Lindsey Graham Is Already Trying to Derail Trump’s China Talks

Senator Lindsey Graham wants Donald Trump to threaten to impose tariffs on China if they don’t drop their “dirtbag” friends.

Speaking on Fox News’s Hannity Wednesday, Graham presented his own vision for the outcome of Trump’s two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The South Carolina Republican said that China should cut off the “worst people in the world,” referring to Russia and Iran, and join America’s efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and stop the fighting between Russia and Ukraine.

“If you help us, I will be very grateful. If you don’t help us, and you continue to prop up these regimes, I will do business with you on Monday, and put tariffs on you on Tuesday,” he said.

In order to force Xi to drop his buddies, Graham said he would introduce legislation to allow Trump to place tariffs on China for buying Russian oil. China is the largest buyer of Russia’s coal and crude oil exports, and of Iran’s oil exports.

“The only thing China respects is strength,” Graham said. “So, when this [summit] is over, if they’re still doing the same damn thing with Iran and Russia and we don’t punish China, we’ve made a mistake.”

The real mistake would be implementing more tariffs, which would only cause more economic strain for average Americans, who are already suffering from skyrocketing inflation caused by Trump’s military campaign against Iran. A fresh round of tariffs on China would also surely disrupt the only economic indicator that Trump actually cares about: the U.S. stock market.

Graham has continually tried to insert himself in negotiations with foreign countries. Speaking to Pentagon officials earlier this week, he tried to undermine Pakistan, a key mediator in the ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and Iran.

Representative Frederica Wilson has yet to explain why she hasn’t voted on a single issue since April 17.

The Florida Democrat has been missing in action for weeks, according to her documented voting record. She has so far failed to address her nearly four-week absence, though her team has been busy keeping her social media active and curated.

Some of the account’s posts seem designed to trick people into thinking that Wilson is still out and about. In one bizarre post circulated earlier this week and flagged on X by Capitol Hill correspondent Jamie Dupree, Wilson’s team reused photographs of her from an October event, in an attempt to suggest that the lawmaker was still mingling with her constituents.

Wilson is a member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, as well as the House Committee on Education and Workforce. Both committees have held several hearings since April 17, though the 83-year-old doesn’t seem to appear in video footage of any of them.

Wilson represents Florida’s 24th congressional district, which encompasses the Miami-Dade area and Broward County. She has held the seat since 2013 and is up for reelection in November. The area has a solid Democratic advantage, according to an analysis by the Cook Political Report.

That might be enough to hand Wilson another two-year term—if opposition wasn’t coming from within the party: Christine Sanon-Jules Olivo, a small-business owner with ties to the NAACP, is running to unseat her in the district’s Democratic primary, scheduled for August 18.

Wilson is not the only member of Congress to recently disappear without explanation, however. Last month, there was a significant stir over the prolonged, inexplicable absence of New Jersey Republican Representative Thomas Kean Jr. Journalists, his constituents, and Republican allies in the tristate area attempted to contact him for weeks, trying to glean an answer from the AWOL politician.

Nothing worked until House Speaker Mike Johnson phoned him in late April, learning that Kean had been struggling with an unspecified “personal health matter.”

Kean is still not back at work.

Republicans in two more Southern states, South Carolina and Georgia, are moving ahead with plans to redraw their districts this year following the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Callais last month.

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster is planning to call state legislators for a special session, local TV station WIS-10 reports. A spokesperson for the governor told the outlet Wednesday to expect “something” on Thursday regarding an announcement, the same day that the state’s legislative session is scheduled to end.

The South Carolina Senate voted down a resolution Tuesday that would have made a special session possible, making an executive order from the governor the only possible way for one to be called. On Tuesday night, McMaster posted on X, “The General Assembly still has two full days in which to finish its important work, including giving full consideration—as sought by the people—to the important question of redistricting.

