North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis is retiring, blaming a lack of "independent thinking" in a not-so-subtle jab at President Trump's stranglehold on the GOP.
While citing generic complaints about the political climate, Tillis avoided mentioning the elephant in the room as President Trump builds pressure for Tillis to be replaced by a more reliable Republican.
Tillis announced his retirement shortly after coming out against President Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill," with Tillis claiming the bill results in Medicaid cuts that he cannot support.
A senator since 2015, Tillis has never been a reliable supporter of President Trump. Shortly after announcing his retirement, Tillis abandoned all restraint as he compared Trump to Barack Obama in a long speech on the Senate floor.
The senator called Trump's sprawling legislation, which delivers on key Trump agenda items like tax relief and immigration enforcement, a "betrayal" of Trump's promise not to touch Medicaid. Tillis even invoked Obama's infamous broken pledge that people could keep their insurance plans under his health care reform.
"I'm telling the president, you have been misinformed," Tillis said. "What do I tell 663,000 people in two years, three years, when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid because the funding's not there anymore."
Republicans have insisted that Trump is not cutting Medicaid benefits, but rather waste and abuse from those who are gaming the system.
For weeks, Trump has ripped the handful of Republicans who have criticized his bill as grandstanders with nothing constructive to offer. Trump threatened to back a primary against Tillis over the weekend.
“Numerous people have come forward wanting to run in the Primary against ‘Senator Thom’ Tillis,” Trump wrote in a post. “I will be meeting with them over the coming weeks, looking for someone who will properly represent the Great People of North Carolina and, so importantly, the United States of America.”
Despite the vocal opposition from a minority of Republicans, Trump's bill cleared a procedural vote in the Senate on Saturday, with Tillis and Rand Paul (Ky.) being the only Republican to vote no. Trump has been pressuring Congress to get the bill on his desk by July 4th.
Tillis obviously does not want to be remembered as a team player. In a statement announcing his plans not to run for re-election, Tillis touted his "bipartisan" streak.
"In Washington over the last few years, it’s been increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species,” Tillis said.
Nobody denies that American politics has become extremely tribal, but that's no excuse to bury our heads in the sand.
While Tillis seems to think he's some kind of hero for compromising with Democrats, the reality is that he can't handle this high-stakes moment we're in - but maybe North Carolina will elect a Republican who can.
The MAGA world would love nothing more than for another Trump family member to pick up where President Donald Trump leaves off at the end of his second term in 2028.
According to The Guardian, Eric Trump, 41, could possibly be that person. The outlet reported that Eric Trump recently suggested that running in the next presidential election could be an "easy" road should he choose to pursue it.
The president's son has been a vocal advocate for his father and the Trump family and is currently co-executive vice-president of the Trump Organization. He holds a great deal of influence over his father's empire and has the same connections.
Many have suggested that Donald Trump Jr. would be the next Trump to try to hold the White House, though he's not been as forthcoming with his thoughts on actually running.
Eric Trump revealed his thoughts on the matter during a recent interview with the Finacial Times, noting that there would be many deep considerations before he would choose to campaign and essentially upend his family's life.
"The real question is: ‘Do you want to drag other members of your family into it?… Would I want my kids to live the same experience over the last decade that I’ve lived?'" Trump told the outlet.
Eric Trump made it clear that he believes his father's last name could carry him to the White House but noted that he believes other Trump family members could have the same pathway if they wanted it.
"You know, if the answer was yes, I think the political path would be an easy one, meaning, I think I could do it," the middle Trump son added. "And by the way, I think other members of our family could do it too."
The Guardian noted:
Unlike his other siblings, Donald Jr and Ivanka Trump, the 41-year-old has mostly stayed away from politics, focusing instead on running the family business since his father entered the Oval Office in 2017.
However, he seems to have kept one eye on politics this whole time, saying he found himself “wholly unimpressed by half the politicians” he sees and that he could do the job “very effectively”.
The next presidential election will be stocked full of frontrunners, including Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among others.
When asked if the 2024 election would go down as the last one with a Trump on the ballot, Trump dropped a major hint in the eyes of some .
"I don’t know … Time will tell. But there’s more people than just me," he said.
