Knewz: MAGA fumes as Newsom mocks Trump with Bibles

Gavin Newsom has once again gotten under the skin of conservatives, this time by selling signed copies of Bibles on his merchandise site, Knewz.com can reveal. The California governor’s team has been mimicking Donald Trump for weeks, leaving his supporters raging and failing to see the irony of it all.

This time, Newsom and his handlers took it up a notch by listing Bibles for sale on his website. (The Bibles were marked as sold out.) The site also includes several other items mocking Trump slogans like a “Newsom Was Right About Everything” cap, a “Trump Is Not Hot” tank top and a T-shirt labeled “The Chosen One” featuring an image of Kid Rock, Tucker Carlson and the late Hulk Hogan with a halo looking over Newsom. There’s at least one person who will not be purchasing any of these items: Fox News personality Will Cain. On an episode of The Will Cain Show, the host went off on Newsom for purportedly selling Bibles. “He seems to have found ground, legs with the left by mocking President Trump,” Cain cried on TV. “Like the ChatGPT personality, he’s just borrowing now from President Trump, copying his style with X posts, now he’s even going for his own MAGA style merch.”

Newsom’s antics have already reached the White House, as earlier this month, Trump took to Truth Social to call out his fellow politician. He raged, “Gavin Newscum is way down in the polls. He is viewed as the man who is destroying the once Great State of California. I will save California!!! President DJT.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/maga-fumes-as-newsom-mocks-trump-with-bibles/ss-AA1MxApp

Daily Beast: Pam [Bimbo #3] Bondi Takes Aim at Boston Citing Crimes From Elsewhere

The attorney general suggested Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is somehow responsible for an alleged crime that occurred 100 miles outside city limits.

Attorney General Pam Bondi cited crimes that occurred outside of Boston to criticize the city’s mayor in a head-scratching interview with Fox News.

Bondi, 59, told Sean Hannity that Boston—one of the safest major cities in America—is actually “not” safe, citing a trio of grisly crimes. She singled out Mayor Michelle Wu, claiming the 40-year-old Democrat has lost control of the city.

“A Haitian national was charged with raping a child in a migrant center,” she said. “An 18-year-old illegal alien from Haiti molested a 10-year-old child. An illegal from El Salvador, 11 counts of rape against a child … I could go on and on about the crimes in the Boston area. So, if she’s not going to protect the people of Boston, we are.”

As Mediaite first noted, the alleged migrant center incident took place 20 miles from Boston, the alleged molestation took place 30 miles outside city limits, and the incident involving the Salvadoran national took place on Nantucket, an island about 100 miles south of the state capital.

Wu, of course, has zero jurisdiction over crimes that take place well outside Boston’s city limits. It would be the equivalent of blaming President Donald Trump for something that occurred over the border in Mexico or Canada.

The Trump administration, which has already deployed the National Guard to the streets of Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., has signaled plans for similar actions in other Democrat-controlled cities, including Boston.

Reached for comment, Wu’s office said in a statement: “For months, the Trump DOJ, DHS, and ICE have been spreading blatant lies and threatening to ‘bring hell’ to cities like Boston who refuse to bow down to their authoritarian agenda, so this unconstitutional attack is not a surprise.”

It continued, “This country was born facing down bullies, with Bostonians leading the way. Today, Boston is the safest major city in the country because we have worked to build trust in the community, so that everyone feels safe seeking help or reporting a crime. We will not be bullied or intimidated into abandoning the efforts that make Boston a safe home for everyone.”

The administration sued Boston and Wu on Thursday over an ordinance that limits local police from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.

Wu responded that same day, “This unconstitutional attack on our city is not a surprise. Boston is a thriving community, the economic and cultural hub of New England, and the safest major city in the country—but this administration is intent on attacking our community to advance their own authoritarian agenda.”

Boston is not suffering from a crime spike. It reported its lowest homicide rate since 1957 last year, and other violent and property crimes are on a “downward trend.”

Bondi refused to let those facts get in the way of her talking point.

