Rumors of President Trump’s king-making abilities seem to have been greatly exaggerated. Republican candidates Amir Hassan of Michigan, Andy Ogles of Tennessee, Mike Lindell of Minnesota, and Darline Graham of South Carolina were all endorsed by Trump ahead of their primaries. Hassan, Lindell, and Ogles each lost their race, while Graham is nowhere close to the fifty percent she needs to avoid a runoff. In Michigan, Hassan—possibly doomed by his own base’s bigotry—lost handily to Thomas Smith by over 10,000 votes, even as Smith dropped out of the race last month and ceased all campaigning. Tennessee incumbent Representative Ogles was defeated by Charlie Hatcher after suffering through scandal and redistricting. And Lindell—known mostly as the MyPillow Guy—lost to Minnesota House Speaker Lisa DeMuth by about 11 percentage points and more than 45,000 votes. He refused to concede at the time, in true Trump fashion. And Graham, who was essentially anointed after her brother’s death, is now struggling against Ralph Northam. These are primary races—in theory the most concentrated MAGA voting bloc in which any candidate endorsed by Trump should expect to have an upper hand (maybe except Hassan). A bigot like Ogles and a crank like Lindell should feel more than welcome in a primary on paper. Instead they—and Trump—have been rejected by Republican voters. This is yet another awful warning sign for the GOP as midterms approach in November.Editor’s PickThe masked secret police known for their use of excessive force are planning to spend up to $20 million on a dangerous new accessory. The Department of Homeland Security published a public notice Monday announcing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would spend between $10 million and $20 million to buy gloves that emit painful electric shocks.The devices, called G.L.O.V.E, or Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, are manufactured by Compliant Technologies in Kentucky and advertised as a “humane, low-optics, de-escalation solution for many situations facing our men and women in uniform.”The manufacturer warns against using its device on elderly people, pregnant women, children, and people with severe disabilities—individuals who have not been spared from the Trump administration’s sweeping crackdown on immigrants. The company also warns that the devices are not meant to be used against people merely exhibiting “verbal defiance or belligerence.” But federal immigration agents aren’t exactly known for making that distinction—with deadly consequences. Agents have continually threatened or attacked individuals who criticize or monitor their immigration enforcement activities. A senior DHS official told NBC News Wednesday that all ICE agents would begin wearing the electric gloves by the end of September. Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy project director on policing at the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Associated Press that federal immigration agents had not demonstrated their capacity to restrain themselves. “ICE spent the last year showing this country they are too quick to use force. Now they will be able to deploy electric shocks with the slight push of a button that maybe nobody else can see them do,” she said. “Introducing gloves that can so easily be used to deliver terrible pain in encounters is a recipe for harm to the public.”Across the country, ICE agents have practiced excessive force, warrantless searches or arrests, racial profiling, and wrongful detentions. This notice follows the eleventh fatal shooting by federal immigration enforcement during President Donald Trump’s second term.Read more about ICE:President Trump left Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, advisor Stephen Miller, Communications Director Steven Cheung, and press at the mercy of a potential Iranian missile attack while he traveled safely with White House Chief of Staff and former Mar-a-Lago assistant Dan Scavino, director of Oval Office operations Walt Nauta, and personal assistant Natalie Harp—responsible for posting his AI-Jesus slop and countless other braindead Truth Social posts. Multiple outlets have reported that the Trump administration discovered an Iranian assassination threat against the president last last month while flying out of Turkey. They chose to keep the information secret, having Trump board Air Force One on camera while he, Harp, and Scavino later hid in a catering truck that covertly transferred them to another plane. Rubio was reportedly the only person aboard the original Air Force One who was aware of the possibility that everyone on it could be killed by an Iranian strike at any point. “It’s really just up to Secret Service. I just follow what they like to do ... They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane, equal safety,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews Tuesday night. “I do what they say. The plane that I was on was at greater risk ... Because that would be the plane that I think that they would be more likely to go for.”There are so many questions here. An assassination threat credible enough to make Trump hide in a catering truck only further delegitimizes the administration’s constant rhetoric about how crippled the Iranian government is. Why wouldn’t they just wait it out instead of sending Rubio and some of the highest ranking Cabinet members on a possible suicide mission? And why wouldn’t Trump take everyone on the secret flight instead of just Scavino, Nauta, and Harp—his closest assistants? Trump even said once of Harp that she was the “only one who loved him as much as his wife and kids.” Nauta, moreover, was a codefendant along with Trump in a federal case that alleged that the pair had improperly stored classified materials at Mar-a-Lago.“Any consequential president has a lot of threats,” Trump later said. “Non-consequential presidents don’t get threatened. And I think that I may be the most consequential.”President Donald Trump is sneakily spending close to a billion dollars on White House renovations using mostly taxpayer funds, making an end run around Congress and public disclosure. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the Trump administration pulled money from other government agencies and private donors, and then steered that cash into an account that usually holds a few million dollars for routine White House maintenance, known as “White House Repair and Restoration.” But since Trump took office last year, the administration has funneled $875 million to that account. That money consists of transfers from the U.S. Secret Service and the White House Military Office of about $500 million, with $305 billion from private donations. Another $70 million was also directed to the account, according to documents reviewed by the Post, but the source isn’t identified. In all, Trump plans to spend at least $900 million on “modernization projects” on White House grounds, including a helipad, improvements to Lafayette Square, a new visitor screening center, and the White House ballroom that was ruled illegal in federal court last week, with Trump planning to appeal. Trump’s ballroom was estimated to cost $600 million (up from $200 million when he first announced the project). Taxpayers will pay for about half of that latest figure, contradicting the president’s promise that the vast majority of it would be paid for by private donations. All of this is unprecedented, as in previous administrations, requests for White House renovations were submitted as requests to Congress and then put through the appropriations process before agencies sought approvals and hired contractors. But Trump seems more preoccupied with construction and redevelopment projects in his second term as president than he is with the daily business of leading the country. He regularly falls asleep during important meetings and ceremonies, but musters up excitement to check on his various pet projects. Read more about the White House construction:President Donald Trump wants to pretend that his plane-switching ruse didn’t leave members of the press vulnerable to an attack from Iran.While speaking to reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews Tuesday night, the president faced a tough question about his plane-swapping farce.“Why was it too dangerous for you to fly on Air Force One, but not too dangerous for the press?” one reporter asked. “Well, I don’t know. I think actually, the plane that I flew on was at greater risk. I think it was at greater risk because that would be the plane that they would be more likely to go for,” Trump said. Trump: They wanted me to go on a different flight.Q: Why was it too dangerous to fly on Air Force one?Trump: I don’t know. I think the plane I flew on was at greater risk because that would be the plane they would be more likely to go for. Q: Were you worried about shoulder… pic.twitter.com/xM7TMd2zFk— Acyn (@Acyn) August 12, 2026 Trump’s explanation is nonsense. When Trump departed the NATO summit in Turkey last month, the press reported that the president would fly with them aboard the original Air Force One. Meanwhile, the president secretly changed planes in order to evade a credible assassination threat from Iran. Members of the press and some staff members remained on the plane, none the wiser—and evidently vulnerable to attack. Given the reportedly tiny circle of people who knew about the plan, it’s highly unlikely that Iran knew, either.Several top administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller were also left aboard the decoy plane. Read more about the subterfuge: