover Building and brought to the attention of Patel — may provide guideposts for the newly-revealed FBI investigation. It will likely be up to Attorney General Pam Bondi to decide if a criminal prosecution — or a special prosecutor — is warranted."
Patel has confirmed he has found a lot of documentation by those allegedly scheming against Trump at the time.
"These guys were so arrogant, they would write everything down. And I found the documents. They're so arrogant, they think, 'No one's going to catch us. I'm going to write everything down. We're going to put it in a lockbox, we're going to put it in a vault, and no one's going to find it.' Well, you know what? I found the vault and now I'm going to work."
Patel also noted there's no statute of limitations if the investigation is into "an overarching conspiracy."
Trump, on his first day in office, called for an end to the weaponization of government that had developed under Democrats.
"The American people have witnessed the previous administration engage in a systematic campaign against its perceived political opponents, weaponizing the legal force of numerous Federal law enforcement agencies and the Intelligence Community against those perceived political opponents in the form of investigations, prosecutions, civil enforcement actions, and other related actions. These actions appear oriented more toward inflicting political pain than toward pursuing actual justice or legitimate governmental objectives."
Bondi, on taking office, issued a memo calling for a review of weaponization, and an end.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The White House North Lawn is back open after a 30-minute lockdown Tuesday as someone threw an object over the fence, prompting security to order news reporters inside the president's residence for their own protection.
It turns out the object thrown over the fence may have been a cell phone.
White House correspondent Kimberly Halkett cited White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt saying: "Someone (presumably a tourist) threw their phone over the fence (of the White House)."
The Daily Mail reports: "The Secret Service quickly called a lockdown of the park and White House and closed off Pennsylvania Avenue.
"Agents ushered press standing outside into the briefing room without providing further details at around 11:30 a.m. ET.
"The Secret Service declared an all-clear order roughly 30 minutes later, allowing reporters back onto the North Lawn."
Numerous reporters posted video clips from both outside the White House and inside the James Brady Briefing Room to document the confusion as they were initially left in the dark as to the nature of the situation.
The incident comes just days after the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump's assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Reports from the chairmen of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees have found that Secret Service failures led to the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump, the New York Post reported. The lawmakers are examining what led up to the shooting at a Butler, PA, rally last year.
Trump was blindsided by the bullet that grazed his ear, narrowly missing a kill shot to the head, during a campaign rally on July 13, 2024. From the moment it occurred, it was clear that the Secret Service was not doing its job that day to protect the then-candidate.
Now Congress is investigating, and so far Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Rand Paul (R-KY) believe there was "inexcusable negligence" leading to a "cascade of preventable failures" that almost cost Trump his life. One user on X, formerly Twitter, rightly called this "the biggest security scandal since JFK" was assassinated.
🚨 NEW: “A cascade of preventable failures nearly killed President Trump,” says Senate report.
The Secret Service knew. Civilians warned them. They did nothing.
No one has been fired.
This is the biggest security scandal since JFK. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/cCQ88idZWJ
— Rod D. Martin (@RodDMartin) July 13, 2025
There were numerous inadequacies in security planning and execution that day, which nearly proved fatal for Trump. Gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to get nearly the perfect kill shot because of them, and the failures largely fall to the Secret Service.
In fact, Crooks was able to fly a drone around the Butler Farm Show Grounds to find the perfect spot to position himself because anti-drone technology was down and being repaired by someone not trained to do so. His drone went "undetected" as it circled "the event site hours before the rally" so he could find his perfect unobstructed position.
He was also stopped at the entrance to the fairgrounds because he had a rangefinder device, commonly used for measuring shooting distance. Crooks was identified as a suspicious person "at least 25 minutes" before taking his shot, but it's unclear why that didn't hinder his movements around the venue.
Perhaps it was because communications equipment failures and spotty cell phone service at the rural location hindered information exchange between local and federal officials on site. The Secret Service had at least 10 days' notice that there was a threat made to Trump's life ahead of that day, but did not disseminate the information.
"[T]he Secret Service had no process to share classified threat information with partners when the information was not considered an imminent threat to life," Grassley's report said. The threat reportedly came from Iran, but no additional protection measures were taken.
At the time of the shooting, Trump was not only the GOP presidential nominee, but he was also a former president. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, along with the Secret Service, now agree that his status should have afforded him additional protections.
As Paul's report noted, there were "at least" 10 requests to the Secret Service for additional protection that were either ignored or denied. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned over the incident, claimed that it was untrue despite the evidence to the contrary. Lawmakers are demanding some accountability for these failures.
"What happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, was not just a tragedy—it was a scandal. The United States Secret Service failed to act on credible intelligence, failed to coordinate with local law enforcement, and failed to prevent an attack that nearly took the life of a then-former president," Paul said.
