Trump Says It’s His Right to Use DOJ as His Personal Law Firm

The president believes he has a “right” to use the Justice Department as his own personal law firm.

Speaking at the 74th National Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning, Donald Trump seemed to think that criticism of his intent to abuse the executive branch was all one big joke.

“And then they say, ‘Donald Trump is using the Justice Department to get even,’” Trump parroted through his teeth. “And I don’t. But wouldn’t I have a right to?

“Think of it. There’s never been a president in history treated the way I got treated,” he added.

But Trump does not have a right to utilize the DOJ for his personal whims. In the aftermath of former President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal, Attorney General Griffin Bell laid out new bedrock principles in order to prevent the agency’s independence from crumbling under the pressure of the White House.

They included new procedures and principles to prevent partisan interests from influencing legal judgements, safeguards to protect the DOJ’s “neutral zone,” and assurances that the department’s attorneys “must always be committed to good judgment and integrity,” according to the Brenner Center for Justice.

And yet the agency has tossed out decades of precedent since Trump returned to office last year thanks to the stewardship of its leader, Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has bent and capitulated to Trump and his whims at practically every turn.

Earlier this week, Justice Department officials began daily meetings to reignite efforts to investigate and punish government officials that played a role in investigating Trump prior to his return to the White House, meeting under the banner of Bondi’s “Weaponization Working Group.”

The group was designed to challenge former special counsel Jack Smith and his staff, as well as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James. The initiative would also target any officials that attempted to hold Trump accountable in the wake of the January 6 attack.

After concluding that his administration needed a “softer touch” on immigration, President Donald Trump delivered remarks Thursday at the National Prayer Breakfast that quickly devolved into a wildly racist tirade against immigrants.

“We have to get the bad ones out,” Trump said, claiming that immigrants were a threat to innocent churchgoers. “You can’t have people going to churches and coming out and have criminals taking advantage, and doing things that nobody even wants to describe.”

Trump claimed his immigration enforcement crackdown in Washington, D.C., had removed scores of “monsters” from the streets. “We took out over 2,000 hardcore criminals. You know, two percent of the population produces 90 percent of the violent crime,” he said.

In reality, federal data suggests that more than 80 percent of the immigrants arrested in response to Trump’s so-called “crime emergency” in Washington had no prior criminal records at all, which is part of a broader national trend of targeting law-abiding immigrants.

To illustrate his point, Trump claimed that he’d single-handedly saved the capital’s restaurant industry. “The restaurant would be robbed with people sitting there. ‘Hold up your hands, everybody! Give us your money!’ And then they’d whack people with the butt of a gun,” he said.

Trump also openly mocked Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for urging Trump to abide by the U.S. Constitution in his lawless crackdown in Minnesota.

“‘This is the Constitution of the United States’—People don’t want to be mugged!” Trump cried. “They don’t want to have a murderer living next door that was, you know, killed three people in a certain country and is now living beautifully here. Because generally speaking, if they’ve killed in another country, they’re not gonna be the best of citizens.

“These are some of the meanest, most vicious people. They only gave us the worst,” Trump said, before turning to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who had once offered to take “homegrown” American citizens Trump wanted to deport.

“He’s sent us a few. I don’t want to talk to him about it,” Trump joked. “But he sends us some real bad ones.

“Isn’t it true that you will not send your good people to the United States? Wouldn’t you say? Look at him, he doesn’t know. He said, ‘What’s going on here?’ But no, he sends bad people to the United States,” Trump said.

Trump couched his criticism by saying that South American and Latin American leaders were “streetwise” in their supposed decisions about what citizens to keep and who to send away—which among other things, is definitely not how immigration works. “They cherish their good people, they only send us their bad people,” he said.

Trump’s fearmongering about immigrants is not only wildly racist—it’s also anti-Christian, going against the very Bible he hawks to his followers.

Leviticus 19:32-34 states, “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.”

Former Vice President Kamala Harris has rebranded her KamalaHQ social media account, sparking rumors of another presidential run.

On Wednesday evening, she announced a relaunch of KamalaHQ on X, the account that served as her primary social media presence during the 2024 election.

