Bill Maher dishes on dinner with ‘gracious’ Trump at the White House
“Real Time” host Bill Maher revealed details Friday of his meeting last week with President Donald Trump at the White House, saying Trump was more gracious and good-humored than he expected.
“You can hate me for it, but I’m not a liar. Trump was gracious and measured,” Maher said. “And why isn’t that in other settings- I don’t know, and I can’t answer, and it’s not my place to answer. I’m just telling you what I saw, and I wasn’t high.”
Maher mocked those who treated the White House visit like it was “some kind of summit” brokered by their mutual friend Kid Rock, calling them “ridiculous.”
“I have no power. I’m a f—ing comedian, and he’s the most powerful leader in the world!” Maher exclaimed. “I’m not the leader of anything, except maybe a contingent of centrist-minded people who think there’s got to be a better way of running this country than hating each other every minute.”
BILL MAHER EXPLAINS WHY HE’S REJECTING CALLS TO JOIN THE POLITICAL RIGHT
Maher shared a printout of the insults Trump had leveled at him over the years, which Trump signed with “good humor.”
“And I know as I say that, millions of liberal sphincters just tightened. ‘Oh, my God, Bill, you gonna say something nice about him?’ What I’m gonna do is report exactly what happened,” Maher said, adding he “didn’t go MAGA. And to the president’s credit, there was no pressure to.”
The HBO host expressed his surprise about how Trump laughs, something he said he had never seen him do in public, telling his audience, “He does, including at himself.”
“And it’s not fake. Believe me, as a comedian of 40 years, I know a fake laugh when I hear it,” Maher said.
Maher credited Trump for being “much more self-aware than he lets on in public,” revealing the subject of the 2020 election came up during his tour of the White House and that he “didn’t get mad” how Maher brought up Trump’s rare admission that he had lost.
“Look, I get it. It doesn’t matter who he is at a private dinner with a comedian. It matters who he is on the world stage. I’m just taking as a positive that this person exists. Because everything I’ve ever not liked about him was, I swear to God, absent at least on this night with this guy,” Maher said.
“I’ve had so many conversations with prominent people who are much less connected, people who don’t look you in the eye, people don’t really listen because they just want to get to their next thing… None of that was him, and he mostly steered the conversation to ‘What do you think about this?’ I know, your mind is blown. So is mine.”
BILL MAHER FAVORS CUTTING PUBLIC BROADCASTING FUNDING, REJECTS NPR CEO’S TESTIMONY THAT OUTLET IS UNBIASED
Maher said there were several moments where he cracked a joke at Trump’s expense or contradicted him on various topics, but it was “no problem” between the two of them.
“I never felt I had to walk on eggshells around him,” he told his audience. “And honestly, I voted for Clinton and Obama, but I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was able to talk with Donald Trump. That’s just how it went down. Make of it what you will. Me? I feel it’s emblematic of why the Democrats are so unpopular these days.”
Maher recalled the “most surreal” part of the entire experience was when he returned home to watch “60 Minutes” and saw a clip of Trump from a podium “ranting” and shouting insults.
“And I’m like, ‘Who’s that guy? What happened to Glinda the Good Witch?'” Maher quipped. “‘And why can’t we get the guy I met to the public guy?’ And I’m not saying it’s our responsibility to do that. It’s not. I’m just reporting exactly what I saw over two-and-a-half hours. I went into the mine, and that’s what’s down there.”
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“A crazy person doesn’t live in the White House, a person who plays a crazy person on TV a lot lives there, which I know is f—ed up. It’s just not as f—ed up as I thought it was, and I have no illusions now that I’m back to work at my job, that he might start a new list,” Maher said, holding up the printout of Trump’s insults to him. “Because I don’t have a good feeling and will be critical about a lot of what he’s doing- the trade war and disappearing people, ruling by decree, threatening judges, gutting the government with glee.”
