Raw Story

Donald Trump's lawyer Alina Habba was on the White House lawn Tuesday claiming that the "separation of powers" means the president has the "ultimate authority."

However, the opposite is true, as children in civics classes are taught. The Founding Fathers sought to create a government with no supreme head like the king in England.

So, as the United States court system explained in a video, the framers crafted checks and balances.

Habba's blunder led to mass mockery among legal and political experts.

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Reporter Jake Lahut posted, "The founders could not have envisoned Alina Habba."

"We're in the stupidest timeline," complained Max Flugrath, of Fair Fight Action.

Legal analyst Bradley Moss shared a face-palm emoji on Bluesky before saying, "I really don’t think ANY of these folks understand our system of government."

"What's the difference between a rock and Alina Habba? A rock can be useful," quipped artist Candee Corliss.

Michael A. Cohen, an MSNBC columnist and not Trump's former lawyer, pointed out, "Fun fact: She went to law school."

"Alina, dear, go back to law school. Or, at least read Marbury v. Madison. Also, stop talking because every time you do, you make a fool of yourself," posted legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega.

President Donald Trump's dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is almost certainly illegal under the separation of powers — but, wrote former Labor Secretary Robert Reich in a lengthy post to Facebook, even beyond that, the timing of the move raises suspicions.

The bureau is the only federal agency solely tasked with policing financial misconduct against banks and other monetary institutions against small-time consumers.

And there might be a reason Trump doesn't want that kind of oversight, wrote Reich.

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"Thousands of investors in Trump’s crypto scheme lost $2 billion in just weeks while the Trump Organization racked up $100 million in trading fees," wrote Reich. "Just so happens that the CFPB, which Trump is trying to kill, recently announced new regulations for the crypto industry."

Right around the time of Trump's inauguration, a series of Trump-themed crypto coins became available, which were snatched up by supporters and generated large amounts of value. After the hype faded, many of those same supporters raged that they were taken for a ride.

Reich is not the only one to suspect ulterior motives in the crippling of CFPB.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the brainchild behind the agency in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, suggested this week that tech billionaire Elon Musk, who publicly celebrated as his unelected software engineer allies summarily shut down the bureau, doesn't want the agency around to police his plans to add a financial transactions feature to his X platform, formerly Twitter.

House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-MO) lashed out at House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-TX) as the negotiations for President Donald Trump's agenda continue, accusing Arrington and other deficit hawks of being disloyal to the president.

The two lawmakers are in charge of committees that are key to financial issues in Congress.

According to Politico, House Republicans "had tentatively settled on a plan last week to instruct the Ways and Means Committee to not increase deficits by more than $4.7 trillion to accommodate the cuts" — but a newly revised plan circulated at the start of this week "was expected to contain an even lower number to appease deficit hawks, including Arrington. That would leave barely any wiggle room for Smith to extend the 2017 tax cuts that are set to expire at the end of the year — much less Trump's plan to end taxes on tips, overtime pay and other things."

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Smith is losing his patience over the matter, lashing out at Arrington on record with Politico.

“Let me just say that a 10-year extension of President Trump’s expiring provisions is over $4.7 trillion, according to [the Congressional Budget Office]. Anything less would be saying that President Trump is wrong on tax policy.”

This flap is far from the only roadblock to getting Trump's tax, border, and energy policies passed. A fundamental disagreement remains between the House and the Senate, where House lawmakers, along with Trump, want to pass everything together in a single reconciliation package to craft a grand bargain with the deficit hawks, and Senate lawmakers prefer splitting off the tax legislation into a second bill to increase the likelihood of its passage.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has for weeks been in talks with members of the House Freedom Caucus to try to sell them on the two-bill strategy. But this week, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) put his foot down and insisted on moving forward with one bill.

WASHINGTON — Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth cracked up talking about President Donald Trump's pardon of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), who was convicted of 18 corruption charges, including an effort to sell Barack Obama's senate seat after he was elected in 2008.

