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Facebook Admits ‘Mistake’ In Censoring Iconic Trump Assassination Attempt Photo

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Photo via Pixabay images

On Monday, a Facebook spokesperson admitted the platform wrongly called the popular image of Donald Trump pumping his fist in the air after an assassination attempt against him an “altered photo.”

Meta Public Affairs Director Dani Lever later explained on X it was done in error as the systems were meant to detect a separate version of the image.

“This was an error. This fact check was initially applied to a doctored photo showing the secret service agents smiling, and in some cases our systems incorrectly applied that fact check to the real photo. This has been fixed, and we apologize for the mistake,” Lever wrote.

Lever confirmed the mistake when Fox News Digital reached out for a comment.

The altered image Lever referenced featured the Secret Service members surrounding Trump smiling. USA Today and AFP United States previously fact-checked the images as “altered,” though it confirmed the accuracy of the original image.

“None of the agents in the original image are smiling as they surround Trump, who has blood on his face and his right arm in the air. The image – which was captured by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci and distributed by the AP – appeared with coverage of the shooting by CNN, The Atlantic, Business Insider and many other legitimate news outlets,” USA Today explained.

USA Today’s fact-check on the altered photo was used as a “third-party fact-checker” when Facebook corrected the photo.

Google has recently come under criticism for omitting search results for Trump’s recent assassination attempt.

Trump Files To Overturn Latest Conviction After SCOTUS Ruling

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Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

On Monday, former President Donald Trump moved to overturn his criminal conviction in the Manhattan hush-money case after the Supreme Court ruled presidents have immunity for “official acts” committed while in office.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged the former president in May with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts in the Manhattan case.  

Lawyers for Trump had filed a motion to dismiss the verdict hours after the Supreme Court’s ruling. 

Duncan Lock, Dflock, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The motion came on the same day that the district attorney’s office sent sentencing recommendations to Judge Juan M. Merchan – who presided over the Manhattan trial – though it remains unclear whether that will be seen by the public, per reporting from The New York Times.  
Judge Merchan has received a letter from Trump’s lawyers, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to Fox News Digital

The letter asks for permission to file a motion to vacate the jury’s Manhattan verdict, asks for a delay of the July 11 sentencing, and cites the high court’s decision in arguing that evidence was included at trial that should not have been admitted. 

To file a motion in New York, defendants must first request permission from the judge in the case. 

On Tuesday, Manhattan prosecutors agreed with Donald J. Trump’s request to postpone his criminal sentencing so that the judge overseeing the case could weigh whether a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling might impact his conviction, according to The New York Times.

On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that a former president has absolute immunity for his core constitutional powers.

Former presidents are also entitled to at least a presumption of immunity for their official acts. There is no immunity, the court holds, for unofficial acts.

The Supreme Court returned the case to the trial court to determine what is left of special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment against the former President.

Nikki Haley Lands New Gig After Failed Trump Challenge

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The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Donald Trump’s last Republican rival has landed a fresh new job.

Nikki Haley the former two-term South Carolina governor who served as ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump administration, is joining the Washington, D.C.-based Hudson Institute.

“Nikki is a proven, effective leader on both foreign and domestic policy,” Hudson President and CEO John P. Walters said in a statement Monday. “In an era of worldwide political upheaval, she has remained a steadfast defender of freedom and an effective advocate for American security and prosperity. We are honored to have her join the Hudson team.”

Fox News has more:

Haley, who received the Hudson Institute’s global leadership award in 2018 during her tenure as U.N. ambassador, will serve as the institute’s Walter P. Stern Chair. According to the Hudson Institute, the position was created four years ago to commemorate a former chair “who was instrumental in making Hudson one of Washington’s most respected research organizations.”

The institute emphasized that “it is fitting that Nikki has taken on this title” because “she is a courageous and insightful policymaker.”

Haley announced that she was suspending her White House campaign on March 6, the day Trump swept 14 of 15 GOP nominating contests on Super Tuesday.

To date, Haley has declined to endorse Trump.

“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him. And I hope he does that,” Haley said last month, as she pointed to those who supported her during her White House run.

“This is now his time for choosing,” she emphasized.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Sued For $800,000

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Mike Lindell via Gage Skidmore Flickr

Ouch…

Shipping and logistics company DHL sued Mike Lindell’s MyPillow this week over an alleged shipping debt of nearly $800,000.

In the lawsuit filed in Minneapolis on Monday, DHL alleged Lindell’s company violated a previous lawsuit settlement from May 2023 which required MyPillow to pay off its $775,000 debt to DHL in 24 monthly installments.

According to the lawsuit, MyPillow only partially paid off the required installments, paying DHL $64,583.34, with the last installment in June.

