E. Jean Carroll Scores Massive Win Against Trump Yet Again

Donald Trump’s request for a new trial in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation and sexual abuse case against him was shut down by a federal appeals court Monday.

In a new 77-page filing, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the original verdict from the district court that Trump was liable for sexually abusing Carroll in 1996, then defaming her in 2022.

“On review for abuse of discretion, we conclude that Mr. Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings,” the filing stated. “Further, he has not carried his burden to show that any claimed error or combination of claimed errors affected his substantial rights as required to warrant a new trial.”

Trump’s attorneys had argued that the May 2023 verdict should be thrown out because U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan should not have allowed jurors to hear testimony from two other women, Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, who also accused the president-elect of sexual misconduct.

The appeals court, however, ruled that the district court “did not abuse its discretion” in admitting their testimonies into evidence.

Trump’s lawyers also tried to argue that the judge should not have allowed the jury to view the 2005 Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump claimed that “when you’re a star” women will let you “grab them” by their genitals, a video that many people not on the jury have also seen.

The court ruled that the inclusion of the tape into evidence was “relevant to prove that the alleged sexual assault actually occurred.”

This story has been updated.

American flags will be flying at half-mast for Trump’s January 20 inauguration after the death of former President Jimmy Carter on Sunday at age 100.

Federal guidelines state that the flag must be “half-staff for 30 days at all federal buildings, grounds, and naval vessels throughout the United States and its territories and possessions after the death of the president or a former president.”

President-elect Trump has yet to mention the flags, and offered condolences to the Carter family.

“I just heard of the news about the passing of President Jimmy Carter. Those of us who have been fortunate to have served as President understand this is a very exclusive club, and only we can relate to the enormous responsibility of leading the Greatest Nation in History,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Sunday that angered some of the MAGA faithful. “The challenges Jimmy faced as President came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude.”

Given Trump’s general obsession with appearances, such as the crowd size at his first inauguration, he may well feel emasculated by a half-mast American flag at his second one.

Nearly half of Republicans support Donald Trump’s plan to use the U.S. military to forcibly round up undocumented immigrants into camps and deport them en masse.

A postelection survey by the Public Religion Research Institute, or PRRI, found that 46 percent of Republicans supported using the military to enact sweeping deportation raids and widespread internment.

Meanwhile, only 9 percent of Democrats and 19 percent of independents endorsed the idea. Twenty-six percent of all voters surveyed endorsed the plan.

PRRI surveyed 5,772 U.S. adults between November 8 and December 2.

Robert P. Jones, PRRI’s president and founder, told Axios on Monday that there was good news and bad news.

“I guess the good news is that three-quarters of the country rejects this idea that we should be putting immigrants in the country illegally into internment camps guarded by the military,” Jones said. The bad news is that support for Trump’s extreme plot is apparently supported by nearly half the members of a mainstream political party.

Trump has claimed he will use the military to carry out mass deportations and has promised to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1789 to expel suspected members of drug cartels from the country without due process. Trump’s extreme immigration views suggest that his administration would plan to target more than violent criminals, undermining protections for legal immigrants as well.

Trump’s new “border czar,” Tom Homan, previously said that he expected support from the U.S. military and special operations to carry out their immigration blitz.

Alt-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer’s fiery spat with Elon Musk has quietly ended with a bent knee and a plea for the X chief to reinstate her blue check status on his website.

“I appreciated the conversation last night with @AdrianDittmann and others,” Loomer wrote, referring to an individual that has been widely speculated to be Musk’s burner account. “It was productive & informative, and I look forward to more of these conversations in the future. I also hope that @elonmusk will agree to reinstate my @premium features.”

Loomer, a self-described journalist and “white advocate,” went head-to-head with Musk last week over the billionaire’s ardent defense of the H-1B work visa program.

In several posts, Loomer accused Musk of having “bought his way into MAGA,” claimed he was a pawn of China, and said that the “divorce” between the “stage 5 clinger” and President-elect Donald Trump was on the horizon.

That was apparently enough back talk to strip Loomer of her verified status on the site—a loss that, for her, warranted backtracking on her previous positions.

“My comments do not come from hate, but rather compassion for the struggle of the everyday American,” she continued in a separate post. “I believe loyalty is the most important quality, and I am loyal to my country and my people. I want what’s best for Americans. And I will always keep fighting for Americans.”

