Raw Story

The reasons given by White House insiders on why Donald Trump withdrew the nomination of Elon Musk associate Jared Isaacman to head NASA are now being questioned.

According to a report from the New York Times' Maggie Haberman and Ryan Mac, the dismissal of Isaacman was officially described as being due to “prior associations,” which was meant to convey it was because he had previously donated to Democrats.

According to insiders, the president was only recently alerted to Isaacman's Democratic largesse, but now, with Musk out of the White House, that excuse is being questioned.

EXCLUSIVE: Trump accused of new grift that puts Qatari plane in shade

The Times is reporting, "... those donations were old news. While Mr. Trump privately told advisers in recent days that he was surprised to learn of Mr. Isaacman’s contributions and that he had not been told of them previously, he and his team were briefed about them during the presidential transition in late 2024, before Mr. Isaacman’s nomination, according to two people with knowledge of the events."

The report adds that Isaacman also has confirmed he "directly told Mr. Trump about those donations when they met in person weeks after the 2024 election."

With the White House not responding to questions clarifying who knew what and when, the Times report added, "Mr. Trump is said to have deferred to Mr. Musk on the choice, given his success with SpaceX. But Mr. Trump told Mr. Musk on Friday, his last day in the government, that he planned to pull Mr. Isaacman’s nomination. Allies of Mr. Musk and some allies of Mr. Trump spent part of Saturday publicly trying to salvage the nomination."

You can read more here.

Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) was relentlessly booed at a town hall over her support for President Donald Trump.

The first jeers came just moments into her event on Wednesday.

"Families in Iowa have told me for the last four years that we want to make sure we have safe streets, we have affordable groceries and gas, and that kids have the opportunity to be able to live out the American dream," Hinson said. "And that is what President Trump is delivering for us. And the president is, I believe, fighting for you and fighting for me."

The congressman's words were met with immediate boos and heckling.

"And I think God saved President Trump's life in Butler," she insisted. "I think he saved his life in Butler, Pennsylvania for a reason."

Voter Steve Peterson said he was "really concerned about is the corruption in Washington."

"And I think that it undermines our faith in our government, and I think it undermines our faith in representatives," he said. "In particular, I'm thinking about the $400 million jet that was given to Mr. Trump."

"I'm thinking about the meme coins and the dinner at the White House, I'm thinking about the Liberty Fund and the Ponzi scheme and the billions of dollars that are coming into there," he continued. "So there's lots of reasons why somebody like you might be silent. You might be scared to say something. You might actually like to see the corruption. I know there are some that are making a lot of money from it."

EXCLUSIVE: Trump accused of new grift that puts Qatari plane in shade

"I think it's really unfair to imply that I like to see corruption in Washington, D.C.," Hinson complained. "I reject that premise wholeheartedly. I am here answering your questions in public because I care about transparency."

"I was actually just named to the House Ethics Committee because I do things the right way," she added to laughs. "I'm answering your question."

Hinson later said she did not support an impeachment inquiry into Trump. Her words were again met with boos.

Watch the video below from C-SPAN.

A Missouri town that voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in the 2024 election has come to regret its choice after a beloved neighbor was detained by ICE, according to The New York Times.

In the farming town of Kennett, MO, population 10,000, Times reporter Jack Healy met with residents who "supported in theory" Trump's tough talk on immigration. Now they're rallying around a Hong Kong immigrant named Ming Li Hui, who went by "Carol" in her adopted hometown.

"In the 20 years since she arrived from Hong Kong, she had built a life and family in Kennett, working two waitressing jobs and cleaning houses on the side," Healy wrote. He quoted a Kennett city councilwoman who said, “Everyone knows Carol."

But Hui has since been arrested and detained by the Department of Homeland Security as she awaits deportation back to her birth country.

EXCLUSIVE: Trump accused of new grift that puts Qatari plane in shade

“I voted for Donald Trump, and so did practically everyone here,” one woman told Healy. “But no one voted to deport moms. We were all under the impression we were just getting rid of the gangs, the people who came here in droves.”

According to Hui's attorney, she hoped to gain permanent resident status in the U.S. after paying "an American citizen $2,000 to enter into a sham marriage."

"Ms. Hui was never criminally charged for the fake marriage, which ended in divorce in 2009," Healy wrote. "Court papers indicate that she has no criminal record." In the meantime, Hui stayed on in the U.S. even as her tourist visa expired.

