An appeals court has blocked an Obama judge's insane plan to micromanage President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol commander-at-large Greg Bovino had been ordered to appear every weekday before U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis, an Obama appointee, to share updates on Trump's Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago.
But the 7th Circuit Appeals court has struck down Ellis' order, calling it a violation of the separation of powers, as the Chicago Tribune reports.
Judge Ellis had said the daily check-ins were needed to ensure compliance with a temporary restraining order she issued in October that restricted federal agents' use of force against crowds of journalists and sometimes violent protesters.
The judge wanted Bovino to appear at 5:45 p.m. every weekday until a preliminary injunction hearing on Nov. 5.
The Trump administration sought to overturn Ellis' order, calling it the latest instance of activist judges trying to micromanage Trump and hamstring his agenda.
The order "significantly interferes with the quintessentially executive function of ensuring the Nation’s immigration laws are properly enforced by waylaying a senior executive official critical to that mission on a daily basis.”
“Absent a stay, the government will be irreparably harmed because Chief Bovino will be required to prepare and sit for questioning in open court today and every weekday thereafter, with no stated endpoint in sight,” the administration's motion stated. “Every occasion that Chief Bovino is required to prepare and appear for those daily court sessions is time that he would otherwise spend carrying out the important law-enforcement functions he has been assigned.”
The administration's request for a reversal was temporarily granted by the 7th Circuit Appeals court on Wednesday, shortly before Bovino's first check-in.
Then, the appeals court made its order permanent in a striking decision on Friday that reprimanded Ellis for playing the role of "inquisitor rather than that of a neutral adjudicator."
The appeals court's three-judge panel said Ellis' order "sets the court up as a supervisor of Chief Bovino's activities, intruding into personnel management decisions of the Executive Branch."
"These two problems are related and lead us to conclude that the order infringes on the separation of powers," the court ruled.
Bovino has been a highly visible presence in Chicago, where immigration agents under his command have been accused of using excessive force.
But Bovino says that immigration agents, including himself, are under attack by unruly mobs.
"Did Judge Ellis get hit in the head with a rock like I did this morning? I had to apply gas this morning against people," Bovino told Telemundo last week. "Was she hit in the head with a rock? Maybe she needs to see what that's like before issuing an order like that."
A pair of prosecutors have been suspended by the Justice Department after they submitted a sentencing memo containing politically charged language that appeared to blame President Trump for a threat against former president Barack Obama.
The two prosecutors, Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White, submitted the statements in a case against an erratic man, Taylor Taranto, who received a federal pardon from Trump for his involvement in the events at the Capitol on January 6th, 2021.
Despite the pardon, Taranto is facing prison after he was separately convicted for making threats outside the Washington D.C. home of Obama in June 2023.
The sentencing memo filed by Valdivia and White sought 27 months in prison for Taranto and lumped him in with "thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters" who participated in the events of January 6th.
Most of the people who entered the Capitol on January 6th, 2021, were charged with non-violent misdemeanor offenses, although many were accused of crimes like assault.
Taranto, who was charged with misdemeanor crimes, allegedly entered the Capitol and scuffled with police before being forced outside, where he clashed with other protesters using a cane.
The sentencing memo noted that Taranto returned to his home in Washington State afterwards, "where he promoted conspiracy theories about the events of January 6, 2021.”
The prosecutors also tied Taranto's threatening actions outside Obama's home in June 2023 to Trump having "published on social media platforms the purported address of former President Obama" earlier that day.
Taranto was arrested after a short foot chase in Obama's Kalorama neighborhood, where Taranto tried to evade Secret Service and livestreamed himself making statements about searching for "tunnels" and "entrance points."
The police found hundreds of rounds of ammunition and two guns in his van.
Shortly after the sentencing memo against Taranto was filed, Valdivia and White were locked out of their government devices.
The memo was signed by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, a close Trump ally.
Trump pardoned nearly all January 6th defendants on the first day of his second presidential term, casting them as victims of overzealous and politically motivated prosecution under the Biden administration, which also sought to jail Trump as he campaigned for the White House in 2024.
Biden-era "weaponization" is continuing to fall under scrutiny as Senate Republicans uncover a sweeping FBI "fishing expedition" led by Trump prosecutor Jack Smith, who sought subpoenas against scores of Republicans, some of whom had their phone records collected.
Leftist bomb thrower Ilhan Omar (D-Mn.) isn't known for showing grace to her enemies - so it comes as quite a surprise that she reportedly defended President Trump during a trip to Europe.
