Marine One lifts-off after returning President Donald J. Trump to Mar-a-Lago Friday, March 29, 2019, following his visit to the 143-mile Herbert Hoover Dike near Canal Point, Fla., that surrounds Lake Okeechobee. The visit was part of an infrastructure inspection of the dike, which is part of the Kissimmee-Okeechobee Everglades system, and reduces impacts of flooding for areas of south Florida. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian) [Photo Credit: The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons]
It’s over…
President Donald Trump said he is taking the government-generated documents found in Mar-a-Lago after his first term, where they were seized by the FBI, back to Florida.
The president took to Truth Social on Friday to say he is taking the documents back:
The Department of Justice has just returned the boxes that Deranged Jack Smith made such a big deal about. They are being brought down to Florida and will someday be part of the Trump Presidential Library. Justice finally won out. I did absolutely nothing wrong. This was merely an attack on a political opponent that, obviously, did not work well. Justice in our Country will now be restored.
The FBI seized the documents at Trump’s Florida home and resort in August 2022. Agents found boxes of documents all over Mar-a-Lago, including in a ballroom, a storage room, and a bathroom. Two months before, an attorney for Trump attested to the Department of Justice that to the best of her knowledge, no government documents were at Mar-a-Lago. The raid showed otherwise.
Trump has long claimed he declassified the documents in question and that he took them “very legally.”
“There’s something going on because they’re going after me viciously,” he said in March 2024. “Then all of a sudden it comes out that Biden took 10 times the number of documents that I did. And I took them very legally and I wasn’t hiding them.
On Friday, Kyle Griffin of NBC News reported that White House staffers were seen loading about 15 boxes on Air Force One en route to Mar-a-Lago.
Trump was criminally prosecuted by former Special Counsel Jack Smith, who alleged that the president willfully took classified material to Mar-a-Lago after departing the White House in January 2021.
Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed by Trump in 2020, ultimately dismissed the case on the grounds that Smith’s appointment as special counsel was illegal.
ANALYSIS – Totally tone deaf. Just a little reminder of how ridiculously biased, partisan and idiotic our mainstream media has become, including the fluffy fashion forums.
First Lady Jill Biden, the incredibly unstylish, power-hungry, social climbing, faux intellectual with an unserious Doctor of Education (EdD), has again graced the cover of Vogue magazine.
The New York Post noted how remarkably out of touch the Biden White House is:
After Biden’s horrific debate performance on Thursday, much of the media world reluctantly conceded that our 46th president looks like a lost toddler.
And then there’s Vogue — which literally couldn’t stop the presses. The fashion-bible-turned-Dem-PR-machine was already rolling out its July issue, with cover model Jill Biden in a silk cream Ralph Lauren dress that retails for $4,990.
Office of the President of the United States, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The magazine landed on the internet Monday morning with a resounding, wincing thud.
It was tone deaf. It was tacky — but this shoot and interview, conducted months ago, would have been messy even if the debate disaster had never happened.
Fox News host Jimmy Failla on X had this to say about the horrible caregiver of the elderly and frail Joe Biden:
Melania Trump is an actual super model who speaks 5 languages but she’s NEVER been on the cover of Vogue. Jill Biden commits vicious elder abuse on the world stage and now has two Vogue covers to show for it. Congrats Jill, you’ll be great in “The Devil Wears Depends.”
Melania Trump is an actual super model who speaks 5 languages but she's NEVER been on the cover of Vogue. Jill Biden commits vicious elder abuse on the world stage and now has two Vogue covers to show for it. Congrats Jill, you'll be great in "The Devil Wears Depends."
Former NBC senior executive Mike Sington said, “First Lady Jill Biden appears on the cover of Vogue magazine, which seems like a good time to remind you that Melania Trump never appeared on the cover of Vogue when she was First Lady.”
C.J. Pearson, a co-chair of the GOP Youth Advisory Council, said: “Outside of how tone deaf this following Joe Biden‘s disastrous debate performance, it is even more absurd that Jill Biden somehow graced the cover of Vogue and @MELANIATRUMP was never given the opportunity. Asinine even.”
