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Elon Musk

Fake Video Of Trump Sucking Musk's Toes Screened At HUD Headquarters

Staffers at the Department of Housing and Urban Development were welcomed to work on Monday with what appears to be an AI-generated video of President Donald Trump kissing and rubbing “first buddy” Elon Musk’s feet.

According to HuffPost and other outlets, the video played on a five-minute loop on “TVs across the building” while employees attempted to unplug the screens.

The clip—which is hard to watch—showed a photo-realist rendering of Trump sucking on Musk’s toes, with a text overlay that read, “LONG LIVE THE REAL KING”—a reference to both Musk’s growing influence in the Trump administration and the president describing himself as a “king” in a Truth Social post last week.

In a statement to HuffPost, HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett called the stunt “another waste of taxpayer dollars and resources” and said “appropriate action will be taken for all involved.”

While HUD quickly moved to scrap the videos from the agency’s buildings, copies of the clip were shared far and wide on social media.

“Someone apparently hacked the televisions at HUD today,” Jeff Stein, a reporter for The Washington Post, wrote on Bluesky.

Someone apparently hacked the televisions at HUD today -->

[image or embed]

— Jeff Stein (@jeffstein.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 2:38 PM

So far, no one has taken credit for the trick, but the incident comes after the Trump administration proposed cutting HUD’s workforce nearly in half—from some 8,300 employees to just over 4,000. According to an internal memo obtained by The Washington Post, many of the projected cuts will be at the Federal Housing Administration, one of the largest mortgage insurers in the world.

As The Post noted, the layoffs will likely further imperil the fragile U.S. housing and mortgage markets. FHA helps those “with lower credit scores, first-time home buyers, or those who can afford only small down payments” to buy their first home, per the outlet.

These FHA staffers won’t be the only ones left without a job, though. Employees working on issues related to disaster recovery, rental subsidies, and housing discrimination investigations will also get cut, according to the Associated Press.

The AI video is an interesting wrinkle in the cost-cutting agenda of the Department of Government Efficiency, the Musk-run agency that is not an official government department but has been spearheading these layoffs. Amid a sharp drop in federal employees’ morale, Musk emailed all federal workers over the weekend asking them to email him five things they worked on this past week or risk getting fired.

In recent weeks, though, there’s been increased criticism regarding Musk’s close relationship with the president. During a joint interview on Fox News, Musk dominated Trump, constantly interrupting or talking over the president. Before that, Musk addressed reporters in the Oval Office as the president signed an executive order compelling federal agencies to collaborate with DOGE.

Of course, neither Musk nor Trump has acknowledged the alleged hack at HUD, but the image to the rest of the world is a striking one: It suggests Trump is merely a figurehead while an unelected mega-billionaire wields the reins.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Four Top Adams Deputies Resign Amid Erupting Mayoral Scandal

Four Top Adams Deputies Resign Amid Erupting Mayoral Scandal

Four top deputies for embattled New York City Mayor Eric Adams have resigned, according to a statement the mayor issued on Monday.

“I am disappointed to see them go, but given the current challenges, I understand their decision and wish them nothing but success in the future,” Adams said in a statement shared with CNN.

According to the outlet, the officials leaving the mayor’s office are Meera Joshi, deputy mayor for operations; Chauncey Parker, deputy mayor for public safety; Maria Torres-Springer, who served as first deputy mayor; and Anne Williams-Isom, the deputy mayor for health and human services.

“Due to the extraordinary events of the last few weeks and to stay faithful to the oaths we swore to New Yorkers and our families, we have come to the difficult decision to step down from our roles,” read a joint statement from Joshi, Torres-Springer, and Williams-Isom, which was obtained by The New York Times.

They added, “While our time in this administration will come to a close, our support for the incredible public servants across the administration with whom we have stood shoulder to shoulder and our championing of this great city and all it stands for will never cease.”

The resignations come as President Donald Trump’s Justice Department has moved to dismiss corruption charges against Adams, apparently in exchange for his cooperation on Trump’s hard-line anti-immigration agenda.

Adams denied the allegations of a quid pro quo, as has Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan. But Adams is already working in tandem with Trump’s team: Following a closed-door meeting with Homan on Thursday, Adams agreed to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to work at the Rikers Island jail complex.

