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Donald and Melania Trump threw a bash at The White House for members of Congress and ... well, let's say it looked liked it snowed in D.C.

The annual Congressional Ball went down Thursday night, although the photos were just released.

45 posed for photos with guests in the Grand Foyer of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Among those who attended ... Democratic Reps. Antonio Delgado (NY.), Susie Lee (Nev.), Elaine Luria (VA.), Jim Costa (CA), Josh Harder (CA) and Gil Cisneros (CA).

As you know the House Judiciary Committee gave its thumb's up Friday to impeachment and sent the 2 articles on to the full House of Reps. All money is on the full House impeaching Trump next week, but it's virtually a foregone conclusion the Senate will not convict him, which means Trump will remain in office.

Jane Fonda's ever-growing celebrity crew of climate change activists has a new recruit -- Sally Field ... and she's been arrested for the cause too.

The legendary actress was hauled away by Capitol police in D.C. Friday for protesting on the steps of the building ... just like Fonda, several more members of Hollywood's elite and many other concerned citizens the past 10 weeks of Jane's "Fire Drill Friday" initiative.

Sally spoke to the crowd before her arrest, addressing this week's theme of transitioning to a green future ... and cited her Oscar-winning film, "Norma Rae," for inspiration in getting it done.

It's unclear how many people were arrested on a rainy Friday along with Field, but once again it seems like Fonda ducked trouble.

As we've reported ... Jane's been cautiously avoiding getting locked up after 4 previous arrests for protesting, because a 5th could lead to substantial jail time and her 'FDF' folks want her around for her leadership.

That hasn't stopped other stars from joining the arrest club, though ... Paul Sheer, Diane Lane, Piper Perabo, Amber Valletta, Sam Waterston, Ted Danson, Rosanna Arquette and Catherine Keener have all taken one for the team since the movement began.

President Trump's a child with extreme narcissistic tendencies ... so says "Couples Therapy" star Dr. Jenn Mann, who helped us psychoanalyze 45 ... in an attempt to figure out what's behind his brutalization of people on Twitter.

We got the good doc Thursday in L.A. and the TV/radio shrink has her own mental dossier on Trump's antics, and what's really behind them.

For starters Dr. Jenn says Trump is a walking dichotomy ... on the one hand he's like a young child lacking impulse control who gets triggered by just about anything critical of him or his job. On the other hand, he a master at manipulating and besting the media by creating diversions ... and that skill may be Trump's most powerful weapon in 2020.

The latest attack, as you know, is against 16-year-old Person of the Year Greta Thunberg, whom Trump tried to bully, but much to the delight of everyone, Greta clearly knows his game.

Dr. Jenn thinks Trump's playbook may have been set in stone while he was still a child. She says this could well be a case where the Trump family didn't set proper boundaries. Watch the video and see if you buy it.

President Trump's reelection campaign apparently likes to think of their boss as an equal to the destroyer of worlds, the villainous Thanos ... but the 'Avengers' character's creator is NOT having it.

A Twitter account managed by Trump's reelection team posted a super-produced clip in which DT's head is superimposed over Thanos' body from 'Infinity War' ... and he snaps his Democratic enemies -- who just introduced articles of impeachment -- to dust.

They captioned the post, "House Democrats can push their sham impeachment all they want. President Trump's re-election is 𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲." Funny, right? WRONG ... so says the comic book writer and artist who brought Thanos to life back in 1973. He ain't laughing.

Jim Starlin -- the creator of Thanos -- says he finds it pretty disturbing that Trump's goons are comparing him to a mass murderer -- Thanos literally goes around blowing up planets in "The Avengers." He says, "How sick is that? These are sad and strange times we are going through. Fortunately all things, even national nightmares, eventually come to an end."

Starlin also said he felt violated by the creative hijacking, and said DT has an infantile ego.

Funny enough ... the scene of Thanos snapping that Trump's team used in their hypercut is actually from the part where he dies in the final movie. Spoiler alert ... Tony Stark ends up with all the Infinity Stones, and then snaps Thanos and his henchmen to oblivion.

