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      Politicians shocked by Marjorie Taylor Greene’s surprise resignation announcement

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      Marjorie Taylor Greene’s surprise resignation from Congress late on Friday, saying she refused to be a “battered wife” following her public fallout with Donald Trump, has been slammed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic congresswoman and Greene’s frequent sparring partner.“She’s carefully timing her departure just 1-2 days after her pension kicks in,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement on her Instagram account, and criticized her voting record on healthcare.Greene abruptly resigned from Congress, effective 5 January, in a 10-minute video post outlining her unhappiness with Republicans on issues including the public release of the Jeffrey Epstein files in the government’s possession, US financing of foreign conflicts, Trump’s decision to potentially back a candidate against her, and the cost of living and healthcare.After her service to Trump, she said she objected to being “expected to defend the President against impeachment after he hatefully dumped tens of millions of dollars against me and tried to destroy me”.“I refuse to be a ‘battered wife’ hoping it all goes away and gets better,” Greene said.But Ocasio-Cortez said Greene “is saying a lot but her ACTIONS have not backed up the rhetoric. For all her talk, she’s STILL voting with them to gut healthcare … ”Greene voted in the summer for cuts to Medicaid and the reduction of enhanced tax credits for the Affordable Care Act, but then in October criticized the ACA cuts as premiums soared.Ocasio-Cortez also repeated some of her criticism of shares bought by Greene earlier this year before Trump said he was pausing tariffs. Greene has denied any impropriety in her stock trading.Kentucky Republican congressman Thomas Massie, who has also taken public stands against Trump including over the Epstein files release, said on X that he was “very sad for our country but so happy for my friend Marjorie. I’ll miss her tremendously.”Massie added that Greene “embodies what a true Representative should be. Everyone should read her statement; there’s more honesty expressed in these four pages than most politicians will speak in a lifetime.”Early on Saturday, Trump also reacted to Greene’s announcement, posting on Truth Social that “Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown” had decided to call it “quits” because of “PLUMMETING Poll Numbers, and not wanting to face a Primary Challenger with a strong Trump Endorsement (where she would have no chance of winning!) … ”Trump also said that Greene’s political relationship with Massie “did not help her”.“For some reason, primarily that I refused to return her never ending barrage of phone calls, Marjorie went BAD,” he added. “Nevertheless, I will always appreciate Marjorie, and thank her for her service to our Country!”But Trump later told NBC News he would like to see Greene resume her political career.“It’s not going to be easy for her” to revive her career in politics, he said, adding: “I’d love to see that.” In the meantime, “she’s got to take a little rest”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionDavid Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland school massacre in 2018 who briefly served as a co-vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee and tussled with Greene over gun control, posted: “See ya!” on X.Greene was seen in a 2019 video following a then-18-year-old Hogg outside Capitol Hill, calling him a “coward” for not defending his stance on guns and accusing him of “using” kids to pass gun control laws. Hogg and other Parkland survivors used the video as evidence to call for Greene’s resignation when she was appointed to the House Republican committee in 2021.Barbara Comstock, a former Republican House member and a Trump critic, lauded Greene’s decision on social media. “She doesn’t want to be a Republican ‘battered wife’ taking Trump’s abuse and getting death threats and pretending it’s all ok only to end up in the minority. Good for her,” Comstock posted.Greene’s decision to leave Congress came soon after another plot twist was playing out in the White House between Trump and New York City’s mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, who spoke of their shared commitment to the future of the nation’s most populous city.Trump, who had in the past called Mamdani a “100% Communist Lunatic” and a “total nut job”, spoke of how impressed he was with the man who had called his administration “authoritarian” and said he anticipates a productive relationship.“I expect to be helping him, not hurting him,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office after a private meeting on Friday afternoon that lasted under an hour. “Because I want New York City to be great.”Mamdani said that he appreciated that during their meeting they “had focused not on places of disagreement, which there are many, and also focused on the shared purpose that we have in serving New Yorkers”.Both said they had shared ideas about affordability and developing new housing in the city. “Some of his ideas are really the same ideas that I have,” the president said of Mamdani about inflationary issues. 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      Republicans will be left holding the bill for Trump’s policies in the midterms | Sidney Blumenthal

