In a confrontation caught on camera earlier this week, Rep. Madeleine Dean told House Speaker Mike Johnson, “The president is unhinged. He is unwell.” Johnson replied, “A lot of folks on your side are too,” a remark widely interpreted as a tacit comment on Trump.

The clip, along with a separate video showing world leaders laughing at Trump, circulated widely Thursday. The moments also came just days after Trump posted and deleted a doctored AI video promoting a “miracle bed” called “MedBed” as a new healthcare effort.

“The whole thing is completely cuckoo for cocoa puffs,” Psaki said during Thursday night’s episode of MSNBC’s “The Briefing with Jen Psaki.” She discussed the “MedBed” situation and said that Trump’s failure to realize it was fake was alarming because “not only should the president have realized that because of well, everything about it, but the president also should have realized that was not actually his voice in the video.”

She continued: “He did not actually do an Oval Office address about MedBeds, but still Trump posted that to his Truth Social page and then deleted it.”

Psaki then shifted her attention to Trump’s Press Secretary Karoline Levitt who defended the president’s bizarre behaviors, saying it was “refreshing” that the country has a president who is “open and honest” and enjoys posting memes.

“Doesn’t quite answer the question on why her boss posted an AI generated video that clearly wasn’t his voice,” Psaki said.

Psaki went on to break down other instances in which Trump displayed what some are deeming as “unhinged” behavior that has others outright laughing at him, including fellow world leaders.

“Trump also proudly bragged that he ended a war between the nations of Azerbaijan and Albania, despite the fact that the two countries were never actually at war,” Psaki said. “About a week later, at a press conference with the prime minister of the U.K., Trump made the same bizarre claim … Albania and Azerbaijan are not and have never been at war, but they are now laughing at us.”

Psaki concluded her remarks, calling Trump the global laughing stock.

“All around the world, Trump is the butt of the joke, and it’s a little less funny to many people living here,” Psaki said.

You can watch Psaki’s full segment in the video above.

The post Jen Psaki Brands Trump a Global ‘Joke’ After Week of Viral Missteps: ‘Completely Cuckoo for Coco Puffs’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

“It’s day two of the government shutdown and Trump still hasn’t met with the Democrats to try and reach a deal,” Fallon explained on Thursday’s episode of “The Tonight Show,” mentioning that Trump has been using a “special excuse generator” to make up reasons why he’s unable to gather the politicians.

One of the few reasons the generator came up with was that Trump got stuck in an elevator and that he wanted the Oval Office to look like a Ferrero Rocher. But the third option had everything to do with the three-time Grammy award-winner hitting the stage.

“I have to deal with a much bigger threat … Bad Bunny’s halftime show,” Fallon said aloud mocking Trump’s reasoning.

Fallon’s joke tied in to Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager turned adviser for the Department of Homeland Security, issuing a warning that ICE may pop up at the big game.

Lewandowski made an appearance on Benny Johnson’s web series, titled “The Benny Show,” on Wednesday, where he made it clear that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency planned to have a presence at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California in February, where the upcoming Super Bowl is set to take place. Bad Bunny was officially named the halftime performer for the big game on Sunday.

You can watch the full “The Tonight Show” monologue in the video above.

The post Fallon Jokes That Trump Is More Focused on ‘Much Bigger Threat’ Bad Bunny Than Government Shutdown | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Host Ronny Chieng noted how the Trump White House announced on Wednesday it would be withholding $18 billion in funding for New York transportation, saying, “Wait a minute right there. You’re telling me every New Yorker is going to suffer because of your beef with Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries?”

“Hey, President Trump. Don’t forget, there are things in New York you care about too, alright?” the “Daily Show” host pleaded. “Like Wall Street, Fox News hosts, your current wife and the home she lives in by herself for some reason.” Moments later, Chieng rolled a clip of Trump saying that “a lot of good” can come from government shutdowns just like the one that is currently happening.

“That’s right. This guy is excited for the shutdown, and that’s the Democrats’ fatal mistake,” Chieng observed. “They assume that Donald Trump cares about the government he’s the president of. You think you’re playing a game of chicken, but he’s playing a game of let-me-crash-into-your-car.”

In the back half of Thursday’s “Daily Show” monologue, Chieng turned his attention to Russell Vought, the Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget, whom Republican Senator Mike Lee told Fox News viewers has been “dreaming about this moment, preparing for this moment since puberty.” In response, Chieng joked, “This is probably the only 13-year-old in history who hid a copy of the federal budget inside a Penthouse.”

