Infighting Is Funny

Politico reports: Former Vice President Mike Pence is breaking with his former boss, criticizing the Trump administration’s tariffs strategy and calling for free trade to lower the cost of goods. Pence responded to comments from Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent defending the tariff policy despite the possibility of it causing economic disruptions. “Access to cheap goods is not the …

The New York Times reports: Marco Rubio was incensed. Here he was in the Cabinet Room of the White House, the secretary of state, seated beside the president and listening to a litany of attacks from the richest man in the world. Seated diagonally opposite, across the elliptical mahogany table, Elon Musk was letting Mr. Rubio have it, accusing him …

The Hill reports: Republican senators vented their concerns about tech billionaire Elon Musk’s aggressive approach to freezing federal spending and cutting government jobs during a private meeting with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles on Wednesday. Gathered in the historic Mansfield Room outside the Senate chamber, some GOP senators complained about what they view as a lack of transparency …

The Daily Beast reports: Rep. Dan Crenshaw’s apparent threat to Tucker Carlson drew backlash from the right on Monday, especially after the Texas Republican was caught out denying it ever happened. In a hot mic moment after an interview with British journalist and GB News correspondent Steven Edginton, Crenshaw was asked if he had ever met the former Fox News host. …

“I’m concerned with this because I want to see President Trump victorious. Distractions are the enemy. Yesterday, it was Edward Martin, the US attorney for the District Of Columbia. “He put out a statement, quote, ‘as President Trump’s lawyers, we are proud to fight to protect his leadership as our president, and we are vigilant in standing against entities like …

Axios reports: Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) said he’d kill Tucker Carlson if he ever met him, in an apparent hot mic moment captured on Monday. The threat, which a Crenshaw spokesperson downplayed after it came to light, is the latest incident in a spat between the two Republicans. Carlson has called Crenshaw one of the “dumbest, most liberal” Republicans. Crenshaw …

Florida Politics reports: Florida’s First Lady sounded like a candidate for her husband’s job during a speech to the Global Liberty Institute. Casey DeSantis delivered a dire warning about how Florida could become a “purple state” sooner than later, mirroring rhetoric from Gov. Ron DeSantis. “While we are leading here in the state of Florida, I would say, and this …

The Floridian reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis weighed in on the 2026 governor’s race on Monday by lashing out at Donald Trump’s candidate, Byron Donalds, for failing to help defeat “the left” in Florida while suggesting his wife, Casey DeSantis, would be the stronger pick in the 2026 race. This is the first time DeSantis hasn’t brushed off rumors that his …

“You can tell President Trump doesn’t totally trust the oligarchs. We’re putting in very tough antitrust people into the Justice Department and to the alphabet agencies. Look, I’m not a conservative, right? I’m a Republican ’cause I’m a registered Republican. I’m really a populist nationalist. “And by the way, those oligarchs – and people on CNN are gonna understand it …

“So here’s President Trump saying some stuff about Ukraine. [Plays clip.] I have some moral objections to the stuff that he is saying about Ukraine here because I don’t think that it is true.  “So for example, at one point during this press conference, he made the signally false statement that Ukraine started the war. This is not true. Ukraine …

The Washington Post reports: Republican senators find themselves in an unusual position these days: begging Trump officials to release funds they themselves appropriated. Senators have in recent days made the case to Cabinet secretaries and other Trump officials to let money flow back into their states. They are trying to finagle exceptions to President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive orders or …

The Daily Beast reports: Steve Bannon unleashed a new torrent of insults at Elon Musk on Tuesday, escalating an ongoing feud with President Donald Trump’s new favorite confidant. “Musk is a parasitic illegal immigrant,” the former media impresario turned Trump White House adviser turned podcaster, told UnHerd. “He wants to impose his freak experiments and play-act as God without any respect …

The Daily Beast reports: Social media commentators slammed Elon Musk as a hypocrite following claims that the DOGE leader fathered his 13th child with a fourth woman—right-wing influencer Ashley St. Clair, 26. Although Musk, despite a stream of tweets since, has yet to respond to St. Clair’s claim that she had his baby five months ago, the news has set …

McConnell writes for the Louisville Courier-Journal: But no matter our best intentions, tariffs are bad policy. As Sen. Rand Paul, put it: “Tariffs are simply taxes… Taxing trade will mean less trade and higher prices.” So Republicans ought to be clear-eyed about the full, unadulterated impact of tariffs as we work to restore sound fiscal policy to our government. Blanket …

The Oklahoma Voice reports: Gov. Kevin Stitt on Tuesday replaced three of his appointees to the Oklahoma State Board of Education, criticizing the state’s top school board for driving up “needless political drama” rather than academic results. The board shakeup follows “ongoing controversy at the Oklahoma State Department of Education and disappointing scores on the (biennial) National Assessment of Educational …

Current reports: Thousands and thousands of Christian organizations, including Trump acolyte Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse, have taken federal money to help advance their missions. Christian charities have lost funds as a result of Trump’s cuts to USAID. They include World Vision, World Relief, International Justice Mission, Samaritan’s Purse, and Catholic Relief Services. Some Trump evangelicals are also attacking evangelical organizations …

Mediaite reports: Elon Musk is going after a Republican Senator who could potentially end Tulsi Gabbard’s bid to be Director of National Intelligence. In a post to X on Sunday, Musk raged at Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) — who grilled Gabbard on Thursday during her Senate confirmation hearing after she refused to call Edward Snowden a traitor. “Todd Young is …

Politico reports: Florida’s Republican era of good feelings appears over. President Donald Trump’s home state is caught up in a never-before-seen power struggle between Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature. It’s led to insults, promises of political payback and a mounting media offensive by the governor. The scene is unlike any since Republicans gained control of state government nearly …

“That’s the reason why we did this proposal. He (DeSantis) is not going to work with ICE. He wants a little mini-version of ICE. He wants his own state guard with his own bureaucrats picking up the illegal aliens and shipping them off to another portion of the world, wherever it is that they originate from. That’s not working in …

NewsNation reports: An advocacy group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence is escalating its fight against Robert F. Kennedy Jr., this time with an ad that uses President Trump’s past criticisms of Kennedy to argue against his nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The 60-second ad from Advancing American Freedom consists almost entirely of …