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Top U.S. & World Headlines â February 16, 2026
John Fetterman Bends Reality in Desperate Attempt to Defend Trump
Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat turned Donald Trump sympathizer, falsely claimed that the president has never violated a court order.Speaking to Dasha Burns on Politicoâs The Conversation, Fetterman launched into a fantastical defense of Trump when pressed on how he felt about the president calling him âthe most sensible Democrat.ââI know and I love a lot of people that voted for Trump, and thatâs part of why I refuse to call these people Nazis or theyâre brown shirts or theyâre trying to destroy our democracy,â Fetterman said. âNow Iâm not defending the president, but I will say he hasnât defied a single court order yet. He hasnât.âTo defend Trumpâs rule asâof all thingsâlawful is preposterous. Letâs lay out just a few violations, shall we?In April, the Trump administration illegally deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, even though he had received a judgeâs protective orderâand when the government eventually brought him back, it just tried to deport him again. That same month, Trump also defied a court order requiring his administration to allow the journalists from the Associated Press to report presidential events.In May, a federal judge found that the Trump administration had âunquestionablyâ violated a court order requiring the government to provide written notice and an opportunity for detainees to apply for protection before deporting them to a third country.In October, a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration had flouted a judgeâs order by requiring states to cooperate with immigration enforcement in order to receive emergency management funding.In November, the Trump administration continued to sign criminal indictments with Trumpâs improperly appointed U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halliganâs name, even after a judge ruled that âall actions flowing from Ms. Halliganâs defective appointment ⌠constitute unlawful exercises of executive power and must be set aside.âU.S. courts have ruled that Immigration and Customs Enforcemnt has illegally detained people 4,400 times since October, and yet Trumpâs sweeping immigration crackdown continues undeterred. But this isnât the kind of thing that bothers Fettermanâthe only member of his party who voted to keep funding the Department of Homeland Security.In total, the Trump administration has been sued more than 650 timesâa sure sign of a lawful reign worthy of Fettermanâs staunch defense.
Billionaire Trump Donor Closing U.S. Plant and Moving Work to China
One of President Trumpâs oldest donors is closing a manufacturing plant in Ohio and moving it to China, a slap in the face to the American workers he claimed to be fighting for. Hedge fund billionaire John Paulson plans to offshore the East Lake, Ohio, plant of Conn Selmer, the largest U.S. manufacturer of brass and orchestra instruments.âWe canât have American producers closing American factories and offshoring. We need to protect American jobs and protect American manufacturing,â Paulson said just last year.âWe came in with a full proposal, fully prepared to bargain, and they started off with a presentation of telling us how bad we were doing,â said UAW Local 2359 president and plant worker Robert Hines. âTo go publicly on CNBC to support the Trump administrationâs positive views on tariffs and all that stuff, and then you turn around and [say you] want to go send the work right over to China ⌠itâs a slap in our face.âPaulson raised $50.5 million for Trump during his 2024 presidential campaign. And like Trump, heâs pushed proâdomestic worker rhetoric while leaving those same workers out to dry. âItâs going to take a lot of money out of East Lake,â Hines said. âWeâve had people come out [and] show love to try to keep the place open, and the company just isnât open to it. Theyâre not answering or returning anyoneâs calls.â
New Evidence Torpedoes Pam Bondiâs Claim About Trump and Epstein
Newly uncovered details in the Epstein files reveal that the FBI spoke with a victim who accused Donald Trump of sexual assault, despite Attorney General Pam Bondiâs vehement denial that the Justice Department had any such evidence, as of last week.Agents apparently spoke with a victim of Jeffrey Epstein who also accused Trump of sexually and violently assaulting her. It is unclear what happened with the investigation, though the government deemed her to be a âcredible accuser,â according to independent journalist Roger Sollenberger. A woman with identical biological details sued Epsteinâs estate and won a settlement in 2021.The investigation into the accuser is made apparent on a page titled âprominent namesâ in an internal, 21-page slideshow cataloguing the Justice Departmentâs various investigations into Epstein and his longtime criminal associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. Trumpâs name is listed in the document, along with two allegations against the sitting president.â[REDACTED] stated Epstein introduced her to Trump who subsequently forced her head down to his exposed penis which she subsequently bit. In response, Trump punched her in the head and kicked her out,â reads the first entry, noting that the victim would have been between 13 and 15 years old and that the incident took place sometime between 1983 and 1985.But the second accusation against the president, which involves Trump agreeing with Epstein that a 14-year-old victim was a âgood one,â carries a different kind of credibility inside the DOJ, since the person who provided the statement was also used as a key government witness to convict Maxwell, according to the files.â[REDACTED] remembered Epstein introduced her to Trump saying âThis is a good one, huhâ and Trump responded âYesâ. (date range roughly 1984, [REDACTED] would have been 14),â the slide reads.Trump was mentioned more than 38,000 times in the latest batch of Epstein files, and was flagged in more than 5,300 files in the document cache.Yet the White House has continued to vehemently deny that Trump did anything wrong while he was close pals with the child sex traffickerâeven as evidence emerges to the contrary.On Wednesday, Bondi went so far as to claim the Justice Department had no evidence that underage girls were at parties attended by the president. California Representative Ted Lieu then accused Bondi of lying under oath, referring to a document from the FBIâs National Threat Operation Center that illustrated a witness had called the bureau to report such a case in 1995.
This Tennessee Prison Is Leaving LGBTQ People Unhoused Behind Bars
The South Central Correctional Center leaves LGBTQ people defenseless, so theyâre organizing to fight for their safety.
Uncovering Richard Bransonâs Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein
While the newly released files do not appear to show that he was an active participant in Epstein's inner circle, <em>Paste</em>’s comprehensive timeline of Branson’s presence in the documents makes the Virgin Group CEO's claims of ignorance hard to believe.
An Open Letter to LeBron James on Israel, Gaza, and âNothing But Great Thingsâ
The NBA star’s recent praise for Israel, as the genocide continues, was as bewildering as it was shameful. What happened to his support for social justice?