The comedian then explained that the shutdown has been caused by Republicans’ apprehension over the possibility that Democrats’ health care funding propositions will benefit undocumented immigrants. Confused, Chieng asked “Daily Show” correspondent and fellow host Michael Kosta, “Isn’t that worth it if it helps give Americans health care?”

“Absolutely not, Ronny,” Kosta bluntly responded. “That is not the American way. Obviously, we’d all love medical treatments for our diseases. But is that worth risking an illegal immigrant getting free aspirin? No way, Jose.”

The post ‘The Daily Show’ Warns Democrats Trump Is Not Playing Chicken With the Shutdown | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

However, CNN Originals will still be able to stream once the CNN Max change goes into effect on Nov. 17.

“CNN has benefitted tremendously from its two years of offering a live 24/7 feed of news to HBO Max customers. We learned from HBO Max’s large base of subscribers what people want and enjoy the most from CNN, and with the launch of our own new streaming subscription offering coming later this fall, we look forward to building off that and growing our audience with this unique, new offering,” CNN Executive Vice President of Digital Products and Services Alex MacCallum said in a statement.

CNN first announced the new streaming service in January as part of a post-election pivot to a more digital focus, with another subscription-based model in the works to be set around lifestyle, food and fitness content.

This update also comes three years after CNN shuttered CNN+, the network’s prior attempt to enter the streaming market, just one month after launch. The new streamer is supposed to begin this fall.

The post CNN to End 24/7 Live Streaming on HBO Max Ahead of New Platform Launch appeared first on TheWrap.

Despite Trump shattering presidential norms and two first-term impeachments, critics say last week’s indictment of former FBI Director James Comey — which Trump publicly demanded on Truth Social — represents using the law to do the president’s bidding at a level Nixon could have only dreamed of.

For that, Trump owes a debt of gratitude to someone who worked for Nixon, the late Roger Ailes, who after serving as a White House advisor went on to create Trump’s most boisterous media shield, Fox News Channel.

Ailes saw Fox News as a way to level an unequal media playing field that was tilted against conservatives. In the Trump era, Fox has become a regular booster of his alternate version of reality, helping justify and explain his actions. It’s a symbiotic relationship that has facilitated Trump’s efforts, including his weaponization of the Justice Department to go after perceived enemies.

Before the election in October 2024, the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward, who broke the Watergate story with Carl Bernstein, warned that Trump is “far worse than Richard Nixon.” To many political observers, Trump is proving that point in his second term, as he has brazenly called upon the DOJ to prosecute his enemies in public, sailing past Nixon’s schemes that were conducted under the veil of secrecy.

Indeed, while Nixon kept an “enemies list” and wanted to wield the levers of government “to screw our political enemies,” as White House counsel John Dean wrote in a 1971 memo, he wound up resigning after efforts to halt the FBI investigation into the Watergate break-in were exposed.

By contrast, Trump has not only openly abused the Justice Department’s independence but has engaged in other activities that have enriched him and his family, such as their crypto investments, which have legal scholars shaking their heads, sounding alarms that in any other time would sound like hyperbole.

Appearing on MSNBC last week, former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman told host Ari Melber, “I never expected after Watergate to see another situation like that again, but we have it now on steroids.”

Watching Trump weather various scandals, debate has persisted over whether Nixon might have survived Watergate had Fox News existed, which Ailes envisioned long before Rupert Murdoch gave him the resources to launch it in 1996.

Ailes and other Nixon aides hatched the plan for a Nixon-friendly TV network that would push pro-administration propaganda in 1970, writing in a memo at the time, “People are lazy. With television you just sit — watch — listen. The thinking is done for you.”

Nixon liked the idea of disseminating what was described as “our own news,” but the plan didn’t come to fruition before Watergate triggered his downfall in 1974. More than two decades would pass before Fox News came into being the same year as MSNBC, expanding the cable news menu while funneling that space into ideological silos, leaving the category’s founder, CNN, stranded somewhere in the middle.

That polarization, which has come to include a chorus of Trump-defending voices on social media, has surely proved advantageous as the president seeks retribution against those he perceives as having crossed him — a strategy met with enthusiastic support from high-profile Fox hosts like Sean Hannity, Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld.

Their arguments boil down to the claim Trump’s opponents pursued “lawfare” against him through a series of lawsuits, investigations and criminal indictments, thus justifying whatever Trump does in retaliation. Other pesky details, like the fact a New York jury found him guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of a hush-money scheme, are simply dismissed due to geography (New York, after all) or bias.

