Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held talks with Donald Trump’s team about a potential endorsement and job in the former president’s second administration, according to a report from The Washington Post.
The Post’s Josh Dawsey and Michael Scherer, citing four people familiar with the situation, reported on Monday that conversations about a Kennedy Jr. endorsement began shortly after the attempted assassination of Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania earlier this month.
“I have a lot of respect for President Trump for reaching out to me. Nobody from the DNC, high or low, has ever reached out to me in 18 months. Instead they have allocated millions to try to disrupt my campaign,” Kennedy Jr. said.
The independent presidential candidate would only say about the conversations that “I am willing to talk to anybody from either political party who wants to talk about children’s health and how to end the chronic disease epidemic.”
According to the report from the Post, there were “concerns” among Trump advisors that Kennedy Jr. could be too problematic.
“President Trump met with RFK and they had a conversation about the issues just as he does regularly with important figures in business and politics because they all recognize he will be the next president of the United States,” a Trump spokesperson said.
President Donald Trump’s introduction of the gold medal-winning U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team during Tuesday night’s State of the Union address sparked largely positive bipartisan reactions, with Independent voters showing particularly strong approval.
According to Lee Carter of the polling group maslansky+partners, Independent voters responded most enthusiastically when the team entered the House Chamber wearing their gold medals and USA sweatshirts, greeted by thunderous chants of “U-S-A.”
“The USA hockey team and military recognition moments were widely noticed,” Carter said. “Visual, patriotic moments landed more consistently than policy-heavy segments.”
Real-time dial testing conducted by the polling group showed the sharpest spike among Independent voters during the team’s entrance. Republican voters, who were already energized by the speech, showed additional gains in approval during the moment. Even Democratic voters—who overall were the least enthusiastic throughout the address—registered a modest uptick in reaction.
Participants in the polling offered enthusiastic feedback, with comments such as, “What a great moment!” and, “Love it!” Even some critics acknowledged, “They deserve recognition,” and, “It’s a nice moment.”
The president had invited the team to attend the State of the Union after their thrilling 2-1 overtime victory against Canada in the Winter Olympics gold medal game.
During the address, President Trump introduced the team to loud cheers from members of Congress and the audience, who once again broke into chants of “USA! USA! USA!”
“Our country is winning again. In fact, we’re winning so much that we really don’t know what to do about it. People are asking me, ‘Please, please, please, Mr. President, we are winning too much. We can’t take it anymore. We’re not used to winning in our country. Until you came along, we were just always losing, but now we’re winning too much.’ And I say, ‘No, no, no, you’re going to win again. You are going to win big, you’re gonna win bigger than ever.’ And to prove that point, to prove that point, here with us tonight is a group of winners who just made the entire nation proud,” Trump said, adding:
The men’s gold medal Olympic hockey team — come on in!
After extended applause inside the chamber, Trump remarked, “That’s the first time I’ve ever seen them get up. And actually, not all of them did get up, but they beat a fantastic Canadian team in overtime, as everybody saw, as did the American women, who will soon be coming to the White House.”
The president also announced that he would honor goaltender Connor Hellebuyck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. After praising the team’s collective performance, Trump described asking players to vote on whether their goaltender deserved the nation’s highest civilian honor.
“But I have to say that, and I told them this, and we took a vote of the team. I said, ‘Anybody votes no, I’m not doing it.’ So they stood there, and they weren’t about to say no because I’ve never seen a goaltender play as well as goalie Connor Hellebuyck,” said Trump.
He continued:
Think of it– 46 shots on goal. And I asked him, “The one shot, the one where you put your stick in the back and it hit the neck of your stick and bounced off, you practice that or was that a little lucky?” He refused to answer that question, but I just want to tell you that the members of this great hockey squad will be very happy to hear, based on their vote and my vote– and in this case, my vote was more important– that I will soon be presenting Connor with our highest civilian honor, which we will be given and which has been given to many athletes over the years. But when I say many, not too many, like 12. It’s called the highest civilian honor in our country. The Presidential Medal of Freedom. Great athletes have gotten that very great, the best. And I thought he deserved it. And I did take a vote. Every single one of them. I said, “I’m not giving it if anybody goes no.” And every single one of them rapidly put up their hand. So I want to thank you all. What a special job you did. What special champions you are. Thank you very much.