Soledad O'Brien was right about President Trump getting impeached -- and now, she's here to collect on her bet ... which we'll have to pay her back for later.

We got the veteran TV journalist Tuesday at LAX, and our photog recalled she'd placed a bet with our D.C. guy about whether the Dems would actually go through with impeachment.

You'll recall ... Soledad and our boy pinkie promised on a whopping 5 bills -- dollar bills -- with Soledad taking the over/under on the House pulling the trigger. Obviously, she won and we lost. Pelosi and co. intro'd 2 articles ... abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Fast-forward to Tuesday ... and our cameraman in L.A. was desperately trying to pay up on behalf of his TMZ coworker. Sadly, he came up short by a buck so -- and Soledad wasn't trying to get paid in parts. Don't worry ... our man in D.C. will pay up, SO!!!

Just for kicks, we asked if Soledad wanted to run another bet on whether the Senate would convict -- but she pumped the brakes on that one. It ain't happening, she says.

Rep. Karen Bass has bad news for President Trump if he wins a second term, and especially if the Democrats take back the Senate -- more impeachment, baby!!!

The U.S. congresswoman -- whose 37th district includes parts of L.A. -- was on "TMZ Live" Tuesday, shortly after the House announced the articles of impeachment. Dems in the House allege Trump abused his presidential power and obstructed justice, regarding the whole Ukraine thing.

Two questions we just had to get off our chest. First, if Trump wins reelection next year, does that definitively confirm the American people just don't give a crap about this?

Check out Bass' answer -- she's pretty optimistic about another opponent being able to win, and she's hoping her party can whip up national enthusiasm toward that cause.

Secondly, we asked if Trump does win again -- and if Dems win enough seats to take control of the Senate -- would they try impeaching him again? It's allowed ... there's no double jeopardy in impeachment.

Rosie O'Donnell firmly believes the Stanford Law Professor who name-dropped Barron Trump didn't do anything wrong and hopes the testimony helps impeach the President.

We got Rosie and her BFF Ally Sheedy Thursday night outside the "Jagged Little Pill" musical in NYC and asked her about the GOP outrage over Prof. Pamela Karlan's wordplay. Not shockingly ... Rosie's team Karlan, all the way.

She says Karlan made a fair point about POTUS, and it's being taken out of context to look malicious. Both Rosie and Ally think there was nothing mean spirited about it. Rosie thinks it's nice Karlan apologized but adds ... it wasn't necessary.

Rosie, of course, had her own controversy involving the President and Melania's son a few years back, when she posted a video questioning whether Barron was autistic.

She apologized to Melania for being insensitive and causing pain ... but clearly thinks Karlan's case is different.

As for the impeachment hearings, in general, Rosie admitted she's a total junkie. It's no secret she has a rooting interest and spells out the many reasons why she's on Karlan's side.

So much for Joe Biden's "No Malarkey" tour of Iowa -- there was plenty of it when he got into a heated argument with a voter Thursday morning.

The Democratic candidate was holding a town hall meeting in New Hampton, IA ... when an attendee stood up and challenged Joe on his son, Hunter Biden's now infamous dealings with a Ukrainian gas company.

The man suggested Joe was no better than President Trump because he had placed Hunter in a position for which he wasn't qualified -- and Biden immediately stepped to the guy, barking, "You're a damn liar!" He got right in the guy's face and then challenged him to do push-ups, go for a run or take an IQ test. You gotta see it ... it's kinda bizarre.

Biden, who's in the middle of an 8-day, 18-county swing through Iowa -- which he's deemed the "No Malarkey" tour -- demanded the potential voter get his facts straight.

Biden denied Hunter did anything wrong, and also denied placing him in the position. The former VP eventually calmed down, and the man claimed he didn't want to argue.

77-year-old Biden got in the final shot though -- an odd jab about the angry man's being "too old."

