“FIRE THE BUM”: Trump Torches Mitch McConnell Aide for Wild Reason

President Donald Trump demanded a congressional aide be fired Wednesday for making Senator Mitch McConnell look “completely out of it” during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. 

The staffer approached McConnell after the Kentucky Republican attempted to preemptively conclude the hearing Tuesday, during which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine testified about the Pentagon’s behemoth budget request and the war in Iran. The staffer explained that some senators still needed to ask questions, and his directions were audible on the microphone.  

“The guy that came up to Mitch McConnell today when McConnell thought the hearing was over, and started speaking in his ear for Mitch to belatedly introduce some other people, all Democrats and, by doing so, made Mitch look foolish and completely out of it, should be immediately fired,” Trump posted on Truth Social early Wednesday. 

“This was a case where Mitch wasn’t confused, he just didn’t understand why he was being asked to do something when it was too late, and people were wrapping up to leave—They wanted to go home.”

The remaining senators were Democrats Tammy Baldwin and Jeanne Saheen and Republican John Kennedy.

Clearly, someone—likely not Trump—had done some research on who the staffer was: Robert Karem. Although the president called him a “Never Trumper,” it seems Trump nominated Karem to serve as assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs in 2017. Karem currently serves as majority clerk for the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on defense.

Now, Trump accused Karem of “grandstanding,” adding: “FIRE THE BUM!” Trump seems to have taken a page out of Elon Musk’s book by targeting specific government workers on whom to unleash his most crazed followers. 

The state Democratic Party favorite won Nebraska’s senatorial primary Tuesday evening—though she has no plans to make it to the general election.

Cindy Burbank actually campaigned on exiting the race. The retired pharmacy technician easily won over the state’s liberal voters Tuesday evening, securing 89.2 percent of the vote and every region of the state sans one rural county in a primary match-up against anti-abortion pastor Bill Forbes.

Forbes was accused of being a covert Republican, “planted” in the Democratic primary by Senator Pete Ricketts in order to give the incumbent an advantage come midterms.

While Burbank earned the state Democratic nomination, she was never the party’s favorite. Instead, knowing they would have little success on the ballot against an incumbent Republican, Democratic party leaders chose an unexpected third option: endorsing Dan Osborn, a mechanic and former labor union leader running as an independent.

“William Forbes is not running to serve Nebraskans. He is running to trick voters,” Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb said in March. “The Nebraska Democratic Party made a deliberate, principled decision not to field a candidate in the U.S. Senate race.”

Ricketts has denied any association with Forbes.

Osborn’s odds in a match-up against Ricketts are surprisingly good, Democrat-aligned polls indicate. The lone question for Democrats heading into Tuesday’s primaries was how the party could avoid a three-way split between Ricketts, Osborn, and a candidate on their own ticket. Enter: Burbank.

“I don’t wanna split the ballot,” Burbank told The New York Times via text message after her win. “I have no expectations of being able to win in November.”

After the race, Burbank told the times that she was “kinda disappointed” by her overwhelming success Tuesday evening. The race was called just six minutes after polls closed, which Burbank joked had taken “all the fun out of it.”

In another message, asked if she hoped Ricketts would also drop out, Burbank wrote: “That would be such sweetness.”

Burbank was initially stripped from the ballot by the GOP secretary of state due to her unorthodox plan, but she sued the state and ultimately had her ballot access restored.

The Republican National Committee announced Tuesday that it has deployed poll watchers and election observers in at least 17 states for the midterm elections.

In a post on X, RNC Chairman Joe Gruters posted an audio clip where he said, “We’ve already deployed field staff and we’ve hired state directors and election integrity directors.”

Gruters didn’t name the states but said that the effort was part of the Republican Party’s plan to hold onto Congress for the 2026 midterm elections.

“We focus on the big picture. We focus on winning. We have a plan. We’re executing the plan,” Gruters said.

Meanwhile, speaking to the press Tuesday, President Trump said he’d “do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections,” in response to a question on whether he’d deploy the National Guard or ICE to voting locations in November.

It’s a disturbing thing for Trump to say, just two days after he called for an “Election Integrity Army.” In a Truth Social post, Trump claimed that Republicans had one in 2024 “in every single State to preserve the sanctity of each legal vote” and attacked Democrats for forming their own elections task force led by former Attorney General Eric Holder.

