Alert – Trump agin threatens to dismantle FEMA as he lands in hurricane-ravaged North Carolina

Jon Michael Raasch, U.S. Political Reporter on Capitol Hill

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., has announced a Senate Banking Committee hearing on February 5 focused on debanking.

The announcement was sent out in a press release just one day after President Donald Trump ripped the CEO of Bank of America (BOA) for his firm not providing service to conservatives.

A congressional investigation into banks and bias came out last year claiming that Bank of America handed over their customer’s information to the government after the FBI asked for data on ‘extremists.’

Eventually, at least four BOA customers were tracked by the FBI.

Some of these case files were later thrown out for lacking credible criminal allegations.

‘I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank, and that included a place called Bank of America,’ Trump told BOA CEO Brian Moynihan via a remote chat at the World Economic Forum on Thursday.

Trump heard heart-wrenching stories from families who scurried to safety inside their homes during the floods that ravaged Asheville. Some lost everything and have been forced to battle with insurance companies, and complained federal agencies weren’t doing enough.

Trump stood nearby as flood victims told their tales of woe. ‘We just lost everything that we had. Didn’t even have a brush for like three days,’ said one, in remarks carried on cable TV.

‘Did you think you were going to make it?’ Trump asked one woman, who didn’t think so and just ‘started praying’ during the storm.

‘Your house became a boat,’ Trump told her.

Trump said Republican National Committee chairman, a native of North Carolina ‘is going to be very much in charge’ of the recovery. Trump used the stories to refocus his attacks on FEMA. ‘They haven’t done the job because they weren’t really told to do the job by Biden. I guess Biden was thinking about other things,’ Trump claimed in the battleground state.

Trump hasn’t been shy about sprinkling political references into his remarks. ‘All three times we won your state,’ Trump said. He said Whatley and daughter-in-law Lara Trump have been ‘unvelievable’ as heads of the party. Trump indicated he wanted to shift funds to states and local charity groups, including Samaritan’s Purse, headed by his ally Franklin Graham. It is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that has been ‘helping in Jesus’ Name since 1970’ and does disaster relief work.

Marco Rubio, Donald Trump’s Secretary of State, spoke to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke a week ago.

Wang reportedly told Rubio the two sides should push for the steady, healthy and sustainable development of the China-U.S. relations and find the correct way for the two countries to cope with each other.

Wang also told Rubio that China had no intention to overtake or replace any other country but would defend its legitimate development rights.

Wang urged the U.S. to handle the Taiwan issue with caution.

Rubio, according to the Chinese foreign ministry, told Wang the U.S. doesn’t support Taiwan independence but hopes the issue can be peacefully solved in a way acceptable to both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

The leader of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, said Friday he would call an early election.

Premier Doug Ford of the Progressive Conservative Party said it was because he needs a mandate to fight President Trump’s threatened tariffs.

For said that he plans to make the announcement on Wednesday.

The move would send Ontarians to the polls on February 27, more than a year before the June 2026 fixed election date.

Ford, who is the equivalent of a U.S. state governor, said that Ontario could lose 500,000 jobs should Trump follow through on his 25 percent tariff threat against Canada.

In a video address to March for Life crowds in Washington D.C., President Trump vowed ‘we will again stand proudly for families and for life.’

He spoke about having nominating three Supreme Court justices who helped strike down Roe v. Wade.

Trump said:

I was so proud to be a participant. Six courageous justices of the Supreme Court of the United States returned the issue to the state legislatures and to the people where it belongs.

Crowds cheered as Trump celebrated pardoning anti-abortion activists convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances and thanked protesters for gathering at March for Life to ‘stand up for precious little babies who can’t stand up for themselves.’

He said:

Thank you for turning out once again to show your extraordinary love and compassion for the unborn.

Jon Michael Raasch, U.S. Political Reporter on Capitol Hill

Donald Trump is being urged to release the Jeffrey Epstein files a day after he signed an executive order declassifying all files related to John F. Kennedy’s murder.

Tennessee Republicans Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Rep. Tim Burchett revealed to DailyMail.com they are pushing to have evidence on the nefarious financier unveiled.

The senator has been advocating for the sealed Epstein documents to be released for years, an effort Burchett joined early on.

