President Trump

Donald Trump Jr. is trying to put the fire out on the Bud Light outrage after they teamed up with a transgender person -- and his rationale is ... they actually support the GOP.

The ex-Prez's oldest son made his pitch on his podcast, "Triggered with Donald Trump Jr.," where he opened Thursday's episode with a plea aimed at the MAGA crowd ... and, presumably, anyone else who's vowed to cut Bud Light out of their beer-drinking regimen.

He says he gets the indignation ... noting that, in his mind, Anheuser-Busch did indeed screw up by polarizing their key demographic with a stunt like this -- but he also says they deserve forgiveness considering some new intel he says he and his team have stumbled upon.

DTJ says Anheuser-Busch has actually donated a ton of money to Republican-led campaigns over the years -- including Speaker Kevin McCarthy's bid for Nancy Pelosi's job last year.

He also claims that -- according to some reporting he says he saw -- the whole Dylan Mulvaney move was actually the result of a rogue marketing employee at the company ... and that the higher-ups had no idea about it. In fact, Don says Anheuser-Busch is usually not as "woke" as its corporate counterparts -- and that they shouldn't be punished for this.

It's interesting that he's going to bat for the beer company, because they've actually taken a somewhat significant hit in the wake of all this -- reports suggest their market cap has fallen by as much as $5 billion in recent weeks ... although it's hard to say why exactly.

Some think it's a no-brainer -- the Bud Light ban appears to be working, and it's hurting their bottom line. Because of that, it seems, Don Jr.'s telling folks to stand down and buy again.

Bill Maher feels VERY strongly ... Trump's indictment in the Stormy Daniels case will backfire on Democrats, and they have hard proof right before their eyes -- the saga of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.

The 'Real Time' host made it clear ... although the Manhattan D.A. indicted Trump on falsifying campaign documents, it's really about having sex with a porn star and trying to cover it up, and that just doesn't land with most Americans.

So Bill took viewers down memory lane -- to the '90s -- when Clinton's affair with Lewinsky unraveled before the public. A special prosecutor had been looking for ANYTHING to nail Clinton, zeroing in on a land deal, but there was nothing.

So the special prosecutor pivoted to one Paula Jones, which eventually led to Lewinsky. Clinton was shamed, allegedly lied about it under oath and was ultimately impeached by the House.  And guess what happened in the end -- his approval rating soared to 73%!!!

As BM says in Trump's case ... "No matter what the underlying legalism, it's all about sex. Law is boring."

Bill thinks if Trump is indicted on the really serious, democracy-threatening matters -- like January 6th or election fraud -- it's not going to resonate as much with the public, because they'll have already seen Trump indicted on something else.

The judge warned Donald Trump if he continued attacking individuals and institutions a gag order might be in order ... well Tuesday night, Trump gave that judge the middle finger.

The former President reacted to his historic indictment with a vengeful speech at Mar-a-Lago ... railing on not only the lead prosecutor, Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg, but also the judge who fired off the gag order warning.

Trump took shots at Bragg throughout his address ... calling on Bragg to resign and accusing Bragg of leaking grand jury info. Trump says it's Bragg who should be facing prosecution, not him, and he says the indictment is light on specifics and Bragg has absolutely no case.

As for the judge, Juan Merchan, well, Trump went after him too ... and the judge's family ... something Trump's son did earlier on social media.

Trump called out Merchan as a "Trump-hating judge" who has it out for him ... and he blasted the judge's wife and fam, even going after the judge's daughter for working with the Kamala Harris campaign.

The evening's tone was set from the moment Trump arrived in the room ... walking out to "Rebel Rebel." He shook hands with supporters as he approached the dais, then started venting.

Outside Mar-a-Lago, throngs of Trump fans lined the streets ... waving flags and showing him love. Inside, his fans booed and cheered, depending on the subject.

When Trump wasn't going nuclear on the judge or prosecution, he was patting himself on the back for his time in office and, naturally, dragging Joe Biden.

As you know ... Trump was in New York City earlier Tuesday, showing up at a Manhattan courthouse to turn himself in to the NYPD. He was fingerprinted and ultimately pled not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

After he was done in court, Trump left in his motorcade for the airport ... hopping in his private jet and flying back down to Florida.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is scheduled to be the next big guest on "60 Minutes" this weekend ... and Twitter sure ain't happy about it.