“​​We will be doing the same again in 2026, but it will be much bigger and stronger. All Americans should have their voices be heard by casting a vote. Be assured this Election will be fair! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” Trump posted.

It appears that the RNC has heard Trump loud and clear, and is taking action. It’s on top of everything else the Republican Party is doing to meddle in the midterms and beyond, from mid-decade redistricting that disenfranchises Democrats and Black Americans to spreading election-denial conspiracies from 2020. It has even installed election denialists in local governments and election boards across the country.

Deploying ICE agents or National Guard troops at the polls seems to be a ploy to frighten people of color from voting, and is unprecedented. It appears that the midterms are shaping up to be a tense battle in more ways than one.

Republicans are scrambling to either justify or ignore President Trump’s shocking Tuesday admission that he doesn’t care “even a little bit” about the financial struggles of American citizens.

Journalist Pablo Manríquez asked multiple GOP senators about the president’s comments about 90 minutes after he said them—plenty of time for members of Congress to react.

“What do you think of Donald Trump saying he doesn’t think about the finances or the financial situation of the American people?” Manríquez asked Senator Cynthia Lummis.

“Did he say that? I don’t have a comment about that, mostly because I think he actually does care,” she replied with a laugh, claiming that the president didn’t mean something he doubled down on publicly.

Senator Roger Marshall, also smiling, refused to answer as well, claiming he didn’t know the “context” of the comment. And Senator Susan Collins stated she didn’t see the president’s comment at all.

For the record, Trump’s comments were crystal clear.

“When you’re negotiating with Iran, Mr. President, to what extent are Americans’ financial situations motivating you to make a deal?” a reporter asked Trump before he left for China on Tuesday, alluding to the skyrocketing inflation caused by the fallout from the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and Lebanon.

“Not even a little bit,” Trump said. “The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran is they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation, I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all. That’s the only thing that motivates me.”

You won’t believe who’s included in President Donald Trump’s corrupt caravan of CEOs headed for China. 

Trump traveled to China Tuesday for a two-day summit with President Xi Jinping, accompanied by more than a dozen American entrepreneurs—including his own son—each hoping the president will clear the way for them to make even more money.

Among those aboard Air Force One Tuesday were the president’s son Eric Trump and his wife, Lara. While the White House has claimed Eric is attending the trip in a “personal capacity,” isn’t this the exact same thing Trump railed against former President Joe Biden doing with his son Hunter? 

As executive vice president of development for the Trump Organization, Eric Trump has helped to net lucrative real estate deals across Europe and the Middle East that directly benefit his father. Eric and Don Jr. recently merged their publicly traded golf course holding company with Powerus, a Florida-based drone company, with the goal of filling the gaps left by the Trump administration’s ban on Chinese drones. They also recently won a government contract of an unknown value.  

The Trump Organization does not currently have any upcoming real estate projects in China, but during Trump’s last term, China and its state-owned entities paid a whopping $5.5 million at vacation properties owned by the president’s family—far more than any other country.

Other CEOs who are planning to travel with Trump include Tesla’s Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, and Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, as well as officials from Meta, Visa, Mastercard, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, GE Aerospace, Cargill, and Illumina. The group also included CEOs from major semiconductor manufacturers Qualcomm, Micron, and Coherent. 

As a precondition of their selection, each company was tasked with developing a “tangible ask” that promised a concrete outcome, one source familiar with the matter told Reuters. For example, Musk is reportedly looking to acquire $2.9 billion of equipment to build solar panels and regulatory clearance for Tesla’s self-driving assistance system in China, the world’s largest auto market. 

Reva Goujon, a geopolitical strategist at Rhodium Group, told Reuters that aside from Boeing and Cargill, which are involved in purchase agreements, the rest of the cabal of wealthy entrepreneurs is there to deliver demands on critical input supply. “This could help the U.S. administration’s messaging that to even ​be able to discuss a board of investment, China needs to be a reliable investment partner and not weaponise supply,” he said. 

Also included in Trump’s caravan is director Brett Ratner, who directed Melania’s Trump’s vanity-project documentary that turned into a box office flop. Ratner will spend his trip scouting locations for Rush Hour 4, which was greenlit at Trump’s demand, according to the New York Post.

FBI Director Kash Patel’s appearance before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee Tuesday fell apart as soon as he was asked about his widely reported drinking habits.

