President Trump

Donald Trump is clearly angry -- enraged -- which is the only explanation for the revenge he seems to want to exact on the American people, because he's goosing his followers to expose themselves to COVID, and the Supreme Court has just facilitated his wish.

Trump's Thanksgiving message ... "I encourage all Americans to gather, in homes and places of worship, to offer a prayer of thanks to God for our many blessings."

It's as breathtaking as it is reckless ... as doctors and scientists have PLEADED for people to either cancel 2020 Thanksgiving or keep it within quarantine-safe limits, Trump is subverting the message. It's especially heartless given his personal knowledge ... that large events like his Amy Coney Barrett South Lawn event became a COVID superspreader.

Trump got some backing from the U.S. Supreme Court, with decisive help from his latest SCOTUS pick. Amy Coney Barrett was the deciding vote Wednesday night in a 5-4 decision, ruling that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's restriction on religious services violated the First Amendment. Just last May and July, the Court ruled by a 5-4 vote -- with RBG still on the court -- that such restrictions were constitutional, but things have now clearly changed.

ICYMI ... we are heading into what most everyone believes will be the deadliest period during the pandemic -- precisely because people are gathering indoors.

Joe Exotic is making a plea to Americans -- enjoy Thanksgiving, and then tell your rep in Congress to pressure the Prez to spring him from the big house.

Joe wrote a long Thanksgiving message, telling folks to enjoy Thanksgiving Day but on Black Friday ... " ... please think about the last 3 holidays I have spent in here while all the people that lied to put me here and the people that made money off of films, products and so on with the people that put me here under false pretense enjoy their freedom and their families during the Holidays."

That said, Joe then makes his pitch ... "Please pick up a phone on Monday and call your congressman and ask everyone you know to support asking President Trump to sign my Pardon and make this right so I don’t have to miss another Christmas without my loved ones just as you wouldn’t want to. I would love for some of you that has the power to pick up a phone and contact some pretty influential people to do so, so I could go home before something happens to my father or Dillon."

TMZ broke the story ... Joe's legal team traveled to D.C. recently to file their pardon application, and the team leader, Eric Love, says they've been getting encouraging words back from folks in the seat of power.

Trump's in a pardoning mood ... he just spared Michael Flynn from serving his prison sentence.

Eric says he's grateful to Trump and even suggests he and Joe have a lot in common ... he's asking for a pardon, and stat.

Donald Trump Jr. is occupying his time with 2 things while he nurses his coronavirus -- Netflix and guns.

The President's son tested positive for COVID and is self-quarantining at his upstate NY cabin. He acknowledged Friday night, "Apparently I got the 'rona." He didn't seem convinced, adding, "Maybe it's a false positive, maybe not." He wants more tests.

As for how he's passing the time, he says he's looking for Netflix and e-book tips. He also is busy with his weapons, saying, "There are only so many guns I can clean before I get bored."

Trump Jr. says he's "totally asymptomatic" but would still follow protocols -- presumably, self-isolation.

He came at his online critics with this ... "I don't have the red eyes like they claimed I had for apparently using cocaine prior to my RNC speech," but then adding, "That is the world of the Internet. God knows I troll, and do my fair share of it, so I guess it comes back to me, in time, as well. That's the game.'"

Trump Jr. has shunned masks like his dad. As everyone knows, the President, First Lady, son Barron, have all tested positive, along with Trump Jr.'s GF, Kimberly Guilfoyle.

Well, this seemed inevitable ... Donald Trump Jr. has contracted the coronavirus.

President Trump's son reportedly tested positive for the potentially deadly virus earlier this week and has been quarantining at a private location. According to Bloomberg, which first reported the news, DTJ is following all medically recommended COVID-19 guidelines.

The news comes just weeks after Jr. was seen without a mask at a Trump rally in Georgia. The vast majority of people who attended that rally were also not wearing masks. He's the latest in a long line of Trump family members to get infected with the 'rona. As you very well know by now ... POTUS also was infected as was the First Lady Melania Trump and her son, Barron. DTJ's girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, also tested positive last month.

Michael Steele's ready to get the Republican Party he knew and loved back from the President, but he thinks it's going to be a major challenge because so far ... nobody's stepping up to dump Trump.

The former head of the Republican National Committee tells us the battle between the GOP's "fair-minded patriots" -- his words -- and staunch Trumpers isn't dying down ... because there's no chance Donald goes away.

Steele says it's not complicated -- Trump will continue to assert his influence on the party and rally his base to maintain power. So the question ... who's gonna run against him in 2024???

Based on Steele's answer, he has zero confidence any current prominent Republicans are up to the task. He says whoever it is can't give a damn about pissing off Trump ... and, as he sees it, they're all too afraid.

