President Donald Trump escaped his real-world troubles Sunday by plunging headlong into AI fantasies as he unleashed a 37-post Truth Social barrage.

The 80-year-old president, mired in bad polls and his administration’s quagmire in Iran, turned to AI Sunday afternoon to indulge his obsession with George Washington, conjuring a painting of himself on horseback beside the nation’s first president in a scene set more than 200 years ago.

Trump, who ranked himself the “greatest” American president last week, turned Washington into an onlooker in the AI-generated painting, depicting the Founding Father gazing up at him.

In another post, the elderly president, whose cognitive health has come under mounting scrutiny, depicted Washington sitting beside him in the Oval Office with the caption, “President Washington visits President Trump.”

Trump continued his AI flight from reality with more posts, superimposing his face onto Hulk Hogan’s body, casting himself as the commander of a bizarre dystopian robot army, putting himself at the helm of a spaceship, rechristening New Mexico to “New America,” and laying claim to the moon.

The billionaire president also tried on some working-class alter egos, using AI to depict himself leaning out of a McDonald’s drive-through window and sitting behind the wheel of a large truck.

One of Trump’s posts showed an apparently AI-generated design board for a Space Force uniform that seemed to borrow design cues from the evil Galactic Empire in Star Wars.

Trump, who is facing mounting voter dissatisfaction over his handling of the economy and the cost of living, capped his hours-long posting spree with a glowing tribute to his opulent Mar-a-Lago estate.

“The Mar-a-Lago Club is considered, by everyone, to be the Best in the World. It also serves as our unparalleled Southern White House, free of charge. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” he wrote.

Trump took his Truth Social posting habit to a new extreme last month, sharing more than 1,000 posts—roughly 33 posts a day.

Natalie Harp, the president’s utterly devoted aide, has long been credited with helping craft his bonkers Truth Social posts by feeding him potential posts she finds online and across right-wing websites. She earns a taxpayer-funded salary of $150,000.

Trump’s latest Truth Social posting spree comes as Republicans panic about the upcoming midterm elections amid the president’s abysmal approval ratings.

A Reuters/Ipsos survey released last month found that 33 percent of Americans approved of Trump’s performance, the lowest rating of his presidency, while 64 percent disapproved.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A heavily armed man attacked Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton at a fair in Ohio’s MAGA heartland on Sunday afternoon.

The man “lunged at Dr. Acton, injuring multiple people” while Acton, 60, was attending the Canfield Fair in northeastern Ohio, a campaign spokesperson said in a statement.

“Dr. Acton and [her husband] Eric are grateful for the swift and decisive action of law enforcement and are praying for the recovery of those injured. This kind of violence has no place in Ohio,” the spokesperson said.

The suspect who attacked Acton has been identified as 38-year-old Patrick Havas, a registered Republican.

Havas barged into the Mahoning County Democratic Party’s tent and shoved his way through the crowd, knocking two people to the ground as he made his way to the front, officials on the scene told WFMJ.

WFMJ said he was carrying two firearms.

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine later said that Acton was unhurt and condemned political violence in an X post.

Havas has been arrested and has been charged with two counts of assault and one count of disorderly conduct, according to the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office inmate list.

A graduate of Youngstown State University, Havas is a licensed nurse and lives in Canfield, according to public records the Daily Beast reviewed.

The Daily Beast has reached out to Acton for comment.

This isn’t the first time the Havas family has had a brush with the law: Patrick Havas’ brother, Andrew Havas, was charged with sexual misconduct with a minor following a 2008 incident involving a 15-year-old in Mahoning County, according to court records reviewed by NBC News.

Andrew, who was 22 at the time, was accused of knowing that the minor was older than 13 but younger than 16 and of being reckless about the minor’s age.

As part of a plea deal, the sexual-misconduct charge was reduced to a single misdemeanor assault count.

Andrew pleaded guilty to the reduced charge in 2009 and was sentenced to 90 days in jail, ordered to pay a fine, and barred from having contact with the minor.

Andrew later served as a volunteer Franklin County campaign chair for Ohio Sen. Jon Husted. He resigned in July after NBC News contacted the campaign about the case.

Husted’s campaign said Andrew had not disclosed his criminal history and that it immediately accepted his resignation after learning about it.

Patrick Havas’ alleged attack on Acton drew condemnation from both sides of the aisle.

In his X post, DeWine wrote, “We are grateful for the quick work of the Ohio State Highway Patrol and other law enforcement on the scene at the Canfield Fair today when a man tried to forcefully push himself toward Dr. Acton as she was speaking and injured other attendees at the Mahoning County Democrat booth.”

He added, “Violence or the threat of violence at political or public events is always unacceptable. This case is now in the hands of law enforcement and will be investigated thoroughly.”

The attack also drew condemnation from Acton’s Republican opponent, former DOGE boss co-chair Ramaswamy.

“Candidates should be able to meet with voters without having to worry about threats or violence. What happened today is completely unacceptable and has no place in politics, and we hope that no one was hurt,” his spokesperson said.

The Ohio gubernatorial contest is razor-thin, with Ramaswamy edging Acton by 2 percentage points in a Fox News poll conducted last month.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump has announced his latest in a string of plans to rename key markers of geography and history.

The 80-year-old president embarked on yet another Truth Social rampage on Sunday. In one afternoon post, Trump shared a crudely altered map proposing a new name for the entire state of New Mexico.

With ‘Mexico’ crossed out, Trump floated his idea: ‘New America.’

Democratic New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham responded to Trump’s post on X: “New Mexico’s name isn’t up for debate — it’s been ours since before the United States existed,” Grisham wrote. “While the President tries to distract Americans from his disastrous war in Iran, the price of gas —and everything else — keeps rising. Under Democratic leadership here in New Mexico, we’re providing families with free childcare and college, protecting access to health care and investing in housing. While the White House wastes time coloring on maps, Nuevo México is busy doing the work.”

On Sunday evening, Trump made another Truth Social post on the topic, stating “Many people suggested changing the name of New Mexico, one of the great vote cheating states of all time, to NEW AMERICA. So much more prestigious and beautiful for the people of that potentially incredible State. Wow, I Love It!!!”

The post also included an AI slop video of Trump putting “America” over a “Welcome to New Mexico” sign, before doing his trademark dance to the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.”

Elsewhere on X, viewers of the naming proposal seemed torn between fury and incredulity.

“Why stop there? New York should also be New America. New Jersey and New Hampshire, too. Pennsylvania could be Americasylvania. you should call all dogs America, and all cats, too. rename the periodic table the America Table, and call Oxygen Americagen,” one person mocked.

A second slammed: “Bro stop renaming things and fix the economy.”

Trump certainly has a penchant for rechristening landmarks with more MAGA-coded names.

The president kicked things off at the beginning of his second term in January 2025, when he signed the executive order “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness.”

As part of this order, he infamously renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.

Last month Trump was at it again, when he officially changed the name of Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America,’ with Apple Maps bowing down to the change after Trump reportedly urged the company to make the change.

The move followed rising trade tensions with Canada, but was met with clear resistance in the form of a sign declaring that Lake Ontario’s name would never change.

“Just in case President Trump or anyone else forgets, we’ve set up this sign to remind them. It’s Lake Ontario, now and forever,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said as the sign was unveiled.

Trump has also suggested renaming the Strait of Hormuz after himself. Even place names unrelated to other nations have been swept up in the president’s narcissistic renaming streak.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on March 30 signed legislation to allow the renaming of Palm Beach International Airport to the President Donald J. Trump International Airport.

The president has also made demands for Washington Dulles International Airport and New York’s Penn Station to be named after him, following the legal challenges to the attempted renaming of the Kennedy Center.

While Trump’s latest social media spree—which included an AI fantasy of himself as a McDonald’s worker—is overall bizarre, experts have warned that it might be worth reading between the lines.