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      The elections of 4 November were the end of a grandiose illusion. After his 2024 victory, Donald Trump claimed he had an “unprecedented and powerful mandate”, that his “mandate” was “massive” and that his “Maga movement” was irresistible, the wave of the future. It lasted 10 months, in which he had betrayed his chief promise to lower inflation, turned the public against him on every issue and Republicans at last faced a battering by voters.Trump’s image of omnipotence has rested upon a pyramid of dread. His ability to maintain the servility of the Republican Congress, whose members are intimidated by the danger that if they defy him he would support primary opponents to run against them, has been the political foundation for all the other forms of fear he incites throughout American institutions. Trump could not have leveraged himself as “dictator on day one” without congressional abdication. The Republicans immediately fell into lockstep. But within two weeks of the 4 November elections, only one Republican in the House voted against the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, which Trump had called a “hoax” before he felt compelled to bend in the cyclone to sign the bill – and yet still suppresses the files.The Republicans in Congress now have another fear that places them in a terrible tightening vise. They have allowed Trump to avoid accountability and in next year’s midterms – of which these elections are an augury – they will be held mercilessly to account in his stead. Trump is the cause for which they will suffer the effect. He will not be on the ballot. Only they will pay the butcher’s bill.The Republicans are helpless. Through their abject obedience to him they have permitted Trump to sever their organic connection to their voters. None dare venture any longer to town halls in their districts. They cower before their constituents’ wrath over Trump. He is more unpopular than any president of recent time, including himself after January 6, with the exception of George W Bush at the end of his presidency in the financial collapse. The colossus who proclaims “I have the right to do anything I want to do, I’m the president” has reduced the Republicans to ciphers. They are not public servants, but his sycophants. Their lord, however, is not their protector. The closer they attach themselves to him, the more vulnerable they become. The voters repudiate Trump by rejecting Republicans.If the Republicans had paid more attention to his career, they would have observed that he always maneuvers to set up fall guys to take the rap. Trump has his Roy Cohns and his Michael Cohens. “He directed me to make the payment,” Cohen testified about the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels in order to shut her up to affect the outcome of the 2016 election. Trump was ultimately convicted in 2024 of 34 felonies of business fraud in an election scheme. “Michael has great liability to me!” Trump tweeted. Cohen served two and a half years in prison for tax evasion, lying to a bank, and campaign finance violations for the payments to Daniels and Karen McDougal, a Playboy model with whom Trump had an affair. “The man doesn’t tell the truth,” said Cohen. “And it is sad that I should take responsibility for his dirty deeds.” Trump called Cohen, who testified in the trial, a “rat”, a Mafia term for an informant. “The more people that follow Mr Trump as I did blindly are going to suffer the same consequences that I’m suffering,” Cohen told a congressional committee in 2019. The Republicans collectively are now Michael Cohen.A Marist-NPR poll on 19 November sent a shock wave. Democrats held a towering 14-point advantage. Then a Marquette University poll rolled in later that day showing Democrats with an 11-point advantage among likely voters. In the 2018 midterms, a Democratic lead of around seven to eight points on the generic ballot translated into a gain of 40 seats. The latest numbers might project roughly 60 seats. The supposedly dead Democrats would easily carry a large majority. With those margins, they would also likely take the Senate.If that seems too breathless, consider what the recent 4 November elections portend. Republican turnout cratered; Democratic enthusiasm ran high. The polls, which were weighted on the basis of the 2024 results, were distorted in showing closer races than the final counts. In the New Jersey gubernatorial contest, in the highest voter turnout in an off-year election in two decades there, the Republican vote count declined 42% for the Republican candidate, Jack Ciattarelli, compared with Trump’s 2024 total. In the Virginia gubernatorial race, the Republican vote count dropped by nearly 45% compared with 2024, while the Democratic vote fell by only 22%.The final polls significantly underestimated the winning margins for the Democratic candidates, Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey. Late polls had Spanberger leading by seven to 11 points, while others suggested a lead as narrow as 2.5 points or a virtual “dead heat”. In New Jersey, final polls had the race even closer. A RealClearPolling average showed Sherrill’s lead at approximately four to eight points, with some polls placing the race within a single point’s margin of error. Spanberger won by 15 points, Sherill by 13. The polls generally, in election after election, miscalculated the Democratic margin of victory by approximately five to nine percentage points compared with the actual results.All of Trump’s gains were swept away in every demographic group. In the two New Jersey cities with the greatest percentage of Hispanic voters, Union City and Perth Amboy, Sherill won by 69 points compared with Kamala Harris’ 17, and by 56 points compared with nine, respectively. Sherill won all 21 counties. The Democrats picked up enough state legislative seats, including in a district held by Republicans for more than three decades, to achieve a super-majority in the assembly.In Virginia, Spanberger outperformed Harris in more than 95% of Virginia’s counties and independent cities. The Democrats gained more than 16 points in small cities and 12 in rural areas. Before the election, Democrats held 51 seats and Republicans 48 in the house of delegates, with one vacancy. The Democrats won 13 seats and now have 64 delegates. Voter urgency to defeat Republicans was so persuasive that Jay Jones, the Democratic candidate for state attorney general, whose emails expressing his desire to shoot the Republican speaker of the house of delegates in the head were a central focus of the campaign, won by six points.Elections elsewhere demonstrated the same pattern. In Erie county, Pennsylvania, which Trump had narrowly won, the Democratic candidate for county executive beat the Republican by 25 points. For the first time since 2006, Democrats in Georgia won statewide nonfederal offices with two candidates gaining about 60% of the vote for seats on the Georgia public service commission. Little noticed, Democrats flipped two state senate seats in Mississippi, which broke the Republican super-majority.The claim that Trump’s 2024 election represented a fundamental realignment of American politics has swiftly turned into a mirage. He had won by a slender margin of 1.5 points, overwhelmingly on the issue of inflation, and dependent on winning the 7% of voters who decided in the last week for him by nine points, generally considered low-propensity voters. This time, many of them apparently either switched to vote for the Democrats or stayed home. The much touted newly consolidated Trump electorate has vanished. Trump in office has built no mandate. His coalition has disintegrated and been reduced to his base, which is beginning to splinter over continuing inflation, increases in premiums for Obamacare and the Epstein files.Projecting forward, accounting for the discrepancy between the polls and the results in 2025, conservatively giving the Democrats running for the Congress an additional five points to make up for it, and assuming similar party turnout, the outcome would be startling. If that formula is to be believed, Democrats would win more than 60 seats in the 2026 midterms and capture the Senate, too.The circumstances that produced the Democratic sweep in 2025 will not be replaced by election day next year with the dawning of Trump’s “Golden Age”. His economic damage through his draconian and chaotic tariffs, a major contributing factor to inflation and unemployment, the poisonous combination of stagflation, can hardly be unraveled quickly, even if the supreme court supports lower court rulings against his invocation of emergency authority as unlawful. The rest of Trump’s policies radically redistributing wealth and resources upward and immiserating the working and middle classes, which have had unanimous Republican support, will not be reversed. In 2026, the midterms will be fought on even more difficult ground for Republicans of an even lengthier period of economic decline.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTrump’s absence from the ballot eliminates his attraction to the low-propensity voters that previously backed him. In any case, they have mostly evaporated, as the 2025 results demonstrated. It is a further illusion about the past election that if Trump campaigns on the stump for Republicans it will benefit them. In fact, Trump’s vote in 2024 was for Trump, but even so the congressional Republicans actually performed better than Trump. Overall, Trump did better in 198 congressional districts and the GOP House candidates did better in 237. For districts with GOP incumbents, Trump did better in 29, but the House candidates did better in 191, according to calculations derived from the Downballot.Now Trump’s enveloping presence casts a shadow over Republicans which they cannot escape. His unpopularity is deep and settled. The more he appears next to them, the more intensely the larger public is galvanized against them, if they need the reminder that the Republicans and Trump are one and the same. The Republicans have trapped themselves, willingly so. He is their cement shoes.The key propulsive numbers for turnout in the 2026 election are to be found among those who strongly approve and disapprove of Trump. In the latest Marist Poll, 68% of Republicans strongly approve of Trump, while 81% of Democrats and 60% of independents strongly disapprove. Those numbers can get worse for Republicans. Polarization now works against them. The numbers are inexorable harbingers of 2026.Trump himself is an immutable factor. He is hardwired against flexibility and self-reform, which he believes is the core of his strength and appeal. He is certain that his intransigence is his greatest asset. If he never gives in, he will always win. His only road to victory is that everyone must fear him. He cannot admit a mistake. It would violate his canon of power. Any erosion of his followers’ subservience is taken as not only an unjustifiable attack on his authority, but on his very being.Trump perceives every challenge, no matter how sensible, as an existential threat. He prizes unstinting fealty above reason. He can respond in only one way. Refusing to acknowledge the repudiation of the 4 November elections, he explodes in rage and aggravates alienation.He must call Marjorie Taylor Greene for questioning him a “traitor”. He must shout at a Bloomberg News reporter for asking a question about the Epstein files: “Quiet, quiet, piggy!” He must label an ABC News correspondent who also asks a question about his suppression of the Epstein files “insubordinate”. He must declare that Democratic members of the Congress, all military and national security veterans, invoking the law that the armed forces and intelligence officials are obligated not to follow illegal orders, are “traitors” who should be “ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL” for “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”But in the midterm elections to come, however distant they may still seem, it is the Republicans in the Congress who will stand alone to receive the final verdict before the people for their cowardice in collaborating with Trump and as contemptible exemplars of all his collaborators.

