As the migrant issue continues to strain finances, Chicago residents criticized progressive Mayor Brandon Johnson for proposing a property tax increase during a city council meeting.
P-Rae Easley, host of the "Black Excellence Hour" podcast, has gone viral for her angry comments, Breitbart News reported.
"Typically, I'm here, and I'm fussing. I want to say thank you to the city council. Our mayor is embarrassing us around the world, and you all took the power back from him to say the city of Chicago is out of the business of funding illegals," she said, donning a red MAGA hat.
Easley said later in an interview that the main issue for Chicago residents is their "bottom line," indicating concern about household budgets.
New data shows the Windy City has spent $574.5 million on migrants, joining New York City, Boston, and Denver.
"We're not going to work to pay for illegals. They chose to come here illegally, and we don't allow people to feast off of their criminality," Easley said during the interview, pushing forward the "America first" agenda.
Johnson stated last month that "Black families" are also included in President-elect Trump's mass deportation threats, alongside "new arrivals and undocumented families."
The statements infuriated Easley, who referred to them as "very disrespectful." He criticized them for their negative impact.
"Our people are not immigrants. We are migrants, of course, in the very literal sense because our grandparents came here during the Great Migration," she said.
"This is why we're really pushing for an end to race. Because when you say Black, that can mean anybody…. There are Black people who will be deported, but that has nothing to do with the American people. Our goal is to get this border closed and to get every unnecessary expense off of the budget lines in the city of Chicago. We can't afford it anymore."
There is a $1 billion budget gap that Johnson is attempting to close before the year ends.
At the city council meeting that took place on Monday, other attendees did not hold back when they addressed the mayor: "I got a great way what we can do with this budget. First, let's start with cutting off illegals getting free everything, free housing, free schooling, free food. Yeah, let's start with that. That'll save us a lot of money," said a woman wearing a "Chicago Flips Red" shirt
"Let's start there. Then, let's start with you. Your salary. You are going down in history as the worst mayor in America. Let's start with cutting yours. You're making too much money," she continued.
Another resident, an immigrant who entered the U.S. legally, said she feels "very, very embarrassed for what my other fellow Latin American citizens are doing in this city on behalf of the people that work, on behalf of the people that pay taxes, on behalf of the people that contribute to the city."
She continued, "I like to make clear that not everyone is the same. These people came with a wide door open, and they feel entitled to many things that nobody has. There are U.S. citizens suffering from poverty," she said. "There are U.S. citizens on public aid, and these people are here just enjoying the benefits, becoming delinquents, and they have no consequences."
President-elect Donald Trump's energy secretary nominee Chris Wright will resign from Oklo, a nuclear energy company in California backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that has received $2.7 million in federal grants since 2023, the Trump-Vance team said.
It is considered a conflict of interest for any government official to sit on the board of a company that gets federal funding.
A Trump-Vance transition official told the Washington Examiner that Wright would be resigning from all corporate boards he sits on upon his confirmation to the position.
That includes Liberty Energy, where he is chairman of the board, and EMX Royalty Corp.
“All nominees and appointees will comply with the ethical obligations of their respective agencies,” Brian Hughes, a Trump-Vance transition spokesman, also said in a statement.
Trump's team finally signed transition documents on Tuesday pledging to work with the Biden administration on a transfer of power, and part of that pledge was to avoid conflicts of interest.
The energy secretary under Biden, Jennifer Granholm, came under fire for her husband owning stock in Ford Motor Company that she did not disclose.
She claimed she did not know about the stock until her husband sold it in May 2023.
She also got into trouble over whether she boosted electric busmaker Proterra's stock using her official position. She used to sit on the board of Proterra.
Back in 2021, Granholm had to sell 240,000 shares of Proterra for $1.6 million to avoid conflict of interest accusations.
A watchdog group filed a complaint against her, which brought both situations to light.
Granholm's ethical issues may be feeding the current anxiety over Wright.