A psychiatrist has suggested that Trump’s Truth Social flights of fancy could be signs of mental illness or fatigue, as speculation about the president’s health reaches a fever pitch.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump’s top negotiators in Ukraine-Russia peace talks were publicly confronted over their apparent kowtowing to Vladimir Putin on Sunday.

Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, was in Kyiv for the first time as part of ongoing negotiations, along with special representative Steve Witkoff, both of whom had already made repeated trips to Moscow during the conflict.

While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed their visit to the capital as a sign of progress, many Ukrainians were left stunned by what were widely seen as incredibly tone-deaf remarks.

Kushner, in a briefing with journalists after private negotiations, said he longed for the way talks had been held earlier on in the war, when there was a trilateral format and, “Everyone was speaking in Russian to each other.”

“We were discussing these issues in a very extra-friendly manner, all in Russian,” he said, apparently oblivious to how this could be seen as a snub to Ukrainians.

Kushner also sparked outrage by appearing to act as Putin’s mouthpiece, saying: “From President Putin’s perspective, I think he has certain objectives he expresses that he wants to achieve. But obviously there are different aspirations he has for his country that can also be achieved once this is concluded.”

Witkoff and Kushner reportedly brought updated versions of earlier proposals on how to end the war, though no further details were officially disclosed on what the updates entailed. Ukrainian media reported that the proposals included the same massive concessions that were previously deemed to be a red line for Zelensky. Looking more like a wish list compiled by Putin, those proposals include Kyiv relinquishing territory and withdrawing troops from a region Putin has claimed as Moscow’s despite Ukrainian forces there continuing to fend off a full takeover.

Whatever proposals the pair brought with them, it came after they spent several hours on Saturday meeting with Putin in Moscow, where they were spotted being driven around in Aurus limousines provided by the Kremlin, rather than vehicles provided by the U.S. Embassy, as is customary for high-level diplomatic talks.

In a win for Putin’s propaganda machine, Witkoff was also filmed telling the Russian leader that among all the “incredible memories” he will have once he retires, his talks with Putin “will be right at the top of it all.”

A Ukrainian reporter called Witkoff out during his press conference on Sunday over his chummy relationship with Putin, asking if he was “ashamed to sit at the same table with an international war criminal.”

Witkoff responded by lapsing into a lecture on the importance of “relationships” and noting how Moscow had always treated him kindly.

“We’ve always been treated respectfully by President Putin and his team,” he said.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

FBI Director Kash Patel’s latest boast about his apparent crime bust is not going over well.

Patel, the conspiracy theorist turned FBI boss, said his agency charged five people in three states for casting ballots illegally over the past two election cycles. The FBI claims that four noncitizens voted illegally in either the 2022 or 2024 election, and one U.S. citizen has been charged with allegedly aiding his wife’s illegal voting.

“Election integrity is a top priority for this FBI. We will investigate every credible allegation of election fraud and illegal voting, following the facts wherever they lead,” Patel wrote on X.

President Donald Trump has been fixated on the 2020 election, which he lost but has been obsessing over for nearly six years now. The president has claimed repeatedly, and falsely, that the election was stolen from him due to voting irregularities, which his legal team at the time could never prove in court nor present to the public.

Even so, nearly every chance he gets, Trump repeats his lies that election irregularities made the results of the 2020 election fraudulent, including in a recent primetime address in which he rambled again about nonexistent voter interference in that election.

He has filled his entire administration with only loyalists who believe his election claims.

The second Trump administration has been fixated on the idea of noncitizens voting, even though, as proven by the FBI’s latest “bust,” cases of noncitizen voting are extremely rare and are not happening en masse as the Trump administration portrays.

Patel was widely mocked for hailing this five-person arrest as some kind of proof of widespread voter fraud.

“Five people across three states spanning two whole election cycles—you really cracked the code on ‘widespread voter fraud,’” one user wrote sarcastically. “At this rate, you’ll hit double digits by 2040. Pack it up, folks, the 160 million other votes were just a distraction.”

“But Trump claimed millions of illegals voted in our elections. You got five?” another wrote.

“You found a total of FIVE people and that’s a win? You’re basically telling us Trump was lying about his election fraud claims then,” another noted.

Trump and his MAGA supporters have invoked voter fraud while pushing the SAVE America Act, which would require voters to present photo identification when voting and documentary proof of citizenship when registering..

U.S. citizenship is already a requirement to vote, and cases of noncitizen voting, as evidenced by Patel’s not-so-big bust, are very rare.

The bill does not appear to have the 60 Senate votes needed to overcome a filibuster, despite Trump furiously pressuring Senate Majority Leader John Thune to just blow up the filibuster to get it passed.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were reportedly gifted T-shirts sarcastically mocking Russian President Vladimir Putin during their visit to the Ukrainian capital on Sunday.

Local media reported that the pair were given shirts featuring the phrase “Kyiv regime,” a reference to Putin using that label in negotiations held in Moscow a day earlier to push his false narrative of Ukraine being run by fascists. The Kremlin has for years smeared the Ukrainian government as a “Nazi regime.”

The two Donald Trump envoys almost didn’t receive their gift, with concerns that today’s meeting would be canceled after several former cancelations.

While it’s the duo’s first time making it to Kyiv, Witkoff in particular was reluctant to visit the Ukrainian capital amid ongoing Russian air strikes.

A source told The Kyiv Independent earlier this week that the real estate developer had “started to get scared.”

“The Russians don’t want them to come here to Kyiv, and Witkoff is always sensitive to Russian sentiment. They’re being told there that it’s dangerous,” they added.

After first meeting with Putin in Moscow, Witkoff, 69, was reportedly very concerned by the idea of taking a train for the second part of talks in Kyiv, where the airspace is closed amid regular drone attacks and missile strikes.

Despite his fears, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was firm that it was high time for a visit to Kyiv.

“We are ready to meet with them in Ukraine. This is very important. It is important that the United States remains active,” he said.

While Putin has been busy working on his anti-Ukraine propaganda, his citizens have been struggling with a summer beset by crises.

Russia is facing increasing violence on its own land as Ukraine ramps up drone attacks and targeted bombings.

“We were living a normal life, and then suddenly it’s like this,” one civilian summarized in the face of air strikes, gas shortages, and concerns over Putin’s health and paranoia.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Jack Schlossberg may have lost his congressional bid, but his friends have faith that he can win the heart of New York’s most prominent lawmaker.

Friends of John F. Kennedy’s grandson are attempting to set up a meeting between him and Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York Daily News’ Richard Johnson wrote on Sunday.

Schlossberg, 33, is single and has reportedly been hiding out at his mother Caroline Kennedy’s house on Martha’s Vineyard after losing the Democratic primary to represent New York’s 12th Congressional District to Micah Lasher in June. According to Johnson, his friends are hoping a meeting with 36-year-old Ocasio-Cortez could spark a job offer—or a date.

A representative for Schlossberg did not respond to a request for comment.

Both New York City natives are known throughout the Democratic Party for their social media savvy, using platforms such as Instagram and TikTok to reach voters. Schlossberg, for example, has frequently used his social media accounts to take aim at his cousin, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And last month, the congresswoman made headlines after publicizing her decision to freeze her eggs—which brought her even more conservative criticism than usual.

The Kennedy scion has kept his dating life private, as has Ocasio-Cortez. Last month, however, reports emerged that the rumored 2028 contender had quietly split from her longtime partner, Riley Roberts, about 18 months ago.

Ocasio-Cortez and Roberts were last seen last seen in public together at the Met Gala in 2021. Roberts, 38, who works in marketing and web development, met the Queens lawmaker when they were both students at Boston University. Their relationship reportedly began during a weekly debate event called “Coffee & Conversations,” where Ocasio-Cortez and Roberts sparred over everything from pop culture to the war in Afghanistan, according to a 2022 biography of AOC, Take Up Space: The Unprecedented AOC.

