Politics

Donald Trump's granted clemency to a lot of people during his first and second terms in office ... and one ex-drug dealer he freed back in prison.

Jonathan Braun was handed a sentence of 27 months in prison on Monday after he violated the terms set out in his 2021 presidential pardon by committing a new set of crimes, reports the New York Post.

Braun groped his child's nanny in February ... the nanny dialed into Braun's sentencing by phone and had prosecutors read her victim impact statement, in which she wrote his actions left her with "lasting trust issues."

Kevin Smith says traveling by plane for work was hell during the government shutdown ... and it sounds like his flight issues have him supporting Harvey Levin's 'OWTA' campaign.

We got the legendary director at LAX on Monday and our photog asked him what it was like flying during the shutdown ... and he told us he was basically stranded in Atlanta and couldn't get to New Jersey or even Orlando by plane.

Kevin says he feels for air traffic controllers who have been working for several weeks without a paycheck and tells us he totally understands why some of them stopped showing up for work ... even if it meant lengthy delays for some of his own flights.

Vladimir Putin's hands are looking pretty rough these days ... prompting people to speculate about his health -- again!

The Russian strongman showed off his mitts for the cameras while recently meeting with 22-year-old health expert Yekaterina Leshchinskaya to chat about potentially banning e-cigarettes from being sold inside the former Soviet Union.

Check out the video ... as Leshchinskaya talks directly to Vlad in front of spectators, Putin clenches his fists with puffy fingers and worm-like veins under his wrinkly skin.

Kim Davis has found herself at the center of some high-profile political situations ... one of which ended up reaffirming a monumental right of LGBTQ folks across the nation.

The former Kentucky county clerk was involved with a case that almost made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. We're going to take a look into Davis' background and see what happened with one of her appeals filed several years after the case involving her was decided.

Davis was born in Morehead, Kentucky, and she's spent much of her life in Rowan County, Kentucky, where she formerly served as a county clerk.

Davis' mother served as Rowan County's county clerk for 37 years, and Kim worked for her mother for 27 years, according to CNN.

Kim has been married a total of four times. She remarried her second husband, whom she divorced in 2006, in 2009, according to Newsweek. She had two children during her first marriage, and she had two more kids out of wedlock.

Kim is a steadfast Christian -- she took up the faith in 2011 after her dying mother-in-law asked her to start attending church, reports NBC News.

Davis first encountered controversy in 2015, when she refused to issue a marriage license to a gay couple, stating her religious beliefs prevented her from doing so ... despite the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage and made state bans unconstitutional earlier that year.

Davis was arrested for contempt of court for refusing to issue licenses months after Obergefell was decided, and she spent five days in jail. The couple in question sued Davis.

She was subsequently ordered to pay just over $360,000 in legal fees and damages to the couple, according to The Guardian.

Davis appealed a loss to the couple ... and lost her appeal to 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in March this year. She then petitioned the Supreme Court to take up the case, NBC News reports. She claimed the Obergefell decision is "legal fiction," according to ABC News.

Nancy Pelosi's leaving behind a sizable political legacy, and her daughter Christine's following in her mom's footsteps -- because Christine just announced she's running for California State Senate.

Christine announced the big news in a video on her social media accounts Monday. She said she's fighting for various causes, including women's rights and protecting immigrant communities.

Christine said as "our freedoms are under attack" ... "we speak up, we fight back and we organize power for the people" if she's elected, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

California State Senator Ben Allen says Hollywood is showing signs of life again ... and he thinks Governor Gavin Newsom has a delicate act to balance.

Ben joined us on "TMZ Live" Monday, and we asked him about what a lot of folks in the film and TV industry in Los Angeles are feeling ... that Hollywood is dead because of overregulation, and other places are luring productions away from California with tax credits and incentives.

The Democrat -- who represents Santa Monica, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Torrance and other cities in L.A. County -- says the concerns are valid ... but he says a new bill he passed to increase the state's film and TV tax credit program from $350 million to $750 million is already paying off.

President Trump is ripping air traffic controllers a new a**hole as the government shutdown drags on ... threatening to dock the pay of those playing hooky from their posts.

Trump fired off the financial threat Monday morning on his Truth Social app, claiming any air traffic controller who doesn't work during the shutdown "will be substantially 'docked.'"

The messaging comes in the wake of the FAA ordering reduced air traffic at 40 major airports across the country ... tons of flights are canceled or delayed, and travelers and pilots are feeling the stress ... especially as the holiday travel season ramps up.

Donald Trump's floating the idea of sharing a chunk of cash from his infamous tariffs with the American public ... with a caveat.

The president posted his idea on Truth Social Sunday, bringing up the concept of doling out "at least" $2,000 in a "dividend" taken from tariffs to many Americans ... except "high income people."