He added, "The question is, do you want to do it? And do you want to subject the people that you love to the brutality of this system? And I’m not sure if I can answer that question yet."
Only time will tell if Eric Trump -- or another Trump family member -- goes down that path.
President Donald Trump's push to completely overhaul and reform the U.S. immigration system has been an overall success, despite a continuous string of court cases, though the administration is having great success in winning many of them.
According to Breitbart, the latest bombshell regarding immigration policy came via Trump's Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which reportedly ended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for tens of thousands of Haitian migrants -- the ones that came over in droves under former President Joe Biden.
The ending of the program applies to the tens of thousands of Haitians who do not have any other protected status in the United States.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced that the program would be ending soon, with target dates of Aug. 3, and effective via Sept. 2.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement explaining why it had determined that the program should come to an end, despite massive pushback from the left.
"This decision restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that Temporary Protective Status is actually temporary," a spokesperson for the agency said.
It added, "The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home. We encourage these individuals to take advantage of the Department’s resources in returning to Haiti, which can be arranged through the CBP Home app. Haitian nationals may pursue lawful status through other immigration benefit requests, if eligible."
Republicans have charged that the program is more like a de facto amnesty program.
Breitbart noted:
For over a decade, the federal government has rewarded Haitians, many of whom illegally entered the U.S., with TPS — a sort of quasi-amnesty created for migrants under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1990 (INA).
Since the Clinton administration, TPS has been transformed into a de facto amnesty program as nearly every president has routinely extended and designated new countries for TPS status.
Bidend had expanded the program to its highest levels since the inception of TPS.
Users across social media reacted to the news of the ending of the TPS program.
🚨 HOT DAMN ALERT: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem just ended TPS status for ~521,000 Haitians—no more legal protection or work permits.
For those hiding in towns like Springfield, OH 🤷🏼♀️ you’re not invisible anymore.
This is what America First enforcement looks like. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/8VQKOgWfrQ
— Desiree (@DesireeAmerica4) June 27, 2025
"That's going to be pretty earth shaking in places like AL," one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "Good! No more mooching off of America. Become a citizen or move back."
Wisconsin's liberal Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge from Democrats against the state's "gerrymandered" congressional map.
The ruling preserves the current GOP-drawn lines for the 2026 midterm elections, a setback for Democrats who have long sought to redraw the lines in the swing state.
This is the second time in as many years that the Supreme Court turned away Democrats' requests to overturn the current map, which was adopted with the approval of the Supreme Court's former conservative majority.
Two years after the court struck down a GOP state legislative map, this latest ruling suggests there are limits to the favors Democrats can expect to receive from the liberal majority that has dominated the court since 2023.
Control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court flipped when liberal Janet Protasiewicz won what was then the most expensive U.S. judicial race ever. Liberals in Wisconsin won another pivotal Supreme Court race this year, preserving the 4-3 liberal majority.
The day after Protasiewicz was seated, Democrats filed a lawsuit challenging Wisconsin's state legislative map, and months later, it was struck down by the new liberal majority. Controversially, Protasiewicz declined to recuse herself despite calling Wisconsin's map "rigged" while campaigning for the court.
Democrats have had less luck overturning the current congressional map, which was approved by the Supreme Court's former conservative majority. The map was drawn by Democrat Gov. Tony Evers and largely reflects lines drawn by the GOP in 2010
The Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously rejected two lawsuits challenging Wisconsin's current congressional lines, dealing a blow to Democrats' hopes of winning back the House of Representatives.
The decision is also a blow to Marc Elias, a notorious Clinton ally and serial election litigator who brought one of the lawsuits.
This comes after the Supreme Court rejected a similar Democratic challenge in December 2024, also without explaining why.
“It’s good that Wisconsin has fair maps at the state level, but we deserve them at the federal level as well,” Democrat U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (WI) said. “Unfortunately, gerrymandered maps for members of Congress will remain in Wisconsin.”
Republicans control six out of eight of the House districts in Wisconsin, a state that President Donald Trump won by less than a percentage point in 2024.
Democrats had hoped a new congressional map would help them win two seats, which are currently represented by Republican Reps. Derrick Van Orden and Bryan Steil.
