The White House slammed New Jersey Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver on Monday after she argued that President Trump’s “Liberation Day” mantra is code for “white power.”
McIver — who was hit with federal charges in June accusing her of assaulting and interfering with immigration officers outside a New Jersey detention center — leveled the accusation as she railed against Trump’s crime crackdown in Washington, DC, which she fears “will start a civil war” if he tries it in other Democrat-run cities.
“I think there’s an ultimate agenda of this administration to do these types of things,” the congresswoman said of the president’s decision to take control of DC’s police department and deploy federal law enforcement and National Guard troops in the nation’s capital, during an interview on the “Defending Democracy with Marc Elias” podcast last week.
“Sic the military on the very people that they’re supposed to be protecting in these cities and then expect a certain response so that it can escalate — I truly believe that that’s what the president hopes for,” McIver argued, before calling the effort — and Trump’s “Liberation Day” for DC label — “racist.”
“When he says, ‘Oh,’ you know, ‘it’s Liberation Day,’ and all of these things, those are, you know, ways of him saying, ‘Oh, it’s white power,’” McIver said.
“Those are racist remarks,” she argued. “His number one targets are cities that are led by black mayors.”
McIver went on to moan that Trump’s “number one targets are sanctuary cities that, you know, support immigration.”
The New Jersey Democrat charged that Trump’s push to clean up DC and end sanctuary city policies “show us each and every day how much of a bigot he is.”
The White House brushed off McIver’s allegations, mocking her “attempted catfight” outside the Newark ICE facility that landed her in trouble with the feds.
“LaMonica McIver, whose claim to fame was assaulting federal agents, is an unserious person whose comments are nothing more than a political stunt, much like her attempted catfight in front of an ICE facility,” White House spokesman Harrison Fields told The Post.
“Congress would be better off if she left, and the people of New Jersey would benefit greatly if she pursued her apparent passion for street fighting,” he added.
McIver’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The congresswoman has pleaded not guilty to three counts of assaulting, resisting, impeding and interfering with federal officials related to her alleged role in the ICE facility dustup.
Monthly Archives: August 2025
Mirror US: Trump mocked by Gavin Newsom on socials as he ditches all caps writing style
California Governor Gavin Newsom has been relentlessly poking fun at Trump, and it seems to be influencing the way the former US President crafts his social media posts.
Supporters of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement are taking notice as the high-profile Democrat starts using Trump’s own brash and cheeky tactics against him.
As the leader of the country’s most populous state, Newsom is leading the charge as Democrats try to counteract Trump’s confrontational political style.
This comes after lawmakers in Texas pledged to redraw the state’s electoral boundaries in an attempt to tip the 2026 midterm elections in favor of the Republicans.
In a move reminiscent of Trump’s somewhat erratic style, Newsom announced his plans to implement similar redistricting measures, using all caps and heaping praise on himself. He also took a swipe at Trump’s controversial Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, calling her KaroLYIN and saying she’ll be left scrambling to answer press questions about the new electoral maps.
He even went so far as to claim these maps are ‘the greatest maps ever created’ and ‘even superior to those of Christopher Columbus’.
A statement from Newsom posted late Wednesday night read: “WOW! TOMORROW HISTORY WILL BE MADE. KaroLYIN LEAVITT WILL HAVE NO ANSWERS FOR THE SUPPOSED ‘FAKE MEDIA’ ABOUT CALIFORNIA’S BEAUTIFUL MAPS. PEOPLE ARE SAYING THEY ARE THE GREATEST MAPS EVER CREATED – EVEN BETTER THAN CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS’. DONALD ‘THE FAILURE’ TRUMP BE WARNED, TOMORROW MAY BE THE WORST DAY OF YOUR LIFE. ALL BECAUSE YOU ‘MISSED THE DEADLINE.’ LIBERATION DAY FOR AMERICA! ! ! – GCN”.
It appears Newsom’s jabs are getting under Donald Trump’s skin, with the former President seemingly using fewer capitalized letters in his recent Truth Social posts.