The controversial Georgia congresswoman was tapped as one of the big interviews on the weekly magazine news program, with none other than Lesley Stahl taking on the challenge of talking to her on camera. The official "60 Minutes" account teased their time together.

Their description of MTG was weirdly flattering ... at least that's how many took it, and it left a lot of folks sour. "60 Minutes" writes of Rep. Greene, "Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, nicknamed MTG, isn’t afraid to share her opinions, no matter how intense and in-your-face they are. She sits down with Lesley Stahl this Sunday on 60 Minutes."

Of course, political pundits and journos on the bird app have been crying foul for the past 24 hours ... openly wondering why CBS would think it's a good idea to sit down with Greene.

The reason they're asking, of course, is because MTG has, at times, apparently shown support for the Jan. 6 insurrection, displayed transphobia, advocated for a new national secession ... and continued to support President Trump, among many other issues.

For her part, Greene actually signaled that the interview went well ... shouting out Stahl for being a trailblazer in journalism, and for giving her fair questions. MTG wrote, "It was an honor to spend a few days with the legendary icon Leslie (sic) Stahl and talented crew @60Minutes. Leslie (sic) is a trailblazer for women in journalism. And while we may disagree on some issues, I respect her greatly. Tune in tomorrow 7 pm ET on CBS."

Donald Trump has been indicted in NYC over his alleged involvement in the Stormy Daniels hush money case -- TMZ has confirmed.

The former President was indicted Thursday by a Manhattan grand jury. He will turn himself in, although we do not know the timetable.

The grand jury heard testimony from a slew of witnesses since January ... witnesses that included Trump's former attorney/fixer, Michael Cohen, who served prison time in connection with the Stormy Daniels case. Trump did not appear before the grand jury.

The precise charges have not been announced by Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg, but are expected within the next few days.

Trump is currently in Florida at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump will presumably fly to New York City to turn himself in. He has called for protests and the City is on high alert. He has even said there would be "death and destruction" if he were indicted.

It's quite a moment ... Trump is the first U.S. president or former president to be slapped with criminal charges.

Trump allegedly brokered a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election, when she was trying to go public about an affair she claims she had with him in 2006. Michael Cohen has said he was at the center of the deal and actually cut the check to Stormy ... he says he was later reimbursed by the Trump org.

45, of course, has denied all of it ... calling both Stormy and Michael liars. He has acknowledged relying on his counsel to resolve an alleged extortion effort, but he's insisted he did nothing wrong or illegal. And, he's already announced he's running for president next year, so it could throw the race for the Republican nomination into chaos.

This isn't the only criminal investigation he's dealing with. There's one underway in Georgia surrounding the 2020 election and Trump's efforts to overturn the results. And, the feds are looking into Trump's former handling of classified documents ... and based on developments this week, it looks like the special prosecutor has an eye toward filing charges.

President Biden did away with Donald Trump's plans for a new look for Air Force One, and instead stuck with the classic aesthetic ... albeit, with a little shade -- a lighter one, that is.

The Air Force announced a new paint design that'll be applied to POTUS' main ride in the sky, and they say JB has decided to stick with the OG colors that have been around since the '60s, when JFK started using the jumbo jet and blue/white pattern we all know today.

As you can see ... Joe opted for a lighter blue. The way the Air Force describes it though is quite sophisticated ... they chalk up the differences this way ... "The light blue on VC-25B is a slightly deeper, more modern tone than VC-25A's robin's egg blue. Additionally, the VC-25B engines will use the darker blue from the cockpit area vice the VC-25A’s robin’s egg blue."

They also say there's no more polished metal on the new AF1 plane(s) -- which are being manufactured by Boeing -- because modern commercial skin alloys don't allow for it. 🤷🏽‍♂️

To the average bear, there doesn't seem to be much of a difference here -- at least not at first glance, anyway -- but the AF is insisting there are slight tweaks that make the new plane more efficient and effective. It's also a bit sleeker in appearance ... we'll give 'em that.

Now, as far as what the ex-Prez wanted a few years back -- namely, a completely different color scheme and design that resembled our national flag -- the Air Force says it wasn't going to work out due to technical difficulties and time. An easy decision for Biden, it seems.

Here's how the AF describes the problem with Trump's preference back then ... "The Air Force previously displayed a red, white, and blue livery for the VC-25B because it had been publicly expressed as a preferred livery in 2019. A thermal study later concluded the dark blue in the design would require additional Federal Aviation Administration qualification testing for several commercial components due to the added heat in certain environments."

