The Dictatorship

Mike Johnson survives ‘hell week’ on Capitol Hill — but not before some chaos

Published

2 months ago

May 1, 2026

May. 1, 2026, 5:00 AM EDT

Votes stretching on for hours. Spirited confrontations on the House floor. Rowdy committee hearings.

It was, in many respects, a chaotic week in the U.S. House of Representatives, as Republicans set out to tackle a number of key priorities that exposed deep divisions within their conference.

Last week, Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, warned reporters they would be entering “hell week” come Monday.

By Wednesday, his prediction was ringing true. “We’re experiencing what hell week looks like,” Nehls said, standing on the Capitol steps with his signature cigar in hand. “We can’t really agree on much of anything.”

On that point, though, Nehls wasn’t as prophetic.

By the end of the week, Republicans were able to muscle through their to-do list, temporarily extending the U.S.’ warrantless spying powers, approving a budget blueprint for their multibillion-dollar immigration enforcement package, and passing a sprawling farm bill. The House even sent a bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security to the president, finally ending a historic 76-day shutdown.

But at no point did Republicans make it look easy — a reality that’s fueling frustrations in the House GOP ranks, with some members directing their ire squarely at Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

“It’s just been a mess,” one House Republican, who requested anonymity to discuss the internal dynamics, told MS NOW. “We haven’t really had any guidance or direction. We’re moving from one fire drill to the next every single week, and then half the time it feels like, why are we even here?”

The GOP lawmaker continued that while there’s “a lot of blame to go around,” Johnson deserves his fair share of it.

Asked if there are conversations behind the scenes about the House GOP’s future leadership, the lawmaker said: “They’re kind of beginning.”

Another House Republican didn’t hold back.

“Johnson’s appeasement to everyone across the conference has led us to a place of dysfunction,” Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, a second-term congressman who served in the first Trump administration, told MS NOW. “We are doing what is best for the country in the short term, but damaging it for the long term by breaking precedent after precedent.”

Miller added that Johnson is a “good man.”

“But you can’t run an organization this way,” he said.

Miller, who has lobbed criticism at Johnson in the past, said the speaker would have lost his gavel a while back, but Trump is in the White House.

“If it wasn’t for the administration, the speaker would have been vacated several months ago,” Miller said, referring to the motion-to-vacate mechanism to remove the speaker.

Of course, much of the consternation is due to a narrow and ideologically diverse conference. On a party-line vote — assuming full attendance and independent Rep. Kevin Kiley of California siding with the GOP — Republicans can only afford to lose two lawmakers.

“You’ve got a very diverse conference, you got a two-vote majority,” Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., said. “So it’s very difficult to get the votes across the line.”

Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., echoed that sentiment, telling reporters that the GOP is “not a party of people that just check our voting cards in.”

“We’re not a party that just does whatever leadership tells us to do,” he said. “And I think that that’s a good thing, like, the process should work that way.”

While Burlison may be giving his colleagues a bit too much credit — Republican members have repeatedly folded over the past 16 months when Trump and GOP leaders have pressed them — it’s true that Johnson’s conference frequently starts out divided.

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., went for a visual description.

“Pleasing everybody appears like nailing Jell-O to a wall,” he said. “Different people have different constituencies with different things that are important to them. We’ve seen it right here.”

Another senior House Republican, requesting anonymity to discuss the sensitive conference dynamics, put it succinctly: “We win ugly.”

“That’s what happens when you have a small majority,” this person said.

That is something even Johnson can agree with.

Asked about the unhappiness in his ranks, the speaker told reporters on Thursday that when his members don’t get exactly what they ask for, tempers flare.

“Everybody didn’t get 100% of what they wanted,” Johnson said. “But we got what we needed, and so sometimes people get frustrated when they don’t get every single thing that they’ve asked for, but they work through it.”

Johnson added that after all the delays and false starts, House Republicans were leaving town this week in a great mood, “because they understand we got the job done in spite of the challenges.”

But to Democrats, all the happy talk ignores much of the chaos.

When MS NOW asked former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., about Johnson’s job performance, she had a simple assessment: “He’s making me look good.”

The difficulties of the GOP’s razor-thin majority have been on full display since the beginning of this Congress last January. But it was particularly apparent this week.