“Michelle Wu is one of the worst offenders in the entire country,” she told Hannity. “She says Boston is safe. It’s not.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pam-bondi-takes-aim-at-boston-citing-crimes-from-elsewhere

Rolling Stone: Trump Absurdly Blames Obama for ‘Giving’ Ukrainian Land to Russia

Trump met with Ukraine’s president and European leaders on Monday, but his mind is fixed on Vladimir Putin

President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders on Monday in a follow up to last week’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. While the back-to-back, high-stakes meetings between the warring leaders and their regional partners are aimed at finally bringing in an end to Russia’s war against Ukraine, Trump can’t seem to stop undermining the delicate negotiations by publicly parroting Kremlin talking points. 

In a Tuesday morning interview with Fox News, Trump falsely claimed that Putin and Russia had “gotten” Crimea “from Obama,” describing Russia’s annexation of the territory as a “real estate deal.” Crimea, a peninsula in the north of the Black Sea, was invaded and occupied by Russia in 2014. 

“The war started over NATO and Crimea and they wanted Crimea back,” Trump said. “That was given — not a shot fired —- by President Obama in perhaps the worst real estate deal I’ve ever seen.” 

“Crimea is the apple of Ukraine, it is so beautiful. And Obama gave it away. … He demanded they let it go, Russia took it like candy from a baby. It was really Obama’s, that was pure and simple Obama’s fault, what a terrible thing,” Trump added. 

In the same interview, Trump declared that it was “insulting” that Ukraine — which has now been invaded by Russia twice in little more than a decade — had sought to join NATO. “They asked for it and shouldn’t have asked for it. It was insulting,” Trump said. “They could have asked for other things — the other thing they wanted to get Crimea back.” 

Trump later insinuated that it was actually Ukraine that had instigated the current war against Russia, telling Fox and Friends that “you don’t take on a nation that is 10 times your size and military experts.” It was, of course, Russia that invaded Ukraine in February 2022, kicking off the war that has now raged for over three years. 

Trump rolled out the literal red carpet to receive Putin in Alaska on Friday, even granting the Russian authoritarian a ride in the presidential limousine — an  unprecedented honor rarely granted to foreign dignitaries, much less internationally wanted war criminals.  

Judging by Trump’s statements following the summit, Putin spent much of their private discussions stroking the president’s ego. On Friday, Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Putin had reassured him that it was actually widespread mail-in voter fraud that had cost him the 2020 election.  

“Vladimir Putin said something — one of the most interesting things — he said, ‘your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting,’” Trump recounted. “He said … ‘it’s impossible to have mail-in voting and have honest elections.” Days later, Trump announced that he would seek to eliminate mail-in voting at a national level, despite lacking the constitutional authority to make any such change to state voting laws.  

According to a Monday report from Axios, Trump was so eager to talk to Putin again that he interrupted his meeting with European leaders to speak to the Russian president. According to subsequent reporting from The New York Times, the call lasted around 40 minutes.

Trump apparently left his European counterparts to talk among themselves for the better part of an hour, telling Fox News that it “would be disrespectful to president Putin,” to make the call in their presence. 

“It was 1:00 in the morning in Russia,” Trump said. “But he picked it up very happily.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-parrots-russian-talking-points-zelensky-meeting-1235411130

Daily Express: Fox News abruptly ends Donald Trump’s call in after he rants about ‘loving couple’

Donald Trump called into Fox and Friends to discuss his summit with Vladimir Putin and his ongoing strategy in the Russo-Ukraine war, but he couldn’t resist talking about one host’s relationship

Fox News, known for its support of Donald Trump and happily accepting calls from the president during broadcasts, had to make a swift about-face during an episode of Fox and Friends after he repeatedly brought up Aisnley Earhardt’s off-screen relationship with Sean Hannity.

The president dialed into the Tuesday, August 19 episode of the show to discuss his ongoing strategy to try and bring an end to the Russo-Ukrainian war, after his summit with Vladimir Putin failed to deliver an immediate ceasefire, although he hailed the “great progress” that was made.

However, despite Earhardt being open about her unique relationship arrangement with fellow Fox News host Hannity, she and her co-hosts were left scrambling as Trump made her relationship a major focus of his call-in to the show. It comes after a lip exposed the 3-word promise that Trump whispered into Putin’s ear before their Alaska summit.

