Vice President J.D. Vance has been chosen to be a top fundraiser for the Republican National Committee. This is another sign that he is solidifying his role as the leader of President Trump's "Make America Great Again" effort.
It is the first time in RNC history that a vice president in office has been finance chair. This gives Vance a big, direct part in next year's midterm elections and helps him get to know big Republican donors, as Newsmax reported.
Vance was the host of numerous functions for the 2024 campaign, so the job was an extension of those efforts.
In a statement about the change Vance said that, "to fully enact the MAGA mandate and President Trump's vision that voters demanded, we must keep and grow our Republican majorities in 2026."
He says he will focus on building "the war chest we need to deliver those victories next November."
The decision is the latest sign that many people close to Trump see Vance as his clear choice to be his successor, even though the election isn't until 2028.
The U.S. Constitution says that Trump can't run for a third term, but he has hinted many times that he might want to stay in office anyway.
It is likely that a lengthy list of candidates will be attracted to an open GOP primary. However, several of the party's most prominent figures have been publicly advocating for Vance.
"The only person in the entire Republican Party, from my position, who's capable of carrying on the Trump legacy and expanding it, making it what it should fully be, is JD Vance," said conservative commentator and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
"There's no one else," he went on. "I don't see any other — at this point, as of today — any other conceivable option. I think J.D. Vance will be the nominee."
During an appearance in Wisconsin on Monday night, Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of the president and a member of his own loyal following, referred to Vance as "the only impressive vice president of my lifetime."
He first advocated for his personal friend, Vance, in the Ohio GOP Senate primary and later convinced his father to select Vance as his running mate.
"When I went in all for J.D. for VP, I was up against every billionaire Republican donor. I used up my political capital with my father 'til like 2079," he joked. "I will be dead and I will still have not caught back up. But it was the right call."
Trump, however, has been noncommittal about the possibility of Vance taking over the top spot in the nation.
When asked by Bret Baier during a recent interview whether he views Vance as his successor, Trump responded: "No. But is he very capable. I mean, I don't think that, you know, I think you have a lot of very capable people. So far, I think he is doing a fantastic job. It's too early. We are just starting."
Donald Trump Jr. encouraged supporters of his father President Donald Trump to vote in the Wisconsin Supreme Court special election in two weeks to help solidify the Trump agenda.
Trump Jr. appeared at the Turning Point USA event with Charlie Kirk to help get out the vote for Brad Schimel, Waukesha County judge and former Republican state attorney general, in the bellwether race for the next set of elections.
Technically, the race is non-partisan, but Republicans are backing Schimel over Dane County Judge Susan Crawford, who is backed by Democrats.
“They can’t just show up when he happens to be on the top of that ticket,” Trump Jr. said of his father. “You have to engage because it’s not just about now, it’s about that future. This presidency can be put to a halt with this vote.”
As a way to stop Democrats from blocking Trump's agenda, Trump Jr. said, “It's everything."
The winner on April 1 will determine the majority of the court.
The race is seen as an indication of how swing voters feel about Trump post-election, and could show how the midterms may be likely to go (though it's pretty early to be deterministic about that yet).
The state supreme court is facing cases on abortion rights, congressional district boundaries, unions, and voting rules.
Schimel strongly backs Trump and attended the inauguration in January.
He spoke at the rally to urge voters to turn out for him.
“Do you think the job is done?” Schimel said. “We have to stay vigilant, and we have to stay on this.”
Trump has not endorsed a candidate in the race, but supporters hope he might before the votes are cast.
“I can’t overemphasize the importance of this election,” Trump voter Soslan Temanson, 26, of Westfield said. “I think it’s important Trump went all-in on Wisconsin.”
The last Supreme Court election saw the liberal candidate win by double digits, which has led Elon Musk and others to spend a lot of money to avoid another loss.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Saturday that she will skip the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) dinner on April 26, calling it an "exclusive club."
“I will not be in attendance at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and that’s breaking news for The Sean Spicer Show,” Leavitt said. Spicer was the White House press secretary at the beginning of President Donald Trump's first term.
She called the association an “exclusive group of journalists who cover this White House, they have not really welcomed other people, new media, independent journalists with open arms, and so we thought it was time to expand the coverage and determine who gets to be part of that 13-person press pool, who gets to ask the president of the United States questions in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One.”