When asked about Roberts after being approached by a New York Post reporter outside her apartment in Queens, New York, the congresswoman merely said: “I don’t comment on my private life—thank you.”

Sources told Johnson that Schlossberg is returning to the Big Apple after Labor Day and will turn his attention to charity work. Over the summer, he devoted his time to his niece, 2-year-old Josephine, and his 4-year-old nephew, Edwin. Schlossberg’s sister, Tatiana Schlossberg, died late last year of cancer at 35.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump’s base is revolting against Fox News after the network handed MAGA darling Maria Bartiromo’s old Sunday show to a new host.

Fox abruptly ousted Bartiromo, 58, on Thursday after more than 12 years. Status reported that the MAGA host’s firing followed her tipping off the White House about Fox’s secret instructions not to promote Trump’s election conspiracies on the air, though her lawyer has disputed that she was fired.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned network has wasted no time repopulating Bartiromo’s old anchor chairs, including tapping Fox contributor Jason Chaffetz to temporarily take the reins of Sunday Morning Futures, a show Bartiromo debuted in 2014.

But while Fox has moved on from Bartiromo, its MAGA audience apparently has not, unleashing on the network and Chaffetz as he stepped into her old chair for the first time Sunday.

“Wrong. That chair belongs to Maria Bartiromo,” MAGA influencer Gunther Eagleman, whose real name is David Freeman, wrote on X alongside a clip of Chaffetz announcing, “Welcome to Sunday Morning Futures, I’m Jason Chaffetz.”

“America still knows who built that show and who owned Sunday mornings. Bring Maria back,” Eagleman demanded.

Many vowed to ditch Fox News altogether, with one viewer declaring, “I used to watch every Sunday morning. Not today, I went to Newsmax. No more FOX for me.”

Others bristled at Chaffetz’s past as a Republican congressman from Utah under the then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, who sits on Fox’s board of directors and is despised by the MAGA faithful for his criticism of Trump.

“And they selected that swamp rat. Probably Paul Ryan’s selection,” one X user wrote.

Another wrote, “Sunday mornings just aren’t the same without her. Maria belongs on Sunday Morning Futures...”

Fox did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Sunday show, which airs from 10 to 11 a.m. ET, has been a ratings powerhouse for Fox News during Bartiromo’s run, consistently topping the network’s weekend lineup.

But Bartiromo’s time in the anchor chair came to a sudden end Thursday, when Fox announced, “Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media.”

Sources told Status that she was fired because she had informed the White House about a directive from the network not to give credence to baseless claims Trump made about the 2020 election in his July primetime speech, even sharing the text message from executives in which they stated their guidance to senior employees.

White House senior trade adviser Peter Navarro bragged to Puck on Friday that Bartiromo had sent him a screenshot of the edict.

But Bartiromo’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, has maintained that she remains an employee of the network.

“The irresponsible reports that have been published stating that Maria Bartiromo was fired or is no longer an employee of Fox are absolutely and unequivocally false,” he said in a statement, first reported by The Daily Mail. “Make no mistake, we have the receipts and witnesses, and they will come out whether through the courthouse or otherwise.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

For years, Donald Trump has waged a war on women.

That’s according to podcaster Jennifer Welch, critically acclaimed writer Nell Scovell and The Daily Beast’s Chief Content Officer Joanna Coles, who explored why Trump seems unable to tolerate women who reject him, challenge him or simply refuse to play along—and how his fixation on female approval exposes something deeper about his ego—on Sunday’s episode of The Daily Beast Podcast.

There’s a subset of women, Coles emphasized, who have little in common other than the fact that they irk the president like no other. Taylor Swift, for example, has repeatedly been lambasted by Trump, most notably after she endorsed Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential campaign. “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” the then-candidate declared on Truth Social immediately following her endorsement.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, meanwhile, stands in stark contrast to superstar Swift—yet has sparked a similar emotional reaction from Trump after the former congresswoman broke ranks to condemn him on a number of political issues. Rosie O’Donnell, Trump’s longtime sworn nemesis whose feud with the president began over comments she made on The View two decades ago, also belongs to a category of her own.

But as different as they all are, Welch said there’s one tie that binds Trump’s female foes together.

“What they all have in common is that they have revealed to Trump that they know he’s a fraud, and so they put a mirror up to him and they’ve created a narcissistic injury to him,” the I’ve Had It podcast host said.

“And when a narcissist is injured, they lash out in the way that he has towards every single one of these women the most vicious way possible.”

A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Scovell, for her part, noted that the president himself has shown a warped version of reality when it comes to his relationships with women.

“Trump thinks he’s pretty hot stuff,” Scovell said. “Trump did say ‘all of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me, consciously or unconsciously.’”

His deluded sentiment did not come as a surprise to Welch, who quipped: “He looks in the mirror and he sees prime Brad Pitt looking back at him, and he can’t imagine that everybody wouldn’t just want to sleep with him.”

In his second term, Trump has appeared to be at odds even with women from his inner circle. Seven women have departed from the White House this year, including, most notably, former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, embattled Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson and Director of Media Affairs Sonny Joy Nelson are also among those who have left their posts.

New episodes of The Daily Beast Podcast are released every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday on YouTube, and on other podcast platforms the next morning. Follow our new feed on your favorite podcast platform at beast.pub/dailybeastpod and subscribe on YouTube to watch full episodes.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Former President Joe Biden’s son dipped his toes into the 2028 presidential race this week in an interview with radio host John Catsimatidis.

In a wide ranging interview on “The Cats Roundtable,” Hunter Biden spoke to many of the issues that are front and center for Americans, including wealth inequality and immigration.

After distancing himself from DSA-backed Democratic candidates who Catsimatidis described as people who “hate America,” Biden said any candidate who doesn’t love America isn’t part of the same party he is.

Catsimatidis then asked if he himself would step up and run for president.

Biden initially demurred.

“The truth of the matter is that I think that we have an incredible bench,” he said.

He then singled out Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker before saying he loved California Gov. Gavin Newsom and also adding Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania.

“They’re doing incredible things, they’re running their states incredibly well, from the center left, and I think that they are all leaders who I would be very proud to have serve as President of the United States,” he said, noticeably omitting Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg from his list.

“I think one of the reasons Donald Trump won, in the past, is that he tapped into an anger, an anger about inequality that has grown and grown and grown in this country—what to do about it?” he said.

“Instead of doing anything about it, it seems that he has gotten much more interested in filling his own bank account than the bank accounts of normal Americans,” Biden said.

But Catsimatidis wasn’t ready to let him off the hook, pointing out he hadn’t actually answered the question about whether he’d consider a run in 2028.

Biden finally replied: “If I get your endorsement I may have to.”

Before moving on to the next question, he said he’s focused on helping other addicts who “suffer every day” in recovery.

On X, Biden’s preferred platform for taking swipes at MAGA foes, conservative accounts reacted predictably to the interview.

The Gateway Pundit described Biden as a “former crackhead” and multiple MAGA accounts posted pictures of the now-sober Biden shirtless and strung out.

It’s not the first time Biden has made comments about running for a White House job.

In June he jokingly offered to be Gavin Newsom’s vice president on Newsom’s podcast. He later followed up with a post on X, pointing out that no Democrat had won the White House this century without a Biden on the ticket.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The president’s most adoring aide, Natalie Harp, is spending the Labor Day weekend golfing with him at his New Jersey golf club.

Harp, who appears to take no days off and travels with him to golf virtually every weekend, was again spotted playing golf with Trump at his Bedminster National Golf Club in New Jersey. Harp, 35, was spotted sitting in a golf cart watching Trump, 80, take a swing.

She was also seen boarding Marine One with Trump as they traveled from Washington to New Jersey over the long weekend.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Harp, a former right-wing television anchor who earns $150,000 a year working in the Trump White House, is always at the president’s side in Oval Office meetings and travels with him on the weekends for his golf trips. She even spent her 35th birthday, which fell on a Saturday, last month with the president at his New Jersey golf club.

