White House

Roger Stone touched down in D.C. looking fly ahead of his arraignment on federal charges, and he definitely had jumpsuit fashion on the brain -- but it ain't what you think.

We got President Trump's former campaign adviser at Reagan National Airport Monday, the day before he'll appear in front of a judge, and asked how he thought prison garb would suit him -- especially compared to his usual snazzy outfits.

Stone scoffed at the idea that he'd be wearing orange anytime soon, but he is embracing stripes.

As we reported ... Roger's homes in Florida and New York were raided by authorities last week when he was arrested and indicted on a slew of charges related to Robert Mueller's Russia investigation -- including false statements, witness tampering and obstruction.

He doesn't seem too concerned with those allegations, telling us he will plead not guilty and he has nothing to hide. As for whether he'll turn against Trump ... check out his answer.

Patricia Arquette's seemingly out-of-place shout-out to Robert Mueller during her SAG speech wasn't out of place at all, 'cause she says it was ALL from the heart.

We got Patricia Monday fresh on the heels of her big Sunday night at the 25th SAG Awards -- where she thanked the Special Counsel during her acceptance speech for Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series. She told us she was just trying to express her true feeling ... relief.

The actress says Mueller is doing the country a huge service by investigating the Trump campaign and potential cooperation with Russians to interfere in the 2016 election. She thinks the probe has everyone -- on both sides of the aisle -- feeling some sense of reassurance.

Our photog asks if she thinks Roger Stone's recent arrest and indictment is the last shoe to drop for Trump and co. but, like many of us, she's not too sure at this point.

Boston Red Sox star Mookie Betts is sitting out a visit to the White House to celebrate his team's World Series win.

According to the Boston Globe, Betts was asked about the trip to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Saturday night -- which is currently scheduled for May -- and he reportedly said, "I won't be going there. I decided not to." He didn't elaborate beyond that, but he joins at least one other Sox player skipping it ... third baseman Rafael Devers also said he'd be a no-show.

FWIW ... Betts is the American League MVP, and arguably the best player on the Sox's roster. It's kind of a big deal in baseball if one of the best of the best doesn't wanna meet with President Trump.

Three other Red Sox players are reportedly on the fence, but the rest of the team has expressed interest in meeting with the Prez. The team was supposed to head out there in February, but it was pushed back to May because of the government shutdown.

Red Sox President Sam Kennedy said he didn't feel it was appropriate to be celebrating at the White House while so many federal employees were going without a paycheck and struggling.

6:02 PM PT -- Stone is now stumping for money, because he says he can't pay off his mounting legal bills without help from the public.

Stone says he's facing $2 million in potential legal fees, and plugs a website where people can donate money to help him pay for his defense.

Stone also says he needs money to pay for security for him and his family, because he says he gets 4 to 5 death threats a week and gets harassed in public.

9:40 AM PT -- Stone just greeted a group of fans -- and haters -- telling them he'll plead not guilty to the charges.

8:47 AM PT -- Stone was just released on a $250,000 bond. Interestingly, he threw up the infamous Nixon double peace sign as he walked out.

Stone worked on Prez Nixon's '72 campaign, and also has a back tattoo of the President's face.

Roger Stone ain't having a TGIF kinda day -- FBI agents pounded on his door before sunrise and arrested President Trump's ex-campaign adviser.

Stone was arrested around 6 AM Friday at his house in Fort Lauderdale after being indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller. Armed agents in bulletproof vests surrounded Stone's home and hauled him off ... reportedly in his pajamas. His apartment in Manhattan was also raided.

Stone's been charged with 7 counts -- 5 counts of false statements, one count of witness tampering and one count of obstruction of an official proceeding.

As you know, Mueller's team has been investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, and Stone has previously acknowledged communicating with Guccifer 2.0 during the campaign, who intelligence officials believe was a Twitter account operated by Russia to hack Democratic emails.

Stone's also been linked to WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, who he publicly praised after the hacked emails were released. Stone's denied any contact with Russia or WikiLeaks since the election.

Stone's arrest isn't entirely a surprise -- especially to him ... he said in May he was prepared to be indicted, and claimed Mueller might do it in an effort to silence him.

If you're keeping track, this makes 5 associates of the Prez who have been busted by Mueller ... following Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos. His former lawyer, Michael Cohen, separately pled guilty to tax evasion and campaign finance violations.

Stone's expected to be arraigned Friday in federal court in Ft. Lauderdale.

Originally Published -- 6:43 AM PST

President Trump and the Democrats have reached a deal to end the government shutdown and reopen the government ... for 3 weeks.

The Prez announced the deal Friday during a press conference in front of the White House ... ending the shutdown that had dragged on for an unprecedented 35 days.

The deal does not include funding for Trump's beloved border wall ... and the temporary end to the shutdown comes as thousands of federal workers missed another paycheck during the longest government shutdown in history.