Positioning the discussion that way allows supporters to defend anything Trump or his inner circle do, as podcaster (and Fox alum) Megyn Kelly illustrated when bribery allegations surfaced against Trump border czar Tom Homan, employing the imperial “we” to tweet, “We do not care.” (The Homan story has another Nixonian precedent, since Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned in the face of similar charges.)

During Trump’s first term, Dean contended Fox insulated the president in a manner that might have saved Nixon, telling Politico in 2018, “There’s more likelihood he might have survived if there’d been a Fox News.”

Others echoed the point, including Geraldo Rivera, who said to Hannity on his radio show, “Nixon never would have been forced to resign if you existed in your current state back in 1972, ’73, ’74.”

In some respects, that line of thinking has less to do with Trump than Republican lawmakers, who broke with Nixon when evidence of his efforts to obstruct justice became public via the Watergate tapes. Today, Fox and other conservative media provide a protective bubble that not only wards off negative reporting but helps enforce party loyalty, with those who don’t toe the pro-Trump line risking being labeled “RINOs” (that is, Republican In Name Only).

Although many have drawn Trump-Nixon parallels before, the Comey indictment has revived the conversation. The challenge for media raising the issue is that details surrounding Nixon aren’t fresh in people’s minds a half-century later, despite the many dramatic (and comedic) depictions of him and Watergate, including productions like “Gaslit” and “White House Plumbers” in the last few years.

While Nixon’s name is inextricably linked to political corruption, it’s worth recalling how Trump mirrors or surpasses him, including animosity toward the press, paranoia about enemies and a sense of victimhood, all qualities that Fox News’ biggest names help reinforce.

In a Salon column, Heather Digby Parton called the Trump-Nixon connections “uncanny,” writing, “Trump has gone farther than Nixon ever contemplated,” adding that unlike Republican lawmakers who turned against Nixon, in Trump’s case, “As his corruption and retribution have gone into overdrive, he maintains the full and enthusiastic support of his party.”

To the extent Democrats and historians have wondered whether GOP legislators might experience pangs of conscience or grow spines, it’s worth noting the media incentive structure is much different today. Republican lawmakers seeking re-election know the value of Trump’s support as well as cable-news hits or appearances on friendly podcasts; they understand what they have to say.

Ailes died in 2017, but he has cast a long shadow. And while he didn’t realize his grand plan in time to save Nixon, as Trump takes unprecedented steps to check names off his enemies list, Ailes’ vision for Fox News continues to play a major co-starring role in letting Trump be as bad as Nixon wanted to be.

The post Trump’s Weaponization of the DOJ Was Made Possible by Roger Ailes and Fox News appeared first on TheWrap.

Vance tweeted Thursday about a video of Reid in which she speaks about her family’s experience with racism in the U.S., arguing that the former MSNBC anchor should be grateful for her life here.

“My honest, non-trolling advice to Joy Reid is that you’d be a much happier person if you showed a little gratitude,” he wrote on X of the video.

Reid responded to his tweet just hours later, writing in a lengthy Substack post that she was shocked the vice president cared enough to respond directly to her comments.

“I have to admit, I am surprised that the vice president of the United States has so much time on his hands that he’s scrolling old interviews of mine,” Reid wrote, also adding: “Tweet less and govern more, James David; you are wasting our time and tax money.”

“We are, after all, just one day into a Republican government shutdown, Trump’s disastrous tariffs are wreaking hell on our economy, likely prompting yet another Trump bailout of the farmers who largely voted for him and those tariffs too,” she continued. “Unemployment is on the rise, prompted by Trump’s frenetic dogeing of any government agency, state or city he doesn’t like or that doesn’t sufficiently like him. Our health agencies are in the shaky hands of a former heroin addict/vaccine truther and a TV doctor from Oprah’s former show. And the former weekend TV host in charge of our military just forced our entire military leadership to watch him do a creepy, manosphere TED Talk.

“With all of that going on, the vice president of the United States is spending his time trolling me on Twitter??? And not even for the first time???” she said. “For this, we’re paying this guy $235,000 a year???”

Last week, the vice president responded to a clip of Reid on a panel, saying Vance likely benefitted from affirmative action when he got into Yale.

