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The horrified wife of a Navy veteran accused of viciously beating the elderly owner of the San Diego-area “Trump House” described her husband’s dark past — and revealed that she now plans to divorce the “nerdy gamer.” Breanna Butler, 32, told The California Post that her husband Thomas Caleb Butler, also 32, acted violently toward his family and dangerously mixed alcohol with his medication “frequently.” Breanna had been separated from Thomas for two years due to his violent nature, which she attributed to his mental illness. “[He] has a history of mental health illness, and it became violent for our...

Hell hath no fury like a Republican senator scorned by his own party’s president. After Sen. Bill Cassidy fell far short in his Louisiana primary, the longtime Republican lawmaker delivered a concession speech that took some unsubtle shots at the president who orchestrated his defeat. “When you participate in democracy, sometimes it doesn’t turn out the way you want it to,” the senator said. “But you don’t pout, you don’t whine, you don’t claim the election was stolen.”In the same concession speech, the Louisianian said, “Let me just set the record straight: Our country is not about one individual. It...

Democrats won an unexpected victory Tuesday when legislation to halt the Iran war cleared an initial hurdle in the Senate — a vote that strengthens their hand in the increasingly fractious debate over the conflict. Critics of the military operation took advantage of a shorthanded Republican conference — three GOP senators missed the vote — resulting in a 50-47 decision to force debate on a rebuke of President Donald Trump. War opponents gained another GOP defector in Sen. Bill Cassidy. The Louisiana Republican, who voted to convict President Donald Trump in the wake of his second impeachment over the Jan....

On Thursday's Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski and analyst Richard Haass turned to Ronald Reagan's optimistic vision of America to paint the current administration as a betrayal of American ideals. [snip] MIKA: So, Richard Haass, just kind of a big picture about, number one, the importance of American exceptionalism, thinking of Ronald Reagan's 1989 farewell speech, Shining City on the Hill, tall, proud city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity and doors open to anyone who will get there.To this, as some would say, corruption, what do we look like, as opposed to the way Ronald Reagan...

The Senate is heading home until June without finishing a reconciliation bill, after Republican tensions over the package coincided with President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX) against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman posted on X: “BREAKING NEWS: THE SENATE will go home until June, leaving the reconciliation bill unfinished. THUNE just told senators in the room. All because of the DOJ weaponization fund. House is expected to follow suit soon.” Brendan Pedersen, a senior reporter with Punchbowl News, posted on X: “Thune asked if Senate Rs are responding to politics...

The Senate GOP on Thursday delayed the reconciliation vote to fund ICE and Border Patrol – and Senate Majority Leader John Thune admitted it is a political hit against President Trump. The Senators will be on recess until June. Last week, the Senate Parliamentarian struck down three key provisions of the Senate’s reconciliation bill The House of Representatives previously passed the Senate-approved package to fund the Department of Homeland Security by voice vote, ending the 75-day shutdown. ICE and Border Patrol were to be funded separately through a reconciliation package. Senate Republicans put together a $72 billion reconciliation package to...

Nick Sortor@nicksortor🚨 IT'S OFFICIAL: Senate Republicans will now MISS President Trump's June 1 deadline to pass ICE and CBP funding, as John Thune decides to RECESS the Senate until NEXT MONTHThune is a FAILURE.President Trump is NOT going to be happy about this. Time to remove Thune!May 21, 2026 TRANSCRIPT BEGINS~~~Fox Anchor Bill Hemmer: ....chaos on Capitol Hill as Senate Republicans are now set to go home until June. That's significant because that now puts them on course to miss a June 1st deadline that was set by President Trump to pass a reconciliation funding package to give money to...

Consumer sentiment has tumbled to a fresh record low in May as fears of higher prices grow due to the U.S.-Iran war and elevated oil prices, the University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers said Friday. The index of consumer sentiment fell to 44.8 from a preliminary reading of 48.2. It’s also well below the 49.8 level seen at the end of April. “Consumer sentiment fell for the third straight month as supply disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz continue to boost gasoline prices. Sentiment is now just below the previous historical trough seen in June 2022,” Surveys of Consumers Director...

These figures are based on annualized data from January to November 2025, compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) and reported by Visual Capitalist and other sources. The United States is the world’s largest oil producer, followed by Russia and Saudi Arabia, with the top 10 countries supplying over 70% of global crude oil.United States 16.1%Russia 11.7%Saudi Arabia 11.3%Canada 5.9%Iraq 5.2%China 5.1%Iran 5.0%United Arab Emirates 4.5%Brazil 4.4%Kuwait 3.1%

https://archive.ph/CHQ6i President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed a new effort to reach a deal with Iran in a difficult call on Tuesday, three sources said, with one source saying Netanyahu's "hair was on fire" after the call. Why it matters: A revised peace memo was drafted by Qatar and Pakistan with input from the other regional mediators to try to bridge the gaps between the U.S. and Iran, the sources said. It comes with Trump vacillating over ordering a massive strike on Iran and holding out for a deal. Netanyahu is highly skeptical about the negotiations and...