The dysfunction kicked off on Monday and Tuesday, as the House Rules Committee — the last stop for legislation before it heads to the floor — convened again and again for marathon markups, attempting to pave the way for floor consideration of a number of bills.

As one of the meetings stretched on, Norman, a member of the panel, dared Democrats to “drag it out as long as you want.”

“Let’s stay up all night!” he sarcastically exclaimed.

“I’m happy to oblige,” Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the panel, responded.

Democrats did oblige, with the hearing continuing for another two hours, until after 9 p.m. At one point, another GOP member on the panel — Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga. — asked how much longer Democrats wanted to prolong the proceeding, wondering whether or not he should order dinner.

“You should always hydrate and you should always eat,” McGovern said.

When the Rules Committee finally reported its rule — a combined resolution setting up consideration for an extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the GOP’s budget blueprint and the farm bill — House leaders had to hold the vote open for hours to get the votes they needed.

Once again, in the end, GOP leaders got the votes they needed. But they had to cut a deal on year-round ethanol-in-gas to adopt the rule.

That deal delayed an unrelated vote — and eventually created a whole set of new problems.

Shortly after the rule vote closed, Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, a member of the Agriculture Committee, loudly yelled for Johnson on the floor.

“Hey, Mr. Speaker, can we have a conversation?” Nunn shouted, loud enough for reporters watching from the gallery to hear.

After further conversations, Johnson was forced to pivot again, adding the farm bill back to the week’s agenda without an ethanol provision and with the assurance that he would hold a vote on that measure soon.

That promise eventually created even more headaches for Johnson.

“We had an agreement today and then you changed it!” Rep. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a vocal conservative, yelled in front of reporters as he left a meeting with Johnson. “I’m going to go vote no!”

Hours later, the House began what was supposed to be a five-minute vote to approve the GOP’s budget blueprint. The vote remained open for more than five hours, as Johnson worked through the ethanol disagreements.

Finally, just after 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Johnson got the votes he needed.

While the week ended with Johnson holding his head up high, Republicans insist there should also be some shame.

Congress was only able to approve a 45-day extension of the U.S.’ warrantless spying powers. The broader fight will be awaiting lawmakers when they return to the Capitol in 12 days.

Republicans are also now racing to meet Trump’s June 1 deadline for their immigration enforcement package — a target that is quickly approaching. And that fight will almost certainly divide Republicans and expose new divisions.

But to House Republicans, that is par for the course.

“It was a little rough-and-tumble, but that’s the way the House is supposed to be,” Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said Thursday.

“It’s a contact sport,” he added. “Either put your cup on or go home.”

Mychael Schnell is a reporter for MS NOW.

The Dictatorship

A new ICE facility could speed up deportations for families and kids

Published

4 hours ago

July 7, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A new ICE facility could speed up deportations for families and kids

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Trump administration plans to open a 528-bed holding facility for migrant families and unaccompanied children next to an airport hub, positioning itself to speed up deportations.

The location in Alexandria, Louisiana, would remove logistical headaches caused by wrangling children from foster homes and shelters across the country and not having anywhere to put them during final preparations for flight. Those obstacles were apparent last year when Guatemalan children were awoken at night and given almost no time to get to Harlingen, Texas, where they waited on an airport tarmac for hours.

A federal judge prevented their deportation, but the chaotic episode illustrated the challenges authorities face because they don’t have anywhere to put families and children near the airport. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is calling the Alexandria facility a “staging area,” not a detention center, and says people would only be there a few days at most.

However, several immigration advocates expressed concern that children could be held at the new facility for weeks or months, which happened at other federal immigration holding sites. These advocates are also concerned about oversight, and say the facility represents a departure from how the government manages those children.

“It’s an expansion of the deportation system in ways we haven’t seen before,” said Leecia Welch, chief legal counsel at the nonprofit Children’s Rights. “There’s just so much that could go wrong with this facility.”

ICE has tapped a private prison company to run the deportation facility

Unaccompanied children who are in the U.S. without parents or close relatives are not taken to facilities overseen by ICE. Instead, the law says they must be swiftly placed in the care of state-licensed shelters and foster care programs.

Those are run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Department of Health and Human Services. However, that agency isn’t involved in the Alexandria facility’s operation, according to a spokesperson at the airfield where it’s being built.

