Despite every indication to the contrary, it seems that President Donald Trump's detractors believe he's just a few bad bites away from dropping dead of a heart attack.
This belief began to be circulated in 2015 when the now (again) president's personal habits became part of the national discussion.
Among other things, Trump is a huge fan of McDonald's burgers, fast food, and Diet Coke. He also does not take his exercise regimen seriously.
It seems apparent that Trump's unwell-wishers are mostly projecting due to wishful thinking, but the "evidence" for the junk food-loving, 5-hour-a-night sleeping president has been raised over and over again.
Last year, first lady Melania Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the president's nominee for health secretary, were reportedly "ganging up" on Trump to push him to eat a more healthy diet, according to The Daily Mail.
Included in their alleged insistences were him substituting lean protein for some of his current diet, as well as salads and more vegetables.
Some of Trump's former aides have also testified about Trump's McDonalds order of two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish and a chocolate milkshake, which comes to a whopping 2,430 calories.
However, no matter what is being said about the current leader of the free world, he seems to have unmatched energy.
On Monday, at the age of 78 and 220 days, Trump became the oldest person to ever be inaugurated as president, outpacing Biden's age during the 2020 inauguration by about 5 months.
However, his ongoing comparison to Biden seems to have benefited him on the campaign trail, as Biden, now 82, seemed to struggle to stay awake frequently while serving his term over the last few years.
But the standoff with the last administration wasn't relegated to Biden. Despite being 18 years her senior, he challenged Kamala Harris to a cognitive test on X in October of last year.
This was several months after Harris, the former vice president, took over the Democratic ticket following a primary season in which she never received a single vote.
During his challenge, Trump told his supporters that Harris had been "slow and lethargic in answering even the easiest of questions."
While Trump didn't do any tricks beyond the standard at his swearing-in, he also didn't shuffle the way Biden has been seen doing over the past few years, and it seems that is enough to anger his detractors, pushing the narrative about his health and age.
For the fashion-conscious, First Lady Melania Trump stole some of the limelight at her husband's inauguration ceremony by wearing a stylish outfit designed by American craftsmen.
Melania wore a double-breasted navy coat by American designer Adam Lippes and a matching boater hat by American milliner Eric Javits.
“The tradition of the presidential inauguration embodies the beauty of American democracy and today we had the honor to dress our first lady, Mrs. Melania Trump,” Lippes said in a statement. “Mrs. Trump’s outfit was created by some of America’s finest craftsmen and I take great pride in showing such work to the world.”
With her outfit, she wore black gloves for warmth and her signature Manolo Blahnik stilettos.
It was the fourth-coldest Inauguration Day on record with a high of 27 degrees, and incoming President Donald Trump decided to hold the swearing-in ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda rather than outdoors as is traditional.
Ronald Reagan's 1985 swearing-in had a high of only seven degrees, while Ulysses S. Grant's inauguration in 1987 had a high of 16 degrees and John F. Kennedy Jr.'s in 1961 was 22 degrees.
Reagan's inauguration was also held indoors, as was William Taft's 1909 ceremony due to 10 inches of snow in D.C. that day.
With the president being a senior citizen at 78 and several other lawmakers in attendance in their 80s, it was probably a good idea to avoid standing around for hours in sub-freezing temperatures.
It was still necessary for the Trumps, Vances, Bidens and others to dress warmly as they walked from outside to the Rotunda.
Second Lady Usha Vance wore a light pink jacket with suede ivory gloves and Manolo Blahnik boots. The designer of her outfit was not known, but she has favored designers like Oscar de la Renta and Sergio Hudson in the past.
Outgoing First Lady Jill Biden wore a royal blue jacket and dress by Ralph Lauren, where Lippes got his start before developing his own line.
Her heels matched the coat and dress.
Everyone seemed cordial during the swearing in of Trump, putting aside any hostility that had been previously expressed and showing Americans that the transfer of power was peaceful and gracious.
Biden can now get some much-needed rest, and the country will be in good hands under Trump.
Journalist and producer Elizabeth Nissen, best known for her work with ABC News in the 1990s, died at home on January 7, three days after her 71st birthday, according to her family.
Nissen started at ABC News in 1986, and her best work was on "Nightline" and "World News Tonight."One of the most famous stories she covered was Princess Diana's death in 1997.
She won an Emmy for her news coverage at ABC News in 1998.
She also worked on "NewsNight" at CNN, "Nova Science Now" on WGBH, and in print media in the Wall Street Journal and Newsweek.
She co-founded and was senior producer for NBC Learn, the educational division of NBC News.
Nissen also taught writing and journalist at Columbia University and the University of Michigan.
"A lifelong reader, learner, and teacher, Beth was passionate about communicating information in a relatable way. She prepared her students to be critical thinkers, and helped teachers improve methods and techniques for more effective instruction," her obituary read.