“This is a group of journalists who’ve been covering the White House for decades,” she explained.
Leavitt continued, “They started this organization because the presidents at the time were not doing enough press conferences. I don’t think we have that problem anymore under this president, so the priorities of the media have shifted, especially with this new digital age.”
She explained more about the changes Trump has made to allow smaller outlets expanded access to information about his actions and activities.
“Since we have started this new process of determining the daily rotation, so many new voices and outlets who have never been part of this small and privileged group of journalists have been able to access those very unique and privileged spaces and cover this presidency and that’s very important,” Leavitt remarked.
The president of WHCA's board, Eugene Daniels has claimed that the new rotation “tears at the independence of a free press in the United States."
The rotation forced Reuters, the Associated Press, and Bloomberg to take turns attending press briefings.
After the Associated Press refused to follow a Trump executive order to call the body of water directly south of the United States the Gulf of America, Trump banned the outlet from the briefing room.
The ban has been upheld so far, but a district court judge has expressed doubt that it would ultimately survive.
It may be a new and different thing for the White House Press Secretary to skip the WHCA dinner, but Trump did not attend it during his first term.
Typically, a comedian roasts the president and other attendees at the dinner, and because most comedians are liberal, the roasts of Republican presidents have been unnecessarily brutal.
It's no surprise that Trump doesn't feel like nasty roasting is worth his time, or that of his staff.
A federal judge has issued a temporary block on President Donald Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to speed up the deportation of violent illegal immigrants.
The temporary block issued by U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg required flights already carrying out deportations to be halted and any flights en route to be turned around.
The Alien Enemies Act has only been used three times in U.S. history, with the last use during World War II to detain individuals from enemy nations.
Trump's opponents are using that factor to argue that his use of the Alien Enemies Act is illegitimate because it's being used to detain and deport citizens from nations that aren't technically engaged in war with the United States.
Of course, that interpretation is based entirely on the last use of the Alien Enemies Act during World War II. There is no doubt that foreign citizens who are a clear and present danger to the public would fall under "Alien Enemies."
Trump was given a mandate by the American people to aggressively deport both violent and non-violent illegal immigrants who came in by the million under former President Joe Biden.
However, at every turn, Trump's deportation agenda has run into obstacles from an activist judiciary that is doing everything to stop Trump's agenda regardless of legality.
In an executive order invoking the Alien Enemies Act, Trump stated, "Over the years, Venezuelan national and local authorities have ceded ever-greater control over their territories to transnational criminal organizations, including TdA. The result is a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States, and which poses a substantial danger."
While the United States may not be at war with Venezuela, a country ruled by a socialist dictator, the United States is definitely at war with the terrorist organization that holds substantial territory within Venezuela.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign pointed this out in arguing that Trump had the authority to determine threats to national security and act under the 1798 law.
However, thanks to this injunction from Judge Boasberg, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, the Trump administration will likely have to fight all the way to the Supreme Court before the deportation of violent and dangerous illegal immigrants can resume.
The threat to the nation posed by Central and South American gangs cannot be understated. Members of violent organizations like TdA and MS-13 often commit violent acts as rites of initiation including murder, rape, and torture.
Judge Boasberg made the insulting claim in his injunction that "A brief delay in their removal does not cause the government any harm," which ignores the very real harm that violent criminals inflict on citizens and American society at large.
Nursing student Laken Riley would strongly disagree with Judge Boasberg's claim if she were still alive. Unfortunately, Riley was brutally murdered by illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra, who is a member of TdA.
These monstrous criminals must be deported immediately, and activist judges like James Boasberg must be held accountable for endangering Americans by allowing these illegal immigrants to remain in the United States.
It has been confirmed that former President Joe Biden's White House counsel's office turned over cell phones belonging to President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence as part of the FBI's 'Arctic Frost' probe.
The discovery was publicized by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel.
Senator Grassley and Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) confirmed this information thanks to a whistleblower disclosure that exposed a massive political investigation of Trump that went against established protocol and policies.
The probe was led by anti-Trump FBI agent Timothy Thibault, and according to Grassley's letter, the probe was the foundation of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s elector case against Trump.