Another user on X noted: “She will NEVER be Melania.”
Dr. Jill, as she insists on being called, first appeared on a Vogue cover in 2021 right after Joe Biden was inaugurated. She later appeared on the cover of the digital Winter 2023 issue.
Meanwhile, Melania Trump, an actual former supermodel who speaks several languages, and was exemplary, and always stylish and immaculately attired, as first lady is still shunned by the fashion world.
Back in 2005, when she was getting married to The Donald, and well before Trump became president, Melania did get her own Vogue cover as Trump’s new bride. But oddly, she never again got a cover for Vogue or any other fashion, or mainstream magazine. (RELATED: Melania Trump Addresses Jan. 6 for First Time)
Melania Trump is an actual super model who speaks 5 languages but she's NEVER been on the cover of Vogue. Jill Biden commits vicious elder abuse on the world stage and now has two Vogue covers to show for it. Congrats Jill, you'll be great in "The Devil Wears Depends."
Former NBC senior executive Mike Sington said, “First Lady Jill Biden appears on the cover of Vogue magazine, which seems like a good time to remind you that Melania Trump never appeared on the cover of Vogue when she was First Lady.”
C.J. Pearson, a co-chair of the GOP Youth Advisory Council, said: “Outside of how tone deaf this following Joe Biden‘s disastrous debate performance, it is even more absurd that Jill Biden somehow graced the cover of Vogue and @MELANIATRUMP was never given the opportunity. Asinine even.”
Another user on X noted: “She will NEVER be Melania.”
The fact that she never landed a Vogue cover in her White House years was such a point of consternation that the former First Lady Trump criticized Wintour, who also serves as Condé Nast’s chief content officer, for it during a 2022 Fox News interview.
As Jill Biden‘s role in encouraging President Joe Biden to stay in the presidential race — despite his lackluster performance in Thursday night’s debate with Donald Trump — continues to be hashed over in the media and around the globe, Vogue debuted its August issue with the first lady on its cover.
In this already deeply divided country, the Condé Nast fashion magazine — intentionally or not — has ratcheted up the public dispute about Biden’s full-steam-ahead plans. As of Monday afternoon, Vogue‘s post of the first lady’s cover had 51,960 likes and 5,286 comments. The first lady donned an ivory Ralph Lauren Collection dress for the Norman Jean Roy-shot cover that accompanied Maya Singer’s interview.
Of course, Vogue’s editorial direction is strongly liberal. WWD added:
Requests for comment from Vogue’s global editorial director Anna Wintour and Singer through a Vogue spokesperson were declined. The company spokesperson said, “It’s no secret that Anna has been a supporter of Democratic campaigns for decades. Our August cover story is a look at the tremendous work Dr. Biden has done, and the most urgent issues in 2024 and beyond.”
Meanwhile, a parting comment: Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt wrote, “Nice puff piece on the most valueless person in America and her bid to keep her corpse-like husband into the White House to stay relevant.”
Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.
President Donald Trump’s latest appearance on The Ingraham Angle turned out to be anything but routine. In a Monday night interview filmed in the Oval Office, Fox News host Laura Ingraham pressed the president repeatedly—on housing, the economy, foreign policy, and the MAGA movement itself—leading to one of Trump’s most combative televised exchanges in recent memory.
Before the interview even aired, a preview clip posted to Ingraham’s Facebook page hinted at the unusual tone. Filming amid Trump’s famously gold-adorned surroundings, she teased, “So these aren’t from Home Depot?” The moment didn’t make it to air, but it set the stage for what followed: a testy back-and-forth between two of the most influential voices in conservative politics.
Trump on Housing and the Economy
Ingraham began by raising concerns about housing affordability and the average age of first-time homebuyers now hitting 40. Trump interrupted, “We inherited that, you have to understand,” but Ingraham shot back, “Let me get to the question, though.”
She challenged Trump on his proposal for a 50-year mortgage—a concept some in the MAGA base criticized as prolonging debt. “Is that really a good idea?” she asked.
“It’s not even a big deal,” Trump said. “I mean, you go from 40 to 50 years.” Ingraham corrected him: “30 to 50 years.” Trump deflected, blaming “Joe Biden and his lousy Fed person, Jerome Powell,” before asserting, “If we had a normal person, the Fed would have really low interest rates.”