“Unfortunately, given the track record of the current Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm allegedly flouting rules to divest of Ford stock and Proterra, it is natural for outside observers to be uneasy about how this will play out under a new administration,” Protect the Public’s Trust Director Michael Chamberlain told the Washington Examiner.
In Wright's case, Liberty Energy stock has gone up 6% since he was announced as a Trump nominee. If that doesn't tell us how much of an impact these conflicts can have, nothing will.
Police in Boulder, Colorado said this may be the year they finally solve the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, a six-year-old beauty queen whose case shocked the nation when her body was discovered in the basement of the family home in 1996.
Newly appointed Boulder police chief Stephen Redfearn has reportedly made solving the 28-year-old case a top priority.
"We f****d the case up from the start, and now with new blood, we can finally fix it," an inside source at the police department told the New York Post.
"He wants it solved and off the books," the insider claimed. "He's assigning officers and resources to solve the murder, which has been a black mark on the Boulder PD."
"I'm not sure what it will take to bust it wide open but it feels like it's within reach. We're hoping for 2025; this is our year," the insider added.
Ramsey was found on a pile of clothes with a skull fracture and stabbed by a paintbrush fragment.
Suspicion initially was cast on her parents John and Patsy or brother Burke, but DNA evidence excluded them in 1997.
DNA found at the scene has been repeatedly tested, but nothing definitive has been found.
A multi-agency task force was established in 2023 to work on the case, and a new documentary on Netflix has refocused attention on the case.
'The killing of JonBenét was an unspeakable crime, and this tragedy has never left our hearts,' Redfearn said last week.
"We are committed to following up on every lead and continuing to work with DNA experts and our law enforcement partners around the country until this tragic case is solved," he added.
The victim's father John Ramsey has not kept quiet about his frustration with the way the case was handled.
"There have been horrible failures, but I believe it can be solved if police accept help from outside their system. That's been their flaw," he said during a recent interview on "Today."
Ramsey, now 80, said he was hopeful the new police chief would accept the outside help needed to finally solve the horrifying case.
President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would be appointing Charles Kushner, Ivanka Trump's father-in-law, as the ambassador to France.
Trump confirmed the selection of Kushner in a post to Truth Social praising him as a “tremendous business leader,” who would “be a strong advocate representing” the U.S. and “its interests.”
Charles Kushner's son, Jared Kushner, is married to Ivanka Trump and previously worked for Donald Trump during his first term in the White House.
Jared Kushner stated before the election that he would not be returning to the White House prior to Trump winning the election and it appears that there are no plans to bring the younger Kushner back for Trump's 2nd term.
Kushner is supremely qualified as a business leader and Trump wants his ambassadors to build functional business relationships that will generate trade and value for the U.S.
Trump had high praise for Kushner writing in his Truth Social announcement that, "Charlie is the Founder & Chairman of Kushner Companies, one of the largest & most successful privately held Real Estate firms in the Nation."
Trump continued by stating, “He was recognized as New Jersey Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young, appointed to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, & served as a Commissioner, & Chairman, of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, as well as on the Boards of our top institutions, including NYU.”
Another component of Kushner's selection to work in Trump's administration is his loyalty to Trump.
Kushner was pardoned by Trump back in 2020 for his 2005 conviction on charges of tax evasion, witness tampering, and illegal campaign donations which landed Kushner a two-year sentence in prison.
Trump's decision to pardon Kushner of his 2005 conviction has earned Trump the assurance of loyalty and loyalty is the most important thing to Trump going into his 2nd term.
Trump is staffing his administration with people he can trust, qualifications and records are secondary concerns.
Many of the most qualified and experienced individuals who Trump would have used in 2016 have shown themselves to be untrustworthy and tools of the deep state that Trump has set out to dismantle.
Trump ran on a platform to clean up Washington D.C. and to tear down the corrupt system that has grown like a cancer in America's institutions.
Americans turned out in record numbers and made Trump the first Republican to win the popular vote in decades in order to hit back at the corrupt status quo. Trump has a mandate from the American people to purge the deep state and he needs people who will be loyal to his agenda.