      Sidney Blumenthal, former senior adviser to the Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has published three books of a projected five-volume political life of Abraham Lincoln: A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel and All the Powers of Earth. He is a Guardian US columnist More

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      Meet the conservative lawyer causing headaches for major news networks

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      In just 14 months, Daniel Suhr, the 40-year-old president of a two-person, Chicago-based, conservative legal organization called the Center for American Rights, has emerged as a thorn in the side of the major US broadcast news networks at a time when they face both financial and political vulnerabilities.Suhr has had a key ally in Brendan Carr, who was hand-picked by Donald Trump to serve as the chair of the powerful Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as the Trump administration has sought new avenues to take on the mainstream media. Carr has resuscitated several complaints that were filed by Suhr and dismissed at the end of Joe Biden’s administration and has seemingly factored in Suhr’s suggestions when reviewing media mergers.One of those complaints, in October 2024, dealt with the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with then vice-president Kamala Harris. It preceded by about two weeks a $10bn lawsuit by Trump against CBS that made similar claims and upended the political-media world for the next nine months. Suhr’s complaint led to CBS’s unprecedented decision to release the full, unedited transcript and video library from the Harris interview under pressure from Carr. And when Carr’s FCC ultimately approved Paramount’s long-delayed merger with Skydance Media in July, it included conditions that Suhr had asked for: the appointment of an ombudsman to handle complaints of bias at CBS News and the elimination of all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.“I think the commission did a great job in the final order,” Suhr said in a recent sit-down with the Guardian. “The commission’s order said that Paramount committed to news that was ‘fair, unbiased, and fact-based.’ I think those are great words. I would love to see all of our news be fair, unbiased and fact-based. I think that articulation of the standard is in many ways the fruition of what started with the one complaint.”It’s all a bit of a whirlwind for Suhr, who filed his first media complaint in September 2024. Critics of the way that Carr has used the commission’s limited regulatory oversight over the content of television networks to exert pressure have some questions – and some concerns – about how Suhr suddenly became such a key player in the administration’s regulatory apparatus, even as they say he’s very pleasant to deal with.“When you talk to him, he seems like a very reasonable, very articulate, smart guy,” said Gigi Sohn, a longtime consumer advocate who was nominated by former president Joe Biden to serve on the FCC but did not ultimately do so. “It’s just kind of curious that this person has come out of nowhere and is so active and is so tied with the chair. I think it raises questions that should be answered.”One of those questions is whether Suhr is taking his cues directly from Carr, who shares his belief that the mainstream media is biased in favor of Democrats.Over coffee recently in Washington DC, where Suhr had traveled to attend a dinner hosted by the conservative Federalist Society, he sought to explain how exactly his organization became a central actor in the conservative case against alleged bias in the media – and how he became what Sohn called “a cog in the Carr wheel”, though Suhr sees it differently.While Suhr said he’s a “big fan” of Carr, he pushed back on the notion that he works hand-in-glove with him. “I don’t run my complaints by [Carr] ahead of time,” he said. “I don’t run my complaints by his staff ahead of time.”Still, it’s undeniable that Suhr “has the ear of FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on a number of policy issues,” as former telecommunications association executive Ted Hearn wrote last week, noting that he had endorsed the $34.5bn merger between Charter Communications and Cox Communications.Suhr said he has only met Carr once – though he did not disclose that his one meeting had occurred just hours before meeting with the Guardian for an interview. Carr posted a photo of the two of them on X, writing that Suhr is “doing fantastic work advancing the public interest in media policy”. (Carr did not respond to a text message seeking further comment about Suhr.)Asked about it later, Suhr explained the visit as just a “get-to-know-you” session – they didn’t talk about pending cases, which means there won’t be an official notice of their meeting – just a photo that Carr posted on X.In late September 2024, Suhr filed a complaint against ABC over its handling of the presidential debate it hosted between Trump and Harris. There was also a complaint against NBC over a pre-election appearance by Harris on Saturday Night Live,which Suhr argued was a violation of the equal time rule.Both complaints were closed at the end of Biden’s term by then-FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel and then reopened by Carr – though the chair chose not to bring back a petition to deny a local Fox station a license because of the Fox News Channel’s coverage of the 2020 election.“The dismissals by the FCC were so obviously correct under established precedent that I became a little curious about who would be dumb enough to file these things,” said Robert Corn-Revere, a first amendment litigator for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, when asked how he first became aware of Suhr. “There is no reason whatsoever for these proceedings to still be open and there was never a basis for them to be open in the first place.” (“[Corn-Revere] is entitled to his opinion,” Suhr responded. “I think our results speak for themselves.”)When ABC indefinitely suspended late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel’s show on 17 September Suhr was all over that as well. Earlier that day, he had filed a complaint to the FCC seeking consequences for ABC unless Kimmel’s show was taken off the air. That followed another complaint about two weeks earlier accusing Kimmel of using his show to benefit Democrats.Critics wonder whether Carr is keeping the complaints open to serve as a potential pressure point for networks – like NBC owner Comcast – that might need the FCC’s blessing for future transactions.Despite their issues with Suhr’s filings, which often allege violations of the FCC’s poorly defined “news distortion” standard, both Sohn and Corn-Revere acknowledged that there is nothing unusual about an outside organization filing motions that are aligned with an FCC chair’s priorities. But, Corn-Revere said, “I’ve just never seen it to be this sort of open and obvious as is going on now.”While he’s relatively new to taking on the media, Suhr is no stranger to politics. After graduating with a law degree in 2008, Suhr spent several years managing the Federalist Society’s law school chapters before joining the administration of Scott Walker, the Republican former Wisconsin governor . He then became a public interest lawyer, working for an organization called the Liberty Justice Center before forming the Center for American Rights with his partner Patrick Hughes. It was Hughes, who leads CAR’s board, who first suggested that Suhr should look into ways to combat what he saw as mainstream media misinformation after watching the ABC News-hosted presidential debate in September.“It was an unfair debate – the moderators were clearly in favor of the Democrats – and it made me think: ‘How can this be?’” Hughes recalled. “And so I said to Daniel: ‘We’ve got to do something about this. What are the standards under which the FCC regulates this?’ Because it can’t be right.”Hughes said he’s been pleased with the impact that Suhr has been able to have. “He’s brilliant,” he said. “He’s a terrific person and a fabulous lawyer and he’s doing a great job.”Sohn agreed that Suhr has “obviously been very successful” in his efforts.Suhr’s complaint against CBS is still open, even though the relief sought – forcing the network to release the 60 Minutes transcript – was already granted months ago. When asked recently why the FCC has not acted on complaints, Carr said they are still being investigated.Either way, Suhr is feeling better about CBS News these days, particularly after the selection of Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief and the appointment of a prominent Washington conservative, Kenneth R Weinstein, as ombudsman.“We appreciate the change that is happening. We applaud it. We’re going to continue to be vigilant for consumers, but so far I’ve been thrilled,” Suhr said. “We just want journalists to be better journalists.” More