DHL reportedly threatened to sue MyPillow in July and, after several months of no success, finally filed its lawsuit in court this week.

DHL is now seeking $799,925.59 from MyPillow, along with attorney fees and an 18% annual interest.

Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

Lindell who has been a vocal and active supporter of former President Donald Trump has been embroiled in a number of lawsuits over the past few years, including defamation lawsuits from Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic over his allegations that the 2020 election was rigged.

In February, Lindell was ordered to pay $5 million to a man after he lost his own “Prove Mike Wrong” challenge.

In March, MyPillow was evicted from a warehouse in Minnesota for allegedly being $200,000 behind on rent.

New York Launches Probe Into Trump Judge

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Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct has launched an investigation into a New York attorney’s claim that he advised Judge Arthur Engoron in the case against former President Donald Trump.

Attorney Adam Leitman Bailey told WNBC-TV that he had a courthouse conversation with Engoron three weeks before the judge would slap Trump with a $454 million penalty for fraudulently inflating the value of his assets.

New York judges are barred from considering outside opinions in such a way when litigating a case, yet Bailey said he discussed the legal questions at length with the judge.

Judge Engoron’s ruling ordered Trump to pay nearly $355 million, Donald Jr. and Eric to each pay $4 million, and ex-Trump Org chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg to pay $1 million. The order also barred Trump from serving as a corporate officer or a director of a company in New York for three years, and barred his sons for two years. The Trumps did avoid the so-called “corporate death penalty;”

“I actually had the ability to speak to him three weeks ago,” Bailey said in an interview with the station on Feb. 16, just hours before the judge issued his ruling.

“I saw him in the corner [at the courthouse], and I told my client, ‘I need to go,’” he recounted.

“And I walked over, and we started talking … I wanted him to know what I think and why … I really want him to get it right,” the attorney continued.

He said he “explained to” Engoron that ruling against Trump would have far-reaching implications beyond destroying the former president, including damaging New York’s economy.

If Trump were forced to pay a hefty fine and shut down his business, it would make other companies concerned about similarly being targeted at any time, even when there were no actual damages or victims, as in this case.

Trump’s legal team raised the same points, which Engoron ignored in his verdict.

In a later interview with WNBC, Bailey walked back his claims slightly, saying they “didn’t even mention the word ‘Donald Trump’” during their conversation.

However, the attorney admitted that it was understood exactly what they were discussing.

“Well, obviously, we weren’t talking about the Mets,” Bailey said.

According to the New York State Rules of Judicial Conduct, “a judge shall not initiate, permit, or consider ex parte communications, or consider other communications made to the judge outside the presence of the parties or their lawyers.”

Al Baker, a spokesman for the state’s Office of Court Administration, denied that the judge had broken those rules.

“The decision Justice Engoron issued February 16 was his alone, was deeply considered, and was wholly uninfluenced by this individual,” Baker said in a statement, according to WNBC.

Elon Musk Accuses Trump Ally Of ‘Leaking’ Info To The Media

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UK Government, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Tensions are running high within Trump’s inner circle…

Billionaire Elon Musk clashed publicly with Boris Epshteyn, one of Trump’s closest allies in what sources called a “massive blowout” over key Cabinet appointments.

According to three sources cited by Axios, the dispute reached a boiling point during a dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club last week during which Musk accused Epshteyn of leaking sensitive details about the transition process, including potential personnel picks.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Epshteyn reportedly fired back during the heated exchange.

The altercation highlights a power struggle as Musk, a newcomer to Trump’s inner circle, increasingly advocates for his preferred candidates. Musk has reportedly criticized Epshteyn’s influence in selecting Justice Department nominees, including Matt Gaetz for attorney general.

Musk is lobbying for Howard Lutnick, co-chair of Trump’s transition team, as Treasury secretary, over Wall Street veteran Scott Bessent.

Despite the friction, Musk maintains considerable support among Trump’s family and allies. 

However, the tech billionaire’s growing role in the transition has rankled longtime Trump loyalists, who view him as overstepping boundaries. 

Musk has been among the president-elect’s most vocal and influential supporters since he endorsed Trump immediately after a July assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally but some in Trump’s inner circle say the Tesla CEO is being to overstay his welcome.

“Elon won’t go home. I can’t get rid of him. Until I don’t like him,” Trump quipped, according to a source in the room when Trump met with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill last Wednesday.

some Republicans have questioned how long Trump and Musk can happily co-exist, particularly given Trump’s past frustration with those who take up too much of the spotlight.

“Trump is not going to have another alpha. I think Trump is going to tire of him,” one source close to the transition told The Hill.

