Hi all, it’s Friday. What a week! If you thought the bad news for Donald Trump would slow down after Tuesday, I have news for you. It is accelerating.
Here’s what we’re tracking today:
Susie Wiles is out as Chief of Staff, and Stephen Miller takes over Monday
Republicans turn on Trump, Johnson, and Hegseth as Comer, Don Jr., Tucker Carlson, and Mike Flynn all break ranks
The White House warns 3,000+ conservative groups it is “monitoring” their statements
Democrats keep climbing with 253 House seats and 54 Senate seats
Judge Tanya Chutkan blocks Trump’s 250-foot arch hours after his stacked commission approved it at 10:28 PM
Three top DOJ officials out in 48 hours
Trump calls Iran “an occupation” and muses about whether to “certify” the country
Paraguay’s Trump-allied president faces impeachment while Flávio Bolsonaro parties at Mar-a-Lago
Democrats prepare oversight of Trump-linked corporations, and Republicans are panicking
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Let’s get into it.
Stephen Miller Now Runs the White House
Breaking this afternoon: Susie Wiles is OUT as White House Chief of Staff, and Trump is replacing her with Stephen Miller, the architect of his mass deportation agenda.
Trump announced it on Truth Social, saying Miller, currently Deputy Chief of Staff and “one of my most trusted advisors,” will become Chief of Staff starting Monday, November 9. Wiles is being moved over to the “Trump Political Operation,” and Trump thanked her for doing “a great job.” Wiles is out IMMEDIATELY.
Weeks ago, Trump said there was “zero chance” he’d replace her. Then Republicans got crushed in the midterms. Now the most extreme person in the building runs it.
Think about what that tells you. Voters just delivered one of the biggest rebukes in modern political history over Iran, gas prices, and chaos. Trump’s response is to hand the keys to the man behind family separations, the mass deportation machine, and the rookie-stuffed ICE ranks that even ICE officers are now complaining about. He isn’t moderating. He is radicalizing.
The MAGA Civil War Is Here
Is this finally the end of MAGA?
Trump’s former top allies are now dancing on his political grave. Tucker Carlson posted a video titled “The Great Betrayal,” with Trump’s eyes covered by a red banner and surrounded by images of war, Israel, and gas prices. Then Michael Flynn, Trump’s own former national security adviser, quote-tweeted it and wrote that the biggest hoax was “the one pulled on the American people,” warning that “we are going to lose our republic if we keep going down this path.” That’s Mike Flynn, folks, saying Donald Trump is the path to losing the republic.
Don Jr. joined in on his Rumble show, admitting that the Iran war “is largely what shifted voter sentiment and caused this wave.” He said it jacked up gas prices and reminded everyone that Republicans campaigned on staying out of these wars.
Over on Fox News, Jesse Watters asked how Republicans could win back young men, and Tim Pool said he wasn’t sure they could. Ever. Pool talked about how young white men aged 18 to 29 without college degrees swung 40 points to Democrats, and that many of them simply want to burn the Republicans down. Two years ago we were told the manosphere belonged to MAGA. That Democrats had lost young men forever. Not anymore.
Then House Oversight Chairman James Comer went on NewsNation and tossed Mike Johnson and Trump under the bus. Comer said nobody knows the strategy in Iran, that Republican voters are angrier about the war than Democrats are, and that lifelong MAGA voters with flags in their yards stayed home over Iran and gas prices.
He said the “big beautiful bill” should have been several smaller bills, blamed mistakes made with “a lot of input from the White House,” and declared that Johnson will no longer be the face of the conference, with Scalise or Jordan taking over.
Asked about impeaching Pete Hegseth, Comer said that’s Trump’s call but that there are “a lot of questions about heads.” That’s not a no.
Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman noted Hegseth is going to have “an interesting week” on the Hill.