Covering a range of topics, from the war to his takeover of the Washington, D. C. police force last week, the president veered off on one of his infamous tangents, shifting the topic to focus solely on Earhardt and Hannity’s romance, reports the Irish Star.

And despite the hosts’ numerous attempts to steer him back on track, he continued to discuss it.

“A guy named Sean Hannity, he might take a very lovely young lady that he knows very, very well, to dinner in Washington, and they don’t have to–and she’s sitting right next to you by the way-I don’t want to get her in trouble, so I better explain exactly, we don’t want any secrets here, but that’s the greatest relationship,” he said as Lawrence Jones tried to interrupt.

Nevertheless, Trump persisted with his line of thinking despite Jones’ efforts to divert him from discussing Earhardt.

“Hey, this could be the most important thing I’ve said, but those two are great. Ainsley and Sean, great people, and when they go out to dinner, I don’t want to see them get mugged,” he continued.

“Now they can go out, they can hold hands, and then they can both walk down the street. They’re both superstars.”

He then strangely pondered about their respective salaries at the network before Jones managed to steer the conversation back to the conflict in Ukraine.

Yet, it proved to be only a brief reprieve. As the phone call concluded, the President once more referenced their romance, clearly making Earhardt feel uneasy.

“And Aisnley, I hope I didn’t get you in trouble with Sean,” he said, which earned her a reply in which she thanked him for the support.

“I’ll say it, you know, I like this, it’s a great couple, we love ’em,” he said again, as Earhardt let out an awkward chuckle, before the call was officially cut off. The incident was swiftly picked up on social media, with numerous users commenting and drawing comparisons to various awkward everyday situations.

“Like an embarrassing great grandparent at dinner-only it’s 8 am,” one user posted on X (formerly Twitter), while another remarked “The lesson…DON’T INVITE YOUR CRAZY UNCLE TO LUNCH,” and a third commented “it’s like when your dog won’t stop trying to hump your company and you have to put them on the back porch.”

Additional observers suggested the digression indicated he was either experiencing mental decline or focusing too heavily on trivial matters rather than his presidential duties-with some joking that he was attempting to divert attention from the failed Putin meeting.

“Dementia Don let it slip. Trump is clearly going through cognitive decline,” one individual stated.

“Why is he always paying attention to things that don’t matter…” one questioned, while another remarked “like all alpha macho men, Trump just loves him some celebrity gossip.

“His summit with Putin and meeting with Zelenskyy went so poorly he retreated to his safe space over at Faux Spews, then proceeded to show how nuts he is and even they couldn’t cover for it,” another user quipped.

Nevertheless, some noted that the President hadn’t actually revealed any confidential information, since the romance has been public knowledge, with the couple announcing their engagement in December.

“They’re engaged? I’m not sure he ‘outed’ them. Lol,” one social media user commented, while another chimed in with “I thought everybody knew,” and a third added “it’s gross and everything but didn’t everyone already know those two were fooling around? They haven’t exactly been keeping it a secret.”

It comes after Earhardt posted a candid photo as she shared an ultra-rare personal update.

https://www.the-express.com/entertainment/tv/180857/fox-news-donald-trump-cut-off

Raw Story: DOJ scrambling away from Stephen Miller’s comments on mass immigrant arrests: report

Department of Justice attorneys are attempting to put some distance between themselves and demands from Donald Trump’s White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller for ICE agents to come up with 3,000 immigrant arrests per day.

In May, Miller told Fox News personality Sean Hannity, “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day and President Trump is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every day,”

According to a report from Politico’s Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein, DOJ attorney Yaakov Roth was put on the spot over that number and told a judge the number came from “anonymous reports in the newspapers.”

The report notes that there is a growing “gulf” between what the White House wants and what DOJ can defend before skeptical judges who have serious questions about the sweeps that have all the appearances of racial profiling.

Politico is reporting, “The existence of the target has created particular complications in the case challenging the immigration sweeps in Los Angeles. The administration is fighting an order that a federal judge issued last month prohibiting ICE from conducting ‘roving’ immigration arrests based on broad criteria such as presence at a home improvement store or car wash.”