Cedric the Entertainer says President Trump deserves the trash talk other world leaders were dropping on him this week, and news flash -- he thinks it happens ALL the time!!!

We got the comedian at the Bounce Trumpet Awards in Hollywood Wednesday night, and asked about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau getting busted gossiping with British PM Boris Johnson and French Prez Emmanuel Macron ... about Trump's lengthy news conference.

Cedric tells us it's a case of Trump reaping what he sows, and the only shocking aspect of the NATO Summit smack-talk sesh is it's the first time a prominent world figure's been caught poking fun at POTUS.

As for how Trudeau can smooth things over -- Trump did call him "two-faced" after all -- Ced had some advice, based on experience.

The PM's already trying ... as we reported, Trudeau addressed the video by admitting they were discussing "certainly notable" events, but claims it wasn't as bad as it looked.

Andrew Yang celebrated opening a new office with a never before seen method in politics ... MUCH to the chagrin of his campaign manager.

The trending presidential candidate has stayed in the race with some unconventional ideas ... but this one takes the cake. He christened the new digs in New Hampshire by spraying whipped cream into the mouths of supporters on their knees.

To put it politically -- the optics are very interesting here.

Check out the vid ... the Yang fan in a MATH ("Make America Think Harder") hat clearly eggs on the Democratic hopeful, even insisting to Yang's resistant campaign manager, Zach Graumann, that the questionable celebration is "just a joke."

Andrew gleefully partakes, but then makes the jaw-dropping display even more baffling by declaring ... "That's a full-service presidential candidate!"

Yang goes on to say the whipped cream shot is how you open an office in style, then sprays it into the mouth of ANOTHER kneeling supporter ... before Graumann pulls him away.

For President Trump, the gloves are off with Justin Trudeau after the Canadian Prime Minister was caught talking smack about Trump during a NATO Summit event.

The incriminating vid plays like a "Mean Girls" scene, but at Buckingham Palace instead of a school cafeteria. Trudeau, British PM Boris Johnson, French Prez Emmanuel Macron and others seemed to be chatting Tuesday night about Trump's impromptu 40-minute news conference earlier in the day.

To be honest, it seemed more catty than chatty, and Trudeau went on to say Trump's team's "jaws dropped to the floor."

Of course, once Trump got wind of that convo, he went in on Trudeau, calling him "two-faced." He also floated the theory Canada's PM was just being pissy because of a NATO funding dispute.

Trump says he called out Trudeau for not paying 2 percent of Canada gross domestic product into NATO's defense spending.

He tried to play it cool, adding, "[Trudeau]'s a nice guy. I find him to be a very nice guy" -- but ya know this beef is just heating up.

The NATO Summit just turned into "Melrose Place."

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree ...
How much you f@#%ing cost us?!

When President Trump lights up the National Christmas Tree this week, it's not the decorations that should mesmerize you -- it's the six figures YOU spent to replace last year's tree!!!

The National Park Service planted the new nat'l tree -- a 30-foot Colorado blue spruce from Pennsylvania -- back in October on the Ellipse in D.C.'s President's Park. The old one, it turns out, was damaged shortly after the 2018 lighting ceremony, where one scofflaw went wild.

Ya might remember, the guy wreaked havoc by getting behind the curtain of lights and climbing up the tree's delicate limbs.

As we reported ... the cops got him down after a struggle, and the climber -- described as being under "emotional distress" -- was taken to a hospital for mental evaluation.

Unfortunately, he caused the tree -- which had been there since 2012 -- a lot of distress too. According to federal docs, obtained by TMZ, the gov't paid a tree company $163,984 to plant the new one. It's officially our 6th National Christmas Tree, which can be visited year-round at the park. Might as well go see what your tax dollars bought.

Additionally, the cost of Trump's third lighting ceremony is up significantly compared to last year. According to the docs, the White House tab totals $180,633 ... up from 2018's total of $141,944.