“But I also think he now understands I have a job to do, or at least he did on this night, because he said to me early on that he’d seen our last episode, which was the Friday before this dinner, and he said, ‘I thought maybe you’d be nice, but you hit me really hard.’ I did because I’m not going to pull my punches that presidents get to propose a third term for themselves. He understood that, and without animus, that doesn’t mean he’s not going to try to do it,” he continued.
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Maher said he walked away with nothing from the White House except “hats and a very generous amount of time and a willingness to listen and accept me as a possible friend, even though I’m not MAGA, which was the point of the dinner.”
He went on to share his favorite moment was when they both said they heard from a lot of people who liked how they were having dinner together, and how they agreed they didn’t like those who didn’t want them to meet.
“Don’t talk, as opposed to what? Writing the same editorial for the millionth time and making 25-hour speeches into the wind. Really, that’s what liberals have? He takes the piss out of everybody else, and we can hold ours?” Maher continued, taking a swipe at the recent marathon Senate floor speech made by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.
Report finds one staggering difference between Trump’s Cabinet meetings and Biden’s
A new report Thursday found that President Donald Trump dwarfs former President Joe Biden in the number of questions he’s taken from the media at Cabinet meetings.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt touted the clear distinction between the presidents as a sign of transparency as she spoke to reporters at Friday’s press briefing.
“As I’ve said before, and I will say it again today, everybody in this room has access to the most transparent and accessible president in American history,” she said. “The Cabinet meeting yesterday was further proof.”
Citing a report from The Washington Times, she said, “President Trump answered nearly 100 questions from the press, all of you, during his first three open press Cabinet meetings this year. That’s nearly 20 times the number answered by Joe Biden in Cabinet meetings during his entire four years in office.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP REPORTEDLY TOOK 1,009 QUESTIONS IN HIS FIRST MONTH, 7 TIMES MORE THAN BIDEN
Trump fielded about 20 questions during his third Cabinet meeting on Thursday, after taking 55 in the first Cabinet meeting of his new term and 15 questions last month, bringing the total to an estimated 90, according to the Washington Times’ count.
By contrast, Biden reportedly answered five press questions over nine Cabinet meetings in his entire term, in sessions lasting about 5 minutes each.
Trump held 25 Cabinet meetings in his first term, while then-President Barack Obama held 19 in his first four years.
The last time Biden met with his Cabinet raised eyebrows. In September, at his first Cabinet meeting in almost a year, the president turned the meeting over to his wife, Jill, who was seated at the head of the table, declaring, “It’s all yours, kid.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to Biden’s staff and did not receive an immediate reply.
Lawmakers reveal whether Americans should pick up the Medicaid tab for illegals
California has a $6.2 billion budget deficit for Medicaid services, and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest budget proposal projects the state will spend a staggering $8.4 billion to cover Medi-Cal, the state’s version of Medicaid, for illegal immigrants in 2024-2025.
Two new reports by the Bureau of Economic Analysis found the U.S. economy has become increasingly reliant on government handouts. Entitlements are growing faster than tax receipts and wages. Private wages grew by $67 billion in early 2025, while government payments to recipients surged by $162 billion.
In North Carolina and California, growth in Medicaid benefits was the leading contributor to increased personal income. Coverage for undocumented immigrants under California’s $6.2 billion budget gap for Medi-Cal is contributing to the surge in personal income.
Fox News Digital asked lawmakers on Capitol Hill if taxpayers should have to pick up the Medicaid tab for illegal immigrants. Popular progressive senators Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; Michael Bennett, D-Colo.; and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., refused to say whether illegal immigrants are entitled to Medicaid benefits funded by U.S. taxpayers.
NEWSOM ASKS FOR NEARLY ANOTHER $3B FOR STATE HEALTH PROGRAM OVERWHELMED BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, who was tapped by moderate Republican Gov. Mike DeWine to replace Vice President JD Vance in the Senate this year, told Fox News Digital it should be illegal for Americans to fund healthcare for illegal immigrants.