The report notes that, on Monday, Roth battled with judges but did concede, “… that such a quota, if it existed, could support claims that some arrests did not meet the legal standard.”

“In this instance, the chasm may be undermining the DOJ’s already strained credibility with judges,” Politico is reporting.

https://www.rawstory.com/stephen-miller-2673853490

Daily Beast: John Oliver Dismantles MAGA’s Best Defense of Trump Budget Bill

The late-night host argued why the Trump administration’s claims make no sense.

As the U.S. Senate continued to debate late into the night Sunday over President Donald J. Trump’s massive tax and spending bill, John Oliver poked massive holes in claims by the president and his Republican loyalists.

In Oliver’s monologue during his final episode of Last Week Tonight before his annual summer break, the Emmy-winning HBO host played clips of House Speaker Mike Johnson alleging on Meet The Press that the bill actually “strengthens Medicaid for the people who actually need it and deserve it,” a talking point echoed by, among others, Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Mitchell on Newsmax. Trump, for his part, said in a February interview with Sean Hannity while sitting alongside Elon Musk that: “Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched.”

“But there’s a few problems there,” Oliver said. “Starting with the fact that following through with a promise not to touch something has never exactly been one of Trump’s strong suits. Also the math just doesn’t support those claims.”

Oliver cited congressional budget analysis estimating more than 16 million Americans would become uninsured by 2034 should Congress pass Trump’s bill, and that rural hospitals and community services also would lose their funding as a result.

The Republican bill, which would still need to go through reconciliation procedures with the House should it pass the Senate, would force low-income Medicaid recipients to prove they’d worked, volunteered or attended school for 80 hours a month. Oliver cited a November 2024 report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, however, that found two-thirds of people on Medicaid already work, while most of the remainder are busy in school, functioning as family caretakers or living with a disability.

“And yet Republicans won’t stop painting lurid scenarios of Medicaid freeloaders,” Oliver said. 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/john-oliver-dismantles-magas-best-defense-of-trump-budget-bill

Alternate: ‘MAGA hates Fox News’: Trump goes on Truth Social rampage against ‘crooked’ network

President Donald Trump is known for watching Fox News constantly in the White House, but at times, he accuses the right-wing cable news outlet and its sister channel, Fox Business, of not supporting him enough. And in a Thursday morning, June 19 post on his Truth Social platform, Trump claimed that Fox News distorted the results of the 2024 presidential election.

“The Crooked FoxNews Polls got the Election WRONG, I won by much more than they said I would, and have been biased against me for years,” Trump posted. “They are always wrong and negative. It’s why MAGA HATES FoxNews, even though their anchors are GREAT. This has gone on for years, but they never change the incompetent polling company that does their work. Now a new FoxNews poll comes out this morning giving me a little more than 50% at the Border, and yet the Border is miraculously perfect, NOBODY WAS ABLE TO COME IN LAST MONTH.”

Trump continued, “60,000 people came in with Sleepy Joe in the same month last year. I hate FAKE pollsters, one of the Worst, but Fox will never change their discredited pollster!”

Definitely deranged!

https://www.alternet.org/trump-fox-news-truth-social

Latin Times: Former Fox News Favorite Declares Network a ‘Propaganda Hose’ Aimed at Manipulating ‘Elderly’ Viewers

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson is accusing the network he once called home of operating as a “propaganda hose” aimed at manipulating its older viewers into supporting war, including the latest U.S. entanglement in Iran.

Carlson, once one of Fox News’ most influential and highest-rated personalities, has increasingly broken from the Trump-aligned right in recent months. His departure from the network in 2023 marked the beginning of a shift, with Carlson growing more outspoken against U.S. foreign policy, particularly military involvement in the Middle East.

Appearing on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, Carlson condemned Fox News and its primetime personalities, most notably Sean Hannity, for cheerleading Israeli strikes on Iran and pushing for U.S. military involvement.

He called out what he described as the network’s deliberate effort to stir pro-war sentiment among “elderly” viewers.

