What Happened Today - 26 Nov 2025
What Happened Today – 26 November 2025
Leavitt Family feeling some ICE Heat…
Who’s propping up Trump world financially…
Culture-war stunts and petty moves
Is MAGA Mike gonna lose his job…
How is MAGA overall responding to the decline in Trump
The Pardon of the Turkey’s…
Mark Kelly drama…
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Leavitt Family feeling some ICE Heat…
Karoline’s tough-on-immigration talking points just ran smack into her own family, because ICE grabbed the mother of her 11‑year‑old nephew and is now trying to deport her.
What ICE actually did
ICE picked up Bruna Caroline (or Carolina) Ferreira, a Brazilian-born woman who is the mother of Karoline’s nephew and the ex/one-time fiancée of Karoline’s brother, Michael Leavitt. She was arrested near Boston on November 12 while driving in Revere, Massachusetts, and then shipped off to a detention facility in Louisiana, where she’s now in removal proceedings. DHS is calling her a “criminal illegal alien,” saying she overstayed a tourist visa that should have had her out of the country in 1999 and claiming she has a prior battery arrest, while her lawyer flatly says she has no criminal record and had been trying to get right through DACA and a legal status process.
How close this is to Karoline
This is not some tenth cousin twice removed; this is the woman who had a kid with Karoline’s brother and is the mother of an 11‑year‑old who lives full-time with Michael in New Hampshire. Multiple outlets quote a “source close to Leavitt” insisting Karoline and Bruna haven’t spoken in years and that the child has always lived with his dad, which is a pretty obvious attempt to wall Karoline off from the human fallout of the very ICE crackdown she’s out front defending in that briefing room.
Karoline’s reaction (or lack of one)
So far, Karoline herself is hiding behind the podium on this; reporters are noting that she has not made any public comment about Bruna getting picked up, even as the story explodes and Bruna’s family launches a GoFundMe begging for help to keep her from being deported. Instead of an on-camera, full-throated “this is my family and this is wrong,” what we’re getting is the standard DHS/Trump line that under Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, everyone here without status is fair game, end of story, which means Karoline is effectively backing the machine that just snatched her nephew’s mother.
Was this targeted or just cruel “policy”?
Right now, there’s no hard proof that ICE singled Bruna out as some kind of personal favor or punishment related to Karoline, but the timing and optics reek. Trump has been out bragging that ICE raids “haven’t gone far enough,” this administration is on an open-season tear, and suddenly an ex of Karoline’s brother with a messy immigration history gets raided, hauled across the country, and painted as a “criminal” in official statements while her own lawyer and local reporters can’t even find a criminal case in the database. Whether this was deliberate or just what happens when you unleash a dragnet and let ICE run wild, it lands right at Karoline’s doorstep and blows up the sanitized talking points she spouts from the podium.
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Who’s propping up Trump world financially…
Trump’s donor world for this second run is basically a tight little club of rich ideologues buying proximity, policy, and plum jobs while he screams “I’m just fighting for the people.”
How he gamed the transition rules
Trump flat-out refused the normal federal transition money, which would’ve capped donations at a few thousand bucks a person and forced him to disclose who paid within 30 days of taking office. By walking away from that deal, he set up a private Florida nonprofit, Trump Vance 2025 Transition Inc., that could rake in unlimited checks, avoid donor caps, and delay any names or amounts from the public for a year or more. That move was sold as “saving taxpayers’ money,” but in reality it was a clean way to dodge transparency rules and keep conflicts of interest hidden while he staffed the government.
Who wrote the checks
When he finally coughed up a donor list, it was just 46 people, and it reads like a who’s-who of right-wing billionaires and future insiders. You’ve got big-money traders and hedge fund guys like Jeff Yass and Paul Singer, mega-donors like Linda McMahon and Howard Lutnick, and real estate players like Steve Witkoff all listed as transition backers. Several of them then magically show up in power: McMahon and Lutnick as education and commerce secretaries, Witkoff as the Middle East envoy, and Stanley Woodward in a senior Justice Department role, meaning the people who bankrolled the ramp-up literally walked into the building with badges and titles.
