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- Anna Paulina Luna Calls on Trump To Pardon Solider Indicted for Allegedly Bettin...
Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) called on President Donald Trump to pardon the U.S. soldier indicted for allegedly betting on the ouster of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke was directly involved in the operation that captured Maduro and his wife, a Manhattan federal court alleged in an indictment on Thursday. Van Dyke allegedly placed $33,000 worth of bets that the Venezuelan leader would be removed as president on Polymarket, betting a series of times up to the day Maduro was captured. The indictment claims that Van Dyke placed thirteen bets on multiple events related to Maduro, including “bets on the timing and outcome” of the operation to remove him. The plays allegedly made him over $409,000, sparking an investigation into the suspiciously timed bets. Van Dyke attempted to hide his winnings through cryptocurrency and a brokerage account, going so far as to delete his Polymarket account by claiming he had lost access to the email the account was under. Trump commented on the indictment Thursday, after being asked by press in the Oval Office if he was concerned about its implications for federal employees. “Well, you know, the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino. And you look at what’s going on all over the world, in Europe, and every place, they’re doing these betting things. I was never much in favor of it. I don’t like it, conceptually,” he said. “But it is what it is. No, I think that I’m not happy with any of that stuff, but they have all these different sites. They have predictive markets. It’s a crazy world. It’s a much different world than it was.” Luna urged the president to grant clemency to Van Dyke, posting on X that the indictment represented “skewed justice.” “Maybe not a popular take but I am calling for this guy to be pardoned. Unless the DOJ plans on going after all the crooks in congress currently insider trading, this is simply skewed justice,” she wrote. “There is no ‘justice’ when guys like this get the book thrown at him yet members are illegally profiting every day. I don’t agree with what he did and he should be required to disgorge all the profits however, unless the DOJ plans on doing Congress next, this is not justice.” Rep. Jimmy Patronis (R-FL) agreed with his colleague, calling the… [TheTopNews] Read More.1 hour ago - ‘Negative 55 Points?!’ CNN’s Harry Enten Can’t Believe Trump’s Latest ...
CNN data analyst Harry Enten presented some historically bad polling data for President Donald Trump, stating that Republican incumbents risk being “dragged down” by the negative sentiment in November’s midterm elections. Enten appeared on Thursday’s edition of The Source, on the heels of several polls in recent weeks showing Trump’s net approval rating underwater. Moreover, the president has net negative approval numbers on the economy, which was once seen as one of his strongest issues. “These are atrocious,” Enten told host Kaitlan Collins, as he stood near a screen showing Trump’s approval ratings on the economy at various times in his presidencies. “This trendline is atrocious. Trump’s net approval rating on the economy in term one at this point, look at this. Trump was above water at plus two points. It was a plus sign for him. This was one of his best issues. It was the reason he got elected to a second term back in 2024. Look at this. In January 2025, at the beginning of his second term, he was at plus six points. But down he goes! Look at this. He’s now at negative 32 points, his net approval rating on the economy. That is down – get this – nearly 40 points from where he was at the beginning of his second term. This is the worst rating in the average of polls that Donald Trump has ever had on such a key issue for him.” Enten went on to note that Trump’s negative 32 net approval on the economy is worse than any other president over the past 50 years, including former Presidents Joe Biden and Jimmy Carter, whom Trump often maligns. “That’s kind of unheard,” Collins said. “For this president, that is always kind of been his strength. I mean, he often talks about Jimmy Carter. I mean, his numbers are worse than his. The president always talks about how bad it was under Jimmy Carter. He talks about inflation under Biden, obviously. We all were aware of that. Negative 25 is what people were giving him then. And Trump’s is now negative 32.” “Oh, it’s absolutely terrible,” Enten responded. “I don’t know if you’re seeing my eyes literally pop off the screen here, because these numbers are just downright atrocious. They’re the worst ever.” He then turned to Trump’s net economic approval rating among independent voters: You think that negative 32 is… [TheTopNews] Read More.2 hours ago - Ousted Navy Secretary Waited at White House for Over an Hour To Beg Trump To Sav...
AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file Former Secretary of the Navy John Phelan waited to meet with President Donald Trump for over an hour on Wednesday before begging him to save his job. Phelan’s senior aides learned of his ouster from a social media post announcing he would be leaving the administration “immediately,” U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had called Phelan earlier in the day to ask for his resignation, which the Navy secretary reportedly refused to give until he had spoken with Trump. When he finally spoke with the president on Wednesday night, Trump declined to save his position. “The episode is a sign that Hegseth retains Trump’s support despite recent high-level personnel churn at the Pentagon,” read The Journal’s report. “In signing off on Phelan’s dismissal, the president sided with Hegseth over a personal friend and neighbor who raised millions of dollars for his campaign. Trump instructed the Pentagon chief to handle Phelan’s firing, administration officials said.” The president had reportedly been lobbied that day by both Hegseth and his deputy Stephen Feinberg to support the ouster, arguing that Phelan was moving too slowly on Trump’s priorities, chiefly his “Golden Fleet” plans. “He’s a wonderful guy. I just put out a statement about him. He’s a very good man, I really liked him, but he had some conflict with, not necessarily Pete,” Trump said of Phelan’s departure on Thursday. “He’s a hard charger and he had some conflicts with some other people, mostly as to building and buying their ships. I’m very aggressive in the new ship building, and somehow he just didn’t get along with them.” Phelan and Trump maintained a close relationship for years, with the former Navy secretary frequently dining with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, located down the street from Phelan’s own Florida home. Their friendship ruffled feathers at the Pentagon, with Phelan striking a nerve when he went directly to the president with an idea for a modern battleship. “Leadership at this level isn’t without its challenges. Decision-making can be slowed by caution, competing equities, and internal friction,” Phelan wrote in his statement to The Post. “But our mission demands clarity, urgency, and results—and I never lost sight of that.” Phelan is one of many officials ousted by Hegseth during his tenure. Less than a month before Phelan, the Defense Secretary asked Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George to retire, along with… [TheTopNews] Read More.2 hours ago - U.S. Has ‘Burned Through’ Eye-Popping Amount of Munitions During Trump’s I...
AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson The United States has used a staggering amount of its weapons cache in the war with Iran, spending millions and blowing through a large chunk of its stockpile in the two months since the conflict began. The ongoing conflict with Iran has lasted barely eight weeks, yet in that time the U.S. has fired off a truly stunning number of missiles, a report from The New York Times found. Over a thousand Precision Strike and ground-based missiles were deployed in the war, an amount that emptied the U.S. tranche to such an extent that congressional officials and Defense Department estimates showed concern. “Since the Iran war began in late February, the United States has burned through around 1,100 of its long-range stealth cruise missiles built for a war with China, close to the total number remaining in the U.S. stockpile,” the report read. “The military has fired off more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles, roughly 10 times the number it currently buys each year.” Munitions have been used to the point where bombs have had to be sent from Asian and European commands to accommodate U.S. needs, draining their own weapons supplies and, crucially, their surveillance capabilities. The U.S. has also reportedly pulled large amounts of missiles and interceptors from South Korea. President Donald Trump’s administration was reportedly compelled to find new avenues for rapid production in response to the waning resources at foreign command centers. “At current production rates, reconstituting what we have expended could take years,” Armed Services Committee member Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) told the Times. But officials also told the outlet that even that timeline could be delayed, as the Pentagon is still awaiting Congressional approval before it can fund more weapons production. Even the administration’s January deal with defense contractors, made before the war, has not yet begun manufacturing, as the Defense Department still needs to acquire funding. The high cost of the war, which some have estimated to amount to $1 billion a day, is made up in large part by weapons costs, which defense officials said equated to $5.6 billion of munitions in only the first two days of the war. Costs have also been incurred due to aircraft damaged during the fighting. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt shot down the outlet’s reporting, claiming in a statement that “the entire premise of this story is false.” “The United States of America… [TheTopNews] Read More.3 hours ago - Latest Fox News Poll Reveals Grim Numbers for GOP on Economy