According to the Times, the deputy mayors who left Adams’ office felt increasingly uneasy about working for a man who was putting his personal interests over those of the city he leads. Politico reported on Friday that most of the departing staff members met with Adams and told him he was an insufficient leader. Adams apparently begged the deputies to stick around, at least through March, but they refused.

These aren’t the only officials who have opted to quit rather than be entangled with Adams’ mess. Late last week, six senior Justice Department officials, including the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, resigned in protest over orders to drop the corruption charges against Adams.

One of the resigning federal attorneys, Danielle Sassoon, whom Trump had appointed as a U.S. attorney on an interim basis, wrote in a scathing letter to newly minted Attorney General Pam Bondi that the administration’s move to dismiss Adams’s case amounted to a quid pro quo to help Trump on immigration-related matters.

Adams, a Democrat (at least for now), has faced increased pressure to resign, though he said over the weekend that he has no plans to. Meanwhile, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, is facing calls to remove Adams from office.

The mayor was under federal indictment and charged with bribery and campaign finance violations, but earlier this month, the Justice Department moved to dismiss the case. The president’s leniency toward Adams came after the mayor started playing friendly with the right. Adams has not only ripped into Democrats’ immigration policies but also accused the Democratic Party of leaving him.

“People often say, ‘Well, you know, you don’t sound like a Democrat, and you know, you seemed to have left the party,’” Adams said in an interview with former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson. “No, the party left me, and it left working-class people.”

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Steve Bannon

Pleading Guilty To Felony Fraud, Bannon Escapes Prison, Vows Revenge

Steve Bannon, a longtime adviser to President Donald Trump and ally of white nationalists, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a fraud charge related to duping donors who gave to his “We Build the Wall” fundraising effort.

In exchange for the guilty plea in New York state criminal court, Bannon agreed to a three-year conditional discharge and waived his right to appeal. This means he will not receive any prison time, assuming he does not re-offend.

But he didn’t get off completely scot-free: Bannon will not be allowed to serve as an officer or director of a charity or any charitable organization in New York, or any fundraising or nonprofit organization in New York. He will also not be allowed to receive or hold assets for any charitable organizations, NBC News reports.

If he violates any terms of the deal, he could face between 1 ⅓ to 4 years behind bars, according to his plea deal.

“This resolution achieves our primary goal: to protect New York’s charities and New Yorkers’ charitable giving from fraud,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement toUSA Today and other outlets, including NBC News.

Bannon was accused of defrauding New Yorkers who donated to “We Build the Wall,” an online fundraiser aimed at fulfilling a pet project of Trump’s during his first term in office. But the indictment alleged that Bannon and others had swindled donors who contributed more than $15 million for the 2019 alleged fundraising project.

While Bannon had said that all of the donations would go toward the construction of a southern border wall, authorities said Bannon redirected the funds elsewhere. In fact, Bannon had secretly funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to the group’s president, Brian Kolfage, through third-party entities, prosecutors said.

According to ABC News, Kolfage was paid $100,000 upfront and received monthly payments of about $20,000.

Kolfage and another man involved with the project, Andrew Badolato, previously pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2022 and were sentenced to prison.

The “War Room” podcast host was first indicted in 2022 on six charges of money laundering, conspiracy, and fraud. The indictment from Bragg’s office alleged that Bannon orchestrated a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud those who donated to his “We Build the Wall” crowdfunding campaign. The trial was set to begin next month.

Bannon had faced five felony counts, including money laundering and conspiracy charges, and faced a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison on the most serious charge.

The Trump ally wasn’t exactly repentant for his actions. In fact, after the hearing, he said he planned to call on Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute New York Attorney General Letitia James and to investigate Bragg, both of whom have successfully challenged Trump in court.

James, Bannon said, is an “existential threat to the Trump administration.”

This is not Bannon’s first time running afoul of the law. He spent four months in jail in 2024 after he was found guilty of contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before a House select committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021.

So far, Bannon, who served as Trump’s chief strategist for just seven months during his first term, hasn’t been brought into the second administration. He currently spends a lot of time raging about Elon Musk.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Elon Musk

New Polls: America Rejects Musk And His 'DOGE' Exploits

Much of the American public is souring on billionaire Elon Musk and the heavy influence he appears to wield over the federal government.

Fifty-two percent of registered voters have an unfavorable view of Musk, while just 39 percent view him favorably, according to new data from the polling firm Civiqs. That includes a stark gender divide: A little under half of male voters (45 percent) have a favorable view of Musk compared with 57 percent of female voters who view him unfavorably.

