Top Trump official caught in wild "sugar daddy" scandal

Senate passes Trump’s budget plan for ICE and Border Patrol with zero Democratic votes

Top Stories for April 23:

Top Trump counterterrorism official placed on leave after official complaint alleges she used “sugar daddies” to fund lavish lifestyle
Department of Homeland Security Deputy Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism Julia Varvaro, 29, has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation after it was discovered that she maintained a profile on Seeking.com, a website where young women find wealthy older men willing to work out…arrangements to fund their lavish lifestyles.

The account was exposed by, who else, Varvaro’s disgruntled ex-“boyfriend,” whom she reportedly met on Hinge. According to an official complaint filed with the DHS inspector general, Varvaro eventually broke up with an executive identified as “Robert B.” after he refused to spend any more on her after dropping $40,000 in three months on Cartier jewelry, designer handbags, high-end shopping outings, and luxury trips to Aruba and Italy.

Look, we aren’t here to judge what consenting adults do in their personal lives, but it sure seems like a senior counterterrorism official advertising herself on a pay-for-play “dating” website is a BIT of a national security risk. Maybe Pete Hegseth can message her from his unsecured Signal account and get to the bottom of things.

Take Action: Demand Congress pay for healthcare, not war!

VIDEO OF THE DAY: Federal judge clears the way for cops and lawmakers to sue Trump over Jan. 6 insurrection
While Donald Trump may have thought he escaped any real accountability for inciting the violent insurrection on the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when Senate Republicans — led by Mitch McConnell, of course — refused to convict the MAGA cult leader following his second impeachment, a federal judge in Washington, DC, just dumped cold water all over that notion, more than five years after the fact.

US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled yesterday that Trump was not acting in his official capacity as president when he directed an angry MAGA mob to march to the Capitol, “fight like hell,” and stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election, therefore presidential immunity from civil litigation simply does not apply. Mehta’s ruling means lawmakers and law enforcement officials who were targeted and/or violently attacked by Trump’s rioters CAN sue the nincompoop-in-chief for civil damages, opening the floodgates for hundreds of potential future lawsuits. Game on.

Take Action: Stop Trump from destroying the Forestry Department!

Spring nursery season brings a flood of vulnerable kittens, puppies, and wildlife that need help!
The Houston SPCA helps tens of thousands of animals each year through rescue, medical care, cruelty investigations, and adoption programs, and now that spring is here, they’re going to have their hands full! In 2025 alone, 62,587 animals were helped by the Houston SPCA, and they’re looking to beat that number this year, but they need your help to do it. Until the end of the month, ALL donations will be double-matched to help with the influx of newly born, four-legged friends that need round-the-clock care. Will you chip in and help rescue kittens and puppies in need?

“Not a moral man”: Megyn Kelly calls out Trump “demons,” including being “extremely petty” and “not the greatest husband”
Megyn Kelly has apparently joined former Fox News colleague Tucker Carlson on the rehabilitation station platform, having hopped off the Trump train for good with her most recent comments questioning the character of America’s malignant narcissist-in-chief. That Kelly was having a conversation about Donald Trump’s moral failings with credibly accused rapist and notorious sex creep Russell Brand should not be lost on anyone, but her assessment of the president’s character was no less on point, albeit years too late to make a lick of difference. Sounding emergency sirens after a tornado has flattened an entire town does nothing for people who’ve already lost everything.

Kelly noted, “There are aspects of his personality which are obviously not good and that we’ve mostly just chosen to overlook. You know, he’s not a moral man, he’s obviously not the greatest husband in the world, and he’s extremely petty and thin-skinned. Extremely petty and thin-skinned.”

Uh, correction: SOME people chose to overlook his glaringly obvious disqualifying character defects. Like Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson and, well, most of the Republican Party. The rest of us most assuredly did not. No cookies for you, Megyn. You own this mess along with your fellow propagandists and enablers.

Take Action: Stop Trump’s plan to dump coal ash in our drinking water!

Georgia Democratic Rep. David Scott dies at 80
Rep. David Scott, who made history as the first Black chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, has died, his office said in a statement Wednesday. He was 80 years old and seeking a 13th term in office at the time of his passing. Scott was first elected to Congress, representing a district near Atlanta, in 2002. He voted on the House floor as recently as Tuesday afternoon, according to the clerk’s records.

