Donald Trump

CNN - Until now, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster has held his fire about his stint in the Trump White House. McMaster served with distinction in key American conflicts of the past decades: the Gulf War, the Iraq War and the war in Afghanistan, but as McMaster recounts in his new book, “At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House,” in some ways, his most challenging tour as a soldier was his last one: serving as the national security adviser to a notoriously mercurial president.

In his blistering, insightful account of his time in the Trump White House, McMaster describes meetings in the Oval Office as “exercises in competitive sycophancy” during which Trump’s advisers would flatter the president by saying stuff like, “Your instincts are always right” or, “No one has ever been treated so badly by the press.” Meanwhile, Trump would say “outlandish” things like, “Why don’t we just bomb the drugs?” in Mexico or, “Why don’t we take out the whole North Korean Army during one of their parades?” 

Daily Beast -  Donald Trump tore into ABC News on Sunday night and indicated he might be about to walk away from his Sept. 10 debate with Kamala Harris on the network, so far the only debate to which both campaigns have agreed. “I watched ABC FAKE NEWS this morning, both lightweight reporter Jonathan Carl’s(K?) ridiculous and biased interview of Tom Cotton (who was fantastic!), and their so-called Panel of Trump Haters, and I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

The former president continued by referencing the scandal involving ABC News contributor Donna Brazile, who tipped off Hillary Clinton’s campaign about questions ahead of a CNN debate and town hall during the 2016 election. “Will panelist Donna Brazil give the questions to the Marxist Candidate like she did for Crooked Hillary Clinton?” Trump wrote. He also questioned if George Stephanopoulos would be “involved” in the debate. “Where is Liddle’ George Slopadopolus hanging out now?” Trump asked.

In March, Trump filed a lawsuit against ABC News and Stephanopoulos after the host said on air that Trump had been found liable for raping E. Jean Carroll—a civil jury did not find Trump liable for rape as defined in New York State law, though the judge in the case later clarified that doesn’t mean Carroll “failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’”

NY Times - Anyone who has spent time reviewing Donald Trump’s campaign spending reports would quickly conclude they’re a governance nightmare. There is so little disclosure about what happened to the billions raised in 2020 and 2024 that donors (and maybe even the former president himself) can’t possibly know how it was spent.

Federal Election Commission campaign disclosure reports from 2020 show that much of the money donated to the Trump campaign went into a legal and financial black hole reportedly controlled by Trump family members and close associates. This year’s campaign disclosures are shaping up to be the same. Donors big and small give their hard-earned dollars to candidates with the expectation they will be spent on direct efforts to win votes. They deserve better.

During the 2020 election, almost $516 million of the over $780 million spent by the Trump campaign was directed to American Made Media Consultants, a Delaware-based private company created in 2018 that masked the identities of who ultimately received donor dollars, according to a complaint filed with the F.E.C. by the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center. How A.M.M.C. spent the money was a mystery even to Mr. Trump’s campaign team, according to news reports shortly after the election.