Kushner will likely not play a huge role in Trump's anti-corruption agenda, rather he will be key to pushing American interests abroad as Trump returns to an "America First" economic strategy.
Americans can expect many of Trump's ambassador selections to look similar to Kushner's as Trump is working to return America to economic dominance.
With President-elect Donald Trump set to begin his 2nd term in January, all eyes are on his deportation agenda which will be the keystone of his 2nd term.
While Democrats have promised to fight back against Trump's mass deportation plan, Trump has scored the support of local sheriffs around the nation who are ready and willing to support Trump's plans.
The Wall Street Journal spoke to multiple local sheriffs including Chuck Jenkins, a sheriff in Frederick County, Maryland, and Richard Jones, a sheriff in Butler County, Ohio.
They confirmed their agencies are ready to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its agents in carrying out Trump's plans.
For the past four years, President Joe Biden's administration has let in millions of illegal immigrants while hamstringing ICE and other agencies that would normally conduct deportations. Now all of that will be completely reversed with Trump in charge.
Trump's promises to deport the millions of illegal immigrants let in by the Biden administration will require the support of local and state agencies to succeed.
The Trump administration has confirmed that they plan to begin the deportations the day that Trump is sworn into office.
Sheriff Jenkins made it clear that he's locked and loaded for action saying he and his department is "willing to support” Trump “100 percent,” and that he wants “to do more, within the law.”
Sheriff Jenkins and hundreds of other Sheriffs around the nation will be the key to Trump's plan as he will reportedly be utilizing ICE’s 287(g) program.
That program will give "sheriffs and other agencies certain ICE powers,” allowing them to supplement ICE in the deportation plan which would otherwise require a massive expansion of the agency which would likely require Congressional approval.
Trump doesn't want to wait for Congress as it will inevitably take months for that kind of action to make it through both chambers of Congress. So instead, the nation's Sheriffs will be on the frontline of Trump's biggest battle yet.
While Sheriffs around the nation are ready and willing to help Trump, leftist "sanctuary" cities will be a massive roadblock that will need to be cleared.
Multiple leftist mayors like Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston have already promised to oppose the Trump administration. These promises to harbor illegal immigrants have earned them the attention of incoming Trump border czar Tom Homan.
Homan has promised to bring the full force of the law against those who stand in the Trump administration's way in much the same vein that the previous administration did against Republican officials.
A new report by the American Principles Project (APP) showed that nearly 70% of fines and enforcement by President Joe Biden's Education Department (ED) targeted Christian and career schools even though less than 10% of students attend these schools.
The report termed enforcement efforts as a "weaponization" of the ED, similar to how other agencies have targeted conservatives and other right-leaning groups.
"While major assaults from agencies like the Department of Justice have taken most of the headlines, we should not ignore similarly corrupt efforts in other agencies as well," APP Policy Director Jon Schweppe said.
"As our report details, the Biden-Harris Department of Education has been engaged in a long-running scheme to punish Christian colleges that are ideologically opposed to the left’s agenda. The unfair targeting of these institutions has been egregious, and it needs to stop immediately," he added.
Two of the largest and most prominent Christian universities, Liberty University and Grand Canyon University faced "larger fines than all of the past seven years combined."
This includes the $2.4 million imposed on Penn State for the Jerry Sandusky sex crimes against students and the $4.5 million imposed on Michigan University for Larry Nassau's crimes against gymnasts, including some Olympic contenders.
GCU is appealing a $37.7 million fine for supposedly misleading students about the cost of its doctoral programs.
Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in April that he would shut down GCU and called it a "predatory" school that took advantage of first-generation college students.
According to the report, at "least 12 Christian colleges have been the target of excessive penalties or banned from receiving federal student aid; by comparison, no Ivy League school has been the recipient of punitive action by the Office of Enforcement."
"The average fine against a Christian school for a Clery Act violation was $815,000, compared to $228,571 against public and private institutions," it said.
Of course, the Biden administration knows that Christian and career schools are less likely to be on board with its woke agenda, so it's doing everything it can to put those schools out of commission.
