Trump Official Says World Leader Convicted in New York Is Illegitimate

In justifying U.S. escalations against Venezuela and describing its regime as “illegitimate,” a top Trump diplomat on Thursday—in the height of irony—cited a New York criminal case against the country’s president.

Mike Waltz, President Donald Trump’s U.N. ambassador, was asked Thursday on Fox News about the administration’s plans for Venezuela. Trump recently authorized covert CIA operations against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, and has publicly considered conducting land strikes on the country.

Waltz told Fox News that Maduro is an “illegitimate leader, convicted in the Southern District of New York,” adding that the U.S. will “do whatever it takes” to dismantle Venezuelan “terrorist gangs.”

Notably, Maduro was not convicted, but rather charged with narcoterrorism and other offenses, in New York’s Southern District in 2020. He has not been apprehended nor stood trial, and the Trump administration has a $50 million bounty out on information leading to his arrest. (Venezuela’s foreign minister at the time called the charges against Maduro “miserable, vulgar, and unfounded,” and consistent with a U.S. “policy of forced regime change in Venezuela.”)

And of course, if a conviction in New York is such a stigma, as Waltz suggests, then Trump is in deep trouble. Trump became the first felonious president in May 2024, convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records by a New York State Supreme Court jury—whose verdict he is appealing.

Waltz, a congressman at the time, cried election interference.

The Arizona Young Republicans clearly don’t understand what was wrong with its members’ frolicsome participation in a racist, Nazi-loving text chain exposed in a gangbusters report by Politico.

The local chapter released a statement Wednesday night in which the organization firmly rejected “any involvement in the ongoing political witch hunt targeting fellow Young Republican members” over the Telegram group chat reported on Wednesday, which was filled to the brim with racism, antisemitism, rape jokes, and other filth.

The statement said that their organization would not stand for “mob-style condemnation driven by political opportunism or personal agendas.”

But it seems members of the Arizona chapter were prolific in the infamous group chat. Luke Mosiman, the chair of the Arizona Young Republicans, appears multiple times in the texts. In July, he suggested linking a political opponent to white supremacist groups, by “releasing Nazi edits with her” and “pro Nazi” propaganda.

Rachel Hope, the events chair for the Arizona Young Republicans, replied: “Omg I love this plan.”

“The only problem is we will lose the Kansas delegation,” Mosiman wrote, to which Hope and the two other Kansas Young Republicans laugh-reacted.

Mosiman also made racist jokes, saying that the “Spanish came to America and had sex with every single woman,” and later added, “Sex? It was rape.”

In the statement Wednesday, the group accused critics of “selective outrage” over their leaders’ horrific remarks.

“It is disheartening to see the double standard applied by so many critics,” the statement said, “While certain voices within our own movement have been quick to condemn, many of these same individuals have overlooked or ignored deeply concerning rhetoric and actions on the political left.”

The Arizona Young Republicans seemed particularly pissed that they’d been hung out to dry by the Young Republicans National Federation, which had released a statement “without so much as a single call” to their Arizonan membership. “This lack of communication reflects a troubling disregard for unity and due process, and raises serious concerns about loyalty and leadership within our movement,” the statement said.

In that Wednesday statement, the Young Republicans National Federation called the language “vile and inexcusable,” and said that the behavior of group chat members was “disgraceful, unbecoming of any Republican.”

“Those involved must immediately resign from all positions within their state and local Young Republican organizations,” the statement said.

But this wasn’t the beginning of beef between Arizona and national leadership—and the group chat provided receipts. In June, Mosiman jokingly called for the Young Republicans Federation Chair Hayden Padgett to be raped. Ah, well: nevertheless.

CBS News’s head of standards and practices, Claudia Milne, announced her departure from the network Thursday morning, marking the first exit of a major executive since Bari Weiss became editor in chief.

Milne did not specify her reason for leaving, but said in a farewell message to colleagues that her exit came amid “complicated times” for the company, the industry, and the country.