Loomer’s renowned Islamophobia and xenophobia were extreme enough to shove her temporarily away from the MAGA movement earlier this year after she posted that Vice President Kamala Harris’s ascendency to the Oval Office would make the White House “smell like curry.” Loomer has also taken credit for urging Trump to utter the Haitian migrant conspiracy theory that wrecked Ohio in the months leading up to the election.

Meanwhile, the account that supposedly convinced Loomer to concede the fight has some otherwise inexplicable ties to the Tesla CEO. Dittmann also purports to be a South African billionaire with identical beliefs to Musk. The account frequently responds to Musk’s posts, supporting his decisions related to his forthcoming government positions and the way in which the tech leader is raising his children. But the account also, at times, goes so far as to speak on behalf of Musk, organizing events with Musk’s friends while continuing to claim that the two aren’t affiliated.

X users felt that the illusion was completely shattered over the weekend, when Dittman participated in an X space using his actual voice—and, suspiciously, had the exact same cadence, accent, and vocal intonations as Musk himself.

Donald Trump’s public condolences for former President Jimmy Carter, who passed away at the age of 100 on Sunday, sparked an uproar among his own fans.

“I just heard of the news about the passing of President Jimmy Carter. Those of us who have been fortunate to have served as President understand this is a very exclusive club, and only we can relate to the enormous responsibility of leading the Greatest Nation in History,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Sunday.

“The challenges Jimmy faced as President came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude,” Trump wrote. “Melania and I are thinking warmly of the Carter Family and their loved ones during this difficult time. We urge everyone to keep them in their hearts and prayers.”

Apparently, that relatively simple statement was too much for some in the MAGA crowd, according to RawStory.

“Lol, I know you’re being nice. But you’re tripping,” replied an account called Theodore Winters. “Carter was a terrible president and damaged The United States Of America to such an extent that we are STILL dealing with his horribly policy decisions and his inflation repercussions in 2024.”

“I get it. He just passed. And we have to be respectful and nice. But let’s still keep it real,” Winters added.

An account called Commieskillpuppies noted that the president-elect’s words wouldn’t have any political value. “I appreciate your graciousness toward him but it won’t win you any points from the leftists,” the user wrote. “They’re soulless.”

One user, John55, who identified himself as an “America First” veteran on his profile, complained that Carter had pardoned draft dodgers during the Vietnam War—with no recognition that Trump himself dodged the Vietnam War draft.

“Jimmy Carter pardoned all the Vietnam draft dodgers that forced other men to take their place! Many of these men did not come home,” the user wrote. “Personally, I think Carter lived a long life to suffer for the pardons to the draft dodgers he pardoned.”

It’s possible that these reactions were just adjusting to the shock of the president-elect’s standard condolence statement, especially seeing how Trump has disparaged Carter in the past.

After Joe Biden’s disastrous presidential debate performance in June, Trump claimed that Carter was the “happiest guy around” because he now “looked like a genius” compared to Biden. The thirty-ninth president was in hospice at the time.

Representative Cori Bush is on her way out of Congress. Her only regret? That she “could’ve flipped a few more tables.”

The progressive Squad member gave an exit interview to Politico published Wednesday addressing her time in Congress and what lies ahead for herself and the country.

Bush, who was defeated by AIPAC-backed prosecutor Wesley Bell in the Democratic primary, said she wishes she had fought harder for a ceasefire in Israel’s assault on Gaza.

I don’t really operate in regret, but I will say I wish that I could have pushed harder as it relates to our cease-fire now resolution, and done more to save lives.

I left it all on the field. I put my life and my livelihood on the line, because so many have lost their lives. I wish that I could have done more, and I wish that my colleagues who later have said, “OK, this is too much. It’s gone too far,” I wish they would have heard us when we first started to speak to this, because our work was coming from a place of wanting to save as many people as we could — the lives of all people, whether Israeli or Palestinian, people abroad and people in the United States.

I probably could have flipped over a few more tables.

Bush was one of a handful of representatives to call for a ceasefire in Gaza soon after Hamas’s October 7 attack and Israel’s disproportionate response, filing a ceasefire resolution on October 16 of that same year. And she was one of a very small group of congressmen to consistently call for said ceasefire, even donning a keffiyeh and holding a sign reading “STOP SENDING BOMBS” during President Biden’s State of the Union address in March.

