In some ways, President Donald Trump’s Wednesday Cabinet meeting was typical — officials took turns praising the president.

The New York Times reported that it had “reviewed over a dozen hours of cabinet meeting footage to analyze how his administration spoke to him. On average, at least one of every six sentences either flattered Mr. Trump, gave him credit or criticized his political opponents.”

But Wednesday’s meeting had one important difference: Trump promoted a new Trump hat that retails for $55 on the Trump Store. The hats were “displayed prominently in front of senior officials around the table as cameras rolled,” according to The Daily Beast.

“President Donald Trump has turned his latest Cabinet meeting into a merchandising opportunity to line his pockets,” The Daily Beast reported, noting that “new ‘USA 250 Anniversary’ hats were displayed prominently in front of senior officials around the table as cameras rolled.”

New York Post White House correspondent Emily Goodin on social media noted that there was “new merch” at the meeting. “Each cabinet member has one of these hats and a challenge coin.”

Fox Business White House correspondent Edward Lawrence reported that Trump had signed some of the hats.

CNN’s DJ Judd added that the “new USA 250 hat is for sale on the Trump org website and can be yours for $55 plus shipping.” 

President Trump’s online store has added more than 600 new products since he returned to office in January 2025.

Government ethics watchdogs “who have long accused the president of leveraging public office for private gain,” are likely to criticize this latest effort to monetize his presidency, The Daily Beast added.

Pointing to the 622 new products being sold on the Trump Store, the “official retail website of The Trump Organization,” CREW, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, called it “an unprecedented level of monetization of the presidency, even by the standards of Trump’s own first term.”

Close-up of the red America 250 hats in the Trump Cabinet meeting …. pic.twitter.com/OBE0gDKF70

— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) May 27, 2026

Image via Reuters 

President Donald Trump is going on offense against America’s partners in NATO.

The Commander in Chief, “stung by allies who haven’t been keen to fight another war in the Middle East,” as The Daily Beast reports, is pulling military assets vital to Europe’s protection — and vital to U.S. interests — out of Europe. Among them, a significant number of bombers, warships, fighter jets, refueling aircraft, submarines, destroyers, and roughly 5,000 troops.

The Daily Beast calls the moves “Snubbed Trump’s Petty Revenge Plot.”

While it would take an act of Congress to withdraw from NATO itself, withdrawing military assets is entirely up to the discretion of the Commander in Chief and the Secretary of Defense.

The president has become “incensed by European allies’ refusal to back his war in Iran, Der Spiegel reported,” The Daily Beast noted.

Trump, a strong critic of NATO for years, has, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, become “increasingly critical” of NATO, its refusal to assist U.S. efforts in the Iran war, and what he sees as NATO member countries’ refusal to spend sufficiently on their militaries and defense.

“Key members such as Spain and Italy incensed the president, 79, by closing their airspace and air bases to U.S. military aircraft taking part in the bombardment of Iran,” The Daily Beast noted. “That followed tension created by Trump’s repeated musings about seizing control of Greenland, which belongs to NATO member Denmark.”

Secretary Rubio told Fox News that the “problem with NATO, unfortunately—and I’ve been a supporter of NATO throughout my career in the Senate—and one of the reasons I supported NATO is it gave us basing rights.”

He explained that those rights gave the U.S. a “contingency” for when flying to areas like the Middle East. European bases can offer U.S. forces staging and refueling areas.

“And so, when you have NATO partners denying you the use of those bases, when the primary reason that NATO is good for America is now being denied to us by Spain, as an example, then what’s the purpose of the alliance?” Rubio asked.

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From President Donald Trump’s billion-dollar ballroom project to his $1.8 billion “slush fund,” to the 2020 election, Republicans who are finding their congressional careers at an end — in large part thanks to Trump — are “finally speaking up” about the leader of their party, says columnist Will Saletan at The Bulwark.

Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who chose not to run for re-election last June after being targeted by Trump, has been among the most outspoken.

Tillis last week blasted the president’s ballroom, declaring that Americans were “trying to put food on the kitchen table. And now we’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars for a ballroom?”

Senator Bill Cassidy, who lost his primary after Trump endorsed his opponent, called the ballroom “a spit-in-the-eye insult to all my taxpayers in Louisiana—to spend a billion dollars on a ballroom when we should be doing something about the high price of gas, groceries, and health care.”

Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, also losing to a Trump endorsee, called the ballroom “an egregious waste of money” and a “slap in the face of Americans.”

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Tillis denounced the president’s remarks after Trump said that he doesn’t think about Americans’ financial situation amid a challenging economy.

“A billionaire saying he doesn’t worry about what people are dealing with that grew up in trailer parks like I did, that’s not very wise,” warned Tillis.

Saletan notes, “Some of the exiles sound angrier about the slush fund Trump has set up to pay off people who claim to be victims of ‘weaponization’ by the Department of Justice.”

“If you’re going to create a fund, it has to be voted on by Congress. The president can’t do this by executive authority,” Massie said.

“It’s as if somebody sued themselves, agreed upon a settlement with themselves, and that’s going to be funded by the rest of us,” Cassidy argued. “There is no legal precedent for this.”

“A lot of thugs that should still be in prison,” Tillis said, for crimes surrounding January 6, 2021, “are eligible for this payout. Your dollars, my dollars.”

“When you take money from me to give to a purpose that I vehemently disagree with, that’s tyranny,” Tillis warned. “And that’s what that account is.”

During his concession speech, Cassidy declared: “You don’t claim the election was stolen” when you lose.

Tillis also took a broad swipe at Trump.

“Earlier this week, I was called a RINO by the president,” he told CNN. “And I will tell you, if the Republican party stands for standing with insurrectionists who assaulted police officers, turning a blind eye towards Putin and what he’s doing in Russia, negotiating a deal [in Iran] that may be subpar to the Obama deal, then don’t call me that Republican. Just call me a conservative.”

Saletan called Tillis’ remarks “a straightforward case, based on the longstanding principles of the political right, for leaving the party of Trump.”

READ MORE: GOP Senators Finally Admit the Truth About Trump’s War — Kristol Warns Damage Is Done

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