A plane carrying almost 200 passengers did not not have a pilot for over 10 minutes in what was a frightening scene after the first officer lost consciousness in the cockpit as the captain was off using the bathroom, a new investigation found. 

President Donald Trump on Saturday told Walmart CEO Doug McMillon not to raise prices for Americans, but to instead “eat the tariffs.” Trump recently dropped tariffs on Chinese imports from 145% down to 30%, but this week, McMillion said Walmart still could not absorb the extra costs, and will have to increase prices. “Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain,” the president posted on Truth Social. “Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected.” “Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, ‘EAT THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge valued customers ANYTHING,” Trump wrote. “I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!!!” McMillon made comments about having to raise prices, specifically over tariffs on China, during an earnings call on Thursday. “We will do our best to keep our prices as low as possible,” he said. “But given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren’t able to absorb all the pressure given the reality of narrow retail margins.” “The higher tariffs will result in higher prices,” McMillon added. Ethan Miller/Getty Images There have been mixed reactions online to Trump’s demand for Walmart to “eat” the extra costs. Some have noted that Trump had previously suggested that China would likely “eat” the extra costs themselves. However, others, like journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon, railed against Walmart for hurting Americans while she said they “brag” about being a pro-American corporation. “This is absolutely unacceptable and infuriating,” Ungar-Sargon said on Fox News airwaves this week, following McMillon’s comments. “Walmart walks around bragging that 75% of the products that they sell are made here in the United States. Why are you raising prices?” “Do you know what Walmart’s yearly profits were last year? 169 billion dollars,” Ungar-Sargon continued. “Don’t raise prices. Support the president, support the agenda, support the American working class.” Ungar-Sargon added that she doesn’t see these potential price hikes as “political,” but more about “rampant greed.” WATCH: Walmart CEO Doug McMillon warns that they will be raising prices in response to President Trump’s tariffs. Shoppers will likely see price increases toward the end of May and more in June. Batya Ungar-Sargon: “This is absolutely unacceptable and infuriating. Walmart walks around… pic.twitter.com/JpONWTgQRE — RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) May 16, 2025 Related: U.S. Wholesale Prices See Biggest Drop In 5 Years, Flying In The Face Of Economists’ Predictions

'To easy LOL'

