Trump Is Pissed at True Reports His Victory Wasn’t Exactly a Landslide

Donald Trump is upset with the media for accurately reporting that his election night victory wasn’t exactly a “landslide.”

Trump transition team spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt on Friday took aim at Politico and The New York Times for reporting on the fact that President-elect Trump didn’t win the popular vote by some resounding majority.

“New Fake News Narrative Alert!” Leavitt posted on X. “Here are the ridiculous headlines from @politico and @nytimes this morning. The fake news is trying to minimize President Trump’s massive and historic victory to try to delegitimize his mandate before he even takes the Oath of Office again.”

It’s no surprise that Trump and his team are fuming: Since November 5, Trump’s margin of victory has narrowed considerably. As of the vote count Friday morning, Trump only won against Vice President Kamala Harris by 1.6 points, and failed to secure more than 50 percent of the popular vote. Hillary Clinton managed to beat Trump by a larger margin in 2016 than Trump did over Harris in 2024.

Trump and his supporters have been pushing the landslide narrative ever since he defeated Harris. “We had a great election in the U.S.… Amazing what happened, we had tremendous success. The most successful in over 100 years they say,” he told Fox News last week. Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung claimed that “President Trump won in dominating and historic fashion after the Democrats and the fake news media peddled outright lies and disinformation throughout the campaign.” And Republicans throughout Congress have claimed the same.

Trump likes the landslide narrative, true or not (not), because he thinks it gives him more ground to stand on for his insane agenda. But his mandate is much weaker than he’d have you believe.

The sentencing for Donald Trump’s conviction in his hush-money trial has been canceled indefinitely.

Judge Juan Merchan of the Supreme Court of the State of New York on Friday granted Trump’s application for a stay of sentencing, meaning the president-elect will not face justice anytime soon for his only criminal conviction, on 34 felony counts.

Trump has argued that the entire case should be thrown out after the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity, and this decision is a step in that direction. But, Merchan has made no mention of throwing out his felony convictions, and the Manhattan district attorney’s office seems to be waiting out the president-elect’s four-year term and then revisiting sentencing.

The charges came from Trump making $130,000 in hush-money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to cover up their affair before the 2016 election through his then-fixer, Michael Cohen. A jury found the president-elect guilty in May, making it the first and only time a former president was successfully prosecuted on criminal charges.

At one time, Trump was facing three other indictments—one related to election interference in Georgia, a federal election interference case related to January 6, and his mishandling of classified documents. But now, they’re all moot until he’s done with his second term as president, as his strategy to delay his cases and win the election worked almost perfectly.

This story has been updated.

It’s weeks out from Election Day, and President-elect Donald Trump still hasn’t signed the legal documents required to formally start the transition of power, according to the White House.

Trump’s failure to submit the documents has waylaid a number of essential processes for a peaceful and organized transition, including security clearances, essential briefings, and providing resources to Trump’s transition team before the inauguration, reported USA Today.

The MAGA leader is noticeably overdue on the necessary materials: typically, the documents are filed a month before a presidential election.

“Our teams continue to stay in touch,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing Thursday. “As of now, the Trump-Vance transition team has not yet entered into the agreements with the White House and the General Service Administration.”

President Joe Biden promised a “peaceful and orderly transition” mere days after the election.

His Chief of Staff Jeff Zients reached out to Trump’s transition team after the forty-sixth and forty-seventh president met in the Oval Office last week, and has “consistently reiterated” wanting to work with Trump’s team in order to ensure a proper transition, according to Jean-Pierre.

“We’re going to continue to engage with the Trump transition team to ensure that we do have that efficient, effective transition of power,” Jean-Pierre said.

Trump’s team has not provided an explanation for the unusual delay. Instead, Brian Hughes—a spokesperson for the Trump transition team—told USA Today that Trump’s attorneys “continue to constructively engage with the Biden-Harris Administration lawyers regarding all agreements contemplated by the Presidential Transition Act.”

“We will update you once a decision is made,” Hughes told the publication.

The far-right Hungarian prime minister and friend of Donald Trump, Viktor Orbán, is thumbing his nose at the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Orbán has invited Netanyahu to Hungary in defiance of the ICC’s arrest warrants, which were also issued for former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif. The Hungarian leader called the warrants a “complete defamation” of international law and claimed they will worsen conflict in the Middle East.

“This is wrong in itself,” Orbán told Hungarian state radio Friday. “So there is no other choice here: We have to confront this decision, and so later today I will invite the prime minister of the Israelis, Mr. Netanyahu, to visit Hungary.”

Netanyahu and Gallant were charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes for Israel’s brutal war in Gaza, which has killed more than 44,000 Palestinians including more than 17,000 children, all likely massive undercounts. Estimates in July from the medical journal The Lancet say the death toll ​​could exceed 186,000.

Trump and America’s far right have long admired Orbán, with conservatives praising his authoritarian style of leadership. The conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, which authored the Project 2025 manifesto, goes out of its way to promote the Hungarian leader. Trump and Orbán get along very well, with the president-elect meeting him multiple times over the past year.

The two authoritarians have a love of Netanyahu in common, with Trump praising the Israeli leader and absurdly accusing President Biden (who called the ICC warrants against Netanyahu “outrageous”) of being too tough on him. As long as Orbán and Trump are in charge of Hungary and the U.S., respectively, wanted fugitive Netanyahu can probably count on the two countries to provide him safe havens from the ICC arrest warrant, because fascists look out for one another.

Senator Tom Cotton threatened to invade a U.S. ally on behalf of Israel’s genocidal regime. 

The International Criminal Court issued fresh arrest warrants Thursday for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyau and Israel’s former Foreign Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as  Hamas’s military leader Mohammad Dief, alleging that they’d committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.

While only a handful of the 124 member countries have signaled their willingness to follow through on the warrants, the Netherlands, where the ICC is located, made itself particularly clear: “We are obliged to cooperate with the ICC … we abide 100 percent by the Rome Statute,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp on Thursday.

Cotton, a staunch ally of Israel, made a thinly veiled threat to take military action against the Netherlands if they deign to comply with the warrants they are legally required to comply with as ICC member states. 

“The ICC is a kangaroo court and Karim Khan is a deranged fanatic. Woe to him and anyone who tries to enforce these outlaw warrants. Let me give them all a friendly reminder: the American law on the ICC is known as The Hague Invasion Act for a reason. Think about it,” the Arkansas Republican wrote in a post on X. 

The Hague Invasion Act empowers the United States to free its allies from the clutches of the ICC using “necessary and appropriate” means—but Cotton’s implication promises something much darker and full of “woe.” 

It seems Cotton has maintained the same bloodthirsty attitude from more than a year ago, when he said that “Israel can bounce the rubble in Gaza. Anything that happens in Gaza is the responsibility of Hamas—Hamas killed women and children in Israel last weekend.”

It’s clear that Cotton cannot see that any other state actor has a responsibility for Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 44,000 people—including the U.S., which has readily funded Israel’s atrocities. The U.S. has consistently avoided any measures holding Israel accountable, backing off its hollow threats to withhold military support.