More: Business leaders can secure a one-on-one meeting with the president at Mar-a-Lago for $5 million, according to sources with direct knowledge of the meetings. At a so-called candlelight dinner held as recently as this past Saturday, prospective Mar-a-Lago guests were asked to spend $1 million to reserve a seat, according to an invitation obtained by WIRED.

"You are invited to a candlelight dinner featuring special guest President Donald J. Trump," the invitation reads, under a "MAGA INC." header. MAGA Inc., or Make America Great Again Inc., is a super PAC that supported Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. "Additional details provided upon RSVP. RSVPs will be accommodated on a first come, first serve basis. Space is very limited. $1,000,000 per person."

Invitees were asked to RSVP to Meredith O'Rourke, who served as national finance director and senior adviser at Donald J. Trump for President 2024, a campaign committee, and who is the owner of The O'Rourke Group, which O'Rourke describes on her LinkedIn page as a "Republican political fundraiser." Invitees were also directed to email Abby Mathis, the finance coordinator at MAGA Inc. Mathis was previously a staff assistant for Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama"a former Auburn University football coach"and also served as an intern at the White House office of the staff secretary, according to LegiStorm, a research organization that posts information on politicians and their staffers.

"I can't recall a sitting president in the first weeks of his administration asking for millions of dollars in fundraising," says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. "The concern is less about fundraising and more about access and influence ... People hoping to get favorable treatment view it in their interest to donate money to Trump."

"Part of what is worrying," Moynihan adds, "is the lack of ethical guardrails in the current Trump administration, where there doesn't seem to be a clear line between Trump's businesses and the presidency."

Are we great yet, Republicans? Or do we need to bring back leaded gas to go a long with our sh!+ filled water?

Democrats are spineless. They'd rather sit back and watch Trump tear up the constitution than dare to speak up.

The parties are not the same but they both need to be abolished.

Recession is optimistic. A second Greater Depression is my guess.

Measles is one of the most contagious diseases we know of. Worse than flu, small pox, whooping cough and six times more contagious than ebola.

You're wasting your time, Laura, cowardly little boyaz doesn't understand what words like progressive mean. They're just pejoratives to him.

Are the ICEholes not proud of the work they do?

If you're terrified of your identity being discovered you need to find a new job.

As someone from NC I'll just quote you from a different thread, Zed.

1) I didn't vote for that bastard, Trump. A lot of us didn't.

2) I am sorry that this wasn't enough. If it's any consolation, the people who support Trump are already paying through their noses.

Stand your ground.

If they do something like this expect it to happen just before the midterms. They will have time not only to destroy the economy but then also send out relief checks to seem heroic to the simpletons who vote red.

I've got a friend who is a groundskeeper at a big VA facility. He had four emails from different people in his chain of command demanding he reply to Elon's email by COB today.

The party of law and order.

Those bounties may be the only way many(most?) people in that state are able to eat and pay rent once King Donald and President Musk pull the federal funds keeping that state afloat.

Unfortunately the Dems are absolutely spineless and will never do it.

More: "Hey, John, what's this all about? What's this a tour of?" Mr Trump reportedly asked John Kelly, his then-chief of staff, when they took a private tour in 2017 of the USS Arizona Memorial, a ship commemorating the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during the Second World War.

"Trump had heard the phrase 'Pearl Harbor' and appeared to understand that he was visiting the scene of a historic battle, but he did not seem to know much else," write the authors, who quote a former White House adviser concluding the US president was "dangerously uninformed".

During a meeting with Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister's "eyes bulged out in surprise", the Washington Post reporters claim, when Mr Trump told him: "It's not like you've got China on your border."

China and India in fact share more than 2,000 miles of common border.

Mr Modi's expression "shifted from shock and concern to resignation", with aides telling the authors the Indians "took a step back" in their diplomatic relations with the US following the meeting.

We'll be banning mRNA vaccines here shortly. Thanks RFK!!

I'm shocked, SHOCKED! /s

Now they're good cops.

