Supreme Court’s Texas Map Ruling Could Be Good News for California

California Governor Gavin Newsom has reason to be optimistic about congressional redistricting in his state after a Supreme Court ruling.

On Thursday, the court ruled 63 that Texas can use a new legislative map that was redrawn to benefit Republicans, with conservative Justice Samuel Alito saying in his concurring opinion that rather than racial gerrymandering, which would be illegal, “the impetus for the adoption of the Texas map (like the map subsequently adopted in California) was partisan advantage pure and simple.”

This seems to suggest that the conservative majority on the high court that approved Texas’s map will also approve California’s, which is being redrawn to give Democrats possibly five more congressional seats. When Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated the Supreme Court ruling on X Thursday, Newsom’s press office eagerly chimed in, asking if the Justice Department would drop its lawsuit against Newsom and the Golden State.

The DOJ’s official account didn’t seem to think the ruling applied to Democrats, posting in response, “Not a chance, Gavin—we will stop your DEI districts for 2026.” But that statement may not be how the Supreme Court sees it.

President Trump began the partisan gerrymandering wars earlier this year when he urged Texas to redraw its maps, hoping to avert Republican losses in the 2026 midterms. His efforts to get other Republican-led states on board has not gone as well. Meanwhile, California isn’t the only Democratic-led state replying to Trump: Virginia is now beginning plans to redraw its maps.

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino offered up a baffling excuse Thursday for fueling conspiracy theories about the pipe bombs planted at the Democratic and Republican national headquarters five years ago.

Following the arrest earlier Thursday of a suspect in the attempted bombing, Fox News’s Sean Hannity asked Bongino about his past claims that the government had engaged in a “massive cover-up,” and that the pipe bombs were likely an “inside job.”

“You know, listen, I was paid in the past, Sean, for my opinions. That’s clear,” Bongino said. “And one day I will be back in that space. That’s not what I’m paid for now. I’m paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on facts.”

The former talk radio host then launched into yet more conspiracy winding about the so-called “collusion hoax.” So, it seems Bongino’s opinion days aren’t so far behind him after all.

Hannity was referring to comments Bongino initially made on X shortly after the riot on January 6, 2021, but also as recently as this past January—just one month before being tapped to help lead the FBI. Bongino suggested that the agency had identified a suspect but “just doesn’t want to tell us, because it was an inside job.”

One of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s main arguments for bombing two helpless men in the Caribbean Sea was that they possessed radios that they could have used to call back their alleged cartels. But lawmakers who saw the video said that wasn’t the case.

“There was no radio. There were two individuals clinging to flotsam, that’s what there was,” Democratic Representative Jim Himes told MS NOW. “There wasn’t weaponry of any kind. There wasn’t a radio.... There was no means for them to communicate, other than the fact that the fire and the smoke was fairly well visible for a long distance around. But there was no radio.”

CNN also reported that Admiral Frank M. Bradley—whom Hegseth has named as responsible for the strike—told lawmakers that the men had their boat completely destroyed with no way to even reach a radio. In reality, for nearly an hour, defense officials watched the two men try to overturn the remains of their boat before bombing them a second time.

This directly contradicts what defense officials told The New York Times on Wednesday, adding only more speculation to the legitimacy of this lopsided and unsubstantiated “war” on alleged drug boats.

Only time will tell if Hegseth and the Defense Department actually face any repercussions for their killing in the Caribbean Sea. As of right now, they seem content to keep on bombing.

Hardly anything pisses the president off more than hearing criticism of his mental and physical health.

Donald Trump—the oldest person to ever be elected president—was reportedly irate after he was caught dozing off during a Cabinet meeting earlier this week, fuming over the fact that his drowsy habits earned him some comparisons to his predecessor “Sleepy Joe” Biden.

“He is sensitive to being compared, even if not explicitly, to Sleepy Joe,” a Trump adviser told Zeteo Thursday. “Especially if it’s coming from a reporter he already hates.”

Trump has recently been spotted falling asleep during meetings in the Oval Office and public events. Just one scandal irks him more than reports about his ailing body and mind: the Epstein files.

Trump’s health has been a topic of concern since he was on the campaign trail, when reports circulated that he couldn’t remember the contents of cognitive exams he claimed to ace. Since then, the president has been spotted with odd discolorations on his hand, routinely appears discombobulated and lethargic during critical meetings with world leaders, and had a drooping expression during 9/11 ceremonies in September that onlookers suggested could be a result of a stroke.

The president also received MRI scans at Walter Reed Medical Center in October. Those tests are used by doctors to assess tumors, joint injuries, or heart conditions. Former White House physicians questioned the timeline of Trump’s appointment, pointing out that his four-hour visit to the hospital was far longer than would be required by an MRI test. Nonetheless, Trump said the tests came back “perfect.”