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      Marjorie Taylor Greene to resign from Congress in January amid fallout with Trump

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      Marjorie Taylor Greene announced on Friday evening she will be resigning from office effective 5 January 2026, in the wake of souring relations with President Donald Trump, mostly recently over a vote to force the release of files related to the late Jeffrey Epstein.In a four-page statement, the Georgia congresswoman said the legislative branch had been “sidelined” and accused Republican leaders of refusing to advance conservative priorities such as border security or “America First” policies.Until recently, Greene had been one of the most vocal and visible supporters of Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, crediting him with inspiring her to run for Congress in 2020. But in recent months, the congresswoman had become a surprising critic of the Trump administration – taking on the president not just over the release of the Epstein files, but also his administration’s support for Israel, and extending expiring Obamacare subsidies. She began questioning whether Trump was truly an “America first” president.“No matter which way the political pendulum swings, Republican or Democrat, nothing ever gets better for the common American man or woman,” Greene said.“When the common American people finally realize and understand that the political industrial complex of both parties is ripping this country apart, that not one elected leader like me is able to stop Washington’s machine from gradually destroying our country, and instead the reality is that they, common Americans, the people, possess the real power over Washington, then I’ll be here by their side to rebuild it.“Until then I’m going back to the people I love, to live life to the fullest as I always have, and look forward to a new path ahead,” Greene added. In a phone conversation with an ABC News reporter, Trump was quoted as saying Greene’s resignation was “great news”. He added that Greene hadn’t given him notice but “it doesn’t matter, you know but I think it’s great. I think she should be happy.”Previously, Trump has called Greene a “traitor” and “wacky” and said he would endorse a challenger against her when she ran for re-election next year. In a social media post last week, Trump speculated that Greene had turned against him because he advised her not to run for Senate and claimed she was “upset that I don’t return her phone calls”. In response, Greene accused Trump of lying and said she believed it was her persistent calls for his administration to release the Epstein files that “sent him over the edge”.Greene did not give House Speaker Mike Johnson advance notice of her resignation, according to NBC News. Her departure in January will narrow Johnson’s already razor-thin majority, leaving him less room to maneuver.Greene explained her decision in a 10-minute social media video posted on X on Friday night.In her resignation statement, she said: “I have fought harder than almost any other elected Republican to elect Donald Trump and Republicans to power … Through it all I have never changed or went back on my campaign promises … America First should mean America First and only Americans First, with no other foreign country ever being attached to America First in our halls of government.”Last week, Greene said she had been contacted by private security firms “with warnings for my safety” after Trump announced he was withdrawing his support for and endorsement of her.In a post on X, Greene said that “a hotbed of threats against me are being fueled and egged on by the most powerful man in the world”, without referring to Trump by name, adding it was “the man I supported and helped get elected”.Greene reiterated these threats in her statement, saying that she has faced “never ending personal attacks, death threats, lawfare, ridiculous slander and lies about me, that most people could never withstand even for a day”.Her resignation comes after months of opinions that go against those of the White House and some of her Republican colleagues. Earlier this month, Trump pushed back against criticism from Greene, saying she had “lost her way” after she accused him of paying too much attention to foreign affairs and not enough to the rising cost of living in the US – points she also addressed in her Friday statement.Greene said she had broken with the US president over several issues, including the issuing of H-1B visas to skilled foreign workers, a ban on AI regulation, “50-year mortgage scams”, involvement in foreign wars, and the release of files related to the crimes of Epstein, the late pedophile Trump socialized with for more than 15 years.“Standing up for American women who were raped at 14, trafficked and used by rich powerful men, should not result in me being called a traitor and threatened by the president of the United States, whom I fought for,” Greene said.Greene has been an outspoken opponent of Israel’s war on Gaza, with US support, calling it “a genocide”.“If I am cast aside by Maga Inc and replaced by Neocons, Big Pharma, Big Tech, Military Industrial War Complex, foreign leaders, and the elite donor class that can’t even relate to real Americans, then many common Americans have been cast aside and replaced as well,” Greene said.Her resignation comes halfway through her third term in the US House of Representatives. In her resignation speech, she did not say what she would do next but hinted at a future in politics, saying: “When the common American people finally realize and understand that the Political Industrial Complex of both parties is ripping this country apart … [and] that they, common Americans, The People, possess the real power over Washington, then I’ll be here by their side to rebuild it.”Political strategist Shermichael Singleton said Greene might be “looking at future plan”.“If I were advising her, hey, you might be able to get through this brief moment in time,” Singleton told CNN. “But perhaps she thought otherwise. Maybe she’s looking at future plans. But this is a big shocker.”Trump won her district in the 2024 presidential race with 68% of the vote; Greene won re-election with 64%. Despite strong support for Trump, voters in Greene’s district seemed to be unaffected by the representative’s scuffle with the president, according to NBC News. More

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      Trump says he is ending immigration protections for Somalis in Minnesota

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      Donald Trump said on Friday night he was “immediately” terminating temporary legal protections for Somali migrants living in Minnesota, further targeting a program seeking to limit deportations that his administration has already repeatedly sought to weaken.Minnesota has the nation’s largest Somali community. Many fled the long civil war in their east African country and were drawn to the state’s welcoming social programs.But how many migrants would be affected by Trump’s announcement that he wants to end temporary protected status could be very small. A report produced for Congress in August put the number of Somalis covered by the program at just 705 nationwide.Congress created the program granting temporary protective status in 1990. It was meant to prevent deportations of people to countries suffering from natural disasters, civil strife or other dangerous conditions.The designation can be granted by the homeland security secretary and is granted in 18-month increments.The president announced his decision on his social media site, suggesting that Minnesota was “a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity”.“Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State, and BILLIONS of Dollars are missing. Send them back to where they came from,” Trump wrote. “It’s OVER!”Trump promised while campaigning to win back the White House last year that his administration would deport millions of people. As part of a broader push to adopt hardline immigration policies, the Trump administration has moved to withdraw various protections that had allowed immigrants to remain in the United States and work legally.That included ending TPS for 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians who were granted protection under President Joe Biden. The Trump administration has also sought to limit protections previously extended to migrants from Cuba and Syria, among other countries. More

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      Marjorie Taylor Greene announces resignation; Trump and Mamdani have cordial White House meeting – as it happened

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      This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments.

