Monday, August 25, 2025

August 25, 2025

Good morning,

Welcome to the news for independent thinkers

Leading the News . . .

Trump reveals next high-profile target 'For the sake of JUSTICE' after raid of John Bolton's home . . . President Donald Trump accused Chris Christie of 'criminal acts' and warned the former New Jersey Governor may be the next target of a politically-motivated raid. Trump unloaded on his former GOP ally after Christie appeared on ABC News and blasted the FBI raid of ex-National Security Advisor John Bolton. In 2013, top aides to Christie created traffic chaos on the George Washington Bridge in an act of retribution for a local mayor who refused to endorse his re-election. 'Chris refused to take responsibility for these criminal acts,' Trump added. 'For the sake of JUSTICE, perhaps we should start looking at that very serious situation again? NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!' Daily Mail

Politics

Trump hits ABC, NBC as 'FAKE NEWS,' says he'd support FCC revoking licenses . . . President Trump went on a late-night attack against NBC and ABC News on Sunday, deriding them for what, in his view, was "biased" coverage and said he would be in favor of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) revoking their licenses. The president said the news outlets had given him negative coverage on "97%" of stories. Being national networks, ABC and NBC News do not hold FCC licenses for news content but provide programming for local affiliates across the country. Fox News

Mayor Johnson: The People of Chicago Will Rise Up Against Trump's 'Tyranny' . . . Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) said that if President Donald Trump sent the National Guard to his city, the people would rise up against "tyranny." Here's the bottom line. They don't have police power. There's nothing they can do. You know, these are federal troops, they do not go through the training that our police officers go through. So they cannot even enact police authority." Breitbart

Mamdani Promises to Dismantle Traditional Policing . . . Zohran Mamdani, New York City's socialist mayoral frontrunner and his compatriots at the Democratic Socialists of America said they want to eradicate the enforcement of all misdemeanor offenses, the New York Post reported Sunday. The Democratic Socialists of America—of which Mamdani is a member of the NYC chapter—has urged the diminishment of arrests, significantly decreased prosecutors' budgets, as well as an end to cash bail, electronic monitoring, and imprisonment for parole violations. Daily Signal

It will be open season against CVS.

Obama Judge Blocks Trump From Defunding Sanctuary Cities . . . A federal judge ruled Friday that the Trump administration cannot cut funding to 34 cities and counties in response to "sanctuary" policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. U.S. District Judge William Orrick, who issued a previous order protecting more than a dozen other cities and counties, extended a preliminary injunction blocking the administration from pulling federal money or conditioning the use of the funds for local jurisdictions. Fox News

Florida Congresswoman and Her Family Allegedly Siphoned Millions From Taxpayers To Fund Campaign

Trump sees 'Heaven' as his goal . . . "There has to be some kind of a report card up there someplace. You know, like 'Let's go to heaven, let's get into heaven.' It's sort of a beautiful thing," the president told an interviewer during a typically busy week. "I want to try and get to heaven, if possible. I'm hearing I'm not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons," Trump told a second outlet after referencing his efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Washington Examiner

Culture

Court Upholds Ban on 'Unusually Dangerous Weapons' . . . A federal appeals court Thursday refused to block two Connecticut gun control laws despite arguments that they violated the Second Amendment. A three-judge panel of the court said the laws were constitutional because they preserved "numerous legal alternatives for self-defense" despite their restriction of "unusually dangerous weapons." The challenged laws included a 2013 ban on certain firearms and large capacity magazines and a 2023 law that further restricted access to what gun control advocates call "assault weapons." Daily Signal

It's right there in the Second Amendment: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed, unless such arms be unusually dangerous or just too damn loud."

National Security

Fiddling while Rome burns: America ignores China's rising red tide . . . While Washington obsesses over Ukraine and the Middle East, the Chinese Communist Party is building the most formidable military challenge the United States has faced in generations. Beijing is adding mass, reach and persistence across sea, air, missile, space, cyber and AI – while our armed forces are stretched thin, underfunded and mismatched for the threat. If we don't act, we may wake up to a world where freedom is in retreat and Beijing calls the shots. Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, (ret.) for Fox News

Kilmar Abrego Garcia Returned to Maryland . . . Abrego Garcia, a citizen of El Salvador who illegally entered the U.S. in March 2012, was deported earlier this year and imprisoned in El Salvador before being brought back to the U.S. to face charges including human smuggling. Abrego Garcia is affiliated the MS-13 gang and has a history of domestic violence. His wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, filed domestic violence allegations against him in May 2021. The Trump administration plans to deport Abrego Garcio to Uganda was "a malicious abuse of power." Daily Signal

Some National Guard units in Washington now carrying firearms . . . Some units on certain missions would be armed — some with handguns and others with rifles. The spokesperson said that all units with firearms have been trained and are operating under strict rules for use of force. A statement from the joint task force that has taken over policing in the nation's capital said units began carrying their service weapons on Sunday and that the military's rules say force should be used "only as a last resort and solely in response to an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm." Politico

International

France Summons U.S. Envoy After Rebuke of Macron . . . France summoned U.S. Ambassador Charles Kushner on Sunday after he published a scathing open letter in the Wall Street Journal to President Emmanuel Macron, accusing the French government of failing to adequately combat rising antisemitism and warning that "public statements haranguing Israel embolden extremists." "On the 81st anniversary of the Allied Liberation of Paris, which ended the deportation of Jews from French soil, I write out of deep concern over the dramatic rise of antisemitism in France and the lack of sufficient action by your government to confront it," Kushner wrote.

Money

Tech Rally Shows Signs of Losing Steam . . . Market leaders—Amazon.com, Alphabet, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla—have been buffeted recently by questions about the potential for artificial intelligence, concerns about their increasingly stretched valuations and competition from hitherto unloved parts of the market. In the coming days, the tech sector will face a key test when Nvidia, the world's most-valuable listed company, reports earnings. Wall Street Journal

You should also know

Celebrities Raised Millions for LA Fire Aid. Much of it went to Illegal Aliens and 'Black and Brown Communities.' . . . The cash is burning, too. Millions of dollars raised to help victims of the 2025 California wildfires have ended up in the coffers of unrelated nonprofits pushing a variety of progressive causes, a Washington Free Beacon review found. Some of the groups that have received funds explicitly exclude white people from their services, while others advertise programs for illegal aliens. FireAid announced in February that it would distribute the money it raised "equitably." Washington Free Beacon

Buyers Are Test-Driving Homes With Sleepovers . . . Offering a try-before-you-buy stay is a strategic selling tactic, says Compass real-estate agent Rex McKown, who was the listing agent on Albert's house. More buyers are asking to stay overnight in a home before making an offer, and more sellers are extending an invitation. "If you can drive a car off a lot, why not test-drive a home?" says Compass real-estate agent Ari Afshar, who is based in Los Angeles. Wall Street Journal

Guilty Pleasures

Zohran Mamdani Attempts Bench Press On Campaign Trail — And It's Hard To Watch . . . Zohran Mamdani failed to complete a solo bench press rep while trying to impress a crowd at Brooklyn's Men's Day open streets event Saturday. In a video posted to X Saturday, Mamdani, 33, needed full assistance from a spotter to complete two reps of a 135-pound bench press. In the video, Mamdani is seen getting a pep talk from a member in the crowd while others cheered him on by saying, "this is how you move up in the polls." Daily Caller