Who could’ve seen it coming? Just 101 days into his tenure as the Democratic Party’s youngest vice chair—and the first “Zoomer” to hold that office—party elites have already declared David Hogg’s election null and void, a complaint that sounds suspiciously like “election fraud.” It’s the latest embarrassment from a spent political party that pales in comparison to President Donald Trump’s incredibly successful first 100 days. If Republicans are wise, they’ll take advantage of the chaos ahead of the 2026 midterms. The complaint centers on broken parliamentary procedures—the preferred excuse of weasels and dictators alike to undermine democratic elections—specifically, DNC rules mandating “gender parity” to tip the scales in favor of female candidates running against men. In other words, DEI did Hogg in. Hogg, who was elected to help Democrats win back young male voters, complained that “the DNC has pledged to remove me, and this vote has provided an avenue to fast-track that effort.” Party elites, he believes, want to “defend an indefensible status quo.” The DNC’s procedural revelation comes just two days after Hogg blasted his party for driving away young men who “feel like they have to walk on eggshells … constantly because they’re going to be judged or ostracized or excommunicated.” Oh, the irony. More importantly, will conservatives capitalize on the blunder? For years, Democrat politicians have told Americans that elections couldn’t be more trustworthy, that only they could safeguard democracy from MAGA Republicans, and that their party represents everyday people over ultra-wealthy special interests. None of that is true, as this latest Chinese Communist Party-style election nullification reminds us. Democrats routinely meddle with their internal elections to manufacture “victories” for party insiders, voters be damned. Remember the superdelegates in 2016 and 2020? Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont sure does—the “oligarchs and billionaires” he complains about cost him the Democratic nomination twice by rigging obscure parliamentary rules against him. Congressional Democrats haven’t accepted a Republican presidential victory as legitimate since 1988. House Democrats tried to nullify Republican election victories in 2016 and 2024 as illegitimate, yet called allegations of a stolen election in the extremely questionable COVID-19 election results in 2020 “misinformation.” As for protecting democracy, leftists tried to turn 2024 into a one-party election in many states by removing Trump from the ballot. That was an inside job by D.C. operatives to thwart the will of voters, who delivered Trump a landslide victory anyway. Don’t forget Democrats’ effort to nullify the Constitution with a “national popular vote” scheme to award all Electoral College votes to whichever candidate wins the most popular votes nationwide. In 2016, that would’ve meant awarding all 538 electoral votes to Hillary Clinton—even in states she lost or didn’t bother to visit, like Wisconsin. Amazingly, Democrats suddenly went mute about the national popular vote after November 2024, with Michigan Democrats quietly abandoning their national popular vote bill mere weeks after Trump won a popular vote majority. This from a party controlled by a small constellation of ultrapartisan activists, agitators, lobbyists, and political operatives in the Beltway. Recall that Kamala Harris never won a primary vote anywhere—not in two presidential elections. Massive dark-money donors with strong ties to Big Business and Wall Street magnates bankrolled Harris’ campaign from the start. Even in California, she was the ultimate product of one-party machine politics: a mediocre prosecutor who failed upward at every turn by collecting enough party IOUs to earn a political promotion. Her promise was to govern as a figurehead for the faceless Deep State cabal that the Left no longer tries to hide. It was only after Harris came into contact with real, flesh-and-blood Americans in places like—shudder—Nevada and Pennsylvania that she fell to pieces. Normal people, it turns out, don’t consider mindless babbling and cackling substitutes for ideas and leadership. Now those same special interests are behind the second Trump “Resistance” to undermine the agenda most voters voted for. There’s a common thread here: Democratic politicians and their allies attack the system as “rigged” and “unfair” when they lose. They’re champions of the system until the system doesn’t work for them, even a single time; then they reveal themselves for the lying opportunists they’ve been all along. Hogg, for all his inanity and gun control bona fides, was honest enough to criticize his party’s toxic obeisance to the radical feminists and trans nazis who’ve made the world’s oldest political party repulsive to young men (and most everyone else). Hogg just proved that democracy cannot be tolerated in the Democratic Party. Dissent will be crushed with extreme prejudice. He’ll shortly be replaced by a gay black woman who pledges to enforce the party line, no questions asked. Republicans should thank God for this gift. We have an opportunity to further expose and permanently defeat the woke mob while it’s distracted by infighting, but that window is quickly closing. If this is how the Democratic Party treats its own “democracy,” America, how will it treat yours? Originally published by RealClearPolitics We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post There Are No Rigged Elections in America, Except at DNC. Just Ask David Hogg. appeared first on The Daily Signal.

This week, controversy emerged when President Donald Trump announced that the Emirate of Qatar had offered him a gift: a $400 million jet, a modernized “flying palace” complete with all the fixings. The gift will be presented to the Department of Defense to be retrofit for Air Force One; after a short period of use, it will then make its way to the Trump Presidential Library. Questions remain about the legality of such a gift. Does it violate the emoluments clause of the Constitution? Does it require Congressional approval? Regardless of the legality, one fact is eminently clear: Qatar does not offer gifts without golden strings attached. Ever. Qatar is a tiny nation, with land holdings slightly bigger than Rhode Island and a population the size of Connecticut’s—most of whom are migrant workers and/or modern-day slaves. Yet Qatar has spent nearly $100 billion, according to The Free Press, to spread its largesse around the United States, from politicians to universities, from businesses to newsrooms. Recipients include Steve Witkoff, the special envoy negotiating over Iran and Ukraine, who received a $623 million payout for his failing Park Lane Hotel deal; Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was a registered foreign agent for Qatar at the cost of $115,000 per month; a public affairs firm that employed now-Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles; FBI Director Kash Patel, who once worked as a consultant; and the Trump Organization, which just recently signed a deal for a multibillion-dollar luxury golf resort. In two weeks, the Qatar Economic Forum is hosting an event starring Donald Trump Jr. and Omeed Malik. Malik is the head of 1789 Capital, a venture capital fund most famous for funding Tucker Carlson; Don Jr. is executive vice president for development. Malik was also recently appointed to join the board of Fannie Mae. 1789 has reportedly been raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in investment capital, although their investment track record at this point is pretty thin. So, what are Malik and Don Jr. doing in Qatar? They’re hosting a lecture titled, “Monetizing MAGA: Investing in Donald Trump’s America.” Qatar infamously gave $1 million to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State. Qatar has dropped $6.3 billion on American colleges and universities, the most of any country; it has dropped $225 million on lobbying in Washington, D.C., since 2017. So why is Qatar firehosing all of this cash across America? Because Qatar has an agenda: to play both sides of the table. Qatar happens to be one of the world’s leading sponsors of terrorism: They’ve sent almost $2 billion to Hamas; they’ve allegedly sponsored al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in 2017, “I don’t know instances in which Qatar aggressively goes after (terror finance) networks of Hamas, Taliban, Al-Qaeda.” In 2017, Trump himself correctly stated, “The nation of Qatar, unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level.” Trump acknowledged this week that Qatar essentially acts as a mouthpiece for the Islamic Republic of Iran. All of which is why the United States ought not be taking Trojan Horse jets from them—and why the United States ought to be treating Qatar with extreme skepticism at best. Qatar is not giving gifts because Qatar is a kind and generous Middle Eastern Santa Claus. They’re doing it because they expect something in return. And what they expect won’t be good for either the United States or any of our real allies. Beware Qataris bearing jets. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Qatari Jets and Golden Threads appeared first on The Daily Signal.

