Pulitzer Board Demands Trump’s Tax and Psych Records in Lawsuit Twist

President Trump’s spiteful defamation suit against the Pulitzer Prize Board may backfire, as the latter is now demanding Trump’s psychological records, prescription medication records, and tax returns in the discovery process. 

Trump filed the lawsuit in 2022 after the board refused to revoke 2018 Pulitzer awards from The New York Times and The Washington Post for “perpetuating the absurdly false and defamatory narrative contrived by the President’s political opponents: that he and his campaign somehow colluded with Vladimir Putin and the Russian government to gain advantage in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and thereafter maintained some nefarious connection with Russian elements during the presidential transition and Trump administration (the ‘Russia Collusion Hoax’).”

“This case has always been about correcting the record, revealing the truth, and vindicating the president and his supporters against the lies told to the American people by the Democrats and their PR machine known as ‘legacy media,’” a Trump spokesperson told Fox News just last week.  

But the Board stood its ground, clarifying that “no passages or headlines, contentions or assertions in any of the winning submissions were discredited by facts that emerged subsequent to the conferral of the prizes.”

Nevertheless, the lawsuit has dragged on deep into 2025. And the board is still fighting back, demanding Trump’s tax returns from the last decade—which he has yet to release since winning his second term. 

“To the extent You seek damages for any physical ailment or mental or emotional injury arising from Counts I-IV of Your Complaint, all Documents (whether held by You or by third parties under Your control or who could produce them at your direction) concerning Your medical and/or psychological health from January 1, 2015, to present, including any prescription medications you have been prescribed or have taken,” the board wrote in their filing. “For the avoidance of doubt, this includes all Documents Concerning Your annual physical examination. To the extent you do not seek such damages in this action, please confirm so in writing.”

As with the tax returns, Trump has been deliberately coy and unspecific about his health. He always claims to be in good health, bragging about acing dementia tests while his ankles swell, his hand bruises, and he falls asleep in televised meetings. If anything does come to light in discovery, his attack on the Pulitzer Board could very well blow up in his face. 

Not surprisingly, House Speaker Mike Johnson didn’t have anything to say about President Trump’s unhinged response to the tragic death of Hollywood icon Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele. 

“Mr. Speaker, do you condemn Trump’s post about Rob Reiner?” CNN’s Manu Raju asked Johnson in the Capitol Monday night.

“I don’t do ongoing commentary about everything that’s said by everybody in government every day,” Johnson said, ignoring Raju when he brought up that they were talking about the president every day. 

“We are trying to bring down health care costs for the American people. They’re very important votes, very important issues, and that’s what we’re focused on,” Johnson added. Raju pointed out that a lot of other House Republicans were not happy with Trump’s comments, to which Johnson was dismissive. 

“I gave commentary this morning, and you all heard it,” Johnson said as he sought to get away from reporters. 

Usually, when confronted with one of Trump’s deranged remarks, Johnson feigns ignorance. This time, it seems he’s trying a new tack to try and get reporters off his back so he doesn’t have to take responsibility for Trump’s clearly reprehensible comments. But all Johnson is proving is that he knows that Trump was insensitive and still refuses to hold him accountable. 

It sounds like President Donald Trump’s administration is looking for a repeat of America’s disastrous invasion of Iraq—no, seriously.

Trump announced Monday that he planned to sign an order classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, practically paving the way for an invasion of Venezuela.

This announcement comes amid mounting tensions with Caracas, following multiple U.S. strikes on boats the Trump administration claims—but won’t prove—are smuggling drugs and the recent seizure of an Venezuelan oil tanker by the U.S. military. Trump himself has repeatedly threatened to take his strikes on alleged drug boats to dry land.

One might hear the echoes of the U.S. government’s lie that Sadam Hussein had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction as justification for its invasion of Iraq. It seems that history is repeating itself, as there is reason to believe that America’s growing interest in Venezuela is not about drugs at all: It’s actually about oil.

It’s worth noting that the Associated Press reported in November that the boats targeted by U.S. strikes appeared to be carrying cocaine—not the synthetic opioids responsible for thousands of deaths each year.

But just last week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth described so-called narco-terrorists as the “Al Qaeda of our hemisphere,” responsible for spreading “narcotics so lethal they’re tantamount to chemical weapons.”

In November, The Wall Street Journal reported that a classified legal brief justified the Trump administration’s extrajudicial execution of alleged drug smugglers by referring to fentanyl as a potential chemical weapon.

The editor-at-large of Christianity Today magazine on Monday sharply condemned Donald Trump’s deranged post about the murders of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele.

Russell Moore, formerly the magazine’s editor in chief, called out Trump’s post blaming Reiner for the murders “through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.” Moore called Trump’s comments “vile, disgusting, and immoral behavior.”

“How this vile, disgusting, and immoral behavior has become normalized in the United States is something our descendants will study in school, to the shame of our generation,” Moore’s post read in full.

Though Moore has been a longtime open critic of Trump, he wasn’t alone this time. Even some right-wing supporters of the president took issue with his insensitive post, including commentators Raheem Kassam, Robby Starbuck, and Rod Dreher. Trump’s former lawyer Jenna Ellis also criticized Trump’s comments, writing, “This is NOT the appropriate response” on X.

Moore resigned from the Southern Baptist Convention in 2021, after breaking with other evangelicals on Trump. He has criticized the rise of the Christian right, alarmed at the fact that some evangelicals think of Jesus Christ’s teachings as “liberal” and “weak.” To Moore, Trump’s behavior just shows increasing moral rot, especially from those of his supporters who call themselves Christian.

Jared Kushner, private equity firm manager and son-in-law to President Trump, has ended his efforts to redevelop a Serbian historical monument into a luxury hotel complex after weeks of protest and controversy. 

“Because meaningful projects should unite rather than divide, and out of respect for the people of Serbia and the City of Belgrade, we are withdrawing our application and stepping aside at this time,” a spokesman for Kushner’s private-equity firm, Affinity Partners, said in a statement on Monday. 

The land in question is the site of the 78-day NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. The attack by NATO was part of an effort to end then-President Slobodan Milosevic’s violent ethnic cleansing of Albanians living in Kosovo, which resulted in the death of 13,000 people (mostly ethnic Albanians). NATO bombed bridges, military buildings, and government buildings. 

Human Rights Watch estimates that as many as 528 civilians were killed in the bombings, and many Serbians view the ruins as a point of cultural and architectural pride today. 

In May, Kushner’s company and the Serbian government signed a deal for a 99-year lease of the land under the bombed-out buildings, promising “revitalization”—meaning a high-rise hotel, office space, and stores. It was set to be a $500 million project, with Kushner’s company building a separate memorial for the bombing elsewhere.  

“The economic progress in Serbia over the past decade has been impressive,” Kushner said then. “This development will further elevate Belgrade into the premier international destination it is becoming.”

The decision was met with widespread protest, coupled with indictment of three Serbian government officials—including Minister of Culture Nikola Selaković—for abuse of power and falsifying documents related to Kushner’s redevelopment. Serbians who were against the plans accused their government of shirking public opinion and the law to streamline the effort for Kushner in an effort to curry favor with the Trump administration. 

“You call it an investment, we call it high treason,” Serbian Assemblymember Marinika Tepić told Parliament.