The video post featured a mock login page for the KamalaHQ account, and included multiple failed password attempts like “waytooonline,” “thebabysitterisweird,” and project2025wasreal” before “headquarters” worked. The post was captionless.

The initial reaction was disdain, as many assumed it was an announcement of her candidacy for 2028.

But on Thursday, Harris clarified that her social media accounts—which have seven million followers across X, TikTok, and Instagram—will be devoted to “an online organizing project for next generation campaigning.”

The new accounts will be called “Headquarters,” which they describe as “the new Gen-Z led progressive content hub.” The new username is “headquarters_67.”

“So KamalaHQ is turning into ‘Headquarters,’ and it’s where you can go online to get basically the latest of what’s going on, and also to meet and revisit with some of our great, courageous leaders,” Harris said in an announcement video from the account Thursday morning. “Stay engaged and I’ll see you out there.”

The account will be run by 501(c)(4) People for the American Way and Luminary Strategies, a consulting firm that emerged from Harris’s former social media team.

For what it’s worth, this hasn’t exactly quelled the initial rumors of Harris returning to the presidential fold, as this media arm could certainly be a part of that larger effort. But for now we can only speculate about the potential of this new “Headquarters.”

Virginia’s new Democratic governor, Abigail Spanberger, has ordered state agencies to stop cooperation with ICE.

Spanberger announced Wednesday in an executive order that four state agencies will be leaving ICE’s 287(g) program, including the state police and Department of Corrections. This means that these agencies won’t be making civil immigration arrests on behalf of ICE, rolling back an executive order from the previous governor, Republican Glenn Youngkin.

“Virginians deserve to have their state and local law enforcement resources devoted to the safety and security of their communities, not federal civil immigration enforcement,” the order states, adding that the current ICE agreements “improperly cede accountability and discretion over Virginia law enforcement to the federal government.”

While ending some state cooperation with ICE is a big step, many local sheriff’s offices and police departments in Virginia still have local agreements with the agency. But Spanberger’s move could be a precursor that Virginia’s House and Senate follow to restrict law enforcement relationships with ICE, especially considering that Democrats control both chambers.

Other states, such as California and Illinois, have already banned local law enforcement from working with ICE through the 287(g) program. On Tuesday, neighboring Maryland’s House and Senate voted to ban local police from the program as well. Support for ending cooperation with ICE is growing across the country as the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis and the agency’s violent detention of immigrants continue to horrify the public.

President Donald Trump says he has no clue why Tulsi Gabbard was spotted lurking around a federal raid at the election office in Fulton County, Georgia—but whatever the reason, it had to do with China!

During an exclusive interview Wednesday, NBC News’s Tom Llamas asked Trump point-blank why the director of national intelligence was present at the raid in Georgia.

“Why is Tulsi Gabbard there?” Llamas asked.

“I don’t know, but you know, uh, a lot of the cheating comes from, it’s international cheating,” Trump said. “You have people—they say—from China trying to, let me ask you, do you think China tries to influence our election?”

“We know that foreign governments try to influence a lot of things in this country,” Llamas replied.

“Well therefore, she’s foreign governments,” Trump said.

As per usual, it’s not clear whether the president was simply playing dumb or whether he’s actually clueless. But he used his garbled answer as a jumping-off point to boost long-debunked claims about election interference. However, a U.S. intelligence report released in 2021 resoundingly dispelled Trump’s and former officials’ repeated claims that China—not Russia—was the biggest threat to election integrity in 2020.

What’s more, The New York Times reported that Gabbard called the president on her cell phone after the raid. Trump initially didn’t pick up, but called back shortly after to talk to the agents on speakerphone. He thanked the agents and had questions for them.

Last week, White House officials spilled that Gabbard has spent months leading an investigation into Trump’s baseless claims about the results of the 2020 presidential election. Gabbard has reportedly regularly briefed Trump and his chief of staff Susie Wiles, as well as other well-known election deniers Cleta Mitchell, a far-right activist with the ear of the president, and Kurt Olsen, a former lawyer for the Trump campaign who helped mount the “Stop the Steal” lawsuits.