GCU recently had to defend its non-profit status in court and was able to successfully do so.
The court ruled unanimously that the ED applied an incorrect standard when denying the school non-profit status. The Arizona Board for Private Postsecondary Education, the Internal Revenue Service, the State of Arizona and the Higher Learning Commission all approved GCU's non-profit status before the ED ruled against it.
On Monday, the federal prosecutor who oversaw the convictions of Sen. Robert Menendez, Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, and disgraced cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried announced his resignation as SDNY's U.S. attorney.
The prosecutor of New York City Mayor Eric Adams and rap superstar Sean “Diddy” Combs, Damian Williams, said, "It has been an honor to serve the American people." He will resign at 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 13, according to a report by CBS News.
The first Black man to fill the prestigious and influential position, Williams, was nominated by President Joe Biden in 2021. Trump has already spoken to his intention to replace the attorney.
The Manhattan U.S. attorney's office, once led by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, handles high-profile public corruption, securities fraud, and terrorism crimes.
Williams was instrumental in getting New Jersey's longstanding Democratic senator Robert Menendez convicted of bribery, FTX CEO Bankman-Fried convicted of fraud, and Maxwell convicted of sex trafficking while he was in office.
Adams is facing allegations of bribery and wire fraud, while Combs is facing a variety of counts, including sex trafficking and racketeering. Both individuals are currently awaiting trial. They have both entered not-guilty pleas.
An Iranian man was also under Williams' supervision earlier this year on charges related to a plan to kill then-candidate Trump.
As he announced his resignation, Williams used the term "bittersweet" to describe his time in the office.
“It is bitter in the sense that I am leaving my dream job, leading an institution I love that is filled with the finest public servants in the world," he said.
"It is sweet in that I am confident I am leaving at a time when the Office is functioning at an incredibly high level — upholding and exceeding its already high standard of excellence, integrity, and independence."
Edward Y. Kim, who was Williams' deputy, will take over as acting U.S. attorney once he leaves.
Earlier this month, Trump made public his intention to nominate Jay Clayton, his former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to lead the office.
The 2020 candidacy of Trump's nominee Clayton was ultimately withdrawn due to resistance from Democratic senators from New York, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as the circumstances surrounding the resignation of then-US Attorney Geoffrey Berman.
As he announced Clayton's possible nomination, Trump praised him as "a highly respected business leader, counsel, and public servant."
"Jay is going to be a strong Fighter for the Truth as we Make America Great Again," Trump wrote.
A top aide to Kamala Harris said that internal surveys revealed the VP was never ahead of Trump in the swing states, and that the campaign was relying on hope leading up to the election.
Harris was "surprised" to see herself in the lead according to public polls, according to David Plouffe, who had previously stated that she began the race trailing Trump, as Breitbart News reported.
When asked about the surprise, he attributed it to the release of public surveys in late September and early October that revealed leads that had previously been invisible.
Plouffe, who advised President Barack Obama's successful campaigns in 2008 and 2012 spoke about the race on the Pod Save America podcast on Tuesday.
Internal analytics, Plouffe said, showed Harris tied with Trump in Wisconsin 47-47 and Trump leading in Pennsylvania 48-47.
"I think we were, you know, we were hopeful. I don't know how optimistic we were, but we thought, okay, this is tied," he said.
Also, Plouffe conceded that Harris's debate performance, which they deemed excellent, did not have the desired impact on the margins.
"I think even after the debate, we might have gained what, 0.51. It wasn't a race that moved a lot," he said.
He conceded that turnout was lower than anticipated in some areas but said the campaign had hoped that undecided voters would switch to Harris.
"You know, you've got to have undecided break your way more than your opponents, and you've got to get a little benefit from turnout, which we weren't able to do," he said.
Plouffe conceded there was no progress in the race after spending more than $1 billion on the campaign.
There was a discussion on the reliability of polls after Plouffe made his remarks, considering that the reporting on the polls was so wildly different in a number of outlets and from a number of pollsters leading up to the 2024 presidential election.