On a recent podcast, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fl.) recounted watching Omar clash with a Belgian diplomat who insulted the House delegation, the Hill reported.
The diplomat commented that Trump does not "respect" Congress and sees lawmakers as a "joke," Luna recalled.
“This, like, blew me away. … She [Omar] looks at the guy, she goes, ‘You might not like what our president is doing and you might not agree with our foreign policy, but when we’re here, you will respect our president," Luna said on Thursday’s “PBD Podcast.”
“She was talking about Trump,” she added.
Luna's story is sure to be surprising to many, given Omar's reputation. The Minnesota lawmaker frequently faces calls for her removal from the United States over her incendiary rhetoric and ingratitude toward her adopted country.
Omar faced more backlash in September for disparaging Charlie Kirk after his assassination, calling him a "hateful" figure.
Her callous comments spurred President Trump to suggest deporting Omar back to her native Somalia, although Trump joked that her homeland doesn't want her.
Luna acknowledged that the show of unity in Europe, while "pleasantly surprising," was only a fleeting moment.
“There’s always this push and pull in politics, and politics is messy, but I didn’t expect that being on a delegation with a foreign government,” she said on the podcast.
“But [Omar] said that. And I think at that point in time, when you have that type of unified front, especially in dealing with the EU, it was pleasantly surprising,” Luna added.
“I don’t agree with her, and politics is not about trust," she said.
“It’s about, and you don’t ever want to make friends in politics, especially this game, because ultimately you realize that it’s a very transactional field,” she added. “But in that instance, I appreciated that she provided a united front to … the jerk.”
Yes, it's shocking that Omar defended Trump, if it is true.... but it's nothing to be impressed by.
There is very, very little that Republicans have in common with a radical figure like Ilhan Omar, who has expressed pure hatred over and over for ICE, for Trump, and for America as we know it.
Republicans should remember that and not allow feel-good sentimentality to cloud their vision.
President Trump is shaking up leadership in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a feud escalates within the administration over enforcement priorities.
As reported by Fox News, ICE leaders in major cities are being forced out as frustration mounts with the pace of Trump's promised mass deportations. In an unusual move, Border Patrol officials are being tapped to lead interior immigration enforcement, which is usually ICE's job.
According to Fox, Department of Homeland Security insiders are divided over how broad Trump's immigration crackdown should be.
While ICE has focused on known illegal aliens, Border Patrol has cast a wider net, with agents making aggressive shows of force at target-rich locations like Home Depot.
“ICE started off with the worst of the worst, knowing every target they are hitting, but since Border Patrol came to LA in June, we’ve lost our focus, going too hard, too fast, with limited prioritization,” one senior DHS official told Fox. “It’s getting numbers, but at what cost?”
The ICE directors in Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Denver, Portland, Philadelphia, El Paso and New Orleans have all been sacked, Fox reported. As many as half of ICE's 25 field offices could be shaken up by the purge, NBC reported.
Insiders told Fox that Border Czar Tom Homan and ICE Director Todd Lyons want to target illegal aliens with criminal records - the so-called "worst of the worst."
But Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, and Corey Lewandowski, Noem's chief of staff and Trump's former 2016 campaign manager, are pushing to round up as many illegal aliens as possible. Pressure to ramp up deportations has also come from Stephen Miller, Trump's White House deputy chief of staff and a famous immigration hawk, who set a goal of 3,000 arrests per day in May.
Bovino and Lewandoski have compiled a list of a dozen ICE directors who are facing reassignment as arrest numbers lag around 1,178 on average per day as of late September, NBC reported. The administration has downplayed reports of a rift.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement, “The president’s entire team is working in lockstep to implement the President’s policy agenda, and the tremendous results from securing the border to deporting criminal illegal aliens speak for themselves.”
The increasingly prominent role of Border Patrol in ICE leadership suggests that the administration is shifting toward a more aggressive approach, as Trump's base demands more action to remove illegal aliens.
“The mentality is CBP does what they’re told, and the administration thinks ICE isn’t getting the job done,” one of the DHS officials told NBC. “So CBP will do it.”
Bovino has been highly visible as the head of Trump's immigration crackdown in Chicago, Operation Midway Blitz, which has faced a violent backlash in the streets. A federal judge has ordered Bovino to appear in court every day to justify agents' crowd control tactics, including the use of tear gas. DHS officials have said Bovino was hit in the head with a rock.