Blackburn has pushed to uncover unredacted versions of Epstein’s flight logs and and an unredacted version of Ghislaine Maxwell’s ‘little black book’ full of contacts and addresses – an effort she’s now seeking Trump to act on.

And she’s advocating for the Trump administration’s Department of Justice to release additional evidence like prison footage and communications leading up to Epstein’s death.

‘Jeffrey Epstein built a disgusting global sex trafficking network that caused irreparable damage to countless women,’ she told DailyMail.com in a statement.

‘Americans deserve to know exactly who was affiliated with this network. This is not about celebrities – this is about what happened to victims and survivors.’

Burchett similarly told DailyMail.com by text he too is re-upping his fight for the Epstein files now that Trump is in office and Republicans hold control.

By Geoff Earle, Deputy U.S. Political Editor

President Trump tore into Canada and defended his vow to slap tariffs on countries that include key allies and competitors.

He didn’t respond directly to a question about when the tariffs are coming, but told reporters in North Carolina they are ‘going to make our country rich and you’re going to be a rich, rich country very soon.’

He allowed that trade imbalances could impact which nations get tariffed, but said inaccurately that ‘we lose $200 billion to Canada every year.’ The trade deficit with Canada is expected to be $45 billion for 2024 and was $41 billion in 2023.

‘That’s because we allow them to make cars. We allow them to take lumber. We don’t need their cars. We don’t need their lumber. We don’t need their food products because we make the same products right on the other side of the border. It’s sort of crazy,’ Trump said.

Then he returned to his call to make Canada a U.S. state, saying the northern neighbors would get a tax cut and better health coverage. Canada has a universal health care system that the government pays for through taxes.

‘I would love to see Canada be the 51st state. The Canadian citizens, if that happened, would get a very big tax cut, tremendous tax cut, because they’re very highly taxed. And you wouldn’t have to worry about military, you wouldn’t have to worry about many of the things. You’d have better health coverage. You’d have much better health coverage. So I think the people of Canada would like it, you know, if it’s explained,’ Trump said.

‘Also, they’ve been very nasty to us on trade,’ Trump said.

Mexico officials are working to set up tents for migrants stuck at the Southern border or those who are getting deported from the United States by President Donald Trump.

Melania Trump appeared to be keeping a low profile as she stepped out with her husband, President Donald Trump on Friday morning in Washington, D.C.

The First Lady, 54, kept things casual in a pair of black skinny jeans, black lace-up boots, and an army green puffer jacket, which appeared to be the $995 Leonard Puffer Coat by designer Rag & Bone.

She accessorized with a black knit beanie and sleek black aviator sunglasses – which seemed to be a swipe at former President Joe Biden who made the eyewear part of his signature style.

The couple were headed on Marine One to visit Asheville, North Carolina, a region devastated by Hurricane Helene in September.

President Donald Trump dubbed the war in Ukraine ‘crazy’ and renewed his call for the OPEC cartel to lower prices to end it.

‘Well, we want to see OPEC cut the price of oil, and that will automatically stop the tragedy that’s taking place in Ukraine,’ Trump said on the ground in Asheville. He had vowed to end the war on his first day in office. Russian President Putin said Friday he was open to discussions with Trump.

Trump was asked how he would respond if OPEC didn’t respond to his call, issued in an angry video speech to the gathering in Davos, Switzerland Thursday. Russia funds its war on Ukraine in part through energy sales.

‘It’s a butchering tragedy for both sides, by the way. Tremendous number of Russian soldiers are dead. Tremendous number of Ukrainian soldiers, and a lot of people are dead from the bombing of the cities,’ Trump said of the war.

‘But right now it’s just bullets whacking and hitting men, mostly men, almost in all cases, men. Over a million men are killed, and they’re losing thousands of people a week — crazy. It’s a crazy war, and it never would have happened if I was president … Now, one way to stop it quickly is for OPEC to stop making so much money and disrupt the price of oil … So OPEC ought to get on he ball, and they’re going to drop the price of oil, and that war will stop right away.’

The US military drafted plans to commit heinous acts against American citizens to justify war with Cuba in the 1960s, a declassified CIA document shows.

Code-named Operation Northwoods, this top-secret plot proposed killing innocent people and enacting terrorism on US cities in what are known as ‘false flag operations’, then blaming Cuba for these crimes to trick the public into supporting war efforts to oust communist Fidel Castro.

‘We could develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington,’ the document states, among dozens of other violent ideas of how to incite American hostility against the island nation.