The president’s ever-present aide has been accused of having an “unhealthy” relationship with him. She is known for leaving the president fawning letters, two of which the Daily Beast published in full last month.

“You are all that matters to me,” Harp wrote to Trump, also thanking him for being her “Guardian and Protector in this Life.”

The letters are believed to have been written during, or immediately after, a trip on which she accompanied Trump to his courses in Scotland and Ireland in 2023.

In them, she expresses embarrassment about seemingly walking the course and running after him; an anecdote backed by photos taken on the first day of Trump’s Scotland trip showed Harp sprinting uphill at full speed to keep up with his moving golf cart.

Her letter explained that while she was in Trump’s presence on the trip, she even forgot basic necessities like eating and sleeping.

“I want things to always be right between us. I also know I’ve been distracted all week (forgetting to eat throughout the days, and even forgetting to sleep, and only catching a couple hours at a time),” she wrote to Trump at the time.

She shared with Trump that she was letting other people’s remarks upset her, “not because I care what other people think, but because I see myself being lowered in your eyes and good opinion. That is the fear you see, because I never want to bring you anything but joy.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr has shared some menacing words for Kristen Welker.

Trump’s FCC nominee appeared on Fox News’ Sunday Briefing, and was asked about the president’s public meltdown about Welker following last week’s Meet the Press.

“He said he was going to report Kristen Welker to the FCC for rebuke or punishment. You are the FCC, have you received this report?” host Pete Doocy asked.

Carr, 47, didn’t offer a clear “yes” or “no” answer regarding the status of the report, but did suggest that some “actions” might be taken against Welker and her colleagues.

“Well, one thing that President Trump gets fundamentally, is that broadcast TV is completely different from other forms of distribution, including cable,” he said.

“And so many broadcasters right now, they want to break the deal that they cut with the American people.”

Carr accused: “They get billions of dollars in taxpayer—effectively-subsidized—distribution, and what they’re supposed to do in exchange is operate in the public interest, not some sort of narrow, partisan interest.”

Suggesting that some changes could be expected, Carr shared: “I think President Trump is over the target, and we’re looking at a lot of actions.”

The lawyer also hinted that airing MAGA-unfriendly statistics could face consequences, with Trump suffering from historically low poll numbers in the lead-up to the midterms.

“For instance, there’s a lot of interest right now in fake polls that are out there, and so the FCC may put guidance out soon to remind broadcasters about their obligations with respect to not airing fake polls,” he said. “Particularly if they’re done to suppress people heading into the fall.”

Trump called out NBC’s Welker on August 30, immediately after the host touched on Trump’s spotty endorsement history on that morning’s Meet the Press.

On Truth Social, he raged: “Kristen Welker, the Unpopular ‘Hostess’ of the once great Meet the Press, now considered Meet the Fake Press, just stated that Donald Trump has ‘mixed results’ on his Endorsements of Candidates, when the recent WINS of Darline Graham and Mike Mazzei, stand at 100% for the U.S. Senate, and 98% for the U.S. House, recently and over the long term. How can anyone be allowed to say this, working for freely given Public Airwaves?

“Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment.”

Later in the long rant, Trump widened his net and suggested that any media he took umbrage with would be quickly snitched on.

“The Press is a Disgrace to our Nation, and I hope that Chairman Brendan Carr, and the fine people of his Commission, will take this Threat to our Country very seriously,” he wrote.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Sen. John Fetterman is raging against former aides he blames for a bombshell report on his alleged preference for courting MAGA media over doing his job.

A group of former aides contributed to The Wall Street Journal piece released Thursday, and swore it was “just the tip of the iceberg” in an anonymous X profile named ‘Former Fetterman Staffers.’

While the group promises to reveal more, Fetterman, 57, broke his silence with CNN and dismissed the report as “the third hit piece from disgruntled staffers.”

“Per usual—lies, half-truths, innuendos, smears and anonymous,” the rogue Democrat said, complaining that the claims are “stripped of any context and circumstances.”

“No matter how many smears or stories, I’m proud to continue to deliver for Pennsylvania,” he told the publication.

Fetterman also took the time to respond to some individual claims from the Journal.

According to the report, Fetterman texted his staff last September to ask why he kept “having to meet” with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia officials—whom he suggested “just want free trips to DC.”

“Because they’re worried about Medicaid cuts,” a staffer responded, with the senator whipping back: “Well, I’m not.”

To CNN, Fetterman claimed the interaction was a “dumb joke, and for that, I sincerely apologize.”

“My office and I always have, and always will, advocate for CHOP, support their requests and any other needs that we can assist with,” he added, pointing to an X photo of one such meeting.

In another instance, Fetterman explained why he skipped a meeting with three paralyzed veterans due to illness, only for him to appear in his office an hour later—seemingly healthy—for an interview with Fox News.

The senator told CNN: “It was my intention to meet with the group.

“Prior to the meeting I was at home throwing up, so I asked my staff to continue with the meeting which they did. Hours later, I felt well enough to continue the day as scheduled.”

The third claim Fetterman chose to address was his decision to skip a funeral for three police officers killed in action near his hometown.

“This may be a nonstarter,” he allegedly texted in response to the funeral’s three-hour length.

Fetterman pointed out an X post to CNN, and said: “On the day of that tragedy, we privately ordered flowers to be delivered for their families and expressed my condolences publicly.”

He added: “In June of this year, I privately attended a Tunnel to Towers fundraiser in York for the families. I met with their chief and the family members directly to express my personal condolences.”

While Fetterman brushed off some of the accusations levied against him—and summarized the entire report as “smears”—some claims went unaddressed in his statement to CNN.

Instances such as his refusal to acknowledge Philadelphia flood victims and his supposed overarching “disdain” for his job were not addressed.

Fetterman has been open about suffering a stroke in 2022 and his struggles with depression soon after being sworn in in 2023, but has remained very hands-off with his official duties.

Despite his frequent media appearances, the senator was absent from 11 of the 12 full Senate hearings held by his assigned committees last year, and allegedly told staffers, “I truly don’t care” when informed of a call for Senate Democrats last year.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Republicans are panicking about the forthcoming midterm elections, as the party is expected to see a wipeout at the ballot box, and President Donald Trump doesn’t appear to be helping.

After tying themselves to Trump for over a decade now, some Republicans now fear that they have little room to distance themselves from the increasingly unpopular president.

“I’m fearful that the president’s numbers are a ball and chain that will be hard to overcome,” said Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, a moderate Republican who is not running for re-election in his battleground district, told the New York Times.

“I’m worried that we’ve lost a lot of our swing voters. In the Midwest, tariffs aren’t popular. Ukraine polls at 70 percent — why aren’t we doing more for them? Nebraskans don’t like chaos and all the name calling and treating our allies bad,” he added.

Trump, whose approval rating has sunk to one of the lowest of any president, has doubled down on tying the midterms to his own record. Last week, said his strategy to muster support for the GOP will be to focus on touting his own record as he campaigns.

“I’m going to go out, and I’m going to campaign like I did for myself,” he said last week.

He also proclaimed that it is actually congressional Republicans, not himself, whom voters dislike.

“But some people like me more than they like the party,” Trump proclaimed. “I mean, you can’t be insulted by it. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

Still, several Republicans in tight districts are forgoing attending the GOP’s midterm convention in Dallas next week, with only two Republicans in tough House races confirmed to be headed to Texas.

“Most congressional candidates are better served by getting out of the national political jet-stream, and they’re better off reinforcing local credentials, local messages and local issues than trying to make the case for re-election from a platform in Dallas,” Republican strategist Kevin Madden told the Daily Beast.

Some Republicans in tight races have even resorted to trying to position themselves as a MAGA disruptor to win over voters.