Ingraham pressed further: “Why are people saying they are anxious about the economy?” Trump dismissed the premise. “I don’t know that they are saying [that]. I think polls are fake. We have the greatest economy we ever had.”
Her question came as Republicans are still reeling from setbacks in the New Jersey and Virginia elections. “Do you think voters have the wrong perception?” Ingraham asked. Trump responded, “More than anything else, it’s a con job by the Democrats. Costs are way down.”
The $10,000 Bonus Controversy
Ingraham also questioned Trump’s Truth Social post offering a $10,000 bonus to air traffic controllers working through the government shutdown. “There are a lot of delays now, sir,” she noted.
Trump replied, “I’m not happy when I saw people refusing to do unpaid work during the shutdown. Look, life is not so easy for anybody. Our country has never done better. We should not have had people leaving their jobs. What I basically said—the ones that stayed, there were a lot of them—I’m sending them a $10,000 bonus.”
When Ingraham pressed, “Where is that money coming from?” Trump quipped, “I don’t know. I will get it from some place. I always get the money from some place, regardless. It doesn’t matter.”
Sparring Over China and Foreign Students
The discussion turned global when Ingraham cited a CNN report on China expanding its missile facilities. “China are not our friends, sir,” she said.
“They don’t want to mess around with us,” Trump countered. When Ingraham noted China’s theft of U.S. intellectual property, Trump asked, “Do you think the French are better?” Ingraham said yes. Trump shot back, “I’m not so sure.”
The tension deepened when Ingraham raised the issue of foreign students. “A lot of MAGA folks are not thrilled about this idea of hundreds of thousands of foreign students in the United States,” she said. “Why, sir, is that a pro-MAGA position?”
Trump defended the policy: “Without foreign students, you would have half the colleges in the United States go out of business.”
“So what?” Ingraham said bluntly. Trump replied, “I think that’s a big deal.”
The MAGA Movement—and Media Dynamics
Ingraham repeatedly framed questions around the “MAGA folks” critical of Trump’s ideas. Trump pushed back: “MAGA was my idea. It was nobody else’s idea. I know better than anybody else MAGA wants to see our country thrive.”
That line captured Trump’s increasingly defensive posture—not just toward Democrats, but toward members of the conservative media who now challenge him more openly. While The Ingraham Angle once provided friendly ground, Monday’s interview underscored the shifting balance between Trump and right-leaning outlets seeking to assert independence ahead of the 2024 election.
Observers note that Trump’s prickly demeanor may reflect deeper frustrations: inflationary pressures remain despite his attacks on Biden’s policies; conservative pundits are fracturing over strategy; and Trump’s own polling among independent voters has shown volatility. Within this context, even mild criticism from longtime allies can provoke his ire.
A Tense Exchange Symbolizing a Larger Rift
The Oval Office encounter stood in stark contrast to Ingraham’s earlier visit in March, when Trump jovially showed off his “Coke button” and griped about paving over the Rose Garden. This time, there were no laughs—just sharp exchanges between two seasoned figures who have long shaped Republican discourse.
On Tuesday, Fox News host Steve Doocy suggested former President Trump may have been behind the leak of an audio recording showing Trump talking about his handling of classified documents.
In newly obtained audio former president Donald Trump can be heard discussing classified documents with people not cleared to have access to the highly sensitive information.
On Monday’s edition of Anderson Cooper 360, the host claimed that the audio from 2021, exposes Trump sharing US military war plans against Iran despite the former president telling Fox News host Bret Baier earlier this month that there was no such document. (RELATED:Trump Responds After New Audio Tapes Discussing Classified Docs Surface)
“You know what? If Trump thinks it’s an exoneration of him, perhaps somebody on his side actually did the leaking to CNN and Maggie Haberman,” Doocy said Tuesday morning.
“That makes sense,” co-host Brian Kilmeade chimed in.
Trump was federally indicted earlier this month in connection to his handling of classified documents. He said Monday night the audio is “actually an exoneration” and accused the Department of Justice of intentionally leaking the recording.
