Republicans Accuse Trump of Theft as Hot Mic Catches Him Asking to Go Home
Donald Trump spent his weekend getting heckled on a golf course and his Sunday getting called out by members of his own party.
Monday morning, Trump is on defense on four fronts, and he walked into every one of them himself. Republicans in Congress are accusing him of spending taxpayer money on TV ads starring himself, and one Republican senator said it on national television. A crowd outside Chicago protested him, a heckler shouted at him on live TV, and a hot mic appeared to catch him saying he wanted to go home. His own ambassador to Beijing said on Fox News that Trump offered to sell American weapons to China. And instead of answering for any of it, Trump stayed up late posting a picture of the White House press room turned into a swimming pool. There are 36 days until the midterms.
REPUBLICANS ACCUSE TRUMP OF STEALING TAXPAYER MONEY FOR HIS OWN ADS
Trump is taking fire from his own party for running TV commercials about himself on the public’s dime.
The administration started airing the spots last week, and $443,000 in public money has gone into them so far. One shows Trump walking down a corridor in black and white while rally audio plays. “This is the final battle. With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state. We will expel the warmongers from our government,” he says. It ends with a line on screen: “Paid for by the U.S. Government.” It’s a rehash of an ad Trump ran in 2024. The only new part is who’s paying for it.
Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky didn’t hold back. “Don’t worry, using taxpayer dollars to run ominous campaign ads of the President has been done before and is completely legal… in banana republics,” he wrote on X. Then he added: “So much for DOGE. This is the kind of waste, fraud, and abuse they were originally supposed to go after.”
Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, who’s spent this presidency defending Trump, said the same thing Sunday on Face the Nation. “I don’t think any public official, including President Trump, or Kristi Noem, or John Kennedy, should spend public money on private ads for themselves,” he said. He knew Trump might hit back online and said it anyway, along with a shot at Trump putting his name on the Kennedy Center. “I may end up with a sombrero on my head, but I also think that we oughta have a rule that no politicians can have a building named after him while he’s alive,” Kennedy said.
Ethics lawyers went further. “This could be an impeachable offense,” wrote Richard Painter, George W. Bush’s chief White House ethics lawyer. “Congress has expressly prohibited government sponsored political propaganda, which is dangerous for democracy.” Norm Eisen said the administration has “gone from breaking the law to trampling it.”
The White House calls the ads public service announcements. “The PSAs are clearly not political,” one official said. “The president is not on the ballot and the ads don’t have a call to action.”
Trump has spent months telling voters to pretend he’s on the ballot. Now every Democrat in a close race gets to quote a Republican senator saying Trump is spending their money on himself.
TRUMP GETS HECKLED AT GOLF TOURNAMENT AND CAUGHT WANTING TO LEAVE
Trump went to the Presidents Cup outside Chicago on Sunday looking for a friendly crowd. He got protesters, a heckler and a hot mic.
Hundreds of protesters lined the streets outside Medinah Country Club, and organizers had to tighten security. “He’s not welcome,” protester Allison Galvan told ABC7 Chicago. “We are wanting to send that message loud and clear.” Protesters and Trump supporters got into it outside, and police had to pull them apart.
Inside, PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp introduced him, and Trump started by getting ahead of the coverage. “The fake news media will say I got a very bad reception,” he said. He said he didn’t have “the courage” to give the speech Rolapp asked for. “These people want to see golf. They don’t want to hear speeches. I’ll only say this: Our country is doing great, better than ever before.” While he was talking, a man in the crowd shouted an Epstein-related accusation at him that went out live, in language we won’t print here.
Then came the trophy ceremony. The U.S. won 17-13, and Trump shook hands with captain Brandt Snedeker, appearing to tell him, “You’re going to go down in history.” Then he turned away, and a live mic picked him up appearing to say, “I’d like to go home.” The players walked off. A song by Pink, who’s criticized Trump for years, started playing and drowned out the rest. “If this was Joe Biden it would be on a loop already on Fox News,” the X account Donk Media wrote.
Video from the day showed the 80-year-old lunging from side to side as he walked to the podium. He left for his motorcade about 40 minutes after reporters gathered for the medal presentation. Back at the White House after 9:30 p.m., he called it a “tremendous day” and didn’t take a single question.
He did post at least seven videos from the trip on Truth Social that night. A good day doesn’t usually need seven videos to prove it.
TRUMP’S OWN AMBASSADOR REVEALS HE OFFERED TO SELL WEAPONS TO CHINA
Trump asked Xi Jinping if China wanted to buy American weapons, according to his own ambassador to Beijing.
Xi was at the White House last week, his first visit in a decade, and the two talked trade, AI and a long list of other issues. Taiwan was relieved when the visit ended without a major deal on the island China claims. Then on Sunday, Ambassador David Perdue, a former Republican senator from Georgia whom Trump picked for the job, went on Fox News.
