Thomas Kika

President Donald Trump has made major shake-ups in his Cabinet this month, with some high-profile firings, but according to a new analysis from The Bulwark, these moves boil down to making women “scapegoats” for his administration’s big failures.

In early March, Trump marked the first major firing of his second term in the White House, removing Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary, reportedly after she told Congress that he had approved a controversial and expensive ad campaign. This week, he followed that by removing Pam Bondi as attorney general, with reports suggesting that frustrations over the failed prosecutions of his perceived political enemies were to blame.

Notably, this means that the first major firings of Trump’s second term were the most high-profile women in his Cabinet, with some observers calling them the “mean girls” of the administration. This fact was not lost on anti-Trump conservative commentator William Kristol, who wrote in a piece for The Bulwark on Friday that Noem and Bondi were taking the fall for screw-ups that were just as much the fault of various men in Trump’s administration, including contentious senior aide Stephen Miller, FBI Director Kash Patel and Todd Blanche, the former deputy attorney general now serving as the acting attorney general.

“A month ago, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was the first cabinet official of Trump’s second term to be removed,” Kristol wrote. “She had tried dutifully to implement the mass-deportation agenda under the direction of Trump’s top aide, Stephen Miller. But it was Noem, not Miller, who was dumped when Trump needed a scapegoat for its unpopularity.”

He continued: “Not that one should shed tears for Noem. Nor should one cry for Attorney General Pam Bondi. She too was more than willing and eager to do Trump’s bidding. But Trump judged her to have failed to secure adequate revenge against his enemies. He probably also blamed her for the botched coverup of the Epstein files—even though Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel seemed equally involved in that effort. But it was Bondi who was dumped, not Blanche or Patel. In fact, Blanche is now acting attorney general.”

Kristol also highlighted recent reports regarding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, alleging that he fired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George after he fought back against the secretary’s effort to block promotions for two black and two female officers to brigadier general. This, he argued, fit the ongoing pattern of sexism in the Trump administration, calling it “unabashed hostility to women’s equality and freedom.”

“In any case, it’s striking that Trumpist authoritarianism has been accompanied by gross sexism and racism and that Trumpist autocracy is attended by unabashed hostility to women’s equality and freedom,” Kristol concluded. “It’s a reminder that gender and racial equality are part of human equality, that respecting the dignity of every individual is part of the American creed. And it could lead us to recall, as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our rebellion against tyranny, the words of Abigail Adams in a March 1776 letter to her husband: “Remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. . . . Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could.”

President Donald Trump made the second major firing of his current administration this week, with one GOP insider revealing to The Hill the “largest failure” that led to their ouster.

On Thursday, Trump made it official via Truth Social post that Pam Bondi was being removed from her position as attorney general, stating only that she would be heading off to a job in the private sector. Todd Blanche, Trump’s one-time personal defense lawyer and deputy attorney general under Bondi, was elevated to interim AG in her wake as the president weighs a proper replacement.

In a report published Friday morning, The Hill spoke with an anonymous GOP strategist who revealed the major offense for which Trump canned Bondi: her failure to score convictions against the president’s perceived political enemies.

“He is looking for scalps but she hasn’t delivered,” the strategist explained. “She didn’t deliver the kind of results that the president was hoping for. She tried and didn’t succeed — and in Trump World that doesn’t fly.”

Trump infamously made a post to Truth Social last year, widely believed to have been meant as a direct message to Bondi, in which he pushed for faster movement on prosecutions for figures like former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff, all people the president perceived as his personal enemies. The Justice Department did ultimately manage to get grand jury indictments against Comey and James, but the cases fell apart due to a combination of prosecutorial flubs and the vindictive nature of the charges, made obvious by Trump’s message to Bondi.

Legal experts have generally agreed that the cases against Trump had little merit and faced an uphill battle in court in the best-case scenario, with The Hill noting that these difficulties were, to a degree, insurmountable for Bondi.