David Zucker helped invent the kitchen-sink approach to film satire. The co-writer/director of 1980’s “Airplane!” hurled gag after gag at audiences until they couldn’t help but howl. Puns. Sight gags. Pop culture Easter eggs. He recalls a female studio executive objecting to a bit about a female officer getting a breast reduction to fit into her Kevlar vest. If one joke didn’t land, the next three would. Ted Striker: Surely you can’t be serious. Rumack: I am serious … and don’t call me Shirley. Zucker added to his legacy with “Top Secret!” (1984), the “Naked Gun” trilogy, and more satirical smashes. Even a rare failure, the six-run episode of 1982’s “Police Squad!” is considered a TV classic following its cruel cancellation. Now, he wants to share the blueprint behind those laugh-a-minute romps. 'Gun' grabbers The upcoming “MasterCrash: A Crash Course in Spoof Comedy” lets the comedy legend expound on the tricks of his hilarious trade. “One thing we learned ... is it starts with the characters. The audience has to be invested in your characters,” Zucker says. The online course came to him after he got rejected by Hollywood, Inc. for his “Naked Gun 4” script. “Paramount liked it ... but suddenly we didn’t hear anything,” Zucker tells Align about the project. “I woke up [one day] to read Seth [MacFarlane of ‘Family Guy’ fame] had come and taken over the franchise.” The results? “The Naked Gun,” starring Liam Neeson as the son of the character played by Leslie Nielsen in the original trilogy. The reboot/sequel hits theaters in August. 'There’s a discipline behind it' Zucker is skeptical of the upcoming film, and that’s putting it mildly. “[MacFarlane] doesn’t know how to do it. He can do ‘Ted’ and ‘Family Guy,’” Zucker said, cautioning that his signature style (along with collaborators like Pat Proft, the late Jim Abrahams, brother Jerry Zucker, and Mike McManus) is harder than it looks. “It may seem like we’re zany and crazy, but there’s a discipline behind it.” The course might even inspire the next generation of satirists, assuming they take copious notes. “You can’t teach people how to write comedy, but you can stop them from wasting time thinking they know how to do it,” he says. Zucker can laugh about the Paramount snub now. His legacy is secure, and he has faith in his approach to humor. His films age well, including Val Kilmer’s lead turn in “Top Secret!” He doesn’t like being a victim, either. “I don’t take it myself seriously,” he adds. "Everywhere I look, something reminds me of her." Don Bartletti/Getty Images Joke police Zucker recalls the dawn of his satirical approach. “We’d watch serious B movies and dub in our own voices,” he says of his formative years, captured in the ‘70s-era “Kentucky Fried Theater Show” in L.A. “That stage show was a live laboratory for us to develop our style,” he says of his comic companions. The showcase became 1977’s cult hit “The Kentucky Fried Movie,” helmed by a then-unknown director named John Landis (“Animal House,” “An American Werewolf in London”). Zucker’s brand of comedy might dabble in blue bits, but he eschews profanity and often works below the R-rated radar. He still ran afoul of the woke mind virus in recent years, particularly while pitching his “Naked Gun 4” script. The screenplay spoofs the “Bourne” films and “Mission: Impossible” saga far more than police procedurals. It’s his chance to acknowledge the “Naked Gun” legacy while moving on to fresh satirical targets. He recalls a female studio executive objecting to a bit about a female officer getting a breast reduction to fit into her Kevlar vest. “It was such a mild joke, and she said, ‘I don’t know if you can do that.’ We just rolled our eyes,” Zucker recalls. He says audiences are ready, willing, and able to laugh at big-screen comedies again as woke fades to black. Studio boardrooms aren’t on the same page, he adds. “These are frightened people beholden to stockholders or big-time owners,” he says. It’s one reason he’s going the independent route for his next big-screen comedy, a film noir spoof, “The Star of Malta,” that he hopes to begin shooting in the fall. Nakedly conservative He’s also keen on reviving a repurposed “Naked Gun 4” script as his follow-up project. Zucker’s inimitable style, seen most recently in the “Scary Movie” franchise, isn’t all that sets him apart from his peers. The 77-year-old is one of the rare openly conservative artists working in Hollywood. He’s hardly as vocal as a George Clooney or Jon Voight on Beltway matters, but he leaned into his political views for the 2008 comedy “An American Carol.” The satire poked fun at Michael Moore and liberal sacred cows. Hollywood often punishes artists for embracing the right, but Zucker isn’t sure if his views ever dampened his career. Zucker recalls working with producer Bob Weinstein (Harvey's younger brother), whom he jokingly describes as “to the left of Castro,” on three “Scary Movie” sequels. (Zucker directed numbers 3 and 4 and co-wrote number 5). “When it came to hiring a director, he knew that I was able to do it and I could do it well,” he says. “Bob has always been very supportive and always had faith in me. He didn’t care about the politics.”