The president has pledged to donate any money he wins from his unprecedented $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS for leaking his tax returns.

“Any money that I win, I’ll give it to charity, 100 percent to charity, charities that will be approved by government or whatever,” Trump said in a sit-down interview with NBC News Wednesday, adding that he’d practically already won the suit.

“Scott Bessent is the head of the IRS. Pam Bondi is the head of the Justice Department. They are going to defend the IRS against you, their boss,” pressed NBC’s Tom Llamas.

But Trump shrugged that jarring comment off, acknowledging there had “never been anything like it.” Instead, according to Trump, the more palatable truth involved snatching billions from taxpayers to do with whatever he wants.

“What I would do? Tell them to pay me, but I’ll give 100 percent of the money to charity,” Trump said. One of those potential beneficiaries, according to the president, could be the American Cancer Society.

“You’d take it out of the system?” asked Llamas.

“No, I’m putting it back into the system,” Trump said. “If I give money to the American Cancer Society, I will give 100 percent of the money away to charity. I don’t want any of it.”

“Thirty-trillion-dollar debt, and we’re going to take $10 billion out of the system?” pressed Llamas, incredulously.

“Well I mean you give it away anyway, they give away a lot of money,” Trump responded. “I’ll tell you what, speaking about that, Minnesota and these other states—we have massive investigations going into fraud.”

Trump, in a personal capacity, sued the IRS and the Treasury in a Miami federal court last week for a breach that occurred between May 2019 and September 2020. The problem: The breach occurred during the first Trump administration, when Trump himself was in charge of governing those institutions.

Legal experts have questioned the validity of the suit, arguing that the president’s complaints have long passed the statute of limitations. They have also raised a plethora of concerns relating to conflict of interest, questioning whether the leader of the executive branch could attempt to take one of the agencies under his purview for billions of dollars.

Either Melania Trump doesn’t know the law, or she doesn’t care to follow it.

The first lady denied that she was using the White House in order to promote her unwatchable documentary, Melania, during a press conference on Wednesday—mere minutes after plugging the film.

“Why do you feel it’s appropriate to use an official White House event to promote your documentary?” asked CNN’s Betsy Klein.

“This is not promotion,” Mrs. Trump said. “We are here celebrating the release of the hostages of Aviva [Siegel] and Keith [Siegel].

“That’s why we are here, it’s nothing to do with promotion,” she added.

But just moments prior, Melania did exactly that, referring to a scene from her film in relation to the recently freed American Israeli hostages.

“It was an emotional meeting, and it is captured on camera and available to see in my new film, Melania,” she said of her first meeting with Aviva Siegel.

It is strictly illegal for federal officials to use their public office for their own private gain, according to the Office of Government Ethics. It is also illegal for a federal official or employee to leverage their position in order to assist their friends, relatives, or nongovernmental affiliates, such as businesses or, perhaps, film studios.

So far, Melania has failed to impress audiences or critics, though it has defied expectations at the box office. The film, which was produced by Amazon’s film studios, cost a whopping $75 million. By Tuesday, it had raked in $7 million, reported MS NOW.

In the United States, reports have circulated that the film has not organically filled seats but rather relied on “fake ticket sales” or bulk seat purchases that were distributed to senior citizen centers or Republican activists for screenings over the weekend. In the U.K., the documentary’s premiere sold just one ticket.

But the eyes that did catch the flick were overwhelmingly unimpressed. On Monday, The Guardian corrected its scathing review of the film, apologizing to its readers for giving the film a single star. “A formatting issue led an earlier version to be awarded one star, when the reviewer’s intention was zero,” the correction reads.

It’s not the first time that the Trump family has used the prestige of the Oval Office to push product, however. Last year, Donald hosted a Tesla commercial on the White House lawn during an international boycott of the Elon Musk–led company.

And in the midst of the pandemic, the president and his daughter Ivanka used their federal platform to shill beans for Goya amid nationwide calls to boycott the company after its CEO said the country was “blessed” to have Trump as its leader. The stunt came during a push by the Trumps to increase the president’s appeal with Latino voters ahead of the 2020 election.