“Maybe the way JD Vance got into Yale is because they were tired of just letting in white men from New York from Choate, from all the elite schools. They wanted an Appalachian white. That’s how that man got into Yale, I promise you,” Reid said on Don Lemon’s show Sept. 24. “That’s also affirmative action and DEI.”

Vance replied with a meme of himself bald with a bloated face.

https://t.co/agmI0CLpQs pic.twitter.com/NuCp7NfiqS

— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 24, 2025

Reid responded directly to Vance’s claims that she should show some gratitude on Thursday, stating that “men like JD who believe themselves to be our betters will either assume that you stole your success from a more deserving white person or they’ll demand that you show them some ‘gratitude.'”

In her Substack kiss-off, the best-selling author thanked civil rights activists, interned Japanese Americans and her mother, to whom she credits her success.

“I’m grateful to the abolitionists and civil rights heroes who showed us the meaning of resistance,” she wrote. “And most of all, JD, I’m grateful to my mom, Philomena Augustina Carryl Lomena, who came to this country all by herself and built a life. Who sacrificed her own health to keep a roof over her children’s heads, and who fought with the headwinds of anti-Blackness in her face to be somebody of account in this country.

“I’m grateful that she died knowing her baby was gonna earn a Harvard degree. And I’m especially grateful that she made her way in this country so foreign to her, despite people like you,” she concluded.

Read Reid’s full response to the vice president on her Substack here.

The post Joy Reid Slams JD Vance for ‘Wasting Our Time and Tax Money’ Trolling Her Amid Government Shutdown appeared first on TheWrap.

The company is expected to have Weiss report directly to Paramount CEO David Ellison, according to Puck and The New York Post, circumventing the traditional structure in which CBS News executives report to CBS President George Cheeks. Ellison will purchase The Free Press for roughly $150 million in a mix of cash and stock options, according to the Post, and the website will operate as a standalone entity.

TheWrap previously reported Weiss was expected to take on a top role at CBS News following the acquisition.

Weiss will work alongside CBS News President Tom Cibrowski, who will retain his role, according to Puck. Cibrowski, a well-liked figure among CBS News staffers, took on the role earlier this year after former president Wendy McMahon resigned.

A CBS spokesperson declined to comment. Spokespeople for Paramount did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

The anticipated announcement will end a months-long rumor mill about Ellison’s plans for CBS News and his interest in Weiss, a 41-year-old opinion journalist with no experience in broadcast news and whose work has launched multiple firestorms over hot-button political issues — including gender identity, Israel and Gaza and the influence of tech bros on Washington. Weiss’ work largely takes a center-right tone.

The acquisition will also continue a spree of deals by the Ellison-led Paramount, which acquired the rights of UFC games; the rights to the animated satire “South Park”; and deals with filmmakers James Mangold and “Stranger Things” creators the Duffer Brothers. Ellison has also been reportedly interested in purchasing Warner Bros. Discovery, though he has yet to place a bid for the company.

The post Paramount to Name Bari Weiss CBS News Editor-in-Chief as Part of Free Press Deal | Report appeared first on TheWrap.

The discussion happened during the actor’s appearance on Thursday’s “Hot Ones,” where host Sean Evans asked him if the rumor was true that he had to do 50 takes of the scene because he couldn’t help but laugh at the line: “They’re sucking on my butt like a Jamba Juice.”

Before answering, he let out a little giggle and then admitted, “Yeah,” it’s kind of true.”

“It wasn’t 50 takes, but it was a lot — more than it needed to be,” Tatum continued as he explained the entire backstory.

“It was the second day of filming,” Tatum said, before removing his jacket to prep for the heat of the wing and the backstory. He shared that it’s more or less an awkward situation when you have to show your private parts to a room full of strangers — in his case, the cast and crew. He noted that luckily he was more familiar with Bullock since their children go to the same school.

“You have to walk on to set and you have to be like, ‘Hello, everyone. My name’s Chan,'” Tatum said. “I know we’ve only had really one more day to get to know each other, so you’re going to see my d—k today. We’re going to get to know each other very well. This is my d—k. My name’s Chan. I’ll get to know your names later.”

He added that the “weirder” part of the situation was Bullock having to go into an entire monologue rather than having her pick leeches from his butt.

“It’s like a fever dream to even explain any of this,” Tatum shared.

Bullock has discussed the scene before, previously telling “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert that Tatum was “stupid naked” in the film.

“There is a full cheek … but I don’t believe we showed the full left cheek,” she said at the time, explaining that none of it was CGI.