Donald Trump just hired one of the country's top trial attorneys, Joe Tacopina, to go after a former Manhattan prosecutor for allegedly defaming him, TMZ has learned.

In his first order of biz as 45's new legal eagle, Tacopina fired off a letter Monday to lawyer Mark Pomerantz, claiming Pomerantz falsely stated Trump was "guilty of numerous felony violations" and that it was a "grave failure of justice not to hold [Trump] accountable by way of criminal prosecution."

Pomerantz's statements appeared in his 2022 resignation letter to Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg, which Tacopina says was later leaked to the New York Times.

In his letter, Tacopina's particularly incensed Pomerantz is about to publish a book, "The People vs. Donald Trump," which, Joe believes, will contain even more libelous remarks about DT.

That's why Tacopina's issuing a legal threat to Pomerantz, writing ... "I strongly admonish you to take these next words seriously: If you publish such a book and continue making defamatory statements against my client, my office will aggressively pursue all legal remedies against you and your book publisher, Simon & Schuster."

Tacopina added, "Trust me, I will zealously use every possible legal resource to punish you and your publisher for the incredible financial harm that you have caused my clients to suffer."

As we reported, the Manhattan D.A. has conducted an ongoing 2-year probe into the Trump Organization's business practices.

Pomerantz was one of the senior prosecutors on the case before he resigned, allegedly after Bragg wouldn't let him pursue a criminal indictment against Trump.

So far, Bragg's investigation has led to the recent conviction of Allen Weisselberg, former CFO of the Trump Organization who pled guilty and was sentenced to 5 months behind bars for various financial crimes.

Bragg has expressed concern Pomerantz's upcoming book could derail his investigation into the 45th president, who announced his 2024 run for the White House in November. Tacopina says in the letter Trump is leading all potential candidates in the most recent polls.

President Joe Biden was storing even more classified documents at his home than previously thought -- this according to his lawyer.

The most recent discovery was made on Thursday, but just got disclosed Saturday by White House attorney Richard Sauber ... who said he found an extra five pages while he was in the middle of handing over a previously announced classified doc to DOJ officials.

This marks the fourth such find of classified docs that Biden had been holding onto from his Obama days. First, classified docs were found at his personal office in D.C. in November ... then, additional docs were found in his garage at his Delaware home in December -- and finally, one final classified doc was unearthed in a separate room at his house recently, which just came to light the other day. Now, we get these separate five docs to top it off.

In light of this latest batch being divulged ... the situation is starting to become a bit of a scandal ... as the DOJ has appointed a special counsel to investigate the matter.

The White House, for its part, has been a little cagey in addressing it ... but has said the docs were misplaced by accident, and that Joe meant no harm in stashing them.

He's addressed some of the documents found, but not all. His administration is also facing scrutiny for not letting everyone know about this when they were first discovered (pre-midterm elections) ... but his lawyers have defended the decision -- saying they were trying to strike a balance between being transparent and maintaining the integrity of the DOJ probe, which had already been looking into this before a special counsel was tapped this week.

Unclear what's in the docs ... and reps for the Prez have even said Joe himself is unaware of what they contain or how they even ended up at places they shouldn't have been.

Because they're classified, DOJ and National Archives officials have been called in to retrieve each new cache that's been found ... so it seems protocol's been followed in that regard.

Of course, this news is stirring up outrage among Republicans -- who see similarities between Biden's apparent mishandling of classified docs and Donald Trump's -- who's also been accused of hoarding tons of materials he should've left in D.C.

President Biden might be feeling joke-y about a would-be reelection campaign -- but that's only because the decision has reportedly been made ... apparently, he's running again.

JB was down in the U.S. Virgin Islands Friday ahead of the new year, and when a crush of reporters peppered him with questions about officially throwing his hat in the ring for 2024 -- something he's said he intends to do, but noting he still needed to talk it over with family.

Those talks were supposed to happen around this time of the year, which is why his response down St. Croix is interesting ... Joe sure seems to be in good spirits about the prospect of gunning for POTUS again, so much so that he's oozing with sarcasm.

Check it out ... the Prez says he wasn't aware there's an election coming up, obviously kidding. His grin is pretty telling though -- because it's backed by what CNN's Kevin Liptak says is a firm yes from Joe's camp. Namely, Joe Biden is, in fact, going to enter the race.