More than three-quarters (79 percent) of Republicans held the X owner in high regard, while 95 percent of Democrats aren’t fans. Independents lean toward Democrats’ opinion too, with 52 percent having an unfavorable view of Musk and only 36 percent having a favorable view.

However, there was a time when Musk wasn’t nearly as much in the public eye and Americans had a relatively positive view of him. But turning X into a far-right echo chamber and cozying up to President Donald Trump seems to have sullied his image. In the span of a few months, Musk dunked on a recent artificial intelligence venture Trump announced and helped defeat a government spending bill in Congress. You’d think this would be enough to keep him busy, but Musk also managed to piss off some of Trump’s biggest allies, including former adviser Steve Bannon, who seems to really despise him.

“He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy,” Bannon said of Musk in January. “I made it my personal thing to take this guy down.”

A January survey from The Associated Press/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows how much Musk’s recent moves have harmed his public perception. According to the poll, more than half of Americans (52 percent) had an unfavorable opinion of Musk, compared with 36 percent who viewed him favorably, putting him 16 points underwater. Compare that to a December survey from the same pollster that showed Musk’s favorability only 10 points underwater.

Other recent polls back this up:

  • A Wall Street Journal poll had Musk’s favorability 11 points underwater (40 percent favorable, 51 percent unfavorable).
  • A Marist College poll for NPR and PBS News found Musk 9 points underwater (37 percent favorable, 46 percent unfavorable) among registered voters.
  • Then there’s a Quinnipiac University poll from December that had Musk 5 points underwater (39 percent favorable, 44 percent unfavorable). Compare that with a Quinnipiac survey conducted two years prior, in December 2022, which showed Musk being slightly above water (36 percent favorable, 33 percent unfavorable).

Perhaps Americans dislike Musk because he’s linked to Trump, who is hellbent on pushing through unpopular things like tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico.

Then again, they also might not like Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, an advisory commission with no direct power over the federal government. It makes sense that Americans are on edge about Musk’s well-publicized promises to slash federal spending. After all, a Data for Progress poll for the Progressive Change Institute shows most likely voters are very concerned about DOGE’s threat to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, veteran’s health care programs, and food assistance for low-income families.

On top of that, Musk seems to wield a lot of governmental power for someone who was never elected to public office. And several polls show that people don’t like how much influence he seems to have over Trump and Republicans.

The December survey from Quinnipiac also showed that 53 percent of voters disapprove of Musk’s major role in the Trump administration. But there’s a partisan split. While 90 percent of Democrats are opposed to his role in the administration, 81 percent of Republicans approve of it. (Independents are largely against Musk’s role as well, with 57 percent disapproving.)

Other polls have found similar results. For instance, The Wall Street Journal’s poll found that half of voters think it’s a bad idea for Musk to advise Trump on spending bills and other matters, while just 39 percent say it’s a good idea for him to do so.

What’s more, Data for Progress found that 51 percent of likely voters believe Musk will use DOGE to his own benefit instead of making the government more efficient. While Democrats (74 percent) were more likely than independent or third-party voters (49 percent) to think this, Republicans expressed concerns too. An eyebrow-raising 29 percent of Republicans agree that Musk will use DOGE to “redirect more government resources towards himself and weaponize the federal government to undermine his business rivals.”

These combined data points suggest that the political middle is over Musk. And even some who don’t yet despise him are wary of what he’ll do as Trump’s “first buddy.”

And for Trump, Musk might become a big liability if the base turns on him even more than they already have.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

After 400 Years, Trump Says He Wants To Rename Gulf Of Mexico

After 400 Years, Trump Says He Wants To Rename Gulf Of Mexico

President-elect Donald Trump announced plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico to “the Gulf of America” as part of his freewheeling, often wild speech at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday.

“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” Trump said. “What a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate. It’s appropriate. And Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country.”

Trump’s proposal has already picked-up steam among his most faithful allies in Washington, D.C. At some point during Trump’s hourlong speech, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene announced that she’ll introduce a bill to officially rename the Gulf of Mexico.

“President Trump’s second term is off to a GREAT start,” she posted to X.

Trump’s most recent comments about Mexico highlight his continued focus on the country as he prepares to begin his second term in the White House. By proposing a name change, in addition to harping on his vanity projects to acquire Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal, the president-elect seems to be reasserting his plans for U.S. sovereignty across the globe.

