Trump Rages as His Favorite Far-Right Leader Turns Against Him

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is no longer on Donald Trump’s good side after criticizing his remarks against Pope Leo XIV.

On Tuesday, responding to Meloni’s comment the day before, Trump told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that he was “shocked by her. I thought she was brave, but I was wrong.”

Meloni had said it was “unacceptable” that Trump called the pope “weak on crime” and “terrible on foreign policy.”

“The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and proper that he call for peace and condemn all forms of war,” Meloni said in a statement. Trump told the newspaper that “it’s her who’s unacceptable, because she doesn’t care if Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if it had the chance.”

The war in Iran is unpopular in Italy, and Meloni announced on Tuesday that her government has suspended a defense cooperation agreement with Israel. Italy’s continued refusal to join the war has left Trump fuming.

“They pay the highest energy costs in the world and are not even ready to fight for the Strait of Hormuz.… They depend on Donald Trump ​to keep it open,” Trump said.

Almost 80 percent of Italians say they are Catholic, and Vatican City, where the Catholic Church is headquartered and where the pope lives, is located entirely within the Italian city of Rome. The pope opposes the war in Iran, and told reporters on Monday, “Too many people are suffering in the world today. Too many innocent ‌people ⁠are being killed. And I think someone has to stand up and say there’s a better way to do this.”

A report last week revealed that the Department of Defense had threatened the pope in January after he criticized increased U.S. militarism during his yearly address. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned the Vatican’s U.S. representative, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, and told him that “the United States has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”

That appears to have caused a ripple effect leading to Trump feuding with both the American-born pope and a right-wing leader whom he used to count as a close ally. Considering Trump’s penchant for refusing to admit when he’s wrong, U.S. relations with both the pope and Italy may be strained for some time.

Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell and Republican Representative Tony Gonzales both resigned from Congress on Tuesday. 

Both lawmakers were facing House Ethics investigations into sexual assault allegations against them.  Gonzales, whose resignation will be effective at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, was accused of sexual misconduct with women who worked for him, including a staffer who later died by suicide. Swalwell resigned merely an hour after yet another woman, Lonna Drewes, came forward and said she was raped by him in 2018 in an incident that made her think she died.

“I had contact with Eric Swalwell on three separate occasions after meeting him socially. He offered me connections to further my software company, and I also had an interest in local politics. He invited me to two public events. I knew he was married at the time and that his wife was pregnant. He was my friend,” Drewes said on Tuesday afternoon. “On the third occasion, I believe he drugged my drink. I only had ONE glass of wine. He—we were supposed to go to a political event and he said he needed to get paperwork from his hotel room. When I arrived at his hotel room, I was already incapacitated and I couldn’t move my arms or my body. He raped me. And he choked me. And while he was choking me, I lost consciousness. And I thought I died. I did not consent to any sexual activity, although I did not undergo a rape kit at the time, I disclosed this all to the people closest to me.”

”My delay in taking action against Eric was driven by fear, not doubt. Fear of his political power, his background as an attorney, and his family law enforcement ties. I have never doubted what happened, I stand with the other women WHO have come forward. And I will be making a report to law enforcement shortly with my attorneys.”

Swalwell—who has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women—was a leading Democratic candidate for California governor, and Gonzales was actively running for reelection for the House. Now they are both out of a job.  

This story has been updated. 

President Donald Trump thinks diet soda is actually good for you.

During the latest episode of Donald Trump Jr.’s Triggered podcast, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the daytime television host the president picked to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, revealed some of the president’s unorthodox beliefs about health.

“Your dad argues that diet soda is good for him because it kills grass, if poured on grass, so therefore it must kill cancer cells inside the body,” Oz said.

Don Jr. laughed incredulously at his father’s apparent delusion.

Oz recounted Trump’s defense when the health official spotted him drinking Fanta aboard Air Force One. “He starts to like, sheepishly grin. He goes, ‘You know this stuff’s good for me. It kills cancer cells.’ And then he tells me, ‘It’s fresh squeezed, so how bad can it be for you?’”

“But then, maybe he’s on to something,” Don Jr. replied, boasting about his dad’s level of energy, recall, and stamina.

But we wouldn’t recommend writing prescriptions for Diet Dr. Pepper quite yet. Trump has repeatedly been spotted dozing off during press conferences, bill signings, and Cabinet meetings, among other apparent instances of cognitive decline.

Obviously, Trump’s attitudes about diet soda wouldn’t matter if he were simply any ordinary 79-year-old man. But he’s the president of the United States, who plans to make sweeping cuts to the National Institutes of Health and other federal science and health care programs in order to keep waging war abroad, all while remaining less than transparent about his apparent health issues.

Fifty House Democrats have officially filed legislation that would create a commission to jump-start the process to remove President Trump under the Twenty-Fifth Amendment.

The bill, introduced Tuesday by House Judiciary Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, would establish a “Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of the Office,” a move that would allow Congress to complete its part in the Twenty-Fifth Amendment process. It also calls for the commission to hold “a medical examination of the President to determine whether the President is mentally or physically unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office.”

Section 4 of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment empowers the vice president and either the majority of the Cabinet or “such other body as Congress may by law provide” to determine the president is no longer fit for office.*

“Public trust in Donald Trump’s ability to meet the duties of his office has dropped to unprecedented lows as he threatens to destroy entire civilizations, unleashes chaos in the Middle East while violating Congressional war powers, aggressively insults the Pope of the Catholic Church and sends out artistic renderings online likening himself to Jesus Christ,” Raskin said in a statement. “We are at a dangerous precipice, and it is now a matter of national security for Congress to fulfill its responsibilities under the 25th Amendment to protect the American people from an increasingly volatile and unstable situation.”

It remains highly unlikely that this attempt will be successful, even as some of Trump’s staunchest former supporters call on Congress to “25th Amendment his ass.” If the bill does somehow pass the Republican-controlled House and Trump vetoes it, which he likely would, then at least two-thirds of both the House and Senate would have to agree to overturn his veto.

* This piece has been updated to clarify Section 4 of the 25th Amendment.

The Trump administration won’t face contempt of court charges for deporting immigrants to El Salvador last year in defiance of a court order.

In a 2–1 ruling, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a writ of mandamus Tuesday rebuking U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, saying that he overstepped his authority by pursuing the charges against former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other administration officials. In March 2025, DHS quickly deported over 100 Venezuelans that the administration claimed were gang members, invoking the Alien Enemies Act to justify their removal without due process.

The immigrants were put on planes to El Salvador as part of an agreement with the country’s president, Nayib Bukele, to house them in Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, where human rights abuses are alleged to take place. These flights took place in spite of Boasberg ordering them to stop.

Boasberg subsequently ruled that “probable cause exists to find the government in criminal contempt” for the government’s defiance of his order, but over the next year, the administration dodged the contempt charges with multiple appeals to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which deliberated on whether Boasberg had the authority to hold the federal government in contempt.

The two judges who ruled against Boasberg, Neomi Rao and Justin Walker, were both appointed by Trump, and they claimed the lower court judge abused his power with the contempt probe.

“The district court proposes to probe high-level Executive Branch deliberations about matters of national security and diplomacy,” wrote Rao in the majority opinion. “These proceedings are a clear abuse of discretion.”

Incensed over Boasberg, Trump called for his impeachment last year, earning a rare and light rebuke from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who warned about attacks on the judicial branch of government. While Boasberg isn’t being penalized with this ruling, the White House will be happy that none of its officials, for now, will face penalties for breaking the law.