“The bipartisan rejection of the radical Democrats’ desperate and politically motivated attempt to redraw the map in their favor offers a strong preview of how Wisconsin voters will reject the Democrats’ out of touch and radical agenda next year at the ballot box,” National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) spokesman Zach Bannon told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement.
President Trump is inching closer to picking a replacement for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who has angered Trump for months with his refusal to slash interest rates despite cooling inflation.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump may name Powell's successor earlier than usual, weakening his influence over monetary policy for the remainder of his tenure.
Powell's term ends next May, but Trump could announce his replacement as early as this summer. That would create a much longer overlap than the usual three-to-four-month transition period, the Journal noted.
Some of the replacements Trump is considering are Fed Gov. Kevin Warsh and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has won praise as Trump's tariff messenger, is also being pitched for the role.
Trump is eager to bring the interest rate down to stimulate the economy. A lower rate would make it cheaper to borrow across the economy, and for consumers, it would mean spending less to take out a mortgage or finance a car.
"The administration is now laying the groundwork — including with the one, big, beautiful bill — to turbocharge economic, job, and investment growth, and it’s high time for monetary policy to complement this agenda and support America’s economic resurgence," White House spokesman Kush Desai told the Journal.
Trump's critics accuse him of trying to undermine the independence of the central bank, but Trump and others see Powell's monetary policy as politically motivated. Critics point out that the Fed slashed interest rates before the 2024 election, when Democrats controlled the White House, but the central bank is reluctant to do the same now.
Ahead of Powell's testimony to Congress on Tuesday, Trump urged lawmakers to pressure Powell to change course, calling him a "very dumb, hardheaded person." Trump has given Powell the nickname "Too Late," mocking his cautious approach as a policy setter.
That criticism has been echoed by Trump's loyal vice president J.D. Vance, who accused Powell of "monetary malpractice" by not cutting rates when inflation is low.
Prices barely ticked up in May, with annual inflation holding steady at 2.4%, blowing away predictions of a tariff-induced inflation disaster.
The Fed aims for an inflation target of about 2%, but Powell is taking a wait-and-see approach as the economic impact of Trump's tariffs plays out.
Powell predicts the tariff inflation will begin to appear in June's report, but he admitted inflation could come in lower than anticipated.
“We do expect tariff inflation to show up more,” Powell told the House Financial Services Committee Tuesday. "We really don’t know how much of that’s going to be passed through the consumer. We have to wait and see.”
President Trump has survived another impeachment threat, with vulnerable Democrats helping to stop the doomed effort from proceeding.
In an embarrassing spectacle, 128 Democrats were left scrambling to escape the blast radius of another political grenade lobbed by Al Green (D-TX).
The perennial rabblerouser forced lawmakers to vote on his resolution, which was centered on Trump's strikes against Iran.
“I believe that this country has come too far to allow a single person to declare war without conferring with the Congress of the United States of America,” Green said during a speech on the House floor, calling Trump an “authoritarian president” and “would-be dictator.”
Green has been trying to impeach Trump since his first term, and each time the effort has gone nowhere.
128 Democrats, including party leaders like former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.), voted to block Green's latest impeachment resolution, while 79 Democrats, mainly progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Ny.) and Jasmine Crockett (D-Tx.) voted to charge ahead.
The spectacle infuriated many Democrats, who blamed Green for hurting their already tarnished image with a selfish stunt.
"A completely unserious and selfish move," one House Democrat told Axios.
You could say that Green exposed his party's hypocrisy - after all, Democrats have claimed over and over that Trump is violating the Constitution, but apparently, he's not "authoritarian" enough to merit impeachment.
Of course, there's a smart way to go about things, and Dems would be foolish to go along with an effort that is doomed to fail. It's not like Democrats haven't tried impeaching Trump before - they did, twice, and failed both times - and there's no chance of a third effort succeeding when they are in the opposition.
On a basic level, this is simply bad optics for a party that is already perceived as out of touch with the electorate. The merits of Green's impeachment are also dubious, not that Green needed a good reason to pull the trigger.
As one House Democrat admitted to Axios, the debate over constitutional war powers is "fiercely contested." Trump is the commander-in-chief, after all.
