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Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) stated Wednesday in response to former President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-FL) for House speaker that the former president’s renewed endorsement of McCarthy was “sad.” Gaetz is one of 20 conservative holdouts who opposed McCarthy’s bid for speakership on Tuesday. McCarthy was 16 votes shy of the threshold. Twenty GOP lawmakers opposed McCarthy – about 10 percent of the Republican House majority. “Sad!” Gaetz told Fox News. “This changes neither my view of McCarthy, nor Trump, nor my vote.”

Donald Trump endorsed Kevin McCarthy for House Speaker early Wednesday, after a day of waffling by the former president — and a day of chaos on the House floor — kept the new GOP majority without an official leader. “Some really good conversations took place last night,” Trump posted to Truth Social (with caps for emphasis), “and it’s now time for all of our GREAT Republican House Members to VOTE FOR KEVIN, CLOSE THE DEAL, TAKE THE VICTORY, & WATCH CRAZY NANCY PELOSI FLY BACK HOME TO A VERY BROKEN CALIFORNIA.” Emphasis in the original, because Trump. McCarthy, a rare...

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Monday on FNC’s “America Reports” that he hoped former President Donald Trump is not criminally charged for his actions surrounding January 6, 2021. Pence said, “But let me be very clear about this point. Congress has no formal role in Justice Department decisions, so they can make recommendations today. But when it comes to the Justice Department’s decision about about about bringing charges in the future, I would hope that they would not bring charges against the former president. I don’t look, I as I wrote in my book, I think the president’s actions...

The far-right streamer and Jan. 6 rioter known as “Baked Alaska” labeled former President Donald Trump a mere “nft salesman” after his teased “big announcement” flopped Thursday. Trump riled up much of the political world Wednesday when he took to his account on Truth Social to hype a “major announcement” that ended up being a $99.00 NFT trading card of himself dressed as a superhero. The announcement drew mockery, ridicule, and concern from conservatives. Baked Alaska is a White nationalist former MAGA streamer whose legal name is Anthime Joseph Gionet. He was among many who gave Trump’s latest money-making venture...

Hutchinson calls Trump meeting with Nick Fuentes ‘very troubling’ Trump blames Kanye West for bringing Nick Fuentes as dinner guest Nick Fuentes: “Don’t Think He (Trump) Knew That I Was Me At The Dinner” White House blasts Trump over meeting with white supremacist Christie slams Trump’s ‘awful lack of judgement’ for Fuentes, Ye meeting Trump Confirms Mar-a-Lago Dinner with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes; Accuses West of Bringing Uninvited Guest “I Had Never Met and Knew Nothing About”

Guest-hosting Fox News Sunday, Jennifer Griffin suggested to Jonathan Swan that Donald Trump's dinner with Nick Fuentes had triggered something of a wave of criticism of the former president among prominent Republicans. Swan dissented from Griffin's take: "There actually haven't been that many prominent Republicans who have come out against Trump . . . Which tells me there is still a fear among Republicans, even ones who want to oppose him potentially in 2024, that Trump still commands a serious, meaningful proportion of the base, and they don't want to cross him yet." Get the rest of the story and...

Former President Trump on Saturday said Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, is a “seriously troubled man” who he was trying to help, but also blamed the controversial musician for a dinner in which Trump says Ye brought along a known white supremacist. Trump said on Truth Social that Ye brought far-right activist Nick Fuentes to the dinner on Tuesday night and that he did not know who Fuentes was.

The White House has condemned former US President Donald Trump for meeting at his Florida estate with renowned white supremacist Nick Fuentes and with rapper Kanye West, who was recently embroiled in antisemitic controversy. “Bigotry, hate, and antisemitism have absolutely no place in America - including at Mar-A-Lago. Holocaust denial is repugnant and dangerous, and it must be forcefully condemned,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement to CNN. According to media reports, Fuentes and West were seen dining with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Tuesday, when West said he had asked the former president to be...

Former President Donald Trump criticized Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida Thursday in a statement posted on Truth Social, calling him an “average” governor who was “politically dead” and in “desperate shape” before Trump endorsed him in 2017. “Ron came to me in desperate shape in 2017—he was politically dead, losing in a landslide to a very good Agriculture Commissioner, Adam Putnam, who was loaded up with cash and great poll numbers. Ron had low approval, bad polls, and no money, but he said that if I would Endorse him, he could win,” Trump said in the statement. (RELATED: ‘Do...