NEWSOM CONCEDES SKYROCKETING HEALTHCARE COSTS FOR ILLEGALS ARE ‘PARTIAL’ CONTRIBUTOR TO MEDICAID PROBLEM
“That cost should be transferred back to the state of California if that’s the decision that they made. If people are here illegally, the taxpayers of this country should not be footing the bill for their healthcare when we can barely pay our own bills here in this country and people are going without. So, this is an astonishing thing that California would decide to do. Clearly, the leaders of that state are tone deaf because that’s not what the American public wants,” Husted said.
Rep. Maria Salazar, R-Fla., who serves on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and on Small Business, said she doesn’t support any federal funding for federal programs for illegal immigrants.
“We need to see those numbers,” Salazar said. “I’m not in favor of any undocumented migrants in the United States using any type of federal funding or federal programs, because if you are not documented, you cannot be using any of the government or the federal government services.
“But I need to know what are the numbers. I do believe that in construction, hospitality and agriculture, the illegals, the undocumented are giving a lot to the economy.”
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, a fiscal conservative who serves on economic and commerce committees, said programs like Medicaid are solely for U.S. citizens.
They’re certainly not there for illegal aliens. And this is costing the American people a lot of money. So, yeah, that is a problem, and it’s one we need to fix,” Lee said.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said he has questions about the policy and wants to know more about the substance of Medicaid benefits for undocumented immigrants and “whether it applies in emergency situations where somebody’s life may be at stake.”
Another Northeast Democrat, Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said he is more concerned “we’re not taking away Medicaid from people with disabilities, seniors that need long-term care” before discussions begin on expanding resources.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said it could “threaten the benefits for disabled children.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., a Trump loyalist, said California made a “conscious decision” to allow taxpayers to pick up the tab on healthcare for illegal immigrants.
“They fully realize and appreciate that the federal government does not have one single penny to spend until the taxpayer sends that penny into the treasury,” Blackburn said.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said California needs to realize the impact its policies have on other states.
“A lot of people in Wyoming are living paycheck to paycheck. They’re struggling to pay for things they used to be able to take for granted, like food and gasoline. And it’s absolutely wrong that one state can expand its benefits to illegals, and my state has to pay for it,” Lummis said.
“Cost increases to the Medicaid program are driven by multiple factors, including expansion, increased enrollment for all populations and pharmacy costs,” a spokesperson for Newsom said when reached by Fox News Digital for comment.
Newsom’s office emphasized that Medi-Cal covers approximately 15 million Californians, which accounts for more than one-third of the state’s population. Program costs have more than doubled in the past decade, according to the governor’s office.
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Given Medi-Cal’s size, Newsom’s office said even a 1-2% increase in drug prices or hospital visits could mean billions of dollars in additional costs for the program, and states across the country and political spectrum are facing their own rising Medicaid expenses, specifically Pennsylvania and Indiana.
Dave Portnoy rails against ‘really lazy, entitled’ Gen Zers taking over the workforce
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy didn’t mince words when discussing the “lazy, entitled losers” taking baby boomers’ place in today’s workforce.
Gen Z – the generation born between 1997 and 2012 – has received a bad rap for laziness, entitlement, emotional sensitivity and poor communication skills in recent years. Since they’ve overtaken their baby boomer grandparents at the office, the changes are already showing for some of those managing them.
“They don’t want to work. They’re spoiled brats,” Portnoy said Thursday on “Varney & Co.”
MILLENNIALS, GEN Z GO ON TIRADES OVER JOBS CLIMATE: ‘A BONE TO PICK WITH AMERICA’
“They’ve grown up in a world where it’s [an] everyone gets a trophy generation, and the idea of showing up and going through traffic and being at the office at 8:45 and working until six, they look at you like you’ve got 10 heads,” he continued.
Portnoy proceeded to claim the youngest working age group expects everything handed to them “on a silver platter” and lamented they’re “very hard to motivate.”