Trump has frequently been accused of breaking a pledge to target the "worst of the worst," but Trump campaigned on carrying out the largest mass deportation in U.S. history.
As one agent put it to Fox News, “What did everyone think mass deportations meant? Only the worst? Tom Homan has said it himself — anyone in the US illegally is on the table.”
President Trump oversaw the signing of a cease-fire between Cambodia and Thailand as he began a whirlwind five-day tour of Asia.
The leaders of Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia all thanked the president for his leadership at a summit in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, NBC News reported.
"On behalf of the United States, I’m proud to help settle this conflict and forge a future for the region,” Trump said.
The Thailand-Cambodia peace deal was formalized Sunday as Trump arrived in Malaysia, whose prime minister Anwar Ibrahim helped mediate the deal.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, while Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul also offered his “sincere appreciation” for the president's efforts.
Trump used the threat of higher tariffs against Cambodia and Thailand, both export-dependent nations, to end their five-day border conflict after it erupted in July, killing dozens and displacing hundreds of thousands.
“Millions of people are alive today because of this peace treaty,” Trump declared Sunday.
Speaking weeks after he brokered peace in Gaza, Trump quipped that ending wars has become a "hobby" of his as he claimed to end eight different conflicts and teased another for him to solve, as border clashes heat up between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“I shouldn’t say it’s a hobby, because it’s so much more serious than a hobby, but it’s something that I’m good at, and it’s something I love to do,” Trump said.
“I heard that Pakistan and Afghanistan have started up. But I’ll get that solved very quickly,” he said.
While Trump has found success as a peacemaker in his second term, his efforts to end the war in Ukraine have proven fruitless, so far.
As Trump left for Japan on Monday, he slammed Vladimir Putin for testing nuclear weapons and accused the Russian leader of prolonging the conflict.
“I don’t think it’s an appropriate thing for Putin to be saying. By the way, he ought to get the war ended. A war that should have taken one week is now in its, soon, fourth year. That’s what he ought to do instead of testing missiles,” Trump said.
Before leaving Malaysia, Trump also signed trade deals to open up Southeast Asia to American imports and expand American access to key minerals.
The flurry of dealmaking is expected to culminate in an agreement to end the China trade war, which has placed significant pressure on American farmers. Trump will meet with President Xi of China in South Korea on Thursday.
“I have a lot of respect for President Xi, and we are going to come away with the deal,” Trump said.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) officers are being harrassed and even attacked at an unprecedented rate, and President Donald Trump's administration is making it clear that it has a zero-tolerance policy on the matter.
According to Breitbart, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi made it crystal clear this week to several high-profile Democrats that she will not tolerate anything that puts ICE officers and their families in danger.
One of the Democrats who received a letter stating as much was none other than former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker also received a warning from the AG.
The Democrats were warned that they face arrest should they attempt to impede ICE officers from doing their jobs, or making their identities public.
In recent days, Democrats have threatened to expose the identities of ICE agents who are simply performing their assigned duties, putting them and their families at great risk. Bondi isn't having it.
“You cannot disclose the identity of a federal agent, where they live [or of] anything that can harm them," Bondi said last week as she warned Democrats to cool it.
AG Bondi added, "Pelosi got a letter today from Deputy Attorney General Toddd Blanche. So did Brooke Jenkins, that DA [District Attorney] in San Francisco."
Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli also issued a warning regarding exposing the identities of ICE agents or otherwise putting them in immediate danger.
"We will not tolerate threats to arrest federal agents engaged in enforcing immigration laws enacted by Congress," said Essayli. “If you touch our agents, you’ll be arrested."
Pelosi issued a particularly nasty warning to federal agents, claiming California could arrest them if the state deems it necessary.
"While the president may enjoy absolute immunity courtesy of his rogue Supreme Court, those who operate under his orders do not," Pelosi wrote in a statement. “Our state and local authorities may arrest federal agents if they break California law — and if they are convicted, the president cannot pardon them."
Many on social media commented on the ongoing fight between the Trump administration and TDS-ridden Democrats.
California politicians want to arrest federal agents for enforcing
federal law.
We just sent them a letter: Stand down or face prosecution.
No one threatens our agents. No one will stop us from Making America Safe Again. pic.twitter.com/xe0EK8QssO— Todd Blanche (@DAGToddBlanche) October 23, 2025
"If these politicians want to go to jail, put them in jail. It’s one thing to play negative politics, it’s completely different to endanger the safety of law-enforcement," one X user wrote.