Trump goes after Gov. Youngkin, saying his name sounds "Chinese."

Gov. Ron DeSantis may believe Tuesday night’s re-election was a “win for the ages,” but former President Donald Trump isn’t sold. Trump took to Truth Social to diminish DeSantis’ accomplishment Wednesday. “Now that the Election in Florida is over, and everything went quite well, shouldn’t it be said that in 2020, I got 1.1 Million more votes in Florida than Ron D got this year, 5.7 Million to 4.6 Million? Just asking?”

Now that the Election in Florida is over, and everything went quite well, shouldn’t it be said that in 2020, I got 1.1 Million more votes in Florida than Ron D got this year, 5.7 Million to 4.6 Million? Just asking?

Hey, Lyin’ Ted and Sleepy Joe: Meet Toxic Trump. You know, if the former president had any self-knowledge or even the slightest ability to be self-deprecating, he might consider giving himself this alliterative nickname.After three straight national tallies in which either he or his party or both were hammered by the national electorate, it’s time for even his stans to accept the truth: Toxic Trump is the political equivalent of a can of Raid......

Former President Donald Trump tore into defeated New Hampshire GOP candidate Don Bolduc — whom he had endorsed for the Senate — for walking back his claim that the 2020 election was stolen. “Don Bolduc was a very nice guy, but he lost tonight when he disavowed, after his big primary win, his long-standing stance on Election Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Primary,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Tuesday. “Had he stayed strong and true, he would have won, easily,” added the former commander-in-chief, who endorsed Bolduc late last week. “Lesson Learned!!” “General Don Bolduc...

Former President Donald Trump took a swipe at Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis at a rally on Saturday night referring to him as "Ron DeSanctimonious" in what could be a sign of growing tension between the two potential presidential candidates.

Those remarks weren’t just vintage Trump braggadocio. They’re likely also smart politics, as they provide an opening to win back some suburban voters that fled from him toward Biden in 2020. Sixty-seven percent of suburban residents were vaccinated as of August, according to a late summer NBC News poll. That was below the 79 percent of urban residents who got the vaccine, but well above the 52 percent of rural residents, where support for Trump runs deep. Even Biden gave credit to the Trump administration for the development of the Covid vaccine and for getting a booster shot.It’s unclear that...

Donald Trump may be out of office, but political donor money continues to pour into his properties across the country. In just the first six months of this year, dozens of Republican campaigns and political groups have together spent at least $750,000 at Trump properties, with nearly half of that coming from fundraising committees directly affiliated with or linked to Trump himself, according to federal and state campaign disclosure reports. Of that $750,000, the largest chunk was spent by the Make America Great Again PAC, Trump's presidential campaign committee-turned political action committee, which paid the former president's businesses more than...

What a dark day for America. Democrats are now allowed to make any changes to election law whenever they feel necessary without consequence. The Supreme Court also threw out Attorney Lin Wood’s election challenge without comment. The Supreme Court turned down EVERY SINGLE election case this year without comment. What a tragedy. It was the Trump Wisconsin case that was dismissed this morning.

By | fburns@mlive.com Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and departing President Donald Trump share some traits in common. Both left divided communities in their political wake, enlisting devout supporters who engaged in emotional faceoffs with disgusted opposition along the way. Kilpatrick, now 50 and one of Michigan’s most notorious taxpayer-funded convicted conmen, is set to be released from prison after serving seven years of his 28-year federal prison sentence. He was originally slated to live behind prison walls until age 67 with an earliest release date of Jan. 18, 2037. That changed when the Trump administration announced Kilpatrick’s sentence will...

Who knew that when the declassifications we’ve been waiting for got rolling they’d seem like a distractor? Not that we should give them short shrift. Long shrifts only, please. ... The ones that are coming out Friday (I’ve seen initial takes pop up in the last couple of hours) are important in their own right, and we’ll all be grateful to whoever has the time to parse them out for us. But in context – the big picture – they make a nice departure point for the main-stage drama that is only beginning to coalesce. They’re a leading element of...