Raw Story

President Donald Trump uncorked an attack on David Letterman a day after the legendary late-night comedian delivered blistering criticism of Jimmy Kimmel's abrupt suspension from ABC.

When asked Thursday at The Atlantic Festival 2025 his thoughts on Kimmel being yanked off the air, Letterman replied, “This is misery."

“I feel bad about this,” he said. “We see where this is all going, correct? It’s managed media. And it’s no good. It’s silly. It’s ridiculous. And you can’t go around firing somebody because you’re fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian criminal administration in the Oval Office. That’s just not how this works."

Letterman warned comedians won't be the only ones targeted by the Trump administration.

“In the world of somebody who is an authoritarian, maybe a dictatorship, sooner or later, everyone is going to be touched,” he said.

He then scolded Trump some more, and called it a "premeditated" ouster.

“The institution of the president of the United States ought to be bigger than a guy doing a talk show.”

Kimmel’s show was suspended indefinitely over his remarks after the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Kimmel’s monologue accused MAGA supporters of exploiting Kirk’s death for political gain and mocked how Trump publicly grieved the loss.

In classic Trump fashion, the president took to his Truth Social platform to attack Letterman.

"Whatever happened to the very highly overrated David Letterman, whose ratings were never very good, either. He looks like hell, but at least he knew when to quit. LOSER!!!"

One Republican state lawmaker in Oklahoma now wants to require every public university in the state to erect statues to slain far-right activist Charlie Kirk.

On Friday, Jeffrey Sachs — an assistant professor at Nova Scotia's Acadia University — called attention to a bill by Oklahoma state senators Shane Jett (R) and Dana Prieto (R) that would mandate every public university in the Sooner State build a "Charlie Kirk Memorial Plaza." The bill, which has been filed as Senate Bill 1187 and does not yet have a formal name, would force universities to set aside a portion of real estate in a visible public location — like the quad, the student union or main entrance pathways — "to maximize public awareness and utilization."

Senate Bill 1187 would also make it a requirement for schools to erect a statue of both Kirk and his family, and to include a plaque honoring Kirk as "a voice of a generation, modern civil rights leader, vocal Christian, martyr for truth and faith, and free speech advocate."

"Square or plaza plans shall include a statue of Charlie Kirk sitting at a table with an empty seat across from him or a statue of Charlie Kirk and his wife standing and holding their children in their arms as a central element of the square or plaza design. The statue design and size shall be approved by the Legislature as part of the overall design review and approval process," the bill reads.

Universities would be authorized to accept donations to fund the cost of the monuments "from the National Endowment for the Arts and any private, corporate, or public source to fund the development, maintenance, and enhancement of the squares or plazas and any associated statues." It also stipulated that the state legislature may appropriate tax dollars as a "donation matching funds" as a way of showing "broad-based support for the squares or plazas."

Additionally, the bill makes it clear that any "student, employee or faculty member" who vandalizes or defaces statues of Kirk on their campuses could face steep punishment, including immediate termination of their enrollment or employment. And the legislation even includes an emergency declaration it deems "necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health or safety," in order to immediately have the legislation go into effect.

In July, WalletHub found Oklahoma ranked 50th out of 51 states (when including Washington D.C.) in public education. Only New Mexico ranked further behind the Sooner State. Criteria used to determine rankings included "test scores, graduation rates, school safety and bullying rates."

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) responded with outrage on Friday evening to the news that President Donald Trump strong-armed his own hand-picked U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, into resigning — out of anger that Siebert couldn't muster the evidence to charge New York Attorney General Letitia James with mortgage fraud.

"Unbelievable," Warner posted to X. "Trump has now announced he is pushing out a U.S. Attorney because he refused to prosecute Trump’s political enemies."

"The message is clear: Trump will punish anyone who has the independence to challenge his baseless vendettas," he added.

James, who has launched multiple investigations into the Trump family and won a half-billion-dollar civil fraud judgment against them, is one of a number of Trump adversaries that the president's controversial Federal Housing Finance Agency director, Bill Pulte, has accused of fraud by hunting through old real estate paperwork — in this case, claiming that she improperly classified a residence in Virginia as a primary home. James has denied any wrongdoing.