One resident told Healy, "She’s exactly the sort of person you’d want to come to the country. I don’t know how this fits into the deportation problem with Trump.” Another declared, "I can’t believe they’re doing this to her."

Some of Hui's neighbors "said they had implored state and national Republican lawmakers representing the area to intervene to stop Ms. Hui’s deportation, but had gotten mostly cursory responses," Healy wrote.

Read The New York Times article here.

A woman yelling profanity and racist slurs went viral after she threatened to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on a U.S. citizen selling Mexican food.

Oscar Lopez told NBC 4's Tracey Leong that he shared the video on social media after the woman repeatedly drove past his food stand in Palmdale, California.

"It's illegal to have a Mexican flag and not an American one!" the woman could be heard shouting. "I'm calling ICE!"

"She started screaming all these things. It was very racial, especially against Mexicans, and also that she was going to call ICE," Lopez recalled. "It was very, I don't know, very scary at the moment."

"She mentioned the flag not being with an American flag on the side," he said. "And the reason of the Mexican flag is the food that we sell. It's nothing else trying to do anything else with it."

EXCLUSIVE: Trump accused of new grift that puts Qatari plane in shade

Lopez was born in the United States. His wife is from El Salvador. The couple's food truck specializes in serving Mexican cuisine.

"I think as a Hispanic and the culture that we live in, we should appreciate each and every good food from every country," Lopez said. "I would like everybody to be aware of [what's] going on."

Watch the video below from NBC 4.

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) sued the White House for allegedly violating federal law and the U.S. Constitution by declining to provide American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters at prominent events like briefings and press conferences.

According to the 25-page suit, the White House abruptly stopped providing services for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals when President Donald Trump took office in January.

"In January 2025, the White House inexplicably stopped using ASL interpreters for any of its public press briefings or similar events," the suit said. "The White House's failure to provide qualified ASL interpreters during public briefings, press conferences, and related events is against the law. Federal law unequivocally prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities and requires them to have meaningful access to the federal government's programs and services. Failing to provide ASL interpreters deprives deaf people of meaningful access to the White House's press briefings."

EXCLUSIVE: Trump accused of new grift that puts Qatari plane in shade

In a statement, interim NAD CEO Dr. Bobbie Beth Scoggins insisted that "[d]eaf and hard of hearing Americans have the right to the same access to White House information as everyone else. Denying them ASL interpreters is a direct violation of that right, and the NAD will continue to fight for their full inclusion in the democratic process."

"Such information must be provided not only through captioning but also in American Sign Language," she added.

NAD successfully sued the White House in 2020, resulting in the inclusion of Certified Deaf Interpreters (CDIs) in COVID-19 briefings.

A small father-daughter run wine company in Upstate New York stood up to President Donald Trump's tariffs in a "David and Goliath" showdown — and came out on top, according to reporting by CNN.

The company, called VOS Selections, agreed to be the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against the Trump administration, "which prompted a three-judge panel at the US Court of International Trade to strike down Trump’s sweeping global tariffs on Wednesday," the report said.

According to the decision, Trump "overstepped his authority by invoking emergency economic powers to impose sweeping tariffs on China, Canada, Mexico and other US trading partners."

But VOS founder Victor Schwartz said he "never intended to be at the forefront of the resistance to US government policy" — he just wanted to protect the business he started decades ago.

EXCLUSIVE: Trump accused of new grift that puts Qatari plane in shade

“Put it this way: when I started VOS 40 years ago I had no idea that I was signing up for something like this, getting involved in a lawsuit against the executive branch of the United States,” Schwartz told CNN. “I just wanted to bring in these delicious wines from interesting appellations across the world and sell those wines to a like-minded community.”

Schwartz told CNN that his business suffered under Trump’s tariffs during the first administration, prompting him to "fight back" this time around.

He worked with lawyers from the libertarian advocacy group Liberty Justice Center, and led the charge against the administration. Four other small businesses joined the battle, including a Pennsylvania company that sells fishing tackle, the maker of small electronic kits for children, a women-focused cycling company, and an ABS pipe manufacturer.

If the case goes all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, Schwartz told CNN he will see it through to the end.

“We knocked back the tariffs. It’s going to change the whole game plan,” he said.

Trump has yet to respond to the ruling that affects the crux of his entire economic plan.

Read the CNN article here.