Her obituary further remembered her for “her wit, her knowledge, her compassion and her nurturing of friendships through extensive personal correspondence.”
It also said she was a caregiver who was an active member of her local Rotary Club and “The Adelphies” group at the 1st Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor.
Nissen was one of seven siblings.
She was predeceased by her parents and one brother, but is survived by her other five siblings.
She didn't have any children of her own, but was adored by her nine nieces and nephews.
No cause of death was given for her family, and her obituary said she requested not to have a memorial service.
She suggested that those who knew her meet in smaller groups of colleagues, friends, and family members to remember her and share stories about her.
In the aftermath of a ceasefire deal between the terrorist organization Hamas and Israel, it turns out President-elect Donald Trump was the key force behind getting the deal done after over a year of war.
The deal went into effect Sunday morning with Hamas agreeing to release 33 Israeli hostages in return for other hostages held by Israel. Multiple deals have failed and the Biden administration has repeatedly failed to bring the war to any meaningful end.
However, with Trump set to be inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States, he fulfilled a promise to bring hostilities to a close before assuming office after Biden failed multiple times.
New York Times columnist David Brooks commented on Trump's role in getting a deal done saying, "I do think it was Donald Trump’s pressure that really sealed the deal, because Israel had to swallow a lot for this deal."
He continued explaining, "They’re trading away a few hostages, some of them dead, in exchange for terrorists, a lot of them. And so, Israel didn’t want to do that."
The devastating war between Israel and Hamas is over for the time being but it did cost Israel as they had to give up a substantial number of hostages to get their people back.
The war has been raging since the horrific October 7th, 2023, attack that saw hundreds of terrorists break into Israel leading to the massacre and rape of civilians. Israel hit Hamas with unflinching vengeance but the war dragged out far longer than expected with terrible losses on both sides.
According to figures from the Hamas-controlled Gazan health ministry, the death toll was at 46,913 as of Saturday before the ceasefire took effect.
The Gazan health ministry claimed that a further 110,750 people had been wounded. Of course, these figures are from Hamas which has waged a propaganda war against Israel so it can be assumed that those numbers are inflated.
Of course, it is still reasonable to assume that a portion of those deaths and wounded are accurate meaning that thousands have died since the war began.
While Israel's losses are far less than even the most conservative estimates of Hamas's losses, Israel has still suffered tremendously from this war. The damage to Israel's tourist industry and the financial costs have crippled the nation and they will need years to recoup their losses.
Trump has major plans for his 2nd term in the White House and achieving a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was on that list. Now Trump will be able to shift his focus to the war between Russia and Ukraine that Biden has been unable to end.
That conflict could be potentially more difficult to solve but Trump has made ambitious promises about quickly ending that war that has killed thousands and cost the U.S. billions in aid sent to Ukraine.
Should Trump manage to quickly end the war in Eastern Europe, it will be the ultimate humiliation for his predecessor who sat by while these wars raged and cost the lives of thousands.
President-elect Donald Trump's transition team has asked senior career diplomats who oversee the U.S. State Department's workforce to step down ahead of Trump's inauguration.
Reuters reported that Dereck Hogan, Marcia Bernicat, and Alaina Teplitz have been asked to step down by the Trump team as they have been in charge of the workforce and internal state department coordination and need to be removed in order for Trump to clean house.
Typically, career foreign service officers continue from one administration to the next while many other federal officials experience turnover when administrations change.
Trump is not interested in keeping anyone from previous administrations on board as it's those career diplomats and officials who undermined Trump's administration the last time around.
Trump promised supporters that he would "clean out the deep state" by firing bureaucrats that he believes are disloyal and that would slow down his agenda.
The news of Trump asking career officials to step down has already ignited panic among the Washington D.C. class of career bureaucrats.
One anonymous official stated, "There's a little bit of a concern that this might be setting the stage for something worse."
The Trump campaign issued a statement in response to those grumblings saying, "It is entirely appropriate for the transition to seek officials who share President Trump's vision for putting our nation and America's working men and women first. We have a lot of failures to fix and that requires a committed team focused on the same goals."
Trump wants to do everything differently and is changing every aspect of American domestic and foreign policy and that will require new people who can be trusted not to protect the old corrupt system.
Trump's foreign policy in particular is going to look entirely different from the typical American foreign policy.
Trump wants peace between Ukraine and Russia and the people who failed to achieve that over the past four years are getting the boot. Trump isn't playing around this time around and understands that he has to clean everyone out if he wants to avoid the pitfalls of his first term.
While Trump wants to end the raging conflicts going on around the globe, Trump also wants to make truly generational changes.
Trump wants to bring Greenland under the control of the United States, whether that be by direct acquisition or diplomatic means. Trump wants Greenland for economic and national security purposes and such a move will cement Trump's status as an extraordinary president.