Instead, the facility would be run by a nonprofit arm of LaSalle Corrections, a private prison contractor, according to Ralph Hennessy, executive director of the England Airpark Authority. He said it could be operational as early as August.

ICE officials signed a contract late last month to build the facility at the former military base near Alexandria International Airport, roughly 175 miles (280 kilometers) northwest of New Orleans, Hennessy said.

It would operate as a 72-hour holding center for migrants awaiting deportation, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

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Compass Connections, a Texas-based nonprofit that runs shelters for unaccompanied immigrant children, had originally been tapped to help operate the facility and laid out plans during a public presentation in February.

But the company’s president, Sonya Thompson, told the AP last week that it was no longer involved. She did not elaborate.

Officials have said the facility is for ‘self-deporting’ families

In public board meetings, airpark officials said the facility is a “humanitarian effort” for families that are “self-deporting.” Immigration advocates say families and unaccompanied children sometimes make that decision under pressure or because they don’t understand their options.

“These are people that are volunteering to go back home and they’re going back home as a family unit,” Hennessy told the AP.

The facility would sit next to the nation’s largest hub for deportations. More than 4,400 immigration enforcement flights came into and out of the Alexandria International Airport in 2025, according to data from the ICE Flight Monitor, an initiative of Human Rights First. ICE planning documents say families and children at the facility “are in the legal custody of ICE and can only be released at the direction of ICE.”

The agency has instructed contractors that families at the facility cannot be referred to as prisoners, detainees or inmates, records show. The agency ordered contractors to not use bars or cages when transporting families and unaccompanied children. The facility will not be required to engage in headcounts and should allow families to “wear their own clothes,” the agency added.

The private prison company runs other ICE detention centers

Louisiana-based LaSalle Corrections runs a range of private prisons and federal immigration detention centers throughout the South, including the “Louisiana Lockup” inside the state’s maximum-security prison in Angola.

The official contractor for the new ICE holding facility will be the company’s nonprofit arm, the LaSalle Family Foundation. According to its tax recordsthe nonprofit provides chaplain services and educational programming in correctional facilities.

However, LaSalle Corrections itself will be involved in operating the holding facility and ensuring compliance, the company’s chief financial officer, Tim Kurpiewski, wrote in an email reviewed by the AP.

LaSalle spokesperson Scott Sutterfield declined to comment.

The deaths of two detainees have been reported since April at a LaSalle-run ICE facility in the state.

Winn Correctional Center was also found in June to have violated standards governing environmental health and safety, food service, use-of-force, medical care and other subjects, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General.

The Dictatorship

TRUMP CARD: WORLD CUP CHEATS FOR USA?

Published

14 hours ago

July 7, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

SEATTLE (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump intervened on behalf of star U.S. forward Folarin Balogun, whose red-card suspension was lifted in a decision that allows him to play in a World Cup match against Belgium on Monday.

A single red card can completely change a World Cup match. Here’s why it’s the most feared punishment in soccer. Produced by Nandini Gupta

Balogun, the American leader with three goals in the tournament, received a red card for stepping awkwardly on the right ankle of Tarik Muharemović of Bosnia-Herzegovina in a 2-0 round of 32 win on Wednesday, triggering an automatic one-game suspension.

FIFA announced Sunday that the suspension had been lifted for the round of 16 match, an extraordinary move that triggered praise from Trump and outrage from Belgium’s team. It appeared to be the first time since 1962 that a red card during a World Cup didn’t result in a suspension.

Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino after the game asking FIFA review the red card, according to a person familiar with the call who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

“Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!” Trump said in a statement on social media.

The Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) said it was “astonished,” and Belgium coach Rudi Garcia mocked FIFA’s action.

“I didn’t know that in the offices of FIFA the fifth of July was the first of April in Europe,” Garcia said through a translator in an April Fools’ Day comparison. “The Belgian federation does not defend itself, it does not protect the national team. She defends football in general, she defends her integrity, her ethics. I think it’s the first time in the history of the World Cup that there is this kind of decision.”

Garcia wouldn’t respond when asked about a possible appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport or whether he thought Trump impacted FIFA’s action.