Think tanks as staffing farms
Because he started late and refused the normal transition structure, the operation leaned heavily on Heritage Foundation, America First–style outfits, and the Project 2025 crowd to do the homework: write the policy memos and hand over pre-vetted loyalists for thousands of political jobs. Analysts have already mapped that something like two-thirds or more of his cabinet and top-tier appointees have ties to Heritage, America First Policy Institute, or Project 2025, so the ideological pipelines are basically running the personnel office. That’s why the administration feels less like a mixed bag of technocrats and more like a movement project staffed by people whose careers are literally built around his agenda.
Why it feels like a loyalty cult
The whole structure is designed so that money, ideology, and jobs are all coming from the same small ecosystem, which means everyone around him owes their seat to the same donors and the same playbook. Outside experts have already flagged this as a huge conflict-of-interest and governance problem, saying it’s a “significant departure from established norms” and urging Congress to force future transitions to disclose donors and spending, regardless of whether they take federal cash. End result: instead of a broad-based administration, Trump is sitting on top of a vertically integrated machine—funded by a few rich backers, staffed out of a couple of hard-line think tanks, and loyal to him first, the public interest second if at all.
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Culture-war stunts and petty moves
This is peak petty-Trump energy: small, spiteful moves dressed up as “policy,” plus big legal power grabs and a comms shop trying to convince everyone he’s still got it while the numbers say otherwise.
The park fee shakedown
The national parks stunt is exactly what it looks like: they’re slapping a $100-per-person surcharge on foreign visitors at 11 of the most popular parks starting in 2026, on top of the normal entrance fees. Americans keep the current $80 annual pass, but non‑U.S. visitors will see that jump to around $250, all sold under this “put American families first” spin even as the same White House pushes budget cuts for the park system. Park advocates are already calling it a shakedown that sends a big middle finger to international tourists while doing almost nothing to fix the staffing cuts, maintenance backlog, and funding holes the administration itself helped create.
Using troops as a political prop
On the National Guard mess, Trump has turned Chicago and Illinois into the latest stage for his “law and order” show by trying to federalize Guard units over the state’s objections, claiming protests around ICE enforcement amount to some kind of “rebellion.” A federal appeals court in the 7th Circuit already smacked this down, saying the protests don’t come close to the legal standard for rebellion and that ICE is still fully operating, but his DOJ ran straight to the Supreme Court arguing he has essentially unreviewable power to send troops into U.S. cities. On top of that, his emergency filing to the Court about Chicago is riddled with factual errors and cherry-picked incidents, which just underlines that this is more about optics and bullying blue states than some genuine breakdown of public order.
Image control and the “slowing down” talk
While he’s out there picking these culture-war fights, people around him are clearly worried about the “he’s losing a step” narrative, so the public schedule is packed with loud, made-for-TV moments meant to show him as energetic and in command. Former aides and outside observers have openly talked about seeing a decline compared with his first term, and it doesn’t help that his approval numbers, fundraising strain, and constant legal bruises all line up with the sense that his political punch isn’t what it used to be. The comms people respond by doing what they always do—attack critics, flood the zone with spin, and pretend everything is “tremendous”—but these nagging little petty moves and overreaching power plays just make the whole operation look smaller and more defensive, not stronger.
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Is MAGA Mike gonna lose his job?
Short answer: not today, but his seat is getting wobblier by the week.
Why his job is shaky
Mike’s whole grip on the gavel depends on one thing: staying glued to Trump while somehow keeping just enough House Republicans from bailing on him. The majority is razor thin and getting thinner, with members quitting, chasing private-sector money, or threatening to bolt on key votes, which means it only takes a tiny crew of pissed-off Republicans plus unified Democrats to blow up his speakership the way they did to McCarthy.
Signs he’s losing control
You’ve already got Republicans openly working around him with discharge petitions to force votes Trump and Johnson don’t want, like the Epstein files bill, stock-trading bans, sanctions, and extension of health subsidies. When your own members are repeatedly using obscure procedural nukes to jam stuff onto the floor, that’s a loud sign they don’t think you’re really in charge anymore.