He closed out the criticism by branding Gen Zers “really lazy, entitled losers.”
GEN Z PUSHES BACK AGAINST LAZY STEREOTYPE BY FLAUNTING OFFICE JOBS IN TIKTOK TREND
A recent Wall Street Journal report discussing the “locker room playbook” for managing Gen Z looks to the literal locker room where professional athletes – many of whom are Gen Z – have to be motivated and led, just as Gen Zers in other professions.
The outlet highlights that many Gen Zers prioritize things like self-care and work-life boundaries more than other generations before them may have.
Marti Wronski, chief operating officer of the Milwaukee Brewers who has been with the franchise for over two decades, told the outlet the generation typically asks questions that other age groups wouldn’t have asked during job interviews – questions about the amount of paternity leave available, the organization’s values and what it represents and how the role fits their personal “big picture,” indicating a focus on matching jobs to personal interests and life goals.
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US, Iran hold talks amid Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign against regime
Delegates from the United States and Iran are holding talks in Oman on Saturday in a delicate effort to restart negotiations over Tehran’s controversial nuclear program.
The talks, between a mediator to Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, come nearly seven years after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018. Since then, indirect talks between the two adversaries have made zero progress.
Trump has imposed new sanctions on the Islamic Republic as part of his “maximum pressure” campaign and has suggested military action remained a possibility. Despite this, the president has said he still believed a new deal could be reached by writing a letter to Iran’s 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which he sent early last month.
Khamenei, meanwhile, has warned that Iran would respond to any U.S.-led attack with an attack of its own.
TRUMP DEMANDS DO-OR-DIE NUCLEAR TALKS WITH IRAN. WHO HAS THE LEVERAGE?
“They threaten to commit acts of mischief, but we are not entirely certain that such actions will take place,” the supreme leader said. “We do not consider it highly likely that trouble will come from the outside. However, if it does, they will undoubtedly face a strong retaliatory strike.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei called such threats against Iran “a shocking affront to the very essence of International Peace and Security.”
“Violence breeds violence, peace begets peace. The US can choose the course…; and concede to CONSEQUENCES,” he wrote on X.
AHEAD OF TRUMP ADMIN-IRAN TALKS, NEW REPORT SAYS IRAN NUCLEAR THREAT RISES TO ‘EXTREME DANGER’
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has rejected direct negotiations with the United States over Tehran’s nuclear program.
“We don’t avoid talks; it’s the breach of promises that has caused issues for us so far,” Pezeshkian said in televised remarks during a Cabinet meeting. “They must prove that they can build trust.”
Once allies, both countries have been hostile to one another for nearly half a century, following the 1979 Islamic Revolution that saw the creation of a theocratic government led by Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, whose rule was cemented in a CIA-led coup in 1953, had fled Iran before the revolution, ill with cancer, as demonstrations swelled against his rule. Late in 1979, university students overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, seeking the shah’s extradition and sparking the 444-day hostage crisis that severed diplomatic relations between Iran and the U.S.
TRUMP’S GOT IRAN CORNERED BY FOLLOWING REAGAN’S DOCTRINE
In the decades since, Iran-U.S. relations have see-sawed between enmity and grudging diplomacy, with relations peaking when Tehran made the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers before Trump withdrew from the deal, sparking more tensions in the Mideast that persist today.
Under the original 2015 nuclear deal, Iran was allowed to enrich uranium up to 3.67% purity and to maintain a uranium stockpile of 661 pounds. The last report by the International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran’s program put its stockpile at 18,286 pounds as it enriches a fraction of it to 60% purity.
U.S. intelligence agencies assess that Iran has yet to begin a weapons program, but has “undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so.”
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Iran has insisted for decades that its nuclear program is peaceful. However, its officials increasingly threaten to pursue a nuclear weapon. Iran now enriches uranium to near weapons-grade levels of 60%, the only country in the world without a nuclear weapons program to do so.