He wouldn’t be the first to toy with renaming the Gulf of Mexico, however. According to ABC News, former Mississippi state Rep. Steve Holland, a Democrat, proposed a bill in 2012 that would’ve renamed the gulf “the Gulf of America.”

Holland later admitted, however, that he was just kidding and introduced the legislation as a joke to mock his Republican colleagues for being anti-immigrant.

Trump, who is known for his racist and xenophobic remarks toward Mexicans, didn’t seem to be joking. This is despite the fact that the name “the Gulf of Mexico” actually predated the United States. As the St. Augustine Record noted, the name appears on maps as far back as the 16th century.

Trump’s comments made waves, in part, because he’s currently in an ongoing—and very public—rift with Mexico’s leadership including its president, Claudia Sheinbaum. Despite the two sharing a “wonderful” phone call in late November, they previously butted heads after Trump falsely claimed that Sheinbaum promised to close her country’s northern border with the United States. (Sheinbaum has not publicly responded to Trump’s latest remarks.)

Indeed, any goodwill between Trump and Sheinbaum might be lost after Tuesday’s speech. In the same tirade, he denounced Mexico as a “very dangerous place.”

“We have a massive deficit with Mexico,” Trump said. “We help Mexico a lot. They’re essentially run by the cartels, can’t let that happen. Mexico’s really in trouble, a lot of trouble. Very dangerous place.”

Trump has complained about the nation’s trade deficit with both Mexico and China. During his most recent campaign run, he raised concerns about the issue and has since promised to levy tariffs across the board, including a 25 percent tariff on imports from Mexico.

Trump has a long history of making false, and oftentimes broad, pronouncements about Mexico’s management of its side of the border. But his comments disparaging Mexico on Tuesday were particularly notable, in part, because the Mar-a-Lago news conference was intended to share what was billed as good news.

Before going off-script, Trump announced a $20 billion investment in data centers in the U.S. by Emirati billionaire Hussain Sajwani.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Laura Loomer

Loomer Trashes Musk Again -- And She's Right

Far-right activist and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer just said what we’ve all been thinking: Elon Musk wields far too much power in the MAGA world—and it’s getting tiresome.

Appearing on Steve Bannon’s right-wing podcast “War Room,” Loomer, a racist piece of work in her own right, torched the billionaire CEO as a “welfare queen” and technocrat who has outsized influence in the U.S. political sphere due to his burgeoning relationship with President-elect Donald Trump.

Loomer also called Musk a “stage 5 clinger,” an apparent reference to how Musk continues to relentlessly “slither” around Mar-a-Lago.

“I don’t think it’s acceptable for billionaires to have this much power and this much access,” she said. “What is it going to mean for the future of our country, our national security, and the incoming Trump administration if we have a bunch of technocrats, who are also essentially welfare queens because their companies are receiving government subsidies, and they want to take over our defense industry?”

Loomer’s comments are the latest escalation in the civil war between Trump’s billionaire tech bros, Musk and fellow DOGE dork Vivek Ramaswamy, and the MAGA faithful, such as Bannon and Loomer. The rift began when Musk pushed back on attacks on H-1B visas, which are often awarded to highly skilled immigrant workers.

Bannon, for his part, has blasted the visas as a “scam” that he falsely claims “[take] American jobs and [bring] over what essentially become indentured servants at lower wages.”

He’s also referred to Musk as “sociopathic” and said that American workers are owed “reparations” for the jobs that have allegedly been stolen by immigrants.

The infighting between the two groups has gotten rather nasty, as Loomer has used her five seconds of fame to launch attacks on Indian immigrants, who she called “third world invaders.” In the same sentence, she managed to lavish praise on the “white Europeans” who she claims built the nation.

While Trump has publicly sided with Musk in the debate, telling the New York Post that he supports the H-1B visa program, that hasn’t stopped certain MAGA allies from ripping into it—and anyone who supports it.

During a Monday appearance on former Fox News host Eric Bolling’s Newsmax show, Loomer suggested that some Republicans don’t want to cross Musk because he’s rich. Musk spent more than a quarter-billion dollars to help Trump win his second term as president.

“This is the problem when you allow for a billionaire to make a $200 million donation and so maybe we really do need to have campaign finance regulations in this country,” she said.

Of Trump, Loomer said that she “love[s]” him, but worried his recent backing of Musk was due to the billionaire’s aid in his re-election efforts.

