Posts on Monday, July 14, 2025

A report released Sunday in The New York Times reveals multiple pardons handed out in the final weeks of President Joe Biden’s presidency were signed by an autopen — some lacking Biden’s final authorization. The article, titled “Biden Says He Made the Clemency Decisions That Were Recorded With Autopen,” seemingly tries to dispel claims by President Donald Trump “and his allies … that Joseph R. Biden Jr. was incapacitated and his staff conspired to take presidential actions in his name.” In a brief phone interview with The Times, Biden insisted “I made every decision” and, according to The Times, asserted “that he had his staff use

The Supreme Court is allowing President Donald Trump to put his plan to dismantle the Education Department back on track — and to go through with laying off nearly 1,400 employees. With the three liberal justices in dissent, the court on Monday paused an order from U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston, who issued a preliminary injunction reversing the layoffs and calling into question the broader plan. The layoffs “will likely cripple the department,” Joun wrote. A federal appeals court refused to put the order on hold while the administration appealed.

The Justice Department on Monday defended prosecuting Jeffrey Epstein’s madam Ghislaine Maxwell — as US Attorney General Pam Bondi faces a brewing firestorm over files related to the notorious pedophile. The disgraced British socialite was wrong to claim that she was protected by the baffling sweetheart plea deal Epstein struck with the Florida feds in 2007, DOJ lawyers argued. “That contention is incorrect,” the feds wrote in a legal filing. Maxwell, 63, has asked the US Supreme Court to toss her 2021 conviction for grooming and abusing young women based on that claim.

The White House today announced a massive tally of wins when it comes to food ingredients: Steak & Shake moved to 100% all-natural beef tallow and replaced its “buttery blend,” which contained seed oils, with 100% Grade A Wisconsin butter. McCormick announced it will drop certain food dyes from its products. PepsiCo announced it will remove artificial ingredients from popular food items — including Lay’s and Tostitos chips — by the end of the year. In-N-Out announced it will remove synthetic food dyes and artificial flavors from its menu items, and also transitioned to 100% beef tallow. Tyson Foods eliminated synthetic dyes in its food products. Mars removed titanium dioxide from its Skittles product.

FIRST ON FOX: The Immigration and Customs Enforcement employee DHS says was doxxed by Rep. Salud Carbajal was taken to the emergency room on Thursday for stitches after a rock was thrown at him, causing his hand to bleed, according to new pictures from the department. The ICE Public Affairs specialist, who DHS said had his business card shown to the mob protesting the raid by the congressman, had a rock thrown at him, which caused injury to his left hand. Images show the bloodied hand before and after the incident. The farm was the subject of a criminal search warrant by federal immigration authorities.

Nearly 6,000 acres of old Arizona farmland once intended for a residential subdivision is on track to potentially become home to the first big new U.S. copper mine in more than a decade. If all goes as planned, Ivanhoe Electric will begin construction of its Santa Cruz mine early next year and start selling copper cathodes to manufacturers before the end of 2028. That is a blink of an eye in mining, where the time between discoveries and production is often measured in decades. The mine is on an unusually fast track as a result of being on private property along a booming industrial corridor between Phoenix and Tucson.

This time it’s real, and undeniable. The Democrats have for years denied, with varying degrees of scorn or anger, that they are Communists, despite hating both free enterprise and borders, which are just the sorts of things you’d expect socialist internationalists to hate. Now, however, the deniability is no longer even close to plausible. As the Democrat candidates move ever farther to the left, it’s clear: a spectre is haunting the Democrats. The spectre of Communism. Back in 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published “The Manifesto of the Communist Party,” which began grandly, or ominously, depending on your point of view, with this statement: “A spectre

Former President Joe Biden admitted to the New York Times that he did not individually sign off on each of the pardons issued via his autopen signature to batches of criminals at the end of his term, though he reportedly delineated criteria to staff. In the final months of his term, Biden issued four large sets of pardons, three of which were categorical clemency actions covering large swaths of people, the Times noted Sunday. Per the outlet, Biden approved standards to give out categorical pardons to criminals in his final months in office, but staff ultimately ran a final list of names that supposedly met the criteria through the autopen,

