Only Two Republicans Voted Against Trump Defunding Sesame Street

Only two Republican senators broke the line to vote against their party’s plan to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 

Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins joined Senate Democrats in opposition to Republican cuts to organizations like PBS and NPR, and the smaller stations that they fund. While PBS and NPR would still continue at the national level, the cuts would likely devastate those local stations that rely on them. 

The Senate approved $9 billion dollars of cuts early Thursday morning, with $1.1 billion in cuts to public broadcasting and $8.8 billion from foreign aid programs like USAID, which Elon Musk’s DOGE slashed earlier this year. 

“The vast majority of this funding, more than 70 percent, actually flows to local television and radio stations,” Collins said last month during an earlier stage of the deliberation. “In Maine, this funding supports everything from emergency communications in rural areas to coverage of high school basketball championships and [a] locally produced high school quiz show. Nationally produced television programs such as Antiques Roadshow, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, are also enjoyed by many throughout our country.” 

“I understand … the concern about subsidizing the national radio news programming that for years has had a discernibly partisan bent,” she added. “There are, however, more targeted approaches to addressing that bias at NPR than rescinding all of the funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.” She backed up that thinking with her vote on Thursday morning, along with Murkowski.  

Conservatives have been obsessed with attacking NPR and PBS for years. This political decision gives them at least some of what they wanted, all while taking out programming and resources, from Sesame Street to Native American radio, that Americans of all ages genuinely use and enjoy.

“We just don’t have a lot of fat to trim elsewhere,” South Dakota Public Broadcasting executive director Julie Overgaard told The New York Times on Thursday. “On the PBS side of things, I can’t just start cherry-picking which national programs I want and only pay for those … so it really leaves me and many others with little choice but to look at the local programming that we self-generate.”

The Trump administration is looking to use more federal funds to repeat its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s pedophilic sex trafficking ring—but only to prove Donald Trump’s theory that the scandal is a “hoax.”

Speaking with the far-right network Real America’s Voice on Wednesday night, the president suggested that the FBI should expend resources to prove Trump’s invention that the entire case against Epstein is a Democratic “scam.”

“I think they could look at all of it, it’s all the same scam, they could look at this Jeffrey Epstein hoax also, because that’s the same stuff, that’s all put out by Democrats,” Trump told the network, referring to dissenting conservatives as “naive Republicans.”

Against better sense, Trump has been working overtime to sweep the entire Epstein fiasco under the rug. That has included challenging the political identities of some members of his base, who believed Trump’s repeated promises on the campaign trail that he would release the Epstein case files as soon as he returned to high office.

“The Democrats, you know, they have bad policy, they have bad candidates, they have bad everything, but they stick together. The Republicans don’t do that,” Trump said.

Speaking with reporters at the White House earlier Wednesday, Trump said that he had “lost a lot of faith” in his supporters, accusing some conservatives of being “duped” by Democrats.

“That was run by the Biden administration for four years, I can’t imagine what they put into files,” Trump told Real America’s Voice, apparently trying to seed doubt about the ultimate contents of the Epstein case files.

Much to Trump’s chagrin, the botched rollout of the Epstein files has continued to plague his administration. A Morning Consult poll conducted earlier this month found that Trump’s popularity had tanked by six points since the Justice Department contradicted Attorney General Pam Bondi on the existence of Epstein’s so-called “client list.”

But elected Republicans have unquestioningly fallen in line behind their leader: on Tuesday, the party blocked a Democrat-led effort to release the Epstein files. The final vote was 211 to 210—just one dissenting Republican would have tipped the scales.

A reminder that prior to his death, Epstein described himself as one of Trump’s “closest friends.” The socialites were named and photographed together, and Trump reportedly slept with his now-wife Melania for the first time aboard Epstein’s plane, nicknamed the “Lolita Express.”