“It sounds like people are scared of crossing the king, the king of the world, Elon Musk, the monarch,” she said.

It’s annoying that valid criticism of Musk is coming from a far-right character known for her virulent racism and support of conspiracy theories, but thankfully she’s not the only person to hit Musk in recent days.

During his New Year’s address, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz not-so-subtly admonished the billionaire after he tried to tip the scales in Germany’s snap election, which will take place on February 23. His comments came shortly after Musk reiterated his support for Germany’s right-wing, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party.

“You, the citizens, decide what happens in Germany,” Scholz said. “It’s not up to the owners of social media.”

Musk already has immense influence over U.S. politics, but it’s unclear whether he can take his political meddling to the international level. It’s also unclear who will win this MAGA war, but it seems safe to say that the interpersonal chaos that has rocked Trump’s party for years will continue into the new year.

Maybe we can continue this trend of dunking on Musk in 2025?

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

John Fetterman Victory Speech

What Is Behind John Fetterman's Rightward Pivot?

On Thursday, Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman became the first Senate Democrat to meet with Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s problematic pick to lead the Department of Defense. Oddly, Fetterman hasn’t ruled out supporting Hegseth, whose own mother once wrote him an angry email calling him an abuser of women. (She now says she doesn’t hold the same view of her son.)

“He could theoretically become the head of the Defense Department,” Fetterman told Politico in explaining his logic. “I've discovered in my time in D.C. that that’s important. And, ‘Are you having a conversation with someone?’ I don’t know why that’s shocking.”

Fetterman also said he’s aware of “some” allegations against Hegseth. Those include, but are not limited to, Hegseth allegedly raping a woman in 2017—Hegseth said the sex was consensual—and supposedly drinking on the job. But that hasn’t stopped the Pennsylvania senator from being open to joining Republicans in confirming the Fox News host.

Fetterman said he’s not sure why it’d be “controversial” to meet with Hegseth—and even suggested the two might find common ground on some issues. And on its own, meeting with the likely next defense secretary may not be a strange thing. But that’s not the only eyebrow-raising action Fetterman has taken recently.

On Wednesday, Fetterman apparently became the first Democratic senator to join Truth Social, Trump’s social media platform. And in his debut post, he made the surprising call to pardon Trump in his New York hush money case.

Fetterman also said he was a “hard YES” on confirming Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York as the next ambassador to the United Nations.

Stefanik isn’t the first Trump Cabinet pick that Fetterman has voiced his support for. In November, he said he would vote to confirm Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida as the next secretary of state.

Once a self-described progressive, Fetterman has pivoted to the right since winning his 2022 Senate election. But backing Trump’s Cabinet picks isn’t the first time the senator has found himself on the outs with the progressive movement. He’s one of many Democrats to make stringently pro-Israel statements during its ongoing war in Gaza. In that, he found allies in the Democratic Party, such as New York Rep. Ritchie Torres.

However, Fetterman is making the case that he hasn’t abandoned progressivism—but that the movement dumped him.

“I didn’t leave the label, it left me on that,” Fetterman said in a June interview with comedian Bill Maher.

But a review of his history with the label makes his change appear more cynical in nature. After all, the senator happily embraced the label for years and courted the endorsement of independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, when Fetterman successfully ran to be Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor. Now, though, Fetterman seems more keen to taunt progressivism than to embrace it.

It’s a convenient scapegoat for Fetterman to blame the left for his shift to the right. It keeps his name in the limelight while making him seem to be some sort of brave truth-teller who isn’t afraid to stand up to his own party.

However, he might find it hard to have it both ways, with both parties, especially during a time when center-left and establishment Democrats are coming under fire for frequently losing elections and major policy fights.

At least for now, Fetterman hasn’t made clear what his end goal is in fighting his own party’s interests. But in the short-term, he is apparently trying to fill the void of the non-Republican rabble-rouser now that independent Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are leaving.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Former Aides Say Tulsi Gabbard Was Duped By Kremlin Propaganda

Former Aides Say Tulsi Gabbard Was Duped By Kremlin Propaganda

Tulsi Gabbard, the onetime Democrat who is Donald Trump’s pick to be the country’s next director of national intelligence, was a faithful consumer of Kremlin-controlled media, three of her former congressional aides told ABC News.