One Republican lobbyist with ties to Trump said there are some in the president-elect’s orbit who think Musk is “a little big for his britches.”

Trump transition team spokesperson Karoline Leavitt did not respond to requests for comment from The Hill, but in a statement on Wednesday to NBC News described Musk and Trump as “great friends and brilliant leaders working together to Make America Great Again.”

“Elon Musk is a once in a generation business leader and our federal bureaucracy will certainly benefit from his ideas and efficiency,” Leavitt said.

‘Shark Tank’ Host Vows To ‘Never Invest’ In ‘Loser State’ New York Following Trump Ruling

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Gage Skidmore Flickr

Kevin O’Leary, co-host of the TV show “Shark Tank” and a successful investor in his own right, stated in a Monday interview with Fox News host Neil Cavuto that he will never invest in New York after a judge ordered Donald Trump to pay over $350 million in penalties in a civil fraud case.

“I’m not different than any other investor. I’m shocked at this. I can’t even understand or fathom the decision at all. There’s no rationale for it,” O’Leary told Cavuto.

From Mediaite:

In his New York fraud case, Trump was ordered by Judge Arthur Engoron to pay more than $350 million, and the former president was also barred from doing business in New York for three years. Trump was accused of fraud through past valuations of his properties that were inflated and used to get more beneficial agreements in a civil lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

O’Leary called Trump’s actions a victimless crime and said other companies are now going to be even more fearful to conduct business in New York, which the Canadian-born O’Leary called a “loser state.”

“It doesn’t matter what the governor says, New York was already a loser state. Like California‘s a loser state. There are many loser states because of policy, high taxes, uncompetitive regulation, it was already on the top of the list of being a loser state. I would never invest in New York now, and I’m not the only person saying that,” he said.

O’Leary, long a vocal critic of New York’s policies for business, described running into massive amounts of red tape while trying to set up a “high end data center” in New York and he’s now abandoning the state for “winner states,” like the Oklahoma, North Dakota, and West Virginia.

“The fine people of New York should ask themselves, why are we such a loser state? How are we going attract business?” O’Leary continued. “It’s not just the existing businesses that are fleeing out to Texas and Florida. What about new money like what I’m talking about?”

“This is a New York problem now,” the businessman, investor and philanthropist concluded.

This article originally appeared on American Liberty News. Republished with permission.

Airbnb Co-Founder Opens Up About Leaving Democrat Party to Support Trump

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President Donald Trump participates in a welcome ceremony with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Al Saud at the Royal Court Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)

Earlier this week, Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia opened up about why he decided to leave the Democrat Party to support President Donald Trump.

During an interview with former White House official Katie Miller – the wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller – Gebbia revealed how he became drawn to the Republican Party through Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the crisis at the southern border.

“At what point did you know in the last election that you were like, ‘I wanna help President Trump’? Was it Bobby Kennedy and your love for MAHA? Like, what was it?” asked Miller on The Katie Miller Podcast.

Gebbia responded, “I’ve been on my journey. Everyone’s been on a journey, and I think through, you know, certainly Bobby Kennedy and supporting him, and I’ve been so grateful for the work that he’s doing, to be somebody who just cares so much about the health of our nation, and you know, has no ties to industry and is really just able to bust through walls and sort of, like, right size the ship.”

The Airbnb co-founder revealed that he “grew up in an alternative medicine, health food household,” which made him gravitate towards Kennedy when he ran for president on a “Make America Healthy Again” platform.

Watch:

However, Gebbia told Miller it was the crisis at the southern border that ultimately made him lose faith in the Democratic Party and become a Republican.

“I think it was early 2021, mid-2021, the activity at the border caught my attention, and I just remember thinking, ‘What’s going on with this topic? It seems as if there’s no border,’” he said. “And as it got worse that year, I felt like I needed to understand this problem more, so I reached out to my friends, largely on the Democratic side of the house, at all levels, from the highest level all the way down.”

Gebbia said that while he received “some answers” from friends in the Democratic Party, he ultimately “felt unfulfilled,” and so decided to talk to former Trump senior adviser Jared Kushner about the issue:

I get on the phone with Jared and say, “Hey, can you help me? Fill in the gaps for me. Like, what am I missing here? Is this normal? Like, seems there’s no enforcement of our own border. Like, don’t nations need borders to be a nation?” And so he put me on this curriculum of just talking to experts in the field, and I remember just being like holy cow, this is crazy. Like, this is not right. This is a real problem and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be enforcing the laws of our country and our border. And so I think, as I started to pull on that thread, I sort of, you know, begin to look at other topics and eventually came to the point where I don’t think I can support a political party that wants to have an open border, that lets in criminals and dangerous people into our country. That’s just not something I can get behind.

