Trump Gives Shocking Defense of Call Between His Team and Putin Aide

On Tuesday, Donald Trump had to defend the contents of a leaked call between his envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Yuri Ushakov, a senior foreign policy adviser to Vladimir Putin.

The call took place on October 14, days before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was due to meet Trump at the White House. On the call, Witkoff seemed to be coaching Ushakov on convincing language to use on Trump, and promising to give Russia Ukrainian land under a final peace deal.

On Air Force One Tuesday evening, a reporter asked Trump if he had heard the “audio of Witkoff coaching the Russians on how to appeal to you.” Trump said no, and dismissed the call as “a standard thing.”

“He’s gotta sell this to Ukraine, he’s gotta sell Ukraine to Russia.… That’s what a dealmaker does. You’ve gotta say, look, they want this, you’ve gotta convince them of this. You know, that’s a very standard form of negotiation. I haven’t heard it, but I heard it was standard negotiation, and I would imagine he’s saying the same thing to Ukraine,” Trump responded.

Another reporter asked Trump if he was worried Witkoff was too pro-Russian, alluding to the envoy’s chumminess with Ushakov on the call. Trump’s answer blew past that premise.

“I think, look, ahh—this war could go on for years, and Russia’s got a lot more people, got a lot more soldiers. So I think if Ukraine can make a deal, it’s a good thing. Frankly, I think it’s great for both. But, Ukraine’s gotta—it’s a much smaller group of people. They’ve lost a lot of people, Russia’s lost a lot of people. But Russia has a much bigger pool of people,” Trump said.

The released transcript of the call seems to show Witkoff effectively telling Russia how to sell the early peace deal draft to Trump, as if it was being proposed by Putin to the United States, with Witkoff suggesting Putin praise Trump as a “man of peace.”

We know now that the initial deal was effectively drafted by Russia and contained what Secretary of State Marco Rubio describes as a “wish list” for the country, with no Ukrainian input at all. It turns out that Trump wasn’t even that involved himself.

The mother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew was reportedly swept up by Donald Trump’s sprawling deportation campaign.

Bruna Caroline Ferreira was taken into custody in Massachusetts after she reportedly overstayed her visa by 26 years, a source told WMUR in a story published Tuesday. She is currently being held at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Leavitt’s nephew lives with his father, Michael Leavitt, and stepmother in New Hampshire. Speaking to WMUR, Michael Leavitt said that following the arrest a few weeks ago, he was primarily concerned for his son’s safety and well-being.

DHS claimed that Ferreira, who is originally from Brazil, was required to leave the country in 1999 and that she had a prior arrest for battery. But Todd Pomerleau, Ferreira’s lawyer, insisted that she had remained in the country legally and was pursuing citizenship through DACA, and that she had no criminal record.

“Bruna has no criminal record whatsoever. I don’t know where that is coming from. Show us the proof. There’s no charges out there. She’s not a criminal, illegal alien; we’re hearing that said about anyone who’s not a U.S. citizen,” Pomerleau told WMUR.

Meanwhile, Karoline Leavitt, a fierce defender of Trump’s immigration crackdown, declined to comment to WMUR. The two women reportedly have not spoken in years.

Obamacare may have no future at all if it’s up to Donald Trump.

Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One Tuesday, the president claimed he would rather shift the cost of the subsidized health care marketplace entirely onto the Americans who depend on it.

“Are you planning to extend those subsidies?” asked a journalist.

“I’d rather not. Somebody said, ‘I want to extend them for two years.’ I don’t want to extend them for two years. I’d rather not extend them at all,” Trump said.

“Maybe some kind of extension may be necessary to get something else done, because the ‘unaffordable care act’ has been a disaster,” he continued. “It’s a disaster. And I said it was when it first got put in.”

Trump then went on to blame Democrats for skyrocketing ACA premiums, despite the fact that Republicans were the ones who voted against extending the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits when the government shutdown finally ended earlier this month. That move effectively ensured that health insurance premiums would double for some 20 million Americans.