The shift was spotted on X, with one user sharing a screenshot of Trump’s less-capitalized messages. They posted: “The funniest thing about this is ever since Newsom started mocking him, Trump has stopped posting in all caps.”
Trump’s chaotic social media behavior has already resumed, but it suggests Newsom might be making an impression on him.
Texas Legislature Democrats initially fought back by blocking Republican measures through departing the state, but now multiple Democratic governors have pledged to establish new districts within their own states to counter potential Republican gains in Washington. Their approach has built steam through nationwide fundraising drives, media blitzes and public rallies, including demonstrations held across the country on Saturday.
Newsom joined forces with JB Pritzker of Illinois and Kathy Hochul of New York, showing solidarity with Texas Democrats and pledging to retaliate through redistricting. Pritzker mocked Abbott as a lackey who obediently responds “yes, sir” to Trump’s orders.
Hochul labeled Texas Republicans as “lawbreaking cowboys.”

https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/gavin-newsom-donald-trump-1335709
HuffPost: This Republican Governor Has Declined To Send National Guard Troops To D.C.
Vermont’s Republican Gov. Phil Scott has declined to send the state’s National Guard to Washington, D.C., noting that he didn’t believe it to be a proper use of these troops.
“In the absence of an immediate emergency or disaster that local and regional first responders are unable to handle, the governor just does not support utilizing the guard for this purpose, and does not view the enforcement of domestic law as a proper use of the National Guard,” Scott’s chief of staff Jason Gibbs told Vermont Public on Friday.
Scott is the rare Republican leader who’s refused to bow to the Trump administration’s requests as the president has deployed National Guard and federal law enforcement to address what he’s described as a spiraling crime crisis in the capital. In reality, data shows that violent crime rates in the district have declined in 2024 and 2025, and Trump’s efforts have been criticized by Democrats as a “stunt” designed to distract from other controversies his administration is grappling with, like the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Scott’s decision followed a Pentagon request for a “few dozen” of the state’s troops, according to Gibbs, and comes as six Republican-led states, including West Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio, Mississippi, Tennessee and Louisiana, have authorized the deployment of their National Guard to D.C. in the last week.
All told, Trump has already deployed 800 National Guard troops to the city, and the states’ contributions could put that number upwards of 1,700.
It’s not evident why more troops have been requested from different states and what function they will serve upon their arrival in D.C.
A spokesperson for Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee told the Associated Press that the state’s National Guard would “assist with monument security, community safety patrols, protecting federal facilities, and traffic control.” Some troops “may be armed,” a Guard representative said Sunday.
“In this case, because it is being hyperpoliticized, the governor doesn’t feel like — and I believe the vast majority of Vermonters don’t feel like — it would be an acceptable and appropriate use of the National Guard,” Gibbs added in his comments to Vermont Public.
A Scott spokesperson and a White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Pentagon spokesperson declined to provide additional comment.
Gibbs noted that Scott would have viewed the situation differently if D.C. leaders had called for federal aid, which was not the case this time around. On Friday, the D.C. attorney general sued the Trump administration for its federal takeover of the leadership of the district’s police force.
“This doesn’t make sense. The numbers on the ground and the district don’t support 1,000 people from other states coming to Washington, D.C.,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said on Monday.
This also isn’t the first time that Scott has pushed back on the Trump administration’s attempts to use the state’s National Guard. Previously, Scott rejected a Defense Department request to utilize Vermont’s National Guard to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at detention facilities.
Latin Times: Rubio’s Contradicting Arguments on Birthright Citizenship Resurface as Supreme Court Weighs Trump Order Looking to Restrict it
Rubio’s comments came amid a lawsuit challenging his eligibility to run for president on the grounds that, as the son of Cuban immigrants who became U.S. citizens only after his birth
A new report has revealed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued in a federal court filing in 2016 that the Constitution guarantees citizenship to nearly all children born in the United States regardless of their parents’ immigration status when he was a Republican senator running for president, a position that now stands in sharp contrast to the executive order issued by Trump in January which seeks to restrict birthright citizenship.
