White House

Rep. Jim Clyburn's adamant that President Trump is dead serious about remaining in office -- whether or not he wins the election -- and says it's not out of the question that military leaders will have to remove him from The White House.

The South Carolina congressman and third-ranking Democrat in the House made headlines this week when he responded to Trump's call to delay the November election by saying ... "I feel very strongly that he is Mussolini. Putin is Hitler."

Clyburn's sticking to that, and in our "TMZ Live" interview he compared Trump's tactics to those of a fascist leader ... who wants to remain that way for life. He says there have been talks about Trump refusing to leave, and there will be more as the election gets closer.

He points out Trump has already stated this in the past "jokingly," but Clyburn believes he means it ... and history has shown what can happen if it's not taken seriously. Coincidentally, Trump just tweeted a campaign video suggesting he's not joking either.

So, what happens if Trump loses, but refuses to accept it? Rep. Clyburn admits he doesn't have the answer yet -- it would be unprecedented after all -- but it's clear ... lots of people on the Hill are plenty worried.

Clyburn tells us he believes government officials and military leaders have already seen how Trump has misused and abused his power -- with his use of force to dispel peaceful protesters in Lafayette Park for a photo op coming to mind -- so they'll be ready.

Michelle Obama's struggling through 2020 -- she just revealed she's "dealing with what she calls some form of "low-grade depression" ... partly brought on by President Trump's actions.

The former First Lady dropped a new episode of her podcast on Spotify Wednesday, and while discussing mental health with former NPR anchor Michele Norris -- said she's got the blues "not just because of the quarantine but because of the racial strife, and just seeing this administration watching the hypocrisy of it, day in and day out, is dispiriting."

During the chitchat, Michelle talked about nationwide civil unrest and Trump's response to it -- and said it's all bringing her down. She added, "I don't think I'm unusual in that."

Michelle was describing what millions of us have been feeling over the last few months -- "I have to say, that waking up to the news, waking up to how this administration has or has not responded, waking up to yet another story of a Black man or Black person somehow being dehumanized or hurt or killed or falsely accused of something, it is exhausting. And, it has led to a weight that I haven't felt in my life in a while."

President Trump is doubling down on his well-wishes for alleged child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell behind bars -- his reason ... Jeffrey Epstein might've been killed in there himself.

DT sat for an interview with Axios, which just aired on HBO Monday night. They covered A LOT of topics -- but one in particular that raised eyebrows was Trump's feelings toward Maxwell, and by extension ... her longtime associate, Epstein, who died last year.

Check it out ... the reporter asks why Trump would send someone accused of horrible crimes his regards -- he said this last week during a press conference at the White House -- and 45 answered by suggesting she, too, could be at risk at dying while in custody.

Trump says her "boyfriend" Epstein was "either killed or committed suicide" while in jail, and that he wished her good luck ... further saying to let prosecutors prove she's guilty. The reporter follows up by asking if he thinks she could also die while in custody, and DT seems to confirm that's where his head's at. He says he's not wishing anything bad upon her.

It's interesting that Trump's peddling the conspiracy theory Epstein was knocked off at the hands of others -- because that's exactly how Epstein's own camp feels about it too.

The handwriting is now on the wall ... Donald Trump is revealing his plan to stay in office beyond January 20, 2021, and he wants to do so without even having an election.

Trump, who has made false claims about voter fraud, just tweeted, "With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???"

So, Trump is trying to start a groundswell to put off an election where polls show him way behind Joe Biden. The claims of voter fraud have no foundation ... nevertheless, he's been beating that drum for months.

So, why would Trump want to delay the election? Well, we just got word on GDP for the second quarter, and it reached historic proportions, plunging more than 32%. It's pretty obvious Trump wants to stall, hoping for a vaccine and an economic rebound.

The big worry ... Trump might as well just come out and say it ... he's not gonna leave The White House willingly. Bill Maher has been saying that for months, and the evidence is mounting that he's right.

In fact, in 2018, Trump reportedly said this about Chinese President Xi holding the position for life ... "And look, he was able to do that.  I think it's great.  Maybe we'll have to give that a shot someday."  So scary.

Kanye West's self-proclaimed running mate -- though she's yet to confirm this herself -- has returned online with her "spiritual coaching" site ... but gives no indication she's campaigning for West/Tidball 2020.

Michelle Tidball was name-dropped by Kanye as his VP pick in his Forbes interview -- following his surprise July 4 announcement that he's running for Prez -- but very little was known about her ... and her website got yanked shortly afterward.

As we first told you ... Michelle's site, Yarash.org, touted her as a "Biblical life coach" but also included some odd takes on mental health -- such as doing your dishes and making your bed to combat mental illness.

The Yarash site is back up, and though it's been revamped and edited ... it STILL doesn't mention anything about Kanye, being his Veep, or anything political at all really.

Instead, the site is gussied up with new animated graphics, an autumnal color scheme, Hebrew-style font, and tighter copy ... but features her same smiling portrait.