But Trump also has a terrible track record with how he treats women outside of Epstein’s world: the current president was found liable by a jury for sexually abusing Elle columnist E. Jean Carrol last year, was convicted as a felon for crimes relating to his affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, and famously boasted on a hot mic before his ascent to America’s political vanguard that he grabs women “by the pussy.” High-profile conservatives, including Elon Musk, have speculated that the administration’s continued delay in releasing the Epstein case files is due to the fact that Trump himself might be mentioned in the documents.

Donald Trump is desperate for anything to distract the angry mob seeking answers on alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Now, he’s hoping to toss them some dirt on Hillary Clinton—too bad nobody cares about that.

During an appearance Wednesday on Real America’s Voice, Just the News founder John Solomon reported that Trump was open to declassifying information tied to conspiracy theories about the former secretary of state.

One piece was the classified annex of Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s 2018 report on the FBI’s actions ahead of the 2016 election. The missing annex had become the center of right-wing conspiracies that the FBI had ignored credible information of Clinton’s wrongdoing in the investigation of her private email server.

When asked if he’d declassify the annex, Trump told Just the News, “I would do that.”

“Absolutely. I think it should be looked at. The whole thing was a scam. I would do that broadly,” Trump said.

Trump also indicated he was open to declassifying another classified annex from Special Counsel John Durham’s 2023 report, which supposedly contained evidence that Clinton had approved a proposal to “vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security services.”

“I would declassify it, yeah. Why not?” Trump told Just the News. “I would absolutely declassify it.”

But Trump’s promises are far from an actual commitment. Trump had previously pledged the “total declassification of any & all documents” related to Russiagate and Clinton’s use of a private email server during his first term, but attorneys from the Department of Justice told the Office of White House Council to simply disregard the president’s hollow threat.

Trump has been increasingly desperate to redirect the massive backlash over his administration’s toothless findings in its investigation into Epstein, which produced no additional documents and found that the sex offender kept no incriminating “client list,” even though his attorney general claimed one had been sitting on her desk.

The president posted a furious rant on Truth Social Tuesday, saying that any of his followers who were interested in the Epstein case were falling for Democratic “bullshit,” and compared it to the “totally fake and made up story used in order to hide Crooked Hillary Clinton’s big loss in the 2016 Presidential Election.” Similarly to Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, Trump now claims that Epstein files are a “hoax.”

Unfortunately for Trump, Americans don’t care about Clinton’s emails nearly as much as they care about his own administration’s scandal: Signalgate, the infamous use of a non-secure messaging app by several top Cabinet officials to discuss sensitive war plans.

After Signalgate, a YouGov survey found that nearly 75 percent of respondents believed the scandal was “very” or “somewhat” serious.

After Clinton’s email scandal in 2015, YouGov found that 56 percent of respondents thought the issue was “very serious” and “somewhat serious.” By 2022, people had become more concerned, but only 62 percent saw it as “very serious” or “somewhat serious,” likely at least in part resulting from Trump’s constant griping about it.

Meanwhile, a Quinnpac Poll published Wednesday found that 63 percent of American voters disapprove of the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files.

Trump’s looking for anything at all that can distract the angry mob. Just in case the almond moms were sharpening their pitchforks, Trump even promised that he would get real sugar added to Coca Cola instead of high fructose corn syrup. Now there’s something everyone can get behind!

Trump’s dismissal of the Jeffrey Epstein case is giving some of his most ardent supporters—like Alex Jones—a bit of an identity crisis.

“Trump, we’ve believed in you, we’ve seen you do great work, we’ve seen the bad guys, the worst certified people on earth come after you,” Jones said in a video on Wednesday, staring directly into the camera. He then accurately detailed the Trump administration’s history of contradictory policy on the Epstein files. “And now we’ve seen you uncharacteristically flip flop on your promises back and forth. ‘There was no Epstein case, there’s nothing to see here. Ok, we’re gonna investigate it, we’re gonna put it in a special counsel, no there’s nothing there, anybody investigating it is fake news and is a traitor.’ Your most loyal supporters and good people are the ones pointing this out.”

