US politics

US politics

"ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not see for many years, and even Centuries!"

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.

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.

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.

I'm sorry. I don't want anybody to get shotyoung kids, I hate that, but Charlie Kirk was not a pimple on Rob Reiner's a** when it comes to influence, when it comes to impact, when it comes to anything else. I don't want to say anything bad, but for God's sake, don't dare compare Charlie Kirk to Rob Reiner. That's not fair.

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.)

If you're wondering who Katie Miller is and why high-level officials keep going on her podcast: She made a name for herself during the first Trump administration by denying that the Department of Homeland Security was separating families. This year, she was an adviser to the Department of Government Efficiency, a brilliant effort that did not in fact save money but certainly did destroy a lot of goods and services!

This was one of those eclectic, slightly hippie-ish coffee shops that used to be more common: colorful walls, mismatched armchairs, a big chalkboard advertising a local chess night and a knitting club. It was December 2024 and the national vibes, recall, were quite bad. Would things be any different here? A sleepy Portland coffee shop feels approximately one million miles away from the centers of power, but we live in a world where nothing is hidden and little is beyond reach.

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.

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.

For most retirees, Social Security benefits are an essential income source. In fact, Nationwide's research revealed that over half of all U.S. adults who are either receiving Social Security already or who expect to receive benefits would not be able to financially survive missing even half of a monthly benefit check. Obviously, this means Americans are very dependent on this source of retirement funds.

"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."

Consumers, voters, are very angry about inflation. They don't like it. I think that explains a lot of the 2024 election results and the 2025 campaigns as wellInflation by some measures ticking down a little, but still stubbornly near that 3% area, roughly where it was when President Trump took office. So, I think that's a disappointment for consumers. I think the answer to that is productivity and growth, and the Federal Reserve restraining the growth of the money supply.

The right-wing Asfura, representing the National Party, edged out Salvador Nasralla of the centre-right Liberal Party with 40.27 percent of the vote to Nasralla's 39.53 percent. Today, with deep gratitude, I accept the honour of being able to work for you. I extend my hand so we can walk together with determination to work tirelessly for Honduras. I will not fail you, Asfura said in a video statement released on Wednesday night.

Donald Trump claimed Friday that he'll be the one to give the final word on a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. In an exclusive interview with Politico, Trump said that, despite anything Zelensky proposes when they meet up at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday, the Ukrainian president doesn't have anything until I approve it, Trump said. So we'll see what he's got.

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.