Joe Exotic's team is so confident the 'Tiger King' star will be pardoned by President Trump, they've got a stretch limo waiting to scoop him up from prison!!!

The Tiger Team leader, Eric Love, tells TMZ ... Joe's legal team received several calls from Washington D.C. Tuesday regarding his pardon, and the team is feeling really good about Joe's chances of getting out from behind bars.

In fact, Eric tells us the Tiger Team already entered an agreement with a limo company out of Dallas, and they're keeping a Dodge Ram pickup truck stretch limo on standby 24/7 so it's ready just in case Joe gets sprung from prison.

Check out the gallery ... the stretch limo comes with all the bells and whistles, and it looks like it's ready for a massive celebration. Yeah, this would make for one helluva ride home from prison.

TMZ broke the story ... Joe's 257-page case argues several reasons why Trump should pardon him from his 22-year murder-for-hire sentence, even claiming Joe was sexually assaulted behind bars.

Joe and the Tiger Team are up against the clock though ... Trump doesn't have much time left in office.

James Harden and many others in the Rockets' org. all want OUT of Houston ... and it's all reportedly because the team's owner is a big Donald Trump supporter.

NBA insider Ric Bucher dropped the bombshell revelation on "The Odd Couple" podcast this week ... saying Tilman Fertitta's ties to the Republican party and Trump have created a massive divide in the org.

According to Bucher ... players and staffers have disagreed so heavily with Tilman's donations to the Trump campaign -- it's created a straight-up "revolt."

"What I heard is," Bucher said, "and we know how much politics and political position had to do with the boycott and protests during the Bubble -- I'm hearing that Tilman Fertitta’s strong Republican support and donations is one of the things that is contributing to this dissatisfaction."

Bucher added, "There is a revolt here because they look at Fertitta as a guy who supports the current President."

Russell Westbrook has already reportedly requested a trade from the Rockets ... and Harden is said to now want out as well.

The team also jettisoned Robert Covington this week ... while last year's coach, Mike D'Antoni, and last year's GM, Daryl Morey, have already left the squad.

Fertitta -- who bought the Rockets in 2017 for $2.2 BILLION -- has never been shy about his public support for Trump ... he's praised POTUS often, and the two are known to be good pals.

Donald Trump's got a new way to pay off his massive debt after leaving the Oval Office ... there are huge sums to be made for speaking engagements.

The 45th President of the United States would easily command upwards of $1 million to speak in front of crowds in America and overseas ... according to folks who help celebs get such deals. Trump could make even more abroad, where his booking fee could reach as high as $2 million.

Lots of famous folks get paid huge sums to speak, and Trump will soon be in high demand ... as will Melania and Ivanka, once the whole lot is out of the White House.

Heavy hitters in the biz tell us Melania will fetch between $75k and $125k to speak in the U.S. and between $125k and $175k abroad. Those estimates assume she stays married to DT, and we're told they would increase if she ever divorces him or writes a tell-all book. How's that for added incentive?!?

Ivanka, we're told, will command the most among Trump's kids ... in part because she was already a published author with her own product lines before entering the White House. Ivanka should rake in between $75k to $100k to speak in the States, compared to $100k to $125k internationally.

Sorry, Don Jr., Eric and Tiffany ... we're told they're only gonna rake in about $75k to speak in the U.S. and there's unlikely to be an international market for them. It's peanuts compared to papa.

Trump will be an easy sell in America, where over 72 million people just voted for him ... and industry insiders expect him to mostly appear at Republican or right-wing events. Internationally, we're told Trump will likely have his first few speaking engagements in places where he's got lots of friends, like Israel and Russia.

The speaking engagements for Trump and his family will likely be very thick on NDA's, we're told, and the agreements would allow Trump to prevent speeches from being recorded.

The money's there for speaking engagements, but we're told PR firms and talent agencies aren't lining up to sign the Trumps as clients ... they fear it would piss off existing clients and spark a mass exodus.

Trump loves the bottom line, and he's also gonna like this ... we're told he will get first-class accommodations and golf trips wherever he gets paid to speak.

Donald Trump ventured outside The White House Saturday AM to greet his supporters who believe he's the victim of election theft, but after he left, violence erupted.

Protesters and counter-protesters got into it as the crowd grew in size throughout the morning.

Trump breezed past the demonstrators in downtown Washington D.C. in his motorcade, as the crowd began to grow. The event is billed the "Million MAGA March" which includes 'Women for Trump' and 'Stop the Steal.' Many of them are marching to protest the election results, claiming without evidence there was massive fraud with mail-in ballots.

There are counterdemonstrations with anti-fascist and anti-racism groups ... always a recipe for confrontations and violence.

The Trump demonstration was promoted by the Proud Boys, Infowars and other right-wing orgs.