      Donald Trump hosted Zohran Mamdani, New York’s mayor-elect, for an Oval Office meeting and news conference that was surprisingly cordial.

      Republican lawmakers and pro-Trump news outlets were stunned by how thrilled Trump seemed to be by Mamdani, throwing their plans to cast the democratic socialist as the face of the Democratic party into disarray.

      Marjorie Taylor Greene announced that she was resigning from Congress in January rather than fight a primary against a Trump-backed candidate.

      Perhaps no one was more aggrieved by Trump’s embrace of Mamdani than Elise Stefanik, the New York congresswoman who has made vitriolic attacks on Mamdani as a “jihadist” the platform for her run for New York governor against Mamdani supporter Kathy Hochul. When Trump was directly asked if he agreed with Stefanik that Mamdani is a jihadist, he dismissed the charge.

      Trump repeatedly stepped in to defend Mamdani from hostile questioning from outlets like the New York Post and Fox News. When a Fox News correspondent pressed Mamdani about whether he considers Trump to be a “fascist”, the president offered the mayor-elect an unusual life raft. “That’s OK,” Trump said while tapping Mamdani’s arm. “You can just say it, it’s easier than explaining it.”

      When asked by a reporter whether he would live in New York under Mamdani’s leadership, Donald Trump says “absolutely”, after his meeting with the mayor-elect today.