In just three days, Jake Tapper’s phony exposé “Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” which he co-authored with Axios’ Alex Thompson, will be released. If you’ll recall, Tapper was more than happy to regurgitate the mainstream media narrative that Joe Biden was cognitively stable, downplaying and dismissing concerns about his mental acuity and shaming anyone who dared to raise eyebrows. But now that the secret is out and Democrats are no longer in power, he’s cashing in the opportunity to “expose the truth” he knew all along. “Is Jake Tapper the king of grift?” scoffs “Blaze News | The Mandate’s” Jill Savage. Blaze Media senior politics editor and Washington correspondent Christopher Bedford, who explored this subject in his recent article “The Great Biden Book War has finally begun,” says that “it’s just incredible” what Tapper and Thompson are trying to do. “They covered Joe Biden; they covered him for years. Alex was on the campaign at the time. He wrote a lot of stuff about the campaign ... but he never at any point wrote about the obvious cognitive decline of the president,” he says. The same goes for Tapper, who “covered politics from his role as a host at CNN.” “[Tapper] never once talked about the obvious cognitive decline of the president,” says Bedford. In fact, at one point, he even “[berated] Lara Trump” for questioning Biden’s mental state, claiming she was shaming children with stutters for pointing out Biden’s speech struggles. But as soon as the cat was out of the bag after Biden’s disastrous career-ending debate against Donald Trump, Tapper and Thompson seized on the chance to pad their wallets. They began conducting interviews with senior Democrats inside and around the White House and Harris’ campaign, collecting stories to corroborate the truth they already knew. One highlight in the book is that “the administration was considering the use of a wheelchair as soon as the second administration of Joe Biden started ... but not before” so as to maintain the illusion of health, says Bedford. Another anecdote from the book details how Biden aides tried to conceal his “awkward gait” by blaming it on an old injury that had already healed. Tapper and Thompson are presenting this information as if it’s shocking, but it was abundantly clear to anyone paying attention that Biden was doing “the dead man shuffle,” says Bedford. “He took the kiddie stairs at the back of Air Force One after multiple falls. This is not an inside scoop.” “How do you think this thing is gonna sell?” asks Blaze News editor in chief Matthew Peterson. To hear Bedford’s prediction, watch the clip above. Want more from 'Blaze News | The Mandate'?To enjoy more provocative opinions, expert analysis, and breaking stories you won’t see anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

SCOTUS Punts Tren de Aragua Case Back to Appeals Court (After 650 Hours), 7-2