It's been a week and a half since the devastating July 4th flash flooding that ravaged parts of Central Texas, with Kerr County being particularly hard hit. Tragically, as of this writing, 132 have been confirmed dead - including 36 children, while over 160 remain unaccounted for as search and recovery efforts continue. As RedState has reported, the Usual Suspects on the left and in the mainstream media, unfortunately, jumped into "blame game" mode soon after news broke of the flooding, with some blaming DOGE cuts that haven't even gone into effect yet, while others sickeningly took to social media platforms like TikTok to suggest, in a nutshell,

Politics and governing are generally not complicated. It is often shaded to appear complicated or confusing by those looking to push their own agendas, cash in, or both. The politics and governing of today are filled with irrefutable certainties. 24 hours in a day; about 15 months to the most crucial midterm election of our lifetimes; a majority of the mainstream media – national, local, and even international – working with their allies in the Democratic Party, academia, science, medicine, and entertainment to continually smear and destroy the most transformative President in U.S. history along with his MAGA movement;

Minneapolis may be getting its own version of New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani. State Sen. Omar Fateh, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist and the first Somali American and Muslim to serve in the Minnesota Senate, is running for mayor of Minneapolis on a platform of pro-illegal immigration, anti-police, and anti-Israel policies. Fateh (D), who once accused Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) of white supremacy for opposing taxpayer-funded college for illegal aliens, is running for mayor of Minneapolis. He has advanced far-left legislation, including a proposal to provide free college tuition to households earning under $80,000 a year, regardless of their documentation status, which he defended as necessary to expand opportunities for “all Minnesotans.”

President Donald Trump told reporters during a meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte on Monday that European NATO members would fund billions of dollars of American military equipment, including Patriot missiles, for Ukraine and threatened Russian President Vladimir Putin with a massive 100-per cent indirect tariff if he did not make peace in 50 days. Trump explained that, if Putin did not end his invasion of Ukraine in 50 days, he will begin his proposed regime of “secondary tariffs” on the Russian economy.

2.1 million people live in Gaza, and a new judicial ruling in France gives every single one of them the right to move to France. If I were Bibi Netanyahu, I would buy every single one of them a plane ticket and wave goodbye as they took their free trip to Paris. If I were a Gazan, I would accept that free ticket and get on the first plane, hoping that the free room and board will allow me to enjoy my time there. The decision is absurd, of course, but perfectly consistent with the law. France’s top asylum court has ruled that all Palestinians

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to move ahead with plans to carry out mass layoffs at the Department of Education that were blocked by a federal judge. The conservative-majority court, without any explanation, granted an emergency application from the administration that blocks the federal judge's ruling. The court's three liberal members objected, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing a blistering dissenting opinion. "When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it," she wrote.

Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is expected to announce this week that he is staying in the race as an independent for the mayor of New York City, sources told NewsNation. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to candidates. A source close to the Cuomo campaign said it is anticipated that the mayoral candidate will officially announce his plans to stay in the race as an independent and have a proposal. Sources tell NewsNation that Cuomo will ask all candidates other than Zohran Mamdani to pledge that whoever is not in the lead come mid-September drop out of the race, himself included.

We have been marking the first anniversary of the attempted assassination of the Republican presidential candidate. Judging from the reaction on social media, lefties regret only that the US Secret Service is too incompetent to pull off the eighty-sixing of Trump, while a not insignificant number of righties seem to believe it was just another spectacle for the rubes - with Trump surviving the closest call on TV since Ed Ames and Johnny Carson played Frontier Bris. In a certain sense, both are more normal reactions than the official version, in which all kinds of curious anomalies go entirely uninvestigated by either officialdom or the media.