Likewise, Grassley said he was releasing his report to provide "a clear path forward for the Secret Service to improve, so it can prevent another Butler from ever happening again." It remains to be seen whether they will be held accountable for this incident that could have altered the trajectory of American history forever.
What happened that day in Butler was a massive failure that could have killed Trump and incited civil unrest. Several failures put Trump squarely in the crosshairs of an assassin's gun that would have cost him his life had God not miraculously spared his life.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
At least nine deaths were confirmed late Sunday night in a fire that broke out at an assisted living center in Massachusetts, according to reports from state officials.
Fox News quoted a statement from the state Department of Fire Services that detailed the tragedy that happened at the Gabriel House assisted living center in Fall River.
Firefighters were summoned there about 10 p.m. Sunday and immediately encountered residents hanging out of windows screaming for help.
When firefighters arrived flames and heavy smoke already had engulfed the front of the building.
State Fire Marshal Jon Davine's office confirmed to reporters about 70 people were sleeping at the center when the fire broke out, but a cause had not been revealed.
The Daily Mail said relatives reported receiving frantic phone calls from senior residents at the center, on the Massachusetts side of the border just outside of Providence, Rhode Island.
The report said a woman identified only as Melanie said, of her father, "He was on the floor talking to me, and I am crying telling him, 'Break the window. Try to break it,' Because he is so weak, and he couldn't break it, and I am like, 'Where are you?' and he was like. 'I am in the bathroom'. 'I said open your bathroom window, and he said, 'It is open, but they are not hearing me. They are not hearing me, Melanie. I am going to die in here'."
More than two dozen people also were taken to a local hospital, said Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon.
Bacon told a press conference early Monday, after the flames largely were out, "Our heart goes out to all of the families of the people that were injured here, and the people that lost their lives here."
Leo Johnson, 45, of Fall River, told The Boston Globe he found his mother, who lived on the top floor, outside, wet because the sprinklers were going off.
Fire Chaplain Michael Racine said, "In all my years of being a Fire Chaplain tonight was the worst night of experiencing such loss of life, multiple fatalities in Fall River."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A new report on the Butler, Pa., assassination attempt on President Trump reveals that the Secret Service received classified intelligence regarding a threat to Trump's life 10 days before the rally, but failed to share the information with other key agencies.
The damning report comes from the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) one year after a gunman's bullet grazed Trump's right ear during a campaign rally speech. The shooter, Thomas Crooks, killed attendee Cory Comperatore as he was protecting his family, while two others were injured.
According to Fox News, the report also identified a series of procedural and planning mistakes, including "misallocation of resources, lack of training and pervasive communication failures" that led to the near assassination.
The report had been ordered by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
"One year ago, a series of bad decisions and bureaucratic handicaps led to one of the most shocking moments in political history," Grassley said. "The Secret Service's failure on July 13 was the culmination of years of mismanagement and came after the Biden administration denied requests for enhanced security to protect President Trump. Americans should be grateful that President Trump survived that day and was ultimately reelected to restore common sense to our country."
"There were mistakes made, and that shouldn't have happened," Trump told his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, in an interview on Fox News.
Ten days before the event, high-level Secret Service officials were briefed on a classified threat to Trump. "Once those officials reviewed the intelligence, they could have then requested that personnel within their chain of command be briefed on the specific information," notes the report. But officials failed to share this information, leaving federal and local law enforcement entities planning the event unaware of the threat, including members of the Donald Trump Protective Division. Had they known of the threat, local law enforcement officials would have requested additional assets for the Butler rally, they told the GAO
Also, the Secret Service agent who was responsible for "identif[ying] site vulnerabilities" was new to her role, and this was "her first time planning and securing a large outdoor event as the site agent."
Fox News reported that Secret Service officials denied the Donald Trump Protective Division's request for enhanced counter Unmanned Aerial Surveillance (cUAS) equipment at the Butler event, as "these resources had already been allocated for the Republican and Democratic National Conventions." Fortunately, senior officials with knowledge of the threat against Trump stepped in to approve counter sniper assets for the rally, a decision which was described as "inconsistent" with agency practices for making resource decisions." Absent this last-minute decision, Trump "would likely not have received the counter sniper assets that ultimately took out [Crooks]," the GAO wrote.
As WND reported, six of the Secret Service agents on duty in Butler were punished. During an interview with CBS, Matt Quinn, the agency's deputy director, affirmed that the agents were suspended for periods ranging from 10 to 42 days, during which they were not paid.
The new report comes out as Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., approved a subpoena to the FBI and Justice Department for more information on the Butler assassination attempt.
A former adviser to Democrat candidates including Hillary Clinton and Colorado Governor Jared Polis said he was "almost speechless" after hearing anti-police comments made by New York's Democrat mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani during a 2020 interview.