Thibault reportedly stated that 'Arctic Frost' would be "prioritized over all others in the Branch” and confirmed the political motivation behind the investigation by saying, “it frankly took too long for us to open this [investigation].”
The letter to Bondi and Patel stated, "The American people deserve to know the complete extent of the corruption within the DOJ and FBI that led to the investigation into President Trump. We are making this information public for purposes of public accountability and to provide specific examples of past behavior at your institutions that must not be repeated."
The letter outlined a complete timeline and summary of the entire probe, which was undeniably political and broke with all previous FBI regulations and rules in order to fast-track the investigation into Trump.
One of the bigger offenses was the transfer of the cell phones belonging to Trump and Pence from the White House to the FBI without a warrant.
It wasn't until after the FBI had already obtained the cell phones that efforts to obtain a warrant were made. According to an anonymous source close to the investigation, the Biden White House "gave its blessing and accommodation for the FBI to physically obtain Trump and Pence’s phones.”
Another factor that Senator Grassley's letter highlights is the massive expense that 'Arctic Frost' caused for taxpayers as the FBI spent thousands travelling around the nation conducting interviews to build the case against Trump.
Grassley's letter highlighted $16,600 for travel in June 2022 to “conduct more than 40 interviews, serve subpoenas, and execute several cellular device search warrants.” In one month, the FBI spent thousands on a case that was entirely speculative.
With Kash Patel as the FBI's director, it's very possible that the next few months could see all of those FBI agents, including Thibault, thrown out and possibly sanctioned for their role in 'Arctic Frost."
Patel has until late March to turn over "all records related to the Arctic Frost investigation” and “a true and complete breakdown of the total dollar amount spent on the Arctic Frost investigation before it was officially transferred to Jack Smith in November 2022."
No doubt, Trump himself, as well as the many allies targeted by the FBI over the past few years, will be paying close attention to this investigation.
The FBI made life hell for Trump and anyone who was near him, and a strong message must be sent to ensure that the FBI cannot be abused by political actors again.
President Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to partially lift the ban on his order to end birthright citizenship, claiming that it is overly broad because it applies nationwide rather than only to the lawsuit's parties.
Acting Solicitor General Sarah M. Harris said in the filing that the administration's request was a "modest" one, to “limit the pause to ‘parties actually within the courts’ power.'”
Federal courts in three states, Massachusetts, Maryland and Washington, issued orders pausing Trump's executive order, “Protecting The Meaning And Value Of American Citizenship,” temporarily until the full case can be heard.
The executive order ended automatic birthright citizenship, which doesn't mean that no one born in the U.S. to non-citizen parents can get citizenship, but that it isn't automatic.
Trump's order argued, “the privilege of United States citizenship is a priceless and profound gift.”
The "Fourteenth Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States,” it continued.
The main argument against allowing all children born to illegal immigrants in the United States to become citizens automatically is that the 14th Amendment says that the child must be "subject to" the laws and jurisdiction of the country.
Arguably, the children of illegal immigrants are under the care of their parents, who are not "subject to" U.S. laws if they are citizens of another country.
The courts have not yet ruled on that interpretation; meanwhile, the ruling means that potentially, every day more children will be born who get automatic citizenship until the case is resolved.
Trump is even willing to accept this outcome for the three states that have filed the lawsuit, but has argued that in the other 47 states that have not filed lawsuits, his order should take effect.
It seems a little bit like the old Solomon story of splitting the baby, but we will see whether the Supreme Court agrees.
Both Democrats and Republicans have used this argument to limit the scope of court actions that challenge executive orders in the past.
An Emerson College poll showed that 44.6% strongly or somewhat supported changing automatic birthright citizenship, while 36.6% strongly or somewhat opposed ending it.
Clearly, Trump has read the tea leaves on immigration and knows more people support his actions than oppose them.
The National Transportation Safety Board has found that helicopter traffic out of Ronald Reagan International Airport posed an “intolerable risk to aviation safety by increasing the chances of a mid-air collision” ahead of a crash in January that resulted in the deaths of over 60 people.