The timing of the deal comes after increased urgency to fund the government following Friday's decision by the Federal Aviation Administration to temporarily halt flights into and out of LaGuardia Airport in NYC because of staffing shortages as a result of the shutdown.

They boycotted #45 ... but the Golden State Warriors got LOTS of love for #44 -- with the entire team meeting with Barack Obama on Thursday before taking the court against the Wizards.

Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and the rest of the squad met with President Obama at his Washington D.C. office ... and then posed for a group photo afterward.

Unclear what they all talked about -- but after the game, Durant told the media, "It was amazing."

Draymond described the meeting this way to ESPN's Ramona Shelburne -- "A private team meeting, team event, it was good."

Of course, the Warriors famously boycotted the White House after winning the NBA Championship in 2017 ... after visiting Obama in 2016 and 2015.

Durant previously told TMZ Sports, "We don't f*ck with [Trump]."

They DO, however, like Nancy Pelosi ... the Speaker of the House not only attended the Warriors vs. Wizards game on Thursday -- she also met with players after the game, including Draymond.

By the way, the Warriors won the game 126 to 118.

Kanye West says he plans to run for President in the 2024 election, and it seems like he's got at least one big supporter who can't wait for his White House bid ... Khloe Kardashian!!!

Khloe and big sis Kourtney Kardashian were filming scenes for "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" Thursday afternoon at Topanga Canyon Mall ... and Khloe showed off a new baseball cap pushing Yeezy for Prez.

Forget Kanye's beloved MAGA hat ... looks like Khloe is jumping in on the political hat game with her "Kanye For President" lid.

As you know ... Kanye is super close with President Trump, and Ye started the new year by teasing his 2024 presidential run.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is ready and willing to listen to President Trump's State of the Union Address when it's appropriate ... but she's not going to shake his hand.

We got AOC on Capitol Hill Wednesday night -- before Trump capitulated to Nancy Pelosi and delayed the State of the Union Address -- and she emphasized it's high time for POTUS to reopen the government and get federal workers their paychecks. Once he does that, she says she'll be present in the House Chamber for his SOTU ... but don't expect her to extend her hand to him.

Rosie O'Donnell's looking forward to having a President who's armed with more than one adjective ... and she's confident Sen. Kamala Harris is the right woman for the job.

Rosie was leaving a screening Wednesday night at NYC's Metrograph when we asked her about President Trump's victory in the Supreme Court ... which upheld his transgender military ban. She teed off on him for devaluing and abusing Americans, and then started looking to the future.

She believes there's a handful of qualified women to replace Trump in 2020 -- including Senators Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren and Harris. Rosie says any of them would be a vast improvement, but she's especially impressed by the junior Senator from California.

She told us the moment she was convinced Kamala has the right stuff. As Rosie put it, "She has an actual large vocabulary, unlike our President."

High school student Nick Sandmann was the perfect person to get into a showdown with Native American elder Nathan Phillips, according to a congressman from Nick's home state.

Rep. Thomas Massie, whose district is home to Covington Catholic School, was on Capitol Hill when we asked him about Sandmann and the criticism of how he handled the face-off. Not surprisingly, he's got a lot of love for his young constituent.

Massie says he's proud of the way Nick handled himself while Nathan continued beating his drum during the weekend confrontation at the Lincoln Memorial -- and he gives Nick ALL the credit for defusing the turbulent situation.

The congressman says he fears what kind of violence could have erupted if Nathan was drumming in front of someone else, who didn't have Sandmann's calm temperament.

As we reported ... Nick says his smirk was misinterpreted, and Rep. Massie backs that up.

Nathan Phillips doesn't feel the need to sit down and hash things out with Nick Sandmann about their Lincoln Memorial face-off -- instead, he'd prefer a MUCH bigger conversation take place.

Nathan was on "TMZ Live" Wednesday, responding to the Catholic high school student's "Today" interview ... where he said he wanted a sit down with Nathan. Doesn't sound like it's gonna happen though, because Nathan made it clear the issues go beyond them now.

Phillips believes his incident with Sandmann -- which has sparked debate, outrage and lots of hand-wringing -- has elevated to such a level of importance that it should be handled by the 2 major groups represented ... the Catholic church and the indigenous people.

As for President Trump siding with the kids from Covington Catholic, Nathan seems to have mixed feelings and went with the ol' "If you can't say something nice" adage.

As we reported ... Sandmann was interviewed by Savannah Guthrie and claims his infamous smirking wasn't meant to be disrespectful to Phillips -- it was simply his way of containing the situation.

Sandmann also refused to offer an apology for his actions, but did express regret for not walking away from the confrontation ... and said he'd be willing to chat with Phillips about it.

Anthony Scaramucci's time on "Celebrity Big Brother" ended up being even shorter than his White House tenure but still ... he says it still helped him feel like an Average Joe.

