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President Donald Trump raised alarms with a social media post about South Korea's impeached former president hours before his meeting with the U.S. ally's current leader.

South Korea President Lee Jae-myung arrived Monday in Washington, D.C., for a meeting with Trump to offer a $150 billion package called "Make America Shipbuilding Great Again," but the U.S. president commented on the country's recent political instability in a social media post.

"WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOUTH KOREA?" Trump posted at 9:20 a.m. EST. "Seems like a Purge or Revolution. We can’t have that and do business there. I am seeing the new President today at the White House. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!"

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached and suspended from office after a botched declaration of martial law in December sparked massive protests, and observers were confused why Trump would bring that up right before his meeting with the new leader.

"South Korean govt’s worst nightmare appears to be coming true: Trump involving himself in the insurrection investigation of impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol," posted BBC journalist Jake Kwon.

"It was not immediately clear what Trump was referring to, but South Korea had been in a state of political turmoil for the last several months after the conservative Yoon Suk Yeol, briefly imposed martial law and eventually was ousted from office," said Seung Min Kim, White House correspondent for the Associated Press.

"More foreign interference incoming, this time in Asia," added journalist Mark Chadbourn.

"This sounds like a defense of fellow wannabe dictator Yoon Suk Yeol," wrote John Carl Baker, senior program officer at Ploughshares Fund, where he manages the foundation's portfolio of North Korea-related grants.

"If you’re wondering why Trump may be talking about purges and revolution in Korea, some MAGA folk have been trying for months to get Trump to help impeached and imprisoned former Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol who has espoused election fraud conspiracies after declaring martial law last December," noted Korean studies professor Benjamin A. Engel.

"Trump has seen ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol on trial for leading an insurrection after his martial law chaos," commented Bluesky user Jude Nagurney Camwell. "His wife is under investigation, too. Both are in detention. Trump sees his own future in this, as he does in the case of Bolsonaro, fearing similar fate."

Labelling the controversy over the branding change by Cracker Barrel restaurants as “monumentally stupid,” a Monday morning MSNBC panel ridiculed the ginned-up outrage that has included calling the popular chain “woke.”

“Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski brought up the rebranding, which led her partner Joe Scarborough to blurt, “What a monumentally stupid story."

"It's so stupid,” he added. “I always say, you’ve got to be able to separate the signal from the noise, and as an old admiral told me when I first started in Congress, he goes, ‘Boy, it's all noise, right?'"

“Well, this is how the MAGA minions get overwhelmed by noise,” Scarborough continued. “So they take a barrel and an old man off of a restaurant logo – restaurant I've been in many, many times. They still got the games, by the way, but they completely overlook the socialization of a tech giant [Intel] that's been the cornerstone of America's technology revolution for the past 35 years.”

“Everything socialism, everything's Marxism and you actually have socialism!" he exclaimed. “You can hear crickets all around the Cracker Barrel store in the parking lot.”

Addressing another distraction, the fury over California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s flood of mocking social media attacks, he added, “When you laugh out loud at like 30 different memes, and then you look at Fox News clips and they really just all lost their minds––.”

“They’re freaking out,” Brzezinski interjected.

Scarborough responded by making mocking whimpering sounds which led his co-host to start laughing.

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President Donald Trump issued his vision of a peace plan for the war in Ukraine from his Truth Social account on Monday, a plan that one expert said could "go off the rails at any moment."

The plan was issued after Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and several leaders of European nations at the White House.

"During the meeting we discussed Security Guarantees for Ukraine, which Guarantees would be provided by the various European Countries, with a coordination with the United States of America," Trump's post reads in part. "Everyone is very happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine."

The plan raised several questions for Julia Ioffe, a founding member and Washington correspondent for Puck News. Ioffe appeared on CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper," hosted by Pamela Brown, on Monday, to discuss the plan.

"First, wow," the Russian-born American journalist said about the plan. "Second of all, I'll believe it when I see it."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he would not accept security guarantees from NATO or European countries to end the war in Ukraine. Ioffe found it curious that the European delegation would discuss security guarantees based on Putin's past statements.

"What kind of security guarantees are acceptable for Ukraine but not too much for Russia?" Ioffe asked.

She also noted that Putin appears to want to end the war and secure his gains in Ukraine. However, Trump has given Putin no reason to stop the war, she added.