“It is stronger than an oversight,” said NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy at a news conference in Arlington, Virginia, where the DCA airport is located, on Tuesday while announcing the agency’s preliminary report into the incident, as Reuters reported.
Sixty-seven people were killed on January 29, when a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines regional jet mid-air over the Potomac River in Washington D.C.
American Airlines Flight 5342 was on its descent from Wichita, Kansas, with 64 people on board, as three soldiers on the helicopter participated in a training mission.
It’s believed the service members were traveling above their 200-foot allocated air clearance and wearing night-vision goggles that could have obscured their vision.
Black Hawk helicopters frequently flew along Route 4, an airway spanning from Hains Point to Wilson Bridge in Washington D.C., before the U.S. Transportation Department restricted the airspace after the crash until March 31.
The restriction does not apply to helicopters entering the airspace for lifesaving medical support, active law enforcement, air defense and presidential transport, but operations outside of those exemptions are prohibited.
“As that deadline nears, we remain concerned about the significant potential for a future mid-air collision at DCA, which is why we are recommending a permanent solution today,” Homendy said. “We believe a critical safety issue must be addressed without delay.”
According to Homendy, the Transportation Department should prohibit helicopter operations along the route when airport runways one, five, and 33 are being used for departures and arrivals.
Following the release of the report it was recommended that the Transportation Department establish an alternative route to allow travel for law enforcement and military personnel when the segment of the route is closed.
This organization has thus far only made the request of the FAA to find an appropriate airway; it is not offering any alternate routes.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy responded to Homendy's comments and consented to comply with the suggestions.
Initial data analysis by the NTSB revealed that between 2011 and 2024, airport officials received one traffic collision alarm each month as a result of helicopters.
The helicopters may have been operating above the 200-foot route altitude restriction in more than half of those reports. Two-thirds of those incidents took place during the night.
Additionally, helicopters flying along Route 4 and planes landing on Runway 33 accounted for a significant amount of the near misses.
There were 15,214 instances of close proximity events that took place between commercial aircraft and helicopters from October 2021 to December 2024, in which the lateral separation distance was less than one nautical mile and the vertical separation was less than 400 feet.
About 944k flights were recorded at the airport during that period. Within the past two and a half years, 85 near misses have occurred within a vertical separation of 200 feet.
Former first son Hunter Biden is still in the public eye, as his legal troubles seem to mount, even after his former world leader parent steps away from the public eye.
Hunter, who has been accused of a plethora of crimes due to his laptop being abandoned at a repair shop, is still being investigated actively by those who consider it the responsibility of the justice department to mead out punishments equally, regardless of an offender's family ties, as the New York Post reported.
Biden, however, seems to be attempting to doge a deposition in the lawsuit involving his now infamous laptop. The documents in question, reported on by the New York Times, show that Biden wants to decamp in South Africa for several months.
Biden is using the LA wildfires as his justification for going overseas, according to the court papers. A former aide for President Donald Trump, Garrett Ziegler, is fighting Biden's request to drop the lawsuit against the former first son.
The history between Ziegler is a tempestuous one, with Bidne accusing Ziegler of illegally hacking his laptop and spreading its embarrassing contents.
Biden claimed last week that he would be unable to pursue the suit, however, because he is now low on funds because of his art no longer selling, and financial strains of the wildfire.
The artist, whose work was selling for insane amounts while his father was in office, seems to be having difficulty moving product, and was forced to move out of a Malibu mansion.
However, Ziegler is pushing back against Biden's claims, saying that the financial situation couldn't really be that bad, considering that Biden is essentially about to leave for a three-month vacation.
The former White House aide says that Biden has planned a three-month trip to South Africa that will start this week and that he is strictly attempting to "avoid his deposition."
In addition, the lawsuit claimed that Hunter's side may have "ignored" Ziegler's attempts to initiate settlement talks or mediation because of the trip—to Melissa Cohen's native country.
"Working to confirm facts published in the New York Post." Ziegler added in his petition. The Post broke the exclusive last week that Hunter's house looked unaffected by the wildfires.
“We note that Mr. Biden did not expressly claim to have lost his home or belongings,” Ziegler’s lawyers wrote in papers Friday.
And while the fires were devastating for many, “It does not, however, serve as an excuse to avoid litigation responsibilities,” Holliday wrote.