Trump also wants to retake the Panama Canal which has been under the control of Panama since 1979. All of this will require that those bureaucrats who have called D.C. home for decades must go.
An official in the Biden administration told the Associated Press on Thursday that President Joe Biden won't enforce a ban on TikTok scheduled to take effect on January 19, one day before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated.
Trump has said he would sign an executive order delaying the ban for 60 or 90 days if a viable offer was on the table to sell to an American buyer or at least one that is an ally of the U.S.
A court denied Trump a stay on the ban, and the Supreme Court upheld the ban on Friday.
The ban was passed by Congress last year and signed by Biden due to the security risks officials felt the app posed. If parent company Byte Dance doesn't divest itself of TikTok by the 19th,
ByteDance Chinese state-owned, and investigations showed that TikTok shared user data with the parent company on more than one occasion.
Trump's view of TikTok has changed since his previous administration, given that TikTok did play a role in increasing the share of younger voters he was able to capture this time around.
“I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said last month.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has been granted a special seat on the dais for Trump's inauguration.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle want to see the ban's deadline extended. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke to Biden earlier this week about the issue.
“It’s clear that more time is needed to find an American buyer and not disrupt the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans, of so many influencers who have built up a good network of followers,” Schumer said Thursday on the Senate floor.
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton (AR) blocked legislation that would have extended the ban's timeline, which was put forward by Democrats.
“TikTok is a Chinese Communist spy app that addicts our kids, harvests their data, targets them with harmful and manipulative content, and spreads communist propaganda,” Cotton said.
TikTok contributed over $24 billion to the U.S. economy in 2023, the last year data was available.
Every day in the U.S., the TikTok marketplace sells $7 million in products, and the app supports 224,000 jobs in the U.S.
Some of the previous president's favorite musicians are scheduled to sing at President-elect Trump's inauguration next week, ensuring a star-studded lineup.
Preliminary editions of the inaugural program indicate that three additional performers, including country music sensation Carrie Underwood, would grace the stage during Trump's swearing-in event, as The Independent reported.
“I love our country and am honored to have been asked to sing at the Inauguration and to be a small part of this historic event,” Underwood said.
“I am humbled to answer the call at a time when we must all come together in the spirit of unity and looking to the future,” she continued.
Underwood will perform "America the Beautiful" with the help of the United States Naval Academy Glee Club and the Armed Forces Chorus.
The American Idol star will be joined on stage by opera singer Christopher Macchio, country singer Lee Greenwood, and the Village People, a disco trio from the 1970s.
Notable performances by the Village People include the inaugural ball and a rally in Washington, DC, the day before Trump's swearing-in.
The trio, who are famous for the song "Y.M.C.A.," announced the announcement on social media and reiterated that their music is not targeted at a particular demographic and should be played "without regard to politics."
“Our song Y.M.C.A. is a global anthem that hopefully helps bring the country together after a tumultuous and divided campaign where our preferred candidate lost,” they wrote in a Facebook post.
“Therefore, we believe it’s now time to bring the country together with music which is why VILLAGE PEOPLE will be performing at various events as part of the 2025 Inauguration of Donald J. Trump.”
Macchio will sing the National Anthem at Trump's request, and Greenwood, who sang for Trump before being sworn in in 2017, will perform as Trump leaves to take the oath.
Over four days, the 60th Presidential Inaugural Ceremony will include cabinet receptions, firework displays, a Make America Great Again victory rally, parade, prayer service, and more.
“These special events will honor the rich history and tradition of our great nation, the American people, and the promise our country holds for future generations,” said a statement from the Trump Vance Inaugural Committee schedule.
As part of the celebrations, President Joe Biden is expected to attend, and the soon-to-be First Lady Melania Trump will also partake in tea with the Bidens.
The swearing-in event is set to commence at the United States capitol prior to noon Eastern time on January 20.
In an emotional outburst that took place at one in the morning, Donald Trump attacked Jack Smith.
This came after the special counsel published his report, which concluded that the president-elect attempted to illegally change the results of the 2020 election, as The Daily Mail reported.
According to the findings of the study presented by the Department of Justice, Trump "inspired his supporters to commit acts of physical violence" during the riots that occurred on January 6 and willfully promoted a false narrative about fraud in the 2020 election.
In addition, the long-awaited paper, which was written by Smith, asserted that Trump would have been found guilty of the role he played if he had not been re-elected by voters in a landslide victory the previous year.
In response, Trump unleashed a raging tirade on his social media platform TruthSocial, describing Smith as a "deranged lamebrain prosecutor."
“Deranged Jack Smith... is a lamebrain prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the Election, which I won in a landslide,” Trump wrote.