47 claims the country is in a much better place in the months since his tariffs have been imposed on imports shipped to the U.S. ... he described people opposed to his financial policies as "fools." He did not offer any details on how this dividend plan would work. He also claimed there is "almost no inflation."

Kim Davis -- a former county clerk in Kentucky who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples -- suffered an embarrassing blow on her quest to roll back the clock on civil rights ... the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review her petition Monday morning.

The failed petition sought to undo the loss she took in a civil case brought by David Moore and David Ermold, whose marriage license she refused on her personal religious grounds.

Not one Supreme Court justice moved to grant a review of the petition.

A fed-up pilot snapped in frustration recently -- blasting the endless flight delays as the federal government shutdown grinds on ... and in a bipartisan appeal, he called on passengers to take action.

In a viral TikTok posted Sunday by a passenger flying out of NYC’s LaGuardia to Dallas, chaos hit a new level -- TSA lines took 2 hours to get through, this flight was delayed another 2 hours, and then they were stuck on the runway for 2 more ... until the pilot stormed out, telling everyone to call their senators and raise hell 'cause the shutdown’s costing everyone their precious time, and the airlines millions of dollars.

The pilot addresses the cabin in person, telling passengers ... "I don't really care what your political persuasion is ... but you should really call your senators." He vented his frustration, saying with 30 planes ahead of them, they were stuck burning cash and time on the tarmac ... and that backlog just keeps snowballing through the whole system. And he broke down some details for everyone on board.

Donald Trump is on a pardoning spree ... now wiping the slate clean for Rudy Giuliani and dozens of his close allies accused of trying to overturn the 2020 election.

Ed Martin -- the Department of Justice’s Pardon Attorney -- made the announcement on X Sunday night ... posting a signed proclamation that says the order "ends a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people following the 2020 Presidential Election and continues the process of national reconciliation."

Giuliani is one of the 77 people Trump is pardoning ... including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and his attorneys Sidney Powell and John Eastman.

President Donald Trump got a rough welcome at the Commanders stadium after flying in on Air Force One ... the crowd loudly booed him as soon as he popped up on the jumbotron.

Trump became the first sitting POTUS in nearly half a century to attend a regular season NFL game as the Detroit Lions visited the Commanders in Landover, Maryland Sunday ... but, that fun historical fact didn't impress fans.

A chorus of boos rang out when he was shown in the first half ... and later when the announcer introduced him by name at halftime and while he read an oath for military family members to recite during a game break. The reading was part of an enlistment ceremony no doubt tainted by the jeers.

Jimmy Kimmel's wife Molly McNearney may be in for one awkward Thanksgiving ... she revealed some of her familial relationships have been severely hurt after her husband's public battle with Donald Trump.

Molly appeared Thursday on the "We Can Do Hard Things" podcast alongside Jimmy, where she admitted it's been challenging to come from a politically conservative family to now be battling the Republican Party's leader.

She said, "To me, them voting for Trump is them not voting for my husband and me and our family.” It's been so difficult, she's “unfortunately" lost relationships with people in her family because of it.

President Donald Trump reportedly wants to turn the Washington Commanders new home into "Trump Stadium" ... and, the White House isn't denying it!

Here's the deal ... an ESPN report dropped Saturday which claims 47 has expressed a desire to turn the Commanders' soon-to-be opened $3.7 billion stadium named after him.

We reached out to the White House -- and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said it would be a "beautiful" name for the place ... claiming, "it was President Trump who made the rebuilding of the new stadium possible."

4:40 PM PT -- A spokesperson for DHS tells TMZ ... “America is grateful all the time for our federal law enforcement officers who keep us safe. We suggest Ms. Rodrigo thank them for their service, not belittle their sacrifice.”

It also appears that Olivia's comment has since been deleted from the post -- unclear by whom.

Olivia Rodrigo is an all-American bitch, but not the kind who supports what she sees as "racist, hateful propaganda" from the White House and Department of Homeland Security ... she's blasting the feds for using her music in a deportation video.

Here's the deal ... the official Instagram accounts for the White House and the DHS posted a new video on their IG pages this week, showing people being arrested and deported by ICE. The video also showed folks self deporting as Olivia's "All-American Bitch" plays.

Olivia caught wind that her song was being used in the content and she left a scathing reply on the post, saying ... "don’t ever use my songs to promote your racist, hateful propaganda."

Donald Trump just made Darryl Strawberry's year -- the President of the United States has pardoned the New York Mets legend in his 1995 tax evasion case.

The three-time World Series champ revealed the news on Friday ... expressing his gratitude in a detailed Instagram post. He revealed POTUS personally called him on Thursday afternoon to inform him of the clemency.

"Yesterday I was home caring for my wife as she recovered from surgery, when my phone kept ringing relentlessly," Strawberry said.