Marco Rubio Rushes to Claim Trump Didn’t Threaten the Pope

Even the president’s Cabinet is having a hard time subscribing to what Donald Trump is saying about Pope Leo XIV.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio attempted to cover for his MAGA boss, telling a reporter at the White House Tuesday that she had mischaracterized Trump’s recent barbs against the Catholic leader.

“The president recently said that the pope is endangering a lot of Catholics as a result of his rhetoric around the Iran war. Is that a sentiment—” the reporter began, before Rubio cut her off.

“I don’t think that’s an accurate description of what he said,” Rubio interjected. “I think what the president basically said is that Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon because they would use it against places that have a lot of Catholics and Christians and others, for that matter.”

But Rubio was wrong—that is exactly what Trump said.

“I think he’s endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people,” Trump said in a Monday interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “But I guess if it’s up to the pope, he thinks it’s just fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

It was just the latest in a long string of attacks that Trump has made against the pope. Last month, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the religious leader was “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy.”

The Chicago-born pontiff upset the president and a number of Trump’s underlings when he advocated for world peace earlier this year. The Pentagon reportedly threatened a Holy See ambassador in January, days after the pope made antiwar remarks during his State of the World address.

Leo has brushed off Trump’s remarks, claiming that he has “no fear” of the Trump administration or of “speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel,” though the Vatican did reject a White House invitation to host the pope for America’s 250th anniversary on July 4.

“I will continue to speak out loudly against war, looking to promote peace, ⁠promoting dialogue and multilateral ​relationships among the states to look ​for just solutions to problems,” the pope told reporters aboard a flight in April. “Too many people are suffering in the world today. Too many innocent ‌people ⁠are being killed. And I think someone has to stand up and say there’s a better way.”

It’s very possible that Iran wouldn’t have an enriched uranium stockpile capable of developing nuclear weaponry if it weren’t for Trump’s ascent to the White House.

Iran lacked a single bomb’s worth of uranium in 2018, three years after former President Barack Obama brokered the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to limit the country’s enormous uranium stockpile. That changed when Trump withdrew the U.S. from the pact that year and imposed a series of tough economic sanctions against the Middle East country.

By 2025, Iran had curated an 11-ton stockpile of enriched uranium, the whereabouts of which remain largely unknown. The total stockpile could create as many as 10 bombs if fully enriched, according to a 2025 assessment by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

President Trump’s administration is targeting The New York Times, claiming that the newspaper discriminates against white men.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the newspaper in federal court Tuesday on behalf of a white man who alleged his race and sex were factors in being denied a promotion, violating the Civil Rights Act. A spokesperson for the publication, Danielle Rhoades Ha, called the allegations “politically motivated.”

“The New York Times categorically rejects the meritless and politically motivated allegations that the Trump administration’s E.E.O.C. is pursuing against us,” Rhoades Ha said. “Our employment practices are merit-based and focused on recruiting and promoting the best talent in the world.”

According to the Times, the white employee filed his complaint in July 2025 with the EEOC office in New York, but the office later transferred the complaint to an Alabama investigator. Since then, the commission had been investigating the Times, with the two sides sending information back and forth.

The two were briefly engaged in a voluntary mediation process known as conciliation, the paper said, which usually takes place after the EEOC finds “reasonable cause” that discrimination has occurred. If conciliation fails, then the EEOC decides whether to file a lawsuit.

While the complaint began as a general look at the newspaper’s hiring and promotions, the case, personally handled by EEOC Chair Andrea Lucus, soon became a specific question over whether the white employee did not get a deputy editor job. On April 21, the EEOC told the newspaper that the case had been referred to the agency’s legal unit.

It’s the latest attack by the Trump administration against media outlets that criticize the president, and it’s not the first time they have invoked diversity, equity, and inclusion in the process. The FCC is currently investigating NBC’s parent company, Comcast, over alleged DEI practices, and last month, commissioner Brendan Carr announced an investigation into DEI practices at Disney, ABC’s parent company.

