Betting frenzy on Pete Hegseth to be first Trump Cabinet secretary out

The trade standoff between Washington and Beijing is not sustainable, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday.

Bessent predicted the tit-for-tat tariff war would de-escalate soon.

Speaking at a closed-door event hosted by JPMorgan Chase, Bessent said the enormous tariffs the world’s two biggest economies placed on each other’s imports amounted to a reciprocal trade embargo.

Since Trump’s White House return in January, the United States has slapped additional tariffs of 145 percent on many products from China.

Beijing has responded with sweeping counter tariffs of 125 percent on US goods.

Bessent told the event Tuesday that he expects a de-escalation in the near future.

President Donald Trump has hung another self portrait in the White House, this time right next to Hillary Clinton’s picture from her time as first lady.

The Trump painting was revealed by tweets from people who attended the White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday and posted pics of the new portrait, which is a close up of Trump’s face. Imposed over his steely glare are the stars and stripes of the American flag.

It’s hung in a prominent location in the White House, just outside the East Wing where first lady Melania Trump has her offices. Visitors taking the official White House tour pass by that location.

But, unlike the first self-portrait Trump hung, this one did not appear to displace any previous painting.

Instead, it appears to be squished onto the wall between portraits of Clinton and Laura Bush.

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren was left squirming as a podcaster probed her about former President Joe Biden’s mental decline.

Warren, 75, appeared on an episode of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso, which was released Sunday.

Fragoso asked her directly: ‘Do you regret saying that President Biden had a mental acuity, he had a sharpness to him? You said that up until July of last year. Do you think he was as sharp as you?’

Biden’s shocking performance in the June 27 Atlanta debate eventually pushed him out of the 2024 race on July 21.

‘I said I had not seen decline. And I hadn’t at that point,’ Warren said of comments she made last summer.

Fragoso was incredulous.

‘You did not see any decline from 2024 Joe Biden to 2021 Joe Biden?’ the podcaster asked.

California Governor Gavin Newsom slammed his own party on Tuesday.

In an interview with The Hill he said the Democratic Party hadd yet to undertsand what went wrong for it in the 2024 eletion.

He said:

The White House continues to blast ‘leakers’ and defend Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth, who on Tuesday said people who leak information ‘prosecuted if necessary.’

Leavitt said there were ‘Pentagon employees who leaked against their boss to news agencies in this room and been clear since day one from this administration that we are not going to tolerate individuals who leak to the mainstream media, particularly when it comes to sensitive information.’

‘And the Secretary of Defense is doing a tremendous job, and he is bringing monumental change from Pentagon, and there’s a lot of people in the city who reject monumental change,’ she continued.

She said the administration takes ‘leaks with the utmost seriously.’ Three Pentagon employees who were forced out have denied being the source of leaks. A former Pentagon press secretary brought in by Hegseth penned a scathing op-ed claiming ‘chaos’ inside the Pentagon.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the dates of President Trump’s trip to the Middle East.

He plans to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates from May 13 until May 16,’ Leavitt told reporters at the White House.

That comes amid the potential for Russia and Ukraine to hold direct talks on ending the war in Ukraine. Trump’s Middle East negotiator Steve Witkoff plans to visit Moscow for a new round of peace talks this week.

Leavitt also confirmed that the PM of Norway will hold a working visit with Trump Thursday to discuss trade and regional security.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday warned that Joe Biden’s ‘illegal student loan bailout’ program is ending and those in default must pay back their loans.

On May 5th, the Department of Education will resume involuntary collections for borrowers with defaulted federal student loans.

Of the more than 42.7 million student loan borrowers – who owe a collective $1.6 trillion – more than 5 million have not made a payment in the past year, according to the Department of Education.

‘If you take out a loan, you have to pay it back. It’s very simple. President Trump will not kick the can down the road anymore,’ Leavitt said at her press briefing.

President Trump says the U.S. is ‘doing very well’ in trade negotiations with China according to the White House.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about any progress in talks after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent moved markets by speaking of ‘de-escalation’ with China.

Leavitt said she spoke to Trump before her press briefing, and ‘he wanted me to share with all of you that we’re doing very well in respect to a potential trade deal with China.’

‘As I mentioned, there have now been 18 proposals in more than 100 countries around the world who are wanting to make a deal with the United States of America, and the president and the administration are setting the stage for a deal with China,’ she said.

Jon Michael Raasch, Political Reporter for DailyMail.com

A Trump ally was viciously booed for supporting Elon Musk and DOGE during a recent town hall, a scene that has become familiar for Republican lawmakers.

Rep. Byron Donalds hosted a town hall in Naples, Florida, that quickly descended into chaos on Monday.