“Trump’s critics have the slimmest sliver of sympathy with Bondi in that regard,” the outlet explained. “They contend a vengeful president expected her to accomplish the impossible — securing guilty verdicts without clear and compelling evidence. But, they also note, she was an eager partner in that quest.”

Another anonymous source, who worked in the DOJ during the early days of Trump’s second term, also argued that Bondi’s fate was sealed by a miscalculated publicity stunt in which she handed out binders labeled “Epstein Files” to conservative influencers at a White House event. The materials they contained had virtually no new information about deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, angering the influencers with “binders full of nothingness,” which the attorney general was said to have been closely involved with.

“She lost the office when she handed out the binders to the influencers,” this source explained. “You start off in a hole you dug for yourself.”

Kimberly Guilfoyle, President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Greece, has been busted engaging in a “lavish” spending spree at her Athens residence, drawing new scrutiny as she burns through taxpayer funds.

Guilfoyle, who was also previously engaged to Donald Trump Jr. until 2024, currently resides at the Jefferson House, the customary home of the U.S. ambassador to Greece and a common venue for diplomatic events. According to a Wednesday report originating in the Daily Mail, she recently requested 50,000 euros, or about $58,000, to construct a new basketball court at the residence. She has also requested roughly $29,000 to pay for a new personal photographer, according to a contract that the outlet obtained.

Guilfoyle signed off on the order for the construction in December, in the wake of meeting “newfound friends,” Panagiotis and Giorgos Angelopoulos, brothers involved in the oil and steel shipping industries, who also co-own Greece’s Olympiacos basketball team. The Mail noted that the new ambassador attended a game with brothers, courtside seats and all, just weeks before ordering the basketball court. The pair also gifted her a jersey for the famed Greek basketball player, Vassilis Spanoulis.

“The new court is set to be built beside the estate’s pool and manicured gardens, adding another luxury feature to the already opulent property the 57-year-old has called home since November,” the report detailed, later adding, “The contract includes strict terms: the court must be built in 45 days, with fines if it runs past schedule and includes a menu of optional add-ons like chain-link fencing, windscreens and LED lighting that could push costs even higher.”

The report continued: “The courtside diplomacy continued in February when Guilfoyle was pictured with Los Angeles Chargers linebacker Daiyan Henley and Greek-American shooting guard Tyler Dorsey. ‘In the spirit of friendship, respect and US-Greek ties,’ the 57-year-old wrote on Facebook, sharing photos of herself embracing the hunky players at a jersey swap. To capture these transatlantic ties better, a new photographer is to be hired on an ‘as-needed basis,’ including ‘after-hours and weekend’ shifts for up to 20 hours a month, according to a prospective contract dated February 20. The work order mandates that edited images be delivered within a day, or sooner if requested by the embassy.”

The combined new costs of the basketball court and photographer are just shy of $90,000. As an ambassador, these costs would be covered by taxpayer dollars if they go through.

A Daily Beast report on the revelations noted that Guilfoyle “has embraced a high-profile diplomatic lifestyle” since arriving at her post on November 1 of last year, including a “luxury hotel dinner” and a special “nightclub event” hosted by Greek singer, Konstantinos Argyros.

“Since then, she has launched into a string of high-profile appearances, attending elite social events, sitting courtside at local basketball games, and reportedly even taking excursions in the Aegean Sea aboard Vassilatos’ yacht,” The Daily Beast detailed. “Last week, she returned to Washington to attend an event at the White House.”

President Donald Trump’s approval ratings hit record lows this week across numerous polls, and according to a new breakdown from The Hill, this decline is being driven in large part by buyer’s remorse from his MAGA base.

In a report published Wednesday, The Hill cited a new poll from YouGov and The Economist, which found that only 35 percent of respondents approved of Trump’s performance as president, while 58 percent disapproved, putting him a substantial 23 points underwater. That was the worst result on record for the president from that particular poll, matching the two lowest points for his predecessor, Joe Biden, both of which came during his final year in office.

