Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News

@froomkin.bsky.social

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Editor of Press Watch (https://presswatchers.org) and Heads Up News (http://headsupnews.org). Ex-Washington Post, HuffPost, Intercept. Freelancer. I afflict comfortable journalists.

LIVE 2m ago Trump Exaggerates Claims About Election Vulnerabilities in Address President Trump laid out a purported effort by China to undermine him. But the documents posted by the White House did not back up his claims. See new updates ›
LIVE 2m ago Trump Exaggerates Claims About Election Vulnerabilities in Address President Trump laid out a purported effort by China to undermine him. But the documents posted by the White House did not back up his claims. See new updates ›
DEPARTMEN Homeland Security PREVENTING ALIEN VOTING NATIONAL SECURITY INVESTIGATIONS: The Department of Homeland Security has initiated multiple investigations related to allegations of non-citizen voting and registration. Review of the first set of public voter files from states that have not utilized the SAVE system revealed: OVER 250,000 NON-CITIZENS ARE ILLEGALLY REGISTERED TO VOTE IN JUST THE FOUR STATES FOR WHICH PUBLIC DATA FILES HAVE BEEN REVIEWED. State election officials in California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada have been notified of this serious threat to national security and DHS stands ready to support their efforts to identify and remove ineligible registrants. The investigation is expanding to include multiple additional states. In addition, DHS will support the Department of Justice's review of voter files obtained pursuant to their enforcement authority under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the Help America Vote Act of 2002. STATES THAT PROTECT FEDERAL ELECTIONS: Numerous proactive, conscientious state officials have successfully utilized free services offered by the Department of Homeland Security to assist election officials in identifying non-citizens who have registered and/or voted in their states. In the short time that the enhanced SAVE system has been available to states, 10 have states processed their full voter lists. As of June 22, 2026, a total of 25 different states processed more than 68 million registration records through the SAVE system. DHS has enabled those states to identify over 400,000 deceased registrants and over 28,000 non-citizens who illegally registered to vote. Proactive SAVE User States State Georgia Ohio Tennessee Texas Deceased 42,776 59,774 37,850 111,573 21 ç90 Non- Citizen 2,549 769 1,009 2,296 1 500
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NYT headline: “U.S. and Iran Reignite War Over Strait of Hormuz”
These facts lead to the inexorable conclusion that the “settlement” terms, the individuals who signed the “settlement” as well as the putative beneficiaries of the “settlement,” demonstrate a shared, unitary interest. And the unilateral revision and renunciation of the “Fund” component of the “settlement” demonstrate the fact that all Parties were aligned, and ultimately, undifferentiated. This action was never about a party seeking judicial resolution of a legal issue or a factual dispute. The nature of the suit itself and the conduct of the Parties and counsel from its filing make plain that this was an attempt to use the Court to provide some legitimacy to an agreement to confer immunity to people and entities affiliated with the President and to earmark billions of dollars from American taxpayers to redress grievances not defined in the law. The President may be the functional “dominus litus” of the Executive Branch, but as a party to a civil suit, he, as well as all the parties and lawyers before a court, are bound by the rules. Ensuring that our courts are used only for the express purpose created by the Constitution is the obligation of every judge and an obligation that this Court must discharge in light of the matter before it.
Trump Truth Social post from March 21: "If Iran doesn’t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP"
NYT headline: 2-Day Wave of U.S. Attacks on Iran Is One of the Heaviest of the War
HuffPost home page: TRUMP AMOK IRAN CEASEFIRE 'OVER' — THREATENS HELL 'TONIGHT' THROWS NATO TRANTRUM REPORTS: ALLIES EYE EXITS
Trump said the crowd at 7 p.m. was 422,000 people and that at least 150,000 returned after evacuating. Officials did not provide immediate confirmation of those figures.
