Q&A: Do we have 'Farage Derangement Syndrome'? Plus the team reveal their most awkward interviews
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Daily Mirror
5 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
MIKEY SMITH: 10 dictator-esque Donald Trump moments as his plot to rig next election gets ugly
Donald Trump takes a break from the Ukraine talks today to look at matters closer to home. Specifically, he's looking at how he can avoid losing his wafer thin majorities in the House and Senate, despite being the second most unpopular President in history - after himself last time around. He's planning to do that, partially, by redrawing constituency boundaries in some states - chiefly Texas - to create more easily winnable seats in next year's mid-term elections. But it's worth bearing in mind the raft of other ways Trump is trying to rig the mid-term election - not to mention the 2028 presidential election, which he so obviously wants to run in. Or at least cancel. We also reported recently that he wants to do a new census. A new one isn't due for several years - but he wants to do a new one now, and demand that only people in the country legally are counted. The census is used to decide how election districts are drawn, and removing non-citizens is likely to benefit Republicans hugely. Oh, and acting on advice of that expert on running free and fair elections, Vladimir Putin, he wants to ban postal voting. And let's not forget that on Monday, when he sat down with Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, he openly mused about using a war as an excuse to cancel elections - something many have feared Trump was planning to do all along. Here's more on what's going to happen today, as well as some other dictator-adjacent things that happened in Trump World in the last 24 hours. Everything is fine. 1. Trump's plan to rig the midterm elections gets ugly In all likelihood, Republicans in Texas will today pass a law redrawing constituency boundaries to be more favourable to them - almost certainly handing them five extra seats in the House of Representatives. The last time they tried this a couple of weeks ago, Democrats got around it by leaving the state, so there wouldn't be enough people in the chamber to satisfy the rules allowing them to press for a vote. How did they get round that this time? By literally imprisoning Democrats in the state House chamber. Seriously, Democratic representatives were ordered to sign a document agreeing to round-the-clock police escorts - not for their own protection, but to keep tabs on them in case they try to leave Texas again. Those who refused were locked in the chamber. How this could possibly legal is a matter of some confusion. It's certainly not democratic. Meanwhile, Democrat governor Gavin Newsom of California - the guy whose amusing faux-Trump tweets you keep seeing on your timeline - has vowed to redistrict California to cancel out the Texas gerrymandering. 2. Trump spotted testing out his new patio Donald Trump was spotted hanging out on the edge of the new, Mar-a-lago-ified Rose Garden yesterday, testing a new sound system. And what song was he blasting out across the concreted over garden, now covered with the exact same chairs, tables and umbrellas seen at his Florida club? Of course, it was God Bless the USA, by Lee Greenwood. Of COURSE it was. According to Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Trump was testing the speakers for "what will be the greatest event in the history of the White House." 3. Trump moans that the Smithsonian doesn't talk up the benefits of slavery Trump posted some more about his Pyongyang-esque plan to rewrite history by putting pressure on the Smithsonian museums to reflect his views. And this time he was a bit more specific, in a particularly troubling way. "The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of "WOKE,"" he wrote. "The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been." The burgeoning dictator went on to say he has instructed lawyers to comb through museum exhibits and "start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made." By which he presumably means extorting them into doing manifestly objectionable and antidemocratic things for fear of losing all their funding. 4. The White House comes to a decision on TikTok The thrice-delayed deadline for TikTok to sell to non-Chinese buyers or be banned from the US is due to expire in early September. So the White House has come to a decision. It's decided to ...join TikTok. The new account posted its first video yesterday - a 27 second clip with a voice over of Trump saying: "Every day I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the People all across this nation. I am your voice." TikTok remains owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company which is part-owned by the Chinese government. 5. You can almost smell the burning plastic In case you thought the White House wasn't quite gaudy enough, Trump's team unveiled a new portrait in the West Wing. In it, Trump, looking particularly svelte, walks grimacing between rows of American flags, apparently away from a blazing bin fire. 6. Is everything alright mate? Donald Trump has started telling people he wants to get to heaven, and he's not sure he will. In a display of introspection that's quite out of character for Trump, he said during a phone interview with (who else?) Fox and Friends, yesterday: "I want to try and get to heaven if possible. I hear I'm not doing well. I hear I'm really at the bottom of the totem pole." I mean, it could be introspection. Alternatively, it could be just that he needs to start telling people his motivation for making "peace deals" is something other than a Nobel Prize. Asked later at the Press Briefing whether the President was joking, or whether there was a "spiritual motivation" behind his push for "peace deals", Karoline Leavitt said no: "The President wants to get to heaven." 