“I had to spend some time down there,” Bullock said. “In all honesty if you’re down there and you have two pages of dialogue, if you’re looking directly at it, you’ll get nothing done.”

Watch Bullock’s remarks below.

You can watch Channing Tatum’s full “Hot Ones” interview in the video above.

The post Channing Tatum Recalls Filming ‘Lost City’ Nude Scene With Sandra Bullock and a Room Full of Strangers: ‘This Is My D—k. My Name’s Chan’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

The moment happened when Colbert seemingly started queuing up a joke about Roberts related to scandalous tabloids when the “After the Hunt” star cut him off out of fear that his bit was actually real.

“Is this a set up? Is this a lie?” Roberts asks. “I’m so nervous right now.”

Concerned, Colbert grabs her hands and says, “Do you consider joke set up lies? ‘Stephen, would you please stop lying through your monologue?'”

That’s when Roberts pointed out how wild and unpredictable Colbert’s monologue was, which included a gag about a “sexy cow” on a fictional platform called “OnlyFarms.”

“Can we just talk about everything that happened before I got here?” Roberts asked.

Colbert cut in, admitting he had nothing to do with what production was cooking up behind the scenes for his monologue: “What do you mean? Sexy cow? Pornographic Greek urn?”

“Hey, I didn’t know what graphics [they were] going to put up,” Colbert added. “I was just as shocked as you are young lady.”

“I don’t think so,” Roberts said. “It’s your show! It’s your name!”

“Think of the shame I’ve brought on my family,” Colbert jokingly said.

“You won’t last past May,” Roberts inserted, which was likely a direct jokey jab at Colbert’s CBS cancelation that is set for May 2026.

And Colbert agreed that he likely won’t be as this desk very long if his silliness continues.

“Exactly!” Colbert said, who, by the end of it revealed that it was never a real tabloid scandal. “They are going to yank me at this pace!”

Check out the full moment in the video above.

The post Julia Roberts Warns Stephen Colbert ‘You Won’t Last Past May’ After Monologue Shenanigans | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

“How many flashes of insanity from a president should we tolerate?” O’Donnell asked. “That sounds like something that deserves a zero tolerance policy, and we have never seen public flashes of insanity from any president other than Donald Trump. We now see them every day.” The “Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” host went on to call out Trump’s recent social media attacks on U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

“The president gives every indication that you could possibly ask for that he has lost his mind, and every single elected Republican official in Washington excuses it,” O’Donnell observed. “Most of them run away from it. They don’t even want to talk about it.” The MSNBC host then turned his attention to Vance, who addressed the media in Trump’s place Wednesday and excused the president’s AI-generated videos mocking Jeffries and Schumer as harmless “fun.”

“Of course he thinks it’s okay. James David Vance wants to start publicly acting as president as soon as possible, as he did today when Donald Trump was totally invisible,” O’Donnell remarked. “Perhaps [Trump was] slumped over in exhaustion, too weak from yesterday’s exertion of giving a speech, to slather on his homemade orange makeup and to think of something to say to the American people about why he shut down the government.”

You can watch the full “Last Word” segment yourself in the video below.

O’Donnell noted that Trump himself did not bother to continue publicly blaming the shutdown on Democrats’ federal health care goals. “Donald Trump didn’t even have the energy today to lie again about Democrats trying to provide health insurance for undocumented immigrants. That is a lie,” O’Donnell told MSNBC viewers. “Donald Trump thinks that lie is brilliantly underlined by him tacking mariachi music and sombreros onto videos of Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, and the vice president thinks it’s funny.”

The “Last Word” anchor shifted his focus back to Vance, slamming the vice president for trying to excuse and explain away Trump’s social media antics. “JD Vance could not explain the joke. Jokes never have to be explained. JD Vance had to explain that one and couldn’t, because it’s not a joke,” O’Donnell explained. “There’s nothing funny about it. The president has lost his mind. That is the clearest explanation for what Donald Trump is doing.”

While Americans’ ability to compromise and come together over shared goals and interests has long been what has kept the country from falling apart, O’Donnell said that the government’s ongoing shutdown is evidence of how much Trump and his administration have hampered citizens’ ability to continue doing so.

“We all know how to do it, and Congress used to know how to do it and Congress used to do it,” O’Donnell concluded. “But Donald Trump doesn’t want to do it. And so the government of the United States of America has shut down.”

The post Lawrence O’Donnell Rips Trump’s Social Media Antics Amid Government Shutdown: ‘The President Has Lost His Mind’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.