Watergate Prosecutor Says ‘Trump Is Toast’ In Fraud Trial 

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Slowking4, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Ackerman said former President Trump is “toast” in his New York civil fraud case.

New York Attorney General Letitia James’ case accuses Trump, his two adult sons, the Trump Organization, and top executives of falsely inflating the values of Trump’s real estate properties and other assets in order to get tax benefits and better loan terms.

James seeks around $250 million in damages, and she wants to bar Trump and his co-defendants from running another business in New York.

According to The Hill, Ackerman argued people are not only focused on the former president’s testimony but also his deposition with James’s lawyers last summer, where he invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 400 times.

“Now what does it mean to take the Fifth Amendment? It means that you are refusing to answer a question, because a truthful answer would tend to be incriminating,” Ackerman said. “Then what did Donald Trump do last week? He went into court and said, ‘Oh, I didn’t do anything fraudulent, I wasn’t involved in a fraud.’ Which is just the opposite what in effect he was saying when he took the Fifth Amendment in his deposition.”

“So you’ve got contradictory testimony,” Ackerman continued. “You can use his assertion of the Fifth Amendment against him to basically find that he’s lying, that he’s manipulating the system when he goes in, refuses to answer questions, answers the questions in a half-baked manner.”

Earlier this week when Trump took the stand he fiercely defended his business practices and condemned those involved in the case as politically motivated “Trump haters.”

“I just don’t see how this judge at the end of the day is not going to find that, with respect to Donald Trump … ‘Liar, liar, pants on fire,’” Ackerman said.

Ackerman said that in his more than 40 years of civil law experience, he has never seen anyone “do such a stupid move as to suddenly start testifying” after they’ve taken the Fifth Amendment.

Billionaire Makes Massive Political Contribution To Trump

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Image via Pixabay free images

One of the largest single disclosed gifts ever…

A reclusive billionaire from a storied American family with a legacy dating back to the Gilded Age has made one of the largest political contributions in the history of American politics.

Timothy Mellon, heir to the Mellon banking fortune, made a $50 million contribution to the pro-Trump super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc.

At the end of April, the organization had only $34.5 million.

In a memo following Mellon’s donation, the PAC announced it had reserved $100 million in advertising through Labor Day.

The New York Times continues:

Mr. Mellon is now the first donor to give $100 million in disclosed federal contributions in this year’s election. He was already the single largest contributor to super PACs supporting both Mr. Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running as an independent. Mr. Mellon has previously given $25 million to both.

Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Democrats have sought to portray Mr. Kennedy as a spoiler supported by Republicans, in part by emphasizing Mr. Mellon’s dual contributions and seemingly split loyalties. The pro-Kennedy super PAC has distributed quotations from the hard-to-reach Mr. Mellon, and for a blurb that appears on the cover of Mr. Mellon’s upcoming book, Mr. Kennedy called the billionaire a “maverick entrepreneur.”

It is not clear what Mr. Mellon’s mega-donation means for his support of Mr. Kennedy going forward. He has so far toggled between giving to support both candidates. His most recent donation to Mr. Kennedy’s super PAC was a $5 million contribution in April.

But Mr. Mellon’s $50 million gift will significantly help pro-Trump forces narrow the financial advantage that President Biden and his allies have enjoyed so far. Miriam Adelson, the casino billionaire and widow of Sheldon G. Adelson, who died in 2021, has also made plans to fund a pro-Trump super PAC with at least as much money as the $90 million that her family gave in the 2020 campaign, although much of the cash has yet to arrive.

Mellon’s contributions follow Donald Trump‘s conviction in a hush money trial.

Critics argue that the case is politically motivated and based on an overly broad interpretation of campaign finance laws. They add that such payments are common among public figures seeking to avoid public scrutiny.

The Mellon family‘s wealth started when an Irish immigrant named Thomas Mellon founded T. Mellon & Sons’ Bank in Pittsburgh in 1869. His sons, Andrew W. Mellon and Richard B. Mellon, later grew the bank into a strong financial institution. This bank eventually became Mellon Financial Corporation, one of the largest banking institutions in the United States.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Andrew Mellon played a crucial role in financing and supporting key industries such as aluminum, oil, and steel, contributing to the growth of major corporations, such as Gulf Oil, and Union Steel. As secretary of the Treasury from 1921 to 1932, his influence shaped the economic policies of the 1920s, known as the Mellon Plan, which contributed to the economic boom of the decade.

National Photo Company Collection, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 2007, Mellon Financial Corporation merged with The Bank of New York to form BNY Mellon, one of the world’s largest asset management and securities services companies, preserving their 150-year legacy in banking and finance.

Article Published With The Permission of American Liberty News