“The Deranged Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith, working in conjunction with the DOJ & FBI, illegally leaked and ‘spun’ a tape and transcript of me which is actually an exoneration, rather than what they would have you believe,” he said in a post on Truth Social.
Looking east towards 6th Avenue along north (48th Street) side of Fox News building on a snowy afternoon. [Photo Credit: Jim.henderson, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons]
On Tuesday, before Trump administration adviser Peter Navarro reported to prison Fox News unexpectedly cut away from the press conference to fact-check claims he was making.
Navarro told reporters in Miami on Tuesday, “They can put me in prison; they can put you in prison.”
Fox News just cut off Peter Navarro as he delivered his final statement before being thrown into federal prison by the Biden Admin
“Make no mistake about that, and make no mistake about this: They are coming after Donald Trump with the same tactics, tools and strategies they used to put me over there today,” he continued.
Navarro also claimed he was the “first senior White House adviser in the history of our republic that has ever been charged with this alleged crime.”
As the network cut away from Navarro’s press conference, Fox anchor Sandra Smith said “to fact-check there. It is no longer an alleged crime that he’ll be serving this four-month sentence for.”
“He has obviously been convicted, and there was no evidence that did … that would have excluded him, per executive privilege, from testifying,” she said.
Navarro, 74, was convicted last year on two counts of contempt of Congress.
Former President Donald Trump is done playing nice…
In a series of harsh Truth Social posts the White House hopeful released a scathing rebuke of some of Rupert Murdoch’s top American media properties.
“In a phony and probably rigged Wall Street Journal poll, coming out of nowhere to softened the mental incompetence blow that is so obvious with Crooked Joe Biden, they ask about my age and mentality. Where did that come from?,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website. “Now that the Globalists at Fox & the WSJ have failed to push their 3rd tier candidate to success, they do this.”
The former president took a shot at Fox specifically, calling out the network over a multi-million dollar settlement it paid Dominion Voting Systems in April.
“The Wall Street Journal & Fox are damaged goods after their failed DeSanctimonious push & stupid $780,000,000 ‘settlement.’ MORONS!!!” Trump said.
In a final social media post late Sunday, Trump criticized Fox’s coverage of his popularity within the GOP and with American voters more generally.
“The Wall Street Journal and FoxNews keep pushing the narrative, through Trey Gowdy and others, that ‘BOTH’ Crooked Joe Biden and 45th President Donald J. Trump are unpopular within their own Party,” he said. “This happens to be true for Crooked Joe, where they won’t even let RFK Jr. have his votes fairly counted (more RIGGING, and STEALING Elections!), but VERY untrue for ‘TRUMP,’ where I have a 90% Approval Rating, and am crushing the ‘second tier’ candidates by 50, 60, and even 70 Points. THAT’S POPULAR!”
The current front-runner for the Republican nomination for president, skipped the first GOP debate last month, partly due to what he says is a “hostile” relationship with Fox and Murdoch.
Trump has said he does not plan to attend the Sept. 27 debate.
Thor Brødreskift / Nordiske Mediedager, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
On Friday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld one-time former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s Jan. 6th contempt of Congress conviction.
The news was reported by Politico senior legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney, who noted that the ruling was by a unanimous three-judge panel.
BREAKING: Steve BANNON's conviction for defying the Jan. 6 committee has been upheld by a unanimous three-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.
His four-month jail sentence has been on hold pending this ruling.
The three judge panel rejected Bannon’s appeal of his conviction for defying a subpoena to testify before the congressional subcommittee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Bannon was sentenced to four months in 2022 on one count for his refusal to appear before Congress and another count for failing to produce documents requested by the subcommittee.
Bannon’s conviction being upheld paves the way for him to be required to actually serve his four-month prison sentence.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) is facing an uphill battle for confirmation.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, signaled he plans to meet again with Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii).
Fox News’s Chad Pergram summed up the Virginia Democrat’s remarks, quoting, “This is an extraordinarily serious job that requires maintaining the independence of the intelligence community. It also means maintaining the cooperation of our allies. We’ve got a lot of our intelligence from our allies on a sharing basis, and if those that information is not kept secure, it raises huge concern. So..we’ve got a number of questions out for her. This is the beginning of a process.”