Michelle's old teleconferences and Bible study sessions -- where we discovered her mental health advice -- have been taken down. Her bio has been toned down quite a bit too ... but she's still advertising 50-minute life-coaching sessions for $65.

The Wyoming woman recently stated Kanye was doing "fine" and there was nothing to worry about ... amid his erratic behavior and wild Twitter rants, but she dodged any VP talk.

Kanye West is getting super serious in his bid for the White House ... his campaign is beefing up its staff and bringing in tons of folks with political know-how.

Sources close to Kanye tell TMZ ... Yeezy's hired a crack team of political advisors and people with experience to help him navigate how to get on the ballot in more states.

We're told Kanye's advisors are hiring people to work on the campaign. They're also recruiting volunteers, and they've contracted third-party organizations to assist with spreading campaign awareness and getting boots on the ground across the United States.

Our sources say the campaign's main objective right now is gathering enough signatures to get Kanye on the ballot in each of the remaining states.

We're told volunteers are canvassing for signatures in West Virginia -- hitting popular spots like restaurants and shopping malls -- and campaign staffers are working in New York ahead of Thursday's deadline to qualify for the ballot.

In West Virginia, the Secretary of State's office tells us Kanye needs 7,144 signatures by Monday to get on the ballot. If Yeezy gets enough signatures, it will trigger a review to verify every person is indeed a registered voter.

TMZ broke the story ... Kanye's facing a huge hurdle back in his home state, Illinois, where there are several objections over the validity of signatures gathered to get Ye on that state's ballot.

As we reported ... Yeezy's already submitted paperwork to get on the ballot in New Jersey, Oklahoma, Illinois and Missouri.

Joe Biden seems to have one particular person in mind for his VP running mate ... it's Sen. Kamala Harris, and there are clues from his notes that accidentally became public.

The presumptive Democratic candidate was taking questions from reporters Tuesday, and at one point ... one of the photogs captured a close-up shot of the notes he had on him, which featured a bullet-point list of topics and highlights ... including a whole section on Harris.

In fact, KH was the first item on Biden's notepad -- under her name were a few things he (or his staff) wanted him to address ... first being, "Do Not Hold Grudges." After that, Biden touched on the fact she's campaigned with him and his wife, Jill, she was talented, she'd be a great help to the campaign and he has great respect for her.

There was talk early on that Biden would pick Harris if he got the nom, but lots of people thought that plan was 86'd after the Senator went after the former VP for his civil rights record during the first debate. That said, Harris is one of the few contenders with executive experience -- She was the D.A. in San Fran and CA Attorney General.

But, there's this ... Biden's top campaign adviser who's helping vet candidates, Chris Dodd, didn't like the fact Harris had "no remorse" when confronted about the way she went after JB. Dodd reportedly considered her attack a cheap shot, and apparently wanted Harris to apologize for it or something, but she didn't. Her reported response, a chuckle and "that's politics."

Rep. Maxine Waters fears what's going on in Portland could be a sign of trouble to come in November ... IF President Trump loses the election, and refuses to give up power.

The Congresswoman, who was on Capitol Hill, was super concerned over AG William Barr's testimony, in which he supported the aggressive federal response to the protests.

Even more ominous than Barr ... Trump refusing to say he'd accept the results of the election, win or lose, and even more ominous ... whether he'd hand over the reigns of power.

Rep. Waters makes it clear ... she's worried her fears could become a reality, especially since neither Trump nor Barr will squarely say the President will accept the election results.

Waters says there's evidence Trump won't go willingly if he loses ... as she puts it, he's a wanna-be dictator whose methods follow a long line of dictators. And, she thinks the federal presence in Portland may be a dry run for things to come in November.

Kanye West's bid to appear in the NJ ballot for president is full steam ahead ... TMZ's learned he's filed the necessary paperwork to do just that.

We've learned Ye submitted petitions Monday with 1,327 signatures in his quest for a presidential run. In the Garden State, the requirement for Independent candidates to file for president is 800 signatures. Ye clearly surpassed that ... but from now until July 31 at 5 PM, there's an objection period where someone can challenge the validity of individual signatures submitted. If there are no objections, Kanye gets a place on the ballot.

This, of course, all sounds too familiar. TMZ broke the story ... he's facing a huge hurdle in his home state of Illinois after several objections over the validity of signatures gathered to get on that state's ballot. As we reported ... one of the objectors says he reviewed roughly 3,200 signatures but claims to have found less than 1,000 valid signatures in Kanye's docs. A hearing is set for next week on that issue.

As we've reported ... Kanye's already submitted paperwork to get on the ballot in Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma.

Donald Trump reportedly invited himself to throw out a first pitch at Yankees Stadium in a fit of jealousy over Dr. Anthony Fauci ... and was forced to cancel on it all when he couldn't actually make it happen.

Multiple sources familiar with the situation told The New York Times that's how things went down when POTUS made the surprising announcement last week that he'd throw out a ceremonial first pitch for the Yanks on Aug. 15.

Per the report, Trump was so bothered by the attention Fauci was getting in the leadup to his first pitch at Nationals Park on Opening Day last Thursday that he informed staffers to call the Yanks to get him on the mound.