Trump has long hated the Times for how it has covered him, filing a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the paper last year, and calling the paper “the failing New York Times” for at least a decade. Now, he’s using the power of his office against them.

President Trump is pushing the Food and Drug Administration to approve flavored vapes as his approval rating with young people continues to tumble.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump expressed frustration with FDA Commissioner Marty Makary on the phone over the weekend and in the White House on Monday. Makary has refused to approve blueberry, mango, and menthol vape flavors from manufacturer Glas out of concern the flavors would be too marketable to young and underage users. This puts a real wrench in Trump’s 2024 campaign pledge to “save vaping,” and in his quest to win back the youth vote. Recent polling suggests that the president has lost virtually all of the gains he made with youth in 2024, sitting at a dismal 24 percent approval rating with Gen Z.

The Journal’s report raises doubts about Makary’s job security, with people familiar with the conversations saying the FDA commissioner is on thin ice. The White House has publicly said otherwise, claiming President Trump is “thrilled with his accomplishments.”

The Miami U.S. attorney’s office is in turmoil.

The legal office has steered resources away from criminal cases in order to aid Donald Trump’s personal revenge tour, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

The decision to explicitly aid Trump’s agenda has triggered a mass exodus of staff, hamstringing the department’s ability to prosecute white-collar crime and narcotics trafficking cases, according to more than a dozen sources that spoke with the outlet.

Several dozen attorneys have already left the Southern District of Florida since Trump returned to office, either by quitting, retiring, or being fired by the current administration. One unit focused on prosecuting economic crimes lost roughly half of its staff, reported Bloomberg.

The Justice Department has issued different figures. So far, the DOJ has recorded just 26 departures since Jason Reding Quiñones took over as U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Florida in August 2025.

Two months after he was confirmed by Congress, Reding Quiñones filed more than two dozen subpoenas to U.S. officials that took part in the 2016 Russian election interference inquiry, which has been internally redefined among Trump loyalists as the “grand conspiracy.” The unsubstantiated theory turns Trump’s legal challenges on their head, positing that the real-life charges—and Trump’s fleeting comeuppance—were a part of a groundless scheme by Democrats and “deep-state” operatives to destroy Trump and his political movement.

The district has become the epicenter of Trump’s political retribution since Reding Quiñones took over, but it’s far from the only office to massively reorient its resources under pressure by Trump’s White House. The Department of Homeland Security has had to move away from other missions in order to abet Trump’s deportation plans; the Department of Defense shifted billions of dollars to fund Trump’s border mission; and more than 6,000 FBI agents were diverted to handling “immigration-related matters,” effectively redefining the agency’s work.

The Justice Department has also dropped thousands of criminal cases in an attempt to funnel its efforts—almost singularly—toward convicting immigration cases. Altogether, the chief law enforcement agency closed some 23,000 criminal cases in the first six months of Trump’s term, including investigations into terrorism, white-collar crimes, and drugs, while prosecuting 32,000 new immigration cases.

The shift in priorities is an indication that “making America safe again” is not necessarily as much of a goal for the current administration as Trump has promised. At the president’s direction, federal authorities have arrested thousands of noncriminal immigrants across the country, despite repeated pledges that the deportation purge is focused on the “worst of the worst”—such as “murderers, pedophiles, rapists, gang members, and terrorists.”

The Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act last week came about thanks to a conspiracy theorist who participated in the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021. 

Democracy Docket reports that Phillip “Bert” Callais, the lead plaintiff in Louisiana v. Callais, has long claimed U.S. elections are rigged on social media. Callais posted photos and video from the scene at the infamous “Stop the Steal” protest prior to the 2021 Capitol riot, and his Facebook page is full of MAGA and right-wing content, including attacks on vaccines and anything to the left of President Trump. 

It’s a sharp contrast to the original legal complaint that ultimately reached the Supreme Court. Callais is described there as a “non–African American voter” from Brusly, Louisiana, whose congressional district changed after his state redrew its districts. Callais also said that he was a member of a local board of supervisors in 2024.  