      Samuel Alito, the conservative supreme court justice, paused a lower court order that new congressional maps in Texas, gerrymandered to favor Republicans, are illegal.
      Normal service has resumed on Donald Trump’s social media account, after he spent Friday evening posting photos of himself with Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, the president returned to type with a screed against the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, in which he announced his intention to terminate Temporary Protected Status for Somali refugees in that state.Although Trump cast this as a change “effective immediately”, the president has no legal power to do so.As Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a lawyer with American Immigration Council, explains, there is “no legal means by which he can do this. It’s not a presidential power. TPS by law cannot be terminated early. Somali TPS is not set to expire until March 17, 2026. DHS may make an attempt to do this but it would be immediately struck down.”Trump’s post was likely prompted by claims from rightwing activists featured on Fox News they had uncovered fraud among Somalis in Minnesota. In his post, Trump claimed, without evidence, that “Minnesota … is a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.”Michigan state police responded on Friday to a bomb threat at the home of Elissa Slotkin, a Democratic senator Donald Trump accused of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” on his social media platform on Thursday.Slotkin was not home, according to her Senate office.Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who served in Iraq, joined five Democratic lawmakers who served in the military and intelligence community to remind those in active service that they can “refuse illegal orders”. The six lawmakers recorded a social media video that was released on Tuesday, and quickly became the focus of outrage on rightwing news channels.At a White House briefing, Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, falsely said that the Democrats had encouraged active-duty military and intelligence officer to disobey lawful orders.On Friday, a dozen House Republicans who served in the military recorded a video of their own reminding soldiers that they have a duty to obey lawful orders.Justice Samuel Alito of the US supreme court temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that found Texas’ 2026 congressional redistricting plan likely discriminates on the basis of race.Alito’s order will remain in place until Monday at 5pm while the court considers whether to allow the new map favorable to Republicans to be used in the midterm elections.The court’s conservative majority has blocked similar lower court rulings because they have come too close to elections.Alito handles emergency appeals from Texas.Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Maga Republican congresswoman who was denounced by Donald Trump over her support for the release of the Epstein files, announced on Friday that she is resigning from office, effective in January.Greene explained her decision in a scathing 10-minute social media video in which she defended her record of support for Trump and far-right priorities, like the crackdown on immigration, the defeat of green energy policies and anti-trans initiatives, but said she did not want her district “to have to endure a hurtful and hateful primary” against her by a Trump-backed candidate.She went on to argue that she had broken with Trump over just a few issues, including the issuing of H-1B visas to skilled foreign workers, a ban on AI regulation, “50 year mortgages scams”, involvement in foreign wars and the release of files related to the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender Trump socialized with for more than 15 years.“Standing up for American women who were raped at 14, trafficked and used by rich powerful men, should not result in me being called a traitor and threatened by the President of the United States, whom I fought for,” Greene said.“Loyalty should be a two way street,” she said. “American First should mean America First and only Americans First, with no other foreign countries ever being attached to America First in our halls of government.” Greene has been an outspoken opponent of Israeli’s war on Gaza, with US support, calling it “a genocide”.“If I am cast aside by MAGA Inc and replaced by Neocons, Big Pharma, Big Tech, Military Industrial War Complex, foreign leaders, and the elite donor class that can’t even relate to real Americans, then many common Americans have been cast aside and replaced as well,” Greene said.She then hinted at a future role in politics, amid widespread speculation that she could be positioning herself to run for the 2028 Republican nomination.“When the common American people finally realize and understand that the Political Industrial Complex of both parties is ripping this country apart” Greene said, and understand that “common Americans, The People, possess the real power over Washington, then I’ll be here by their side to rebuild it.”“Until then, I’m going back to the people I love, to live life to the fullest as I always have, and look forward to a new path ahead. I will be resigning from office with my last day being January 5, 2026,” she concluded.The Georgia congresswoman has recently claimed that she was simply misled by the internet when she embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory and wrote on Facebook in 2018 that wildfires in California had been started by lasers from “space solar generators” controlled by “Rothschild Inc, international investment banking firm”.The armies of lefty America and of Maga were assembled ready to watch their champions do battle. After all, Donald Trump had called Zohran Mamdani a “100% Communist Lunatic” and “total nut job”. The incoming democratic socialist New York mayor in turn had called the Republican US president a “despot” and “fascist”.But anyone expecting to see fists fly and shirts torn in the Oval Office was in for a disappointment. Trump, 79, and 34-year-old Mamdani actually got on rather well. In fact beautifully, bewilderingly, bizarrely well. Instead of Batman v Superman, this was Toy Story besties Woody and Buzz Lightyear.Perhaps the old left v right binaries really are dead. This was a case of game recognising game – of Queens recognising Queens. Trump is now on much better terms with Zohran Mamdani than Marjorie Taylor Greene, his fellow Republican. Mamdani got a warmer reception from Trump than from the leaders of his own party – a world turned upside down.The buddy movie began with Trump sitting behind the Resolute Desk and Mamdani standing to his side, a statuette of George Washington behind him. “We have one thing in common – we want this city of ours that we love to do very well,” the president said, referring to New York.He added: “I think you’re going to have hopefully a really great mayor. The better he does – the happier I am. I will say there’s no difference in party, there’s no difference in anything, and we’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York.”That great thud was the sound of White House reporters’ jaws hitting the floor of the Oval Office. That shredding noise was the sound of Republican strategists destroying their playbook to demonise Mamdani as the Marxist face of the Democrats.Three weeks ago, Donald Trump posted on his social network 20 photographs of his marble makeover of the bathroom in the Lincoln Bedroom. A few days later, his party was heavily defeated in elections as voters complained that he was more focused on redecorating the White House than bringing down the cost of living.Today, after claiming that he is focused on affordability at a friendly meeting with the mayor-elect of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, the president shared photographs of himself, grinning and giving a thumb-up sign, with Mamdani in the White House.Trump’s caption for the first of the photos was a sharp departure from his previous rhetoric about Mamdani being a “communist lunatic”. It was, Trump wrote on his social media platform, “a Great Honor meeting Zohran Mamdani, the new Mayor of New York City!”The highly anticipated Oval Office meeting between Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani – the mayor-elect of New York City, the US president’s beloved home town – was hardly the combustible tête-à-tête many had predicted. For the moment at least, the two New Yorkers appeared relaxed, smiling and cautiously optimistic about the work they might accomplish together.Neither revived their hot campaign trail rhetoric, in which they cast each other as diametrically opposed political adversaries. Trump had labeled Mamdani a “100% communist lunatic” and urged voters to back his opponent, the former New York governor Andrew Cuomo. In turn, Mamdani assailed Trump as a “despot” and pledged to be the president’s “worst nightmare”.Republicans and pro-Trump media outlets were gravely disappointed by the lack of fireworks at Friday’s Oval Office meeting between New York’s mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, and Queens native Donald Trump, who had attacked the democratic socialist as “a 100% Communist lunatic”, before showering him with praise at the meeting Mamdani requested.In the hours before the meeting, the encounter was described by Fox News as Trump’s “showdown with socialism” and equated to a prize fight and billed as “the Battle of the Ages: capitalism versus communism” on pillow salesman Mike Lindell’s TV outlet.As Mamdani made his way to Washington on Friday morning, Rick Scott, a Republican senator from Florida, shared the selfie he posted from his flight with the ominous caption: “Here’s the new face of the Democrat party — a literal communist — on his way to the White House to be schooled by President Trump.”In the end, the meeting went so well for Mamdani that the Democratic Socialists of America mocked the Fox “showdown” graphic in a post that said simply: “Socialism won! Join DSA”.In the immediate aftermath of the meeting, a Fox Business anchor David Asman was stunned, saying: “Just one word – wow.”“Commie Mamdani as the president has [been] referring to his guest in the Oval Office there for the past several months, uh, looked like best friends with president Trump now,” he added.On Friday morning a host on the slavishly pro-Trump outlet Newsmax, Todd Starnes, posted a fantasy of how rough the meeting would be for Mamdani. “SCENARIO: Mamdani enters the Oval Office today only to be greeted by Tom Homan who then personally escorts the Communist back to Uganda.”By Friday afternoon, Starnes was puzzled by the very different reality: “I thought Mamdani was supposed to be a fascist dictator?” he asked. “What the heck is going on at the White House?”As Aaron Fritschner, an aide for Democratic congressman, Don Beyer of Virginia, pointed out: “Republicans spent the whole day in the House making everyone re-vote on the ‘horrors of socialism’ resolution specifically over Mamdani, it’s literally the only thing we did today, and hours later Trump says ‘He has the same ideas I have.’ It’s just beautiful.”The fact that Mamdani seemed to charm Trump into submission baffled even some of his supporters. Rashida Tlaib, the Michigan congresswoman who is a fellow democratic socialist and DSA member, shared video of Trump telling Mamdani it is fine to call him a fascist with the words: “What the heck just happened?”Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, just posted video of Donald Trump nodding in agreement with him as he told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that, during his campaign, “what we found, time and again, is that working people were left behind in the politics of our city, and what we’re looking to do is put those people right back at the heart of our politics, so that we don’t have a situation where we’re in the wealthiest city in the history of the world, and yet one in five can’t even afford $2.90 for a Metro card”.Mamdani was responding to a question from a correspondent for the far-right outlet Newsmax who had asked him if he accepted that, because “Democrats have run New York City for a long time … do you see Democrat policy specifically as being a problem?”Mamdani, who ran partly as a critic of the Democratic establishment, began his reply by saying: “Look, I think that there are many things in our city where we have to own the responsibility of it, things that existed long before the president was the president, and those are also part of the message of our campaign, was to take on a broken politics of the past. And I ran against a number of candidates who represented different versions of that past.”At one point during the exchange with reporters in the Oval Office, Zohran Mamdani took a moment to mention that he appreciated seeing a painting of another New York president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, among the portraits in Donald Trump’s White House.“One thing I also appreciated is in our meeting to appreciate a portrait of FDR, and the incredible work that was done with the New Deal, and also in thinking about what it can look like when the federal government and New York City government work together to deliver affordability, it can be transformative,” Mamdani said.Trump then took credit for selecting the “great portrait of FDR” hanging in the cabinet room he re-decorated. “When the mayor saw that portrait, he said, ‘Sir, do you mind if I have a picture taken by that? It’s an amazing portrait.’”Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor-elect, walked out of their meeting on Friday afternoon with an unlikely alliance, agreeing to work together on housing, food prices and cost-of-living concerns that have defined both their political appeals to working-class voters.“We agreed a lot more than I would have thought,” Trump said in the Oval Office, sometimes jumping in to shield Mamdani from aggressive questioning from the press.The sit-down – which many had anticipated would be contentious, given months of intense rhetoric in which Trump branded Mamdani a “communist lunatic” – instead produced camaraderie, warm words and concrete pledges of cooperation between the Republican president and the self-described democratic socialist who secured a commanding electoral victory earlier at the beginning of November with over 50% of the vote.“I feel very confident that he can do a very good job,” Trump said after the meeting, offering praise for his ideological opposite. “The better he does, the happier I am. I will say there’s no difference in party. There’s no difference in anything, and we’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York.”During their Oval Office exchange with reporters, which was staged in a familiar fashion for this White House, with Donald Trump seated behind his desk and his guest forced to stand, Zohran Mamdani referred to conversations he had, last November, with Queens residents who voted for Trump in the 2024 election.Mamdani even said that he spoke with a pharmacist who told him that Trump’s father, Fred, had been a customer.Some of those conversations, days after the election, were recorded and featured in a social media video posted on Mamdani’s YouTube channel before he launched his mayoral campaign. In the video, voters told Mamdani that Trump’s promise to lower the cost of living was a major factor in their decision. He told them that he planned to run for mayor on a platform of freezing rents, making buses free and making universal child care a reality.Here is that November 2024 video:Several observers of the meeting between Trump and Mamdani pointed out on social media that, by embracing the popular young mayor-elect instead of confronting him, Donald Trump seemed to upend well-laid Republican plans to make the democratic socialist the face of the Democratic party, as strategy to cast Democrats as extremists.John DeLillo, a writer, posted a satirical version of the disconnect on social media with this imaginary dialogue between the House speaker, Mike Johnson, and the president:
      mike johnson: we are going to make zohran mamdani the face of the democratic party
      donald trump: and what a beautiful face it is! look at that smile! we love zohran mamdani, don’t we folks
      A close ally of New York’s mayor-elect, the city comptroller Brad Lander, responded to Donald Trump telling Zohran Mamdani it is fine to call him a fascist by posting on social media: “Pretty sure Zohran just charmed Donald Trump into agreeing that he’s a fascist.”The surprisingly cordial Oval Office meeting between Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist mayor-elect of New York City, and Donald Trump, the Queens native who tried and failed to keep him from being elected, just concluded.Despite the best efforts of a slate of correspondents from pro-Trump outlets selected by the White House to ask the pair questions, Trump and Mamdani refused repeated attempts to goad the two men into conflict.Here are some of the key moments:

      Mamdani said that his meeting with the president was “productive” and “focused on the place of shared admiration and love – which is New York City and the need to deliver affordability to New Yorkers”.

      Trump repeatedly stepped in to defend Mamdani from hostile questioning from outlets like the New York Post and Fox News, When Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich pressed Mamdani about whether he considers Trump to be a “fascist”, the president offered the mayor-elect an unusual life raft. “That’s OK,” Trump said while tapping Mamdani’s arm. “You can just say it, it’s easier than explaining it.”

      When the same Fox correspondent tried to frame Mamdani as a hypocrite for flying to the meeting from New York instead of taking a train, which is better for the environment, Trump said “I’ll stick up for you” and pointed out that it is much faster to fly and the mayor-elect is busy.

      When asked by a reporter whether he would live in New York under Mamdani’s leadership, Trump said “absolutely”. “We agree on a lot more than I would have thought,” Trump said. “I want him to do a great job, and we’ll help them do a great job.”

      For his part, Mamdani was relentlessly focused on the issue of making New York a more fair and affordable place to live, refusing to be knocked off course even by questions from the Pizzagate conspiracist Jack Posobiec who falsely accused Mamdani of planning to tax white New Yorkers more than New Yorkers of color.

      Trump wished Mamdani success in running the city he called home: “I think he wants to make it greater than ever before, and if he can, we’ll be out there cheering.”

      Trump stressed that he admired Mamdani’s political campaign and distanced himself from how own previously vitriolic denunciations of the democratic socialist as a communist. “I think he’s different, and that can be in a very positive way”, Trump said. “He has a chance to do something really great for New York … we’re going to be helping him”.

      Asked by a reporter if he agrees with his Republican ally Elise Stefanik’s characterization of Mamdani as a “jihadist”, Trump dismisses that as campaign rhetoric and says: “I met with a man who’s a very rational person”.

      Trump tried hard to attach himself to Mamdani’s focus on affordability. “I congratulated him, and we talked about some things in very strong common like housing and getting housing built, and food and prices,” Trump said. While the president has insisted for months that prices have gone down during his administration, a false claim that is contradicted by government data, his sagging poll numbers make it plain that the public is not buying this big lie. Having previously said that he didn’t want to hear the word “affordability” again, casting is as “a Democratic hoax”, Trump spent much of the appearance with Mamdani stressing that this is one of their shared concerns.
      Asked by a reporter if he agrees with his Republican ally Elise Stefanik’s characterization of Mamdani as a “jihadist”, Trump dismisses that as campaign rhetoric and says: “No, I don’t… I met with a man who’s a very rational person”.Throughout this spray with the media, after his meeting with Zohran Mamdani, Trump has been exceptionally cordial.He’s extolled how the mayor-elect “came out of nowhere” and praised his campaign and staff. Trump also defended Mamdani from adversarial lines of questioning, including being pressed by Fox News about why the mayor-elect flew to DC, and whether he believes the president to be a “fascist”. Trump even wished Mamdani success in running the city he called home: “I think he wants to make it greater than ever before, and if he can, we’ll be out there cheering.” More

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      Trump news at a glance: president meets Mamdani at White House and it was … nice?

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      It’s not as if they were holding hands and skipping down the halls of the White House, but President Trump and New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani appeared to get along well in their first meeting.Trump hosted the 34-year-old Democratic socialist, who defied early expectations to win the city’s Democratic primary, then the mayoral race. And Trump let it be known he was impressed by that, congratulating Mamdani and describing his victory as “an incredible race against smart people”.“I feel very confident that he can do a very good job,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as Mamdani stood to his right, offering praise for his ideological opposite. “The better he does, the happier I am. I will say there’s no difference in party. There’s no difference in anything, and we’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York.”It was a stark change of tune from Trump’s comments during the mayoral election, when he dismissed the candidate from his own party, Curtis Sliwa, as a lightweight and instead endorsing Andrew Cuomo, the independent and former Democratic governor, while branding Mamdani a “little communist”.It remains to be seen if the good vibes will last between the two political opposites. Mamdani is set to be sworn into office in January.Trump and Mamdani form an unlikely alliance at White House meetingDonald Trump and Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor-elect, walked out of their meeting on Friday afternoon with an unlikely alliance, agreeing to work together on housing, food prices and cost-of-living concerns that have defined both their political appeals to working-class voters.“We agreed a lot more than I would have thought,” Trump said in the Oval Office, sometimes jumping in to shield Mamdani from aggressive questioning from the press.The incoming mayor had framed the meeting as an opportunity to advance his central campaign platform: making New York more affordable. His promises include free public buses, government-run grocery stores, rent freezes for more than 1m stabilized units, and the city’s first universal childcare program.Read the full storyMarjorie Taylor Greene to resign from US Congress in JanuaryIn a four-page statement, the Georgia representative said the legislative branch has been “sidelined” and accused Republican leaders of refusing to advance conservative priorities such as border security or “America First” policies.The Republican congresswoman who was denounced by Donald Trump over her support for the release of the Epstein files, explained her decision in a 10-minute social media video posted on X.Last week, Greene said that she had been contacted by private security firms “with warnings for my safety” after Trump announced he was withdrawing his support for and endorsement of the Georgia representative.Read the full storyZelenskyy says Ukraine has impossible choice as Trump pushes plan to end warVolodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine faces one of the most difficult moments in its history, after Donald Trump demanded Kyiv accepts within days a US-backed “peace plan” that would force it to give up territory to Russia and make other painful concessions.Trump confirmed on Friday morning that Thursday – Thanksgiving in the US – would be an “acceptable” deadline for Zelenskyy to sign the deal, which European and Ukrainian officials have said amounts to a “capitulation”.Read the full storyTens of thousands detained and deported during government shutdownUS immigration officials arrested, detained and deported tens of thousands of people in operations nationwide during the federal government shutdown, new data reveals. The arrests have led to a marked increase in the number of people held in immigration jails, with more than 65,000 currently detained nationwide – the highest number of people in immigration detention ever.Read the full storyUS data agency cancels October inflation reportThe US federal government will not publish official data on inflation for October, depriving policymakers at the Federal Reserve of key information as they consider whether to cut interest rates. The Bureau of Labor Statistics canceled the release of the closely watched consumer price index (CPI) for October, citing the government shutdown – the longest in history, before it ended earlier this month – and stating it could not “retroactively collect” the data required for the report.Read the full storyRFK Jr instructed CDC to change stance on vaccine and autismRobert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, said in an interview with the New York Times that he personally instructed the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change its longstanding position that vaccines do not cause autism.Read the full storyDemocrats investigating Epstein decry Andrew’s ‘silence’ Two Democratic lawmakers involved in the US congressional investigation into the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein on Friday condemned Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s “silence” in response to their request that he sit for a deposition.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      A gold Rolex desk clock and a $130,000 engraved gold bar given to Donald Trump by a group of Swiss billionaires have raised questions in Europe and the US about the personalisation of US presidential power.