It seems like it was only a matter of time before Democrats went so far left that the party's leadership would endorse a certified democratic socialist. It just happened.
According to Breitbart, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) just gave New York City mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani his endorsement, setting in stone the current extremism of the Democratic Party as a whole.
Jeffries, in a statement to The New York Times, somehow justified the party supporting a democratic socialist like Mamdani by invoking President Donald Trump, proclaiming that the party must "unite" behind Trump's "existential threat."
The endorsement came weeks after Jeffries dodged publicly supporting Mamdani, with many claiming that the pressure was too much and he finally gave it.
Jeffries' statement to the Times was as ridiculous as one would expect it to be.
Breitbart noted:
In a statement to The New York Times, Jeffries acknowledged the two men had “areas of principled disagreement.” But he said that Mamdani had won “a free and fair election” in the Democratic primary and emphasized that the party needed to unite in the face of an “existential” threat from President Trump.
The House Minority Leader added: "Zohran Mamdani has relentlessly focused on addressing the affordability crisis and explicitly committed to being a mayor for all New Yorkers, including those who do not support his candidacy."
"In that spirit, I support him and the entire citywide Democratic ticket in the general election."
Congressman Mike Lawler pointed out in an X post that Democrats like Jeffries fear being primaried should he refuse to support Mamdani.
Democrats have no plan on how to get out of the shutdown that they created. Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries have kowtowed to AOC, Bernie Sanders, and Zohran Mamdani because they are petrified of a primary.
They have repeatedly voted not only to shut the government down, but… pic.twitter.com/woMl5FrNcD
— Congressman Mike Lawler (@RepMikeLawler) October 24, 2025
National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella issued a statement in the wake of Jeffries' endorsement.
"So-called ‘Leader’ Hakeem Jeffries has officially surrendered to Zohran Mamdani and the socialist mob now running the Democrat Party. Their far-left takeover has torched Democrats’ hopes of retaking the House and turned their agenda into pure electoral poison. Every single Democrat is a willing accomplice to their own party’s collapse," he said.
The Democrats are still fractured, with a sizeable group of them refusing to get behind a Democratic socialist as one of the face's of a party that was absolutely destroyed in the 2024 election over its move to the far left.
It'll be interesting to see how many more Democrats tuck tail and give in to the growing radical element of the party.
President Donald Trump has abruptly terminated trade talks with Canada over a deceptive ad that used Ronald Reagan's words to attack Trump's protectionist agenda, the Daily Mail reported.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford released the ad, which selectively quotes a 1987 speech that Reagan gave defending so-called free trade.
"When someone says, 'Let's impose tariffs on foreign imports,' it looks like they're doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs," the 40th president says. "And sometimes for a short while it works, but only for a short time. But over the long run, such trade barriers hurt every American, worker and consumer."
It is true that Reagan was a staunch critic of tariffs in general, but the ad leaves out the context of his remarks, which related to his imposition of duties on Japanese electronics.
In the speech, Reagan argued that tariffs have limited uses, but in the long term, they "inevitably" lead to market contractions and unemployment.
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute has called the Canadian ad misleading and has threatened legal action.
"The ad misrepresents the Presidential Radio Address, and the Government of Ontario did not seek nor receive permission to use and edit the remarks," the group tweeted Thursday.
In a Truth Social post, Trump announced that he is terminating trade negotiations because of Canada's "egregious behavior."
Trump accused Canada of peddling a "fake" ad to influence a pending Supreme Court decision on his tariffs.
"The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
"They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts. TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED."
The abrupt cessation of trade talks has blindsided Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has spent months negotiating with Trump and trying to get on his good side.
During a sit-down at the White House this month, Carney praised Trump as a "transformative president" and rattled off some of his achievements.
Trump raised tariffs on Canadian imports to 35% in July, in addition to sector-specific tariffs on things like steel and cars, placing enormous pressure on Canada's export-dependent economy.
The former leader of the largest socialist group in America has been on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D-NY) staff since her election to Congress in 2018, Fox News Digital reported.
Frank Llewellyn, the former director of Democratic Socialists For America (DSA) is the treasurer for both Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign and her political action committee, Courage to Change, campaign finance records show. Concerns about socialism are on the rise as Zohran Mamdani, a DSA member, leads in the polls for New York's upcoming mayoral race.