In reality, Callais seems to be a partisan activist steeped in the right’s conspiracy theories regarding elections. On X, he commented on an Elon Musk post in December 2025, writing, “This is f#€king insane, non citizens voting in our country.” In February of this year, he expressed doubt in election security, and in January, he called the voting system “manipulated,” touting hand-counted paper ballots as a solution. 

Callais also dismissed concerns about how eliminating mail-in voting would hurt disabled or elderly voters, posting in February, “Find someone to haul you to the polls. Don’t let your disability put the rest of the country at risk.” 

On Sunday, only days after the Supreme Court’s ruling, election denier Seth Keshel, featured in The New York Times for his voter fraud claims, posted a photo to X of him shaking hands with Callais. 

All of this seems to reveal a plot by conservatives to change how Americans vote in order to satisfy debunked conspiracy theories. With the right plaintiff, Republican politicians and wealthy donors can push through a tailored legal case to undo laws that protect elections from partisan interference. Callais seems to have been ready and willing. 

Louisiana’s secretary of state has already received tens of thousands of absentee ballots for the state’s primary elections, but now won’t count them because of Republican Governor Jeff Landry’s desperate move to please Donald Trump.

The Supreme Court voted 6-3 last week to throw out Louisiana’s congressional map and get rid of its only Democratic (and majority-Black) district. Landry immediately suspended the primary elections for Louisiana’s U.S. House seats in order to implement a new map that could give Republicans an advantage.

By the time the governor pushed the date of the race from May 16 to July 15, more than 42,000 absentee votes had already been received, the Louisiana Illuminator reported Monday.

Landry’s blatant attempt to overturn thousands of votes comes at the bidding of Trump, who has pressured red states to redraw their congressional maps.

Several Democratic candidates and civil rights advocates have urged voters to continue voting in these races, as Landry’s move is subject to an array of legal challenges. Other races in the party primaries on May 16 are going forward, including those for the two Senate contests.

President Trump has trademarked the name “Donald J. Trump International Airport”—and could soon generate millions of dollars for his family.

Palm Beach County commissioners will vote on Tuesday on whether to use taxpayer dollars to rename Florida’s Palm Beach International Airport the “President Donald J. Trump International Airport.” If they approve the name change, a trademark deal between the county and DTTM Operations LLC—a company run by Donald Trump Jr.—will force the airport to run all airport-branded merchandise by the Trump family for approval.

Trump would become the first and only president with an airport named after him who has trademarked his own name in this manner.

While Trump’s companies have claimed that the trademark is only for legal protections, and that Trump won’t directly profit, the agreement signed by Trump and reviewed by the Miami Herald would leave loopholes for the president’s companies to sell “President Donald J. Trump Airport” branded merchandise off-site, and even gives the president control over biographical information included at the airport.

The agreement also allows Trump to create the list of “approved retailers” from which airport stores have to buy Trump-branded items. If the county or any retail businesses want to sell DJT Airport merch, they have to buy those products “exclusively and directly from such entities designated by Licensor.” The licensor is DTTM—of which Trump Jr. is the president.

“Normally a license agreement says that the goods have to be of a certain quality. It doesn’t say that you have to purchase them from a retailer that we’re approving them from,” trademark lawyer Josh Gerben told the Herald. “It’s not just a nonpartisan individual that’s going to be able to write marketing materials or talk about Donald Trump. It’s going to be him and his organizations getting to control the messaging here.”

Doubts about the ethics of the deal were raised months ago, with Palm Beach lawmakers stating over email that the airport renaming would confer “a commercial benefit upon the president and his companies.” Even still, the deal may very well be approved on Tuesday, giving perhaps the most blatantly corrupt president yet another free pass.

Senate Republicans are looking to funnel nearly $70 billion with absolutely no strings attached to Donald Trump’s lawless immigration enforcement campaign.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley unveiled the legislative text Monday night for the Republicans’ reconciliation package, directing $38.2 billion to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. The bill also allocates $26 billion for offices under Customs and Border Protection, including $3.5 billion for border security technology and screening, according to Punchbowl News.