The moment stood out as one of the evening’s most unifying highlights.
Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Trouble is brewing among House Republicans.
House Freedom Caucus chairman Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) is reportedly seriously considering mounting a bid to challenge Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to become the next Speaker of the House.
The expected announcement comes on the heels of Biggs’ openly criticizing McCarthy last week after Republicans experienced fewer-than-anticipated wins on election night. Rep. Biggs told reporters he believes House Republicans should work to enact a more rightward agenda in the next term.
“I think we need to have a real discussion about whether he should be the speaker or not,” Biggs told reporters on Thursday.
“I think that his statement recently that we shouldn’t impeach Secretary Mayorkas indicates that maybe we’re not going to be as aggressive going forward as we should be. I think we need to have a very positive statement of what we’re going to accomplish and do, and I haven’t seen that yet,” he added. “That’s — those are things that I think we should have a very frank discussion internally about, where we’re going to be going forward.”
However, nearly one week after Election Day and neither party has officially won control of the House – although Republicans are projected to win by most major outlets some lawmakers want to push the elections until a majority is declared.
“I think we don’t even know if we’re in the majority, so I think it’s responsible to just look and see where the cards fall right now, and we don’t know,” Rep.-elect George Santos (R-NY) said on Sunday.
Tuesday’s leadership election is slated to be conducted via closed ballot and will only require a plurality of the conference to secure the nomination. McCarthy would need to reach 218 votes during the floor vote in January to win the Speakership.
Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America,
Trump will never let them see him sweat…
Former President Trump’s attorney Alina Habba confirmed his concerns the Supreme Court will ultimately uphold Colorado and Maine’s decisions to boot Trump from the primary ballot.
Responding to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman’s recent comments about Trump’s concerns, Habba during an interview on Fox News said, “That’s a concern he’s voiced to me, he’s voiced to everybody publicly, not privately. And I can tell you that his concern is a valid one.”
“You know, Republicans are conservative, they get nervous. They unfortunately … sometimes shy away from being pro-Trump because they feel that even if the law is on our side, they are swayed much like the Democratic side, right?” Habba told Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum. “So they’re trying so hard to look neutral that sometimes, they make the wrong call.”
Last month, Colorado and Maine sparked swift backlash after ruling Trump is ineligible to be on the primary ballot under the 14th Amendment.
Trump on Wednesday appealed Colorado’s ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, one day after he appealed Maine’s decision.
Three of the justices on the U.S. Supreme Court were appointed by Trump, a point of concern Haberman addressed last week.
“They believe, generally speaking, he and his advisers, that they will have success at the Supreme Court, but he has also voiced some concern that a court that has — he appointed three of the justices at the Supreme Court and gave the conservatives a supermajority — he is concerned that they are going to look as if they’re trying not to rule in his favor and might rule against him,” Haberman said during a CNN appearance last week.
However, both Trump and his legal team have reportedly privately voiced concerns the justices may “shy away from being pro-Trump.”
Habba on Wednesday said she encourages the justices to “really look at the law in the Constitution.”
“It’s a very clean cut,” she said. “There’s no … politics that should be involved in this. It’s just simply American, and if the justices read the law, as I do, as most Americans and attorneys do, even [Alan Dershowitz] — who’s a known liberal — it’s just a simple decision, and it should have nothing to do with if you’re Republican or Democrat.”
Dershowitz last month called Colorado’s decision “an attempt to totally manipulate an amendment that was never designed to disqualify people in a future election,” Forbes reported.
A former FBI official is being investigated over his alleged threats against President Trump.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem accused former FBI Director James Comey of calling for President Trump’s “assassination,” saying federal law enforcement authorities are now investigating the “threat.”
“Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey just called for the assassination of @POTUS Trump,” Noem wrote on the social platform X on Thursday evening.
“DHS and Secret Service is investigating this threat and will respond appropriately,” she added.
Comey, a longtime critic of Trump’s, posted a photo earlier Thursday on Instagram of seashells on a beach arranged to form the numbers “8647.” The post garnered significant blowback from much of Trump’s base, with many understanding the numbers to be a call for violence against the 47th president, Trump. Others suggested the “86” could be calling for the president to be impeached or removed from office.