“President Trump continues to say, hey, we sell arms to other people around the world,” Perdue said. “He actually asked President Xi, would he like to buy some at one point.”
Selling weapons to China is against the law. “US law prohibits arms sales to China and there is no offer or plan to sell arms to China,” a State Department official said. The White House told the New York Times the same thing. Perdue himself had told CNBC on Friday that nothing had changed on Taiwan, including arms sales.
Meanwhile, Trump is holding up a $14 billion arms package for Taiwan and has called it a “very good negotiating chip.” The Taiwan Relations Act requires the U.S. to help Taiwan defend itself. Chinese state media said Xi pressed Trump to “handle the Taiwan question with prudence.”
Taiwan’s deputy foreign minister, Chen Ming-chi, spelled out what’s at stake. “Taiwan faces a severe situation in the Taiwan strait,” he said. “Even though China’s economy is declining, it continues investing more resources into building military capacity.”
Republicans have run for years as the party that stands up to Beijing. Trump’s own ambassador just said on Fox News that the president tried to sell Beijing weapons while Taiwan’s are stuck waiting.
This just adds jet fuel to the Midterms fire for Trump. Now, prediction markets are saying there is a nearly 90% chance of a Blue Wave this November.
TRUMP WANTS TO DEMOLISH THE PRESS ROOM AND BUILD A POOL
Trump ended his Sunday by posting a mockup of the White House briefing room replaced with a swimming pool.
The late-night Truth Social post showed two images side by side. On the left was the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, labeled “Fake News, Before.” On the right was an ornate indoor pool, labeled “FDR Pool After.” He didn’t say whether he was announcing a renovation or just taunting reporters.
It came about a week after he tried to kick CNN, MS NOW and Politico out of the White House. All three sued, and a federal judge restored their access. The major TV networks had already pulled out of the White House video pool over CNN’s exclusion, leaving Trump with an empty camera rotation of his own making.
The pool is real. Franklin Roosevelt had it built in the West Terrace in 1933 after his polio diagnosis and swam for exercise. Truman, Kennedy and Johnson used it too. In 1970, Richard Nixon had it floored over to make room for a growing press corps, and it was preserved underneath so a future president could bring it back. The White House already has a second pool outdoors, which Gerald Ford put in in 1975.
Nixon covered the pool to make room for reporters. Trump wants to uncover it to get rid of them.
That was how he spent Sunday night. He’d been heckled on live TV, called out by a Republican senator on Face the Nation, and contradicted by his own State Department on selling arms to China. He answered none of it. He posted a picture of the press room gone instead.
Source: ReallyAmerican.substack.com
Monday morning, Trump is on defense on four fronts, and he walked into every one of them himself. Republicans in Congress are accusing him of spending taxpayer money on TV ads starring himself, and one Republican senator said it on national television. A crowd outside Chicago protested him, a heckler shouted at him on live TV, and a hot mic appeared to catch him saying he wanted to go home. His own ambassador to Beijing said on Fox News that Trump offered to sell American weapons to China. And instead of answering for any of it, Trump stayed up late posting a picture of the White House press room turned into a swimming pool. There are 36 days until the midterms.
REPUBLICANS ACCUSE TRUMP OF STEALING TAXPAYER MONEY FOR HIS OWN ADS
Trump is taking fire from his own party for running TV commercials about himself on the public’s dime.
The administration started airing the spots last week, and $443,000 in public money has gone into them so far. One shows Trump walking down a corridor in black and white while rally audio plays. “This is the final battle. With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state. We will expel the warmongers from our government,” he says. It ends with a line on screen: “Paid for by the U.S. Government.” It’s a rehash of an ad Trump ran in 2024. The only new part is who’s paying for it.
Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky didn’t hold back. “Don’t worry, using taxpayer dollars to run ominous campaign ads of the President has been done before and is completely legal… in banana republics,” he wrote on X. Then he added: “So much for DOGE. This is the kind of waste, fraud, and abuse they were originally supposed to go after.”
Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, who’s spent this presidency defending Trump, said the same thing Sunday on Face the Nation. “I don’t think any public official, including President Trump, or Kristi Noem, or John Kennedy, should spend public money on private ads for themselves,” he said. He knew Trump might hit back online and said it anyway, along with a shot at Trump putting his name on the Kennedy Center. “I may end up with a sombrero on my head, but I also think that we oughta have a rule that no politicians can have a building named after him while he’s alive,” Kennedy said.
Ethics lawyers went further. “This could be an impeachable offense,” wrote Richard Painter, George W. Bush’s chief White House ethics lawyer. “Congress has expressly prohibited government sponsored political propaganda, which is dangerous for democracy.” Norm Eisen said the administration has “gone from breaking the law to trampling it.”
The White House calls the ads public service announcements. “The PSAs are clearly not political,” one official said. “The president is not on the ballot and the ads don’t have a call to action.”
Trump has spent months telling voters to pretend he’s on the ballot. Now every Democrat in a close race gets to quote a Republican senator saying Trump is spending their money on himself.