Bush also spent ample time in the interview deriding the corporatism of the Democratic Party.

“Democratic leadership must make the decision that this corporate money should not be able to be used in Democratic primaries. Because that was the deciding factor in this race,” she told Politico. “Democrats have to ban corporate PAC donations, and specifically have to speak up and push to ban the super PAC spending in our Democratic primaries. That is the only way that this does not happen again, because I wasn’t unseated because I didn’t take care of my community.”

She told Politico she’ll always consider herself a Squad member.

“The Squad is big.… The number of people in Congress on the team will just be smaller. But they’ve never been silent. Anyone who underestimates our power is severely mistaken, because we aren’t going anywhere,” Bush said. “The one thing that we all had in common, or at least most of us had in common entering Congress, was to be authentically ourselves … because we felt like those voices were missing in the Congress. The voices of, for me, being the nurse, Jamaal [Bowman] being the principal, [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] being a bartender.… I don’t think that will change.”

Bush also noted that she wished she knew how expensive being a congresswoman was before she started, and how deeply hierarchical the party was.

“Seniority plays so much of a role in who gets what committee assignment, what bills are brought to the floor.… We see in the Republican conference they don’t seem to go by seniority as much. I think that the Democrats, we need to pay attention to that.”

Bush refused to rule out a return to politics in the near future.

The Murdoch family, which owns Fox News, the New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, and several other conservative media outlets, could soon have the details of their internal succession battle exposed to the public.

The voting machine company Smartmatic, which sued Fox News for defamation over false claims about the company committing election fraud during the 2020 election, is trying to gain access to evidence from the battle over 93-year-old patriarch Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, CNN reports.

In Nevada probate court earlier this year, members of the Murdoch family secretly fought over who gets to inherit the many properties Rupert owns. The original plan was to have the eldest Murdoch hand off control of the media properties to his three children in a power-sharing agreement, but Rupert sought to change the trust to give his oldest, most conservative son, Lachlan, control of the Fox Corporation.

That attempt was rejected by a probate commissioner, who criticized Lachlan and Rupert for acting in “bad faith” in their attempts to change the family trust and attacked Rupert for proposing a “carefully crafted charade.” The commissioner noted that Rupert’s representatives “demonstrated a dishonesty of purpose and motive.” Lachlan and Rupert can appeal the decision, which was sealed but obtained by The New York Times earlier this month.

An anonymous source told CNN that Smartmatic thinks testimony in the Nevada battle contradicts Fox’s claim in the defamation lawsuit’s proceedings that who controls the company doesn’t affect Fox News’s editorial direction. According to the source, Rupert claimed in Nevada that Lachlan has to take over after him in order to continue Fox News’s right-wing stances. An outside party to the Nevada case filed a motion just last week, though the records are still sealed.

Smartmatic’s lawsuit is being aided by billionaire Reid Hoffman, who has invested in the company to help fund its legal expenses. The trial is set to begin next year in New York, barring an out-of-court settlement, and Smartmatic’s attempt to gain access to the Nevada records is part of the discovery process in the defamation case.

In April 2023, Fox News settled a similar defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million. It remains to be seen if Smartmatic’s case will be resolved in the same way, or if the conservative news network will be dragged into public court proceedings next year.

On Friday, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene jumped into MAGA’s infighting over immigration, specifically regarding the tech industry and H-1B visas.

The far-right Georgia congresswoman attempted to thread a needle between both sides of the argument, which has divided anti-immigration hard-liners and tech barons led by Elon Musk. In a long post on X Friday morning, Greene seemed to give deference to Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency partner Vivek Ramaswamy.

“When you spend years trying to constantly hire/train/maintain a good reliable workforce, which is a 24/7 never ending cycle, your real world experience will produce an opinion based on reality and all of your followers on X don’t translate to this,” Greene said.

Ramaswamy provoked much of the right on Thursday by attacking American culture for promoting “the jock over the valedictorian” as a major reason why foreign tech workers were needed in the United States. Greene seemed to agree with at least some of Ramaswamy’s words, blaming young people in particular.

“Too many of our young people, are killing their bodies and minds on alcohol and drugs, wasting years and money earning useless college degrees, chasing unrealistic dreams, spending all their time trying to be the next you tuber/content creator/social media influencer instead of pursuing a useful skill set/trade/education in order to become a part of our much needed American workforce,” Greene wrote in her post.