Rubio’s 2016 filing responded to a lawsuit challenging his eligibility to run for president on the grounds that, as the son of Cuban immigrants who became U.S. citizens only after his birth, he was not a “natural born citizen.”
As The New York Times points out, the court dismissed the case, but Rubio’s arguments went further than necessary, affirming that the 14th Amendment was designed to ensure that “all persons born in the United States, regardless of race, ancestry, previous servitude, etc., were citizens of the United States.”
Rubio went on to say that the amendment, the common law on which it was based and the leading Supreme Court precedent all confirmed that “persons born in the United States to foreign parents (who were not diplomats or hostile, occupying enemies) were citizens of the United States by virtue of their birth.”
Trump’s executive order, by contrast, states that children born in the U.S. are not automatically citizens if their mothers were either unlawfully present or only in the country on a temporary basis and if their fathers were neither U.S. citizens nor lawful permanent residents. The order has been blocked in lower courts, but the administration has asked the Supreme Court to take up the issue this fall.
Peter J. Spiro, a citizenship law expert at Temple University, told the NYT that Rubio’s earlier arguments remain significant and that “there’s no reason why the argument he put to work in 2016 couldn’t be put to work today against the Trump executive order.” Rubio, now secretary of state, oversees the implementation of immigration and passport laws.
Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesman, dismissed the focus on Rubio’s past filing, saying he is “100 percent aligned with President Trump’s agenda,” and claiming that “it’s absurd the NYT is even wasting time digging around for decade-old made-up stories.”
Rubio has faced backlash for his contrasting stances on issues affecting immigrants in the past few months, especially Latinos. A group called Keep Them Honest erected signs in May accusing him of betraying Venezuelans after supporting the administration’s move to end Temporary Protected Status. Rubio, once a leading Republican advocate for TPS, has recently called the designation harmful to U.S. interests and linked it to security threats.

Latin Times: New Zealand Woman Held By ICE For Weeks Along With Six-Year-Old Son: ‘Treated Like a Criminal’
Sarah Shaw has lived in the U.S. for more than three year
A New Zealand woman claims she is being unfairly held by ICE with her six-year-old son after being detained while attempting to re-enter the U.S. from Canada.
The woman in question is Sarah Shaw, who has lived in Washington state for more than three years. Speaking to The Guardian, she said she crossed to Canada to drop off her two eldest children at the Vancouver airport so they could take a flight to New Zealand to stay with their grandparents.
When attempting to enter the U.S. again she was detained with her son. Victoria Besancon, a friend of Shaw’s who is helping raise money for her legal fight, described the incident as “terrifying.”
“They didn’t really explain anything to her at first, they just kind of quietly took her and her son and immediately put them in like an unmarked white van,” she said. Shaw’s phone was confiscated and both she and her son were taken to a processing center in South Texas.
The outlet explained that Shaw was living in the U.S. on what is described as a “combo card” visa: one obtained through employment and another one, the I-360, which grants immigration status to survivors of domestic violence. She only realized that the latter part had not been fully approved. Her son’s was, and because of that Besancon said he is being held “illegally.”
“She gives therapy and counselling to some of our most at risk youth … and to be treated like a criminal herself has just been absolutely devastating,” Besancon said.
Shaw’s case is among many others that have made headlines throughout the Trump administration. In mid-July, an Irish tourist who overstayed his visa three days as a result of a health issue was prevented from leaving the country by ICE and detained for roughly 100 days.
Another high-profile case involved Canadian actress Jasmine Mooney, who was detained over an incomplete visa in March.
Latin Times: Florida Republicans Remove ‘Deportation Depot’ Merchandise Over Complaints From Home Depot
A Home Depot spokesperson said the company had reached out to the party because it had not approved the use of its branding or logo
Florida Republicans have removed merchandise related to a new migrant detention center dubbed “Deportation Depot” after Home Depot complained about being linked to it.
“The Deport Depot” merchandise had a logo that was similar to The Home Depot, including the recognizable orange box and stenciled font, according to the Miami Herald.