So far, none of the criminal complaints lodged by Pulte have resulted in actual charges against Trump's rivals, and Reuters cast serious doubt on the validity of his allegation against Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook.

Many legal experts are horrified by Trump's effort to oust a prosecutor in retaliation for not finding the evidence to bring a criminal case the administration wanted to bring against a political opponent, with some outright calling it an impeachable offense.

CNN anchor Abby Phillip clashed with her GOP colleagues on Wednesday over the decision to suspend "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on network television.

Phillip discussed the move with former Republican Governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker and GOP strategist Scott Jennings. It occurred just hours after Nexstar Media Group, which owns several local ABC affiliates, announced that it is suspending Kimmel's show "indefinitely" because of comments the comedian made about conservative activist Charlie Kirk's slaying.

Phillip questioned the timeline of Kimmel's suspension and the involvement of FCC chairman Brendan Carr in the deal. On Tuesday, Carr gave a threatening interview with MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson, where he claimed that the FCC would be taking active measures to ensure broadcast companies abide by the public interest standard.

Within 24 hours, Kimmel was pulled off the air, Phillip noted.

"Nexstar has a very clear financial interest in not getting on the wrong side of that guy," Phillip said to Walker, talking about Carr. "You don't see the problem with that?"

Both Walker and Jennings argued that Nexstar was making a "business decision" by taking Kimmel off the air.

"Do you believe in free speech or not?" Phillip asked pointedly.

"I do, but you can't expect us to sit with our hands tied behind our backs," Walker said.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) lashed out at her GOP colleagues on Wednesday night after a resolution she filed to censure Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and strip Omar of her committee assignments failed to pass.

Mace filed the resolution a few days after Omar made comments about conservative activist Charlie Kirk's death in an interview with Mehdi Hasan of Zeteo News. In the interview, Omar called Kirk's death "tragic" and discussed reasons why she disagreed with some of Kirk's ideas.

Mace and several other MAGA figures called for Omar to be removed from Congress and deported to her home country of Somalia after the interview was released.

"Tonight, 210 Democrats and 4 Republicans sold out and chose to protect Ilhan Omar, a woman who mocked the cold-blooded assassination of an innocent American husband and father, who has openly supported ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood, and who has repeatedly incited political violence," Mace posted on her official X account.

"They didn’t stand with Charlie Kirk," she continued. "They didn’t stand with the millions of Americans mourning his death. They stood with the one who mocked his legacy. They showed us exactly who they are, and we won’t forget."

The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board issued a stark warning to President Donald Trump on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve voted to lower interest rates by 0.25%.

The vote happened after Trump applied months of public pressure on the central bank to lower interest rates. The president has moved to install multiple new governors who would vote to reduce rates, with the newest Trump-aligned governor, Stephen Miran, joining the board this week.

"President Trump wants lower interest rates, and on Wednesday, he got his wish as the Federal Open Market Committee cut the overnight rate by a quarter point," the editors argued in a new op-ed. "The FOMC also delivered an implicit warning about what this might mean for the economy. Mr. Trump now owns that, too."

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that there are still some risks the U.S. economy needs to navigate. For instance, inflation and unemployment have trickled upwards. Powell said those factors have the central bank torn between two mandates: stabilizing prices and maximizing employment.

The Journal's editorial board also wished Trump "good luck" as his administration addresses these economic conditions.

"It may be that everything works out fine: inflation drifts downward after a brief price bump from tariffs, the economy booms despite tariffs and a looming labor shortage, the housing market enters a new golden age, and financial markets gallop happily off into the artificial-intelligence sunset," the editors wrote.

"But if Mr. Trump is wrong, voters will notice sustained inflation and the lack of gains in real wages. Having staked so much on his political assault on the Fed, Mr. Trump owns the outcome now for good or ill," they added.

Read the entire op-ed here.