7. European leaders scrambled to Washington because of all the "progress" Karoline Leavitt had a delightful bit of spin for why European leaders scrambled to Washington for Ukraine talks on Monday. It wasn't because they were afraid that Trump was about to sell Europe's future security out to Putin, like you thought. Nor was it a show of solidarity with Volodymyr Zelensky after the shellacking he got last time he visited DC. Nope, it was because Trump made so much "progress." "There was so much progress in the readout that was given to these European leaders immediately following his meeting with President Putin that every single one of them got on a plane 48 hours later and flew to the United States of America." As I believe they say in America, 'Sure, Jan.' 8. They gave the Pizzagate guy a seat in the press room I've written before about the special "new media seat" in the press room. To recap, the seating in the press room is arranged by the White House Correspondents Association - a body independent of the administration. So realising they couldn't have total control over what they were asked and who could ask it, the Trump administration sneakily added a new chair to the Press Room - the "new media seat". The occupant of the seat is invited by the White House, and always gets called on for a question first. I, for one, can't imagine any actual reporter feeling comfortable supplicating themselves to the extent where they'd sit in Karoline's special chair. But it's OK, because for the vast majority of the time, actual reporters are nowhere near it. Instead, it's a steady stream of right-wing grifters, MAGA influencers and people from the MyPillow guy's website. So it was that yesterday Leavitt introduced Jack Posobiec, an "alt-right" personality and conspiracy theorist, whose work has touched on white supremacist talking points and attempting to overturn the result of the 2020 election. His tweets have frequently included white supremacist codes and dogwhistles. And he was one of the most prominent promoters of the false conspiracy theory "Pizzagate", which claimed a child-sex ring was being run from the basement of a Washington DC pizzeria. (This could be put down to a bit of fun until 2016, when a guy turned up to the restaurant with a gun and demanded to see the basement, only to be told by bewildered staff that there was no basement.) Yay new media. 9. Dan Bongino's position at the FBI seems uncertain Former fitness podcast host-turned (sigh) Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino has been on departure watch for months - ever since he had a big row with Attorney General Pam Bondi, which was followed by a curiously unscheduled day off. Now it's emerged that while he's still Deputy Director of the sharing the role with someone else. Missouri's attorney general, Andrew Bailey, has been tapped up to be a co-Deputy, a move which has surprised quite a lot of people. Bongino responded to the announcement with a one-word tweet, saying: "Welcome", followed by three American flags. 10. Fox News host caught up in Trump's crime crackdown And Baier, the Fox News personality who interviewed Donald Trump immediately after his meeting with Vladimir Putin on Friday, appears to have got caught up in Trump's DC "crime" crackdown. Footage shows him being pulled over by police in a white 4x4, and providing documents to an officer through his open window. Baier later explained the stop on Twitter: "I picked up my ringing phone as I drove past an officer while driving my wife's car in Georgetown. He pointed to have me pull over - I did. "He was very professional. I had to dig for the registration card. Got a ticket and left. I didn't know there was paparazzi."
ITV News
a day ago
- ITV News
Could the Epping asylum hotel injunction set a precedent for other councils?
Ministers are bracing for the potential of further legal challenges over asylum hotels, after Epping Forest District Council was granted a temporary injunction blocking migrants from being housed there. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage hailed the High Court decision in Epping as a 'victory', saying he hopes it 'provides inspiration to others across the country,' while the shadow home secretary argued that residents have 'every right to object' to people being housed in their area. But those inside the Home Office are said to be "furious" about the court's decision, with one source telling ITV News' Home Editor Paul Brand that the move was a "dangerous judgement". Could the decision in Epping set a precedent for other councils? The 12 councils where Reform UK is the largest party are understood to be exploring the prospect of legal challenges following Tuesday's ruling. The prospect of countless other councils bringing their own legal cases against hotels housing migrants would prove to be a logistical headache for the government. But there are many who feel this is a sign that the court is in line with feelings among the general population. Reacting to the news, Mr Farage said that 'young, undocumented males who break into the UK illegally should NOT be free to walk the streets anywhere. They must be detained and deported'. 'I hope that Epping provides inspiration to others across the country,' he said. Lancashire County Council, which is under the control of Reform UK, is said to the most advanced in its stage of planning to bring a court case. Members of the Conservative Party also welcomed the High Court's decision, with Tory councils potentially looking at legal cases themselves. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch suggested that the migrants housed at the hotel 'need to be moved out of the area immediately', while her shadow home secretary Chris Philp said that 'residents should never have had to fight their own government just to feel safe in their own town'. He said: 'Local residents have every right to feel safe in their own streets and every right to object when their community is treated as a dumping ground.' How has the Labour Party responded? The Home Office had warned the judge that an injunction could 'interfere' with the department's legal obligations, and lawyers representing the hotel's owner argued it would set a 'precedent'. It accuses judges of meddling in asylum policy, as with immigration cases where criminals have been allowed to stay in the UK under human rights rulings by judges. ITV News' Paul Brand said that sources within the party feel that councils are going to waste taxpayers' money fighting a government that is already working to end use of hotels by asylum seekers. And the government has pointed to the reaction of other parties as political