Jones captioned the video “why is Trump destroying MAGA in real time?”

If I was a QAnon-adjacent, Epstein-obsessed MAGA conspiracy theorist, I would be feeling dejected, angry, and confused right now too. Donald Trump and his inner circle made this issue central to their campaign, making promises upon promises to reveal every secret regarding the Epstein files. Now they’re saying there’s nothing there, and that anyone who ever thought so is a complete idiot. It’s been brutally amusing to watch in real time.

“To say ‘you either agree with everything I do or you’re not in our club, I don’t want you,’ well, that sounds kind of like a thorough-bred cult to me,” he said in another video where he compared MAGA to a cult. “When somebody starts saying don’t question things or you can’t be in our club, yeah that’s a cult.”

“I have to say at this point, if you look at the scales here, whether it happened a year ago or six months ago or a month ago, stuff really started to change when Elon [Musk] left, with what he discovered,” he added. “And I think it has a lot of credibility what he said. Trump’s implicated here. I’m not saying sex abuse or kids but definitely somehow, somebody close to him … you are compromised. And If you go with the deep state and continue down this road … the coverup is even worse than whatever would have come out. So I’m loyal to the truth.”

While some MAGA loyalists have scapegoated Attorney General Pam Bondi for various reasons—like her lying about the client list being on her desk, or claims that she is a nefarious deep state operative who strong-armed FBI director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Bongino on the Epstein memo—but few have had the gall to make the connection Jones did here. Perhaps Trump wants everyone to forget about Epstein because he or his friends would be implicated. Either way, the hardcore wing of the MAGA movement is in shambles over this. And as we approach week three of the fallout, it’s unclear if they’ll ever fully recover. There may be more tears from Jones in the near future.

Elected representatives say they aren’t interested if their constituents are detained by federal immigration officials.

On Capitol Hill Wednesday, South Carolina Representative Ralph Norman, Texas Representative Troy Nehls, and Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville brushed off reports that American citizens were being targeted by ICE agents in overzealous raids.

“Congressman, do you care if U.S. citizens accidentally get detained in ICE raids?” Migrant Insider’s Pablo Manríquez asked each of them.

“No, I’m not concerned about that,” confessed Norman, underscoring that he was “so appreciative” of border czar Tom Homan’s actions to force undocumented immigrants out of the country en masse.

“I’m concerned about law and order in America. If you’re an illegal, you don’t need to be here,” Norman said, apparently forgetting that ICE has no authority to arrest, detain, or deport U.S. citizens.

“But what if you’re a citizen?... It just seems to be happening a lot,” pressed Manríquez.

But Norman said he doesn’t “believe that,” highlighting concerns about alleged undocumented gang members in the country when Manríquez cited reports that U.S. veterans are getting dragged into ICE’s deportation machine.

At least one veteran has so far been detained by the aggressive agency: George Retes, a 25-year-old disabled veteran, was detained on July 10 while at work on a California farm. He was held for three days by ICE officials without access to legal representation and without any charges against him, according to Representative Pramila Jayapal’s office.

Jayapal introduced legislation Wednesday—the “Stop ICE from Kidnapping US Citizens Act”—to make ICE’s illegal actions even more blatant. The measure would prevent ICE from detaining and deporting U.S. citizens following reports that the agency had been harassing the country’s Latino population, requesting on-demand proof of citizenship.

But Norman isn’t the only lawmaker to disregard the alarming cases. Nehls attempted to undermine the traumatizing nature of detention when asked if he cared about the arrested citizens, telling Manríquez that the media shouldn’t “spin” detention for “more than it really is.”

“Are you detained for more than three days?” Nehls asked rhetorically, waving his cigar.

“In some cases, yeah,” responded Manríquez.

“Well, maybe people can’t prove that they’re American citizens, either, have the documentation,” Nehls said, apparently at a loss for words, though he did mention that he believed Homan was doing a “hell of a job.”

