Trump's $1Billion plan to GUT the White House

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Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt is leaving the White House at the end of the month, ending a 20-month run as the administration's most loyal spin doctor.

Leavitt, 28, spent her tenure amplifying misinformation, trying to hand-pick which outlets could cover the president, and introducing a "new media" seat for conservative commentators friendly to Trump — all while the White House Correspondents' Association rejected her attempts to seize control of the press pool.

She defended Trump's ties to Jeffrey Epstein by declaring his emails "prove absolutely nothing." When a reporter pressed her on an ICE officer fatally shooting Renee Good in Minneapolis, she called the journalist a "leftwing hack" who "shouldn't even be sitting in that seat."

Trump cycled through five press secretaries in his first term. Leavitt lasted longer than most — which, given the job description, is less of a compliment and more of an indictment.

Donald Trump looked Americans in the eye and said it plain: "This is taxpayer-free. We have no taxpayer putting up 10 cents."

That was a lie.

The Washington Post has now traced nearly $900 million — the overwhelming majority of it public money — quietly funneled into a routine White House maintenance account that normally holds about $2.5 million for fixing leaky pipes and replacing lightbulbs, bypassing Congress and any public disclosure entirely.

The destination: a $1 billion renovation plan of the White House complex, with Trump's vanity ballroom at the center.

The money comes from transfers out of the Secret Service and White House Military Office ($500 million), private donors ($305 million), and a mystery $70 million with no identified source. Trump plans to spend they money on "modernization projects" — a helipad, a visitor center, and a $600 million ballroom a federal court already ruled illegal last week.

And the private donors that did contribute? Several of them had billions in federal contracts pending. Some faced active federal enforcement actions at the time they wrote the checks.

Trump's promise was specific, repeated, and deliberate. He said taxpayers would not pay a single dime — and then his administration moved $500 million in public funds through a maintenance account to make sure they did.

The Secret Service money was appropriated to recruit and train the agents who protect all presidents. It’s now paying for the room where Trump wants to hosts black tie fundraisers.

Pete Hegseth has been blocking congressional Democrats from classified Pentagon briefings while simultaneously making massive budget requests for a war that's still dragging on — and now his own party is calling him out.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who's been breaking with Trump more often this term, didn't mince it: "He calls himself the secretary of war, but ironically, he doesn't want to go to war and win the argument with nearly half the members of the Senate. You got to engage."

The practical problem: Hegseth (theoretically) needs Democratic votes to pass the funding he's asking for. The guy locked out the people he needs to convince, then complained he can't get the money. When a retiring Republican senator is the one explaining basic legislative math to the Defense Secretary, something has gone very wrong at the Pentagon.

David Crowley won the Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor despite progressive Francesca Hong leading polls by a large margin heading into election night — a result that scrambled expectations and left the party's left flank with real questions about the nominee.

Crowley's first move after accepting the nomination was to vow he'd earn progressive support, which is exactly what you say when you know you need to.

Wisconsin is a genuine battleground, and the GOP will come in with money and a unified message. Crowley needs the Hong coalition to show up in November, not sit on their hands. He's got time — but not much.

Sailors and Marines aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln are attempting to jump overboard as the carrier's Middle East deployment stretches with no end in sight — a direct consequence of Trump's war with Iran, which began in February and has kept the Lincoln deployed past its expected May return.

At least three sailors have attempted to go overboard. One spouse told Stars and Stripes her husband texted that "he hopes he doesn't wake up tomorrow." One sailor's mother said her son was eating half a cup of rice and two tortillas a day. Families report long stretches without hot water, laundry services down, and basic supplies like soap running out.

Family members met with acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao in San Diego last week. The Navy did not respond to HuffPost's request for comment.

One wife put it plainly: "He thinks he'll get a dishonorable discharge, and just because he was burnt out, his 13-year career is ruined."