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Trump fell asleep on stage during the 25th anniversary memorial for the victims of September 11. A former federal judge is warning that Trump and House Republicans are planning to refuse to seat elected Democrats when the new Congress convenes in January. Rand Paul’s staff chartered an $18,000 private jet on the taxpayer’s dime while the senator lectures the country about government waste. And Trump’s nominee for surgeon general disclosed financial investments in Philip Morris, the tobacco company.
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The 25th anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil was not interesting enough to keep the president awake.
Trump’s eyes closed for long periods of time as his head rocked back and forth while he sat on stage at the Pentagon during Friday’s 9/11 memorial service, while the names of the nearly 3,000 victims were read aloud one by one. He also appeared to doze off while a choir performed and while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke.
The White House has tried to deny that Trump was sleeping, with spokesman Davis Ingle claiming the president was “solemnly listening and remembering the victims.” Unfortunately for them, multiple videos of the president with his eyes closed had already gone viral by the time the statement was released.
It wasn’t the first time Trump became a distraction at the annual 9/11 ceremony. Last year, photographs from the Pentagon service showed the then-79-year-old president with a noticeably droopy face, prompting widespread speculation about his health.
Sponsored Kalshi poll: North Carolina Senate winner
The next constitutional crisis has been scheduled ahead of time.
This week, former U.S. Circuit Judge Michael Luttig released a letter warning that Trump and the GOP will refuse to swear in elected Democrats for the 120th Congress. He referred to the strategy as “the final battle for America’s democracy.”
Luttig warned that before the next session starts, House Speaker Mike Johnson will replace the House Clerk, who is in charge of the official roll of representatives. This establishes who is eligible to take a seat and cast a ballot.
Johnson will then appoint a loyalist who will refuse to include newly elected Democratic representatives under the guise of combatting voter fraud. Even a resounding Democratic victory in November would not guarantee the winners’ ability to serve, Luttig cautioned.
A constitutional crisis would engulf the nation as the ensuing lawsuits took weeks or months to settle. The Supreme Court would eventually hear the case, which always goes well.
The senator who once filibustered for 13 hours couldn’t endure a 55-minute commercial flight.
As part of a bipartisan congressional investigation into Trump’s attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, six employees of Senator Rand Paul took a private jet from Washington to Pittsburgh. Politico reports that taxpayers paid $17,827 for the flight.
Over eighteen percent of the investigative committee’s six-month travel and transportation expenses came from just that charter. Other committee employees drove or flew commercially to make the same trip at a fraction of the price.
Since 2012, Paul’s leadership PAC and campaign committee have spent over $113,000 on private aircraft. Spokesman Drew Carmichael said that the charter was the “most efficient and effective” choice and that it complied with all Senate regulations, although he could not elaborate on how it was less expensive or more effective than a commercial trip.
Paul has made a career out of performative frugality. He has voted against disaster relief funding, opposed raising the debt ceiling, filibustered spending bills, and once returned more than $600,000 from his own office budget to the Treasury while publicly demanding that every other senator do the same.
The third time is apparently not the charm.
Nicole Saphier, Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, disclosed investments in Philip Morris International, the tobacco company, as well as Monster Beverage, Coca-Cola, and PepsiCo, according to financial disclosures released Thursday. She also holds stock in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies including Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, AstraZeneca, Merck, and AbbVie.
Her prominent advocacy for eliminating food additives and reducing ultra-processed foods from diets makes it especially challenging to justify her investment in Philip Morris.
Saphier works at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New Jersey as a radiologist and director of breast imaging. She was a Fox News medical contributor from 2018 until Trump nominated her in April, making her the third Fox News personality he has chosen for the role.
Janette Nesheiwat, Trump’s first nomination, was withdrawn due to concerns regarding her educational background. His second, wellness influencer Casey Means, did not make it out of committee because she would not state whether or not she would advise parents to vaccinate their children against measles.
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Sanders and Takano Introduce Bill for a 32-Hour Work Week. This week, Representative Mark Takano and Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act. Over the course of four years, the plan would progressively reduce the federal overtime threshold from 40 hours per week to 32, making it more costly for companies to ask employees to work overtime. Additionally, the law would forbid companies from reducing wages or benefits due to the reduction in regular hours. According to Sanders, the law was a reaction to decades of automation and technological productivity advances that have enriched businesses while worker salaries have stagnated.
Federal Board Halts Data Center on Public Land in Nevada After Residents Revolt. A planned data center close to Boulder City, Nevada has been halted by the Interior Board of Land Appeals. The Trump administration’s Bureau of Land Management had allotted 80 acres of public land for the project in June without holding a public hearing or conducting an environmental evaluation, instead carrying over an assessment that had been done for a completely unrelated solar farm on the same site. In an area already experiencing a protracted drought, the data center would require up to 167 megawatts of electricity. A petition against the idea was signed by almost 6,200 locals, and 350 hand-painted protest placards were placed in front yards throughout the community.
** Newark Opens Five Nonprofit Grocery Stores With 30 Percent Discounts.** Each of the five wards in the city of Newark, New Jersey now has a grocery shop that offers food and necessities at 30 percent less than wholesale prices. Each store receives $250,000 from the city and is run by local NGOs. The New Jersey Economic Development Authority has designated all five of Newark’s wards as severe food deserts, and the retailers’ urgency has increased since over 40,000 New Jerseyans have lost their food assistance due to new federal work requirements for SNAP recipients. Because the stores are owned by the community rather than an elected politician, they’ll last beyond any one administration.
Wisconsin Prairie Restorations Are Bringing Back Rare Bumblebees. The rusty patched bumblebee, a federally endangered species that has disappeared from more than 90 percent of its original range, has been found at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum after scientists spent years converting 1,200 acres of former farmland back into native wildflowers and prairie grasses. In northern Wisconsin, a rare golden northern bumblebee was documented at a national forest restoration site for the first time in nearly 70 years after crews cleared invasive plants and deliberately reseeded the ground with native species. The findings suggest that targeted prairie restoration can actually reverse pollinator decline, not just slow it down.
