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Donald Trump Jr. is back to taking shots at Jussie Smollett ... questioning the alleged racist attack, and wondering why Jussie didn't come up with a more believable scenario.

We got the President's son Thursday in New York City and asked what he thought the proper punishment should be for Jussie if he's convicted of the new charges following a grand jury indictment.

Don Jr. says the entire case is terrible for the country and wonders what would happen to Jussie's attackers if his version of events turned out to be true. He seems to think they would have it worse than Smollett.

Don also pokes holes in Jussie's claim his 2 attackers pounced when he went out alone for Subway at 2 AM in sub-zero temperatures. As he put it, Smollett is a "decent actor" but a terrible writer. Translation: He believes Jussie scripted the whole thing.

Jr. sounds a lot like his father ... remember, Donald Trump ripped Jussie during a rally last April ... calling the case a "disgrace," and Jussie a "third rate actor."

Audio of Mike Bloomberg defending stop and frisk policing against minorities has the Presidential hopeful on the ropes, and it's drawing one particularly rich shot ... from President Trump.

The audio is reportedly from a 2015 speech the former NYC Mayor gave for the Aspen Institute ... where he discussed police targeting minorities, and flat-out said ... it's the best way to get guns off the streets.

Bloomberg said, "95% of your murders, murderers and murder victims fit one M.O. You can just take the description, Xerox it, and pass it out to all the cops. They are male, minorities, 16-25. That's true in New York, that's true in virtually every city."

The billionaire went on to explain that the majority of police officers are deployed in minority neighborhoods "because that's where all the crime is. And the way you get the guns out of the kids' hands is to throw them up against the wall and frisk them." He said it's the best way to deter kids from carrying weapons because they won't want to get busted.

Of course, the Democratic candidate for Prez is getting skewered on social media ... and that includes a shot from the Commander-in-Tweet. Early Tuesday President Trump retweeted the audio with the caption, "WOW. BLOOMBERG IS A TOTAL RACIST!"

If that hits you as kinda hypocritical, apparently it also did for someone in the White House -- who might have reminded Prez Trump about his immigration policies -- or the fact he himself has publicly supported "stop & frisk." The tweet was deleted.

We've reached out to Bloomberg's campaign ... no word back yet.

Kim Kardashian West has said she has no interest in running for office, but if she changes her mind, there's one guy she should definitely ask to join her campaign team ... "Shark Tank" star Daymond John.

The FUBU honcho's pretty confident Kim can become president in 8 years or so, and gave us a laundry list of reasons to support his argument Monday night outside the Avra Beverly Hills Estiatorio restaurant.

Daymond tells TMZ ... KKW already has major notches on her belt that look good to voters -- helping free imprisoned grandmother Alice Marie Johnson, and continuing to pursue her education.

On top of that, Kim's own family represents LGBTQ, mixed relationships and female empowerment ... and she lives a clean and healthy lifestyle.

Most importantly, though ... John points out how much people like and trust the Kardashian sister and care about what she has to say -- as evidenced by her massive social media following.

Daymond suggests her following might be hundreds of millions more by the time 2028 rolls around ... and that kind of power at one's fingertips is immeasurable.

Finally, he says there's precedent for public figures making it all the way to The White House -- including the current one, who she and Kanye already have a connection with -- so it's more than possible Kim's next.

Joe Biden called a young female voter a "lying, dog-faced pony soldier" -- a line he's used before and has credited to a John Wayne movie ... which may or may not be accurate.

Biden was campaigning in New Hampshire Sunday, and while at a town hall event where he fielded questions from the crowd, one gal got on the mic and asked something pretty profound ... with his poor performance in Iowa, why should Joe be considered a top dog.

It was a great question from a prospective Biden voter, and right away ... Joe jokingly insulted her by suggesting she was lying. Check out the video, Biden asks the girl if she's ever caucused before. She says yes, but he calls her a liar with the alleged John Wayne line.

We should note ... it doesn't seem Biden was being serious. He said it jokingly and it came off as good-natured. BUT, folks were quick to point out ... it sounded somewhat inappropriate.

What's even crazier is that Joe has used this line before, and explained it in an interview as a line ol' JW used in a movie he saw once. Problem is ... nobody can pinpoint that flick.

It might be because the line Joe thinks was in the unnamed Wayne movie is probably actually from a 1952 Tyrone Power film called "Pony Soldier," which uses that phrase throughout. The whole movie's on YouTube, but we couldn't find this exact pony remark, if you will.

Andy Cohen is stunned Pete Buttigieg is a real contender for the Democratic nomination for President, but he couldn't be happier.

We got Andy Saturday leaving Barry Diller's pre-Oscar bash and he seemed genuinely moved by Mayor Pete ... who was written off by many people in traditional media.

Andy made a great point ... the woman who said she just couldn't vote for Pete because he married a man needs a gay friend. He says she needs someone who can show her gay people are just like straight people in most respects ... they're people.

And, the "Watch What Happens Live" host had high praise for the way Buttigieg answered the question of what he'd say to that woman and what he'd do for her if elected Prez.

President Trump was photographed Friday walking across the White House's South lawn in a photo that has since gone viral -- but the pic appears to have been edited.

DT was captured on camera by a guy named William Moon -- a self-described White House correspondent and photographer, who doesn't appear to be part of the official press corps. or White House staff, but clearly has access of some sort to snap shots like these.

The pic shows DT touching down in a helicopter after a trip to Charlotte, NC ... with the wind picking up his hair and the light seemingly showing a major tan line around his face.

In Moon's photo, the outer edge of Trump's mug seems to be in stark contrast to the rest of his face ... showing a color distinction between pale and what looks to be orange or tan. Getty Images has the same pic, though ... and it's not nearly as saturated as this.

Now, it's possible Moon caught the Prez at a different angle with different lighting than the Getty photog did ... perhaps the photo isn't edited at all. Doesn't seem likely, however.

We were able to boost up the color on our end to make the Getty image look pretty similar to what Moon put up ... so it's clear, anybody with basic Photoshop skills can do it.

Here's one more Getty shot of Trump from the same moment, unedited. Yes, he does seem to have a tan -- but it's not nearly as exaggerated as the "#Orangeface" pic would have you think.

Rush Limbaugh's sharing some sobering news -- he says he's just been diagnosed lung cancer, and it's in an advanced stage.

The iconic conservative firebrand host made the shocking announcement Monday during his radio program. After revealing his diagnosis, Rush said his scheduled cancer treatments will mean taking time off from his show. He admitted there will be times when he just physically won't be able to host due to the treatments.

He was not specific about how doctors plan to attack the cancer.

Rush says he first noticed something was wrong on his 69th birthday last month, so he went for some tests and learned his diagnosis. He says he thought about not telling anyone but didn't want to set off rumors when he started missing shows.

Rush, who started his radio career in the 1970s, says he's going to keep working as long as he can.

Punxsutawney Phil isn't going anywhere, except maybe back in his hole on Groundhog Day to signal 6 more weeks of winter ... so says the congressman representing the city of Punxsutawney.

Rep. Glenn Thompson tells TMZ ... PETA calling for the famous Pennsylvania groundhog to be retired and replaced by an AI robot is crazy and goes against something he strives for -- job creation.

Thompson's half-joking about supporting Phil's right to work like any other resident of Punxsutawney, but he's serious about what the groundhog means to the city and its economy ... and calls PETA's suggestion "crazy" and misguided.

The animal rights organization argues groundhogs -- which are mostly solitary animals -- are subjected to "great stress" during the February 2 tradition and claims an artificially intelligent robot that could actually predict the weather would be better for all parties.

Megxit presented a huge unintended consequence for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ... the loss of one of their beloved titles, Commonwealth Youth Ambassadors.

Sources close to the couple tell TMZ ... the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were "shocked" they had to forgo their roles as youth ambassadors to the Commonwealth ... as part of the Megxit deal they struck with Queen Elizabeth, Prince William and Prince Charles.

As you know ... Harry and Megan were forced to stop using their Royal titles when they spurned the Crown and moved to Canada. We're told the couple didn't expect their ambassadorships to even be on the table during Megxit negotiations -- but the Queen drew a hard line in the sand, and they had to surrender the role.

The Commonwealth is a group of 53 nations ... almost all former British territories, such as Canada. In their time as youth ambassadors, Harry and Meghan were tasked with empowering young people in those countries to tackle the problems facing their generations.

Meghan joined Harry as a youth ambassador right before their wedding, and we're told the job was very important to them. Meghan even had the flowers of all 53 Commonwealth nations embroidered into her wedding dress.

Seems Harry and Meghan are still not ready to let go -- their official website still has an entire section dedicated to their work as youth ambassadors. Time for a site update, STAT!!!

TMZ investigated everything leading up to the Sussexes' departure from the Royal Family. Watch "Harry and Meghan: The Royals in Crisis" on Fox network Wednesday, January 29 at 8 PM.