      Eric Swalwell, a seven-term Democratic US representative known for his pugnacious and persistent opposition to Trump, announced he will run for governor of California.

      The justice department sued California this week for allowing undocumented college students to pay in-state tuition for public universities, alleging the policy harms US citizens.

      Donald Trump has assembled the least diverse US government of the 21st century, filling the corridors of power with white men at the expense of women and people of colour, research shows.

      The US justice department is recruiting legal experts to serve as so-called “deportation” judges as part of the Trump administration’s effort to carry out its immigration crackdown.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened on 20 November 2025. More

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      I ❤ NY: Queens recognises Queens as Trump gives Mamdani warm reception

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      The armies of lefty America and of Maga were assembled ready to watch their champions do battle. After all, Donald Trump had called Zohran Mamdani a “100% Communist Lunatic” and “total nut job.” The incoming democratic socialist New York mayor in turn had called the Republican US president a “despot” and “fascist”.But anyone expecting to see fists fly and shirts torn in the Oval Office was in for a disappointment. Trump, 79, and 34-year-old Mamdani actually got on rather well. In fact beautifully, bewilderingly, bizarrely well. Instead of Batman v Superman, this was Toy Story besties Woody and Buzz Lightyear.Perhaps the old left v right binaries really are dead. This was a case of game recognising game – of Queens recognising Queens. Trump is now on much better terms with Zohran Mamdani than Marjorie Taylor Greene, his fellow Republican. Mamdani got a warmer reception from Trump than from the leaders of his own party – a world turned upside down.The buddy movie began with Trump sitting behind the Resolute Desk and Mamdani standing to his side, a statuette of George Washington behind him. “We have one thing in common – we want this city of ours that we love to do very well,” the president said, referring to New York.He added: “I think you’re going to have hopefully a really great mayor. The better he does – the happier I am. I will say there’s no difference in party, there’s no difference in anything, and we’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York.”That great thud was the sound of White House reporters’ jaws hitting the floor of the Oval Office. That shredding noise was the sound of Republican strategists destroying their playbook to demonise Mamdani as the Marxist face of the Democrats.The bromance – as incongruous as Trump laughing and joking with Barack Obama at Jimmy Carter’s funeral – went on with plenty of tactile body language. Mamdani, who will be the first Muslim mayor of New York and once proclaimed himself “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare,” reported: “It was a productive meeting focused on a place of shared admiration and love, which is New York City, and the need to deliver affordability to New Yorkers.”Once reporters started asking questions, Trump acknowledged that Mamdani has views that are “out there” but predicted he is “going to change” and “is going to surprise some conservative people, actually”.Both men noted that some Mamdani voters had also voted for Trump. The democratic socialist said it was because of “cost of living, cost of living, cost of living” – and he looked forward to delivering with the president on “the affordability agenda”. Trump acknowledged: “Some of his ideas really are the same ideas that I have.”So when Mamdani was asked about his past description of Trump as a despot with a fascist agenda, he artfully pivoted from points of disagreement back to affordability. The president then interjected: “And I’ve been called much worse than a despot, so it’s not that insulting.”What would count as an insult these days? Totalitarian? Tyrant? Dictator? Führer? When a Fox News reporter asked if Mamdani stood by his comments that Trump is a fascist, Trump interjected before he could fully answer the question.“That’s OK. You can just say yes. OK?” Trump said, patting Mamdani affectionately on the arm. “It’s easier … than explaining it. I don’t mind.”Cute – but historians may opine that a US president lightly shrugging off the term fascist was not a stellar moment in the history of the republic.Trump jumped in again when a reporter asked Mamdani why he flew to Washington instead of taking a train, which uses less fossil fuels. “I’ll stick up for you,” the president said, before saying flying was faster and Mamdani was busy.And when someone asked about Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a staunch Trump ally running for governor of New York state, having branded Mamdani “a jihadist”, the president said he did not agree, calling him “a very rational person”.One can imagine Stefanik being reached for comment and saying, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”Indeed, it was hard to get a wafer between Mamdani and Trump. The president, who had previously threatened to strip federal funding from the biggest US city if Mamdani won the 4 November mayor’s race, said: “I expect to be helping him not hurting him – a big help. Because I want New York City to be great.”Asked if he would feel comfortable living in New York under a Mamdani administration, the billionaire Trump responded: “Yeah, I would, I really would – especially after the meeting, absolutely. We agree on a lot more than I would have thought.”He elaborated by saying they had discussed how, when democratic socialist Bernie Sanders dropped out of the 2016 presidential race, Trump picked up “a lot” of his voters on his way to the first of his two presidencies because Sanders had raised issues such as rip-off trade deals. “Bernie Sanders and I agreed on much more than people thought,” Trump said.The comment implied that the far left and far right ends of the political spectrum are not at opposite ends in a straight line but rather curve toward each other like the ends of a horseshoe. Hence Trump and Mamdani might have more in common than they do with the establishment moderates of their own parties.Certainly both channeled frustration with the status quo and the elites. But as Trump courts oligarchs, plans a lavish ballroom and enriches his own family, his claim to economic populism is hard to swallow.Perhaps his warm handshake with Mamdani on Friday was less about ideology than Trump’s love of a winner leaving the president willing to flatter the mayor-elect.As Trump put it: “It’s an amazing thing that he did.”Perhaps the president recognises a fellow savant when it comes to insurgent election campaigns. Or perhaps two New Yorkers sitting in a room and saying I ❤ NY is a language no one else can quite understand. More