“I urge the General Assembly to finish its work according to the U.S. and South Carolina constitutions and the best interests of the people,” McMaster’s post said.

Meanwhile, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp on Wednesday called for a special legislative session June 17 to redraw the state’s congressional map, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. While Kemp has already ruled out changing the map in time for November’s midterm elections, the governor is hoping to get the map redrawn before November’s gubernatorial elections.

Republicans in Georgia hope to improve on their 9–5 advantage in the House of Representatives, while South Carolina has one Democrat, Representative Jim Clyburn, versus six Republicans. If these efforts are successful, the two states would join Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida in marginalizing the political power of their Black populations.

Miami residents are suing President Trump, claiming that the land given to him for the construction of his presidential library was an illegal transaction intended to curry favor with the president—a violation of the domestic emoluments clause of the Constitution. The lawsuit calls for the land sale to be canceled.

The lawsuit points to the Miami Dade College Board of Trustees and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis selling a three-acre plot of land in the middle of Miami to Trump’s foundation for just $10—when it’s obvious that the land is worth millions.

“With its waterfront views and central location in bustling Downtown Miami, the [Miami Dade College] Parcel would likely sell for over $300 million on the open market, according to local real estate experts,” the lawsuit reads. “But President Trump paid nothing for it.” Litigants also stated that the library would disrupt their lives and contribute to traffic and noise pollution.

Another point of contention in the lawsuit is that Trump has already publicly stated that he doesn’t even want to use the library for its intended purpose—he wants it to be a hotel.

“[The land] is no longer available to serve MDC’s student community and Downtown Miami,” the suit reads. “Instead, the land will house a Trump hotel that brings riches to the President.”

This lawsuit comes just a month after The New Republic reported that four massive companies with loyalties to Trump—Meta, X, ABC, and Paramount—all pledged tens of millions of dollars toward the library. Now the slush fund that money went into is nowhere to be found, adding yet another level of scrutiny to a project that isn’t even off the ground.

And on top of all this, the renderings for the Trump Presidential Library are gaudy, gratuitous, and ugly. AI-generated concept art shows an ostentatious skyscraper in downtown Miami with at least two massive gold statues of the president, massive outdoor patios with palm trees, full-size planes and fighter jets inside, a large ballroom, a replica of the Oval Office, and of course gold everywhere and on everything.

Vice President JD Vance blatantly lied Wednesday when asked about Donald Trump’s callous remarks on Americans’ worsening financial situation.

At a press conference, Vance was asked whether he agreed with Trump’s position that Americans’ worsening financial situations should not be a consideration in the decision-making process on Iran.

“Well, I don’t think the president said that,” Vance said. “I think that’s a misrepresentation of what the president said.”

Let’s be super clear: It wasn’t a misrepresentation. When asked Tuesday whether Americans’ worsening financial situations motivated him to make a deal with Iran, Trump replied: “Not even a little bit.”

“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,” Trump said.

Rather than indicate any daylight between the president and himself, Vance decided to lie about quotes on the public record. The vice president is just one of many Republicans who have been sent scrambling to clean up the president’s careless remarks. House Speaker Mike Johnson once again played the amnesiac earlier Wednesday when asked about the president’s shocking statements.

Trump has insisted that the economy is in great shape. In reality, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly report, released Tuesday, found that inflation rose to 3.8 percent in April, outpacing wages, which grew at a rate of 3.6 percent.

Meanwhile, new polling from CNN shows that Trump’s net economic approval rating isn’t just bad—it’s one of the worst of all time. A whopping 77 percent of Americans blame Trump for increasing the cost of living in their community, up 37 percent from 2024.

Senator Rand Paul’s son William drunkenly used antisemitic insults against Republican Representative Mike Lawler at a Washington, D.C., bar and restaurant on Tuesday.

NOTUS reporter Reese Gorman witnessed the entire exchange as the younger Paul, who introduced himself as the Kentucky senator’s son, accosted Lawler regarding Representative Thomas Massie’s primary election next week in Kentucky.