Why he’s still hanging on
The only reason he’s still in the chair is that Trump sees him as a loyal soldier—Johnson defends Trump’s wild “sedition” and “death penalty” rhetoric, mimics him in private, and shapes the House agenda around protecting him. As long as Trump thinks MAGA Mike is useful and there’s no obvious replacement who can get 218 votes, the conference will probably grumble, undercut him procedurally, and keep him limping along instead of risking another speakership clown show.
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How is MAGA overall responding to the decline in Trump
The right is splitting into three rough camps—hardcore MAGA doubling down, movement conservatives trying to spin/contain the damage, and regular Republican-leaning voters who are just getting tired and drifting away.
Hardcore MAGA base
• For die‑hard MAGA people, everything is still a loyalty test around Trump, so most of them either dismiss the Epstein stuff as a “smear” or flip it into whataboutism about Democrats and elites, even when the new emails point at Trump himself.
• Even there, though, cracks are showing: fights over releasing the Epstein files and over health‑care subsidies have put Trump at odds with people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and some grassroots activists, so the anger is increasingly aimed sideways inside MAGA world instead of just at “the left.”
Conservative media and podcasters
• Big right‑wing outlets and podcasters are mostly trying to reframe the scandals rather than confront them: they hit the Epstein story briefly, then pivot to “unfair attacks,” procedural gripes, or conspiracies about the FBI and Justice Department while avoiding the details that make Trump look personally dirty.
• A noticeable slice of pro‑Trump talkers and podcast hosts are openly frustrated now, especially on Epstein and the broken health‑care promises, saying on air that listeners feel “betrayed” or “confused” by why he will not just release everything or back a serious plan instead of slogans.
Everyday Republican voters
• Polls show Trump still strong with Republicans but slipping: his GOP approval has dropped into the low‑80s, and his overall approval is stuck in the high‑30s with record‑high disapproval, driven by anger over prices, health‑care costs, and the Epstein mess.
• You see a split on the ground: some red‑leaning voters shrug and say “they all lie” and stick with him, others tell pollsters the party feels “tainted” and say they might still vote Republican down‑ballot but are less motivated, which is exactly why Democratic enthusiasm is starting to outpace GOP enthusiasm for 2026.
Party elites and strategists
• Republican leaders and strategists are mostly pretending Trump isn’t the problem, blaming shutdown drama, candidate quality, and “messaging” for bad elections rather than the constant chaos, lies, and broken policy promises coming from the top.
• Behind the scenes, some are clearly worried: they point to the polling slide, the Epstein backlash, and health‑care pain as signs that the brand is getting toxic, but they are afraid that if they break with Trump openly, the MAGA base will turn on them and finish them off before voters ever get the chance.
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The Pardon of the Turkey’s
Because this man is physically incapable of not making everything about his grudges, ego, and made‑up nonsense, even two innocent turkeys turn into props for lies and insults.
The Pritzker “fat slob” garbage
At what’s supposed to be a cheesy, harmless holiday bit, he’s up there calling Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker a “big, fat slob” and saying the Chicago mayor is “incompetent,” all while pretending he “doesn’t talk about people’s weight.” He even tossed in a crime story from Chicago and acted like it happened “last night” to make everything sound more apocalyptic than it actually was.
The lies and bogus claims
Here’s the junk he packed into one turkey event:
• Claimed Biden’s turkey pardons last year were “totally invalid” or “null and void” because Biden used an autopen, then pretended he personally “rescued” Peach and Blossom from being killed and re‑pardoned them, which is just made‑up drama.
• Boasted about turkey prices and the economy as if everything is cheap and “tremendous” now, when food costs overall are still elevated and voters are furious about affordability.
• Bragged about crime crackdowns and even suggested places like D.C. or Chicago are basically fixed or would be safe if people just did what he wanted, while his own claims about murders dropping to zero and his security heroics are contradicted by basic police data.
Why he cannot do “normal”
A normal president just cracks a few corny jokes, pardons the birds, waves, and goes back inside; he treats it like a mini‑rally because the only gear he has is grievance and self‑promotion. He needs every camera moment to hit Biden, smear blue states, rewrite reality, and prove he’s still the main character, so even the turkeys become a backdrop for fat‑shaming, fake legal drama over autopens, and yet another rambling rant that tells you way more about his insecurity than about Thanksgiving.