Trump’s YouGov approval has seen a steady decline in recent weeks, sitting at 18 points underwater last week, 19 points the week before, and 15 points the week before that. The polling firm only recorded a lower approval rating, 34 percent, once across Trump’s two terms in November 2017.

According to a breakdown of this new poll’s specific demographics, The Hill found that Trump has seen a remarkable erosion in support from his core MAGA base. The outlet attributed this trend to issues like the declining stock market and the DHS shutdown, as well as the war in Iran, which broke his core 2024 campaign promise to avoid foreign wars. While poll respondents who voted for Trump in 2024 still supported him by a considerable margin, the number has dwindled considerably in the last three weeks.

“The decline in Trump’s approval rating is largely driven by a softening of support from Trump’s own base, which has come amid a ramping up of U.S. military action in Iran, a partial government shutdown and a decline in the stock market,” The Hill’s report detailed. “The latest survey shows, among 2024 Trump voters, 76 percent approve of his handling of the presidency, compared to 19 percent who disapprove. That net +57 approval marks a 15-point drop from three weeks ago, when 84 percent approved and 12 percent disapproved.”

Trump’s approval ratings among older voters, who have tended to support the Republican Party over the decades, and younger voters, who swung considerably towards him in 2024, are also showing major signs of erosion as his second term wears on.

“The latest survey marks a new second-term low for Trump’s net approval among Americans 65 and over, who’ve registered a net -17 percentage point approval of the president, with 57 percent disapproving and 40 percent approving of his handling of his job in office,” the report continued. “Last week, net approval was -10 points, after starting this presidency at net -1 percentage points. Voters under 30 have also seen a sharp drop in support, with net approval at -40 percentage points this week, down from net -25 points last week, -39 percentage points the week before and net -29 points the week before that.”

President Donald Trump once purportedly balked at the idea of cementing his legacy with a library, but according to his one-time biographer, he turned around on the idea when it was suggested he could turn it into something far more garish: a theme park.

Michael Wolff is a veteran reporter and author, best known for his books detailing the turmoil behind the scenes of Trump’s first term in the White House, based on access to insider sources. He also revealed recently — “reasons that will always astound me and bewilder me” — that Trump invited him to Mar-a-Lago soon after he left office the first time around, where they discussed, among other things, his post-presidency plans.

Wolff went into the details during the most recent episode of his Daily Beast podcast, “Inside Trump’s Head,” explaining that “one of the few questions” he was able to ask the then-former president was about his ideas for a presidential library.

“Remember, he’s out of office. He’s no longer the president. He’s in this moment of post-presidency when former presidents turn to thinking about their legacy and their library,” Wolff said. “So I brought this up, and he looked at me with horror.”

Wolff made two conclusions based on that reaction. One, that Trump “was not at all finished with being president,” and two, that he “might be taken aback” by the idea of cementing his presidential legacy with a library, given his notorious and well-documented disdain for reading. In response, Wolff made a suggestion that led him to later suspect that he might have played a part in inspiring Trump’s recently unveiled plans for his “library” in Miami.

“I rushed in to kind of apologize or to cover my faux pas about the library and saying, ‘You know, a presidential library doesn’t have to be a library,'” Wolff explained. “I said, ‘A presidential library, it can be more like’ — and then out of nowhere it came to me, I said — ‘a theme park. It could be the Trump theme park.’”

To that suggestion, Trump’s look of revulsion turned to “something close to wonder.”

“And then we had certainly a five- or six-minute conversation about what a Trump theme park might be like — restaurants, hotels — it was a vision,” Wolff added.

Trump this week unveiled the first concept images for his presidential library, which appears much less like a traditional library and more like the decadent skyscrapers that defined his career as a real estate developer. If completed as proposed, the building — naturally featuring the name “Trump” emblazoned on its facade — would be the tallest building in the Miami skyline. Trump told the press on Tuesday that the structure is “most likely going to be a hotel.” Wolff suggested that any other “legacy” aspects of the library will be “attentive to the Trump family money-making opportunities.”