Paul was seated at the establishment’s bar a couple of seats away from Lawler and Gorman, and interrupted a conversation between the two to tell Lawler that if Massie loses, it will be because of “your people.”

Lawler replied, “Your people?”

“Yeah, you Jews,” Paul said, to which Lawler remarked that he isn’t Jewish.

“Oh wow, I’m so sorry for calling you a Jew,” Paul said. The senator’s son then went on a rant against Jewish people, calling them anti-American and claiming Lawler and his “Jewish supporters” served Israel over America. Lawler argued with Paul and defended his support of Israel, telling him that he was antisemitic.

Paul then accused Jewish Republican megadonor Paul Singer, who is funding an anti-Massie super PAC, of serving “Israeli interests, not American interests.” A pro-Massie super PAC, Restore Freedom PAC, has run an ad with a picture of Singer in front of a rainbow Star of David titled “LGBTQ Mafia.”

Paul also told Lawler that he “needs to watch more Tucker Carlson,” and defended his father and Massie as the only legislators who care about the U.S. Lawler ultimately decided to end the conversation, telling Paul, “Well, you just seem to hate Jews, so there’s no point arguing anymore.”

This prompted Paul to wave his finger at Lawler and say, “Don’t put words in my mouth, Mike Lawler, I never said that.” Paul then complained about Lawler’s position on state and local taxes, and Lawler told him to “Please leave us alone.” The senator’s son then gave Lawler the middle finger, then apologized for being drunk and left, but knocked over his barstool and tripped over it in the process.

The whole exchange was pretty embarrassing for Paul, and he’s now put his father in the awkward position of having to apologize for his son’s rude behavior. Massie, a libertarian ally of Senator Paul, has often clashed with President Trump, who is backing his primary opponent. The younger Paul did not do him or his father any favors Tuesday night.

Just one Democrat voted Wednesday to confirm Kevin Warsh as the next chair of the Federal Reserve, handing President Donald Trump complete control over U.S. monetary policy.

The final vote for Warsh was 54–45, mostly along party lines. Only Senator John Fetterman broke ranks and voted alongside Republicans to confirm Warsh.

Warsh is everything Trump wants in an appointee. He’s handsome and wealthy—the richest Fed chair ever, in fact—but most of all, he’s willing to do whatever the president wants.

During his confirmation hearings last month, Warsh assured lawmakers that he would “take [his] responsibility to be an independent leader of the Federal Reserve very seriously,” and claimed the president had never “asked [him] to predetermine, commit, fix, [or] decide on any interest rate decision in any of our discussions, nor would I ever agree to do so.”

But that was a lie. Trump confirmed to The Wall Street Journal in December that he’d pressed Warsh on whether he could trust him to support interest rate cuts if he were chosen to lead the central bank. When Senator Ruben Gallego cornered him on this point during the confirmation hearing, Warsh complained about journalistic standards.

It’s no secret that Trump has been desperate for the Fed to lower interest rates, in the hopes of boosting his party’s chances in the midterm elections. He has repeatedly attacked outgoing Chair Jerome Powell for refusing to cut rates. And Trump has no qualms demanding loyalty from those he installs, such as the conservative Supreme Court justices he won’t stop harassing.

The confirmation of Trump’s newest sycophant signals the destruction of the Fed’s independence.

The Trump administration plans to withhold $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements from California, claiming that the state has not taken alleged fraud tied to its hospice and home health agencies “seriously.”

“These fraudulent health care providers are getting rich by giving people medications they don’t even need,” Vice President JD Vance announced at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. “We want California to get serious about this fraud.”

Vance argued that states around the country were paying the cost of California’s allegedly blind eye, though California Governor Gavin Newsom vehemently denied that the administration’s attack had anything to do with fraud.