The NYT says BOTH the Yankees and White House personnel were surprised by Trump's wishes ... and never officially locked in a date despite Trump saying they had.

Of course, Donald -- who was reportedly already booked elsewhere for Aug. 15 -- pulled out of the event just days after the announcement ... saying in a tweet his focus on the coronavirus wouldn't allow him to make it.

Trump added, "We will make it later in the season!"

Donald has never thrown out a first pitch since taking over office in 2016 ... but the Times says he DOES have a longstanding informal offer from the Yankees' team president to throw one out for them at some point.

Kanye West's bid to get on the Illinois ballot for President has just hit a bump in the road -- as in, serious objections about the petition signatures he's submitted.

TMZ's learned there have been 3 objections filed with the Illinois Board of Elections ... which means it will now evaluate the validity of the signatures on his petition, and then hold a special meeting to decide whether Kanye's name gets printed on the state's ballots.

Here's how it works ... officials tell us anyone can request to take a closer look at Kanye's 412 petition papers he submitted last week and every single signature can be objected to for various reasons -- including possible duplicates and/or use of fake names.

As for the objectors themselves ... we spoke to one, Sean Tenner, who says after reviewing roughly 3,200 signatures, he claims to have found less than 1,000 valid signatures in Kanye's docs. Sean believes the rest are invalid, but wouldn't specifically say why.

BTW, Kanye needs 2,500 valid signatures to remain on the state's presidential ballot.

Sean says he was motivated to investigate the petition signatures because he was fuming after Kanye's controversial Harriet Tubman comments.

We're told the board will now hold the special board meeting next week, and assign an officer to review evidence and decide Ye's fate on his home state's ballot.

Kanye West is scratching and clawing to keep himself viable for the presidential race, 'cause he just made another last-ditch effort to get on another ballot ... this time in Missouri.

The rep for the Secretary of State there says Ye's camp submitted signatures before the 5 PM deadline Monday -- just in time to be considered for an appearance on the November 3 election. Whether he has enough legit signatures to make the cut though ... still TBD.

Missouri election officials still gotta tally 'em up -- he needs 10,000 signatures from registered voters in the state.

Of course, he just squeaked onto the ballot in his home state of Illinois last week -- something that cost him a pretty penny to do ... upwards of $30k, as we first reported.

Remember, he missed the deadline in South Carolina about a week or so ago -- this after his off-the-rails campaign rally down there, which left him in tears ... and eventually on a Twitter tirade aimed at his family. Ye didn't bother submitting any signatures that time around.

Kanye West's last-ditch effort to make the presidential ballot in his home state worked ... but it cost him a nice chunk of change.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... Kanye's campaign team hired a third-party vendor called Let The Voters Decide to collect the 2,500 signatures to make the ballot in Illinois.

Thing is ... Kanye did it with only a little more than a day to spare ... before the 5 PM Monday deadline.

We're told the group got to work right away, deploying 45 people who hit the streets in various parts of the state and racked up enough signatures ... all in 24 hours.

Our sources say they were paid handsomely for their efforts ... Kanye dished out $10-12 per signature, and they produced 3,178 signatures. Do the math -- well over $30k.

One of the signature collectors, Kenny Mister, tells us he got hit up Sunday to petition for Kanye. He says he was in Detroit, but dropped everything to get to Springfield, IL by Monday, worked for 3 hours ... and got 56 signatures at 10 bucks a pop.

Kenny says he went door to door, asking folks if they'd support Kanye getting on the ballot, but adding it didn't mean they had to vote for him.

BTW, if you're wondering if $10 per signature is a lot ... it is. Rickey Hendon -- a former Illinois State Senator who now works as a campaign consultant -- tells us the standard rate is closer to $1-3 per signature.

Rickey also says Kanye's team reached out to him a couple days before Let the Voters Decide ... but he declined.

It all might be a moot point ... Kanye missed the deadline to file in other states, and he seems like he's focused on other matters at the moment anyway ... many other matters.

Kanye West has the proverbial snowball's chance in hell to win the 2020 Presidential election  -- but still, it never hurts to be prepared ... which is why Madame Tussauds already has a presidential bust of the guy.

The famous wax museum has a tradition of making clay head sculptures of our nation's leaders -- they made one for Donald Trump 4 years ago before he won the presidency -- and now they made one for Mr. West.

Hey, you never know -- better to have it on deck and ready to go if the ultimate upset goes down. We've seen it happen before.

Now, bear in mind the sculptures are not the full, colored-in wax statues you might see at any one of its museums around the world. These are different -- we're told they actually place the presidential heads in an Oval Office exhibit.

Here's another thing -- our sources say MT and co. have only done a head-to-head presidential "face-off," if you will, one other time ... and that was for Hillary Clinton and DT. Now, they're running it back -- but oddly enough, they opted for Ye before sculpting Joe Biden.

It's true ... we're told Madame Tussauds' team has not yet completed the Biden bust, but they say should he win, they'll knock it out.

Just goes to show where people's heads are at these days 🤷🏽‍♂️