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Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a literacy initiative that provides one free book per month for children aged five and below. The program receives full or partial funding from more than 20 states and claims to have donated more than 300 million books to children across the U.S. and beyond. Officials of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education announced in June that it would halt enrollment to the program, which benefits 170,000 Missouri children, after state Republicans voted to cut the program’s funding from $6 million to $2 million. This is who MAGA is.

Rest in peace Dolly Parton we will never let them taint your legacy.

Physicians say the 80-year-old president’s weight gain poses a serious risk to his health, months after the White House quietly acknowledged that he had gained 14 pounds since his previous physical.

“Addressing obesity to protect the president’s health should be a priority similar to ensuring Secret Service protections for his life,” Scott Kahan, a physician and the director of the National Center for Weight and Wellness, told The Washington Post.

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In May, a medical report from the White House showed that the 6-foot-3 president weighed in at 238 pounds, placing him just 0.3 BMI points below the threshold for obesity. BMI is not considered a definitive diagnostic tool, but its use is widespread.

“We know that obesity is a strong risk factor for numerous health issues—as well as premature disability and death,” Kahan stressed to the Post.

David Kessler, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration, spoke to the Post about the risks to all Americans from being overweight, while not commenting specifically on Trump.

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“That fat around the midsection — that visceral adiposity — is fat around our liver, pancreas, our heart where it doesn’t belong,” he said.

Despite that, Trump appears to have little interest in his health, famously flaunting his love for McDonald’s and voicing his disinterest in exercise. In October, the chairman of the Republican National Committee recalled observing Trump’s grotesque diet on the campaign trail.

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The first lady was joined by President Donald Trump in the White House Rose Garden for an event celebrating the expansion of her Fostering the Future Initiative.

Her return to the spotlight came exactly one month and a day after the last time Melania had been seen in public, prompting a series of questions and jokes about her vanishing act in recent weeks.

Melania acknowledge her recent disappearing act, while also seemingly taking a shot at Donald Trump’s secret girlfriend Natalie Harp.

“I heard you missed me. Here I am,” she said with a laugh. “Here I am! Welcome to the White House.”

It was a rare event for Melania to speak, and the president remained seated for most of the time in the audience before standing for some pictures but not giving remarks.

The last time Melania was seen with her husband was when the pair attended the FIFA World Cup Final in New Jersey on July 19.

The first lady and president were all FAKE smiles as they posed for pictures at the end of the event

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But behind closed doors, Mrs. Trump is locked in a power struggle with the president’s aide Natalie Harp, according to Trump biographer Michael Wolff.

Harp, 35, has been a constant presence near the president since he returned to office, and was also one of his closest staffers on the campaign trail.

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The special assistant and executive assistant to the president, who makes $150,000, has faced increased scrutiny in recent days after being name-checked on the campaign trail by Sen. Jon Ossoff.

It’s led to a series of disturbing reports about the lengths she’s gone to stay close to the president and raised concerns about her work at the White House without a security clearance for a year, as reported by MS NOW.

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CNN’s Kristen Holmes and Adam Cancryn reported Tuesday on Harp’s position in Trump’s inner circle as executive assistant, including the previously unreported incident from October 2023.

Trump was preparing to leave Trump Tower for a New York City courthouse when aides allegedly informed Harp that there was no seat available for her. Harp insisted Trump had personally asked her to come along, prompting a “screaming match” in the lobby, two sources told the network.

Rather than stay behind, Harp climbed into the trunk of an SUV, CNN reported, citing the two sources and a photo.

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CNN reported that Harp’s presence has at times annoyed senior Trump aides, particularly when advisers have sought private meetings with the president only to find Harp in the room as well. One source told the outlet that Harp has closely guarded her access to Trump and has told colleagues that she reports only to the president, frustrating staffers operating within the traditional White House chain of command.

The report noted that those tensions have previously led some aides to try to limit Harp’s access to Trump, though such efforts have apparently done little to diminish her standing.

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The orchestra will split 64 concerts across venues including George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium, the Music Center at Strathmore, George Mason University’s performing arts center, and D.C.’s Lincoln Theatre, after being forced out by a reconstruction project approved by Trump-allied Kennedy Center board members, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

The announcement came a stunning five-and-a-half weeks before the season’s September 26 opener — five months later than usual — after the NSO reportedly struggled to get routine budget approval from the center’s board.

Music director Gianandrea Noseda tried to put a hopeful spin on the upheaval, saying, “I’d like to think of this year of the National Symphony Orchestra as a regional touring orchestra.”

The NSO’s audience has been steadily vanishing: ticket sales reportedly plunged from 72 percent of capacity in 2024 to just 41 percent last season, per The Post, but the NSO hasn’t confirmed those figures. Former Kennedy Center president Michael Kaiser said the organization’s usual processes “don’t seem to be functioning with any kind of sensible direction right now.”