US officials even proposed killing their own soldiers, writing: ‘We could blow up a US ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba,’ and, ‘casualty lists in US newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation.’

Operation Northwoods was signed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) in 1962 but was rejected by then-President John F. Kennedy.

The document was originally made public on November 18, 1997 by the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board, a federal agency that oversaw the release of documents related to JFK’s assassination.

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have arrived in Asheville, North Carolina, the first stop in their two-state disaster tour Friday.

Trump immediately approached reporters on the tarmac to complain about the bad job FEMA had done after Hurricane Helene flooded broad swaths of the area.

‘FEMA has really let us down, let the country down. And I don’t know if that’s Biden’s fault or whose fault that is,’ Trump said. ‘We’re going to take over, we’re going to do a good job.’

Trump already floated potentially killing FEMA – the Federal Emergency Management Agency – during his sit-down Wednesday with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity.

He reiterated that point on the ground Friday.

‘We’re looking at the whole concept of FEMA,’ Trump said. ‘I like, frankly, the concept when North Carolina gets hit, the governor takes care of it. When Florida gets hit, the governor takes care of it. Meaning the state takes care of it … I’d like to see the states take care of disasters.’

He said he’d have Congress give North Carolina direct disaster relief instead of having the dollars funnel through FEMA.

The Trump administration boasted Friday that the deportation flights of illegal immigrants in the United States had begun, thanks to assistance from the United States Air Force.

An aide to House Speaker Mike Johnson urged his Republican colleagues not to subpoena January 6 committee witness Cassidy Hutchinson to prevent the accidental release of sexually explicit texts the 28-year-old was sent by lawmakers.

The Washington Post first reported the explosive allegations on Thursday, as the House GOP seeks to restart an investigation of the January 6 House select committee at the urging of President Donald Trump.

Hutchinson’s testimony about January 6 was some of the most embarrassing for Trump – as she recounted hearing that he threw a hissy fit to Secret Service when they wouldn’t take him to the Capitol after his Ellipse rally.

She also vividly recalled how Trump threw his plate of food at the wall when he found out that Attorney General Bill Barr told the Associated Press that the DOJ found no instances of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.

Hutchinson’s testimony was wanted as the GOP’s investigation tried to find fault in how former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, among others, handled the Democrat-led House probe on January 6.

A Tennessee congressman has proposed amending the Constitution to allow Donald Trump to serve a third term as president.

Rep. Andy Ogles filed a Joint Resolution in Congress this week advancing a change to the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, which currently restricts presidents to two terms.

In his resolution, Ogles included several stipulations to the change if it passes, including barring any president being elected to a third consecutive term after serving two in a row.

‘And no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice,’ the resolution read.

‘And no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice,’ the resolution read.

Vladimir Putin today declared that the war in Ukraine could have been averted had Donald Trump not been ‘robbed of the election’ in 2020.

Describing his armed forces’ full-scale invasion of their neighbour in February 2022 as a ‘crisis’, Putin told state media the horrific bloodshed that has blighted eastern Europe for almost three years would not have happened under a Trump presidency.

‘I cannot but agree with him that if he had been president, if his victory had not been stolen from him in 2020, then perhaps there would not have been the crisis in Ukraine that arose in 2022,’ the Russian president said.

His comments came as part of a wide-ranging interview in which the Kremlin chief heaped praise on the newly inaugurated US president, labelling Trump ‘smart and pragmatic’ while also signalling a willingness to approach the negotiating table over Ukraine.

By Geoff Earle, Deputy U.S. Political Editor

President Trump was asked if he would give Italy a break on some of the big tariffs he is threatening for Europe.

‘Well, I like her very much. Let’s see what happens,’ Trump responded.

His remark was likely a reference to Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, who visited with him at Mar-a-Lago and attended his inauguration – and suggested personal rapport, not just economic analysis, could be a factor in which nations and industries get hit hardest.

It comes after Trump threatened that ‘we’re going to do something about it’ after blasting the U.S. trade deficit with Europe on cars and agricultural products.

Trump also issued a more sweeping tariff threat in his video speech at Davos, where he also unleashed on the Bank of America CEO. He told industry elites: ‘If you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then, very simply, you will have to pay a tariff.’