The more we learn about who Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested at that California marijuana farm last week, the more we're reminded of what a sleazebucket grifter Gov. Gavin Newsom really is. Before I get to the details, allow me to apologize for the strong language, and for tarring run-of-the-mill sleazebucket grifters with the same brush as Newsom. A smooth-talking pimp might trap a few girls in his harem, but Newsom treats the largest state in the nation worse than a pimp treats the women he exploits. He truly stands in a déclassé of his own. If you missed the news on Friday —

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday threatened Russia with steep tariffs and announced a rejuvenated pipeline for American weapons to reach Ukraine, hardening his stance toward Moscow after months of frustration about unsuccessful negotiations for ending the war. The latest steps reflect an evolving approach from the Republican president, who promised to swiftly resolve the war Russian President Vladimir Putin started when he invaded Ukraine three years ago. Trump has often criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for allowing the war to happen but more recently has expressed growing irritation toward Putin. “It just keeps going on and on and on,” Trump said. “Every night, people are dying.”

Bill Maher and liberal actor John Leguizamo clashed over their perceptions of President Donald Trump and the country's immigration system on Maher's latest "Club Random" podcast episode. Leguizamo blasted top Trump official Stephen Miller as a racist and architect of Trump's mass deportation policy, but Maher retorted that the last administration bore blame. "Part of this is a backlash to how badly Biden handled the immigration situation. It can't just be like ‘Come one, come all,’" Maher said.

I had this run through my mind after hearing Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) speak about the primitive conditions of residents of Alligator Alcatraz. I pictured the $20,000 Pyramid with Dick Clark hosting a special episode: "The Deranged-Lefty Edition." The contestants? Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Adam Schiff. Schiff reads clues in the category of "Truly Horrifying Things." Schiff: “Maggots in food. Heatstroke. Tents with raw sewage. Frogs in bedding.” Debbie: “Toilets!” Wrong. Schiff: “Mosquitos the size of drones. Babies sleeping on the floor. Rat chewing on wires. Overflowing trash. Broken showers.” Debbie: “People using toilets?” Wrong. Schiff: “No AC. No lawyers. No translators. Just broken fans and barbed wire.” Debbie: “Gendered bathrooms!” Wrong again. Some Democrats visited Alligator Alcatraz

Democrats were virtually salivating as they unanimously voted against Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill two weeks ago, which certainly should give pause to Republicans as they prepare for the midterms and the 2028 elections beyond. What gives the Democrats hope that they can campaign effectively against Trump’s mega-bill? Is it the fact that Republicans were able to make permanent the 2017 tax cuts? Are they planning to campaign against the “no tax on tips” provision that even Kamala Harris supported? Will they claim that funding border security and mass deportation of illegal aliens is somehow bad for the country? No, no, and no.

Pardons approved for high-profile names such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and General Mark Milley by former President Joe Biden were signed in a last-minute flurry by an autopen, according to a new report. Pardons analyzed by the New York Times through an extensive review of staff emails and a short interview with Biden himself, include January 6th committee figures, some of Biden's family members, and also encompass other controversial individuals such as Fauci and Milley. Fauci became a lightning rod for criticism during the COVID-19 crisis. According to critics, the good doctor perjured himself

Thank God that attempted assassin Thomas Crooks was unable to kill President Donald Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania (PA). It was a turn of the President’s head to view an immigration chart that saved his life. Of course, believers know that it was Divine intervention, as God saved Trump so he could save America. After being shot in the ear, Trump rose to his feet, yelling “Fight, Fight, Fight.” It was this act of bravery that sealed his presidential victory. If Trump had been killed, it would have changed the course of human history, and America would have been thrown into chaos. It is unclear what exactly

For the first time in decades, the United States is taking serious steps to rebuild its nuclear energy capacity. Recent executive orders from the Trump administration outline an ambitious agenda, including reviving the domestic nuclear supply chain, modernizing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and expanding America’s role in global nuclear exports. If the administration intends to compete internationally and meet America’s domestic energy goals, though, it needs to go further. It must address the neglect, regulation-induced delays, and declining expertise that have crippled the nation’s nuclear industry. The industry’s problems are myriad. Consider those highlighted in President Trump’s executive order “Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base.” Start with the workforce crisis.