Image via Wikimedia Commons
Comey removed the photo Thursday evening and clarified in a new post that he did not intend to call for violence and didn’t realize his message would be interpreted that way.
“I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message,” Comey wrote on Instagram.
“I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence,” he continued. “It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”
James Comey just issued a call to action to murder the President of the United States.
As a former FBI Director and someone who spent most of his career prosecuting mobsters and gangsters, he knew exactly what he was doing and must be held accountable under the full force of the… pic.twitter.com/zvbu5Vf0zg
In a statement to The Hill, a spokesperson for the Secret Service said the agency “vigorously investigates anything that can be taken as a potential threat against our protectees.”
“We take this responsibility very seriously and we are aware of the social media posts in question,” the spokesperson continued. “Beyond that, we do not comment on protective intelligence matters.”
FBI Director Kash Patel also weighed in on the matter in a post Thursday.
“We are aware of the recent social media post by former FBI Director James Comey, directed at President Trump,” Patel wrote on X.
“We are in communication with the Secret Service and Director Curran. Primary jurisdiction is with SS on these matters and we, the FBI, will provide all necessary support,” he continued.
We are aware of the recent social media post by former FBI Director James Comey, directed at President Trump. We are in communication with the Secret Service and Director Curran. Primary jurisdiction is with SS on these matters and we, the FBI, will provide all necessary support.
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) May 15, 2025
By Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America - Karrin Taylor Robson, CC BY-SA 2.0,
On Wednesday, Arizona Republican Karrin Taylor Robson launched her comeback gubernatorial bid.
Robson, a small business owner and lawyer, launched her campaign with a new ad centered on President Donald Trump’s return to the White House and her desire to help take back her state from incumbent Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs.
Robson lost her primary bid in 2022 to Trump-backed Republican nominee Kari Lake.
Robson scored early support from Trump less than two months ago during his visit to Arizona as president-elect.
“I thank President Trump for his strong endorsement and look forward to working with him to secure our border and make Arizona safe again,” Robson said in a statement first obtained by Fox News Digital. “Katie Hobbs has made it harder to live, work, and raise a family safely in this state. Like President Trump, I know how to create jobs. And like President Trump, I will not rest until our border is secure and Arizona families are safe,” she continued.
“Katie Hobbs and Joe Biden’s insane agenda has made life more expensive and dangerous,” Robson stated. “I will fight every day alongside President Trump for stronger borders, a stronger economy, and a stronger Arizona.
President Trump said Robson would have his support if she ran for governor while he was delivering remarks at Turning Point Action’s AmericaFest in December.
“Are you running for governor? I think so, Karrin, ’cause if you do you’re gonna have my support, OK?” Trump said at the time.
Cook Political Report ranks the general election race as a “toss-up,” likely making it one of the most competitive races in the upcoming midterms.
The “Building A Better Arizona PAC” launched last month backing Robson, who formerly served on the Arizona Board of Regents. Former Arizona Republican Party Chairman Robert Graham and former Arizona Senate President Karen Fann created the group.
The primary is Aug. 4, 2026. It’s unclear if Hobbs will face a major challenger in the Democratic primary.
Robson will likely face off against another pro-Trump Republican during the primaries. Supporters of Rep. Andy Biggs hope that the president will shift gears and back his campaign instead, given his strong political agreements with him.
The congressman has already gained the endorsements of Reps. Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosar, and Eli Crane.
“Andy Biggs is the greatest thing since sliced bread,” Sen. Mike Lee( R-Utah) said on X. “Arizonans, do yourselves a big favor and elect this man as your next governor!”
New York City’s Socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is officially launching his “Five Boroughs Against Trump” tour in the Big Apple.
Mamdani kicked off his anti-Trump tour alongside Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) in Manhattan on Monday morning. He reportedly plans to visit Brooklyn on Tuesday, Staten Island on Wednesday, the Bronx on Thursday and Queens on Friday, Fox News has confirmed.
The 33-year-old self-described socialist’s tour is a rejection of the Trump administration’s sweeping second-term agenda and his so-called “authoritarian” attack on working New Yorkers, specifically, immigration and health care reform.
“There is no borough that will be free from Trump’s cruelty,” Mamdani said on Monday. “We will feel the pain of this legislation, whether we are in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens or Staten Island, and we will shine a light this week and every week on the costs of this vision that is coming out of Washington, D.C.”