A Homeland Security team and federal agents raided the offices of an immigration attorney who focused on ‘crimmigration’ on Thursday, just days after President Donald Trump began to crack down on illegal immigration.

Investigators were seen carting away evidence from the law offices of Joseph Molina Flynn on Dorrance Street in downtown Providence, Rhode Island – a sanctuary city.

Videos posted online showed agents taking boxes of files and loading them into the scores of black SUVs and police vehicles parked outside.

An FBI spokesperson would only confirm to The Providence Journal that the agency was ‘conducting court-authorized activity’ at the building.

But two people with knowledge of the investigation told WPRI that the federal agents were looking into Flynn over allegations that he defrauded his clients seeking representation on immigration-related matters.

At least everyone can agree that Melania Trump’s hat didn’t become the stand-out star of the presidential inauguration by accident.

Fashion experts and biographers alike concurred that the ex-model and renowned clothes horse, a woman who clearly puts a lot of thought into her outfits, wore the elegant if rather severe, navy headwear to make a bold statement.

What that statement was, however, was subject to wide interpretation.

When Donald Trump repeatedly experienced difficulty navigating its wide brim to plant a kiss on his First Lady’s face, his critics were quick to suggest that she’d intentionally worn it to stop him from coming anywhere near her.

Even its designer, celebrity hatter Eric Javits, fueled such speculation by noting that ‘going back to Victorian times, a brim sort of defined a woman’s space’. Indeed, the brim was so broad it cast much of her face in shadow.

For those who continue to insist that Mrs Trump is not only trapped in a loveless marriage but disagrees fundamentally with her husband’s career, this was clear proof that she was concealing her emotions and distancing herself from the event.

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent at the White House

President Donald Trump will be missing Friday’s March for Life in Washington but pointed out on the South Lawn that he’ll be sending Vice President J.D. Vance instead.

‘I’m going to be watching it and J.D. Vance, our vice president, is there,’ Trump said. ‘He’s going to be representing us very well. Taking place in a little while. Other than being a little bit cold it’s going to be a good day.’

Trump then called attention to the pardons he gave to anti-abortion activists who had blocked abortion clinic entrances.

‘As you know I just signed a pardon and in the pardon we released 23 people that were unjustly put in having to do with pro-life. And they will be released and they’ll be out very shortly,’ the president said. ‘It was disgraceful.’

President Trump responded to California Sen. Adam Schiff’s decision to stay away from his L.A. fire visit. Schiff’s office cited nomination votes – there is one scheduled for Pete Hegseth to be Defense Secretary.

Asked why he invited Schiff, Trump responded while leaving the White House: ‘I don’t know. Is he going? Is he going? I don’t know, I mean I really don’t. You know, because if he’s going to be there it would be cheaper, but I didn’t invite him. Somebody did.’

Schiff’s office had said the new Democratic senator ‘greatly appreciates the President’s visit to see the devastation of these wildfires firsthand and the invitation to accompany him, and regrets that he’s unable to join the President in Los Angeles due to scheduled nomination votes.’

Trump in the past has called Schiff, a former House impeachment manager and January 6 panel member, ‘pencil neck’ and ‘scum.’

Jon Michael Raasch, U.S. Political Reporter on Capitol Hill

Donald Trump opened up about his shock that two GOP senators are going against his choice for defense secretary.

‘I was very surprised that Collins and Murkowski would do that,’ the president told reporters of the two veteran female senators from Alaska and Maine.

The pair noted last night in social media posts that they would not vote for Pete Hegseth’s confirmation this evening.

It is the final hurdle the former Fox News host must cross to be sworn in.

‘And of course, Mitch is always a no vote, I guess,’ Trump added, mentioning the former longtime Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell.

‘Is Mitch a ‘no’ vote?’ the president added. ‘How about Mitch, huh?’

‘Let’s see what happens.’

If McConnell were to vote against Hegseth tonight, VP JD Vance would likely be forced to step in and break a tie.

If two GOP senators in addition to Murkowski and Collins vote ‘no’ on Hegseth, the 44-year-old will almost certainly not get confirmed.

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent at the White House

President Donald Trump held his first ‘chopper talk’ Friday – engaging with reporters with first lady Melania Trump at his side as he departed on the South Lawn for Western North Carolina and then Los Angeles.

He complained that North Carolina has been a ‘horrible thing.’

