Good evening. I’m British Chris, and this is Raw America. If you’re watching this on Substack, help us out by tapping the ❤️ and clicking restack. Those two clicks help make sure these stories will be read by the people who really need them.
Donald Trump is sounding the alarm that he could potentially be the last Republican president if Democrats take back Congress in November and the White House in 2028. A far-right network suddenly cut away when a man at that same Trump rally started trash-talking the president on live TV. Trump’s new White House press secretary bombed her first official briefing so bad that even some White House staffers are predicting she won’t be there for long. And six Republican senators are now coming out on the record against Trump’s deal to import diesel fuel from Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
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If you missed it, be sure to check out our interview today with First Amendment expert Bob Corn-Revere, who defeated Donald Trump in court last month. Watch and/or read the summary below or by clicking here.
Trump Says He’ll Be ‘Last Republican President’ if Democrats Win Back Congress
At a Monday rally in Youngstown, Ohio, Trump warned his crowd that he’d be “the last Republican president” if Democrats are successful in 2026 and 2028. According to Trump, Democrats could add 12 new electoral votes and four more U.S. senators along with approximately 10 new House members before proceeding to “rig the Supreme Court.” He asserted that Democrats were in charge, they would put 23 justices on the Court.
No one is quite sure where he came up with that figure. Top Democrats have called for expanding the Supreme Court, though the number most commonly touted is 13 justices. It’s important to note that nothing in the Constitution requires the Supreme Court to have a set number of justices, and that Congress has both expanded and shrunk the court several times in the past.
The current nine-member Supreme Court has been place since the late 19th century, when the national population was a fraction of what it is today. Democrats are primarily aiming to expand the Court to correct Trump’s appointment of three conservative justices during his first term — one of which was stolen from Barack Obama after then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to even hold a confirmation vote for Obama’s third Supreme Court appointee, Merrick Garland.
Trump was campaigning in Youngstown, Ohio for U.S. Senator Jon Husted and Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who are both in close races despite Trump winning the Buckeye State three times. While multiple Republicans are keeping the president at arm’s length due to his plummetting poll numbers, both Husted and Ramaswamy are hoping Trump can rile up the MAGA base before November.
Trump also notably endorsed embattled Republican Congressman Max Miller, who was on hand at the rally but didn’t speak. Miller has been accused of domestic violence by his ex-wife, who said he harmed both her and their young daughter. Miller has denied the allegations. Trump would only thanked Miller for coming, calling it “very good.”
Far-Right Network Panics After MAGA Rallygoer Starts Bashing Trump on Camera
That same MAGA rally in Youngstown produced another viral moment, though this one happened on the right-wing network Real America’s Voice (RAV). The network’s Bobby McNeily was interviewing several people waiting in line to get into the venue when he came across an older man named “Brian,” (not Raw America’s White House correspondent) who made it clear he was “absolutely not” a Trump fan.
McNeily was caught off-guard and asked Brian what he hoped to hear from Trump. Brian laughed and said he predicted the president would utter “a bunch of rhetoric, a bunch of lies, a bunch of the same old script.” He then went on to say he was there to witness firsthand the kind of claptrap Trump would be yammering on about for the next two years, “as if the first two haven’t been bad enough.”
Brian told RAV he wasn’t affiliated with any political party until JD Vance appeared on the 2024 ticket with Trump. After that, he said he registered as a Republican so he could vote against Vance in a primary, thus giving himself two separate opportunities to “eliminate all these MAGA idiots.”
That comment was apparently too much for RAV’s producers, who immediately cut away from Brian mid-sentence while he was telling McNeily about how he was vehemently opposed to anyone Trump endorsed.
Real America’s Voice was founded during Trump’s first term in the White House, and has since carved out a reputation for itself as one of the most sycophantic media outlets in the country today. Its on-air talent includes Steve Bannon, MAGA social media influencer Jack Posobiec, and former Fox host Eric Bolling, who was forced out of the network after he was accused of sending inappropriate photos to his female colleagues.
Trump’s New Press Secretary Humiliated in Disastrous First Briefing
Katie Zacharia, who is Trump’s new White House press secretary, had a particularly rough debut today. She was behind the lectern for less than 15 minutes, and observers couldn’t help but notice her stilted delivery, frequent uncomfortable pauses and her difficulty in even making it through her own prepared remarks.
At the end of Zacharia’s painful soliloquy, she only took three questions. All three were from notoriously right-wing outlets like Fox News, the Daily Mail and Breitbart. She then abruptly ended the briefing and walked offstage.
Even some Trump White House personnel were underwhelmed. One official anonymously confided to MS NOW’s Jake Traylor that Zacharia either needs to improve quickly or she’ll “break Scaramucci’s record,” which is a reference to former Trump White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci’s famously short 11-day tenure. Scaramucci even offered his take, writing on social media that “the clock is running” on Zacharia’s time as Trump’s top spokesperson.
Several others in the White House told CNN host Kaitlan Collins they didn’t know how long Zacharia would be behind the lectern, with one saying her first briefing was “brutal.” One former senior Trump staffer told MS NOW’s Pete Alexander that Zacharia would be “a train wreck” as press secretary.
The reviews weren’t much better elsewhere. Journalist Aaron Rupar said Zacharia’s briefing was like a real-life version of a Saturday Night Live cold open. Mother Jones’ Inae Oh wrote that Zacharia appeared to be physically uncomfortable reading her opening statement, saying that her time onstage made her predecessor Karoline Leavitt “seem like a rhetorical genius.”
6 GOP Senators Rail Against Trump’s Deal with Putin
We’re also seeing a widening rift in GOP support for Trump’s foreign policy agenda. A bipartisan group of 12 U.S. senators — including six Republicans — sent Trump a letter this week calling on him to withdraw his deal to import diesel fuel from Russia.
The senators insisted in their letter that buy buying diesel from Vladimir Putin, the United States is directly giving Moscow more money to pay for its war on Ukraine while simultaneously doing nothing to lower prices for American drivers at the pump. The senators framed the deal as “a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our Allies” and demanded the president officially rescind it.
Republican Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Alan Armstrong of Oklahoma, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John Cornyn of Texas all signed it, along with Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Chris Coons of Connecticut. Armstrong’s signature is notable given that he’s a freshman lawmaker likely aiming to run for another term, whereas Sens. Cornyn, McConnell and Tillis are all retiring from public office.
Collins, Murkowski and Tillis previously joined Democrats in a statement issued Sunday slamming the deal as being in direct conflict with existing U.S. law that bars importing energy from Russia until Putin stops his war with Ukraine. When reporters directly asked the president today whether Moscow could use the proceeds from the diesel deal to buy more weapons to use against Ukraine, Trump refused to give a direct answer.
The timing of the deal is critical. Given that control of both chambers of Congress will be decided on November 3, Republicans who have until now been almost in total lockstep with Trump’s foreign policy are now scrambling to distance themselves from him.
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