Greene did give a slight nod to immigration opponents, saying that the U.S.’s economic situation is “like having a crumbling foundation in our house and currently we are importing foreigners to hold up the foundation walls and plug the leaks.” But her words aren’t likely to satisfy people like Steve Bannon or Laura Loomer, whose opposition to H-1B visas, meant for specialized foreign workers, stems from racism.

Plus, Loomer and Greene have long been enemies, and a (surprisingly) somewhat nuanced take from the Georgia congresswoman is likely to draw the ire of Loomer’s fellow travelers among the conspiracy-addled extreme right. It seems that the only resolution to this right-wing infighting will be the opinion of Donald Trump himself, who has been uncharacteristically silent.

Homelessness in the United States is soaring, increasing 18.1 percent in 2024 after a 12 percent increase the year prior. Natural disasters, inadequate options for migrants, and a devastating lack of affordable housing are the primary catalysts. 

There are now 770,000 homeless individuals in the United States, according to data collected by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in January of this year. This number does not include those who are transient—like those couch surfing and staying with friends or family.   

There are some troubling developments within this data. For one, Black Americans are sorely overrepresented, making up just 12 percent of the country but 32 percent of the homeless population. Family homelessness also spiked by nearly 40 percent, particularly in cities that saw larger waves of migrants, like Denver, Chicago, and New York City. Almost 150,000 children were homeless on any given night in 2024, a shocking 33 percent increase from 2023. And the destructive Maui wildfire left over 5,000 in homeless shelters. 

This is a damning development for a country that boasts to be the greatest on earth. And it comes as communities large and small, liberal and conservative, grow more and more hostile towards their homeless neighbors, many of whom are already battling with mental illness. The Supreme Court ruling that allowed cities to ban sleeping outside has empowered classic liberal strongholds like San Francisco and Portland to start clearing homeless encampments, as they simply move the problem somewhere else rather than solve it. 

“Increased homelessness is the tragic, yet predictable, consequence of underinvesting in the resources and protections that help people find and maintain safe, affordable housing,” said Renee Willis, incoming interim CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “As advocates, researchers, and people with lived experience have warned, the number of people experiencing homelessness continues to increase as more people struggle to afford sky-high housing costs.”

Expect even more hostility from President-elect Trump this upcoming term, as he has floated institutionalizing the homeless population. “The homeless have no right to turn every park and sidewalk into a place for them to squat and do drugs,” he said in a 2023 campaign video.

Steve Bannon has joined the MAGA war between hard-line immigration opponents and tech executives like Elon Musk, taking the side of xenophobia on his War Room show Friday.

“H-1B visas? That’s not what it’s about. It’s about taking American jobs and bringing over essentially what have become indentured servants at lower wages,” the former Trump adviser turned pundit said, referring to the visa program that allows immigrants in specialized fields to work in the United States temporarily. 

“This thing’s a scam by the oligarchs in Silicon Valley to basically take jobs from American citizens, give them to what become indentured servants from foreign countries, and then pay ‘em less. Simple. To let them in through the golden door,” Bannon added. 

Musk set off the MAGA faithful on social media on Wednesday morning, posting on X about how more foreign tech workers need to be allowed to work in the United States because “there is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent.” Vivek Ramaswamy, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency sidekick, generated his own backlash from the right Thursday by suggesting American culture was to blame for why employers seek tech employees from overseas.

Many on the right disagreed vehemently, particularly racists like Laura Loomer, who spent most of Thursday on her X account attacking Musk and tech executives who share his views. Musk then retaliated against Loomer and his other MAGA friends turned critics that evening, allegedly censoring them on the platform by removing their verification badges and hurting their engagement.  

Neither side is right on the issue, though. Bannon, Loomer, and other anti-immigration conservatives are motivated by nativism and racism in their opposition to foreign tech workers, and tech CEOs like Musk seek low-wage immigrants to work for long hours in their companies instead of American workers who don’t have a fragile visa status hanging over their heads.

Trump has yet to weigh in on this new controversy, and in the past advocated for green cards for foreign college graduates in the U.S. before his campaign retracted the proposal. However, his past immigration policies have been xenophobic, racist, and cruel, and he’s pledged to implement a mass deportation program for undocumented immigrants. Where does he stand now?