President Trump's ex-White House Communications Director -- for a now infamous 11 days -- made a surprise appearance in Switzerland Wednesday after mysteriously exiting the 'BB' house. The Mooch appeared on Tuesday night's episode ... but it was clear from the online live feed he had left sometime on Monday.

We know from the episode he wasn't voted out by housemates, but Mooch is keeping tight-lipped about his exit after just 6 days. In true reality star fashion ... he dropped a "make sure you tune-in" line.

There's a silver lining though -- Scaramucci says signing up for 'Big Brother' brought him down from his ivory tower of snobbishness and elitism ... and got him back in touch with his blue-collar roots.

He's not great at keeping a job, but at least he's entertaining about it!

Martin Luther King III begs to differ with Vice President Mike Pence, who said President Trump is honoring MLK's legacy by pushing for the border wall.

Pence quoted MLK's legendary and inspiring "I Have a Dream" speech and said, "He [MLK] inspired us to change through the legislative process, to become a more perfect union," adding, "That's exactly what President Trump is calling on Congress to do ... come to the table in the spirit of good faith."

We got MLK III last Wednesday at LAX, and he said his dad would view the shutdown as "inhumane," and he blames Trump for triggering the misery among federal workers.

Lady Gaga went scorched earth on Vice President Mike Pence and his wife over the weekend ... calling them terrible representations of what it means to be Christian.

Gaga was performing Saturday at the Park Theater in Vegas -- as part of her new residency -- and at one point as she played the piano ... she paused to talk politics and take some shots at the Trump administration, especially the Veep and Second Lady, Karen.

The pop star first openly wondered if or when President Trump would reopen the government, which got a huge round of applause. She then launched into a tirade against the Pences over Karen resuming her teaching gig at Immanuel Christian School in VA ... which aims to ban LGBT kids and teachers supportive of them. Gaga didn't pull any punches.

She says, "And to Mike Pence who thinks that it's okay that his wife works at a school that bans LGBTQ -- you're wrong. You're the worst representation of what it means to be a Christian."

Gaga continued ... "I am a Christian woman, and what I do know about Christianity is that we bear no prejudice and everybody is welcome. So you can take all that disgrace, Mr. Pence, and look yourself in the mirror and you'll find it right there."

5:40 PM PT -- Nancy Pelosi seems to have changed her a tune a tad in light of the President's announcement, saying Dems will vote next week to "add additional border security funding for ports of entry, advanced technology for scanning vehicles for drugs & immigration judges."

That doesn't sound like she's budging on the issue of the "wall." Time will tell, though.

President Trump wants to strike a new deal with Democrats to reopen the government -- but his plan is already being shot down by the party's leaders.

DT made his pitch Saturday in a nationally televised address from the White House, where he basically offered limited protections for current DACA recipients and immigrants with temporary protected status in exchange for the border security funding he's demanded.

Trump said he'd give 700,000 people eligible for DACA three years of legislative relief and extend TPS for 300,000 immigrant beneficiaries if Congress would give him his big ask of $5.7 billion for a border structure (which he says will only consist of about 230 miles of steel barriers rather than a 2,000-mile-plus concrete wall).

He's also asking for $805 mil to implement new drug smuggling technology, another $800 mil for humanitarian assistance at the southern border, about 2,750 border agents to be hired on, 75 new immigration judges as part of his package.

Unfortunately for the Prez, word about what he'd be proposing leaked early ... and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a statement which in effect turned him down before he could even get a word out. She says his new proposal is one that's been discussed in the past and is literally a "non-starter."

Either way, Trump says Senate Leader Mitch McConnell is going to introduce these new proposals in a bill on the Senate floor this week. Unclear if it'll pass in the House though.

In other words ... we're still in shutdown mode, for now.

What's better than a hole-in-one in a round of golf??

A HOLE-IN-ONE IN A ROUND OF GOLF WITH BARACK OBAMA!!!

Larry Fitzgerald knows that first hand ...'cause the Cardinals superstar aced the par-3 13th hole at Seminole Golf Club in Florida on Friday in front of the former President.

Golf Channel's Tim Rosaforte reports Fitz and Obama played a foursome at the prestigious course with club prez Jimmy Dunne and Obama Foundation board member Glenn Hutchins.

The story goes like this ... Obama hit his tee shot first -- striking the green about 20 feet from the hole.

Larry hit his tee shot next ... and with an 8-iron from 162 yards out -- HE JARRED IT!!!

Per Rosaforte ... Larry was JACKED, screaming, "I’m playing with the President of the United States and I just made a hole in one! This is unbelievable!”

Larry is no stranger to success on the links ... dude's a reported 10 handicap and has hit the course with guys like Tiger Woods in the past.

But ... bad news for Larry -- the ace means drinks are on him!!!

Something tells us that's a bill he won't mind footing, though.