Garth Brooks found Nashville ‘gutted’ after returning to country music
In 2014, when Garth Brooks made the decision to return to country music after leaving the industry for 14 years to raise his children, he found a remarkably different world than the one he’d known.
The singer-songwriter announced his retirement in 2000 when he was at the top of his game, having released mega-hits like “Friends in Low Places” and “The River” during the ’90s. After several years out of the spotlight spent taking care of his three daughters in his home state of Oklahoma, Brooks moved to Nashville after his youngest child made the decision to attend Belmont University in the city.
When he arrived, he found that Music City had turned into a “gutted town.”
GARTH BROOKS GAVE UP BEING ‘BIGGEST SUPERSTAR ON PLANET’ TO RAISE KIDS IN OKLAHOMA
As Brooks wrote in his new book, “The Anthology Part V,” after he and his wife, fellow country superstar Trisha Yearwood, made the move back to Nashville, “I saw that we’d lost over 80 percent of our songwriters. They were gone.”
He continued, “It was a gutted town when it came to songwriters. And, I’m sorry, try and feed the world without farmers. The songwriters? They’re the farmers that feed music, and they were gone. So you kind of said, okay, you’re getting back into this thing. But there’s a lot I am not happy about that’s happened in the last fourteen years. … It created a mood. Things got darker.”
“As much as I love songwriting, and as much as I love the publishers that independently push their songs, what’s happened to the songwriter is technology.”
Brooks touched on the same topic again in another portion of the book, once again saying that Nashville had been “gutted” when he returned from Oklahoma. He wrote that he’d seen before “how songwriters made a living and how dreams come true,” but in 2014, all he could see “was all we had lost.”
Later in the book, when discussing his comeback album and its title track, “Man Against Machine,” Brooks explained more about what had changed in the 14 years he’d been gone: technology.
“As much as I love songwriting, and as much as I love the publishers that independently push their songs, what’s happened to the songwriter is technology,” the singer-songwriter explained. “For fourteen years I watched from the sidelines as music fell a victim to technology.”
“The iPod comes out, which leads to the smartphone. And music made the mistake of backing down to technology, because the threat that technology made to music was this: ‘If you’re not going to play our game, then all the iPods and smartphones will be filled with illegally downloaded stuff. And there’s nothing we can do about that.'”
He added, “Music blinked, and bam!, they let technology price their product. And all I can say is, can you believe ‘Hotel California’ is worth only 99 cents? … We understood that technology was taking over music, would eventually choke and damn near kill music while the technology prospered.”
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Brooks struggled with navigating the change in the music industry as he also dealt with all the changes in his personal life — the move from Oklahoma to Tennessee and his last child leaving home (he admitted that “the empty nest hit me a lot harder than I ever dreamed it would”) — but he said that the idea of streaming music “might have been the hardest to get my head around.”
Coming from a time when fans had to buy physical copies of albums and singles and entering into a new era when so much was focused on digital products was something that he admitted he “wasn’t seeing a way through.”
To combat the issues he saw with digital music, Brooks launched GhostTunes in September 2014, his own digital music store, with the intent of giving a greater portion of money from the sales of the music to songwriters and artists. In 2017, GhostTunes was absorbed into Amazon Music, but as he wrote in “The Anthology Part V,” he doesn’t consider it a failed business venture.
“Anybody that calls GhostTunes a mistake can’t see the writing on the wall, that technology is f—ing music over. The genie is so far out of the bottle at this point. I never want to offend anyone. With that said, my opinion is technology has no love for art. None whatsoever. It just has a love for something that can sell its hardware and software,” he explained.
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Also in September 2014, Brooks kicked off The Garth Brooks World Tour — his first since his previous world tour wrapped in 1998. He recalled being “scared s—less that no one would show up” when he first announced new concerts, and when a ticket queue was set up for the first show, which took place in Chicago, he told his team that he’d be happy to see 100,000 people waiting online to buy tickets.