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Nor is the NSO alone. A number of other performers have pulled out of the Kennedy Center in the last year, and the Washington National Opera withdrew in January.

The chaos traces back to the Kennedy Center’s 2025 takeover by a board of Trump loyalists, who added Trump’s name to the building before a federal judge ordered it removed. The board has since voted to close the complex for two years of renovations and, in an apparent workaround to the judge’s order, approved inscribing “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump” beneath the center’s signage anyway.

With ticket sales already sliding and the season’s timeline squeezed, arts administrators warn the late announcement could further depress attendance and demoralize musicians.

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According to new reporting in The Daily Beast Several MAGA women said they didn’t blame outgoing White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt for wanting to leave. While Leavitt cited a desire to spend more time with her young children, she was also reportedly fed up with the constant demands from Trump.

Some women revealed that the constant pressure to keep up with the latest beauty standards, which can include daily blowouts and regular Botox treatments, can also grow tiresome.

“It gets to be utterly draining,” one MAGA woman said of working for Trump.

Blanche Sprague, one of Trump’s former executives from his days as a New York socialite, told The Daily Mail that it was exhausting working “like a nanny” to keep up with his demands.

Some defenders of the president’s demands asserted that it was not Trump’s behavior exactly that drives women to focus on appearance, but “female competition” among his staffers.

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“He doesn’t force these women to have 6 am blow-outs or get plastic surgery or go on weight-loss drugs,” one person said.

“They get the Botox and fillers because the White House is a competitive place,” they added. “Everyone is vying for his attention.”

I personally have no sympathy for the MAGA ladies. You got bad botox so you could work 24/7 for a Fascist? You deserve every day of discomfort.

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Governor Newsom and I talked about the need to get money out of politics, bringing accountability to Trump’s corruption, and what his future may hold in 2028.

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After almost nine months at sea, the plight of sailors on the carrier has become more grim, with claims of multiple sailors attempting to go overboard and reports of broken toilets, moldy showers and inadequate food.

But asked on Friday whether family members were concerned about conditions on the ship, Trump replied, “No, they’re not.”

Then came the question of whether the deployment had gone on too long given the mental health risks.

“No, no, no. Not nearly long enough,” he said, before walking off to board Air Force One on a trip to New York.

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The dismissive response came as the Lincoln finds itself at the center of a growing political storm over the human cost of the Trump administration’s war with Iran.

About 200 relatives attended a town hall last week with Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao and other senior military officials, raising concerns about exhaustion, mental health, food and water shortages, plumbing problems, sanitation and disrupted mail.

A pair of military outlets—the Stars and Stripes and the Navy Times—report that several sailors have attempted to go overboard or have gone overboard on the Lincoln, with one sailor reportedly in the water for an hour before being rescued.

Loved ones shared texts with MeidasTouch claiming the ship can’t get any fresh food, and that even some once-frozen meat arrives rotten. A sailor’s family member also told MS NOW that their loved one has been eating “half a cup of rice and two tortillas” a day.

Family members have also described out-of-service toilets and laundry rooms that have been inaccessible for weeks.

The carrier has been at sea for eight-and-a-half months, much longer than the typical deployment of about six months.

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Tyler Boebert, 21, the eldest of the Colorado lawmaker’s four sons, is facing five felony counts in Garfield County District Court: sexual exploitation of a child, induce/entice, sexual exploitation of a child, possession with intent; sexual exploitation of a child, video; and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to Muckrakers Today.

Court records show that the alleged offenses began on January 1, 2024, when Tyler was 18.

The case was filed Aug. 6. Court records indicate that his bail was set at $10,000 Friday and that he was released that day.

No further details were released about the allegations.

Tyler, who became a father at 18 when his son was born in June 2023, has not addressed the charges.

His congresswoman mother said in a statement to the Daily Mail, “I love my son. We take these allegations very seriously and pray for everyone affected during this challenging time.”

Tyler has faced a string of legal troubles in recent years. In September 2022, he received a ticket for careless driving after allegedly flipping his dad’s SUV into a local creek bed, with the vehicle’s passenger suffering severe lacerations to their hand and multiple concussions, Westworld reported.

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With the president’s popularity tanking over soaring prices and the war in Iran, Trump has now lost one of his most effective defenders as he desperately tries to convince voters of his achievements.

Trump made the announcement on Truth Social on Wednesday, in a post that immediately reverberated across Washington.

“Our wonderful White House Press Secretary, and one of my most trusted aides, Karoline Leavitt, will be departing her role at the end of the month so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family, a decision I totally understand and respect!” he wrote.

The president added that Leavitt would remain one of his “top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party, as we work to defy History, and conclusively win the Midterm Elections.”

But the loss of yet another woman from his inner sanctum - and one who has spent the past 18 months sparring with the White House press corp and going to war with Trump’s critics - is a major blow to Trump’s White House operation.

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