“In order to safeguard the legitimate rights of all participating teams and to protect the fundamental principles of fair play in our sport, both at this FIFA World Cup and at future editions of the tournament, the RBFA is investigating all potential options,” the Belgian federation said in a statement.

American players learned of Balogun’s availability when social media posts started popping up during the 10-minute bus ride Sunday morning from their hotel to training at the University of Washington’s Husky Soccer Stadium, where they were greeted by Dubs II, the university’s Alaskan Malamute.

Balogun’s red card had been one of the World Cup’s most controversial and consequential decisions. Brazilian referee Raphael Claus didn’t initially signal a card but showed Balogun red after a video review.

“If you look at the foul, it was just zero intent at all,” U.S. star Christian Pulisic said. “I felt like there was much worse ones that went on this tournament.”

The U.S. Soccer Federation learned of FIFA’s action in a message sent by FIFA in its portal at 10:31 a.m. EDT.

“The implementation of the match suspension is suspended for a probationary period of one year,” FIFA announced. “If Folarin Balogun commits another infringement of a similar nature and gravity during the probationary period, the suspension shall be revoked and the sanction enforced without prejudice to any additional sanction imposed for the new infringement.”

U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino applauded FIFA’s move.

“We were punished enough against Bosnia-Herzegovina to play with 10 men (for) 30 minutes in a decision that was completely unfair,” he said.

Pochettino, who played for Argentina in the 2002 World Cup, was not surprised Trump decided to call Infantino.

“I came from a culture, Argentina or Europe, that football, soccer is a religion, more than the religion,” he said. “If we go keep going, pushing on, maybe one step more tomorrow you will see that the sport is magic, that the sport is amazing, is so powerful, unite people, unite a country like us.”

England coach Thomas Tuchel wondered whether more decisions going forward could be challenged, whether yellow cards could be overturned for England’s Declan Rice and France’s Michael Olise.

“We can now debate endlessly: I think it’s not a yellow card,” he said. “Where does this end? Where does it stop?”

Balogun’s three goals included a go-ahead strike against Bosnia. He matched Landon Donovan in 2010 for the second-most goals by an American in a World Cup, behind only Bert Patenaude’s four in the initial tournament in 1930.

A 25-year-old who plays for Monaco, Balogun scored 13 Ligue 1 goals last season and has 12 goals in 30 international appearances. He was born in Brooklyn to Nigerian parents who were living in London and in 2023 opted to change his national team affiliation from Englandwhich he had represented at the under-21 level.

“He strikes fear into a lot of defenders,” Richards said.

The host U.S. is seeking to reach the quarterfinals for the first time since 2002. The Americans lost in the round of 16 to Ghana in 2010, Belgium in 2014 and the Netherlands in 2022. They failed to advance from the group stage in 2006 and didn’t qualify for the 2018 tournament.

The USSF didn’t make Balogun available for comment Sunday, but Balogun posted on social media a picture of himself in front of U.S. fans and overlaid with music of Michael Jackson’s pop single “Bad.”

On Friday, Balogun said he thought a yellow card instead of red “would have been fair.”

FIFA said its decision relied on Article 27 of disciplinary committee rules.

“The judicial body may decide to fully or partially suspend the implementation of a disciplinary measure,” the rule states. “By suspending the implementation of the sanction, the judicial body subjects the person sanctioned to a probationary period of one to four years.”

FIFA in November deferred the final two games of a three-match ban for Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo for a red card against Ireland in a World Cup qualifier, allowing him to play at the start of the World Cup.

Argentine defender Nicolás Otamendi and Ecuadoran midfielder Moisés Caicedo in April had one-game bans deferred for red cards in qualifiers, also allowing them to be available for World Cup openers.

Brazilian midfielder Garrincha received a red card in the 83rd minute of the 1962 semifinal against host Chile for kicking an opponent but was allowed to play in the final against Czechoslovakia after a lobbying campaign that included support from Chile President Jorge Alessandri. Brazil won the final for its second straight title.

“What about the next red card? What happens then?” Norway coach Ståle Solbakken said. “Is there going to be some committee somewhere that is going to take that card away? It’s a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad decision that will hurt the World Cup.”

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Price reported from Washington, D.C.