Top Dem on Senate Intel Cmte Warner on mtg w/DNI nominee Gabbard: I went in with a lot of questions. I've still got a lot of questions. This is an extraordinarily serious job that requires maintaining the independence of the intelligence community. It also means maintaining the…
Axios reported on Tuesday that Warner and other Senate Democrats have moved to delay Gabbard’s hearing.
“Warner has pointed out that the committee has not yet received Gabbard’s FBI background check, ethics disclosure or a pre-hearing questionnaire, a source familiar with the matter told us. Committee rules require the background check a week in advance of a hearing,” reported Axios.
Intel Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) told the outlet in a statement he “intends to hold these hearings before Inauguration Day. The Intelligence Committee, the nominees, and the transition are diligently working toward that goal.”
“After the terrorist attacks on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, it’s sad to see Sen. Warner and Democrats playing politics with Americans’ safety and our national security,” Trump transition spokesperson Alexa Henning also told Axios.
On Monday, former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court to plead guilty to charges related to Donald Trump’s civil fraud case.
Weisselberg pleaded guilty to perjury charges stemming from his testimony in former President Trump’s civil fraud trial.
The top executive was ordered to pay more than $1.1 million, plus interest.
Weisselberg’s charges stem from his testimony in October during the civil fraud trial, where he testified that he “never focused on” Trump’s Manhattan triplex that was listed on the former president’s financial statements as 30,000 square feet in size – despite actually being less than 11,000 square feet.
But after Weisselberg testified, Forbes published an article accusing him of lying under oath, citing years old correspondence between the magazine and Trump Organization executive.
“A review of old emails and notes, some of which the attorney general’s office does not possess, show that Weisselberg absolutely thought about Trump’s apartment—and played a key role in trying to convince Forbes over the course of several years that it was worth more than it really was,” Forbes wrote in its Oct. 12 article.
When confronted by state lawyers about the Forbes article, Weisselberg conceded that the triplex in the former president’s 5th Avenue Trump Tower was only 10,996 square feet.
Weisselberg is among several top executives at the Trump organization who were barred last month from operating their business in New York for a range of two to three years. That ruling came from Judge Aurthur Engoron, who also banned Trump and his children from operating the business.
A New York Appeals Court allowed Trump and his sons to maintain control of the company temporarily while they attempt to appeal Engoron’s decision.
Engoron also “permanently” barred defendants Weisselberg and former corporate controller Jeffrey McConney from “serving in the financial control function of any New York corporation or similar business entity registered and/or licensed in New York State” and as a director of any New York corporation or other legal entity in New York for three years.
“There was never an option to choose a jury trial,” a Trump spokesperson told Fox News Digital last month. “It is unfortunate that a jury won’t be able to hear how absurd the merits of this case are and conclude no wrongdoing ever happened.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) sued Trump in 2022, alleging he falsely altered his net worth on key financial statements to receive tax and insurance benefits. The documents, which detailed the value of the Trump Organization’s various assets, were sent to banks and insurers to secure loans and deals, which the state purports is evidence of fraud.
An Iowa state senator is turning his back on former President Donald Trump.
On Thursday, Jeff Reichman flipped his endorsement for president from Trump to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis after the former President lashed out at Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.
“Iowa Republicans must be united if we are going to take our country back and reverse Joe Biden’s failures,” Jeff Reichman, a first-term state senator, said in a statement. “Governor DeSantis has achieved the same type of commonsense policy victories in Florida as we have in Iowa under Governor Kim Reynolds, and he will deliver historic success for the conservative movement as president as well.”
In March, the first term Iowa state senator was listed among roughly a dozen Iowa officials who the Trump campaign rolled out as early endorsers of the former president.
Gov. Reynolds has said she would remain neutral in the 2024 process so all candidates feel welcome to campaign in the state.
Reynolds appeared last week alongside DeSantis’s wife, Casey DeSantis at the launch of her “Mamas for DeSantis” initiative for the Florida governor’s presidential campaign.