Despite repeated criticism from Democrats who felt the polls were too optimistic for Trump, pollster Rasmussen Reports used the news to bolster their claims that their polls were the most accurate.
"Plouffe said the campaign’s internal polling NEVER HAD HER AHEAD OF TRUMP," the poll company wrote on X, highlighting results. "You mean, internally, it looked something like - this?"
"Plouffe said the campaign’s internal polling NEVER HAD HER AHEAD OF TRUMP."
You mean, internally, it looked something like - this? https://t.co/iGKub3d6iE pic.twitter.com/2dbmP92Es1
— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) November 27, 2024
A video from 2019 gave details of soon-t0-be First Lady Melania Trump's diet, including her habit of eating seven pieces of fruit per day.
The video from Inside Edition said that Trump drinks a smoothie for breakfast as part of her "healthy and simple" diet.
The smoothie is a combination of spinach, carrots, blueberries, apple juice and fat-free yogurt.
Other than the smoothie, her favorite fruits are apples and peaches.
The video said she sometimes eats dark chocolate and ice cream, but pays attention to "portion sizes."
She also likes to eat at the Trump International Hotel when in New York, and her favorite meal was Chicken Parmesan, which is no longer on the current menu there.
When her husband was in office, she kept up the garden started by Michelle Obama and children often visited it.
She told them about healthy eating and encouraged them to eat their fruits and vegetables.
Trump is reportedly trying to get her husband to eat healthier and reform his bad eating habits that include McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken.
She and incoming Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have been telling him to eat more lean proteins, salads and veggies, some sources told Page Six.
They even say she has been cooking healthy meals for him and their son Barron at Trump Tower where Barron lives while attending New York University.
But others say that Trump still eats whatever he wants, including fancy favorites like steak, crab, shrimp, and cobb salad.
"Melania famously watches every bite she takes" and has "guided their son's eating habits since he was a toddler," the source said.
She also gets spa treatments and works out regularly, according to reports.
Se. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) called on Sunday for all the DOJ employees who worked on Trump indictments to be fired in the interest of accountability for using government resources to try to keep President-elect Donald Trump off the ballot.
“You saw all these cases resurrected. They all fell apart under the weight of the law,” Shmitt said on NBC's "Meet the Press." “And so I do think there needs to be accountability. I think that getting it back to crime fighting is important, but there has to be accountability for these kinds of abuses.”
Schmitt was then asked whether he was referring to the removal of special prosecutor Jack Smith or something more.
“I think accountability means, first and foremost, the people involved with this should be fired immediately,” he said. “And anybody a part of this, this effort to keep President Trump off the ballot, and to throw him in jail for the rest of his life because they didn’t like his politics, and to continue to cast him as a ‘threat to democracy,’ was wrong, and so we’ll see where that goes.”
“But I just don’t think in this country, unless we want to be a banana republic, I don’t want to see that happen. You can’t have the Justice Department abused in this way,” Schmitt added.
As everyone should know at this point, Trump was indicted four separate times, and two of those prosecutions were by the DOJ under President Joe Biden.
All of the indictments against him have either been suspended or dismissed since he won the 2024 election.
The New York case that found him guilty of 34 counts of falsifying financial documents was scheduled for sentencing on November 18, but DA Alvin Bragg asked last week for sentencing to be postponed indefinitely.
Schmitt also praised Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi, who replaced Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) after he withdrew from contention following allegations that he had solicited sex from a minor (which he adamantly denies).
Bondi will end the "weaponization" of the DOJ, Schmitt said.
Trump has vowed to gut the unelected "deep state," and House Republicans have been working toward this goal with their select committee on the weaponization of government since gaining the majority two years ago.
Ending the ability of the deep state or any administration to use lawfare against an opponent would be a big step back from what many feel is the edge of banana republic status for the U.S.
Bondi was one of Trump's lawyers during his first impeachment trial and served as Florida attorney general until 2019.
She vowed last year to prosecute the prosecutors that indicted Trump.