#28,

Yep. Biden slapped even more sanctions on their oil exports and on the ships they use to carry that oil right before he left office and that oil was the only thing keeping their economy afloat. Russia wants sanction relief before they ever start talking about Ukraine. Trump, naturally, is chomping at the bit to give it to them.

Guess they missed the first time Hanks played the character in a previous black jeopardy sketch. It was probably the most humanizing portrayal of a MAGAt ever on TV.

More: "That was a direct assault on European democracy," alleged a German politician.

"It's very clear now, Europe is alone," confessed a senior diplomat.

The reporter asked the man if he now sees the United States as an adversary and he replied, "Yes."

Gideon Rachman, who was on hand in Munich for the outlet, wrote that the only thing that could considered positive was the allegation it was "puerile bulls---." However, he said it was ignored because it was "aimed at a US audience."

More: "He holds that position as a non-career Special Government Employee," Fisher wrote. "In that job, Mr. Musk is a Senior Advisor to the President."

The Justice Department defines a special government employee as "anyone who works, or is expected to work, for the government for 130 days or less in a 365-day period."

Fisher said it's not unusual for special government employees to advise the president, citing the example of Anita Dunn, who served as a senior adviser to former President Joe Biden.

"In his role as a Senior Advisor to the President, Mr. Musk has no greater authority than other senior White House advisors," Fisher said. "Like other senior White House advisors, Mr. Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself. Mr. Musk can only advise the President and communicate the President's directives."

Fisher's declaration seems in conflict with Trump's previous statement that Musk leads DOGE. Trump has touted the cost-cutting operation, claiming it has identified "has found massive amounts of FRAUD, WASTE, INCOMPETENCE, AND ABUSE" within the government.

The filing came in response to a lawsuit by several Democratic state attorneys general, accusing Trump of illegally delegating executive powers to Musk in violation of the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

"Mr. Musk does not occupy an office of the United States and has not had his
nomination for an office confirmed by the Senate. His officer-level actions are thus unconstitutional," the lawsuit states.

Still, Trump has shown no signs of seeking to restrict Musk or DOGE.

More: The pervasive and nitpicky control of language is a crucial, but far from the sole, component of the woke-right movement. Like its antithesis on the left, the woke right places identity grievance, ethnic consciousness, and tribal striving at the center of its behavior and thought. One of the best descriptions I can find of it comes from Kevin DeYoung, a pastor and seminary professor, in a 2022 article called "The Rise of Right-Wing Wokeism." DeYoung, reviewing a book on Christian nationalism in The Gospel Coalition, argues that the book's "apocalyptic vision"for all of its vitriol toward the secular elites"borrows liberally from the playbook of the left." It "redefines the nature of oppression as psychological oppression" and tells white and male right-wing Americans that they are the country's real victims. But "the world is out to get you, and people out there hate you," DeYoung warns, "is not a message that will ultimately help white men or any other group that considers themselves oppressed."

Another hallmark of wokeness is an overriding impulse to contest and revise the historical record in service of contemporary debates. The New York Times' "1619 Project," which reimagined this nation's founding, was emblematic of this trend from the left. But similar attempts are happening on the right. Last summer, the amateur historian Darryl Cooper caused an uproar when he made the case, on Tucker Carlson's podcast, that Winston Churchill was the real villain of World War II.

The compelled politesse of the left has been swapped out for the reflexive and gratuitous disrespect of the right.

Speaking of falsifying reality: The Trump administration seems to be devoting a remarkable amount of energy toward making sure people call the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America." In the White House press room last week, the administration went so far as to eject Associated Press reporters because the publication refused to alter its stylebook to comply with the change. "I was very up front in my briefing on Day 1 that if we feel that there are lies being pushed by outlets in this room, we are going to hold those lies accountable," the White House press secretary said. "And it is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America." European exploration records have referred to El Golfo de Mxico since the 16th century.

Baldwin Park is in Los Angeles, genius.