We expect impeachment proceedings against Trump cabinet officials to start in the lame duck session next week, beginning with Hegseth, and I believe it will be bipartisan. I also expect bipartisan pressure to release the Epstein files the regime is still covering up.
The White House Threatens Its Own Side
How is Trump handling the revolt? With threats, as you’d expect from a felon in the Oval Office.
According to an exclusive by Philip Wegmann in the Wall Street Journal, the White House warned conservative groups it is “monitoring” their statements. Very normal!
The memo went to more than 3,000 organizations, listed Trump’s “accomplishments,” and closed with a highlighted line warning that the White House is monitoring their statements, press releases, and media appearances.
Meanwhile, Axios’s Alex Isenstadt reports Trump told advisers he wants to keep raising money for his super PAC to “keep Republicans in line” and influence 2028. As our own Ron Filipkowski put it, MAGA PACs have been the most successful business venture of Trump’s life, and he will never end them.
The Numbers Keep Getting Bluer
Democrats now hold 253 House seats with 43 pickups, and 54 Senate seats with 7 pickups. 260 House seats is within reach, something virtually no one predicted. In South Carolina’s 1st District, Democrat LaCore leads Costa Honeycutt by about 3,300 votes with 99% reporting. And in Mississippi, Democrat Scott Colom says Cindy Hyde-Smith has no path to victory. The whole country is practically turning blue, down to state legislatures and state supreme courts.
Trump’s Midnight Arch Scheme Fails
There was a whole lot happening related to Trump’s arch last night. Here’s what went down.
Trump’s National Capital Planning Commission, which he stacked with loyalists, voted at approximately 10:28 PM Thursday to approve final plans for his 250-foot “triumphal arch” at Memorial Circle, right in front of Arlington National Cemetery. The plan was obvious. Approve it late at night, start construction in the morning, then claim it was too late to stop. DOJ lawyers even admitted in their court notice that they didn’t have time to conduct the typical inquiry required under the federal rules.
Judge Tanya Chutkan wasn’t having it. She immediately granted a 14-day temporary restraining order sought by the District of Columbia and Virginia, barring any construction, excavation, demolition, or roadway closures tied to the arch. The regime must serve the order on every contractor within 24 hours and certify compliance by Monday, November 9. Her 33-page written opinion followed Friday morning, and it rejected the regime’s national security justification for the project. As Scott MacFarlane noted, despite stacking the approval committee, Trump couldn’t force it through the courts.
Hours after the judge blocked construction, the White House posted a rendering of the “Military Triumphal Arch,” inscribed with “Golden Age of America,” calling it a monument to the American spirit. Trump also launched a website for it. The guy has not learned a single thing from the midterms.
Veterans have been fighting this thing because it blocks the view of Arlington and disgraces those buried there. One Vietnam veteran suing the administration described walking from the Vietnam Memorial to the Lincoln Memorial and looking across Memorial Bridge at Arlington, where his buddies are buried, and feeling his trauma begin to recede. He said he has a duty as a survivor to protect their memory.
Compare that to Donald Trump, who dodged Vietnam with five deferments and bone spurs, called fallen service members “suckers and losers,” and recently claimed he would have won Vietnam in five days by bombing Ho Chi Minh City. Back then it was Saigon, the capital of our ally.
Pools, Ballrooms, and Zelda Memes
After the biggest rebuke of his political life, here’s how Trump spent his week, as recapped by CBS’s Kathryn Watson: a Reflecting Pool ceremony Monday, blistering midterm losses Tuesday, a ballroom construction tour Wednesday, designating the Oval Office a national landmark Thursday, and launching a triumphal arch website Friday. When CNBC asked NEC Director Kevin Hassett about all the pools and ballrooms, he laughed it off as election week. These people are so out of touch.