Friday's schedule of flyovers and demonstration rehearsals along the National Mall and Washington Monument • 10 a.m.: Golden Knights, Leap Frogs • 10:15 a.m.: Army Helo Flyover • 10:20 a.m.: USMC V-22 Osprey Demo • 10:35 a.m.: USMC F-35B STOVL Demo • 10:50 a.m.: USN F-18F Demo • 11:10 a.m.: USN F-35C Demo Team • 11:30 a.m.: USAF F-22 Raptor Demo • 11:50 a.m.: NASA F-5s • 12 p.m.: HUGE (1) Formation • 12:05 p.m.: USAF Thunderbirds • 12:55 p.m.: USAF Tri-Bomber
Token Sales See line 405 N/A Net proceeds from Token sales distributed by World Liberty Financial LLC $ 236,250,000 Cryptocurrency Wallet Virtual USD Key (held in cold wallet) See line 405 N/A $100,001 to $250,000 Proceeds from Token sales distributed by World Liberty Financial LLC $ 42,250,000 Cryptocurrency Wallet Virtual USDC Key (held in cold wallet) See line 405 N/A $1,001 to $15,000 Proceeds from Token sales distributed by World Liberty Financial LLC $ 56,036,445 Cryptocurrency Wallet Virtual USDC Key (held in cold wallet) N/A Interest Income $ 6,995 Cryptocurrency Wallet Virtual Ethereum Key (held in cold wallet) See line 405 N/A Over $50,000,000 Proceeds from Token sales distributed by World Liberty Financial LLC $ 150,606,931 Etherium staked (Coinbase staking agreement) N/A Validator rewards $ 1,821,628 Cryptocurrency Wallet Virtual Bitcoin Key (held in cold wallet) See line 405 N/A Over $50,000,000 Proceeds from Token sales distributed by World Liberty Financial LLC $ 33,462,160 Cryptocurrency Wallet Virtual Link Key (held in cold wallet) See line 405 N/A $500,001 to $1,000,000 Proceeds from Token sales distributed by World Liberty Financial LLC $ 2,754,61
“Supreme Court halts Trump pushed to end birthright citizenship”
Nazi golden eagle
Under Mr. Trump, the program has effectively become a whites-only path to life in the United States, a culmination of the president’s longstanding antipathy toward immigrants and his embrace of the concept of “reverse racism” as a guiding principle in his administration.
Imagine that President Trump pooped his pants, right there in the Oval Office. Then imagine that rather than simply not talking about it and moving on — it’s pretty embarrassing, after all — he sent out a series of angry late-night Truth Social posts about how not only didn’t he poop his pants but actually delivered into his pants a serving of the finest beluga caviar, and no one has ever seen pants so delicious. Then imagine that in the face of incontrovertible evidence that he did in fact poop his pants, he kept talking about the pants-pooping, moving on to spin a deranged theory claiming that a dark conspiracy of leftists had snuck into the White House and planted the poop right there in his pants.
Screengrab of man removing a length of fence.
Washington Post headline: Vandalism, alleged in Reflecting Pool damage
The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran and their allies in the current war by signing this M.O.U. declare the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and undertake from now on not to initiate any war or any military operation against each other, and to refrain [from] the threat or use of force against each other and ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon. The final deal will confirm the permanent termination of the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and other provisions of this paragraph.
WaPo headline “Trump claims victory in war”
WaPo headline “Trump claims victory in war”
1. The strait of Hormuz On Sunday evening, Donald Trump appeared unequivocal about the status of the strait of Hormuz, declaring: “I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade. Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” An hour later, the US president said the opening of the key waterway through which about a fifth of the world’s oil flows was contingent upon the signing of a deal, scheduled for Friday, and would be “for purposes of mine removal”. Crucially, Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, the peace deal mediator, made no mention of the strait in his opening announcement. Iran’s Mehr state news reported that the agreed memorandum of understanding calls for the reopening of the strait within 30 days under “Iranian arrangements”.