TRUMP GETS HECKLED AT GOLF TOURNAMENT AND CAUGHT WANTING TO LEAVE
Trump went to the Presidents Cup outside Chicago on Sunday looking for a friendly crowd. He got protesters, a heckler and a hot mic.
Hundreds of protesters lined the streets outside Medinah Country Club, and organizers had to tighten security. “He’s not welcome,” protester Allison Galvan told ABC7 Chicago. “We are wanting to send that message loud and clear.” Protesters and Trump supporters got into it outside, and police had to pull them apart.
Inside, PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp introduced him, and Trump started by getting ahead of the coverage. “The fake news media will say I got a very bad reception,” he said. He said he didn’t have “the courage” to give the speech Rolapp asked for. “These people want to see golf. They don’t want to hear speeches. I’ll only say this: Our country is doing great, better than ever before.” While he was talking, a man in the crowd shouted an Epstein-related accusation at him that went out live, in language we won’t print here.
Then came the trophy ceremony. The U.S. won 17-13, and Trump shook hands with captain Brandt Snedeker, appearing to tell him, “You’re going to go down in history.” Then he turned away, and a live mic picked him up appearing to say, “I’d like to go home.” The players walked off. A song by Pink, who’s criticized Trump for years, started playing and drowned out the rest. “If this was Joe Biden it would be on a loop already on Fox News,” the X account Donk Media wrote.
Video from the day showed the 80-year-old lunging from side to side as he walked to the podium. He left for his motorcade about 40 minutes after reporters gathered for the medal presentation. Back at the White House after 9:30 p.m., he called it a “tremendous day” and didn’t take a single question.
He did post at least seven videos from the trip on Truth Social that night. A good day doesn’t usually need seven videos to prove it.
TRUMP’S OWN AMBASSADOR REVEALS HE OFFERED TO SELL WEAPONS TO CHINA
Trump asked Xi Jinping if China wanted to buy American weapons, according to his own ambassador to Beijing.
Xi was at the White House last week, his first visit in a decade, and the two talked trade, AI and a long list of other issues. Taiwan was relieved when the visit ended without a major deal on the island China claims. Then on Sunday, Ambassador David Perdue, a former Republican senator from Georgia whom Trump picked for the job, went on Fox News.
“President Trump continues to say, hey, we sell arms to other people around the world,” Perdue said. “He actually asked President Xi, would he like to buy some at one point.”
Selling weapons to China is against the law. “US law prohibits arms sales to China and there is no offer or plan to sell arms to China,” a State Department official said. The White House told the New York Times the same thing. Perdue himself had told CNBC on Friday that nothing had changed on Taiwan, including arms sales.
Meanwhile, Trump is holding up a $14 billion arms package for Taiwan and has called it a “very good negotiating chip.” The Taiwan Relations Act requires the U.S. to help Taiwan defend itself. Chinese state media said Xi pressed Trump to “handle the Taiwan question with prudence.”
Taiwan’s deputy foreign minister, Chen Ming-chi, spelled out what’s at stake. “Taiwan faces a severe situation in the Taiwan strait,” he said. “Even though China’s economy is declining, it continues investing more resources into building military capacity.”
Republicans have run for years as the party that stands up to Beijing. Trump’s own ambassador just said on Fox News that the president tried to sell Beijing weapons while Taiwan’s are stuck waiting.
This just adds jet fuel to the Midterms fire for Trump. Now, prediction markets are saying there is a nearly 90% chance of a Blue Wave this November.
TRUMP WANTS TO DEMOLISH THE PRESS ROOM AND BUILD A POOL
Trump ended his Sunday by posting a mockup of the White House briefing room replaced with a swimming pool.
The late-night Truth Social post showed two images side by side. On the left was the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, labeled “Fake News, Before.” On the right was an ornate indoor pool, labeled “FDR Pool After.” He didn’t say whether he was announcing a renovation or just taunting reporters.
It came about a week after he tried to kick CNN, MS NOW and Politico out of the White House. All three sued, and a federal judge restored their access. The major TV networks had already pulled out of the White House video pool over CNN’s exclusion, leaving Trump with an empty camera rotation of his own making.
The pool is real. Franklin Roosevelt had it built in the West Terrace in 1933 after his polio diagnosis and swam for exercise. Truman, Kennedy and Johnson used it too. In 1970, Richard Nixon had it floored over to make room for a growing press corps, and it was preserved underneath so a future president could bring it back. The White House already has a second pool outdoors, which Gerald Ford put in in 1975.
Nixon covered the pool to make room for reporters. Trump wants to uncover it to get rid of them.
That was how he spent Sunday night. He’d been heckled on live TV, called out by a Republican senator on Face the Nation, and contradicted by his own State Department on selling arms to China. He answered none of it. He posted a picture of the press room gone instead.
Source: ReallyAmerican.substack.com
