President Donald Trump said on Friday that a tax increase on the highest income earners in the country would be “OK” with him, but warned that the move could be politically damaging to Republicans. Trump made the comment after Punchbowl News reported on Thursday that the president was pushing House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to include tax increases on the rich in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” According to The Hill, which cited three sources, the White House would allow Trump’s marginal income tax cut to expire for the wealthiest Americans while keeping tax breaks for lower income brackets. “The problem with even a ‘TINY’ tax increase for the RICH, which I and all others would graciously accept in order to help the lower and middle income workers, is that the Radical Left Democrat Lunatics would go around screaming, “Read my lips,” the fabled Quote by George Bush the Elder that is said to have cost him the Election,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “NO, Ross Perot cost him the Election! In any event, Republicans should probably not do it, but I’m OK if they do!!!” he added. Trump’s reference to former President George H.W. Bush goes back to when Bush compromised with Congressional Democrats to increase several existing taxes after famously promising on the campaign trail, “Read my lips: no new taxes.” In the 1992 election cycle, Bill Clinton slammed Bush over the quote, saying he broke an election promise. Clinton went on to defeat Bush in the 1992 election, as independent candidate Ross Perot garnered 18.9% of the vote. Trump’s pitch to raise taxes on the wealthy would reportedly only apply to those making more than $2.5 million a year for single filers or $5 million for joint filers. That would be substantially higher than the top tax bracket for 2024, which applied to incomes above $609,351 for single filers and $731,201 for joint filers. The tax increase on the wealthiest Americans would revert from the current 37% rate to the 39.6% rate that was in effect before Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, according to Punchbowl News. Conservatives and Congressional Republicans, including some of Trump’s closest allies, have blasted the idea of raising taxes on the wealthy. “That would be a tax on every small business, every job creator. And you know what? That’s what Kamala Harris campaigned on,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said during a Thursday appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “And I gotta say, the folks in the administration, they’ve decided to call themselves populists, but just being a Democrat and wanting higher taxes and more regulation, that’s not populist. That’s embracing the failed ideas of Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden.” Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, stated on Wednesday, “President Trump ran on making all the tax rates reductions permanent. Kamala Harris ran on letting the top income tax rates reductions passed by Trump to spring back to the higher pre-Trump/Obama tax rate. All tax rate increases damage economic growth and kill jobs by disincentivizing work and investment.” Trump media allies like Fox Business commentator Larry Kudlow and Fox News host Sean Hannity also slammed the idea in April. Kudlow said it was “among the top three dumbest things I’ve ever heard,” while Hannity added, “It seems to go against everything Donald Trump has ever believed in.”

“Ray Donovan” star Liev Schreiber said it’s not that big of a deal that his son identifies as a woman, then proceeds to say it’s “important” to talk about it. “Kai was always who Kai is,” the actor told Variety of his 16-year-old son. “But I suppose the most profound moment was her asking us to change her pronouns. To be honest with you, it didn’t feel like that big of a deal to me only because Kai had been so feminine for so long.” “Kai is such a fighter,” he added later. “It’s important that she goes, ‘Hey, I am trans,’ and, ‘Look at me.’” The outlet noted that Kai, along with Schreiber and his wife, Taylor, will attend an upcoming charity gala to raise money for homeless LGBT youth. “This isn’t just about representing the trans community,” Schreiber said. “This is actually a community of people who don’t have great resources, who don’t have access to help, who aren’t being protected and looked after by their families. These are people who are being rejected. These are people who are experiencing the harshest version of humanity that we can offer, and some of them are not surviving it.” When the Variety interviewer asked if the nine-time Emmy Award nominee had any advice for parents of “trans kids,” Schrieber replied, “I don’t know the answer for your kid. I don’t know what it’s like for you to be a trans dad. I don’t know how you were brought up. I don’t know what religion you encountered or what your spirituality is. And for me to tell you what I think about my kid feels like an overstep.” He added, “I guess if I would say anything to someone who’s having trouble with their trans teen or their adolescent trans kid, it’s ‘Teenagers are a headache. They’re hard.’ It doesn’t matter whether they’re trans or not because you’ll come out of this. But a trans teen is going to be a teen. They’re such a pain so much of the time, and Kai is as feisty and outspoken as they come.” When asked how he feels about President Donald Trump rolling back left-wing gender policies via executive orders, the actor said he doesn’t “dwell on it too much.” Many reactions on social media focused on how many trans-identifying children happen to have famous parents. “Another Hollywood actor with a trans kid. What are the odds?” one sarcastic reaction on X said.  “Wouldn’t it be more newsworthy when a Hollywood kid isn’t trans?” another joked. Just last week, Robert De Niro’s son announced that he identifies as a transgender woman.