One adviser that spoke with Trump about the renewed focus on his health recalled that Trump complained the press was back on “this bullshit again.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has repeatedly brushed off concerns regarding Trump’s health. In a statement to Zeteo, she insisted that Trump was in “excellent overall health,” and blamed journalists reporting on his aging body for creating an environment of media distrust.

“President Trump’s relentless work ethic, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility stand in sharp contrast to what we saw during the past four years when the failing legacy media intentionally covered up Joe Biden’s serious mental and physical decline from the American people,” Leavitt said. “Pushing these fake and desperate narratives now about President Trump is why Americans’ trust in the media just fell to a new all-time low.”

FBI Director Kash Patel is in trouble again for allegedly misusing the bureau’s resources.

MS NOW reports that Patel has, at least twice, ordered the FBI security detail protecting his girlfriend Alexis Wilkins to also escort one of her allegedly intoxicated friends home after a night of partying in Nashville, Tennessee. In one of those instances, agents objected to Patel’s order, only for Patel to put his foot down, even calling the head of Wilkins’s detail to yell at him.

FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson did not answer questions from MS NOW, which cites three unnamed sources, but offered a blanket denial.

“This is made up and did not happen,” Williamson said.

Wilkins, a 27-year-old country music performer who lives part-time in Nashville, has her own FBI security detail at Patel’s request, which is composed of members of a local SWAT team. The FBI has reportedly never provided a security detail for a director’s girlfriend, and has historically only provided security for a director’s spouse when they were traveling together with the director’s own detail.

Providing full-time security detail for his girlfriend, and pulling a SWAT team away from their job is questionable use of government resources at best. To then demand that security detail escort his girlfriend’s friend goes even further. Former FBI agents and law enforcement officials told MS NOW that Patel’s alleged actions are completely off-base.

“Not only is the assignment of FBI SWAT personnel to a security detail to protect his girlfriend inappropriate, directing these highly trained professionals to babysit his girlfriend’s friend is outrageous, and demonstrative of Kash Patel’s complete lack of judgment and integrity,” former FBI agent Christopher O’Leary, an MS NOW contributor, said. “FBI agents serve the public and swear an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. This is clearly a long way from that.”

Patel has faced increased criticism in recent days for refusing to get off of a plane to investigate the murder of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk until he was given an FBI raid jacket to wear. He’s also under investigation for using the FBI’s aircraft to fly around the country for personal use. Reportedly, President Trump is upset with Patel and is considering letting him go, although the president denies it.

But this latest news is not going to win Patel any support in the bureau, let alone the Trump administration. Trump officials have reportedly been upset with the director for a while now, and the more negative reports about Patel come out, the louder the calls for him to go will get.

As the public deliberates on whether he committed a war crime, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is on X bragging about dropping more bombs on alleged “drug boats.”

“Every new attack aimed at Pete Hegseth makes me want another narco drug boat blown up and sent to the bottom of the ocean,” Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet posted Thursday afternoon in response to Senator Chuck Schumer calling on Hegseth to resign. 

Hegseth responded eagerly to the bloodthirsty remark.  

“Your wish is our command, Andrew,” Hegseth replied a few hours later. “Just sunk another narco boat.”

It’s abundantly clear at this point that Hegseth couldn’t care less about the mounting pressures around him. There’s the question of his his complicity regarding the second strike killing two men clinging to the wreckage of their already bombed boat, as well as the Pentagon’s inspector general report that his use of Signal to plan a March strike on the Houthis in Yemen “created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed U.S. mission objectives and potential harm to U.S. pilots.” 

And yet the defense secretary would rather keep up with this strongman act, gloating proudly as the weight of the U.S. military unilaterally and violently comes down upon boatmen, often with little evidence they’re trafficking drugs. To him, killing random people in the Caribbean Sea is “owning the libs.” 

“This is the complete moral collapse of America—juvenile man-boys who claim to love God and value human life, but not brown lives,” one user wrote. 

“Secretary of Defense used to be a job occupied by serious and accomplished adult men,” writer Tom Nichols said. 

Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett is fighting for his life trying to put a positive spin on the latest economic data—and even Fox News isn’t having it.

Fox host Martha MacCallum asked Hassett on Thursday about the brutal new layoff numbers from consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “Year-to-date job cuts show an increase of 54 percent,” MacCallum asked Hassett. “That seems like a troubling number. What’s your take on it?”

Hassett waffled, claiming that jobs were in flux. “Don’t forget that there’s hires and there’s fires, there’s separations and new jobs, and so net job creation for the year is very positive. But the flow of jobs in and out is a little bit higher, there’s a little bit more turnover. A lot of times that happens because people feel that they’re able to get another job if they leave this job,” Hassett said.

Hassett seems not to realize that the report does not measure the normal ebb and flow of people choosing to leave a job, but job cuts—layoffs. Layoffs this year have surpassed one million for the first time since Covid-19.