Home Depot spokeswoman Beth Marlowe said the company had not approved the use of its branding or logo and “reached out to the Republican Party of Florida to resolve this issue,” she said.
The outlet noted that items were still for sale as of Saturday afternoon, with items ranging from $15 to $28 and sales going as political contributions to the party. However, they were removed hours after it published a story on the matter.
Governor Ron DeSantis said last week his administration is taking steps towards holding migrants at the North Florida detention center. “It is not going to take forever, but we are also not rushing to do this right this day,” he said.
The prison is located in a rural area between Tallahassee and Jacksonville. Officials intend to hold up to 1,300 migrants at the Baker Correctional Institution, which has been closed since 2021 due to staff shortages.
The decision comes as a federal judge in Florida judge is considering whether to order the shutdown of the immigrant detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” over claims that it could cause “irreparable” harm to the Everglades area in which it is set up.
The Miami Herald noted that the groups are seeking a preliminary injunction to stop operations at the site. They are Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice and the Miccosukee Tribe.
They sued the Trump and DeSantis administrations, accusing them of dodging a federal law requiring an environmental review of the site before pursuing the initiative. The injunction would stop all operations and further halt construction until there is a verdict. Florida authorities have also sought to fundraise with merchandise related to the center.
Raw Story: Mike Johnson vows to fight California over gerrymander ‘power grab’ — but supports Texas
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has declined to oppose a Texas gerrymandering effort that could maintain Republicans’ control of Congress. Still, he has insisted that a similar move by Democrats in California was an “illegal power grab.”
“Gavin Newsom’s latest attempt to disenfranchise millions of California voters was written in the dark of night by the DCCC—more than 2,700 miles away from Sacramento in Washington,” Johnson wrote in a Monday post on X. “This is a slap in the face to Californians who overwhelmingly support the California Citizens Redistricting Commission.”
“Gavin Newsom should spend less time trampling his state’s laws for a blatant power grab, and more time working to change the disastrous, far-left policies that are destroying California,” he continued.
Johnson accused Newsom of using redistricting to launch a presidential campaign.
“Democrats across the nation have played politics with redistricting for decades, and this is just the latest example,” he argued. “Republicans who are following state and federal laws will not be lectured by people who abused the system.”
“I have instructed the NRCC to use every measure and resource possible to fight the California Democrats’ illegal power grab,” he added. “I will continue to lead efforts to defend our House Republican incumbents and grow our majority so that we can continue to deliver on our commonsense, America First agenda.”
A spokesperson for Johnson told The Washington Post that the speaker had “no involvement” in Republicans’ “development of national redistricting strategy.”
https://www.rawstory.com/mike-johnson-california-redistricting
Mirror US: Trump slammed for ‘dictator talk’ as he jokes with Zelensky about having ‘no more elections’ in US
Donald Trump has been accused of sounding like a dictator after joking with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky about how the US could have ‘no more elections’ by 2028
Donald Trump made an eyebrow-raising remark about the potential to halt US elections as he sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss efforts to negotiate peace with Russia.
Monday’s historic meeting marked Zelensky’s first time back in the White House since Trump and Vice President JD Vance laid into him live on TV during a spectacular Oval Office blowout in February. This time around, things remained relatively calm as the pair appeared far more civil with each other.
But Trump still escalated the tension in the room with a controversial statement. It comes as Trump appears to relish idea of a violent clash in DC as the city takes steps to de-escalate.
At one point during their press conference, the US president suddenly interrupted Zelensky as the Ukrainian leader was responding to a question about his commitment to holding elections after the war with Russia is over.
“So you’re saying during the war you can’t have elections,” Trump said. The president hinted that before the 2028 presidential election, he could call off elections as he joked: “So, let me just say, three and a half years from now so you mean if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections. Oh, that’s good.”
Zelensky laughed before shaking his head as he responded: “You like this idea, no no no no.” Trump’s remarks, which have since gone viral on X, quickly saw him accused of spouting “dictator talk”.