We broke the story ... the 2018 ceremony's cost was only slightly up compared to 2017, with event management services accounting for the majority of the expenses. Other expenses included sound system rental and ballistic glass to protect Donald, Melania and the First Fam.

It's unclear why there's a $40k increase this year. We've reached out to Infinite Power LLC, the company providing event management services ... but no word back yet.

The new tree will be lit for the first time Thursday night -- and that cha-ching you'll be hearing ain't jingle bells!!!

Kamala Harris is no longer in the running for President of the United States -- she says she's bowing out 'cause the money ran out.

The California Senator made the announcement to her staff Tuesday and plans to release a video statement soon. She says the reason for the move -- which she calls "one of the hardest decisions of my life" -- is simple ... her campaign doesn't have the financial resources it needs to continue.

She adds that she's not a billionaire and can't fund her own campaign like some of the others, and it's become too hard to raise the money needed to compete.

The news comes on the heels of Harris canceling a high-profile fundraiser in New York for what was called a "personal matter." Sen. Harris dropping out also comes after recent polls showed she has dropped to sixth place in the Democratic primary ... even behind late entry Michael Bloomberg.

Her husband, Douglas Emhoff, tweeted a message of support as the news broke ... saying he's always got her back.

Senator Harris has had her share of highs and lows since announcing her 2020 presidential candidacy in January ... especially at the debates. A couple of her best moments include the most recent debate, when she declared "Donald Trump got punked" by North Korea.

And, back in the first debate in June, she famously went toe-to-toe with Joe Biden.

However, she also took some heat at an early debate for the way she treated fellow candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

Just to update your scorecards ... with Kamala's departure, there are still a whopping 15 candidates left.

Common has some advice for Pete Buttigieg, and any other Democratic candidate, on how to win the black vote -- be yourself and be present.

The rapper, actor and activist was leaving LAX Monday night when he gave us his 2 cents on Mayor Pete's efforts to get black voters' attention. It's been a focal point for Buttigieg's campaign after polls showed him lagging in that department.

To that point, perhaps, Common told us he doesn't know a lot about Pete specifically -- but he offered some tips, saying it's important to spend time in the community and not just for face time. He said the key is sincere engagement with voters on the issues.

Mayor Pete was down in the Carolinas this past weekend, including a trip to meet students at South Carolina State University. Common also advises ... black folks know a real one when they see it.

The spirit of Christmas is alive and well at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and so is "The Spirit of America" ... impeachment hearings be damned, as far as the First Lady's concerned.

Melania Trump unveiled the patriotic theme for this holiday season's decorations at The White House, saying ... "I am delighted to share this beautiful exhibit of patriotism for all to see."

In a video, Mrs. Trump walked down the halls, cruising through different wings to reveal the USAwesome highlights ... like a White House advent calendar, a gingerbread house in the State Dining Room featuring the WH and famous landmarks from across the country and multiple gorgeous Christmas trees.

The trees include A Gold Star Family Tree to honor those who lost their lives serving in the military ... and the official 18-foot-tall White House Christmas tree.

At one point, Melania's seen sprinkling snow on the tree's branches, and the ornaments include red, white and blue flags and ribbons ... and Scrabble tiles spelling out "Be Best" -- the name of her anti-bullying initiative.

President Trump couldn't give Conan, the ISIS-killing dog, a real Medal of Honor ... so U.S. Special Forces just cooked up a new award so DT could present it to the four-legged hero.

We've learned U.S. Special Operations fashioned a one-of-a-kind medal for Conan -- the Belgian Malinois canine credited with helping off ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi earlier this month in a U.S.-led raid -- which 45 gave the pooch during Monday's visit to the White House.

A U.S. Special Ops spokesperson tells TMZ ... the award has no specific name, and it was created specifically to recognize the dog for his contribution to the al-Baghdadi operation. We're told Special Ops created the award specifically for Trump to present to Conan.

As you know ... Conan wasn't eligible for the actual Medal of Honor, because those only get dished out to humans.