Trump tweeted Thursday, "Heartwarming to see all of the tremendous support out there, especially the organic Rallies that are springing up all over the Country, including a big one on Saturday in D.C. I may even try to stop by and say hello. This Election was Rigged, from Dominion all the way up & down!"

Trump may be off to his golf course. As we reported, once he leaves The White House he's poised to make a million dollars plus a pop for speeches. We're told he's also eyeing the possibility of forming his own broadcast network which he would use for the next 4 years and then run again in 2024.

Barack Obama is reminding the nation he congratulated Donald Trump as soon as he won the election ... a courtesy the President's refusing to extend to Joe Biden.

The former president ripped Trump for failing to acknowledge Biden as president-elect with so much as a congratulatory phone call in an interview with "CBS This Morning," telling Gayle King Trump is damaging our democracy with the way he's eschewing what's traditionally been a peaceful -- and cordial -- transfer of power.

Obama recalled election night 2016, saying he stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to phone Trump and congratulate the president-elect. Obama says he was doing what presidents do, just as George W. Bush graciously did during Obama's historic 2008 victory.

Trump's refusal to concede and call up president-elect Biden is clearly not sitting well with Obama.

As you know ... Obama previously chided Trump and the GOP for continuing to make baseless claims of election fraud in an interview with "60 Minutes," telling Scott Pelley it undermines the country.

Obama points out Biden and 2016 Trump will end up with the same number of Electoral College votes, 306, but says half the country likely won't take that into account if they keep consuming conservative media ... which Obama says presents voter fraud allegations as fact.

Claudia Jordan thinks Donald Trump was always cool to her because he wanted to get in her pants, and now she's comparing him to folks like Thomas Jefferson. That's NOT a Presidential reference, either.

The "Celebrity Apprentice" alum opened up about her reality show days with Trump while on the latest edition of the Political Junkeez podcast. It's no secret she hates DT now, but back then she says they got along fine enough -- but added that was only "because he wanted to f**k."

Now, she didn't accuse him of trying anything untoward -- sounds like it was more of a vibe she got from Trump -- but did say no one should take his admiration for her as a sign he's not racist.

In fact, she compared him to slave owners who had sex with their slaves.

Claudia competed on seasons 2 and 6 of "Celebrity Apprentice," but also knew Trump from her days in the Miss USA competition.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris both gave rousing speeches to an enormous crowd as they declared victory in the 2020 Presidential election.

Biden sprinted to the podium, then told the crowd his victory was clear and convincing. He was clearly messaging that Donald Trump's challenges will amount to nothing.

He then got presidential, telling the crowd he will restore respect for America around the world. He said he was heartened by the joy he's observed today all over the world.

Biden then laid out the work ahead, starting with subduing the COVID pandemic, restoring the economy, and on and on.

Kamala Harris introduced Biden. She came out to thunderous cheering and honking, to Mary J Blige's "Work It,"and began her speech by referencing the late John Lewis, who said ... "Democracy is not a state. It's an act." As Harris explained, there's no guarantee that democracy will endure ... it's all about action.

Harris took some oblique shots at Trump, saying voters chose hope, unity, decency, science and truth. But, most of what she did was inspirational, talking about her historic rise and her late mother's mantra that anything is possible.

Her most memorable line ... "I may be the first [female Veep] in this office. I will not be the last."

President Trump has broken his silence on Joe Biden's projected victory of the presidential election -- saying it's still too early to call, and vowing to fight this to the bitter end.

DT's first remarks since Biden was announced the projected winner by multiple news outlets came in the form of an official statement Saturday, rather than his usual tweet. He's got more than 240 characters-worth of complaints.

The gist of it is ... Trump believes Biden and the media are teaming up against him to have JB "falsely pose as the winner," adding they don't want "the truth to be exposed." He goes on to defiantly say this election is far from over.

Trump points out Biden has not been certified as the winner in any states, especially in contested ones like Pennsylvania, where 45 again claimed fraud and corruption in the count. He makes the obvious point ... which is that votes decide elections, not the media.

The sitting President reaffirmed his intent to start taking legal action on Monday -- insisting on having every legal vote counted. He went on to say that only a party -- like the Dems -- engaged in wrongdoing would resist observers in the count rooms, and ends his rant by asking ... "What is Biden hiding?"

Despite the fact there have been no reports of major irregularities in ANY of the states, Trump seems convinced of the opposite ... and, to this point, without any evidence.

It was the best of times for Joe Biden supporters, and the worst of times for Donald Trump supporters -- the latter of whom are taking to the streets to protest, as their counterparts celebrate.

While millions of people who voted for President-Elect Biden are in utter jubilation this weekend, the folks who voted for Trump are none too pleased ... and it's painting a clear picture of how divided America is today.

Take, for example, what's happening right now in front of the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix where hundreds (if not thousands) of Trump supporters are packed in and seemingly furious at the notion he's lost.