Republican Mike Lawler, who represents a toss-up district in the New York City suburbs, aired a digital advertisement last week that includes Trump calling him a “pain in the ass” for being a holdout for tax deductions last year. And freshman Michigan Rep. Tom Barrett took out ads on Facebook that highlighted his votes to limit Trump’s war powers in Iran.

Both Barrett and Lawler, however, have still campaigned with the president in recent months.

On the Senate side, some Republicans are still fuming over Trump’s decision to endorse scandal-ridden Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, who was one of the strongest fundraisers for the GOP in the upper chamber.

The GOP now has to pour money into Texas, a reliably Republican state, as polling shows that Democratic candidate James Talarico has real momentum going into November, as Paxton has been seen as absent from the campaign trail, and even Texas, for that matter.

A growing number of Republicans —including those in safely Republican districts — have also deleted references to Trump on their campaign website, including candidates whom Trump has endorsed. Recent polling could explain why Republican candidates are so hesitant to associate with Trump.

A Reuters/Ipsos survey last week found that the president is steadily losing support from even his own base, with only 35 percent of Republicans saying they “strongly approve” of Trump’s job as president. The president’s net approval rating is at 33 percent—the lowest of his presidency.

The White House has also maintained that it is still Trump’s Republican Party, and has downplayed any fractures between the president and his party.

When asked about the fracture, White House has repeatedly used a canned statement from Olivia Wales, a spokeswoman, reading: “President Trump is the unequivocal leader of the Republican Party, who is committed to maintaining Republicans’ majority in Congress.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

The Republican National Convention speaker list is causing controversy for one name on it: Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Blanche appears prominently on a leaked line-up published by Axios, raising questions about whether the nation’s top law enforcement official is violating federal restrictions on partisan political activity.

As attorney general, appearing at a partisan event that is being billed by the Republican National Committee as “Trump-a-palooza” is a potential violation of the Hatch Act of 1939, which says that federal executive branch employees are prohibited from using their job to influence elections.

The inclusion of Blanche was called out Saturday night by former Obama staffer Christopher Hale.

“The United States Attorney General is speaking at a national partisan political convention,” he noted on X, reposting the speaker list.

The RNC later confirmed the speaker line-up was accurate, posting a press release to their website confirming the names.

“He will always be the Presidents lawyer’s so let’s just start calling him that,” one X user observed in reply to Hale.

Before being appointed as attorney general, Blanche had been Trump’s personal attorney for many years.

Blanche has already run afoul of legal experts who say his appearance in August stumping for a Trump-backed Republican candidate in New York’s race for governor also potentially violated Hatch.

Former US attorney Joyce Vance said she was “deeply disgusted” by his actions in August, pointing out the attorney general is “on the clock 24/7″ and so cannot avoid Hatch by stumping for Republicans on his own time.

“Instead of doing justice, he’s been doing the president’s political bidding. A violation of the Hatch Act, if anyone believes the Attorney General should follow the law,” she wrote in her Substack.

The White House and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump announced the unusual midterm convention in June. The two-day event will take place in Dallas on Sept. 9 and 10 and is intended to place the 80-year-old president—and his political agenda—front and center ahead of November’s elections.

It is a move designed to energize the MAGA base and try to draw out Trump supporters for down-ticket races in November.

Republicans are facing a tough road to retaining the House and Senate in November, with a slew of tighter-than-usual Senate races—including in Texas—and voter frustration with the state of the economy and Trump’s handling of it.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Pete Hegseth’s crusade to oust a “once-in-a-generation general” stemmed from a photo that the defense secretary didn’t like.

Hegseth, who served in the Army National Guard and had two deployments as an officer to Iraq and Afghanistan, waged a war against Gen. Christopher T. Donahue, a four-star general seen as a rare talent by his peers and superiors alike.

According to a report from The New York Times, Hegseth, a former Fox News anchor who has faced scrutiny over his drinking and alleged affairs during and between his three marriages, claimed his distaste for Donahue stemmed from one thing in particular: a photo.

On Aug. 30, 2021, Donahue, 57, was the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan during the disastrous U.S. withdrawal, which stemmed from a deal Trump cut with the Taliban during his first term. Unbeknownst to Donahue at the time, an Army photographer used an iPhone and night-vision monocle to capture the lone general boarding a military cargo plane in a photo that would later be widely circulated, the Times reported.

The photo was taken at 11:59 p.m. at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, one minute before the agreed deadline for the Americans to withdraw from Afghanistan. When Donahue landed in Qatar, his wife informed him that the now-famous photo was plastered across every news site, according to paratroopers who overheard the conversation and spoke to the Times.

“This is not good,” they recalled him saying. And he was right. Five years later, Hegseth fixated on the grainy, green-and-black photo that he mistakenly dubbed a “selfie.”

The photo was captured four days after a lone ISIS suicide bomber killed 13 American service members—who were not under Donahue’s command—along with at least 170 Afghans at the airport, an incident that Hegseth has wrongly associated with Donahue, according to reports.

That was partly what fueled camera-loving Hegseth’s determination to shove the decorated general out the door, the Daily Beast reported on Friday. The other reason, of course, was that Donahue was revered, respected and admired—three attributes that, reportedly, aren’t exactly used to describe Hegseth within the halls of the Pentagon.

A spokesperson for the Department of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As the department’s top brass and Republican lawmakers fought to keep Donahue, they described him as a key strategist preparing the U.S. for future war. But their efforts only hardened Hegseth’s resolve: He wanted Donahue out.

“I don’t care,” Hegseth reportedly told Joe Kasper, his chief of staff, after he handed him a card listing reasons to keep Donahue, the first being a clarification that the photo of Donahue was not a selfie and that he was unaware of its distribution.

Republican Sen. Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL, threw his support behind Donahue, but according to the Times, he was told by Gen. Dan Caine that his efforts were only making things worse. The more support Donahue gained, the more Hegseth saw him as too powerful.

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, a close friend of JD Vance from Yale Law School, also attempted to orchestrate an intervention from the vice president to keep Donahue. But when Hegseth discovered that he had set up a meeting between Vance and Donahue, he canceled it, according to the report.

After all efforts were exhausted, a quiet retirement ceremony was held for Donahue at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, at the end of August. An Army official who was there told the Daily Beast that everybody’s focus was on honoring this hero among heroes, who has been called a “once-in-a-generation general.”

“Then, when the bourbon began to flow…” the official said, it became clear that Driscoll had reached his limit with Hegseth. “Driscoll’s going to resign this week,” was the sentiment, they told the Daily Beast. On Wednesday, Driscoll announced his final day in office was Sept. 2.

Hegseth, who never achieved a rank higher than major, has fired or blocked promotions for some 80 of the nation’s top officers—roughly 10 percent of the U.S. military’s highest-ranking officers.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright seems content to wash his hands of the gas price crisis completely.

Wright, 61, appeared on State of the Union Sunday, and was told that for busy Labor Day weekend, the “average cost of a gallon of gas this weekend is the highest on record” at $4.13.

Host Dana Bash asked: “You said on this show five months ago that high gas prices had peaked, but between not just the Iran war, but the Russia-Ukraine war and the US’ own dwindling reserves, isn’t it possible gas prices could go up even more?”

A stammering Wright seemed to suggest that gas just wasn’t his problem. “Well, if you look at—I—look—I don’t want to have an opinion on that,” he said.

He then theorized: “But if you look at the futures market right now, what can you buy gasoline for two months in advance from where we are today? It’s down more than 30 cents a gallon from where it is today.”

Wright suggested that we could be in with some luck now that we’re “hitting the end of the summer driving season.”

“The Trump administration has changed blending requirements for American refiners, which allows them to produce more gasoline, just as demand for gasoline is about to start heading down,” he said.

Trump’s decision to end summer-blend gasoline requirements earlier than the usual September 15—at the risk of higher pollution—hasn’t been agreed to by all states, with Wright blaming Democrat governors for “driving up prices on their residents.”

