Raw Story

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) praised President Donald Trump's tariffs even as he admitted that farmers in his state had a "big harvest" with "no place to go."

During a Sunday interview on Meet the Press, host Kristen Welker told Thune that Trump had recently stated he would assist farmers hurt by the tariff policy.

"Why should American taxpayers bail out farmers who are hurting because of the president's tariff policies?" Welker wondered.

"Well, look, I think that the farmers, and I represent a lot of them, and they want nothing more than open markets," Thune replied. "There are markets right now that aren't open to some of our commodities."

"As a consequence of that, we've got a big harvest coming in here in South Dakota, corn and soybeans, and no place to go with it," he continued. "So what the President has said is, I'm going to support and I'm going to help our farmers."

"We're looking at potential solutions to make sure that we can help support farmers until some of those markets come back."

Thune, however, said he supported Trump using tariffs to achieve "reciprocity with countries that have been taking advantage of us for a long time."

"I think a lot of our farmers support that," the senator claimed. "But at the end of the day, our farmers are probably going to need some financial assistance this year."

MSNBC analyst Tim Miller argued that American taxpayers would be on the hook for Trump's refusal to roll back tariffs.

"Working Americans have to pay an extra sales tax on goods at Wal-Mart and then have that tax revenue used to bail out the farmers?" Miller wrote on X. "If Fox covered this like they did the bank bailouts this policy would have 15% approval."

Legal commentator Elie Honig said during a podcast Sunday that the indictment of former FBI director James Comey might be "abuse of executive power."

Speaking to journalist John Avalon on The Bulwark's podcast, Honig, who is the author of the book When You Come at the King: Inside DOJ's Pursuit of the President, From Nixon to Trump, said, "I mean, God, Trump basically, by mistake, published a DM demand to his AG that in any other environment would be seen as a smoking gun for abuse of executive power. And now it just seems like something happened two Fridays ago. And who can remember or care?"

He continued: "I do think more people will get indicted on the hit list. He gave us a hit list. I know there's speculation if it's a DM that he inadvertently posted. It has hallmarks of both."

Avalon said the indictment "seems like a new low in the politicization of justice and the persecution of [President] Donald Trump's enemies."

According to Honig, there is "the complete evisceration of this wall that has long existed between the White House and the political operation of the executive branch and the Justice Department's prosecutorial function."

"When the president gets involved in dictating who gets charged and who doesn't, prosecutorial decisions, then we have crossed the line. And that's something that both parties for decades. Presidents don't always love it. Presidents would like to have more control over prosecutors. But even going back to Nixon, they've always understood that there has to be some independent prosecutorial function. But that's changing now very quickly," he added.

Honig further noted that there is no law per se "saying DOJ must be separate and independent from the White House, from the president."

He added: "I mean, if you went to court and said, I want to sue because I think DOJ is no longer independent, you wouldn't have a leg to stand on. This is more along the lines of a long established law foundational norm and tradition that both parties have long observed and respected."

Referencing his book, Honig noted how Trump 2.0 appears different from other presidencies.

"And part of the book is about ways that that has been chipped away over the years. But whether it's Nixon or Clinton, and they're not all equal, but Nixon or Clinton or Trump 1 or Biden, they've all chipped away at that wall in various ways."

"But now here comes Trump 2.0 and it's over. He just dynamites it. This is one of those things that's like not really enforceable. I mean, yes, Jim Comey can go into court and argue that he's being selectively prosecuted. And I think he's going to win on that. Given the things Trump has said and posted on social media publicly, he makes the case for him, but it's not like 'my fourth amendment constitutional right is being violated. My first amendment constitutional right is being violated.' It's just really like good government that we've long recognized that is now totally scrapped."

Avalon noted that "there is an unwritten part of the constitution, which is rooted in concepts of honor, decency, and common sense, as the founders intended and as everyone has recognized."

"And the rest of the quote, 'Rome wasn't built in a day, but it was burnt in one.' And Trump is burning something. I mean, FBI shows outside John Bolton's house. You've got [New York Attorney Genera] Letitia James next on the list."

Commenting on James' case, Honig said, "I've looked at the allegations against Letitia James. You know, I've been a critic, a sharp critic of Letitia James. But this mortgage fraud case is bogus. It's bonkers."

One of the harshest realities following the ICE raids in the U.S. is the children stranded when they lose their parents in the crosshairs of the aggressive immigration policies under the Trump administration, according to a CNN report on Tuesday.