game-playing. The Home Office has insisted it has reduced the number of asylum seeker hotels from 402 to 210. It has also been keen to point out that the Bell Hotel, the subject of the High Court injunction, was opened under the Conservative Party although the Conservatives say that they closed it again. But look, whether it's in the channel, whether it's in Parliament or whether it's now here at the courts, new fronts are opening up all the time now in this battle that the government's facing over immigration. What was the reaction to the injunction in Epping? The leader of Epping Forest District Council said the government does not have a plan to accommodate asylum seekers and did not listen to concerns that they should not be housed at the Bell Hotel. The council had asked a judge to issue an interim injunction stopping migrants from being accommodated at the Bell Hotel. The hotel has been at the centre of a series of protests in recent weeks after an asylum seeker who was staying there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. Chris Whitbread, who also leads the Conservative group at the Essex authority, said that failures to improve the system for processing asylum applications were also causing distress 'up and down the country'. Speaking on Tuesday after the judgement, he said: "We have always raised our concerns with the Home Office, whether it be the previous government or this government, we raised our concerns. 'This government decided to start using the hotel again without consultation and purely by instruction; they didn't listen to our concerns. 'Five schools are in close proximity, a residential care home, lots of residential homes nearby, they didn't listen to us at all, that is the fundamental difference.'Reacting to the judgment, border security minister Dame Angela Eagle said: 'This government inherited a broken asylum system, at the peak there were over 400 hotels open. 'We will continue working with local authorities and communities to address legitimate concerns. Our work continues to close all asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament. 'We will carefully consider this judgment. As this matter remains subject to ongoing legal proceedings it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.' The government has also stressed that the injunction handed down today is an interim judgment, which will be tested again in the coming months.
Metro
13-08-2025
- Metro
Fees for A&E: Could charging patients reduce ‘time-wasters' and shorten waits?
Do you agree with our readers? Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments. Nurses are being attacked an average of 11 times a day on A&E wards (Metro, Tue). This is shocking and inexcusable but I can understand the frustration people feel with long waits – an issue acknowledged by the Royal College of Nursing. Having spent seven hours in casualty earlier this year, waiting to see a doctor with a potentially life-threatening problem, I eventually gave up and went home. Fortunately I did get to see a doctor the following morning when it was less busy. It is clear that the NHS in its present form is unable to cope with the increasing demands on it. We need some kind of insurance scheme, as other countries do, and perhaps a nominal charge for visiting A&E – which could be reclaimed through insurance – that would also deter time-wasters. Julie, Bath Liverpool footballer Mo Salah has called for an end to the conflict in Gaza – and he is right (Metro, Mon). Perhaps he should ask the totally unasked and unanswered question of his own Egyptian government. It is a historical fact that when there is war, civilians flee into neighbouring countries. Recently, two million Syrians were living in tent cities in Jordan, while Russia invades Ukraine and a multitude have taken refuge in the West. So how is it that Egypt has not allowed the innocents of Gaza to take refuge in neighbouring Egypt? As such, does not Egypt have some responsibility for the deaths in Gaza? War means death and destruction. Israel did not start this war –Palestinian Hamas terrorists did and it is they who are responsible for the death and destruction in Gaza. Israel is as much responsible for the deaths in this war as the Allies were in killing the millions of innocent civilians in Germany and, of course, Japan in World War II. Stop the howling hypocritical criticism of Israel. Malcolm Factor, Enfield Liam Gallagher told the Oasis Murrayfield gig that council officials would 'spread' the £3billion he reckons his band had brought to Edinburgh 'among their posh ugly mates'. This after a secret town-hall briefing had branded reunion tour fans 'drunk', 'fat' and 'old'. I can't say I was ever an Oasis fan but I am now! Andy, Edinburgh Further to the proposal to reduce drink-driving alcohol limits from 35 micrograms to 22 micrograms per 100ml of breath (Metro, Tue). Is there any evidence that this will save lives? Current poor driving goes unchecked, as the police don't even bother with the boy racers in town. Only those who fall for the cash cow of driving 3mph over the limit are subject to any enforcement. Drivers may even rationalise that they 'may as well get hung for a sheep as a lamb' when socialising at a 22mcg limit. Robby, Kent The Armenia-Azerbaijan peace deal praised by Paulo (MetroTalk, Wed) is predicated on the Americans getting exclusive rights to the so-called Zangezur trade corridor, linking central Asia to Turkey and the rest of the world. More Trending Yet this corridor is controversial and risks further inflaming tensions between the US and Iran. So I'm not celebrating it. Neil Dance, Birmingham I've just read that under-22s in England should get free bus passes to help them get into work and education, according to a report by MPs. They say the number of bus journeys taken has dropped in recent years. It's because they're using e-scooters and e-bikes instead! John Marshall, Essex Here's one for you – a sign in an optician's window read, 'If you can't see what you want, please call in.' Leslie Aradi, London MORE: The Metro daily cartoon by Guy Venables MORE: Pet smell even after cleaning? This 'super powerful' vacuum removes odours to leave your home smelling fresh MORE: Five things we learned from Trump's meeting with Zelensky ahead of Putin summit