It was the bureau chief’s first time back on Capitol Hill since The Atlantic published multiple bombshell reports detailing how Patel’s alleged substance abuse and his unexplained absences had alarmed officials in and out of the agency.

But the topic was apparently still too hot for Patel to handle come Tuesday. In one particularly heated exchange with Senator Chris Van Hollen, Patel resorted to a barrage of lies and mockery in a futile attempt to deflect from his issues.

“You have publicly denied those allegations and filed a defamation lawsuit, so today as you testify before Congress, is it your testimony that those allegations are categorically false?” asked Van Hollen.

“Unequivocally, categorically false,” Patel said.

“So there have been no occasions in your tenure when FBI personnel were unable to promptly reach you?” pressed Van Hollen.

Patel insisted that federal employees have been able to reach him at any hour of the day. But the line of questioning flew off the rails when Van Hollen asked for confirmation that there had been “no occasions when [Patel’s] security detail had difficulty waking or locating” him.

“Nope, it’s a total farce, I don’t even know where you get this stuff, but that doesn’t make it credible because you say so,” Patel deadpanned, slowly blinking his eyes.

“I’m not saying it, Director Patel, it’s written and documented—” Van Hollen said, when Patel interjected: “You are literally saying it.”

“No, I am saying that these are reports, Director Patel,” Van Hollen clarified.

“Unlike baseless reports—the only person that was slinging margaritas in El Salvador on the taxpayer dollar with a convicted gangbanging rapist was you. The only person that ran up a several thousand–dollar bar tab in Washington, D.C. … was you,” Patel said, referring to when Van Hollen visited Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland constituent who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador’s mega-prison by the Trump administration last year, to advocate for his release.

“This is the ultimate example of hypocrisy. I will not be tarnished by baseless allegations … by the media,” Patel shouted.

“Director Patel, come on. These were serious allegations that were made,” Van Hollen said. “The fact that you mention that indicates you don’t know what you are talking about.”

President Trump could not care less about your financial struggles.

The man who pledged to fight for unseen Americans by lowering prices and ending endless wars isn’t doing either, and remained adamant that he’s still on the right path forward when asked about it on Tuesday.

“When you’re negotiating with Iran, Mr. President, to what extent are Americans’ financial situations motivating you to make a deal?” a reporter asked Trump before he left for China on Tuesday, alluding to the skyrocketing inflation caused by the fallout from the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and Lebanon.

“Not even a little bit,” Trump said, shockingly out of touch even for him. “The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran is they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation, I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all. That’s the only thing that motivates me.”

ABC News’s Karen Travers asked Trump to clarify his comments. The president doubled down.

“Did you say earlier that the only thing that matters to you when it comes to Iran is the nuclear weapon? You’re not considering the financial impact of this war on Americans?”

“The most important thing by far, including whether our stock market … goes up or down a little bit—the most important thing by far is Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump replied.

“What about the pressure on Americans in crisis right now? What they’re paying for food—”

“Every American understands.… They just had a poll, like 85 percent … they understand that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. If Iran has a nuclear weapon the whole world would be in trouble. Because they happen to be crazy,” Trump said. “When it’s over, you’re gonna have a massive drop in the price of oil.… Oil is gonna drop, the stock market’s gonna go through the roof, and truly I think we’re in the golden age right now.”

These are gift-wrapped, made-for-midterm-attack-ad comments, and the political sphere reacted as such.

“Another absolutely horrendous quote that will be shoved down Republicans’ throats during the 2026 midterms,” podcaster Tommy Vietor wrote.

“If it wasn’t the the post world war 2 order and our whole damn democracy at stake you’d really have to laugh,” The Bulwark’s Tim Miller opined on X.

“Trump just admitted what we’ve known all along,” Representative Adriano Espaillait commented. “He does not care that Americans can’t afford to live.”

As of May 12, nearly every poll shows that the majority of Americans oppose the war on Iran.

The Trump administration produced a line-by-line spending plan Tuesday for how it plans to use $1 billion in taxpayer money on the White House ballroom, Axios reported. 

At a lunch with Senate Republicans Tuesday, Secret Service Director Sean Curran offered up a detailed outline of how the agency planned to use the $1 billion Republicans requested to implement “security adjustments and upgrades,” including those related to the ballroom’s construction. 