Iran's Supreme Leader has issued a directive that the country's near-weapons-grade uranium should not be sent abroad, two senior Iranian sources said, hardening Tehran's stance on one of the main U.S. demands at peace talks.Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei's order could further frustrate U.S. President Donald Trump and complicate talks on ending the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Israeli officials have told Reuters that Trump has assured Israel that Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, needed to make an atomic weapon, will be sent out of Iran and that any peace deal must include a clause on this. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu...

A UN body of researchers that puts together possible climate scenarios announced last week that one extreme scenario it put forward back in 2011 is no longer plausible. As Roger Pielke Jr. from AEI puts it, the climate apocalypse is no longer around the corner.The climate apocalypse isn’t around the corner after all. That’s the upshot of a recent report from the international panel that supplies official “scenarios” to researchers, governments and banks. It turns out that the most extreme assumptions about the future — the doomsaying predictions embodied in the worst-case scenario known as RCP8.5 — are “implausible.”...The substance...

Liberal podcast star Jennifer Welch branded President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement a “Nazi-style cult” during the Monday’s edition of her show. Welch ranted that MAGA supporters are fake Americans who need to be placed in a special historical category, much like citizens of the Third Reich. “We cannot let them besmirch the name the United States of America. Let it be MAGA. Much like when you think of Germany, you don’t associate modern-day Germany as being Nazis. You don’t associate that,” Welch said on I’ve Had It. “So we need to separate ourselves from this Nazi-style cult,...

On Tuesday, GOP Rep. Thomas Massie (KY-04) faces primary voters in Kentucky. The seven-term incumbent is facing Republican Ed Gallrein, a farmer and a retired Navy SEAL who earned four Bronze Stars over three decades in the service. Rep. Massie is a Libertarian Republican in the mould of Republican Sen. Rand Paul (KY) and Paul's father, former Republican Rep. Ron Paul (TX-14). He marries a pro-life record with a very small government philosophy. He is also strongly anti-Israel (but more on that later). Rep. Massie is facing his toughest challenge ever, largely because he really pissed off the head of...

Days after Israeli strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader and other officials in the opening salvos of the war, Trump mused publicly it would be best if “someone from within” Iran took over the country. It turns out that the US and Israel went into the conflict with a particular and surprising someone in mind: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former Iranian president known for his hard-line, anti-Israel and anti-American views. But the plan, developed by the Israelis and which Ahmadinejad had been consulted about, quickly went awry, according to the U.S. officials who were briefed on it. Ahmadinejad was injured on...

European negotiators agreed late on Tuesday to implement the controversial trade agreement concluded last summer with the US. However, the deal — signed in the Scottish city of Turnberry — remains fragile as long as US President Donald Trump continues to use tariffs as a tool of political pressure. Diplomats and MEPs reached an agreement late on Tuesday to implement the contentious EU-US agreement, which eliminates duties on most US industrial goods imported into Europe. The negotiations concluded two weeks after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on EU cars if Europeans did not implement the agreement...

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is projected to lose his Kentucky House primary race to President Trump-endorsed challenger Ed Gallrein, according to Decision Desk HQ, a major victory for the president in his bid to oust Republican lawmakers who openly defy him. Gallrein, a retired Navy SEAL and farmer, was projected to win the GOP primary in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District, ending Massie’s 14-year tenure in the deep-red seat. Trump recruited Gallrein to run against Massie after the incumbent congressman broke with the president on a series of high-profile issues. Tuesday’s results mark the latest example of Trump’s firm hold on...

Mortgage rates continued to move higher in the past week as geopolitical turmoil caused the 10-year Treasury yield to soar, although mortgage spreads remain well below their levels of 2024 and 2025. At HousingWire‘s Mortgage Rates Center, rates for 30-year conforming loans were at 6.77%, their highest point of the year. Rates for 30-year loans through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) averaged 6.33% and rates for 30-year jumbo loans averaged 6.89%. HousingWire Data is benchmarked across a base of retail lenders using a standardized borrower scenario with a 75% loan-to-value ratio and a 780 FICO score. Last week, loan officers...

Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican congressman locked in a heated primary battle with a Trump-backed challenger, is fundraising from anti-war, Muslim-American activists, and leftist-aligned PACs. President Trump has called Massie, long a thorn in his side, the “worst Republican Congressman in history”, throwing the weight of his MAGA political machine behind his opponent to oust him.

In the final days of a tough campaign, @RepThomasMassie is making his closing argument to his district in Kentucky — good people who want lower interest rates, relief from high prices, good education and security. So what’s his message? “We have to stop the Jews!” What does that say about how mainstream antisemitism has become in America? — David M Friedman (@DavidM_Friedman) May 19, 2026Notice how Massie just brings up Israel and Jews unprompted, out of the blue. The question wasn't even about Jews.Disgusting! pic.twitter.com/GbcYtyvSju— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 19, 2026