We haven't seen any confirming reports mirroring what Liptak's saying here -- but if true, it's obviously huge. There's been rumblings within the Democratic Party that top dogs want Joe to bow out and let someone younger take a crack at a presidential campaign against Trump.

Joe's first two years in office have been somewhat of a mixed bag (some good and bad) but if he is actually joining the fray again, that means he's confident he's got a shot.

D.L. Hughley says Donald Trump should be criminally charged over the Jan. 6 riots ... and he wants the former president charged with the death of a Capitol Police officer.

We got the comedian at LAX and he told our photog ... Trump would be staring at a slew of charges if he were Black ... including manslaughter.

The way D.L. sees it ... Trump should be held responsible for the death of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died the day after being viciously attacked by the mob during the insurrection.

Trump has yet to be charged by the Justice Department. The Jan. 6 Committee voted to refer Trump for possible criminal charges ... so potential charges are on the table.

As we reported, the Jan. 6 panel feels four charges are warranted for Trump ... obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to make a false statement, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and insurrection.

Joe Exotic feels he ought to be next in line after President Biden struck a deal with Russia to free WNBA star Brittney Griner, and he's stating his case for freedom ... from behind bars.

In audio obtained by TMZ ... The "Tiger King" star says, "The whole Brittney Griner and Trevor Reed prisoner swap is a slap in every American's face that is wrongfully detained in the American Federal Prison System, including myself."

He goes on to plead his case to the Prez, saying he's innocent of any crimes and calling out his ex-costar Carole Baskin in the process.

Quite frankly, Joe's drawing a ridiculous parallel here, between Brittney and himself. While she was imprisoned as Vladimir Putin's political pawn, Joe was tried and convicted for hiring a hitman, and various crimes tied to the treatment of animals at his infamous wildlife park.

After she spent nearly 10 months incarcerated, U.S. officials finally struck a deal this week -- Russia agreed to free Brittney in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout ... AKA the "Merchant of Death."

You'll recall, BG was accused of bringing hashish oil in her luggage to a Moscow airport, back in February, and was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Joe is serving a 21-year sentence, but insists he's innocent -- jury be damned -- and totally deserving of freedom ... something he's been pushing for since Donald Trump was in the White House.

Elon Musk is doing a new file dump that he says reflects Twitter's alleged efforts to suppress stories about Hunter Biden's laptop in 2020 ... causing a lot of outrage in right wing circles.

The Twit in Chief is set to follow up with another day of #TwitterFiles Saturday, which took the bird app by storm over the past 24 hours ... this after the initial batch detailed alleged correspondence between former Twitter staffers and execs, suggesting they were censoring negative HB news.

Specifically, the internal emails cited by journo Matt Taibbi show how Twitter's ex-head honchos apparently went out of their way to hide links to a story by the New York Post.

Published about a month before the election, it was touted as a bombshell report -- which purported to describe messages the NYP says it retrieved from Hunter's forsaken laptop ... and one of those seems to indicate Ukrainian gas bigwigs were trying to meet President Biden via his son, who was in business with these folks at the time (around 2015 or so).

When this went live in 2020, any attempts to tweet links to the story were barred en masse on Twitter ... and now, these #TwitterFiles pretty much seem to confirm it was, in fact, a coordinated effort in-house. The more troubling part, though ... some of the emails appear to imply that Twitter was actually in touch with Biden's campaign team ... and conceding to their requests to kill the story, as they claimed the information had been hacked/stolen.

Twitter obliged, citing its terms and conditions to justify the move -- not to mention the fact the info discussed hadn't been independently verified -- but since then ... a majority of the materials on the laptop were authenticated as legit. The laptop was also deemed abandoned property after somebody turned it into a shop in 2019 ... eventually finding its way into the hands of conservative operatives who ran with it and publicized its salacious contents.

In the end, however, the Hunter Biden chatter really amounted to nothing in the big picture.

There's been a lot of handwringing in and around the GOP over this for a full two years -- but now that these apparent revelations are coming to light ... many are calling for congressional hearings and investigations into what they characterize as corruption/election interference. Basically, their argument is ... Twitter blocked something that could've, perhaps, swung the election in Trump's favor -- and they're calling on POTUS to answer for it.

Ron DeSantis just got a major endorsement from the world's richest man.