The Trump administration is probing claims of anti-white racism at Nike.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is investigating the sportswear company over “systemic allegations of D.E.I.-related intentional race discrimination” against white employees and job applicants. The commission filed a motion in federal court in Missouri Wednesday to force the company to comply with a September subpoena.

The EEOC’s chair, Andrea Lucas, who first joined the agency as a commissioner after being nominated by Trump in 2020, filed a discrimination charge against Nike in 2024 under President Biden, when the commission still had a Democratic majority. Last year, Trump fired the agency’s chair, Charlotte Burrows, and appointed Lucas to the position. In its court filing Wednesday, the EEOC argues that Nike has fought the agency’s subpoena and has provided only partial responses to the government’s requests for information.

“The E.E.O.C. seeks information directly relevant to the allegations that Nike subjected white employees, applicants and training program participants to disparate treatment based on race in various employment decisions, including layoffs, internship programs and mentoring, leadership development and other career development programs,” the court filing states.

Lucas has made targeting DEI her priority since becoming chair of the EEOC, the agency responsible for handling discrimination complaints of all kinds. Under Trump, that means claims of discrimination from marginalized groups take a back seat to the far right’s belief in anti-white discrimination, which Trump too believes is rampant. The Trump administration is trying to make an example out of Nike, a high-profile multinational corporation, to push its racist ideology.

A Republican senator wants Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE to stay out of his state.

Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker has come out against a proposed ICE detention facility in Byhalia, noting that the facility’s construction in the small town would not give the community anything in return.

“While I support the enforcement of immigration law, I write to express my opposition to this acquisition and the proposed detention center,” he wrote in his letter to Noem Wednesday. “This site is currently positioned for economic development purposes.... Converting this industrial asset into an ICE detention center forecloses economic growth opportunities and replaces them with a use that does not generate comparable economic returns or community benefits.”

Wicker also noted “serious feasibility concerns” like water and energy costs and medical care. “Existing medical and human services infrastructure in Byhalia is insufficient to support such a large detainee population. Establishing a detention center at this site would place significant strain on local resources,” he continued.

Wicker’s rejection reaffirms reports of discontent among red states that are being forced to become proving grounds for immigration raids on the whims of the Trump administration. It also comes as multiple Democratic states and cities, including Maryland and California, have moved to place greater restrictions on the actions of federal immigration agents.

Democratic Representative Maxine Waters caught Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a clear and obvious lie during a congressional hearing.

“Did you write a letter to investors raising concerns about the impact of tariffs, writing that ‘tariffs are inflationary’? Did you say that at that time, yes or no?” Waters asked.

“Uh, no,” Bessent replied.

“OK … we have a New York Times article that agrees that you said that,” Waters said.

“Great, New York Times,” Bessent said, smiling.

Waters continued:

“Last summer, when you testified before a Senate committee, you said, and I quote, ‘There is no inflation. Tariffs are not being passed on to consumers.’ You were quite definitive, and even claimed that critics had ‘tariff derangement syndrome,’” she said. “Well, those comments are at odds with the statement you made to investors that tariffs are inflationary.... Are tariffs inflationary? Yes or no?”

“According to the San Francisco Federal Reserve … tariffs do not cause inflation,” Bessent said.

Bessent may have very well perjured himself, given the letter he claimed doesn’t exist certainly does. In that January 2024 letter, which Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller first highlighted, Bessent wrote: “Tariffs are inflationary and would strengthen the dollar--hardly a good starting point for a US industrial renaissance.” He then goes on to argue that Trump will weaken the dollar to “make US manufacturing competitive.”

Bessent attacked The New York Times to distract from Waters’s question, as if nothing reported about him in the paper could possibly be true. When asked to clarify, Bessent stated that if he even said that tariffs were inflationary, he was wrong.

This is all part of an effort to shield the average American from the harsh reality that they, not other countries, are shouldering most of the economic burdens of Trump’s tariff wars.

“Not only did he lie, but his advice was horrible on every level,” Representative Sean Casten commented. “Under Trump and Bessent they have imposed tariffs, overseen a collapse in the US dollar and delivered a collapse in US manufacturing jobs.”