You can see the flags out, the Uncle Sam hats on ... and the anger seeping through their pores as many chanted "U.S.A." Several Trumpers are also marching right now in protest, including in places like Austin, TX, Lansing, MI, St. Paul, MN, and elsewhere ... with many of these demonstrations taking on the moniker of "Stop the Steal," something Trump himself called for on Twitter.

So far, it looks like a lot of these protests are remaining mostly peaceful -- despite reports of counter-protesters coming out to face-off with them in some parts of the country.

With that said, we've seen photos of some folks bringing out weapons in open carry states, and of course ... cops are out and about too, standing by for any action that might pop off.

The demonstrations and celebrations perfectly illustrate just how hard the work of unification will be for the Biden administration.

For now, tensions are high and people remained riled up on both sides ... which might continue as President Trump digs in his heels for a legal war against the election results.

Joe Biden has just been declared the winner of the election, and he'll become the 46th President of the United States ... this according to CNN, NBC, Fox News and BBC ... which have all called the election.

President Trump continues to say it ain't so, but after a new batch of votes in Pennsylvania -- which brought 20 more electoral college votes -- Biden passed the 270 mark of electoral votes to be the projected winner of the 2020 presidential election.

Barack Obama tweeted his congratulations to Biden and Harris, asking Americans to give them a chance, regardless of who they voted for.

The President-Elect is already vowing to govern for all Americans ... including the more than 70 million who did NOT vote for him.

It's an historic victory, in many ways, not the least of which is Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris -- the first woman, first Black person, and first person of Asian descent to hold the second-highest elected office in America.

It appears she was out for a morning run when she got the victory news, and immediately called her running mate to celebrate.

Shortly after the announcement, CNN contributor Van Jones had an incredibly emotional reaction to the historic moment.

Biden and Harris' victory comes 4 days after Election Day, and required the painstaking counting of ballots in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona. Biden had been trailing in GA and PA until early Friday morning when both flipped from red to blue for Barack Obama's former VP.

He also held on in close races in Arizona and Nevada to give him way more electoral votes than he needed to win the presidency. Battleground states Wisconsin and Michigan were called for him earlier this week.

Worth noting, the Biden-Harris ticket managed to flip 3 states -- AZ, GA and PA -- that President Trump had won back in 2016. The writing had been on the wall for Trump all week ... as mail-in ballots were counted, the President's lead slowly shrunk before Biden overtook him.

Biden addressed the encouraging trend Thursday when he stopped just short of giving a victory speech ... but still sounded very Presidential.

Of course, so many of the state races were incredibly tight -- GA's already declared a recount and PA might be headed for one too.

Trump did win a tight battle in North Carolina, but he's up in arms about the states where he fell short and claims he's been cheated -- although, his team has yet to present evidence of that.

Despite President-elect Biden's win, the 2020 election proved to be another big failure for pollsters who predicted he'd have a relatively easy path to victory. For example, Trump handily won Florida by 3.5 points, but one leading polling site predicted Biden winning it by 2.5 points.

The polling fiasco was even worse than 2016, when polls heavily favored a win for Hillary Clinton ... and we all know how that went.

Likewise, Democrats fell way short of their predicted "blue wave" in House and Senate races. In fact, Republicans picked up at least 7 seats in the House -- practically negating the Dems' gains in 2018 -- and the GOP managed to keep control in the Senate.

President Trump -- a self-confessed bad loser -- is not taking the results well. Just before the race was projected for Biden, Trump once again tweeted defiantly.

Trump has vowed to challenge the result and take his case all the way to the Supreme Court.

A massive crowd gathered at The White House Saturday ... celebrating Donald Trump's impending change of address.

Thousands of people showed up at the fortified gates of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, cheering the news Joe Biden has been declared President. They also marched through nearby DC streets as a flatbed truck drove through blaring "Y.M.C.A."

As the MC onboard the truck put it, "We took his song back." The sitting President made the Village People classic a staple at his campaign rallies.

It's quite the rolling party ... the truck was also carrying a local DC band, "Long Live Go Go."

The DC gathering is all the more meaningful given what happened this past summer, when protesters were gassed and beaten so Trump could have a photo op at a nearby church.

Of course, there was a huge crowd that gathered in Philly, which is what allowed networks to call the election. The celebration was wild.

Moving to the West Coast, Santa Monica Blvd. erupted into celebration on Santa Monica Blvd. early Saturday morning, with folks cheering, honking and otherwise showing glee over the results.

A massive crowd also assembled in New York City's Union Square, where folks celebrated with horn-honking, banging pots and pans, lots of cheering and people literally jumping up and down in the streets. Spike Lee broke out the champagne in a spirited celebration.

We're going to update the celebrations all day, so come back soon!!!