“Donald Trump is waging a full-scale assault on American democracy, dismantling our institutions, attacking our universities and our scientific research base, using government power to serve himself and his donors, and targeting New York City because New Yorkers have always seen him for what he is – a narcissistic, wannabe dictator,” Nadler said during the event on Monday.
Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams are also running as an independents, and CEO of the Guardian Angels, Curtis Sliwa, is the Republican nominee.
“Comrade Mamdani is the American people’s worst nightmare,” White House spokeswoman, Abigail Jackson, told Fox News Digital. “His communist policies will crater our economy, increase crime, crowd out Americans with free health care for illegal immigrants, and defund the brave men and women of law enforcement who keep us safe.”
The White House added that “Mamdani’s idea of ‘immigration reform’ is no borders and amnesty for all the violent criminal illegal aliens that Joe Biden released into our country. The American people have repeatedly rejected this Communist agenda and the more Mamdani shares his radical policies, the more the American people will recoil.”
The New York Times reported last week that Trump recently spoke on the phone with Cuomo and has been speaking with associates about which candidate has the best chance to beat Mamdani in November. Meanwhile, Mamdani has described how his administration would be Trump’s “worst nightmare.”
“We see far too many parallels between Donald Trump and Andrew Cuomo, far too many stories that make clear that both administrations have been characterized by corruption, by a sense of impunity, by an inability of an executive to understand that no means no, a prioritization of the interests of billionaires over working people, and an agenda that is driven by little else beyond the retention and accumulation of power,” Mamdani said Monday.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is leaving the door open to another presidential bid after his unsuccessful 2024 campaign, signaling he could reemerge as a contender in the increasingly competitive 2028 Republican primary.
“We’ll see,” DeSantis told Fox News host Sean Hannity on his podcast, “Hang Out with Sean Hannity.” The full interview is set to be released Tuesday.
🚨 NOW: Ron DeSantis is signaling a possible 2028 run, saying President Trump built a powerful voter base but Republicans must deliver results to keep it.
He pointed to Florida’s 2022 landslide win as proof conservative leadership can secure victories.pic.twitter.com/s6Blk59SYL
DeSantis, who is term-limited and will leave office in January 2027, faces a relatively short window to decide his political future. With the 2028 primary season expected to ramp up shortly thereafter, he will have roughly a year out of office to assess whether to launch another White House run.
Once viewed as a rising star in the GOP, DeSantis entered the 2024 presidential race with significant momentum. His national profile surged his opposition to COVID-19 lockdowns and a dominant nearly 20-point reelection victory in Florida in 2022. Early on, he was widely considered one of the strongest alternatives to former President Trump.
However, his campaign struggled to gain traction amid a prolonged and often contentious rivalry with Trump, who retained deep loyalty among Republican voters. After finishing a distant second in the Iowa caucuses — with just over 21 percent of the vote and nine delegates — DeSantis suspended his campaign ahead of the New Hampshire primary and endorsed Trump. He ultimately placed third overall in the Republican primary, behind Trump and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.
Reflecting on that race, DeSantis suggested his support was constrained by Trump’s presence in the field.
“They were conservative voters, right? They didn’t want the non-conservative, they wanted me,” he said. “But the timing didn’t work out, obviously, for that.”
“So you just got to see what happens,” he added.
Looking ahead, the 2028 Republican primary is already beginning to take shape, with several high-profile figures jockeying for early position. Vice President JD Vance currently holds a significant polling advantage, benefiting from his national platform and close alignment with Trump-era politics.
Recent surveys illustrate the early dynamics of the race. A poll conducted by Echelon Insights found that 40 percent of Republican-leaning respondents favored Vance. Secretary of State Marco Rubio followed at 16 percent, while Donald Trump Jr., DeSantis and Haley trailed with 9 percent, 5 percent and 5 percent, respectively. Thirteen percent of respondents remained undecided.
A separate poll by The Public Sentiment Institute showed a somewhat tighter field, with DeSantis polling at 13.5 percent — good for third place — behind Vance (29.3 percent) and Rubio (15.5 percent). Nearly 10 percent of respondents were undecided.
The early polling underscores both the opportunity and the challenge for DeSantis. While he remains a recognizable figure with a record that appeals to conservative voters, he would likely enter a crowded field that includes establishment figures like Rubio, Trump-aligned candidates such as Vance and Trump Jr., and other potential contenders still weighing bids.