Raw Story discussed the matter with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) when Duckworth overheard the conversation and began laughing.

"Yeah, I've seen interviews. It sounds to me like it was also a politically motivated prosecution," Johnson said after talking about New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who had corruption charges dropped against him.

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"A convicted felon pardoning another convicted felon?" Duckworth asked. "That's all I gotta say."

"It's not good for anybody. It's not good for the country," she continued.

Duckworth added that she doesn't think anything could be done about it, but they could "ask the Supreme Court."

"Ask Susan Collins. She put some of those on the Supreme Court," she said.

Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison, but Trump commuted his sentence in February 2020, and he served just eight years.

A small boy who was last seen five years ago and was just recently reported missing has left authorities in Delaware County, Indiana, scrambling for answers.

Four-year-old Hayden Manis, who had been living with his grandparents, was last seen on Christmas Eve in 2019. The child had just been reunited with his father, Dustin Manis, who regained custody after completing court-ordered probation, drug treatment, and counseling.

According to reporting from The Independent, Dustin kept in touch with the family via Facebook but never produced the child. He reportedly told family and police that Hayden's mother had the boy, "but authorities later confirmed that was a lie and the Department of Child Services never placed Hayden with her."

“We think [Hayden] actually went missing sometime in 2020 but, so far, we have not been able to pinpoint an actual date,” Delaware County Sheriff Chief Deputy Jeff Stanley told 13News in Indianapolis.

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Dustin's last direct message to his aunt in 2023 read, "Hey aunt barb, I promise on everything all is well,” he wrote,“[I] promise [I’ve] just been having a lot going on try to work on my family that I am making and what not I appreciate u reaching out and checking.”

Muncie, Indiana, police arrested Dustin on drug charges in November 2024. He died a month later from a drug overdose, The Independent reported.

“Just because Dustin Manis is dead does not mean the investigation is dead. We’re still going forward,” Delaware County prosecutor Eric Hoffman told 13News.

Hoffman also said he no longer believes the boy, who would be 9 years old, is still alive.

“It’s haunting. It’s definitely haunting, some of the facts of this case,” Hoffman said. “There are very few days I come to this office and I don’t think about Hayden Manis. This case is on my mind, and it’s on the investigators’ minds on a daily basis. We’re not going to stop until we get to an answer. We need to know the truth.”

Read the story in The Independent here.

Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) on Tuesday struggled to answer questions from CNN's Dana Bash about major problems faced by American farmers thanks to the actions taken by X owner Elon Musk with the blessing of President Donald Trump.

During her interview with Smith, Bash played a video of a Missouri farmer named Skyler Holden discussing being unable to get payments he's owed from the United States Department of Agriculture to make improvements to his farm.

"It puts me in a bind because I've made business decisions based on that contract," Holden said.

"What do you say to Skyler Holden and people in that predicament?" Bash asked Smith.

"What I would say is that that the government needs to do a better job at working for the American people," Smith replied. "Too often it seems like the American people are working for the government, and the whole purpose of freezing and putting a hold on everything right now is to review, to make sure it's working the way that Congress and the executive is supposed to implement.

"It's unfortunate that this is the case. I've been talking with several farmers that have been experiencing this and trying to help guide them through this process, but it's all going to work out. Right now, it's a little bit disruptive, but that's what this administration promised whenever they were coming to Washington."

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Bash then pressed him and asked him to address the farmer who said that the current freeze in funding could "put him in a bad situation financially."

Smith dodged the question and said that the current problems with paying farmers were akin to issues he's experienced with trying to help a constituent file a claim with the Social Security Administration and he implied that this was because so many federal workers get to work from home.

Bash then pointed out that, under Musk, many federal workers have been shut out of their offices all together.

"There are a lot of full agencies that have been told not to come to work today that are causing some havoc around the country and around the globe," she said.

Watch the video below or at this link.

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