There are also outstanding questions about whether Russia will be allowed to keep Ukrainian land or if it will have to give back land that it has taken, Ioffe noted.

"We'll see, but this could go off the rails at any moment," she said.

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Not even local police officers in Maine are immune from President Donald Trump's Immigration and Customs Enforcement busts.

According to The Associated Press, ICE agents "arrested Old Orchard Beach Police Department reserve Officer Jon Luke Evans, of Jamaica, on July 25, as part of the agency’s effort to step up immigration enforcement. Officials with the town and police department have said federal authorities previously told them Evans was legally authorized to work in the U.S."

ICE alleged, however, that Evans overstayed his visa and unlawfully tried to buy a gun while he was undocumented.

The move triggered a dispute between ICE and the Old Orchard Beach police, the report continued: "Police Chief Elise Chard has said the department was notified by federal officials that Evans was legally permitted to work in the country, and that the town submitted information via the Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify program prior to Evans’ employment. Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin then accused the town of 'reckless reliance' on the department’s E-Verify program."

The conflict appears to have ended with Evans agreeing to leave the country voluntarily, with ICE telling reporters a judge has agreed to accept his voluntary departure, "and that he could leave as soon as that day," avoiding forcible deportation.

The Trump administration's massive increase in immigration enforcement has led to extensive controversies, from the fact that many of the detainees are being shipped out of the country with little or no due process, to the fact that some of them appear to have been politically targeted, like students who were involved in anti-Israel protests.

In other cases, immigration officials have arrested people performing vital work for their communities, including a Russian researcher at Harvard whose work on imaging could massively improve cancer screening, and who faces persecution in her home country due to her criticism of the invasion of Ukraine.

President Donald Trump said he is helping to set up a meeting between himself, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after meeting with both leaders in recent days.

Trump met with Zelenskyy on Monday at the White House, alongside several European leaders, to discuss negotiations aimed at ending Russia's invasion.

Following the summit, Trump bragged on his Truth Social platform that he had a "very good meeting" with his "distinguished guests," and said that ended with a" further meeting in the Oval Office."

"During the meeting we discussed Security Guarantees for Ukraine, which Guarantees would be provided by the various European Countries, with a coordination with the United States of America," he said. "Everyone is very happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine."

Once the meetings ended, Trump confirmed reports he called Putin, and said he began making arrangements for another meeting at a location that has yet to be determined that will include himself, Putin and Zelenskyy.

"After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat, which would be the two Presidents, plus myself. Again, this was a very good, early step for a War that has been going on for almost four years," he said.

Trump said Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and special envoy Steve Witkoff are coordinating with Russia and Ukraine.

Fresh off of walking a tightrope to get a massive budget bill passed with reluctant Republicans on one side and Donald Trump on the other, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is once again stuck in the middle trying to make both parties happy.

At issue now is Trump’s desire for Republicans to redistrict multiple red states in order to gain more GOP seats in the House and Republican caucus members who could be out of a job if Democratic governors, including California’s Gavin Newsom, make good on threats to do the same for their own party.

In the middle sits Johnson, who needs to figure out a compromise that will keep both factions happy with his leadership.

The Washington Post reported, “Redistricting is only the latest headache for Johnson, who oversees a historically narrow House majority with boisterous personalities that have often stymied easy passage of key legislation. A larger majority could ensure a continuation of Johnson’s speakership for another two years and give him a wider margin for success. But the redistricting debate could make it harder for Johnson to pass legislation in the meantime.”

As Johnson aide Greg Steele put it, his boss has “relayed pertinent information between the White House and those Members in what remains a thoughtful, productive dialogue.”

One California Republican who could be redistricted out of his job is not feeling that confident.

“I really don’t like the idea that this is going to be some sort of redistricting war, or there’s going to be this domino effect where one state after another upends their district lines. That’s not the way things are supposed to work,” complained Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA).

Kiley is joined by a smattering of red-state Republican lawmakers who are also unnerved by the GOP leadership tempting fate.

“Texas Republican House members are frustrated that their seats in the new map, which is on the path to approval, will become more competitive and that they might have to fend off primary challengers in slightly less but still conservative districts. Some fear their seats could include more Democratic voters and become swingier,“ the Post is reporting.

Kiley added, “I have made it very clear to [Johnson], both publicly and privately, that I think he and the minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, need to show leadership here and get this situation under control and stop this chaos from cascading across the country.”

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