Scott had in recent years faced questions about his health. In 2022, Politico reported that people close to Scott felt he slowed noticeably in recent years. Two years later, he lashed out at a photographer taking a photo of him being pushed in a wheelchair, yelling, “Who gave you the right to take my picture, asshole?”

This Congress is the third-oldest in US history. As of January, more than a dozen House lawmakers age 80 and older were running for re-election. Scott’s death also follows several other lawmakers who have died in office in recent years. Democratic Reps. Sylvester Turner, Raúl Grijalva, and Gerry Connolly died last year. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a California Republican, died earlier this year as well.

Ohio Republican Sen. John Husted’s deeper ties to massive bribery scheme revealed
Surprise, surprise, surprise. Ohio Republican John Husted — who regularly attacks social safety programs as “traps” that incentivize dependence on government assistance and has repeatedly questioned the work ethic of lower-income Americans — is deeply entwined in the largest bribery scandal in state history. Though personally not accused of any crime, as Lt. Governor, Husted appeared to be the point person between executives at disgraced energy company FirstEnergy and the Governor Mike DeWine administration in pushing a $1 billion taxpayer funded ~~corporate welfare check~~ bailout of the failing energy company through the legislature six years ago. The bailout resulted in higher energy bills for Ohioans and a sprawling criminal investigation that has dragged on for more than five years.

Husted has been mentioned over 100 times in the ensuing criminal trial related to the $61 million FirstEnergy bribery case, including in phone calls, text messages, and previously unreported secret meetings between Husted and the indicted FirstEnergy executives. Husted was even called FirstEnergy’s “golden boy” by Neil Clark, a FirstEnergy lobbyist and co-defendant.

Husted is up for re-election in November. Let’s please send Big Energy’s golden boy packing, shall we?

RFK Jr. faces backlash over FDA rejection of lifesaving cancer drug
It seems we can’t go more than few days without disturbing new stories about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s erratic leadership at the Dept. of Health and Human Services and the very real implications it has for the future of public health. The FDA has decided not to approve a promising new skin cancer treatment that could save lives, drawing immediate backlash from doctors with firsthand experience administering the therapy in controlled trials.

Kennedy told Congress yesterday that he had nothing to do with the decision to withhold approval for Replimune’s drug, RP1, which treats melanoma, shifting responsibility to FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, who Kennedy himself, of course, appointed last year. The raccoon penis collector told senators that Makary assured him that “every panel that looked at that drug unanimously voted against it … because it does not appear to work,” a claim flatly refuted by oncologists in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

Can we please let the qualified, properly trained adults back in the room? Lives literally depend on it.

Ex-Trump Pal Geraldo tells CNN Iran “figured out” that “Trump always chickens out”: “They called his bluff”
Stand by for a diaper-filling Truth Social screed in three, two, one…

Two Iranian women arrested by ICE for being “related” to assassinated Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Soleimani turned out to not be related to him at all
A few weeks ago, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the arrest of two relatives of IRGC General Qassem Soleimani, who Donald Trump assassinated in a drone strike at the Baghdad airport during his first term in January 2020. The arrests were made seemingly at the behest of notorious racist and alleged Trump mistress Laura Loomer, who wrote on nüTwitter that the women were posting “content sympathetic to the Iranian regime and Ayatollah.”

Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter, Sarina Hosseiny, were thrown into the South Texas ICE Processing Center, where Hamideh is currently being denied the blood transfusions she needs for autoimmune hemolytic anemia. Iranian officials disputed the Trump regime’s narrative that the women were related to Soleimani.

Drop Site News also reviewed Iranian birth records, identification papers, a family will, and other personal documents and found no connection whatsoever to the late IRGC general or his extended family. Lo and behold, Loomer’s claim is bullshit. The Trump administration just threw two random Los Angelenos in a concentration camp because a xenophobic conspiracy theorist told them to. But hey, any excuse to heap suffering on a brown person, right?

Unearthed video shows Trump’s new Navy Secretary asking for a KKK hood with “slits” as eye holes instead of circles so he can see better
Undersecretary of the Navy Hung Cao also apparently believes that witches are taking over Monterey, California. Perfect guy to have in charge of a floundering naval blockade in a war we had no business starting in the first place.