There are 123 billionaires living in New York City. Zohran Mamdani, the socially and economically advantaged socialist boy who’s apparently never held a real job and is busy stoking class warfare as he campaigns to be the city’s next mayor, says they shouldn’t exist. Voters need to know that their city can get along just fine without Mamdani. But it would fall into a raging hellhole without billionaires. “I don’t think that we should have billionaires because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality, and ultimately, what we need more of is equality across our city and across our state and across our country,”

One border security expert said the massive number of Chinese illegal immigrants who crossed the United States border during the Biden administration poses a "national security concern." U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 122 illegal immigrants to China June 3, many of whom were convicted of murder, drug trafficking, rape and human smuggling. Officials said the individuals were taken to China on a "special high risk charter flight."

Democrats have been flooding the airwaves and social media with desperate messages trying to paint the ICE raids on a California marijuana farm as proof that the Trump administration is comprised of Nazis who want to punish hard-working, law-abiding crop pickers who are just trying to “feed the nation.” In reality, many of the illegal alien workers picked up were inadvertently trying to get the nation stoned, and multiple instances of forced illegal child labor were uncovered. Golden State Gov. Gavin Newsom stayed busy, of course, preening for the cameras as he readies his expected 2028 presidential run.

Debate over President Donald Trump’s sweeping budget-and-policy package is over on Capitol Hill. Now the argument goes national. From the Central Valley of California to Midwestern battlegrounds and suburban districts of the northeast, the new law already is shaping the 2026 midterm battle for control of the House of Representatives. The outcome will set the tone for Trump’s final two years in the Oval Office. Democrats need a net gain of three House seats to break the GOP’s chokehold on Washington and reestablish a power center to counter Trump. There’s added pressure to flip the House given that midterm Senate contests are concentrated in Republican-leaning states,

Across the political left, from orthodox Democrats to Antifa in the streets, the opposition to President Donald Trump has lost its collective mind. The House minority leader and now self-styled tough guy, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, poses with a baseball bat to show how dangerous he is in opposing Trump’s budget bill. Jeffries harangued Congress for eight hours; New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker went on for 25 — both to no effect. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hit the rally trail in private jets to rail about oligarchs, omitting that the ultra-rich are not only mostly leftists but also the funders of the Democratic Party.

Happy Monday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Azgemboth liked to devote his Thursday mornings to eating overnight oats and crafting papier-mâché iguanas to delight various beachcombers. Sunday's anniversary of the assassination attempt — which Catherine wrote about here — on President Trump in Butler, PA provided a lot of fodder for reflection. Sometimes it seems like it was 10 years ago because of all that has happened since then. The time from that day until the morning after the election was the most intense and stressful period in all of my years being politically active.

Still reveling in his political comeback after surviving two near-miss assassination attempts, last December, then-President-elect Trump stopped by the Christmas party of the Secret Service detail that was responsible for both saving his life and the failures that nearly ended it. (Snip) Fast forward seven months, just days away from the one-year anniversary of the failures at the Butler rally: The Secret Service announced limited disciplinary actions for those it deemed responsible for security lapses. Six agents, including Myosoty Perez, whom Trump was referring to at the December party, have been placed on 10-42 days of unpaid leave for their roles in the egregious security breaches.

Once upon a time, chanting ‘Death to America’ and burning American flags happened on Iranian soil. ... Today, when these alarming trends are happening on our soil, we ... side with those who wish for our demise. How did this happen?” —The Jewish Journal Recently, Ken Martin, chair of the Democrat National Committee, said this about New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada”: “We win by bringing people into [our] coalition. And, at the end of the day, for me, that’s the type of party we’re going to lead.

The US will ship Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine in its fight against Russia because Vladimir Putin “talks nice but then bombs everybody in the evening,” President Trump said Sunday. Although Trump did not get into specifics about how many missiles he would send, he reassured American citizens that the European Union would pick up the tab and reimburse the US for the associated costs. Trump’s frustration with the Russian dictator has grown more and more recently as his efforts to broker a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia have been derailed and attempts at a ceasefire have gone nowhere.