More than 100 children are now facing the new "separation crisis" after their parents have been deported, according to the report.

When ICE raids their parents' workplaces, homes, during school drop off, and in communities, these children are often left to parent themselves in an abrupt and often unexplained detention. And these cases have become more prevalent as the administration has moved away from "humane enforcement" of immigration law,s and ICE appears to have violated the protections that are still in place for undocumented parents to help find someone to care for their child or plan travel.

American children of immigrants do not fall within ICE's jurisdiction, and unlike immigrant children, they are not tracked by the agency, CNN reports.

A spokesperson tells CNN that ICE “goes out of its way” and claims to give parents the opportunity to designate a guardian or have their children accompany them when they are detained. The spokesperson disputed CNN's in-depth reporting.

“CNN is trying to obscure the fact that each of the illegal alien parents they are defending willingly chose to break our nation’s criminal and administrative laws and as a result of those choices, are responsible for what happens to their children – just as any U.S. citizen parent who breaks the law is when they are taken to jail,” the spokesperson told CNN.

The Trump administration has set an aggressive quota of 3,000 arrests per day, prompting arrests of not just immigrants with violent records, but also targeting people who have lived in the country for more than a decade and have no criminal record.

Several people have died during the chaotic and violent ICE raids in the U.S. It has left many children in a vulnerable position.

“This ICE is not using their discretion,” said Heidi Altman, vice president of policy at the National Immigration Law Center, told CNN. “The checks and balances that used to exist are gone.”

Lawmakers are also introducing legislation to help make it easier for parents to give kids left behind guardians.

“We are witnessing families being torn apart in real time — parents detained, unable to pick up their children from school and childcare,” Democratic California Assemblywoman Celeste Rodriguez said in a statement about legislation that is currently awaiting the governor’s signature. “This bill is not just about planning; it’s about creating a safety net.”

Longtime Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon raged over what he said was Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's massive blunder during the administration's announcement of controversial changes to the H-1B visa program, the system of work permits for high-skilled workers commonly used by the tech industry.

According to The Daily Beast, Bannon saw it as particularly infuriating that Lutnick incorrectly said that the new $100,000 fee for H-1B visas will be an annual charge, forcing other administration officials to come out and clarify it's in fact a one-time fee.

“These are not tiny details in the document,” said Bannon on his "War Room" program. “These are not in the footnotes. This is the deal. You’re supposed to be a deal guy. You’ve got to understand your own deal that you put before the president.” He added that, “All I’m saying is the Secretary Commerce sat up there and gave not just erroneous information, but patently false information. During the show, in a hot take, I can sit and go, ‘that makes no sense,’ because, if that’s true, then, hey, we kind of won—the whole program, just shut the program down.”

Bannon, who has previously called Lutnick an "unmitigated disaster" and urged Trump to pull him off of TV, has previously called for the H-1B program to be eliminated entirely — but he is on board with the Trump administration's change to make it far more expensive.

The H-1B announcement has sent tech companies scrambling, with some prominent CEOs like OpenAI's Sam Altman singing Trump's praises in what one observer theorized was a plea to give him input in minimizing the impact of the change.

Lutnick, who has been at the forefront of selling Trump's trade war, has been at the center of extensive drama behind the scenes at the White House, with reports saying he used Trump's housing finance administrator to try to dig up dirt on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, whose job Lutnick had been initially angling for.

President Donald Trump said that he had taken time to "fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation" and taunted President Vladimir Putin's military as a "paper tiger."

Following a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday, Trump shared his thoughts on the conflict to Truth Social.

"I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form," the U.S. president observed. "Why not? Russia has been fighting aimlessly for three and a half years a War that should have taken a Real Military Power less than a week to win. This is not distinguishing Russia. In fact, it is very much making them look like 'a paper tiger.'"

Trump predicted that Russians would "find out what is really going on with this War" — and they wouldn't be happy.

"The fact that it's almost impossible for them to get Gasoline through the long lines that are being formed, and all of the other things that are taking place in their War Economy, where most of their money is being spent on fighting Ukraine, which has Great Spirit, and only getting better, Ukraine would be able to take back their Country in its original form and, who knows, maybe even go further than that!" he suggested.

"Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act. In any event, I wish both Countries well."

While declining to offer direct support to Ukraine, Trump said that the U.S. would "continue to supply weapons to NATO for NATO to do what they want with them."

"Good luck to all!" he added.

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!!!"