With Trump’s future political role uncertain and no clear consensus successor, the 2028 race is shaping up to be a wide-open contest. Whether DeSantis can reestablish himself as a top-tier candidate may depend on how effectively he rebuilds momentum after his 2024 defeat — and whether the political environment proves more favorable the second time around.
Michigan Democrat Sen. Gary Peters announced he will not seek re-election when his term ends in Jan. 2027.
Peters, a two-term senator and former congressman, told the Detroit News that he will start a “new chapter,” spending more time with family after nearly two decades of public service.
“I always thought there would be a time that I would step aside and pass the reins for the next generation. I also never saw service in Congress as something you do your whole life,” Peters told the outlet.
“And that goes back to 2008 when I first won that House seat. I thought it would be for a matter of a few terms that I would serve, and then I would go back to private life.”
His decision to retire leaves open a senate seat in a state President Donald Trump won in 2024.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
President Joe Biden hugs his family during the 59th Presidential Inauguration ceremony in Washington, Jan. 20, 2021. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took the oath of office on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. (DOD Photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Carlos M. Vazquez II)
ANALYSIS – Where there’s smoke there’s fire. And there is a lot of smoke surrounding Joe and Hunter Biden. It is increasingly clear that Joe Biden has repeatedly lied about his involvement in, and knowledge of, his son Hunter’s overseas influence peddling businesses.
And with Biden’s Department of Justice (DoJ) and FBI dragging their feet with documents requested by congressional investigators, an official impeachment inquiry may be the only way to get to the truth.
And that official inquiry may be coming very soon.
Republicans could open an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden over ties to his son Hunter’s shady and unethical business entanglements when Congress reconvenes on September 12.
In the final presidential debate of the 2020 U.S. election between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joseph Biden, moderator Kristen Welker asked Biden: “there have been questions about the work your son has done in China and for a Ukrainian energy company when you were vice president; in retrospect, was anything about those relationships inappropriate or unethical?”
“Nothing was unethical. My son has not made money in terms of this thing about, what are you talking about, China,” Biden replied.
Biden also said he never discussed business with his son.
Well, to put it in Biden terms, that was all a bunch of malarkey.
Now, nearly three years later, Hunter has rebutted Joe Biden’s assertions directly. In court testimony in late June, Hunter acknowledged that he had been paid substantial sums in China – the first official confirmation that this was the case.
This direct contradiction creates a major problem for the White House, and Republicans insist there’s a lot more to find out.
“A lot of the things the president said about his family’s shady business dealings, we’re proving every day that they’re not true,” Republican James Comer, Chair of the Oversight and Accountability Committee, said.
An impeachment inquiry is the next logical step to find out what is true.
The Epoch Times (ET) reported: “House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said that initiating an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden would be a ‘natural step forward.’” This, following unresolved questions from the House Oversight and Accountability Committee’s investigations into the Biden family’s business dealings.
The speaker said on Monday that the impeachment inquiry could start soon. McCarthy added that an impeachment inquiry would provide Congress “the apex of legal power to get all the information they need” to investigate whether President Biden misused his office to assist family businesses.
ET continued:
McCarthy said on Monday that the inquiry was needed to overcome stonewalling of congressional investigators looking for transparency about the Biden family’s business records following testimony from former Hunter Biden associate Devon Archer that President Biden met with son Hunter Biden’s business partners during the time he was vice president, as well as concerns raised by whistleblowers at the IRS regarding Hunter Biden’s tax records.
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee has so far subpoenaed six different banks, receiving thousands of bank records of businesses and individuals connected to Joe Biden’s family members.
Those records showed that more than $20 million in payments from foreign sources have been made to the president’s relatives, including Hunter Biden, and their business associates while Mr. Biden was acting as U.S. vice president from 2009 to 2017.
Romanian, Chinese, and Russian nationals were among those making payments to the Biden family and their associates. The records also revealed that the funds were funneled through a network of at least 20 shell companies before being transferred to Biden family members.
An inquiry doesn’t mean the House will impeach Biden. But it does give Republicans far more legal power to force reluctant Biden DoJ bureaucrats and others to come forward with the truth.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Great America News Desk.