This isn't the first time Green has caused headaches for his party. In March, he was infamously dragged out of the House Chamber after he disrupted Trump's speech. The House later voted to censure Green, who is 77, over the outburst.
Unfortunately for Democrats, Green has no regrets about his latest stunt, so he'll probably try something like this again.
Vice president J.D. Vance promised that America will not see "boots on the ground" in Iran as he defended President Trump's bold airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.
“We’re not at war with Iran. We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program,” Vance told NBC’s Meet The Press.
“We have no interest in a protracted conflict. We have no interest in boots on the ground,” he said. “We didn’t blow up diplomacy."
Trump has said he has no interest in a prolonged conflict in the Middle East after the United States bombed Iran's nuclear facilities over the weekend.
The strikes led to criticism from Democrats, as well as some libertarians and non-interventionists on the right, who feared Trump was breaking a promise not to embroil the U.S. in another war.
Vance, a vocal non-interventionist, said that Trump's strikes had a limited objective and only came as a last resort.
“We only took this action when it was clear, as the president said, that the Iranians were tapping us along,” he said.
“The Iranians are clearly not very good at war. Perhaps they should follow President Trump’s lead and give peace a chance if they’re serious about it. I guarantee you, the president of the United States is,” Vance said.
Vance's comments echo Trump, who has indicated that his goal was to eliminate a nuclear threat, not drag the U.S. into a major war.
“The president has actually been one of the fiercest critics of 25 years of failed foreign policy in the Middle East, which is why he did what he did: a very precise, a very surgical strike tailored to an American national interest,” Vance said.
“I don’t fear that this is going to become a protracted conflict because I think that we have a president who knows what’s in America’s interest.”
Some Iran hawks who celebrated Trump's bold strikes were left deflated by Monday, as Trump adopted a new diplomatic tone and announced that he brokered a cease-fire.
Intelligence reports soon began circulating that the U.S. did not wipe out Iran's nuclear capability, as hawkish Republicans and pundits pressured Trump to escalate and target the Iranian regime.
But Trump - who has long taken pride in being a peacemaker - said that he has no interest in toppling the theocratic regime that has ruled Iran since 1979, warning regime change would lead to "chaos."
President Trump hinted that a truce is forthcoming in his war against Harvard, teasing a deal within "the next week or so."
The nation's oldest and richest university has spent months resisting Trump's efforts to reshape higher education, but Trump suggested that change is coming.
“Many people have been asking what is going on with Harvard University and their largescale improprieties that we have been addressing, looking for a solution. We have been working closely with Harvard, and it is very possible that a Deal will be announced over the next week or so,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
For months, Trump has been pressuring Harvard to change its policies, citing its response to anti-Semitism on campus and its use of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in admissions and hiring. But Harvard has pushed back in court, decrying the Trump administration's crackdown as an attack on the school's autonomy.
On the same day that Trump hinted at a settlement, a federal judge in Boston blocked Trump indefinitely from revoking Harvard's ability to host international students. Foreign students are an important source of income for many universities, and at Harvard, they account for roughly a quarter of the student population.
"The Court order allows Harvard to continue enrolling international students and scholars while the case moves forward. Harvard will continue to defend its rights—and the rights of its students and scholars," the university said.
The Trump administration has argued that hosting international students is a privilege that Harvard lost by failing to control anti-Semitic unrest.
"It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments. The Trump administration is committed to restoring common sense to our student visa system; no lawsuit, this or any other, is going to change that," Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.
The university's refusal to cooperate with the administration led Trump to yank over $2 billion in research grants, and Trump followed that by revoking Harvard's Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification.
Trump's moves sparked two lawsuits from Harvard, but the university is apparently moving toward a settlement of some kind with the federal government.
The school has taken some measures to appease Trump, replacing leaders at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and renaming its DEI office.
In his triumphant post, Trump hinted that Harvard is ready to make further concessions.
“They have acted extremely appropriately during these negotiations, and appear to be committed to doing what is right. If a Settlement is made on the basis that is currently being discussed, it will be ‘mindbogglingly’ HISTORIC, and very good for our Country,” he added.
The Pelosis aren't just rich, they're filthy rich, and somehow, they keep getting astonishingly more richer by the year as Nancy continues to hold office and pulls in record returns on her market trading.