“I believe our role as journalists is to hold the powerful to account,” Milne said in a copy of the note obtained by Variety. “We are here to question and challenge our political leaders on behalf of our audiences, Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative … we must interrogate the social media companies that want to control our attention, the businesses that manage our healthcare and the institutions that shape our education system … and So. Much. More.”

Milne joined the company in 2019 as a managing editor of CBS This Morning, but climbed CBS’s ranks by taking on leadership responsibilities during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, she was tasked with overseeing a unit focused on deepfakes and misinformation.

Weiss’s takeover at the network has been met with widespread criticism. The anti-woke, pro-Israel grifter was announced as the newsroom’s newest chief earlier this month, despite lacking any experience as a news reporter, working in broadcast news, or running a major news operation.

Her appointment is the just the latest in a string of chaos at CBS. Over the past year, the company has undermined itself by settling multimillion dollar lawsuits with Donald Trump over its fair and accurate coverage, in an apparent bid to butter up the administration for its multibillion dollar merger. That resulted in the loss of two storied showrunners, including 60 Minutes producer Bill Owens and CBS News chief Wendy McMahon, who rejected Paramount’s approach to handling the groundless lawsuit.

The network climate somehow managed to get even hairier last month when Paramount tapped a former Trump adviser, Kenneth Weinstein, to serve as CBS’s ombudsman.

But Weiss’s whopping promotion—and Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of her blog The Free Press—mark the beginning of a radical new era for the historically middle-of-the-road news conglomerate, which once served as the home of some of journalism’s most venerable names, including Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow. Weiss is expected to continue the right-wing lurch that’s been ongoing at CBS under the ownership of Trump ally David Ellison.

Senator John Fetterman may be primaried in 2028, and he’s apparently quite butthurt about it.

As Axios reported Thursday, possible contenders are emerging to take on the Pennsylvania Democrat. Elected in 2022, Fetterman flipped a long-held red seat after embracing a progressive image. But while in office, he has turned his back on—and even began lashing out at—the left.

Possible 2028 Democratic challengers, per Axios, include Representative Brendan Boyle and former Representative Conor Lamb, who have both been openly critical of the senator, as well as Representative Chris DeLuzio, who has made a name for himself as a progressive economic populist.

The response from Fetterman, a man known for his volatile temperament, was bitter.

“Enjoy your clickbait!” Fetterman texted Axios. When prompted for a follow-up, he cut off communication, telling the publication, “Please do not contact,” before later sending an article with statistics that he claimed evidenced his anti-Trump bona fides. “ACTUAL NUMBERS,” Fetterman wrote, “less clicks.”

Fetterman’s rightward shift came as he took an increasingly hard-line, almost monomaniacal pro-Israel stance, which, along with an adoption of a more Trump-friendly posture on issues like immigration, seemingly spurred a mass exodus of his staffers.

One ex-staffer is quoted in Mother Jones as calling the senator “Trump’s favorite Democrat.” He has lived up to that label lately in siding with MAGA on the U.S. military’s extrajudicial strikes in the Caribbean sans congressional approval, blaming Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown, and even on whether Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.

House Speaker Mike Johnson admitted Thursday that he has absolutely no clue how to end the government shutdown.

During another daily press conference, Johnson pretended that Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress and the White House, had absolutely no say in the fate of the federal government.

“So, many of you have asked all of us, ‘How does it end?’ We have no idea. It’s up to the Democrats, and they have to decide it,” Johnson said. “And judging by their outrageous behavior, the Democrats appear perfectly happy to keep the political theater going while real people suffer.”

But Johnson seemed all too eager to wash his hands of doing the actual work of governance.

Johnson fumed that Democrats had refused an offer from Senate Majority Leader John Thune to get the chamber to vote on Affordable Care Act subsidies, with some reforms, in exchange for reopening the government. But Thune couldn’t guarantee the vote would pass.

“And [Chuck] Schumer said no,” Johnson said, laughing. “That happened. Ask Leader Thune about it. Because they wanted a guaranteed outcome.”

Johnson raged that Republican leaders couldn’t guarantee an outcome, because it was “not possible” for Republicans to build consensus to pass the ACA subsidies until the government was back in session. It was not immediately clear what would be so difficult about that, except that the speaker had sent all members of his own party back to their districts.