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite The latest Fox News poll revealed grim numbers for Republicans on the economy — an issue that had long been a strength for them — in what is yet another alarm bell for the GOP as the midterm elections loom. The polling numbers for President Donald Trump and Republicans have been brutal as his second term has progressed, with his immigration crackdown cratering his support, the handling of the Epstein files getting abysmal marks, and even Americans’ views on his handling of the economy taking body blows. The Fox News survey was conducted April 17 through 20 from a sample of 1,001 registered U.S. voters nationwide, and included live telephone calls on landlines and cell phones as well as online surveys completed from a link sent by text message. The full sample has a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points. The partisan breakdown of the poll respondents’ political identification was 42 percent Democrat (32% solid D, 10% lean D), 43 percent Republican (35% solid R, 8% lean R), and 16% independent. As the report about the poll on FoxNews.com noted, Trump “receives negative job ratings for his handling of immigration (46% approve, 54% disapprove), China (42-57), foreign policy (40-60), Iran (37-63), the economy (34-66), government spending (33-67), and inflation (28-72),” and “[h]is only positive rating is on border security (53-47).” The survey responses about the economy drew attention, especially the question that asked voters, “Which political party — the Democrats or the Republicans — do you think would do a better job on the economy?” Fifty-two percent said Democrats and 48 percent said Republicans — the first time Americans have preferred Democrats on this issue since 2010, during President Barack Obama’s first term and in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Fox News poll shows Americans prefer Democrats to Republicans on the economy (D+4) for the first time since 2010. pic.twitter.com/0x7It7yrNg — Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) April 23, 2026 The past historical tracking of this question shows that Republicans were favored by as much as 15 points in 2022 and 2023, showing the dissatisfaction with the economy during President Joe Biden’s term that helped pave the way for Trump’s return to the White House. The survey asked more detailed economic questions that illustrated how very unhappy Americans are about the economy right now. When asked to rate their “personal financial situation,”… [TheTopNews] Read More.3 hours ago - Tony Dokoupil Excoriated By His Own CBS Colleagues in Splashy Vanity Fair Profil...
CBS News Tony Dokoupil is “hospital-drama-handsome” and has a plum new gig as the anchor of CBS Evening News, but the knives are out for him in the newsroom after “tumbling ratings and savage reviews” — and an unprecedented level of meddling by network chief Bari Weiss — as detailed in a blistering new profile by Aidan McLaughlin at Vanity Fair. Dokoupil’s turn in the anchor chair this past January got off to a rocky start with tech problems and accusations he was being overly unctuous with a shoutout for Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the end of a broadcast from Miami, coverage of President Donald Trump that critics pounced on to pan for being even more obsequious, plus the growing concerns about his perceived acquiescence to Weiss‘ heavy thumb on the scale of the show’s journalism to satisfy David Ellison, the head honcho at parent company Paramount Skydance. The perception is so grim that an actual, literal dumpster fire next to the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City in March went viral for being a brutally apt metaphor. McLaughin, the magazine’s Washington correspondent and former editor in chief here at Mediaite, chatted with “more than 20 current and former CBS staffers and industry insiders” about Dokoupil’s role as “the face of the Weiss revolution” at CBS News, covering everything from Weiss’ “unusual” move to edit his first night teleprompter script (“I would have f*cking killed her,” said a former CBS News anchor about the mortifying on-air errors that resulted) to his role as a pawn in Ellison and Weiss’ efforts to reshape the network. The hope was to relaunch CBC Evening News with Dokoupil as “a relatable face in touch with the country’s problems and an antidote to the partisan politics of an increasingly polarized nation,” wrote McLaughlin, but instead, the “new regime” is viewed as having “partisan politics” — meaning Ellison’s support for Trump and Weiss’ hostility towards legacy media institutions — as a key motivator. Dokoupil had won accolades for his writing and frank reporting, McLaughlin noted, but his hiring was viewed as Weiss settling for what she could get rather than a well-earned promotion. “He very much was not Bari’s first choice,” one CBS News correspondent told Vanity Fair. “He must have been her seventh or eighth choice, because nobody would take the f*cking job. I mean, she wanted Bret Baier. She wanted Anderson… [TheTopNews] Read More.4 hours ago
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