“What they are doing is what they always do, which is just turning up the propaganda hose to full blast and just trying to knock elderly Fox viewers off their feet and make them subject to more wars,” Carlson said.

https://www.latintimes.com/former-fox-news-favorite-declares-network-propaganda-hose-aimed-manipulating-elderly-viewers-585175

DNYUZ: Opinion: How ICE’s L.A. Raids Spiraled Into the ‘Riot’ Trump Thirsted For

The Trump White House has been demanding many, many more deportations, but hasn’t been getting enough of the “worst of the worst” it is supposedly targeting.

So, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) resolved to target the more abundant “not so bad.”

Going after whatever murderers and rapists actually did cross the southern border was one thing most people can applaud. Going after people who are just seeking to make an honest living was sure to trigger protests.

But Donald Trump always welcomes any opportunity to justify his fearmongering about chaos in the streets—and what better place than a deep-blue state like California, which is headed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom (whom Trump always calls Newscum)?

Even relatively minor disturbances could be hyped into a pretext for Trump to deploy active-duty military, as he wanted to do when Black Lives Matter staged protests outside the White House during his first term. He was dissuaded from doing so in 2020 by the combined objections of Attorney General William Barr and Defense Secretary Mark Esper, but always expressed regret about not sending in troops—even though the peaceful D.C. protesters were cleared with unnecessary brutality by federal law enforcement officers.

Trump is now getting another chance, this time with an attorney general and secretary of defense who only know to utter variations of, “Yes, Sir! Only you can save the nation, and thereby save civilization!”

A number of white ICE vehicles that exited the area were pelted with rocks by protesters. Video of that prompted Trump’s new FBI director to further hype the disorder by putting a rock-thrower on the agency’s 10 Most Wanted List.

Rock thrower wanted? Dead or alive? LOL!!!

On Saturday, Trump issued an executive order deploying a state’s national guard without the governor’s approval, which has not been done in more than half a century. Trump ignored Newsom’s warning that it would only inflame the situation. Trump said he was sending in 2,000 California guardsmen and women, but only around 300 were immediately dispatched. Trump went online to declare that he and his team had saved the day.

“A once great American City, Los Angeles, has been invaded and occupied by Illegal Aliens and Criminals,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Now violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming and attacking our Federal Agents to try and stop our deportation operations — But these lawless riots only strengthen our resolve. I am directing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Attorney General Pam Bondi, in coordination with all other relevant Departments and Agencies, to take all such action necessary to liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion, and put an end to these Migrant riots. Order will be restored.”

“We made a great decision in sending the National Guard to deal with the violent, instigated riots in California,” Trump said. “If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated.”

He went on, insisting “Newscum” and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass should be saying, “THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP, YOU ARE SO WONDERFUL. WE WOULD BE NOTHING WITHOUT YOU, SIR.’”

The guy is off in Lala Land!

A senior law enforcement source who had dealt firsthand with Trump suggested to the Daily Beast that the commander–in-chief was excited by the very possibility of being able to send active-duty military against protesters.

“That’s what gives him a boner,” the source said.

The Wrap: Lawrence O’Donnell Says Trump Is ‘Famously Too Stupid’ to Keep His Stories Straight on Qatari Jet Gift | Video

Lawrence O’Donnell mocked Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying that the president is “famously too stupid” to present a convincing argument of why he’s accepting a $400 million jet from Qatar.

“The first line of Donald Trump’s exclamation-point defense of accepting that plane tonight is: ‘The Boeing 747 is being given to the United States Air Force, Department of Defense, not to me!,'” O’Donnell noted, quoting the president’s post on Truth Social.

He then played a clip of Trump telling Fox News host Sean Hannity that he was accepting the gift personally and not on behalf of the Air Force, using the phrase, “Why wouldn’t I accept the gift?”

“He didn’t say anything about the Air Force accepting a gift there. [He said], Why shouldn’t I accept a gift?'”

O’Donnell went on to say, “Donald Trump is, of course, famously too stupid to keep his conspiracy story straight. The man is just too stupid to observe the theory of the conspiracy and say to Sean Hannity, ‘My attitude is, why shouldn’t the Air Force accept a gift?'”

https://www.thewrap.com/lawrence-odonnell-donald-trump-too-stupid-qatari-jet-video