Former Supreme Court Justice David Souter, who was nominated to the court by GOP President George H. W. Bush in 1990, then sided with leftist judges in some critical cases, died at his home in New Hampshire on Thursday. He was 85. Souter, a lifelong bachelor, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in England and graduated from Harvard Law School before eventually becoming Attorney General of New Hampshire. “Bush’s chief of staff assured Republicans that the pick would be a ‘home run for conservatives’ who were on the brink of a significant remaking of the court. But the nominee proved to be anything but,” The Washington Post noted. “In nearly two decades on the court, Justice Souter was a reliable vote for the liberal side of the bench in cases involving affirmative action, gay rights, separation of church and state, and restriction of the death penalty.” Although he was nominated by a Republican, Souter may have given a hint that he would not stick to an originalist view of the Constitution during his confirmation hearings. Asked about Griswold v. Connecticut —the case in which a “right to privacy” was enshrined by the court, arguing it was derived from penumbras of other explicitly stated constitutional protections — Souter said that the “due process clause … does recognize and does protect an unenumerated right to privacy.” He later stated that the Constitution’s “concept of limited government” was “not to simply be identified with the enumeration of those specific rights or specifically defined rights that were later embodied in the ‘Bill of Rights.'” The ”right to privacy” was extended by the Supreme Court in the cases Eisenstadt v. Baird (1971), Roe v. Wade (1973) and Lawrence v. Texas (2003), affirming the nationwide right to abortions as well as ultimately leading to Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), in which the Supreme Court affirmed the right of same-sex couples to marry. Two years after he started serving on the Supreme Court, Souter joined Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Sandra Day O’Connor to reaffirm a woman’s constitutional right to have an abortion, arguing that to reverse the basis of Roe v. Wade would appear to be a “surrender to political pressure. . . . So to overrule under fire in the absence of the most compelling reason to re-examine a watershed decision would subvert the court’s legitimacy beyond any serious question.” Souter joined the majority opinion in 1992′s Planned Parenthood v. Casey, upholding the federal constitutional right to abortion established by Roe v. Wade. Constitutional scholar John O. McGinnis contended, “Souter will be known wholly for doing the unexpected by becoming one of the most liberal justices on the court. . . . He leaves no independent jurisprudential mark and not a single memorable phrase in an opinion of which he was the acknowledged author.” Souter retired in 2009 at the relatively young age of 69, permitting former President Barack Obama to replace him with leftist Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

President Donald Trump fired the top librarian at the Library of Congress on Thursday, just days after a conservative watchdog group highlighted her promotion of liberal policies.  Carla Hayden, who has led the Library of Congress since her appointment by President Barack Obama in 2016, received an email on Thursday informing her that she had been fired. Hayden was criticized this week by the American Accountability Foundation, a non-profit government oversight and research organization, for her opposition to restricting minors’ access to sexually-themed books.  “Carla,” the email from Deputy Director of Presidential Personnel Trent Morse said. “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as the Librarian of Congress is terminated effective immediately. Thank you for your service.” The American Accountability Foundation praised the firing.  “THANK YOU [President Trump]!!!! Woke & radical Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has been fired!” the organization posted on X.  