Johnson claimed Democrats were holding the American people “hostage” by continuing the shutdown. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has proceeded to gut essential programs, including projects that would create thousands of jobs, and has executed unprecedented layoffs of federal workers.

The speaker ended his address in a huff. “I don’t like being mad Mike, I wanna be happy Mike, I want to be the happy warrior, But I am so upset about this,” he said. “God bless America, we’re done.”

If the ACA tax credits expire at the end of the year, they could knock an estimated 5.1 million Americans off their insurance by 2034.

Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune—who said he believed that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would “help restore some of the trust in our public health agencies” when he voted to confirm him—now thinks that women should not trust RFK Jr. for medical advice.

MSNBC host Ali Vitali asked Thune on Thursday about the lack of “dissent” within GOP leadership, as the party simply seems to fall in line with everything President Trump decides.

“Is that a healthy party?” she asked of the GOP.

“No, and I don’t think that’s true. I would argue, and I’ve dissented a number of times, just in the last few weeks,” Thune said.

“For example on what?”

“Tylenol, for example. FCC.… Go back and check the record.”

“Do you feel the way RFK Jr. is talking about that is dangerous?”

“Well, I’ve said that I think that if I were a woman I’d be talking to my doctor, and not taking advice from RFK, or any other government bureaucrat for that matter.”

So for the record, the Senate majority leader does not think that American women should be listening to the highest-ranking health official in the country, even though he voted to confirm him on grounds that he would “Make America Healthy Again.” Now, as RFK Jr. sets backward policy on vaccines, destroys the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and tells pregnant women that taking Tylenol will give their babies autism, all Thune can do is shrug and tell them to look elsewhere.

The White House promised to bail out American farmers, but they’re almost out of time.

Donald Trump’s tariffs have devastated the American farming industry from both ends, hurting both supply and demand by raising costs on equipment and fertilizer while nixing key international markets such as China. And now time is running out on how the government could help.

“Farmers are hurting financially,” Kansas Senator Jerry Moran told Politico Thursday. “They’re very troubled, there’s some expectation for help. Emotionally, it would be great for something to happen soon. But financially, they need to be able to go to their bankers and say that help is on the way.”

Last month, Trump said he intended to use the country’s supposedly surplus tariff money to subsidize American soybean farmers, though his concept of how much cash could be infused to America’s food producers was not coherent. Speaking with reporters, Trump mixed up “billions” and “millions,” apparently confused on the specifics of what government funds could amount to actual aid.

And the picture has not gotten any clearer, despite the fact that agriculture industry experts say that the industry needs a commitment in the next few weeks as they figure out how to afford the next planting season. Administration officials have still not finalized an amount to provide in the first wave of agriculture aid, according to Politico. Officials also don’t know how they’d pay for it, or how to deploy it.

“It’s easier to talk about than it is to do,” one official close to Trump told the publication.

The White House has so far blamed the government shutdown for a lack of action, steadily pointing the finger at Democrats (despite laws preventing the executive branch from disseminating that type of partisan rhetoric). But industry experts say that even if the shutdown ended tomorrow, it would still take months to get aid to the farmers who need it most. Failing to meet the moment could cause serious problems for the rest of America, spiking food prices and even challenging production.

“We’re starting to reach that precarious zone of not allowing farmers the tools, the commitments that they need to plan—it’s upon us already, to be honest,” Oscar Gonzales, a top aide to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack during multiple presidential administrations, told Politico. “Farmers are going to need something.”

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is moving forward with a plan to send $40 billion in aid to Argentina.

MAGA Representative Dave Taylor is blaming “office vandalism” for the Nazi hate symbol hanging behind his staffer’s desk.

An image reportedly taken during a Zoom meeting with Angelo Elia, the Ohio Republican’s legal correspondent, showed a small American flag with a swastika incorporated into the stripes pinned to the wall behind Elia. The flag was clearly displayed beside a copy of the U.S. Constitution and some printed memes about Ohio. Elia has been working in Taylor’s office since January 2025.