According to the New York Post, Pelosi added millions to her net worth last year and pulled in better returns on her portfolio than some of the largest and most experienced hedge funds in the United States.
Her net worth with venture capitalist husband Paul Pelosi skyrocketed to nearly $413 million in 2024. Her defenders will call it a coincidence, while many reasonable people are calling shenanigans.
Pelosi has long been accused of using her high-powered, knowledge-heavy position in Congress to make an amazing run on Wall Street for several decades now.
While it's a continuation of the magical ability of Pelosi's stock-picking prowess, many are paying extra attention this time around as the new net worth of the California couple has skyrocketed since 2023.
In 2023, they topped out at $370 million, which isn't too shabby. But in 2024 that total went to $413 million. Even crazier is that their true net worth isn't even known, as only Nancy is required by law to disclose her finances.
The Pelosis could -- and probably are -- worth substantially more than that, as in addition to their stock market game, they're also involved in several business ventures.
Tbe NY Post noted:
But the value of their various other ventures — which include but are not limited to a Napa Valley winery, ownership in a political data and consulting firm and a stake in a Bay area Italian restaurant — mean Pelosi’s worth could be far higher in the estimated range.
Notably, virtually all of the Pelosi's stock trading activity is done under Paul Pelosi's name.
Their stock trading "luck" is off the charts, as the Post noted:
The former House Speaker, who’s so infamous for trading Missouri Rep. Josh Hawley named a bill after her, and her husband dumped 5,000 shares of Microsoft stock worth an estimated $2.2 million in July — one of their largest sales in three years — a few short months before the FTC announced an antitrust investigation into the tech giant.
Plenty of social media users reacted to the news of Pelosi's windfall in 2024.
Pelosi raked millions last year — and her portfolio out-performed every large hedge fund with stunning returns https://t.co/uqBtKDnetn pic.twitter.com/5ONwA4mmYb
— New York Post (@nypost) June 21, 2025
"Because she inside trades. She’s a con artist," one X user claimed
Another X user wrote, "It's called insider trading in the real world. Congress cheats and gets away with it."
There continues to be a steady stream of high-profile and veteran Democratic operatives who are ready to admit that their party is absolutely broken, and are willing to blame their own for the Joe Biden fiasco.
According to Breitbart, one of those is former Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential campaign manager Solis Doyle, who held nothing back when she described the Democratic Party as "leaderless" and "agendaless" following Biden's defeat.
She also highlighted the mistakes made by the party in its attempts to cover up Biden's obvious cognitive decline, which ultimately cost him his reelection chances and probably contributed to the party's downfall in 2024.
Doyle told Mark Halperin that she was more than happy to take a step away from politics due to what's happening within the ranks of the Democratic Party.
Doyle, a high-level Democratic operative, held nothign back when she described her frustrations with the party.
"I have never been happier not to be actually in it — in the middle of politics — than I am right now, because it sounds really depressing, what’s going on at the party," she said.
She added, "The other problem that they have is that there’s no real leader. If your party holds the White House, the leader of the party is the president. If your party doesn’t hold the White House, the leader of the party is the last president of that party."
That's definitely not the case for Democrats, as Biden has scarcely made an appearance since being run out of the White House, nor has former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Doyle emphasized the fact that Biden is pretty much non-existent around Washington D.C. since Harris lost the election.
"So right now, for us, that’s Joe Biden. But he has completely — he’s off the radar completely … So right now, we’re leaderless, we’re messageless, we’re agendaless," Doyle said.
Doyle, who also worked on the campaigns of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, said she's very concerned about the state of the Dem Party.
"We don’t have any alternative ideas to the president’s and the Republicans’ right now. So I’m concerned to say the least," Doyle said.
“Right now, we’re leaderless, we’re messageless, we’re agendaless…”
Former top Dem, @PattiSolisDoyle, warns about the state of her party.
Watch and subscribe:https://t.co/H3ijCS5pin pic.twitter.com/d7hbVtC1RE
— Next Up with Mark Halperin (@NextUpHalperin) June 19, 2025
It'll be interesting to see the next round of veteran Dem operatives who are willing to tell the ugly truth about the state of the Democratic Party.