Trump Team Privately Panicking Over Elections Disaster He Created

The Trump administration is in panic mode as jet fuel prices continue to soar due to the U.S.-Israeli joint war on Iran and Lebanon, with the president’s advisers pushing him to end the war before summer, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

Jet fuel has become twice as expensive since the beginning of the war, and prices show no signs of falling. That’s causing airlines to add billions more in expenses and ticket prices to try to counteract the effects of the war—meaning the consumer will suffer. Skyrocketing fuel prices even caused Spirit Airlines to declare bankruptcy and shut down last week, even though Republicans blame the Biden administration. 

The vast majority of Americans are suffering at the pump, the airport, or both—and they’re correctly blaming it on Trump. Trump and his Cabinet have continuously downplayed the negative impacts the war is having on fuel prices, with the president stating that these high prices are “a very small price to pay for getting rid of a nuclear weapon from people that are really mentally deranged.” Americans don’t see it that way, especially if it means their plans get canceled. If the senseless death, destruction, and displacement in Iran and Lebanon weren’t enough to catalyze people against Trump’s war, paying hundreds of dollars for a vacation ticket might.  

The future is looking bright for America’s youth—bright orange, that is.

Against the advice of dermatologists everywhere, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has cleared a path for children to keep getting their fix at tanning beds across the United States, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

The wellness conspiracist withdrew a proposed Food and Drug Administration rule earlier this year that would have curbed access to the carcinogenic, cancer-causing machines for anyone under the age of 18. The rule would have also required participating adults to sign a waiver acknowledging the health risks of using a man-made tanning device prior to use.

Medical researchers first linked ultraviolet exposure to skin damage in the 1930s, but public health agencies wouldn’t start actively advocating against aggressive U.V. exposure until much later. By the mid-1980s, the FDA was issuing warnings on “tanning pills,” setting formal limits on sunbed exposure, and spreading national public health messages about the “darker side of tanning,” educating the public about the heightened cancer risks related to artificial tanning.

Kennedy has not explicitly made bedside tanning a component of his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, but the practice is clearly integral to his lifestyle. The 72-year-old has been spotted frequenting tanning salons around Washington and has been outspoken about their benefits. In the weeks leading up to the 2024 election, Kennedy railed against the FDA’s “war” on “sunshine” (among other wellness industry fixations, such as raw milk, hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as miracle Covid cures, and psychedelics).

His fringe ideological acolytes have adopted tanning into their wellness routines, encouraging their own followers to abandon sunscreen and build up their “solar callus”—a newfangled reference to sun tolerance, reported the Los Angeles Times.

The FBI raid on the office of a Virginia state senator Wednesday in Portsmouth, Virginia, was reportedly spurred on by a former Justice Department lawyer who thought it would help Republicans in the midterms.

MS NOW reports that Lindsey Halligan, who was forced to leave the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia earlier this year for being illegally appointed, had been pressuring prosecutors to charge L. Louise Lucas, a leader among Virginia Democrats who pushed for redistricting in the state.

“Louise Lucas is a … fairly prominent legislator in her state, but not known nationally, and the FBI and the Department of Justice have been investigating her for several years—three years, I’m told by a source familiar with the probe—and that investigation has been looking at evidence suggesting that she solicited or accepted bribes,” MS NOW senior investigative correspondent Carol Leonnig said on the network Wednesday.

Leonnig said that according to her source, when Halligan “had been running the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Virginia, she had been pressuring and pushing prosecutors to bring charges against Lucas, believing that that would be important, a high-priority case.”

“I’m told that Halligan believed it would be good for the White House to be able, before the midterms, to accuse a prominent state Democrat in Virginia with bribery,” Leonnig added. “Prosecutors based out of Norfolk were not sure this was the strongest case in the world, but Halligan felt very strongly that it should be pressed.”

The FBI has not yet publicly commented on the reasons for the raid. Lucas is an ally of Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, and gained notoriety on social media for posting memes in support of Virginia’s redistricting effort and going toe-to-toe with Republicans like President Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz. The raid of her office got instant coverage on Fox News, likely because a senior member of the DOJ, possibly acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, tipped them off. Was Lucas specifically targeted on trumped-up charges?

Donald Trump is insulting his supporters—again.

In the midst of a White House press event Wednesday promoting the executive mansion’s upcoming UFC tournament, mixed martial artist Justin Gaethje attempted to praise the president for normalizing UFC tournaments and humanizing its fighters. Instead, he got sucker-punched by an unexpectedly emotional jab from the man behind the Resolute Desk.

“I’m not sure many know how big of a part you were to the UFC becoming mainstream in the early ’90s, when nobody would let us—no one would believe in us, they thought they were absolute animals, and you gave us a chance to fight in your properties—” Gaethje said, before Trump interjected.

“Well, they were right about that,” Trump chirped.

But the joke was tepidly received.

“Well,” Gaethje said, hanging his head. “Somewhat, somewhat.”

Trump is a lifelong fan of boxing and MMA—so much so that he’s planning to host a UFC tournament on the White House lawn on his birthday, June 14. The main card will pit Gaethje against Ilia Topuria for the lightweight title, and Alex Pereira against Ciryl Gane for the interim heavyweight title. UFC’s parent company, TKO Holdings, has promised that the entire event—which is expected to cost around $60 million—will be funded entirely by the sports organization and come at no cost to taxpayers.

It will be the first UFC event ever hosted at the White House, and while the fight itself may be unprecedented, Trump’s derogatory comments are anything but. Trump has made a career of grifting his supporters, pledging his love for them one moment while backhanding them the next.

Over the course of the last year, Trump has derided his base as “stupid” and “weaklings” for caring about the Epstein files (and Trump’s prominent place in them), suggested that American workers lack skill, and told a bloc of supporters at a senior community in Florida that the crowd likely wouldn’t be able to pass the cognitive exams he had taken to convey his mental acuity. (Trump’s recollections of the tests have called into question whether he actually took them at all, as some of the tests’ creators have said their exams are to check for dementia, not cognitive speed.)

Trump has a history of having a big mouth. Over the course of his political ascent, he has famously referred to women by their genitals, called deceased veterans “suckers” and “losers,” claimed that he loves the “poorly educated,” and said he could get away with shooting someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters, suggesting his base is gullible and blindly loyal.

Tennessee Republicans kicked Democratic lawmakers, journalists, and constituents out of a special redistricting session Wednesday as protests over their new congressional map engulfed the state House.

After one round of protests forced Republicans to shut down their meeting, they relocated to a new room, according to The Tennessean, and prevented anyone from entering.

Democratic state Representatives Gloria Johnson and Gabby Salinas were both told to leave the Judiciary Committee meeting as lawmakers discussed the GOP’s new congressional map, which would eliminate Democratic Representative Steve Cohen’s majority-Black Memphis area district and give Republicans a 9–0 majority in the state.

“Well folks, here we are—this special session where the people are yet again being ignored,” Johnson said in a video recorded outside of the meeting room doors, while dozens of chanting protesters raised their voices around her. “I thought I could go in the Senate Committee—they won’t even let me in. I got kicked out. I got kicked out. They are not letting members into committee.... The people were kicked out earlier.

“This is a travesty of justice,” Johnson continued. “If you can get down here, we need you down here fighting with us. Because this is a clear power grab taking away the voice of the people. This is the Republicans’ white power rally.”

Fellow Democrat Justin Pearson was barred from entering the meeting entirely, instead standing in the doorway while Cohen spoke.

The Senate Judiciary Committee later approved the map by a vote of 9–2, pushing it to the wider chamber, where it is expected to pass.