“[He was] was unable to successfully prosecute the Political Opponent of his ‘boss,’ Crooked Joe Biden, so he ends up writing yet another ‘Report”’ based on information that the Unselect Committee of Political Hacks and Thugs ILLEGALLY DESTROYED AND DELETED, because it showed how totally innocent I was, and how completely guilty Nancy Pelosi, and others, were.”
A reference to the House select committee that was led by Representative Bennie Thompson and was responsible for investigating the effort to alter the results of the 2020 election was part of the report.
The document noted that President Trump made the claim that the committee had destroyed evidence because it demonstrated how "totally innocent" he was, but he did not provide any proof to back up his assertion.
Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, made an announcement earlier this month that there will be a formal investigation of the House committee in question.
The committee in question included Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger as members. This action is commonly interpreted as an act of retaliation on behalf of the incoming president.
Smith spoke up for his investigation, saying: “The claim from Trump that my decisions as a prosecutor were influenced or directed by the Biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, laughable.”
Smith has been subjected to consistent criticism by President-elect Trump, and his supporters have suggested that the special counsel should now be prosecuted for his prosecution of the case against him.
In various sections, the report explores Trump's use of influece on the ceremonial role in certifying the election results in Congress as well as his pressure on his subordinate, Mike Pence.
“When it became clear that Trump had lost the election and that lawful means of challenging the election results had failed, he resorted to a series of criminal efforts to retain power”, Smith wrote.
One of the most popular country music superstars in America, Carrie Underwood, has said she will sing "America the Beautiful" at President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20.
Political reporter Matthew Foldi announced the development by posting a photo of the inauguration program on X, and the Trump transition team confirmed the announcement.
NEWS:@carrieunderwood performing at Donald Trump’s inauguration pic.twitter.com/pek9EdBwkm
— Matthew Foldi (@MatthewFoldi) January 13, 2025
Underwood will perform the song with The Armed Forces Chorus and the United States Naval Academy Glee Club just before Trump is sworn in.
Underwood got her start when she won American Idol in 2005, and she has become one of the top-selling artists of all time.
She has won multiple Grammy Awards and was part of a trend of country music artists crossing over into mainstream music.
Her hits have included "Jesus Take the Wheel," "Blown Away," and "Before He Cheats."
“I love our country and am honored to have been asked to sing at the Inauguration and to be a small part of this historic event,” Underwood told People. “I am humbled to answer the call at a time when we must all come together in the spirit of unity and looking to the future.”
Unlike many other musicians, Underwood has kept her political views private over the years, so it is not known whether she is a Democrat or a Republican.
Underwood is one of several musicians who will perform at the inauguration.
Operatic tenor Christopher D. Macchio will sing the National Anthem and other musical selections.
Macchio performed at many of Trump's rallies and was popular with crowds there.
The U.S. Naval Academy Glee Club will perform “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Combine Choirs will also perform various musical selections.
The Village People will perform at two inaugural events, but not during the inauguration itself.
President-elect Donald Trump has given congressional Republicans the green light to negotiate the state and local tax (SALT) deduction as part of a new tax relief package, with the goal of giving relief to some Americans while not giving tax breaks to the wealthy.
Trump met with blue state GOP lawmakers from the House SALT Caucus, who oppose the current $10,000 SALT deduction cap.
The cap hurts residents of states with higher state and local tax rates, as well as those with higher incomes.
"I think it was productive and successful," Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) said of the meeting. "The president supports our efforts to increase the SALT deduction. He understands that mayors and governors in blue states are crushing taxpayers and wants to provide relief from the federal level."
Trump knows he needs to find the sweet spot between giving relief to squeezed middle-class taxpayers and avoiding relief for the wealthy who people perceive don't really need it.
"He gave us a little homework to work on, a number that could provide our middle class constituents with relief from the high taxes imposed by our governor and mayor, and at the same time, you know, something that can build consensus and get to [a 218-vote majority]," Malliotakis said.
"I think we pretty much know that it's not going to be a complete lifting of the SALT cap. There’s not an appetite within Congress or even among American taxpayers to lower taxes for the ultra-wealthy.
"Our efforts are really targeted to middle-class families, and that's what we're focused on in trying to achieve the right balance."
But Trump recognizes that some of his constituents were ill-served by the SALT cap, and he has spoken previously about making that right.
He posted on Truth Social last September that he would "get SALT back, lower your taxes, and so much more."
The negotiation is part of a massive reconciliation bill that needs to please nearly every Republican in order to pass without any Democrat support.
The Republican majority in the Senate is bigger than that in the House, which is only two seats until at least April.
Monday on his Verdict podcast, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) suggested that a good compromise to the SALT issue could be ending the marriage penalty on the deduction.
Currently, the cap is $10,000 whether filing single or married joint. Making the married joint cap $20,000 would equalize the cap for married couples while not extending tax relief to those with very high incomes in most cases.