The White House said it wants $220 million for hardening security at the White House, including “bulletproof glass, drone detection technologies, chemical and other threat filtration and detection systems.” Republicans’ request had specified the money could go to “above-ground and below-ground security features” as part of Trump’s so-called “East Wing Modernization Project.”

A gentle reminder: Trump originally pitched that his ballroom would cost just $200 million total, which is less than the hardening costs alone. The funding for Trump’s ballroom was originally sourced from a cabal of private donors—many of whom had hefty government contracts. Now it will drain $1 billion out of taxpayers’ wallets, as well.

The request also contained another $180 million for an entirely new visitor screening facility and $100 million for security at high-profile events—ostensibly held at Trump’s behemoth venue.  

In addition, it contained another $500 million to specifically bolster the Secret Service, including $175 million for Secret Service training “in the modern threat environment, $175 million to improve security for protectees, and $150 million to fund the Secret Service’s “work to country drones, airspace incursion, unmanned systems, biological threats, and other emerging threats through investments in state-of-the-art technologies.”

The original budget was proposed as part of a $72 billion package to fund agencies under the Department of Homeland Security, including ICE and Border Patrol. The Secret Service was already appropriated $3.5 billion in fiscal year 2026, a $192 million increase from 2025. 

A federal appeals court tossed a chance Tuesday to rehear Donald Trump’s mega-lawsuit against his perceived political enemies.

Trump’s 2022 suit targeted former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey (amongst others), claiming that they had participated in a broad racketeering conspiracy to create false allegations that his 2016 presidential campaign was tied to Russia. A district court dismissed the case in January 2023.

But the frivolous legal attack wasn’t just struck down in court—it also netted Trump and his personal attorney, Alina Habba, a nearly $1 million sanction. In November, Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge William Pryor Jr. upheld the fine and noted that “many of Trump’s and Habba’s legal arguments were indeed frivolous,” echoing a lower court’s findings that Trump had made a “malicious prosecution claim without a prosecution” and a “trade secret claim without a trade secret.”

It’s been half a year since then, and on Tuesday, the Eleventh Circuit declined another opportunity to rehear Trump’s case.

Six of the 12 judges on the panel were Trump appointees. None of them sought a vote to rehear the case.

The next stop on this component of Trump’s retribution campaign would be the Supreme Court, if Trump intends to push the legal case to its very end. It’s unclear how the nation’s highest judiciary would vote, though in the last handful of weeks the court has made some wildly controversial decisions related to gerrymandering and voting rights that lawmakers, political commentators, and even members of the court have argued placed Trump’s interests above the parameters of the law.

The head of the Food and Drug Administration, Marty Makary, resigned Tuesday, becoming the latest Cabinet member to leave the Trump administration.

Makary is resigning from the agency after clashing with President Trump over vaping and other policy decisions, and his possible firing was reported last week by The Wall Street Journal. Trump was reportedly upset that Makary wouldn’t approve menthol, mango, and blueberry vape flavors from Glas because they would appeal to young, underage users. Trump promised to “save vaping” on the 2024 campaign trail.

Trump refused to say whether he fired Makary Tuesday, telling reporters on the White House lawn, “I don’t want to say, but Marty’s a great guy.

“He’s a friend of mine, he’s a wonderful man, and he’s going to be off, and the assistant, the deputy, is taking over temporarily, until we find—everybody wants that job. It’s a very important job. Marty’s a terrific guy, but he’s going to go on and he’s going to lead a good life,” Trump said. “He was having some difficulty. You know he’s a great doctor, and he was having some difficulty, but he’s gonna go on and he’s gonna do well. Everybody wants that job. Everybody.”

Makary was also criticized privately by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who questioned his management skills and was considering scaling back his role last year.

Under Makary, the FDA has faced heavy criticism for seemingly embracing anti-vaccination policies, and many staffers have left the agency or been laid off. The turmoil at the agency has alarmed pharmaceutical executives, public health experts, and medical professionals.

Trump has shaken up health care positions in his administration lately, naming former deputy surgeon general Erica Schwartz to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and nominating Fox News contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier as surgeon general last month.

Schwartz appears to be a conventional choice, while Saphier appears to fit the conservative MAGA mindset. Which direction will Trump go in for his next FDA commissioner?

This story has been updated.