The rest of the cabinet isn’t doing better. Dr. Oz posted tips for knee pain. Sean Duffy posted about going airborne in a Jetson One personal flying machine. CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper launched a podcast talking about French fries and basketball. The White House is posting Zelda memes. And Trump himself posted that he’s “100% in favor of super intelligence,” adding in all caps that only foolish people would say no to data centers. The President has been reduced to essentially being the ShamWow guy promoting data centers in Americans’ backyards
Meanwhile, people can’t afford gas or groceries, credit card delinquencies are at record highs, and Fox Business is melting down on air that manufacturing growth is “not enough for the voters.”
Trump Doubles Down on Iran
The theme of this recap? Trump learned nothing. In the Oval Office he said a friend told him not to call Iran a war but “an occupation,” and he agreed. He then mused about whether to “certify” Iran, meaning destroy the rest of the country, saying “maybe I’ll have to” and “you’ll know soon enough.” According to Reuters, citing two senior sources, Trump is now inclined to order major combat operations because he believes he has nothing left to lose politically. That’s how you end up in World War III, by the way…
On the ground, the IRGC claims it struck two more tankers and a large cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz and shot down another U.S. drone over Qeshm Island, claiming a running total of 16 MQ-1 Predators and 56 MQ-9 Reapers. Iran has also been showing off the locations of undersea cables in the Strait, an implicit warning that it could escalate against infrastructure. And after meeting Putin, a deputy to senior adviser Mohsen Rezaei said Russian gas transfers and a new north-south transport corridor will “shatter the notion of being able to pressure Iran.”
Accountability Is Coming
According to the Washington Post, Democrats are preparing investigations into Trump-linked corporations, including Trump’s use of Musk’s Grok to help plan the Maduro operation, Apple hosting ICE tracking apps, and Meta’s NDAs with local governments over data centers. Law firms are holding emergency meetings. The message from incoming Democratic oversight leaders to these executives is simple: lawyer up. A letter circulating online from Steve Scalise tells GOP chairmen to prepare for “retribution” and to inventory the investigations Democrats will launch. Also from the Post… The White House claimed Starlink donated its service, but records show Musk’s company received nearly $1.2 million in Pentagon awards. They lie about everything.
And this is interesting. Inside ICE, a tenured source told Anna Giaritelli that plenty of line officers are happy with the election results and want full accountability for the agency, plus a renewed push to unionize.
I’ll go further.
The way ICE and Border Patrol are being used should be abolished, and replaced with an immigration system that treats people with dignity.
At DOJ, three top officials are out in 48 hours. Jason Reding Quiñones, who ran Trump’s “grand conspiracy” probe in South Florida, resigned, as did National Security Division head John Eisenberg. Civil Rights chief Harmeet Dhillon left a day earlier. Justice Connection, a group of former DOJ employees, called Quiñones this president’s Don Quixote. We expect more DOJ resignations to follow. Hate to break it to all the rats fleeing the sinking ship, but you can’t quit your way out of a subpoena.
Quick Hits
Laura Loomer posted 138 times in 24 hours, then put her podcast on indefinite hiatus, saying she’s running on empty.
Tesla will wind down Cybertruck production in mid-2027. Per Electrek, sales are running at roughly 10–12% of the 250,000-a-year target.
Paraguay’s Trump-allied president Santiago Peña faces a Senate impeachment trial and three criminal investigations after the collapse of Ueno Bank, the digital bank his government promoted. He offered to resign, but Congress hasn’t acted on it.
Flávio Bolsonaro, who fled Brazil, showed up in a tuxedo at the CPAC Mar-a-Lago gala. Brazil’s President Lula said Bolsonaro arrived in the U.S. and Trump lost, adding that Netanyahu lost in Israel the same week. Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot is working to form a governing coalition there.
The dominoes are falling all over the world. This global authoritarian network is getting exposed, and pro-democracy forces are fighting back.
If you haven’t yet, grab a copy of WTF America?!, the book my brothers and I wrote. It’s been on the New York Times bestseller list two weeks in a row. Let’s make it three. Grateful for every one of you. Have a great weekend.