9 pm thunderstorms 100% chance of rain
Hopefully, this process will all work out quickly, easily, and smoothly. If it doesn’t, we have the ultimate alternative, hopefully never to be used again!
One: Trump says US ‘ended the war with Iran,’ though Tehran has yet to confirm a deal Two: How Trump has deceived himself on Iran
As Mr. Trump alternates between promising peace and threatening to return to full-scale war, neither is happening. Instead, the situation is as bewildering as ever, the two sides seeming to agree on nothing, prolonging the turmoil in the Middle East and leaving it unclear how or when the war will end.
UFC lights look like a devil's head rising behind the White House
NYT NEWS ANALYSIS Republicans Begin to Test the Limits of Trump’s Power by Flexing Their Own
DOJ Civil Rights Division: Laws We Enforce Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against someone because of: Race; Color; Religion; Sex; or National origin.
Assistant Attorney General Dhillon’s attendance at a deposition on behalf of Ms. Bondi would plainly violate this Committee’s Rule 15(e), which limits the attendance of attorneys on behalf of a witness at depositions to “two designated, nongovernmental attorneys,” and specifies that “[o]ther persons, including government agency personnel, may not attend.”8 Although Assistant Attorney General Dhillon has refused to engage with Committee Democratic staff, her and DOJ’s actions to date suggest that she is acting in an official capacity in her apparent representation of Ms. Bondi. DOJ staff provided her official DOJ cell phone number when it referred Democratic Oversight staff to her as counsel for Ms. Bondi, and the Assistant Attorney General has posted on X in connection with Ms. Bondi’s appearance before this Committee from the handle @AAGHarmeetDhillon. 9 If Assistant Attorney General Dhillon purports to represent Ms. Bondi in a personal capacity, contrary to appearances, then her engagement raises troubling ethical concerns. In that case, there would be a clear conflict of interest between Ms. Dhillon’s duties to DOJ and to Ms. Bondi individually. Such an engagement would also quite clearly violate DOJ policy, which provides unambiguously that, absent a waiver by the Deputy Attorney General on specific grounds, “[n]o employee may engage in the practice of law unless it is uncompensated and in the nature of community service, unless it is on behalf of himself, his parents, spouse, or children.”10 By no reasonable interpretation does Assistant Attorney General Dhillon’s representation of Ms. Bondi in this matter fall within these limitations.
WaPo top headline: Trump is firm on Iran terms; he is holding to maximize demands; midterm pressure won’t make him bend, he says.
Since then, he has worked in documentary film, writing, directing and producing “Fake Famous,” an HBO documentary about aspiring social media influencers; and working as a producer on “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley,” a film directed by Alex Gibney about the disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. Mr. Bilton has also written books and is set to publish a true crime book about a Hawaiian crime syndicate with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. (He also wrote the screenplay for its film adaptation to be directed by Martin Scorsese).
State Department quotes Trump on X.
White House South Lawn turned into gaudy gladiators arena.
President Trump's week started in triumph when he took out a pair of Republican adversaries up for reelection — but it's ending in a rare moment of Republican resistance, largely of his own making.
Specific details of the misconduct were still coming to light Thursday afternoon, but Boutros and defense attorneys revealed multiple problems within the grand jury. Boutros mentioned “vouching” — suggesting that a prosecutor assured grand jurors the case wouldn’t have been brought if it wasn’t just. Additionally, a prosecutor allegedly had a conversation with a grand juror outside the jury room. And some grand jurors who disagreed with the case were allegedly prevented from participating further. Finally, defense attorneys revealed that the case had once been rejected by grand jurors, a result known as a “no bill.”