Trump has previously called Zelensky a “dictator” and criticised him for halting elections during wartime in Ukraine. Critics raised the alarm, claiming there was a more sinister side to the joke.
One wrote: “You can practically see the dim little lightbulb flicker on above his head. ‘Wait a second… if my country is in a war… I don’t have to leave the White House… EVER?! THAT’S GOOD!’ It’s the giddy, amoral excitement of a child who has just discovered a brand new and fantastic way to cheat at the game. Except the game is the Constitution of the United States.”
A second warned: “His remark to Zelensky wasn’t just a slip of the tongue it’s a window into his authoritarian fantasies. If Trump thinks he can dodge elections by dragging us into some endless conflict, he’s not just dreaming; he’s planning. The question isn’t just ‘who’ we’re going to have a long war with it’s ‘how long’ before we wake up to the fact that this man will stop at nothing to cling to power.”
Trump’s comments to Zelensky aren’t the first time that he has hinted at plans to remain in the White House beyond his second term, something which is currently unconstitutional. In a phone interview with NBC news back in March, Trump said he’s “not joking” about running for a third term and insinuated that “there are methods” of bypassing the Constitution.
When asked to elaborate on those methods the following month, the president told TIME Magazine: “I’d rather not discuss that now, but as you know, there are some loopholes that have been discussed that are well known.”
“But I don’t believe in loopholes,” Trump added. “I don’t believe in using loopholes.” However, earlier this month the president appeared to back-peddle on talk about running for a third term.
Asked whether he would make another bid for president in 2028, Trump told CNBC: “No. Probably not. I’d like to run. I have the best poll numbers I’ve ever had. You know why? Because people love the tariffs.”
Despite this, Trump on Monday showed off his collection of MAGA hats to Zelensky, including one emblazoned with the phrase “4 More Years”.

https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/donald-trump-elections-zelensky-usa-1337245
MSNBC:Maddow Blog | Why the Pentagon needed to clarify Pete Hegseth’s position on women’s voting rights
The good news is, the defense secretary’s spokesperson said he supports a woman’s right to vote. The bad news is they had to clarify in the first place.
Under normal circumstances, no one would think to ask the Pentagon whether the current secretary of defense supports women’s voting rights, but there’s little about our current political landscape that’s “normal.” Hence, The Hill reported:
The Trump administration on Thursday sought to clarify Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s support for women’s voting rights following controversy spurred by his repost of a video tied to a pastor who said the opposite. ‘Of course, the secretary thinks that women should have the right to vote. That’s a stupid question,’ Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told reporters during Thursday’s briefing.
I can appreciate why the DOD’s right-wing spokesperson — someone who, as Politico reported earlier this year, “has touted antisemitic views, white supremacist conspiracy theories and Kremlin-like statements on social media” — would be eager to dismiss the line of inquiry. But it really wasn’t that stupid a question.
In fact, it was just two weeks ago when Hegseth used his social media account to amplify a video about a Christian nationalist church that included various pastors saying women should no longer be allowed to vote. The Associated Press reported:
In the post, Hegseth commented on an almost seven-minute-long report by CNN examining Doug Wilson, cofounder of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, or CREC. The report featured a pastor from Wilson’s church advocating the repeal of women’s right to vote from the Constitution, and another pastor saying that in his ideal world, people would vote as households. It also featured a female congregant saying that she submits to her husband.
Hegseth didn’t explicitly endorse the idea of repealing voting rights for American women, but he also didn’t make any effort to distance himself from the rhetoric used in the video he shared with his online followers. On the contrary, he promoted the video, alongside his own written message that read, “All of Christ for All of Life.”
When this sparked a controversy, the former Fox News host could’ve made it clear that he disagreed with the comments, or that he supports leaving the 19th Amendment intact. Instead, Hegseth said nothing.
What’s more, the secretary’s office didn’t make much of an effort, either. When asked about the video he promoted, a Pentagon spokesperson told the AP that Hegseth is “a proud member of a church” that is affiliated with CREC and he “very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson’s writings and teachings.”
All of this, of course, came on the heels of Hegseth’s efforts to purge several women from leadership posts within the U.S. armed forces.
Hopefully, what the Pentagon spokesperson said was accurate, and the secretary doesn’t actually support rolling back women’s voting rights, despite the content of the video he amplified online. But to see this question as somehow out of bounds given the broader context is difficult to take seriously.
Newsweek: “Nuclear power”: NATO ally issues Trump credibility warning over Russia
French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that the global credibility of the United States and its NATO allies is on the line in Ukraine, as U.S. President Donald Trump attempts to end the Russian invasion once and for all.
Why It Matters
Macron made the comment after talks in Washington on Monday between Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the leaders of Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, the European Union and NATO, following up on Trump’s talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.
While no agreement has been reached to end the more than three-year war, Monday’s gathering laid the groundwork for a long-anticipated trilateral meeting between Trump, Zelensky and Putin.
Macron’s warning about the credibility of the U.S. and its allies is a reminder of the far-reaching implications of the peace effort that Trump is promoting.
What To Know
Macron, in an interview with NBC News, said that how the United States and its allies handled the war in Ukraine would have global consequences for their credibility.
“What’s happening in Ukraine is extremely important for Ukrainian people, obviously, but for the whole security of Europe, because we speak about containing a nuclear power, which decided just not to respect international borders anymore,” he said.
“And I think it’s very important for your country because it’s a matter of credibility,” he said. “The way we will behave in Ukraine will be a test for our collective credibility in the rest of the world.”
Macron said Trump was confident he could reach a deal to end the war in Ukraine, which he welcomed while stressing that any agreement must not have negative consequences for Ukraine and its European allies.
“My point … is to be sure that this deal is not detrimental to Ukraine and Europe,” Macron said.
“All of us, we want a deal, and we want a peace deal. But we want to make sure that this peace, and so this deal, will be something which will allow the Ukrainians to recover their country and live in peace, to be sure the day after this peace deal that they will have sufficient deterrence power not to be attacked again, and to be sure—for the Europeans—that they will live in peace and security,” he said.
But the French president appeared less upbeat about Putin’s attitude to ending the full-scale invasion Russia launched in 2022.
“When I look at the situation and the facts, I don’t see President Putin very willing to get peace now,” he said, adding, “But perhaps I’m too pessimistic.”
Macron said he still hoped for a ceasefire even though Trump said after meeting Putin on Friday that a ceasefire was not an essential step toward a deal.
“It’s impossible for a Ukrainian president and Ukrainian officials to have talks about peace as their country is being destroyed and as their civilians are being killed,” Macron said, adding that security guarantees for Ukraine were vital.
“If you make any peace deal without security guarantees, Russia will never respect its words, will never comply with its own commitments,” Macron said.
Macron also said that in the absence of progress, Russia should be hit with more sanctions.
“I’m very much in favor of the fact that if, at the end of the day, there is no serious progress during the bilateral, or if there is a refusal of the trilateral meeting and, or if the Russians don’t comply with this approach, yes, we have to increase the sanctions, secondary and primary sanctions, in order to increase the pressure on the Russians to do so,” he said, according to a transcript of the interview provided by NBC.
What People Are Saying
French President Emmanuel Macron told NBC: “Your president, indeed, is very confident about the capacity he has to get this deal done, which is good news for all of us and can break this—I would say this daily killings, which are the responsibility of the Russian aggressor. So I think it’s great news. My point—and this is why we’ve worked so hard during the past few months and we need this convergence—is to be sure that this deal is not detrimental to Ukraine and Europe.”
What Happens Next
Trump has established a two-week timeline for determining diplomatic progress, saying both sides would soon know “whether or not we’re going to solve this or is this horrible fighting going to continue.”
The proposed Putin-Zelensky meeting is expected to precede trilateral discussions that include Trump, though specific timing and location remain undetermined. Russian officials have indicated a willingness to continue direct negotiations, but full agreement on meeting parameters has not been confirmed.

https://www.newsweek.com/macron-nato-trump-nuclear-russia-credibility-warning-2115451