‘The way that’s been allowed to fester. And we’re going to get it fixed up,’ he said. ‘Should have been months ago. From the hurricane that took place almost four months ago,’ Trump said.

‘North Carolina has been treated very badly so we’re stopping there and we’re then going to go to Los Angeles. And take a look at a fire that could have been put out if they had let the water flow, but they didn’t let the water flow,’ the president claimed.

Democratic Senator Adam Schiff has turned down Donald Trump’s invite to tour the devastation caused by the wildfires in Los Angeles.

The president leaves Washington for his first trip of his second administration Friday to do a tour of disaster zones in North Carolina and California.

He invited Schiff, a longtme foe who he called ‘scum’ on his first day back in the White House.

But a spokesman for the newly-elected Calfirornia Senator said he was ‘unable’ to attend due to ‘scheduled nomination votes’.

Jon Michael Raasch, U.S. Political Reporter on Capitol Hill

Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon Pete Hegseth will be touring disaster zones in California and North Carolina alongside the president Friday.

The cross-country visits will occur just hours before the Senate is scheduled to vote on the nominee’s final confirmation to become secretary of defense.

The many photo-ops may benefit the president and his pick as they tour hurricane and fire wreckage.

Hegseth can’t afford to lose many more GOP votes in the Senate because two Republican senators announced they would not support the former Fox News host last night.

Putting on a united front with the president just before the critical confirmation vote may be enough to buoy Hegseth through what will be a choppy confirmation around 9 pm ET tonight.

By Rob Crilly, Chief U.S. Politicial Correspondent

President Donald Trump leaves Washington for his first trip of his second administration Friday to do a tour of disaster zones in North Carolina and California.

He heads first to Asheville, which was devasted by tornadoes in September, and where he condemned President Joe Biden’s response to the disaster.

More controversy awaits when he tours areas of Los Angeles levelled by wild fires.

He has frequently abused Gov. Gavin Newsom, nicknaming him ‘Newscum,’ and claimed that he will withhold federal aid unless the state turns on a valve he claims would allow water to flow in from northern parts of the state.

Experts say there is no such valve and that California has worked for years on trying to get more water to dry areas of the state.

‘I don’t think we should give California anything until they let the water run down,’ Trump  said in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity on Wednesday. The president also suggested shifting more responsibility to individual states for managing disasters. ‘I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems,’ he told Hannity, adding that ‘FEMA is getting in the way of everything.’

President Donald Trump engaged in some of his signature ‘chopper talk’ before heading out on his trip to tour disaster recovery in North Carolina and Los Angeles.

First lady Melania Trump bundled up and accompanied him as he left the White House on a frigid morning in D.C.

She will attend meetings with him along with disaster relief officials and politicians.

The fist lady, who famously wore a jacket that said ‘I really don’t care, do you?’ on a trip to visit child migrant shelters, sported a black knit cap and Aviator sunglasses – the eyewear of choice for former President Joe Biden.

Gavin Newsom plans to crash the proceedings when Donald Trump makes his first visit to California during his second term Friday to survey the Los Angeles wildfires.

Newsom, who has not been invited to join Trump on the tour, told the press Thursday that he’s going to be at LAX to greet the president – whether he likes it or not.

‘I look forward to being there on the tarmac to thank the president, welcome him, and we’re making sure that all the resources he needs for a successful briefing are provided to him,’ Newsom said.

He added that he’ll be rolling out the red carpet, saying: ‘There’s no limit to the resources we’ll provide for that briefing.’

Trump and the California governor have feuded for years, with the president referring to the liberal as ‘Newscum’ and the Democrat working tirelessly to keep Trump from regaining the White House.

Tensions have been high between the two of late, as Trump has slammed how Newsom handled the deadly wildfires.

The last secret files about the assassination of John F. Kennedy can now be published after President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the declassification of all remaining documents about the 1963 murder.

Conspiracy theories continue to swirl 60 years after the killing.

And any new information will excite the amateur sleuths who continue to wonder whether there is more to the story than just a lone gunman in the shape of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Trump signed an executive order that directs his Director of National Intelligence to put together a plan within 15 days for the full release of documents about the JFK assassination.

‘That’s a big one, huh?’ he said as he scrawled his signature on the order, before asking that the pen be given to RFK Jr. ‘A lot of people are waiting for this for a long … for years, for decades.

‘Everything will be revealed.’