This is is the fifth episode of our ongoing series breaking down the U.S. Constitution. This month, Roman and Elizabeth first talk through Article Two, which establishes the executive branch, section by section. Elizabeth explains the constitutional powers and limitations of the presidency, including hiring and firing, impeachment, pardons, and presidential duties - and how President Trump and the current Supreme Court are upending those powers.
Since returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump has overturned decades of U.S. trade policy - building a wall of tariffs around what used to be a wide open economy. His double-digit taxes on imports from almost every country have disrupted global commerce and strained the budgets of consumers and businesses worldwide. They have also raised tens of billions of dollars for the U.S. Treasury.
In this time of unrelenting, often unprecedented cruelty and lawlessness, I'm grateful for readers like you. So many of you have taken to the streets, organized in your neighborhood and with your union, and showed up at the ballot box to vote for progressive candidates. You're proving that it is possible-to paraphrase the legendary Patti Smith-to redeem the work of the fools running our government.
The new ballroom, which Trump has said would cost $400 million and would dwarf the adjacent White House building, has been challenged in court by preservationists, while Democratic lawmakers have called it an abuse of power and are investigating which donors are supporting it. The National Capital Planning Commission, chartered by Congress to manage planning for Washington-area federal lands, said on its website that the White House will provide an "information presentation" on plans to rebuild the East Wing during a commission meeting on January 8.
President Donald Trump's recent executive order has turned the post-Christmas slump into an official extension of the holiday season, designating Friday, Dec. 26, as a federal holiday. While his directive has effectively shuttered federal offices for a rare five-day weekend, the rest of the economy is operating in a state of partial suspension, leading to a confusing situation about who, exactly, is back to business today.
we were subjected to a rant by President Donald Trump that predictably careened from immigrants (bad) to jobs (good), rarely slowing down for reality. But jumbled between the vitriol and venom was a vision of American health care that would have horror villainess M3GAN shaking in her Mary Janes a vision that we all should be afraid of because it would take us back to a dark era when insurance couldn't be counted on.
Screenshot via Comedy Central A prescient writer for the irreverent Comedy Central show South Park correctly predicted that President Donald Trump would slap his name on the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, so he bought up Trump-Kennedy Center web domains to troll the president. Writer Toby Morton bought the trumpkennedycenter.org and trumpkennedycenter.com domains back in August and is now plotting how best to parody Trump's vanity, according to The Washington Post.
In the latest Gabfest Reads, John talks with journalist and author Andrew Ross Sorkin about his new book, 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History and How It Shattered a Nation - the story of speculation, debt, and the human drives that fueled the Wall Street crash that changed everything. Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
But on Inauguration Day, January 20, 1993, there was another surprise. Our special viewing site was chairless, so our options were to stand in the icy wind or to watch the parade on television in the Overseas Press Club. That evening, we joined hundreds of other formally dressed guests from New York State at a gala in a Capitol Hill armory.
"In national news, when we cover people who aren't technically in power, it is... often as people who are affected by the decisions of the people who are in power," Maddow said. "But if we are serious about doing this work in a democracy and for a democracy, that categorization is backwards. Because in a democracy, the controlling force, the real power, ultimately is with the people. And when the people are expressing themselves politically - which means peacefully - they are telling power what it can do and what it cannot do."
A contributing factor to this lack of productivity was President Donald Trump's increasing use of executive orders, often controversial and subject to multiple court challenges. So far in his second term, Trump has signed 224 executive orders, compared to the 52 he signed in 2017 and more than he did during his entire first term. President Joe Biden signed 76 in 2021, his first year in office.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Oregon, claims that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. exceeded his authority with the Dec. 18 declaration, which would "effectively ban, by fiat, an entire caregory of healthcare." It also failed to follow proper procedures for promulgating new rules, would interfere with states' rights to run their Medicaid programs and regulate health care and deny care to youth that need it.
It has been a big year for the right to repair, the movement of advocates pushing for people to be able to fix their own electronics and equipment without manufacturer approval. The issue has gathered broad support from technologists, farmers, military leaders, and politicians on both sides of the aisle. It is popular with just about everyone-except the companies who stand to gain if the parts, instructions, and tools necessary to fix their products remain under lock and key.
The Justice Department said in a social media post that federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the FBI "have uncovered over a million more documents" that could be related to the Epstein case - a stunning 11th hour development after department officials suggested months ago that they had undertaken a comprehensive review that accounted for the vast universe of Epstein-related materials.
The committee, chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), included in its post a list of qualities it determined prove that Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is indeed definitely a Republican. Doubted by the elites, reads the list. Pulled himself up by his bootstraps. Faced adversity. Carried the team when others couldn't. Definitely a Republican. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: -Doubted by the elites. -Pulled himself up by his bootstraps. -Faced adversity. -Carried the team when others couldn't. Definitely a Republican.
US deputy secretary of state Christopher Landau spoke to Palau president Surangel Whipps in a call on Tuesday about transferring third-country nationals to Palau, the two sides said in separate statements, after Palau's lawmakers rejected a previous request from Washington on the matter earlier this year. President Donald Trump's immigration policies, including his administration's deportation drive, have been broadly condemned by human rights advocates over concerns about due process.
In this time of unrelenting, often unprecedented cruelty and lawlessness, I'm grateful for readers like you. So many of you have taken to the streets, organized in your neighborhood and with your union, and showed up at the ballot box to vote for progressive candidates. You're proving that it is possible-to paraphrase the legendary Patti Smith-to redeem the work of the fools running our government.
The 19 states hiking wages will impact over 8 million workers, an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, found. Women, Black, and Hispanic workers are set to be disproportionately affected by the new increases, per EPI's analysis, and workers in states like Missouri and Nebraska will see their annual wages increase by nearly $1,000 on average.
I believe you can find God's love everywhere, but it really shines in Louisiana. The Pelican State is home to the country's largest alligator population, with an estimated population of more than two million. God blessed our taste buds with Cajun flavors, he continued, shouting out a staple of his home state. God blessed our eardrums with Jazz music. God blessed our coasts with fish to catch, and our skies with ducks to hunt.
In a 9,500-word Vanity Fair magazine profile based on 11 interviews conducted over Trump's first year back in office, Wiles described the president as having an alcoholic's personality and an eye for vengeance against perceived enemies. The first woman to serve as White House chief of staff also called the vice-president, JD Vance, a conspiracy theorist, branded tech tycoon Elon Musk an odd, odd duck while criticising his dismantling of USAID, and gave juicy opinions on other Trump administration figures.
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
You may have read in your colourful newspapers that my country's president would like to shut me up because I don't adore him in the way he likes to be adored. The American government made a threat against me and the company I work for, and all of a sudden we were off the air. But then, you know what happened? A Christmas miracle happened. Well, it was September. It was a September miracle.