President Donald Trump’s approval with voters continues to slide, with polling expert Nate Silver revealing that he is facing “profound problems” as his average rating hits a historic low.

Silver is the founder of FiveThirtyEight, a website dedicated to polling analysis that offers a widely referenced average of numerous major polls for major elections and approval ratings. In a post to X, he revealed that Trump’s average approval rating with voters had dipped beneath 40 percent for the first time in his second term.

“Trump’s approval rating just fell below 40 percent in our tracking for the first time,” Silver wrote in a post. “And his net approval rating is now -17.4, also a new low and down about 5 points over the past several weeks.”

Silver accompanied that post with a graph showing the overall movement of Trump’s average approval rating on FiveThirtyEight since his return to the White House. While there have been some brief periods where the average increased, overall, it has been decreasing precipitously since Jan. 2025, when he returned to office with an average net approval of 10 points.

As for what finally dragged Trump’s rating beneath 40 percent, Silver suggested the impact of skyrocketing gas prices resulting from his war with Iran, but also noted that he is facing many other significant issues.

“Obviously, gas prices are a big factor. But Trump has profound problems,” Silver added in a follow-up post. “There *are* signs of erosion among his base. Only 22 percent of Americans have a *strongly* favorable view of Trump. 2028 aspirants are starting to pull away from him. One wonders about the effect of his age, too.”

In a post to his personal site about the trend, Silver noted that Trump was still a few points off from the very worst averages of his first term in the White House and of his predecessor, Joe Biden. Due to the modern era of highly polarized politics, he predicted that there was likely a firm floor for support that Trump will not be able to dip below for now, but also suggested that he might not be able to bounce back, due to how many problems he has directly caused.

“There’s no reason to doubt that the extreme political polarization puts a cap on a modern president’s approval ceiling — and probably also raises his floor,” Silver wrote. “And yet, when I look back on that chart of Trump’s numbers, here’s what I’m struck by: so many of these political wounds have been self-inflicted.”

He continued: “In fact, you could argue that he’s actually been lucky not to have more problems. There haven’t been a lot of natural disasters during Trump 2.0, or major wars (like Ukraine or Gaza) breaking out that Trump didn’t start himself. The biggest economic shocks have also been Trump-caused: the tariffs last year, and now the oil shock. Meanwhile, he’s benefited from the boom in AI investment that has helped to keep tech stocks afloat, without which we might be in full-on bear market.”

Younger members of the conservative political movement think that “MAGA is dying,” according to a new report from the New York Times, and many of them are ready for the GOP to get past President Donald Trump, arguing that the biggest divide in the party right now is generational.

In a report published Monday, the Times detailed the goings-on at last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Grapevine, Texas. According to the outlet, this latest iteration of the long-running event was “sparsely attended,” the result of the conference “gradually waning in energy for years.”

Despite efforts to bring in guest speakers that might bring a jolt of youth to the proceedings, like Minnesota fraud conspiracy theorist Nick Shirley, CPAC’s younger attendees seemed to mostly ignore the speeches, instead opting to “briefly escape the politics of their social media feeds and interact directly with the conservative apparatus at this year’s conference.” They also “found themselves marooned in a listless and… older gathering of Trump loyalists” at the conference, stuck in a sea of attendees unwilling to have tough conversations about the future of the Republican Party.

“There is a divide between the young and old in the party,” Aiden Hoffses, 19-year-old from Maine attending his first CPAC, told the Times. “We keep hearing these talking points that we’re all united and in the same movement. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I feel like I have closer views with liberals than more conservatives at this point.”

Hoffses added further: “It’s not fair for someone to graduate college and have $100,000 of debt. We’re sending billions of dollars to other countries. Why can’t we help our own people?”

“It’s very cultish here,” Joseph Bolick, a 30-year-old Army veteran, told the Times. “It seems like boomers are just on this Trump train.”