Donalds, 46, is the latest Republican lawmaker to catch the scorn of their constituents at a town hall for supporting the government-trimming brainchild of Musk and the president that has already led to thousands of layoffs.

‘They’re firing people!’ one animated constituent yelled at the Republican.

‘Have you read the book Caste by Isabel Wilkerson?’ another attendee oddly blurted out.

The question regarding the book, which is about how race in America determines one’s location in the social hierarchy, enraged Donalds.

Jon Michael Raasch, Political Reporter for DailyMail.com

A top Republican lawmaker has announced he is working with the Secret Service to investigate the robbery of Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem.

While dining with her family at The Capital Burger in Washington, D.C., on Sunday evening, a thief made off with Noem’s bag full of personal items and thousands of dollars in cash.

House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., whose panel oversees the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is now looking into the shameless theft he exclusively told DailyMail.com.

‘The Committee is in contact with the Secret Service concerning this brazen theft of Secretary Noem’s belongings this week, and we will continue conducting oversight of the agency to ensure any security lapses are properly and swiftly addressed,’ he shared.

‘The security of our nation’s leaders is a vital part of DHS’ mission, and it must remain a top priority.’

Canada is a proud nation that will ‘never’ submit to foreign domination – but if it is to be ruled by a landed septuagenarian from afar, its citizens would prefer King Charles to Donald Trump – hands down.

In fact, Canadians would rather return to the to the British Empire than adopt Trump’s repeated insistence that it become the 51st U.S. state, even with his promises of lower taxes and better security, according to a new poll.

The poll, conducted for DailyMail.com by J&L Partners, reveals that a 54 percent majority of Canadians would prefer King Charles III as their head of state, compared to just 15 percent who favor Trump.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro is seemingly no longer welcome in the United States.

Petro, a former member of the 19th of April Movement guerrilla group and Colombia’s first leftist president, claimed the Trump administration revoked his visa to attend meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

He is instead be replaced by the Minister of Finance Germán Avila, who is in Washington, D.C. this week.

Former Vice President Al Gore compared President Trump’s second term to the Third Reich.

Bill Clinton’s vice president was speaking at a climate event in San Francisco. He said:

Adorno was a German philosopher.

By Geoff Earle, Deputy U.S. Political Editor

Vice President JD Vance has been able to fit some spectacular touring with family into his four-day trip to India.

On Tuesday, he was in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan province. He toured the Amber Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the ‘Pink City.’ The family was welcomed by a pair of trained elephants.

On Wednesday, the former Ohio senator heads to Agra, with plans to tour the Taj Mahal, the famed site toured by Ivanka Trump on her trip to India in 2020.

It is the first trip to India for Vance and his children, Vivek and Ewan, and Mirabel. Second lady Usha Vance has Indian heritage.

On Monday Vance met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. He flew directly to India from Rome, where he visited with Pope Francis on Easter Sunday shortly before the pope’s death.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

Usha Vance gave a rare interview as part of the family’s trip to India, telling NDTV, an Indian news company, it was her husband’s and children’s first trip to her parents’ home country.

‘This is a trip of a lifetime. I have been to India (before) but it was something I wanted to share with my nuclear family,’ she said.

She, Vice President J.D. Vance and their three children – Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel – met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as part of their trip.

The official trip is full of cultural stops, including a welcome ceremony with elephants, a visit to the Taj Mahal, and tours of various Indian forts and palaces.

Usha Vance also revealed the strong cultural ties her family enjoys to India: the vice president is fond of Indian food, with channa masala and lamb dishes among his favourites, and the children like to read Hindu epics.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth didn’t deny a second signal chat with details of the Houthi attack exisited but he did argue there was no classified information in it.

‘I look at war plans every single day. What was shared over Signal then and now, however you characterize it, was informal, unclassified coordinations for media coordination and other things,’ he told Fox & Friends.

The New York Times reported Hegseth started a Signal chat with friends and family that contained details of a March attack on Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth came out swinging in an interview on Fox News on Tuesday, blaming ‘disgruntled former employees’ for the leaks about his tenure at the Pentagon as he tries to save his job.

He cast blame on former staffers trying to ‘sabotage’ President Donald Trump’s agenda and said the ‘deep state’ was working against him.

‘They have come after me from day one like they have come after President Trump. I’ve gotten a fraction of what President Trump has endured,’ he told Fox and Friends. ‘It is not hard to do this job, I know exactly why I’m here.’

Pete Hegseth is a clear favorite to be the first of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet secretaries to leave.

The defense secretary has seen a surge in bets on sites including Kalshi, Polymarket and Predictit.

It comes after the New York Times reported he shared military information with his wife and brother on the messaging app Signal.

There have also been a number of departures from the Pentagon with unnamed sources describing ‘chaos’ and a ‘meltdown.’

The White House has backed Hegseth and called the stories ‘fake news.’