Meanwhile, another bill from the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee would provide an additional $32.5 billion, bringing the total package for immigration enforcement to roughly $69.2 billion, with ICE set to receive approximately $38.2 billion, according to Migrant Insider.

Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy for the Center for American Progress, warned on X Monday night that these funds had “enormous flexibility, with far less accountability or oversight than typical annual appropriations for DHS funding has.”

Senate Republicans have framed this massive expenditure as giving ICE and CBP enough funds to be shutdown-proof until the end of Trump’s term. But in reality, ICE already had twice as much funding as it needed to run from the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill, passed in July. Now ICE has roughly four or five times the amount of funding it needs to run until 2029, while CBP only has the funds to make it to 2027, according to Kogan.

There do not appear to be any offsetting cuts to pay for this bill.

Since Trump launched his sweeping immigration crackdown, American voters have borne witness to federal immigration agents’ use of threats and intimidation, excessive force, warrantless searches or arrests, racial profiling, and wrongful detentions. ICE has detained hundreds of children, and families of mixed legal status are being regularly torn apart by the administration’s relentless immigration crackdown. Federal immigration agents were also responsible for the deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota.

Rather than reform these federal agencies, Senate Republicans are choosing to write them a blank check using taxpayer dollars.

President Trump thinks that an event where he is surrounded by children is the best time to discuss the Iran war and then doze off.

On Tuesday, at a signing ceremony in the Oval Office to restore the Presidential Fitness Award, Trump went off on a tangent on the war while thanking some members of his Cabinet, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, whom he praised for a press conference earlier in the day.

“That was really great, and you’re doing very well,” Trump said from his seat at the Resolute Desk, turning to Hegseth. Then he abruptly changed the subject to Iran.

“They don’t like playing games with us. They don’t like it at all, you’ll see that. As time goes by, you’re gonna see it. I think you’ve already seen it; we’ve basically wiped out their military in about two weeks,” Trump added, with kids and senior officials on either side of him. Later, Trump went further, describing Iran’s leaders as “sick people” and “lunatics” that he would not allow to have a nuclear weapon.

Then Trump thanked Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but as Kennedy spoke about how “grateful” he was for Trump’s decision to restore the fitness test, the president fell asleep.

When it became Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s turn to speak, Trump’s head was bobbing, his eyes opening and closing as McMahon spoke about needing to eat well and exercise to have a “sound mind.”

All of this shows that Trump is not well, mentally or physically. He is in clear decline in full view to the public, and no matter the subject, he will wander off topic and doze off if he gets the chance.

Donald Trump does not have the same sway that he used to.

The MAGA leader’s supposedly astronomical influence over the Republican Party is being tested in the run-up to the November midterms, Politico reported early Tuesday.

There’s plenty of evidence that his pull is fading. Trump’s retribution campaign begins in Indiana, where 21 local Republican legislators blocked his attempts to redistrict their state in December. Eight of them are up for reelection this cycle, and Trump aims to oust all of them. So far, Trump has endorsed primary challengers against seven, and his allies have spent millions of dollars on the relatively tiny races.

Yet his candidates have largely failed to break out on their own, with the strongest only holding narrow leads in polls. Even those close to the president are not expecting all of Trump’s favorites to win, reported Politico.

The president has also backed primary opponents to some of his biggest in-party thorns, including Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy and Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie, the latter of whom has so far weathered the storm. Cassidy, who became an enemy of the far-right movement when he voted to convict Trump on impeachment charges in 2021, is down by just a handful of points, according to the ​​latest Emerson College poll.

It’s another indication that the MAGA movement is turning away from its longtime leader, potentially looking for new stewardship as Trump enters the lame-duck stage of his presidency—even if Trump has no plans to end his reign.

The 79-year-old once again toyed with the idea of extending his time in office while speaking at the White House small-business summit Monday, claiming that he could potentially stay in office for another two terms, or eight years in total.

“He’s hit his max power and now you’re seeing the backside of that power curve,” former GOP Representative Adam Kinzinger told Politico. “This will be his last competitive election cycle that will have any impact on him. And I think the base is starting to think into the future.”