According to ABC’s report, the aides said that the failed presidential candidate regularly read and shared stories from RT—a state-run media outlet formerly known as Russia Today—even after being told that it wasn’t a credible news source. Gabbard’s former staffers suggested that they didn’t buy some claims from Democrats that their former boss is a “Russian asset.” But they do believe she’s become a staunch advocate for one of the United States’ chief adversaries thanks to her routine consumption of pro-Russia propaganda.

It’s unclear just how much consuming news from these outlets shaped Gabbard’s worldview. In fact, her former aides said that Gabbard read news from a plethora of outlets, ranging from stories peddled by far left factions to articles from extreme-right sources. But Gabbard’s views on Russian aggression in Europe, specifically, have become increasingly eyebrow-raising since her days as a Democratic House member representing Hawaii.

The aides provided ABC News with an internal memo that Gabbard sent to staff in 2017, for instance, which showed her extending unwarranted sympathy to the Kremlin. Among many other damning things, the former Bernie Sanders loyalist-turned-MAGA apologist complained about the United States’ “hostility toward Putin” and bemoaned the fact that “there isn’t any guarantee to Put that we won’t try to overthrow Russia’s government.”

“In fact, I’m pretty sure there are American politicians who would love to do that,” she added.

These fresh allegations against Gabbard have heightened some Democrats’ fears about her securing a spot in Trump’s Cabinet. Ivo Daalder, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO during the Obama administration, told ABC News that the thoughts outlined in Gabbard’s 2017 memo were “basically the Russian playbook.” He also expressed anxiety that she could soon be charged with overseeing America’s most sensitive intelligence assets.

Her sympathy toward the Kremlin only grew after 2017. During her unsuccessful presidential run in 2020, Gabbard criticized America’s involvement in Syria’s civil war as a “regime change war” on President Bashar Assad, a key Russian ally. And in 2022, Gabbard defended Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine and went so far as to blame the United States and NATO for provoking the war by ignoring Russia’s security concerns.

And she didn’t stop there. In October, Gabbard baselessly suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris was the main instigator of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.

Gabbard’s pro-Russia takes have not gone unnoticed by the senators who will determine whether she earns a spot in the Trump administration. Even before ABC News’ bombshell report, some Republicans indicated that they were nervous about Gabbard’s worrisome positions on foreign policy issues, as well as her promotion of Russian propaganda.

“Behind closed doors, people think she might be compromised. Like it’s not hyperbole,” one Republican Senate aide told The Hill. “There are members of our conference who think she’s a [Russian] asset.”

These latest revelations certainly aren’t good news for Trump, who has already had two of his nominees drop out (see: Matt Gaetz and Chad Chronister, his picks to head up the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration).

The good news for Gabbard, at least for now, is that another one of Trump’s potential appointees, defense secretary nominee and Fox News host Pete Hegseth, is now in the hot seat for a series of scandalous revelations and accusations about his own past. That means Gabbard’s troublesome views and actions have flown mostly under the radar.

But who knows how long that will last.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

‘Big Announcement’ Coming From Beto O’Rourke?

‘Big Announcement’ Coming From Beto O’Rourke?

Reprinted with permission from The Texas Tribune. 

All signs indicate Beto O’Rourke will run for president in 2020.

But the former congressman remained coy on Saturday during a question-and-answer session at the SXSW Film Festival, where he dodged an inquiry as to whether he would soon join an already crowded Democratic field.

Still, it would seem the former congressman is set to make an announcement sooner rather than later.

During a two-hour screening of a documentary titled Running with Beto that chronicles O’Rourke’s failed U.S. Senate bid, his camp sent an email to supporters inviting them to be the “first to hear Beto’s big announcement.”

“There’s been an outpouring of speculation, excitement, and support from people across the country — everyone eagerly waiting for the news,” the email said. “Many of us are crossing our fingers and hoping that Beto has decided to run.”

It continued: “And now I’m ready for us to bring our movement to the rest of the country. It’s the exact kind of campaign that America needs right now, and it’s why so many of us are hoping that Beto has decided to launch a campaign for President of the United States.”

O’Rourke’s name was thrown in the ring as a potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidate after his closer-than-expected loss last year to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). At a separate, post-screening question-and-answer session with reporters the former congressman said that he wanted to make sure the announcement regarding his 2020 plans was done “the right way.”

He said he wanted to be sure “I tell everyone at the same time, adding that “I’ve got to be on the timeline that works for my family and for the country so that’s the timeline we’re on.”

The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.