THANK YOU @POTUS!!!! Woke & radical Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has been fired!??? https://t.co/memq7ApcK8 — American Accountability Foundation (@Theswampmonitor) May 9, 2025 On Tuesday, the organization called for Trump to fire Hayden and the Director of the U.S. Copyright Office, Shira Perlmutter. “The President and his team have done an admirable and long-needed job cleaning out deep state liberals from the federal government. It is time they show Carla Hayden and Shira Perlmutter the door and return an America First agenda to the nation’s intellectual property regulation,” American Accountability Foundation President Tom Jones told The Daily Mail.  Hayden, whose term was set to expire in 2016, has a history of donating to Democratic candidates, including $3,000 to Obama’s presidential campaigns. She was also criticized in 2022 after the Library of Congress lent a 200-year-old crystal flute that once belonged to President James Madison to rap artist Lizzo to play at a concert.  “B****, I just twerked and played James Madison’s flute from the 1800s!” Lizzo said at the time. Democrats protested the firing, saying it was part of Trump’s “assault on America’s libraries.”  “While President Trump wants to ban books and tell Americans what to read – or not to read at all, Dr. Hayden has devoted her career to making reading and the pursuit of knowledge available to everyone,” New Mexico Democrat Senator Martin Heinrich said. Hayden’s termination came the same day that acting FEMA Director Cameron Hamilton was fired after he told lawmakers that he didn’t support dismantling FEMA, as Trump has proposed multiple times.

NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley harshly condemned supporters of men playing in women’s sports, calling them “stupid.” Barkley made his comments speaking with Dan Dakich on Outkick’s “Don’t @ Me.” Dakich asked about rumors that Nike had funded a so-called “gender-affirming care” study. “Did you see this? I don’t know if you saw this,” Dakich said. “Nike’s been really good to me; Nike would take me on trips, I’d make some money, but they’re helping fund a gender-affirming care study on young boys with the goal is impairing (sic) boys to be able to come down, to participate against women. Have you seen this thing?” “I have not, but I’m gonna make this very simple for you, Dan. Men should not play sports against women,” Barkley answered. “I’m not gonna get into all the bulls*** that’s going on out here in the world today.” “You know, it’s interesting; I always sit back and look at stuff. And let me tell you something: I love gay people; I love transgender people. I’m against any form of discrimination, period. … I love my gay friends; I love my transgender friends. But, I’m not gonna get into all this stuff that’s going around, men should not play sports against women. If anybody thinks that, I think they’re stupid. I support the gay community 100%. I support the transgender community 100%. But I do not, under any circumstances … think that men should play sports against women. If anybody has a problem with that, they’re gonna have to get over it because I’m not gonna change. I just think it’s wrong, period.” “I’m never gonna think it’s all right for men to play sports against women. I don’t even think that’s controversial,” he continued. “I don’t wanna hear you try to explain it to me. No, no, no, I don’t wanna hear it. I’m not gonna argue with you. Men shouldn’t play sports against women. I’m done. Don’t try to tell me this, or this, or this, period.” The study supposedly funded by Nike was referred to in a recent New York Times article that mentioned Joanna Harper, a man who identifies as a transgender woman who is also a PhD researcher at Loughborough University in England. The Times stated: Harper is currently helping to lead an ambitious study of trans adolescents that measures their results on a 10-step fitness test before they start hormone therapy and then, after they have begun to medically transition, every six months for five years. But, she told me when we talked in February, “the current climate makes the study somewhat uncertain.” I assumed she was referring to the Trump administration’s cuts to National Institutes of Health research grants, but she said money was not a problem: The study is being funded by Nike. “I don’t even think anybody knows who they are as a young kid. So I think we have to be very careful because you don’t want to put kids in a disadvantageous situation, because, hey, when you get older, you can make your own decision,” Barkley said. “I think we have to be very careful screwing around with kids because they’re not fully developed as a person.”