A record 24 million Americans signed up for coverage through the ACA marketplace at the beginning of this year, roughly double the number of people who enrolled just four years earlier amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Obamacare subsidies in some states lapsed during the shutdown to disastrous effect. In Wisconsin, Governor Tony Evers warned that premiums would rise by more than $30,000 a year for supposedly affordable health insurance. Low-income regions of the country will be particularly hard hit, such as Mississippi, Tennessee, and South Carolina, as recipients decide whether they can afford the rising costs.

The result, according to policy experts, will be a mass exodus from Obamacare plans altogether, leaving roughly four million Americans uninsured. The spike in uninsured Americans will spur a public health problem that has historically proved to make premiums more expensive for the insured as hospitals look to recoup the lost cash.

MAGA is furious at U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice over the entirely “avoidable” botched indictments of President Donald Trump’s political enemies.

A federal judge on Monday dropped the criminal indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, deciding that the prosecutor who brought the charges in both cases—Lindsey Halligan—was not lawfully appointed. Now Donald Trump’s fans are furious that the DOJ’s apparent screw-up may have cost the president his revenge.

Fox News host Laura Ingraham appeared to blame justice officials for stupidly failing to follow procedure, quoting Trump’s former impeachment attorney David Schoen, who called the dismissal “avoidable” during an interview.

“An avoidable BLUNDER—and DOJ knew it,” Ingraham wrote in a post on X Monday.

Appearing on Ingraham’s show, Schoen had said: “Quite frankly, the Justice Department should have just put somebody in the room with Lindsey Halligan. It would have taken away all the arguments for dismissal.”

Michael Flynn, Trump’s disgraced former national security adviser, called for Bondi to be replaced by Sidney Powell. “I’m certain others will have their opinions but mine is not an opinion, it is based on hard evidence,” he wrote on X Monday.

“I’m sorry @AGPamBondi but this was completely avoidable,” Flynn wrote.

This isn’t the first time that MAGA has taken aim at the head of Trump’s DOJ. In July, MAGA was left fuming after Bondi walked back claims that she’d set eyes on a list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients, and in September, they were up in arms over her threats to crack down on free speech.

Even those who don’t like Trump but know how he operates aren’t impressed by Bondi. Former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb said Monday that Bondi and Halligan “should be disbarred,” and called reports that the indictment had never been properly returned “shocking.”

“You know, Bondi has twice submitted affirmations to this court about the propriety of Lindsay Halligan’s grand jury presentation,” Cobb said “She knew this. There’s no way she could not have known this. And that just means that she lied, or that she’s equally incompetent, but more likely that she lied.”

Almost a day after the indictments were dismissed, it seems that the DOJ is continuing to sign criminal indictments with Halligan’s name in a flagrant violation of the federal judge’s order.

After a tumultuous year in which her city became ground zero for President Donald Trump’s draconian military crackdown on crime and immigration, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has announced that she will not seek a second term.

“It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve had to do to walk away from a job that I love. I believe I could win,” Bowser told NBC Washington’s Mark Seagraves on Tuesday.

Bowser served as mayor of the nation’s capital for over 10 years.

“It has been the honor of my life to be your Mayor. Together, we have built a legacy of success of which I am intensely proud,” she said in a later statement posted on X. “With a grateful heart, I am announcing that I will not seek a fourth term. For the next 12 months, let’s run through the tape and keep winning for DC.”

Reactions to Bowser’s announcement were mixed. 

“Thank you, Mayor. You led our city through tough times, delivered some huge wins, and consistently stood on the right side of public safety issues … including rejecting calls to defund the DC police,” one user wrote. “Wishing you the best as a private citizen.”

“The city has been unfortunate to have you serve as corruptor in chief. Tens of thousands displaced, wealth inequality exploded, tenants rights decayed and ballot initiatives overturned,” said another. “You have done nothing for this city except spread elite bloat. My advice: resign early.”

Bowser’s tenure has been defined by large deals with developers and businesses to build stadiums, as plans to address problems of housing, affordability, crime, and police brutality often fell short. From tearing up her already materially meaningless “Black Lives Matter Plaza” to caving to Trump’s federal takeover, Bowser left much to be desired. 

The next mayoral election will be in November 2026. 

“I’m not running because we’ve accomplished what we set out to accomplish,” Bowser said. “And it’s time. People don’t run for a fourth term.”  

This story has been updated.