“But the Trump Administration is doing everything we can to drive energy prices down, as we have since the day we arrived in office,” he summarized.

Bash asked again: “Respectfully, as the energy secretary, shouldn’t you have an opinion on where gas prices are and where they’re going?”

Despite the prompt, Wright remained on the fence. “Gasoline production is about to go up and demand is about to go down. So if I had to guess, they’re more likely to go down than go up,” he said.

Later, Wright seemed similarly unsure of future outlooks when asked specifically about diesel. “It sounds like what you‘re saying is Americans are going to have to wait, that diesel prices are going to remain high for a while,” Bash noted.

Wright provided a glowing review of plans to ramp up Venezuela’s capabilities, but was still unwilling to provide an answer.

“Well, we have lots of actions to push in the other direction. So we’ll see. That’s going to be a supply and demand balance,” he said.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump’s bid to restrict mail-in voting has been hit by a reality check as election officials say there’s just not enough time to fulfill his demands.

A federal judge has blocked Trump’s plot for now, as the U.S. Postal Service has been temporarily barred from enacting rules that would allow the Trump administration to decide which voters are allowed to cast mail-in ballots in November’s midterm elections.

Trump, a vocal critic of mail-in voting despite frequently using the method to vote himself, has been trying to get the USPS to regulate and approve the design of states’ ballot envelopes and regulate a federal database of absentee voters.

The Supreme Court could still intervene, but the Trump administration is running out of time as hundreds of thousands of voters will soon be getting their ballots sent to them as soon as this week.

Richard Hasen, a UCLA law professor and director of the school’s Safeguarding Democracy Project, told The Washington Post that “it is already too late” to enact Trump’s executive order.

“I cannot see how any court in good conscience could allow them to be implemented for the midterm elections,” Hasen said.

Voters in the swing state of North Carolina are already beginning to see their ballots come in the mail as the state began mailing them out Friday, as a state law requires them to be sent out to voters who requested them 60 days before an election.

And in Wisconsin, another swing state, officials do not need to mail out ballots until mid-September, but many local municipalities are sending them out earlier, and officials are recommending that they do so.

“It’s more important that we get the ballots out because there are other ways at least to return them” in ballot drop boxes or at government offices, Ann Jacobs, a Democrat on Wisconsin’s elections commission, told The Washington Post.

She added, “But if you can’t even get the ballots out, people can’t vote.”

Some election officials have said that while they do not expect Trump’s demands to go into effect ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, they are still developing plans to ensure a smooth election if they do.

Some municipalities are considering locations where voters can get and drop off their ballots, and others are considering implementing more ballot drop boxes to create more ways for voters to return them.

In New Mexico, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver told the Post that state officials are in talks with FedEx and UPS about potentially using their services to deliver mail ballots over USPS.

“We are still planning for plan B in a worst-case scenario,” she explained. “There are other ways to deliver ballots.”

The president’s push to change the protocol around mail-in voting comes as Republicans are expected to see disastrous results in the upcoming midterm elections.

Trump, whose approval rating has sunk to one of the lowest of any president, has said his strategy to muster support for the GOP will be to focus on touting his own record as he campaigns.

“I’m going to go out, and I’m going to campaign like I did for myself,” he said last week.

“But some people like me more than they like the party,” Trump proclaimed. “I mean, you can’t be insulted by it. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

MAGA Rep. Zach Nunn went on an all-expenses-paid European tour as everyday Iowans suffered during a government shutdown, the Daily Beast has learned.

Nunn, who has been broadly supportive of President Donald Trump’s war in Iran and who the 80-year-old called “100 percent MAGA,” spent a week touring castles, sites connected to the British Royals, and soaking in Irish culture in Dublin between March 29 and April 4.

The costly trip, which included his wife Kelly, was sponsored by the Republican Main Street Partnership, according to his official House disclosure.

There was some work, too. Ostensibly, at least. Nunn, 47, also toured corporate boardrooms and government offices across the United Kingdom and Ireland. The stated purpose was studying U.S.-U.K. relations and business development tied to his work on the Financial Services Committee. Ireland is not part of the United Kingdom.

Indeed, the itinerary had stakeholder meetings and corporate sit-downs, including a reception with Coupang executives, breakfast with Ørsted’s American chief executive, and visits to Meta and Salesforce, but it also included plenty of tourism.

Nunn, an Air Force veteran, enjoyed a private guided tour of Edinburgh Castle, a walk down the city’s Royal Mile, and a stop at the historically significant Falkland Palace, one of the favorite residences of Mary, Queen of Scots.

And that was just the Scottish leg of the journey. He also visited Dublin, Ireland, where he saw the Book of Kells, a 9th-century illuminated manuscript containing the four Gospels of the New Testament in Latin.

In London, he took in the historic Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. The disclosure records $15,400 in gift travel for Nunn alone, with the partnership covering the couple’s travel expenses and an estimated $330 per person in meals and incidentals.

The trip came as thousands of Iowans gathered at the state Capitol in Des Moines for a nationwide day of protest against the Trump administration, with additional rallies held in more than 50 Iowa communities.

It also came in the middle of what became the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, a 76-day lapse that left Department of Homeland Security employees without paychecks and strained operations at the Coast Guard, FEMA and the Transportation Security Administration.

Nunn’s Scotland trip was just one of four expensive foreign excursions he’s taken so far this Congress, including trips to Greece, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland.

According to Legistorm, which tracks congressional travel, Nunn spent $86,784.22 on member travel in the 119th Congress, the third-highest total of any House member.

Nunn wasn’t alone in racking up frequent-flyer miles. Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa was tied for approving the second-most trips of any congressional office this session, with 15 total, and her office spent $30,056.22 on travel, according to Legistorm records.

Representative Ashley Hinson, now the likely Republican Senate nominee in Iowa, and her staff accepted more than $54,000 in trips, including two international excursions to South Korea and Switzerland that she took alongside her husband.

The travel comes as all three lawmakers have backed President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, a conflict that has driven up costs for their constituents back home.

Moody’s Analytics calculated that the war had cost American households roughly $750 each, or $100 billion nationwide, as of June, driven by higher military spending and oil price spikes tied to disruptions in the Middle East.

Iowa households alone paid an extra $516 in gas costs since the war began in February, according to an analysis by the minority staff of Congress’s Joint Economic Committee, with national gas prices running about 30 percent higher than before the conflict started. Airfare has climbed too, with jet fuel prices nearly doubling in the weeks after fighting began.

Both Miller-Meeks and Nunn have defended the war publicly even as they’ve acknowledged its costs. Asked directly whether the conflict should have started given the resulting spike in gas prices, Miller-Meeks pointed to the risk of a nuclear-armed Iran. “We’ve had seven presidents say that we cannot have a nuclear-armed Iran,” she said on Iowa News Now.

Nunn similarly told a Politico Pro reporter that concerns about inflation tied to the war were “overhyped, candidly, by the media,” while telling supporters at a rally that the sacrifices, including Iowa’s disproportionate share of American combat deaths, were worth it to protect the country’s energy independence.

Hinson’s own position has shifted over the summer. In June, audio obtained by Politico captured her privately warning that the war could become a “political liability” if it dragged on much longer, telling a reporter she was “deferring to the president on the negotiations.”

By August, she’d fallen in line publicly, appearing alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at a campaign event for Nunn to back continued war funding. Nunn led another event with Hegseth in March, where tickets cost up to $3,500 for a bundle.

That August event underscored how closely the Trump administration has tied itself to Iowa’s Republican delegation ahead of November, with Hegseth headlining a fundraiser for Nunn and warning that Republicans’ $1.5 trillion defense budget request could collapse without Nunn’s re-election.

“What President Trump needs is rock-ribbed, solid, Bible-believing, red, white, and blue-waving congressmen who have his back, and that is Zach Nunn,” Hegseth told the crowd.