U.S. Capitol Police were called to Taylor’s office in the Cannon Building Tuesday, where they discovered the flag, Politico reported. Taylor’s spokesperson said the Republican lawmaker believed the flag’s presence was the result of “foul play or vandalism.”

Taylor released a statement Wednesday addressing “office vandalism.”

“I am aware of an image that appears to depict a vile and deeply inappropriate symbol near an employee in my office. The content of that image does not reflect the values or standards of this office, my staff, or myself, and I condemn it in the strongest terms,” he wrote. “Upon learning of this matter, I immediately directed a thorough investigation alongside Capitol Police, which remains ongoing. No further comment will be provided until it has been completed.”

This incident comes as a recent report revealed that a group chat used by leaders of Young Republicans groups across the country (whose members’ ages range from their teens into their 40s) was teeming with racism, antisemitism, rape jokes, and other filth—including declarations about loving Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and jokes about sending adversaries “to the gas chamber.”

The Trump administration is devising a new plan to weaponize the government against his political opponents. This time, his team seeks to mold the Internal Revenue Service into a cudgel to be wielded against the left, and is already putting together a list of targets, according to a new Wall Street Journal report.

Under the plan, MAGA allies would be installed at the IRS criminal investigative division, where they would “exert firmer control over the unit and weaken the involvement of IRS lawyers in criminal investigations.” Spearheading the plan is IRS official Gary Shapley, who, according to WSJ sources, has expressed the possibility of taking the place of the IRS veteran currently heading the investigative unit.

He also reportedly has been compiling “a list of donors and groups he believes IRS investigators should look at.” Possible targets include liberal billionaire philanthropist George Soros, a long-standing boogeyman for the MAGA right, whom the DOJ is reportedly investigating as Trump has called for him to be jailed.

The new IRS plot was conceived after “a separate effort to strip tax-exempt status from certain nonprofits” wasn’t yielding sufficient results for the administration, per the report.

As the Tax Law Center notes, federal law prohibits many government officials, particularly those in the executive branch, from directly or indirectly requesting that a taxpayer be audited or investigated. Such guardrails were strengthened after President Richard Nixon sought to weaponize the IRS against his enemies—abuses detailed in the second article of impeachment against him.

After first saying that he did “nothing criminal” by accepting a $50,000 cash bribe in a paper Cava bag, White House border czar Tom Homan is now saying he never took the money at all.

Homan was given the chance to “clarify” the situation at NewsNation’s “Cuomo” Town Hall on Wednesday night.

“I didn’t take $50,000 from anybody,” Homan said.

“How did that get into the mainstream?” NewsNation’s Bill O’Reilly asked Homan.

“I have no idea,” Homan replied. “There’s been hit pieces on me since I came back to this administration. Either it’s gotta be 30, 40 hit pieces on me, about how I’m involved in contracts, government contracts, when in fact, day one I came back, I recused myself from any discussions of any contract or any monetary decisions like that because I used to have a company that did consulting. So I cleared myself day one.”

Then Homan went into victim mode.

“What people don’t talk about is I took a significant, huge pay cut to come back and serve my nation. I’m not enriching myself doing this job.” Homan currently makes $195,200 as border czar.

“Does this make you angry that they’re coming at you this way?”

“I don’t care what people think about me and never have.”

“No?”

“No. Because I know who I am. I work for the greatest president in the history of this nation in my opinion,” Homan replied as the crowd began to applaud. “And we’re doing the right thing every day.”

This is really the first time Homan has outright denied taking the money, even as MSNBC reported that the FBI has him on hidden camera doing it.

“Look I did nothing criminal, I did nothing illegal. And ya know there’s hit piece after hit piece after hit piece. And I’m glad the FBI and DOJ said that nothing illegal happened, no criminal activity,” Homan said when asked about it last month, not actually confirming or denying what he was reportedly caught on camera doing.

It doesn’t matter where the money is at this point, or the footage. If Trump’s FBI wants it buried, it will be buried, regardless of the validity of the evidence.