Elon Musk says he's throwing his considerable support behind DeSantis if the Florida governor decides to run for President in 2024. Elon's message was an obvious slap in the face to Donald Trump, who recently announced his candidacy to win back the White House.

Musk started the ball rolling Friday night when he responded to a question from a Twitter user, asking if he would back DeSantis. The new Twitter CEO simply stated, "Yes. But Twitter as a platform must be fair to all.”

Elon later posted another tweet ... “As a reminder, I was a significant supporter of the Obama-Biden presidency and (reluctantly) voted for Biden over Trump. My preference for the 2024 presidency is someone sensible and centrist. I had hoped that would [be] the case for the Biden administration, but have been disappointed so far.”

It's interesting ... Musk claims he's not a conservative ... but he directed his millions of Twitter followers to vote Republican in the last midterm elections. He has also come under attack from Democrats, including President Biden, who has asked the Justice Department to investigate Elon's foreign business practices.

Meanwhile ... DeSantis has shown Elon some love, too, publicly praising Musk for giving his Starlink internet satellite technology to Ukraine in its war against Russia. Elon was blasted on social media after he toyed with the idea of stopping the free-of-charge service, which was costing him a fortune.

Bill Maher put a bow on the 20th season of "Real Time" with words of hope ... how 'bout Dem midterms!!!

Bill is blown away by the election ... if you followed him, he thought it would be a deathblow to democracy, but it was the opposite. As he said, Donald Trump may get credit for putting up a slate of whackos who were so scary ... voters opened their eyes and rejected them in force.

Now B.M. isn't suggesting America is out of the woods ... paraphrasing Mark Twain, he said "Reports of our death were slightly exaggerated." Nevertheless, Bill tipped his hat to voters, who helped us revert to some semblance of sanity.

He then leaned into one of his mantras ... reject the extremes on both sides, noting they account for only around 7% of us, yet they get 90% of the media's attention. And how 'bout this -- 90% of all tweets are courtesy of only 10% of users. As he says, if we let them control our country, it's like letting the crying baby fly the plane.

Bill ends with sage advice for both sides ... start compromising, especially on the extremes.  His examples are hilarious.

D.L. Hughley says Donald Trump is well on his way to losing yet another election, all while destroying the Republican party in the process.

We got the comedian at LAX ... just a couple hours before Trump stepped up to the mics at Mar-a-Lago to announce he will, as anticipated, run for President in 2024.

While Trump's West Palm Beach home was surrounded by passionate supporters waiting to hear him launch his campaign ... D.L. was thanking them for backing the former prez, because he thinks Trump is leading the GOP down a road to destruction.

D.L. clowned Trump for seeing almost all of his hand-picked candidates go down in flames in the midterms, and for losing the popular vote in the last 2 general elections. Republicans would call that 2nd part a petty point -- the fact is, we still select presidents using the electoral college.

That aside, he says the GOP is insane to think Trump can win the White House again -- and he does believe Trump will bully the party into giving him the nomination.

If, for some reason, they backed someone else, like Ron DeSantis, D.L. thinks Trump would take the whole party down with him. Think Jan. 6th, but just for the GOP this time.

He did say there is one way Trump could be removed from the race -- but he thinks it's highly unlikely to happen.

Donald Trump is becoming public enemy #1 in the Republican Party after being blamed for the midterm election results -- but Jon Voight's sticking by him ... for whatever that's worth.

The actor posted a new video Sunday addressed to the American people ... and it's pretty ominous. He decries the wins Democrats secured and suggests there's malfeasance afoot -- echoing false election denial claims propagated by the ex-Prez and his staunch supporters.

JV is one of those diehards, it seems, because he says DT is the only one who can restore truth and justice in this country again ... and he says that'll happen when he's back in office.

FWIW, Trump hasn't officially announced he's running for President again in 2024 -- but has stopped short of saying it for well over a year now. He's also got some big announcement on Tuesday ... which may, in fact, be him throwing his hat in the ring once more.

It's a little weird to see just how down the rabbit hole Jon finds himself -- he talks about a looming third world war, linking it to our domestic politics. His whole speech here is strange.

Regardless of what Trump and his holdout cronies might say ... the voters are making their voices heard at the ballot box. Thus far, Dems will retain control of the Senate -- and even though the House might go to Republicans, it'll probably be a slim majority.