The first presidential primary votes won’t be cast for another two and a half years. And yet, over the span of 10 days in July, three Democratic presidential prospects are scheduled to campaign in South Carolina. Nearly a half dozen others have made recent pilgrimages to South Carolina, New Hampshire and Iowa — states that traditionally host the nation’s opening presidential nomination contests. Still other ambitious Democrats are having private conversations with officials on the ground there. The voters in these states are used to seeing presidential contenders months or even years before most of the country,

Uh oh. Democrat swamp rat Jamie Raskin has jumped on the Epstein conspiracy bandwagon, demanding AG Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy Dan Bongino testify to Congress about the so-called Epstein files. After five days of escalating hysteria and chest-beating, including ultimatums to the president to “fire Blondi,” MAGA “influencers” have found themselves on the same side as Raskin, which, needless to say, is the wrong side. While the whole episode has been handled clumsily by the Trump officials, it is not so difficult to believe that FBI vaults have been scrubbed of meaningful Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy information or never had any,

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was reportedly injured by an Israeli airstrike targeting a high-profile meeting in Tehran during the 12-day war, according to state media reports. Pezeshkian, who last week accused Israel of trying to assassinate him during the war, was one of the officials who gathered at an underground facility in Tehran on June 16 for an emergency meeting of the state’s Supreme National Security Council, according to the Fars news agency. During the meeting, six bombs were dropped on the location, with Pezeshkian said to have suffered injuries to his leg as he and the other officials escaped through an emergency shaft.

The largest-ever war-fighting drills in Australia, Exercise Talisman Sabre, are underway and expected to attract the attention of Chinese spy ships. Australia launched missiles from its M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, known as HIMARS, on Monday during live-fire exercises at the Shoalwater Bay Training Area, a 4,500 square kilometer (1,700 square mile) Outback expanse in Queensland state. The HIMARS launchers were recently bought from the United States. “Today was the first time the Australian Army has live-fired our long-range, multi-domain platforms being the HIMARS, so it is a remarkable day,” Brig. Nick Wilson told reporters.

It's been a dramatic weekend, with both sides of the aisle trying to make fetch happen: The influencers who pretend to be MAGA (and some who actually are) are demanding the resignation of Attorney General Pam Bondi after her mishandling and doublespeak surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein files. The Democrats and the Left are trying their darndest to create a narrative that Trump is hiding these files because he is not only named in the records, but complicit in Epstein's crimes. This is patently stupid. With all that they have and still are throwing at Trump, if he had any connection to Epstein and his crimes,

On Sunday, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem appeared on "Meet the Press with Kristen Welker" to discuss the recent flooding in Texas, along with the horrible human cost of that event. The "Meet the Press" anchor also asked several questions about the ongoing efforts by the Trump administration to detain and repatriate illegal aliens, including last week's raid on a California pot farm. Now, NBC isn't particularly friendly ground for Trump administration officials at the best of times, but Secretary Noem handled it adroitly enough; Kristen Welker's occasional attempts at a "gotcha" fell flat. Here are a few highlights. First, on the federal response:

It is no longer debatable that President Trump’s second term is remarkable for its historic and rapid accomplishments. During the first six months of 2025, he has secured the southern border, brought prices down on energy and food, begun deporting violent illegal immigrants, used tariffs to produce the first monthly budget surplus the nation has seen in years, made his 2017 tax cut permanent by signing the “Big Beautiful Bill” into law, ad infinitum. There’s little reason to expect this momentum to slow down in the rest of Trump’s term unless the Democrats win the House of Representatives in 2026.

US President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that Washington will send Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine amid mounting Russian aggression and waning patience with Vladimir Putin. "We will send them Patriots, which they desperately need," Trump said while speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews. "I haven't agreed on the number yet, but they're going to have some because they do need protection."//snip//According to a report by Axios, Trump is set to unveil an “aggressive” new military aid package for Ukraine. This will likely include long-range offensive weapons capable of striking targets deep inside Russian territory, including Moscow.