During the first Trump administration, Ziegler was an aide to trade adviser Peter Navarro. He believes that the 2023 litigation should go on so that he may sue Hunter for the almost $200,000 in legal bills that he has incurred due to the case.
At the same time, the attorneys for Ziegler were accused by Hunter's side of submitting "gaslighting" and "emotionally charged" court papers.
Friends of the late Gene Hackman told Fox News that he kept busy in the years before his death by taking golf lessons, practicing boxing, and other hobbies like painting and flying before his Alzheimer's diagnosis.
Mike Anaya worked with Hackman on boxing after an injury as part of his rehab.
Anaya said Hackman's background in the military meant he knew how to stand and throw punches. He also shared that Hackman asked Anaya to call him Gene when they got to know each other and that he was a "good man."
Golf instructor Mike Putnam agreed, saying he "enjoyed his time with both Hackmans and that it was a "nice, fun relationship to have."
Hackman, who lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, made friends with Stephen Marshall, a retired FBI agent who trained them as part of a citizen's academy.
Marshall considered Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa Hackman friends and they socialized together until a few months before their deaths in February.
Gene was "starting to have some issues with age. And so I was seeing them less and less often. They were going out less," Marshall recalled.
Marshall also said Hackman had been bothered by the idea of getting old and didn't like seeing old movies where he looked younger.
He refused an invitation to see a screening of "Night Moves," one of his older movies, because he didn't want any comparisons with his younger self.
"When we went out, he didn't want to advertise who he was," he said. "I remember the first time we went out, we're walking down the street in Santa Fe, and I noticed people noticing him. And I said, ‘Do you get used to the idea of people going, "Hey, that’s Gene Hackman"’? And he said, "Yeah, but now they add, ‘And he got so old.’"
"So I thought he looked much younger," Marshall added. "I thought he looked great, but he was concerned that he had aged and that bothered him."
Investigators said Hackman died from heart disease and not getting needed medications to treat it about a week after his wife died from hantavirus, a disease contracted from contact with an infected rodent or its excretions.
Because of his Alzheimer's, he might not have been aware enough of his situation to help himself.
Apparently, the couple had become reclusive and been out of contact with family and friends for a while, so no one thought to check up on them.
Politico interviewed a number of House lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle who said that between six and a dozen of their colleagues have mental faculties too diminished to do their jobs effectively.
“There’s no question that somewhere between six and a dozen of my colleagues are at a point where they’re … I think they don’t have the faculties to do their job,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn) said.
An anonymous Republican added, “I have a difficult time sometimes telling between the deterioration of members and a handful who are just not very smart.”
One example of lawmakers hanging on too long was Kay Granger, a longtime GOP representative from Texas, who missed six months of votes even though she was chair of the House Appropriations Committee.
Granger had planned to retire in 2024, but was found to be living in an assisted living facility in Texas while still a member of the House in December.
Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) said of Granger and others in similar situations, “I do think that leadership probably has a responsibility, on both sides, when somebody’s getting past their due date, to really encourage them to step aside, like Kay Granger last summer."
Beyer did acknowledge that the balance of power can make it hard to force the issue at times.
"I knew it was hard for them because the votes were so close, so they had a reason not to do it. But if they had a comfortable minority or majority, it would have been very good to say, ‘Please retire,’” he suggested.
Then there was Dianne Feinstein, who was there unless she was in the hospital, but reportedly had trouble recognizing people and staying on top of crucial votes and issues.
Her colleague Rep. Bo Khanna (D-CA) said, “In Feinstein’s case, it was just not being able to do the job. If you’re missing votes, if you’re not participating in meetings — if someone is really in decline where they’re not being able to do the job, they need to step aside.”
Turns out it's hard to let go of power, especially when the machine around you knows that any successor would be starting from the ground up.
Sometimes it seems more advantageous to prop up a failing member until it becomes plainly obvious that they can't do the job anymore.
That's what the Democrat machine thought about former President Joe Biden--even diminished, he was better than any alternative until he got a little cocky and decided to do a debate he no longer had the capacity to even fake his way through.
His situation has shined a light on an aging Congress. With increased scrutiny, there will probably be more retirements in the near future.