“It’s not a big problem. It really, really isn’t,” Nehls added.

Tuberville’s sensitive advice to Americans concerned about being illegally detained by plainclothed undercover ICE agents was simple: “First of all, don’t put yourself in a situation where that happens.”

“I’m sure with the illegals we have in this country, some mistakes happen, that always—that’s gone happen,” Tuberville said, before directing Americans to disengage from undocumented communities. “But if you are gonna be hanging around people who are not citizens of this country, some things like that are going to probably happen.”

“Don’t hang around illegals,” he warned.

Tuberville had no advice for mixed-status families.

President Trump once again raised questions surrounding his mental acuity after he seemed to forget that he was the person who appointed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, while he was in the middle of admonishing Powell for not capitulating to his economic plan.

“He’s a terrible, he’s a terrible fed chair,” Trump said of Powell on Wednesday. “I’m surprised he was appointed, I was surprised frankly that Biden put him in and extended him.” 

It was in fact Trump, not Biden, who put Powell “in.” The president nominated Powell for Fed chair in November of 2017, to replace Janet Yellen. 

The incident came just after multiple reports revealed that Trump has a secret letter firing Powell, and he has been asking Republican lawmakers whether he should send it.

This is also a major slip-up from Trump, the result of both his strong inclination to blame anything he doesn’t like on the previous administration and genuine mental decline. This is not the first time Trump’s mental fog has shown itself, even as he is just barely halfway through the first year of his second term. He went on an unrelated tangent about his summer vacation plans earlier this month when he was asked a very basic question about how long detainees would be kept in the Alligator Alcatraz detention camp, and famously confused Nancy Pelosi and Nikki Haley up at a campaign event last year. These are just one of many examples. Who knows what Trump’s mind will look like at the end of this term.  

The Department of Homeland Security used a painting to evoke themes of xenophobia, white supremacy, and a glorification of Manifest Destiny—all without seeking the approval of Morgan Weistling, the artist who painted it. 

On Monday, the DHS posted Weistling’s painting with an incorrect title, calling it “New Life in a New Land,” rather than the original “A Prayer for New Life.” 

Weistling made himself and his grievances known shortly thereafter. 

“Attention!  I DID NOT give the DHS permission to use my painting in their recent postings on their official web platforms,” he wrote on his website. “They used a painting I did 5 years ago and re-titled it and posted it without my permission. It is a violation of my copyright on the painting.  It was a surprise to me and I am trying to gather how this happen and what to do next. Thank you for those of you that let me know about it.” Weistling posted similar statements on Facebook and Instagram, adding that the news ruined his family vacation.

The DHS post is troubling for a few reasons. What made them change the title of the painting to a much more land-centered, migration-centered message? Did they just think that Weistling would have no issue with having his painting used without permission and compensation? But most troubling in all this is the timing, as the incendiary, thinly-veiled white supremacist language comes as the Trump administration is in the midst of a massive immigration crackdown in which ICE has effectively opened a concentration camp, set wild new arrest quotas, and openly admitted to racial profiling Latinos. 

“I am amazed that they thought they could randomly post an artist’s painting without permission,” Weistling said in his Instagram post. “They even re-titled it.”

The president would apparently rather disparage his base than release the case files pertaining to child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Speaking with reporters at the White House Wednesday, Trump said that he had “lost a lot of faith” in his supporters, calling the controversy surrounding Epstein a “hoax” and accusing some conservatives of being “duped” by Democrats.

“You mentioned ‘past’ supporters when you were talking about the Epstein issue. Does that mean you are effectively disowning any supporters?” asked one reporter, referring to a lengthy rant Trump posted on Truth Social earlier in the day.

“Well, I lost a lot of faith in certain people, yeah,” Trump said. “Because they got duped by the Democrats. The Democrats are good for nothing. They almost destroyed our country.”

But that wasn’t the only insult Trump threw around.