Samantha Cassell, a 27-year-old Republican strategist, lamented that “There’s no serious discussion going on” at CPAC this year, calling it “probably the worst one I’ve ever been to.”

“I think that MAGA is dying,” Cassell said. “I do.”

Some moderates in attendance expressed similar exhaustion with the ongoing MAGA movement and its “culture-war provocations,” decrying guests like Shirley as “a shallower mode of conservatism.”

“They need to go touch some grass,” Jack Greenberg, 23, told the Times.

Greenberg, who had previously supported Trump, “expressed dismay that policy had largely been abandoned in favor of rage bait,” and longed for a return to simpler politics of the past.

“I just want politics to be boring again,” he added.

President Donald Trump’s reelection in 2024 has been credited to numerous different groups who pushed his campaign over the edge, and according to new findings from Politico, one of the more important groups is showing signs of “broad frustration and dissatisfaction” and is increasingly likely to ditch the GOP in the midterms.

After suspending his own 2024 campaign, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed Trump, leading a considerable number of his supporters to vote for him in the general election. This led the former environmental lawyer to a spot in Trump’s cabinet as Secretary of Health and Human Services, allowing him to pursue a controversial federal health policy agenda rife with vaccine skepticism and nutrition guidelines contested by most of the scientific community, an agenda now broadly known as “Make America Healthy Again,” or simply, “MAHA.”

Like many Trump 2024 voters, however, MAHA supporters have shown signs of growing discontent with the president’s actions since returning to the White House, often accusing him and Kennedy of not going far enough for their tastes. According to a poll released by Politico, there are signs of “both broad frustration and dissatisfaction with the Trump administration on health priorities” among these voters, presenting major “opportunities for Democrats to make inroads with” them.

“A majority of Americans associate MAHA with the Republican Party, but not overwhelmingly, and most believe the Trump administration has not done enough to ‘Make America Healthy Again, — including a 41 percent plurality of Trump’s own 2024 voters,” Politico explained.

Politico’s data shows Trump and MAHA supporters split down the middle on his health agenda. While 41 percent of 2024 voters overall say he has not done enough, 40 percent said that he has, with 19 percent unsure. Looking at the results for self-described MAHA followers, 47 percent say Trump has not done enough, while 45 percent say that he has, with only 8 percent unsure.

Trump’s second-term agenda has largely been defined by deregulation pushes for many businesses and industries. While Republicans may cheer these moves, they run counter to the MAHA’s desire for heavier crackdowns on “pesticide companies, food manufacturers and drugmakers,” Politico explained.

“The burgeoning political movement that officials in both parties credit with helping President Donald Trump win in 2024 has already begun to reshape how the GOP approaches health policy — driving everything from a redesign of the food pyramid to a rollback in vaccine recommendations,” Politico’s report continued. “At the same time, however, many poll respondents view Democrats as better positioned on the movement’s key health priorities. They were more likely, for example, to say the Democratic Party can be trusted to make the country healthier and are more eager to improve health in America, while fewer said the same of Republicans. The GOP, on the other hand, is seen as more likely to be influenced than Democrats by lobbyists for the food and pesticide industries, who rank among the MAHA movement’s top enemies.”

The degree to which these shifts might impact the GOP in the midterms, according to Politico, will be influenced by how important health issues become by November. As of now, the outlet’s poll found that health ranked below affordability and the cost of living when voters were asked to prioritize current political issues.

President Donald Trump’s contentious war in Iran is approaching a major “crossroads,” according to a new analysis from CNN, leaving him desperate to craft a “misleading” narrative that will allow him to swiftly claim a “total US victory,” despite the bleak reality.

Trump and Israel’s joint campaign against Iran is approaching the start of its second month, with no clear signs that it is winding down, despite the president’s claims that it was won early on. Attempts to unseat the Iranian government regime proved largely unsuccessful, with the ensuing closure of the Strait of Hormuz also creating a catastrophic global energy supply disruption.