Before that, JD Vance popped up in Iowa to drum up support for Nunn before the midterms. “This is a contest between a party that wants to take all of your money and give it to illegal aliens and a contest between gentlemen like Zach Nunn who fight every single day for you,” he said.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a similar campaign stop with Miller-Meeks the same day, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has also appeared alongside both lawmakers in recent weeks.

“The main goal of a public servant should be putting service first,” Nunn crows on his website. He campaigns on “working to lower taxes and balance our budget to return money to Iowans.” It is unclear how his European adventure contributes to this.

Nunn’s office did not respond to request for comment.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Anyone who imagined that Harry and Meghan were going to slip unobtrusively into private life now that they are back in the United Kingdom will be swiftly disabused of the notion by a report in the London Sunday Times.

According to royal correspondent Roya Nikkhah, Meghan intends to rekindle her relationships with British charities, to be photographed and publicized working with them, and the couple is going to grant gracious access to the royal rota, the very same pool of reporters they once denounced as corrupt tools of the establishment!

The Sussexes, we are told, are “excited” about being back in Britain. This strikes The Royalist as strange because six years ago, before the Oprah interview, before Spare, before the Netflix series, before all the other denunciations, the Sussexes were a great deal less unpopular than they are now.

Today, they are actively disliked by many members of the British public and by most of the British press, which they have spent a lot of money suing. Yet in 2020, leaving the country was, they said, a matter of survival. Now, with their standing considerably worse, it is apparently an irresistible delight.

The Sunday Times reports that Harry is in “a different headspace” than he was then. That is a marked contrast with Charlotte Griffiths’ account in The Mail on Sunday last weekend, which had him in more or less exactly the same headspace as before: resentful, aggrieved, and angry. You’ll have to decide for yourself whether you believe Sunday’s quotes, which have the unmistakable ring of the usual approved sources, or Griffiths’ unsanctioned take.

Harry will be back in business very soon. He is doing a charity skydive later this month, an exercise curiously reminiscent of Prince Andrew abseiling down the Shard when his own popularity was in the toilet. Doing something dangerous is always a reliable way to look heroic. Then come the WellChild Awards, which matter enormously to Harry.

For Meghan, The Sunday Times says Smart Works is in her sights, with a source saying she will “look to rekindle that relationship, where she can get back involved in a more meaningful way now that she’s back here.”

Smart Works, which provides interview clothes and coaching to unemployed women, is the only royal patronage she kept when the couple left. It is a worthy charity but not a high-profile one. Whether other charities will want to align themselves with a figure as divisive as Meghan will be fascinating to watch.

Meanwhile, the flow of briefings out of the Sussex camp continues, with The Telegraph (which seems increasingly cozy with the Sussex operation) reporting that the school run poses particular dangers for the family. The paper has a catalog of alleged plots, including an incident in May 2023 in which the Sussexes’ Montecito security team is said to have confronted a man carrying a hammer and duct tape who intended to break into their house. That is a serious matter. What it has to do with their security in Gloucestershire is less obvious.

The Telegraph also carried, earlier in the week, a quote attributed to a source close to King Charles saying, essentially, that he wanted the couple to get their security back, that he was worried about his grandchildren going unprotected, and that he found himself in a very difficult position.

What makes the whole security saga so frustrating is a very obvious solution sitting in plain sight. As Robert Jobson told The Royalist podcast this week, the king could simply hire highly experienced former police officers on a private basis and pay for them himself. The objection that private officers cannot carry firearms is absurd. The last thing Harry and Meghan need, given their current standing, is for a bodyguard to shoot somebody. Gunning down a suspicious loiterer on a Cotswolds street corner won’t do much for the numbers.

Alas, the king’s aversion to paying family expenses out of his own pocket is well documented, most recently by Gabriel Pogrund’s Sunday Times story last weekend on the money flowing to Queen Camilla’s sister Annabel Elliot via the King’s Foundation. (Pogrund, the man behind the Fortnum & Mason carrier bags stuffed with €500 notes and the cash-for-honors scandal, joins me on Monday, Sept. 7 to talk about that story and about the broader theme of irregular money in royal life. Do not miss this podcast.)

But if this really is an argument about a couple of million pounds a year, it is an extraordinary one. The king’s annual private income from the Duchy of Lancaster runs to around £25 million ($34 million). He pays, as far as anyone can tell, for Andrew’s security. He supports Beatrice and Eugenie with rent subsidies. Why not Harry and Meghan?

As I reported exclusively last week, the king encouraged them to come home. They would not be here if he had told them they were not welcome, or had shown any backbone at all in standing up to them. This is a rehabilitation effort being carried out by the king, in the teeth of public opinion, William’s wishes, and the advice of his own courtiers. It is ridiculous to pretend otherwise. I think it is fair enough that the king should be the one who pays for a hot mess of his own creation.

Only 2 percent of the British public support taxpayer-funded protection for the Sussexes, and it is not hard to see why. Many people believe Harry put himself in danger with his own foolish choices, above all the decision to write in Spare that he had killed 25 members of the Taliban, an unbelievably stupid thing for someone supposedly preoccupied with his family’s safety to do.

The week ahead will be extraordinary. On Tuesday Sept. 8, Prince George starts at Eton. The same week, Archie and Lilibet are expected to start at their new schools. Three cousins, three first days, and one very uneasy family.

Want more royal gossip, scoops and scandal? Follow all Tom Sykes’ reporting at The Royalist on Substack or listen to The Royalist podcast on YouTube.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

In a bit of sweet revenge, Stephen Colbert and his canceled Late Show pulled off a pair of surprising wins on the first night of the Emmys on Saturday.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert won Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series, beating out Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, which has taken home the statue for the past 10 years in a row.

The program’s digital companion series, Colbert Before Air, also pulled off an upset, winning Outstanding Short Form Comedy, Drama or Variety Series.

The CBS show picked up additional hardware during the ceremony, including Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series, Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming (Segment), and Outstanding Technical Direction and Camerawork for a Series.

“I’d like to thank all those who keep late night going, [John] Oliver, [Jimmy] Kimmel. Super important institution in this country,” said Tom Purcell, The Late Show’s executive producer, as he accepted the writing award. “Keep the flame burning, guys!”

For Colbert Before Air, the win was particularly notable. The digital series has produced only about 10 episodes over the past year, with installments running just two to four minutes apiece. Yet the bite-sized show managed to beat out several more established short-form contenders for the Emmy.

The wins give Colbert’s final season an early boost heading into the main Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 14, when The Late Show will compete for Outstanding Talk Series against The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, Saturday Night Live, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

Saturday’s ceremony was the first of two Creative Arts Emmy events being held ahead of the main broadcast. The first night focused largely on variety, reality and nonfiction categories, with the second night covering additional scripted and craft awards. The ceremonies will be combined into a televised special airing Sept. 12 on FXX, while the main Emmys will air Sept. 14 on NBC and Peacock.

The early wins arrive less than four months after CBS announced that The Late Show would end in May, citing financial reasons. The cancellation nevertheless prompted accusations of political censorship, particularly because it came amid controversy surrounding Paramount’s settlement with President Donald Trump and the pending acquisition of Paramount by Skydance.

Colbert has long been an outspoken critic of Trump and also publicly criticized the settlement shortly before CBS announced the show’s cancellation.

Whatever the reasons for the cancellation, Saturday’s awards gave the outgoing show something to celebrate.

Obsessed with pop culture and entertainment? Follow us on Substack and YouTube for even more coverage.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

President Donald Trump arrived in New Jersey for the weekend with a new look on his head—and a familiar face from Fox News by his side.

The president showed off a noticeably darker, tousled head of brown hair when he landed in Morristown on Friday for a long weekend at his Bedminster golf club. Hours later, he was on the links with Fox News star Bret Baier, National Intelligence Director Jay Clayton, and several others—though his new ’do was safely tucked beneath a red MAGA hat.