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AP Soccer Writer James Robson in Atlanta and AP Sports Writers Andrew Destin in Seattle, Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, and Stephen Whyno in East Rutherford, New Jersey, contributed to this report.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

The Dictatorship

How the White House Rose Garden and its plantings have changed over the past century

Published

22 hours ago

July 6, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

How the White House Rose Garden and its plantings have changed over the past century

President Donald Trump’s two makeovers of the White House Rose Garden, including converting its lawn into a patiohave drawn recent attention to one of the nation’s most iconic gardens.

The garden has seen many changes over the years; presidents and first ladies have planted, removed, redesigned and even fully revamped it. Here’s a look at how the Rose Garden and its plantings have evolved.

Ellen Wilson and then Jackie Kennedy make changes

This undated image provided by the Library of Congress shows the original White House rose garden in Washington, designed by George E. Burnap in 1913 and planted in 1914 during the Woodrow Wilson administration. (Library of Congress via AP)

The Rose Garden was established by President Woodrow Wilson’s wife, Ellen Wilson, who worked closely with landscape architect George Burnap, in 1913. It replaced Edith Roosevelt’s Colonial Garden, planted 11 years earlier. Before that, greenhouses occupied the space.

The original Rose Garden remained close to its roots for nearly half a century until 1961, when President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy brought in their friend and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, neighbor, Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, to oversee a redesign.

Mellon, a horticulture expert, worked closely with landscape architect Perry Wheeler and White House Head Gardener Irwin Williams on plans for the new Rose Garden, aiming to create an outdoor room where press conferences, meetings with dignitaries and ceremonies could be held. It was installed the following year.

The space included an expansive central lawn, inspired by the croquet-match passage in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland,” with magnolia trees planted at each corner. Roses, interplanted with culinary herbs, spring-blooming bulbs, seasonal annuals and young Katherine crabapple trees, flanked the lawn in 12-foot-deep borders.

Since then, the space has hosted many historic events and has become known as a place where presidents deliver important speeches to the American people.

The garden evolves with new plants

Flowers bloom in the rose garden of the White House in Washington on April 19, 1963. (AP Photo/JR)

Mellon’s style favored classic, muted tones, reflected in the roses she selected. But the crabapples turned out to be a misstep. As they matured, they became so large that they shaded the sun-loving roses they were intended to complement.

In 2003, some of those trees were removed to allow sunlight to reach the failing roses. Over the years, various perennials were added and replaced. Dying roses were removed, and the remaining trees continued to grow.

Boxwood shrubs bordering the beds became threatened by boxwood blight disease, and the lawn developed drainage issues that prompted frequent replacements.

The remaining trees’ roots had grown so large that it became difficult to plant annuals in the borders without disturbing them. In addition, as walkway repairs became necessary, portions had been replaced, piecemeal, with various slabs.

A 2020 restoration brings new roses and various upgrades

Marine One, with President Barack Obama aboard, is framed by flowers in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, on April 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Then in 2020, first lady Melania Trump commissioned two architectural firms, Perry Guillot, Inc., of Southampton, New York, and Oehme van Sweden & Associates of Washington, D.C., to work with the Committee for the Preservation of the White House and the National Park Service to address those concerns and return the garden to its 1962 aesthetic.

They removed and relocated the remaining crabapple trees, and replaced the dwindling plantings with pastel-colored roses, including the white, tall shrubby “White House Rose,” the cream-colored “JFK Rose,” the white hybrid tea rose “Pope John Paul II,” and the “Peace Rose,” a smaller tea rose with a pale yellow center and light pink edges.

The team also upgraded the garden’s infrastructure, adding electricity for TV appearances and uniform, 36-inch-wide limestone walkways to accommodate wheelchair access and comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The shrubs were replaced with blight-resistant NewGen boxwoods.

Pavers replace the grass

President Donald Trump, far right, joins a luncheon on the patio in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

In 2025, President Trump revamped the space again, this time replacing the central lawn with a white limestone patio. He added solar-powered lighting, tables and umbrellas, and bronze statues of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton.

He has hosted dinners on the patio, and has called the space the Rose Garden Club.

And on the perimeter, the roses continue to bloom.

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Jessica Damiano writes regular gardening columns for The Associated Press. She publishes the Weekly Dirt Newsletter. Sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

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For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.