Writing for CNN on Monday, reporter Stephen Collins argued that the U.S. has approached a “fork in the road” that could lead down two very different paths: one in which things continue on, spiraling out of control while costing more lives and billions of dollars; or, one in which things are wrapped up quickly.

“The back and forth and Trump’s whiplash rhetoric shows the war has hit a fork in the road,” Collins wrote. “Down one path is a fast-escalating conflict that could widen further with the injection of US ground troops and cause a worsening worldwide economic conflagration. But the high costs of the showdown for the United States and the Islamic Republic also give reason to hope the war could be reined in before it gets even worse.”

Collins further argued that Trump, as other reports have indicated, is desperate for the latter path, highlighting a address to reporters in which he tried to claim that regime change had actually been accomplished in Iran. While the previous leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was assassinated early on in the conflict, he was quickly replaced by his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, who is said to be more hardline than his father. As Collins explained, Trump is putting forward a “misleading” narrative to the public in order to justify calling the war a “total US victory.”

“We’ve had regime change, if you look already, because the one regime was decimated, destroyed, they’re all dead,” the president told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday. “The next regime is mostly dead, and the third regime, we’re dealing with different people than anybody’s dealt with before.”

“The best estimate of many Iran experts is that while many top clerical and military leaders have perished, the regime previously decentralized power to ensure it could survive high-profile assassinations and still appears to be controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” Collins wrote. “Trump’s blend of hyperbole and misdirection makes it hard to know whether he’s trying to create a diplomatic breakthrough or a justification for more intense military action.”

He concluded: “Those potential costs on the battlefield and at home only underscore the president’s unappetizing options and the gamble he took by deciding to go to war in the first place. History shows most modern wars end more messily than presidents predict when they launch them. Even if Trump now opts for diplomacy over escalation, this one now threatens to undercut his bullish claims about the invulnerability of US power and his own global dominance.”

Working-class voters were a “very important part” of the coalition that reelected President Donald Trump in 2024, but according to CNN’s data guru Harry Enten, the latest numbers show a drastic drop in their support for him that could spell doom for the GOP in the future.

For the purposes of this latest polling, “working class” was defined as anyone making $50,000 or less a year. As Enten explained, these voters and their frustrations about the economy were key to pushing Trump over the electoral edge in 2024.

“You know, the working class… those making under $50K were a big swing vote in the 2024 election,” Enten explained. “Trump was able to win them. That was a very important part of his coalition.”

Now, however, the support Trump has from these voters has fallen off dramatically, with their approval rating of his job performance as president now deeply underwater. While Trump carried these voters by 2 percent over Kamala Harris, he now has a net disapproval from them by 24 percentage points, based on an average from several sources.

A similar trend has emerged across numerous voter demographics that broke for Trump in 2024, including young voters and Latino voters, casting major doubts on the GOP’s ability to hang onto power in the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential race.

“But now look at this now, look at the net approval rating he has with those making under [$50K],” Enten continued. “Down it goes. Look at that, that’s a 26-point switcheroo in the latest average of polls. Look at that, minus 24 points. The working-class voters are abandoning Donald Trump, those who put him over the top in 2024 are saying, ‘You know what? Not for me right now.'”

On a per-issue basis, Enten noted that Trump’s approval over Harris on the economy was a major factor helping him secure working-class voters in 2024, but now, that rating has fallen even harder than his overall approval. While voters in 2024 gave him a 5-point edge on the economy, his current net approval is now underwater by a dysmal 31 points.

“They have completely, completely shifted away from the president of the United States,” Enten said. “He is way underwater, we’re talking way more than a 20-point shift away from the president of the United States. His net approval rating with them right now is absolutely atrocious when it comes to the economy. They have seen what has happened, they have seen what has happened with tariffs, they have seen what has happened with the war, they have seen the gas prices go up, and you just say to yourself if you’re a voter making under $50K, the economy is not where we want it to be, and therefore we are turning against Trump on the economy, and we are turning against him overall.”