“It is a hoax started by Democrats, it’s been run by Democrats for four years. You had Christopher Wray and Comey before him. It’s a bad group,” Trump said, likening his administration’s home-brewed fiasco to the Trump-Russia dossier. “Some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net. And so they try to do the Democrats’ work.”

That last comment actually also applies to several MAGA politicos in leadership positions, including Vice President JD Vance and Trump himself, who jointly campaigned on repeat promises to release the Epstein files.

Much to Trump’s chagrin, the botched rollout of the Epstein files has continued to plague his administration. A Morning Consult poll conducted earlier this month found that Trump’s popularity had tanked by six points since the Justice Department contradicted Attorney General Pam Bondi on the existence of Epstein’s so-called “client list.”

The fallout has been so substantial that the president directed Fox News and some commentators such as Charlie Kirk to stop discussing the topic altogether, though that hasn’t played well with some of the mouthier personalities on the far-right.

“Yelling at me to stop talking about a subject is the number one way to make sure that I keep talking about the subject,” Matt Walsh posted on X Wednesday.

And last month, Elon Musk accused Trump of being mentioned by name in the Epstein files, claiming that Trump’s alleged attachment to the disgraced financier was the real reason why the details of the case had not yet been made public.

But Republicans have unquestioningly fallen in line behind their leader: on Tuesday, the party blocked a Democrat-led effort to release the Epstein files. The final vote was 211 to 210—just one dissenting Republican would have tipped the scales.

QAnon believers—who turned out at the polls in November to re-elect Trump—have believed for years that the 79-year-old billionaire politician would rid the world of Satan-worshiping, liberal-minded pedophiles who run the government and media. But Trump’s sudden refusal to offer up what he has promised his conspiratorial followers has cast his messiah-like status with the group into doubt.

A reminder that prior to his death, Epstein described himself as one of Trump’s “closest friends.” The socialites were named and photographed together, and Trump reportedly slept with his now-wife Melania for the first time aboard Epstein’s plane, nicknamed the “Lolita Express.”

But Trump also has a terrible track record with how he treats women outside of Epstein’s world: the current president was found liable by a jury for sexually abusing Elle columnist E. Jean Carrol last year, was convicted as a felon for crimes relating to his affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, and famously boasted on a hot mic before his ascent to America’s political vanguard that he grabs women “by the pussy.”

Another ex-NYPD official has filed a lawsuit accusing Mayor Eric Adams of overseeing a “coordinated criminal conspiracy” at the nation’s largest police department.

Former Police Commissioner Thomas G. Donlon, whose tenure lasted mere weeks in the fall of 2024, says the NYPD, under the watch of Adams, “functions as a racketeering enterprise in violation of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).”

Donlon went on to state that he “uncovered systemic corruption and criminal conduct being perpetrated by the NYPD’s leadership,” and that Adams “condoned the misconduct.”

The 251-page lawsuit details wire, mail, and honest services fraud, retaliation against whistleblowers, and obstruction of justice, all from the top down. Top police officials allegedly blocked disciplinary referrals for officers, and even forged Donlon’s official department stamp on important documents. These experiences have led to Donlon throwing weighty RICO allegations against his former NYPD colleagues.

“Specifically, Donlon informed Defendant ADAMS of fabricated promotions, systemic fraud, retaliatory policing, and the obstruction of internal investigations by high-ranking officials—most notably Defendant [Tarik] Sheppard, who had a documented history of unlawful violence, including the tasering and false arrest of protestors, resulting in civil rights lawsuits and monetary settlements,” the lawsuit stated. “Defendant ADAMS took no action in response. Instead, he condoned the misconduct and allowed the NYPD to function as a criminal enterprise. As a direct result of Defendant ADAMS’s failure and unwillingness to manage the NYPD, Defendant Sheppard fraudulently orchestrated his own promotion—granting himself greater authority and a higher salary.”

Donlon said he was completely frozen out by NYPD leadership after confronting Sheppard about his promotion scam, and they allegedly even carried out an unlawful arrest of Donlon’s wife as retaliation.