As the former director of the DSA from 2001 to 2011, Llewellyn played an intimate role in electing Bernie Sanders to the Senate, something Llewellyn saw as a major achievement for socialist politics.
Llewellyn would later become involved with the most famous of Sanders' proteges, joining the campaign staff of Ocasio-Cortez in 2018.
While some of her fellow leftists in the so-called "Squad" have been voted out, "AOC" has become a fixture in national politics, winning re-election easily every two years since entering Congress.
Indeed, some speculate that AOC could take Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer's (D-NY) job in the future, and she continues to be floated as a White House candidate.
In any case, the DSA may be on the precipice of a generational victory as polls predict Zohran Mamdani to be the likely next mayor of New York.
Llewellyn has been an active member of New York City chapter of the DSA since it was founded in the 1980s.
The group is giddy about the prospect of Mamdani's mayoralty, with members boasting at a recent meeting that they practically wrote his agenda.
“Our endorsed candidates are expected to follow the will of the membership,” said Darren Goldner, a chapter leader, at an October 1 meeting.
Many Democrats, especially in the suburbs of New York, have scrambled to distance themselves from Mamdani and his radical politics, while out-and-proud socialists like Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders have endorsed him.
Ideologically, Mamdani and AOC are joined at the hip. Both voice support for DSA priorities like shutting down federal immigration enforcement, curtailing local policing, decriminalizing prostitution, and redistributing wealth to pay for their socialist freebies. Mamdani's agenda even includes plans to hike property taxes in white neighborhoods, a shockingly racist proposal that has received less attention than it warrants.
While it's still too soon for AOC to start popping champagne bottles, Mamdani's rise is widely seen as inevitable, even after a debate showing Wednesday night where he began to crack under pressure.
As Election Day approaches, Mamdani has tried to put on a moderate image, offering token support for law enforcement and vowing to protect Jewish residents who are concerned that he is soft on anti-Semitism. Despite Mamdani's polished persona, his top competitor in the race, ex-governor Andrew Cuomo, warns Mamdani would govern as a puppet of the radical left.
“According to DSA leaders, for years they have told him how to vote, written his platform, and now they openly brag that if he’s elected mayor, he’ll follow their orders,” said Cuomo.
President Trump ramped up his feud with a pair of Kentucky lawmakers on Tuesday, taking shots at Republican Senator Rand Paul (Ky.) over his absence from a White House lunch to discuss the government shutdown, the Daily Mail reported.
Trump hosted Senate Republicans and members of his Cabinet at the Rose Garden, treating them to his usual jokes and a no-frills meal of cheeseburgers with French fries and a Diet Coke.
"We have everybody but one person here. You'll never guess who that is," Trump said.
Trump recently renovated the Rose Garden to look more like Mar-A-Lago, dubbing it the "Rose Garden Club."
Speaking to guests assembled on the stone patio, Trump couldn't resist knocking Paul, saying he "automatically votes no" on everything.
Without naming the senator directly, Trump left no doubt of who he was joking about.
"Let me give you a hint - he automatically votes No on everything. He thinks it's good politics; it's not good politics," Trump said.
Indeed, Paul is the only Republican senator who has consistently voted against his party's resolution to end the current government shutdown.
Trump suggested that Paul didn't want to be at the White House lunch, adding, "If he wanted to come, I'd probably let him come, begrudgingly."
The relationship between Trump and Paul has turned frosty as the Republican senator opposes multiple aspects of Trump's agenda, from his military strikes in the Caribbean to tariffs to federal spending.
In a social media post, Paul said that he hosted his own "Liberty Caucus" lunch with Rep. Thomas Massie, another Kentucky Republican who has rankled Trump.
I actually wasn’t invited to the White House lunch today, but that’s ok I had a previously scheduled Liberty Caucus Lunch with @MassieforKY pic.twitter.com/7IHoQiZ3OR
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) October 21, 2025
Trump has criticized Massie and Paul - both doctrinaire libertarians - as all-talk, no-action obstructionists.
This week, a Trump-backed primary challenger and former Navy SEAL, Ed Gallrein, launched a campaign against Massie.
Paul and Massie were among the only Republicans to oppose Trump's sweeping policy bill, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which codified Trump's tax cuts and investments in immigration enforcement. Massie and Paul both pointed to concerns about the national debt.
Paul is again citing budget concerns as he breaks with Republicans during the shutdown battle. He says the GOP's plan to temporarily fund the government would add too much to the deficit, and he wants no part of it.