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Mark Kelly drama…
The pressure on Mark Kelly is pure political intimidation dressed up as “military discipline,” and it’s colliding head‑on with serious legal doubts about Trump’s boat strikes that actually put troops at risk, not Kelly’s warning.
What Hegseth is doing to Kelly
The Pentagon, under Pete Hegseth, has opened an investigation into Sen. Mark Kelly over that video where he and other Democrats told service members to refuse unlawful orders, and Hegseth has ordered the Navy to review the case by Dec. 10. Because Kelly is a retired Navy captain (O-6), Hegseth is explicitly dangling the threat of recalling him to active duty to court‑martial him, something military lawyers say is almost unheard of in modern times and comparable only to the Billy Mitchell case a century ago.
Hegseth’s “case” is paper‑thin: he’s calling the video a “politically motivated influence operation,” quibbling about how Kelly wore his ribbons in a photo, and trying to spin a basic reminder about refusing illegal orders into “inciting dissent” against Trump. As a 22‑year vet myself, I feel like I’m on solid ground to say Kelly did not violate any law—telling troops to follow the Constitution and refuse unlawful commands is literally what their oath and the Uniform Code of Military Justice already require.
The boat strikes and ignored legal warnings
At the same time Hegseth is going after Kelly, Trump’s own military lawyers were warning that the Caribbean and Pacific “drug boat” strikes likely weren’t legal. The senior judge advocate at U.S. Southern Command reportedly told superiors the planned attacks on small foreign boats could constitute extrajudicial killings and that “there is no world where this is legal,” only to be sidelined as the White House and Pentagon pushed ahead anyway. Those strikes have now killed more than 80 people, with members of Congress—like Sen. Durbin and others—demanding explanations from DOJ and labeling them potentially unlawful killings, which puts the operators and commanders in the field in a terrible ethical and legal bind.
Retiring commander and the bad position for troops
Adm. Alvin Holsey, the four‑star in charge of Southern Command, announced he’s retiring barely a year into what should have been a three‑year tour, right in the middle of the most intense phase of this boat‑strike campaign. Official statements from Holsey and the Pentagon are bland thank‑yous, but current and former officials say he had concerns about the operations, and outside observers immediately linked his abrupt exit to the growing scrutiny over the legality and morality of the mission. That is exactly the nightmare scenario for line troops and aircrews: political leaders insisting everything is lawful while top military lawyers and a combatant commander quietly head for the exits or get overruled.
Where your stance and Kelly’s actually land
Kelly has pushed back by saying he first learned of the investigation from Hegseth’s public post and calling it a blatant attempt to intimidate him and other lawmakers from doing their jobs, stressing that he has “sacrificed too much” to be silenced by people who put power over the Constitution. Legal experts—including Republicans—have called the threat to recall and prosecute him “crazy” and “amateur hour,” noting that his video is fully consistent with long‑standing law on refusing illegal orders, while Trump and Hegseth are the ones dragging the military into an overtly political fight.
Again, as a retired veteran - I stand with Mark Kelly’s warning and that he has not broken any law, that aligns with both the black‑letter obligations on service members and with what the Pentagon’s own lawyers were saying about the boat strikes themselves. The real problem here is not Kelly reminding troops of their duty—it’s political appointees ignoring their own legal advisers and then trying to punish a decorated vet for pointing out exactly that.
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Lot’s of news today…and I’m sure the cycle will continue to churn even after I post this. I do hope that each of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you have time to sit back and be thankful for the progress our country is making – even though we have days where we think it can’t get any worse…it’s been obvious over the past few months that the voices of American’s…is causing some action…resulting in positive momentum.
Happy Turkey Day.
Speak Truth! Keep speaking TRUTH!
Don’t Give up the Ship!
Go Cause Good Trouble, with Your Elbows Up!
These are facts that I researched and verified – AI helped put together some sentence structure, but the words and tone are mine. These are my views based upon facts, research and thoughtful consideration using logic. I own the copyright to any images used. I’m comfortable to stand alone to uphold truth. Feel free to check me, but do not attack me. I am only causing good trouble.