By Michal Leibowitz Ms. Leibowitz is an editor at Times Opinion. For this essay, she spoke to two dozen students, teachers and alumni and visited Deep Springs College. May 20, 2026 When I was in college in the 2010s, some of my classmates would go to the dining hall, take their meals to their dorm rooms, eat and then dispose of everything that was left — food scraps, ceramic dishes and stainless steel utensils — in the dorm trash cans. It wasn’t as if we had to wash the dishes ourselves. We were just supposed to walk them a few yards back to the dining hall and stick them on a conveyor belt that took them to the kitchen. This behavior was the exception, not the norm, and I never did it. But I thought I understood the thinking behind it. The cost of dining hall dishes was not even a rounding error in the university’s huge budget. No one suffered from their loss. The action landed without ripples. Like, well, a plate in an overstuffed trash can. It was the same sort of thinking that powered much of campus life: The point of your college education was to serve you — your knowledge, your résumé, your personal growth. Anything that could be done faster, more efficiently, should be. If you couldn’t pick out a specific individual harmed by your actions, you were probably OK. You had no obligations to the school. You were there to feed on the university, to feast and to grow fat like one of the cows in Pharaoh’s dream. The university was, in this way, a sort of model for the world.
67-30 for choice 1: A candidate who promises to lower prices by going after corporate monopolies and price gouging A candidate who promises to lower prices by making it easier to build housing and expand energy production
The fund manages to combine three of Mr. Trump’s most alarming behaviors. One, it is an obvious form of corruption, coming from a president who has used his office to enrich himself, his family and his allies. Two, the fund continues his pattern of using the Justice Department as an enforcer to punish his perceived opponents and protect his friends and allies. Three, the fund is his latest attempt to rewrite history about the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress. It is worth pausing to put the fund into the larger context of Mr. Trump’s political project: He is destroying pillars of American democracy to empower himself. He claims elections are legitimate only if he wins. He uses federal law enforcement to investigate and prosecute his perceived enemies. He purges his party of officials who defy him. He describes members of the other party and civil society as traitors and enemies. He incentivizes his supporters to break the law on his behalf and rewards them when they do. He directs his allies to change election rules to keep his party in power.
By Peter Baker Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent, is covering his sixth administration and has written multiple books on the modern presidency. May 20, 2026 Updated 7:26 p.m. ET It is hard to imagine that any previous president would have thought he could engage in such an audacious act of self-dealing. Sue the government he runs, then settle the lawsuit with himself by barring the Internal Revenue Service from auditing his past returns. And as part of that deal, hand over $1.8 billion of taxpayer money to his allies.
By Adam Liptak Adam Liptak is the chief legal correspondent and host of The Docket. May 20, 2026 Updated 3:57 p.m. ET In January, on a flight to his Florida club Mar-a-Lago, President Trump mused about his $10 billion lawsuit against the I.R.S. "I'm supposed to work out a settlement with myself," he said. Mr. Trump is a tough negotiator, and, looking in the mirror, he faced an equally tenacious adversary. But the president managed to work out a deal with himself on Monday, one as novel and brazen as the process that spawned it.
NYT home page full of headlines about Trump's outrageous slush fund and is corruption. (Though they don't use those words.)
The possibility that people who ransacked the Capitol, smashing windows and fighting with the police, could get money from the same federal government they attacked was the latest head-spinning twist in the effort to rewrite the history of Jan. 6. At a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, did not rule out violent rioters receiving payouts from the fund.
That the addendum to the deal was posted, without fanfare, on the department’s website belied its bare-knuckled audacity. It revealed the determination of Mr. Trump and his appointees to ram through maximalist measures with minimum outside scrutiny at a moment when they still have uncontested control of government. The provision was the latest in a series of maneuvers this week that blurred the all-but-vanished boundary between official department business and the private interests of a president intent on using his power to extract financial gain from the federal government for himself and his allies.
AP headline: Justice Department announces a $1.7B fund to compensate Trump allies in a deal to drop IRS suit
Administration Sets Up $1.8 Billion Fund for Trump Allies The Justice Department said that it had created a fund to compensate supporters of President Trump who felt they had been mistreated by Democratic administrations.