Nancy Mace Proves Anti-Trans Bill Was a Gimmick All Along

Representative Nancy Mace’s latest attention grab has gifted the world something it never asked for: bathroom-themed merch.

The South Carolina Republican has spent the majority of her week advancing a bill with the aim of banning one person from using toilets on Capitol Hill: Representative-elect Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender person to be elected to Congress.

“The Left wants to NORMALIZE balls in women’s stalls. Hell no. I’m NOT backing down,” Mace—who said she supported LGBTQ rights as recently as 2021—wrote on X Thursday night. “Every purchase will help FUEL MY FIGHT to protect women and girls across America. HOLD THE LINE!”

But it’s hard to imagine who would be attracted to Mace’s debut clothing line, which brazenly feature the women’s bathroom logo alongside the text “Come and take it”—a tag line that sounds more akin to an invitation for sexual assault than an alleged mission to thwart it.

Statistically speaking, the threat that transgender people pose to the sanctity of public restrooms is zilch. A 2018 study from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law found that bathroom-related nondiscrimination laws pose practically no risk to women, and that claims to the contrary are little more than myths that are “not empirically grounded.”

Even Mace’s own ex-staffers have gone nuclear on her over the transphobic stunt on McBride. On Wednesday, the lawmaker’s former communications director Natalie Johnson said that Mace’s attacks on McBride were little more than a “ploy to get on Fox.”

“Tweeting 262 times about a bill that applies to like .00000001% of Congress in 36 hours is definitely about protecting women. It’s certainly not just a ploy for media attention,” Johnson tweeted.

The attention-seeking congresswoman has openly acknowledged that the stunt is a direct attack on McBride, telling reporters on Monday that it was “that and more.”

“Sarah McBride doesn’t get a say. I mean, this is a biological man,” Mace said, adding that the newly elected Delaware congresswoman “does not belong in women’s spaces, women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, period, full stop.”

In another interview, Mace claimed that the mere thought of a trans woman walking into a women’s locker room “feels like assault.”

But the whole charade appears especially hollow in light of the fact that Mace and McBride both have private bathrooms in their offices. The only people that the bill will actually hurt will be the nonelected trans employees of the U.S. Capitol complex, who apparently have—until now—been using the bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity with no issue.

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.