Mamdani, who is Black and Muslim, has been strongly criticized by the left and right since winning the Democrat primary.
Among other things, he has refused to disavow the phrase "globalize the intifada," which is a de facto call for violence.
In July 2020, Mamdani appeared on the "Immigrantly" podcast espousing rhetoric to defund the police, and the interview recently went viral on social media.
He referred to the history of the New York Police Department (NYPD), saying, "You can see that we have invested in a system that functions in many ways to punish poor Black and Brown people."
He gave examples of the NYPD overstepping their bounds, such as removing a homeless person from a train or responding to someone "surviving, you know, going through domestic violence."
Former Democrat adviser Dan Turrentine blasted Mamdani on "The Morning Meeting Podcast" when co-hosts Mark Halperin and Sean Spicer brought up the viral podcast.
"I'm almost speechless. Like, that is so enraging," Turrentine said. "It's crazy. I hope it hurts him. Like, when I hear that, and I try to have an open mind, hope that whoever our next mayor is makes this city a great place. I live [here]. We have children here. New York City police officers put themselves in such harm's way. This city is full of crazy people on subways. I, our children go on it. The number of times that there are homeless people who are, like, out of their mind who come up to kids, who scream at them right near - to say the police are the [problem], I hope our party condemns him."
Turrentine said he thinks the city has made progress with crime until recently and can't afford to go backward.
Obviously, Mamdani is a bad candidate for New York City and will cause great harm if he is elected.
However, Mamdani has disavowed those earlier comments, which were made in the wake of the George Floyd death and all the protests that followed.
"I will not defund the police. I will work with the police because I believe the police have a critical role to play in creating public safety," he said during a mayoral debate in June.
Many candidates who called for defunding the police in 2020 disavow it now, so it's not surprising that he has changed his tune.
That doesn't mean anyone should vote for him, but it would be good to focus on the real reasons for not doing so rather than grasping onto something that doesn't represent his current views--or at least his current stated views.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
On the one-year anniversary of the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, the commander in chief was asked was going through his mind when he woke up on Sunday.
"God was protecting me," Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews.
"Maybe because God wanted to see our country do better or do really well. Make America Great Again.
"But God was protecting me," Trump repeated. "The more you think about it, the more you see it."
"I don't like to think about it much, you know. I have a job to do," he added.
"It's a little bit of a dangerous profession being president, but I really don't like to think about it too much. I think you're better off not thinking about it."
The president was also asked about FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who has been rumored to be considering leaving the bureau over the non-release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
"I spoke to him today," Trump said. "Dan Bongino is a very good guy. I've known him a long time. He's in good shape."
Trump also commented on the recent success of the U.S. military's destruction of Iran's nuclear facilities, saying: "From zero to 10 with 10 being the best, that attack was a 15."
Radical socialist New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani is trying everything he can to win the upcoming election, even if it means "laundering" his otherwise very vocal "defund the police" stance.
According to the New York Post, the socialist frontrunner is apparently entertaining the idea of keeping tough-on-crime Jessica Tisch as NYPD commissioner, despite his radically opposite views on crime.
Mamdani's history of making statements that oppose everything Tisch stands for don't seem to matter as he's eyeying up the best way to convince as many as possible to vote for him.
The outlet noted that many "Big Apple elites" hope that by doing so, Mamdani can "sand off" his far-left edges.
Political operative Ken Frydman believes Mamdani is simply "laundering" his radical stances on crime and police in order to win the election.
“He’s laundering his radical stances, that’s what he’s doing," Frydman said.
"But he needs his defund-the-police voters to turn out again and cop-hating Tiffany Cabán is lurking," he added, referencing another socialist firebrand that is possibly in the running to take over the commissioner's spot if Mamdani wins.
The Post noted:
Tisch, a well-regarded public servant and billionaire heiress, has tried to stay above the partisan fray, despite a number of politicians trying to use her as a pawn.
Mayor Eric Adams picked Tisch in November to rebuild the NYPD’s standing — and his own — after his first three police commissioners respectively flamed out amid infighting, scandal and more infighting.
Many of New York's elite residents have urged Mamdani to keep Tisch as commish if he's elected mayor, as it seems to be a good political match.
For his part, Mamdani wouldn't confirm whether or not he would consider keeping Tisch.
"I believe that it’s premature to make any personnel commitments at this time, but it’s a consideration that is real — and it’s in keeping with the city that we’re fighting for," he recently stated.
Mamdani's social media posts are more than enough to show where he stands on the issues.
"Defund it. Dismantle it. End the cycle of violence," he once said about the NYPD, also calling it "corrupt" and "wicked."
The Post noted:
While Tisch arguably could be a bulwark against Mamdani’s radical impulses, Democratic political operative Hank Sheinkopf said she’d be hamstrung by the fact she ultimately serves at the pleasure of the mayor.