MacCallum hit Hassett with another unpleasant truth: that despite Hassett’s and the Trump administration’s attempt to spin the affordability crisis, voters still know who’s to blame. Looking at a Fox News poll, MacCallum noted that 76 percent of respondents see the economy as “only fair” or “poor.”

“And then, when we have ‘Who is responsible for current economic conditions, President Trump or President Biden?’ We have Trump at 62 percent.… What would you say to people who are answering the survey that way, Kevin?”

Hassett defaulted to one of the Republicans’ favorite recent scapegoats: the shutdown. “One of the things that we’ve seen, we’ve studied over the last couple of weeks, is that when there’s a government shutdown … the survey data tend[s] to really tank because everyone is in a terrible mood, because Washington can’t work and the government’s shut down, and they’re worried about how bad it’s going to be,” Hassett said.

Right. If even Fox News isn’t convinced, I’m not sure how Hassett thinks he’ll convince the American people.

French President Emmanuel Macron warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other European leaders on a phone call that Donald Trump could betray Ukraine.

A transcript of the Monday call to strategize how to protect Ukraine was leaked to the German newspaper Der Spiegel and published Thursday. Macron, Zelenskiy, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and other European leaders all took part and discussed U.S. negotiation efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

“There is a possibility that the U.S. will betray Ukraine on the issue of territory without clarity on security guarantees,” Macron said, noting that there was “a big danger” for Zelenskiy. German leader Merz also expressed his misgivings, telling Zelenskiy that Trump’s handpicked negotiators, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, “are playing games with both you and us.”

While European leaders have expressed their concerns about America’s Ukraine policies, this transcript is the clearest indication of how they feel about the Trump administration and its efforts. The Finnish president has gotten along well with Trump in public but still said, “We must not leave Ukraine and Volodymyr alone with these guys,” referring to Witkoff and Kushner.

“I agree with Alexander that we need to protect Volodymyr,” added NATO Secretary General Rutte.

Late last month, the Trump administration presented a 28-point peace plan to resolve the conflict that was considered a Russian “wish list” and appeared to be translated from Russian. Under that plan, Ukraine would give up substantial territory, refrain from joining NATO, and limit the size of its military.

After Ukraine weighed in, a new plan was released with a shortened 19 points, to which Russia has not agreed. But it seems that Europeans are worried about Trump deferring to Russia and abandoning Ukraine, and, based on past events, who can blame them?

President Donald Trump “accidentally” let slip on Thursday the next target for Trumpification: the Kennedy Center.

“You have a big event on Friday at the Trump-Kennedy Center—op, excuse me. The Kennedy Center,” Trump said with a laugh.

“Pardon me, such a terrible mistake,” he continued, grinning.

Trump’s “terrible mistake” came during a speech at the U.S. Institute of Peace for the signing of a peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Coincidentally, the Institute of Peace is the latest building that the president has stamped his name on, even in the midst of a legal battle over who owns the building.

The president is gearing up for a big weekend, with the storied arts institution hosting the World Cup draw on Saturday and then the annual Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday. Trump may receive a special peace prize from FIFA Saturday, and is hosting Sunday’s ceremony—after personally taking over the job of selecting the Kennedy Center’s honorees, one usually done by a bipartisan council.

Trump has already brought financial ruin to the Kennedy Center, and is angling to bring aesthetic ruin as well. If he has his way, reputational ruin won’t be far behind.

The Trump administration may revoke H-1B visa eligibility from people who worked in content moderation, fact-checking, and online safety. Their family members would lose visa status as well. 

A cable, dated Tuesday, obtained by Reuters moves U.S. consular officers to increase vetting for these individuals by looking into their résumés and LinkedIn profile pages. 

“If you uncover evidence an applicant was responsible for, or complicit in, censorship or attempted censorship of protected expression in the United States, you should pursue a finding that the applicant is ineligible,” the cable said. This includes working at “social media or financial services companies involved in the suppression of protected expression.”

“You must thoroughly explore their employment histories to ensure no participation in such activities,” the cable read.

The State Department, however, made it sound more like they were going after liberal cyberbullies more than free speech suppressors.

“We do not support aliens coming to the United States to work as censors muzzling Americans,” a spokesperson said. “In the past, the President himself was the victim of this kind of abuse when social media companies locked his accounts. He does not want other Americans to suffer this way. Allowing foreigners to lead this type of censorship would both insult and injure the American people.”  

It’s hard to believe that the State Department is saying that about Donald Trump, who is infamous for his willingness to publicly verbally abuse people online. The policy, however, is very believable, as it aligns with the larger arc of the administration’s free speech suppression efforts, from disappearing Rümeysa Öztürk for writing an op-ed to requiring universities to vet for pro-Palestinian social media posts before awarding student visas.