“We hate fraud. But that’s NOT what this is,” Newsom wrote in a statement on X. “Vance and Oz are attacking programs that keep seniors and people with disabilities OUT of nursing homes. Pretty sick.”

Newsom further claimed that rising costs related to California’s In-Home Supportive Services, or IHSS, which provides more than 730,000 low-income, disabled residents with home-based care, had ultimately saved the federal government money.

“Why has IHSS grown in California? It’s simple: Because California is keeping more people OUT of far more expensive nursing homes!” Newsom wrote.

The Trump admin has singled out California as the “ground zero” of health care fraud, as the government aims to strangle Medicaid funding around the nation. Vance’s announcement follows actions taken weeks prior by the federal administration that suspended the licenses of 447 hospice facilities and 23 home health agencies around the Los Angeles area, on suspicion of fraud.

Vance also said that his anti-fraud unit would “very aggressively encourage states to take Medicaid fraud more seriously” and would soon be issuing letters to all 50 states “that will require them to show that they are aggressively prosecuting Medicaid fraud in their states.”

“And if they don’t, we are going to turn off the money,” Vance noted.

This story has been updated.

Senator John Fetterman was the deciding vote Wednesday to dismiss the Democrats’ seventh attempt to advance a resolution under the War Powers Act to stop President Donald Trump’s disastrous military campaign in Iran.

It was the first time the Senate has voted on a measure to end the war in Iran since the conflict crossed the 60-day deadline. After that point, the War Powers Act requires the president to withdraw his forces unless Congress declares war or approves an extension. The motion failed by a single vote, at 49–50.

Three Republicans—Senators Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, and Rand Paul—broke with party leadership to support the measure.

It should come as no surprise that Fetterman was the sole Democrat to vote against the measure, as he’s expressed outspoken support for acting against Iran, which he called “the real enemy, the real threat, the real danger.” But in siding with Republicans (and Israel), Fetterman is acting against not only the will of his party but the wills of his constituents. A March poll found that Pennsylvania voters held a -16 net disapproval rating of America’s recent military strikes in Iran.

Trump has reportedly ordered Republicans to attempt to sway Fetterman to switch parties to help retain the GOP’s fragile majority in the Senate. Fetterman claimed he’d make a “shitty Republican,” while Trump has called the Pennsylvania centrist his “favorite Democrat.”

The president’s retribution campaign is in full force inside the FBI.

The FBI now has a team of special agents willing to pursue political targets identified by the Trump administration, NOTUS reported Wednesday.

The unit is reportedly referred to internally as the “payback squad,” though a senior FBI official told NOTUS on background that no team had been created with that name. The official noted, however, that bureau personnel are most likely referring to a specific effort undertaken by a group titled the Director’s Advisory Team, which was created in 2025 to “[get] to the bottom of some abuses of power” that allegedly took place during previous presidential administrations.

One current government official told the outlet that the team has been tasked with building cases similar to the one developed against former FBI Director James Comey, who was indicted by a federal grand jury in April over an Instagram post that the White House interpreted to be a threat on Donald Trump’s life.

A current law enforcement official told NOTUS that the team is composed of people who “know what they’re signing up for” and have taken rotational shifts at an off-site location unaffiliated with established FBI field offices.

The senior FBI official said that the unit team was “detached” from the FBI’s Washington Field Office and has recently added more agents out of New York.

It’s not the only major shift taking place at the bureau in order to abet Trump’s aims: More than 6,000 FBI agents were diverted to handling “immigration-related matters” last year, effectively redefining the agency’s work in the process.

The immigration operation is similar to restructurings taking place at other major agencies as the Trump administration’s agenda supersedes and even undermines their long-term missions. The Department of Homeland Security has had to divert resources in order to abet Trump’s deportation plans, and the Department of Defense shifted billions of dollars to fund Trump’s border mission.

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 ended 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.” Meanwhile, America’s law enforcement authorities are being tasked with persecuting his political enemies.