“[Donlon’s] professional reputation—built over decades of federal and state law enforcement and intelligence service—was deliberately destroyed. The emotional toll of the retaliation against his entire family was and is incalculable,” the lawsuit read. “These were precisely the kinds of injuries RICO was designed to remedy, and this Complaint seeks redress for Donlon, whose unwavering aspiration from the beginning was to protect and serve the NYPD’s Finest.”

The Adams administration remains indignant.

“These are baseless accusations from a disgruntled former employee who — when given the opportunity to lead the greatest police department in the world — proved himself to be ineffective,” spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak Altus said on the mayor’s behalf. “This suit is nothing more than an attempt to seek compensation at the taxpayer’s expense after Mr. Donlon was rightfully removed from the role of interim police commissioner.”

This is the fifth lawsuit filed against Adams’s NYPD in just two weeks. Four former senior NYPD officers filed separate lawsuits against Adams, also accusing him of corruption, cronyism, and whistleblower intimidation. This all comes as the mayor is preparing to run as an independent against Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, who has zeroed in mercilessly on the mayor’s misconduct.

Adams would very likely be under federal investigation by the Justice Department if they hadn’t (rather controversially) dismissed his federal corruption charges in exchange for loyalty and aid in Trump’s brutal immigration crackdown. Corruption has followed Adams for the entirety of his tenure. We can only wait until November to see if voters give him another.

Donald Trump was spotted sporting a poorly concealed bruise on his hand, and the White House has the weirdest excuse for why that is the case.

While speaking to reporters outside the White House Tuesday evening before boarding Marine One, a cameraperson zoomed in on the president’s hand. A large patch of makeup that did not match Trump’s skin tone was clearly evident on the back of his hand.

No one asked Trump about it in the moment, but when asked later, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Daily Beast that Trump was covering up a bruise from too much handshaking.

“President Trump is a man of the people, and he meets more Americans and shakes their hands on a daily basis than any other president in history,” Leavitt told the Beast. “His commitment is unwavering and he proves that every single day.”

This is neither the first time Trump has had a large bruise on the back of his right hand, nor the first time Leavitt has made this bizarre excuse. The bruise first appeared in spring 2024, and appears to pop back up every few months. Since taking office, Trump has been spotted with the bruise in at least February, April, and June.

Trump was also spotted with scabbed red marks on the palm and fingers of his right hand in January 2024, sparking concerns that he had syphilis.

Leavitt made her initial claim about too much gladhanding after the February bruise appearance, when Trump tried to cover the blemish with makeup approximately the color of wet brown cardboard.

Dr. Neal Patel, a primary care physician at Providence St. Joseph Hospital in California, told the Daily Mail in February that handshaking on its own was unlikely to have caused the bruising.

“I see a lot of patients who are businessmen, and I’ve never really seen them getting bruising from too much handshaking,” he said. “I guess it’s possible, but that would really not be on my list of ideas of what causes it.”

Patel and Dr. Stuart Fischer, an internal medicine physician in New York, both said that Trump’s advanced age was the likelier cause of bruising. As people age, it causes their blood vessels to become more “brittle,” Fischer explained to the Mail. That makes bruising more likely—and more intense when it does happen.

If Leavitt isn’t going to provide Trump with a decent excuse for the bruise, the least she (or literally anyone else at the White House) could do is find him some makeup that better matches his skin tone.

Sephora was hit with calls for a boycott shortly after the 2024 election when a series of social media posts alleging the makeup retail giant had donated to Trump’s campaign. Sephora has since said it “does not make corporate donations to political candidates.” Brendan Glavin, deputy research director at campaign finance watchdog group OpenSecrets, explained to CBS in November that any lump donations from “Sephora” (or any company) were likely an “aggregation of all the money that employees of the organization gave to the candidate.”

That means that there’s at least one Sephora employee who would happily color-match Trump’s skin tone. Maybe they can help him with his foundation and bronzer next.