The dramatic hair switch came just days after Trump once again insisted that he doesn’t wear a wig, amid months of speculation about what exactly is going on atop his head.

His latest look appeared markedly different from the gray-blond comb-over he has sported in recent weeks, with his usual side parting flipped to the opposite side and the hair looking noticeably darker and more tousled.

The golf outing also came just two days after Fox abruptly announced that longtime Trump-friendly host Maria Bartiromo was leaving the network, effective immediately. Her bio and other information about Bartiromo, who has worked for Fox for more than 12 years, have been scrubbed from the network’s website.

Fox called Bartiromo’s departure a “business decision” and did not provide further details.

Bartiromo had already been off the air for several weeks, with her last appearance coming on Aug. 9. Fox said her shows would continue under new names with rotating hosts, including Jason Chaffetz temporarily taking over Sunday Morning Futures.

Reports have linked her exit to allegations that she shared internal network guidance with the White House.

Status reported that she informed the White House about Fox’s internal instructions to avoid promoting Trump’s election conspiracies on the air.

Bartiromo’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, insisted she wasn’t abruptly fired, and says he has the receipts to prove it.

Trump himself appeared surprised by the news, praising Bartiromo on Truth Social after Fox announced her departure. “Three different shows, always number one,” Trump wrote, calling her “a total professional, and a true warrior.”

Trump’s Saturday round with Baier offered an especially conspicuous bit of Fox News camaraderie. A photo of the president and the six players joining him was posted on Instagram by social media content promoter and Trump supporter Michael Solakiewicz. The group shot also included Clayton.

Trump’s Saturday schedule was otherwise light: his public calendar showed him at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster for the weekend. Trump has spent 41 days playing golf so far this year, according to Trump Golf Tracker.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb called his old boss a “rapist” on live television Saturday—and MS NOW host Jonathan Capehart immediately pushed back.

In an interview, Cobb, who served in Trump’s first administration, blasted his former boss, calling him a “malignant narcissist, convicted felon, rapist, and somebody who was really out to feather his own nest.”

Capehart then interrupted to point out that Trump wasn’t convicted of rape. “Ty, I just have to stop you… because you just called the president a rapist,” he said. “That is a legal thing that he has not been convicted of. So we’ve just got to be clear on that.”

“You’re absolutely right. He has not been convicted of it,” Cobb responded. “But the federal judge who oversaw the [E. Jean Carroll] trial said on the record that he was guilty of rape.”

“No, no, no, sexual assault,” Capehart insisted.

“No, actually, Jonathan, you’re wrong,” Cobb shot back, adding: “I’ll send you the site,” to which Capehart responded: “Please do.”

Carroll accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in the mid-1990s after the two met at a Manhattan department store. She said Trump followed her into a dressing room and “forcibly penetrated her.”

In 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation of Carroll, and awarded her a $5 million judgment. Trump has consistently denied the assault, saying Carroll is “not my type.”

Federal District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, a Bill Clinton appointee, later determined that the conduct established by the jury fell within the “common” understanding of the word “rape.”

The issue came up after Trump later sued Carroll for defamation after she described the attack as rape. Kaplan ruled that the characterization was “substantially true.”

Carroll was paid the $5.62 million (including accumulated interest) Trump owed her in July after his protracted court battle against the decision ended in June when the Supreme Court refused to take up the case.

Trump still owes Carroll $83.3 million in a defamation judgment from a separate 2024 trial, which has been paused while he pursues appeals.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump’s hair is having another identity crisis.

The president arrived in New Jersey on Friday sporting a tousled head of noticeably darker hair, with his familiar side parting suddenly flipped to the opposite side. This comes just weeks after some observers speculated he was using a new hairpiece to augment the sweep of gray/blond hair over his increasingly bald expanse.

“What in the world is going on with Trump’s hair?” journalist Aaron Rupar wondered on X.

“Did grandpa get a new wig?” asked another.

Republicans Against Trump snarked: “Yes, this is a real photo of Trump.”

Trump has long been sensitive about his hair.

On Thursday, while delivering remarks in the Rose Garden, he insisted, “I don’t wear a wig.” Yet he has previously been photographed with a significant bald patch beneath his comb-over, which can appear to be supplemented by a cotton candy-like hairpiece when his hair gets caught in the wind.

Trump pointed to a particularly windy Ohio rally in 2024 as proof that his hair is authentic, arguing that a wig would have blown off his head in the fierce conditions.

The president appeared to be referring to a rally appearance with Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno held near the Dayton International Airport in Ohio on March 16, 2024. He described the event as “the worst weather I think I’ve ever experienced outside of maybe a hurricane we had in Florida one time.”

“I went up to the speaker, and it was blowing so hard,” he explained. “You know, for years, I had to suffer with people saying, ‘He wears a wig.’ I don’t wear a wig. But that night, they found out I did not wear a wig because if you did, it was not gonna be on your head very long.”

Trump wore a MAGA hat throughout his Ohio speech.

Trump biographer Michael Wolff revealed on Saturday’s Inside Trump’s Head podcast that the president carries a portable kit to fix his hair everywhere he goes.

The “patch kit” consists of “small tufts of hair that match whatever color his hair might be at the time,” said Wolff, who doesn’t know who applies the tufts to Trump’s head with “some kind of paste.” Whoever it is, the hair fixer is “next to the people with the nuclear codes,” he added.

According to Wolff, the kit dates back to Trump’s first term. “The maintenance of this hair is a major enterprise and has been for many years,” he noted.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Six months after first sharing the news of his cancer diagnosis, horror icon Bruce Campbell—best known to audiences as Ash Williams in The Evil Dead franchise—has revealed new details about his prognosis.

During an appearance on The Adam Carolla Show, Campbell revealed that doctors have given him a prognosis of about five years, “give or take.”

“With the type of cancer that I have, which I don’t want to get into, the current thing is a five-year deal,” the actor said. “I’ve decided pretty specifically though to live with it, not die from it.”

“You can go down a massive rabbit hole,” he continued. “The cancer rabbit hole is enormous. You can go into focus groups of 10,000 guys who have exactly what you have. I won’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.”

Campbell—who was on the show to promote Ernie & Emma, a new movie about a widower confronting the grief of losing his wife, which he wrote, directed, and in which he stars—said staying busy with work has helped him deal with his diagnosis.

“You have to make this decision of, ‘Oh, OK, but do I have to stop everything I’m doing because of this?’ Well no,” he explained. “So, it’s a sort of whack-a-mole life, literally.”

“Cancer compromises s--t inside your body,” he continued. “You don’t die from cancer, you die from what cancer does to you. It does weird s--t and then you address it and move on.”

“Right now, I’m between whacks,” he added. “So I feel perfect.”

Campbell first came to public attention in the cult horror film The Evil Dead (1983), which was made on a shoestring by his longtime friend Sam Raimi, who would go on to make three hugely successful Spider-Man films (all of which feature cameos from Campbell) and a string of Hollywood blockbusters.

The self-deprecating Campbell has also starred in many cult movies, including Maniac Cop (1988) and Bubba Ho-Tep (2002), and had starring roles in the TV series The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (1993) and Burn Notice (2007).

He has written two volumes of autobiography, If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor, and Hail to the Chin: Further Confessions of a B Movie Actor.

Campbell first shared news of his cancer diagnosis via Instagram, on March 2, writing—with his trademark wry wit—that, “These days, when someone is having a health issue, it’s referred to as an ‘opportunity,’ so let’s go with that—I’m having one of those. It’s also called a type of cancer that’s ‘treatable’ not ‘curable.’ I apologize if that’s a shock. It was to me, too.”

He noted that he was sharing the information himself to get ahead of it in case any false information made its way to his fans. “Fear not, I am a tough old son-of-a-b---h and I have great support, so I expect to be around a while,” he wrote. “As always, you’re the greatest fans in the world and I hope to see you soon.”

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Read more at The Daily Beast.