By the time the tickets went on sale, there were over 300,000 in line.
Brooks added shows to meet the demand, eventually performing 11 concerts in Chicago alone. As for the decision to kick off the tour in the city, Marci Braun, a program director for US99, a Chicago radio station that helped promote the tour, explained, “Put Garth’s first comeback show in Nashville, and it’s a country story. Put it in Oklahoma, it’s a Garth story. Put it in Chicago? It’s an American story.”
In the end, the comeback tour went on for three years, concluding with seven Nashville shows in December 2017. Randy Bernard, one of Brooks’ managers, said, “Garth came back bigger than when he left. It made a difference for country music as a whole, just like what he did in the ’90s made a difference. … There was no one in the world doing the numbers he was doing.”
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In 2016, Brooks won the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year award — something he’d won four times before in the ’90s, but that he pushed for in 2016 for the sake of his band and crew, who he said “were doing something nobody had done before. They were killing it. I mean killing it. Three-hundred-ninenty-one shows in something like seventy-two cities. It was absolutely nuts.”
Brooks won the award again in 2017 and 2019. In 2020, he announced that he no longer wanted to be considered for the honor.
Brooks believes that, being an entertainer, the work he and his team did during that lengthy comeback tour is what ultimately made his return to music such a big success story.
“The one thing that no one can take away, that nobody rules but you, is ,” he shared. “The live show, that’s when it’s just you and the people that determine whether your stuff is a success or a failure. … It’s about passion. It’s all on the line every time. You’re just going straight to the people.”
Brooks continued: “Live music was there before radio, before records, probably goes back further than any of us might even believe. One person throwing down a melody and rhythm for another: I’m guessing that if there was love — and surely if there was sex! — there had to have been music. Something like the age of streaming will never be powerful enough to take that away. Live music will win every time. When I think about this, really think about it, I stop worrying about the future of the music business.”
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4 ways to make your coffee habit healthier, according to nutritionists
Sweetened coffee is a must for some — but it could bring some health risks.
Select coffee creamers have come under scrutiny for containing chemicals such as hydrogenated soybean oil, cottonseed oil, carrageenan and other brominated vegetable oils.
While these oils can help extend the shelf life of coffee creamers, the European Union has reportedly banned some of these products because of their “harmful” properties.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers carrageenan “generally recognized as safe,” but experts have warned the food additive can cause digestive health complications.
Seed oils can cause inflammation and are chemically processed, which registered dietitian Julia Zumpano said in a Cleveland Clinic forum “strips the seeds of their nutrients and could potentially add harmful ingredients.”
Watch for added sugar
Certified holistic nutritionist Robin DeCicco encouraged coffee drinkers to consider going for organic and grass-fed dairy-based creamers to ensure the milk is “not full of hormones and antibiotics and instead consists of higher omega 3 fats,” she told Fox News Digital.
The New York nutritionist added that plant- and nut-based creamers and milks also contain additives to mimic the consistency of milk and cream.
FRESH FOOD CONSUMPTION COULD HELP SOLVE DIET-RELATED ILLNESS: EXPERTS
“While we still don’t exactly know the health effects of gums like carrageenan, soy lecithin and guar gum, among others, it’s been said that these additives can be connected to stomach upset, bloating, discomfort and inflammation,” she said.
“A lot of dairy-based creamers that are flavored can contain added sugar and artificial ingredients.”
DeCicco urged consumers to take note of how much saturated fat is included in their creamer and milk products, warning that too much can lead to heart problems.
“You shouldn’t have more than a couple of grams per serving, so if you’re having more than one to two cups of coffee a day, that’s worth noting, as is the sugar content,” she said.
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“If you use one teaspoon of a creamer that contains about 4 grams of sugar, and if you’re having four cups of coffee a day, that adds up to almost the total value of sugar an adult should have in a day.”
To avoid consuming these ingredients with your coffee, here are a few sweetener alternatives recommended by experts.
4 healthy and delicious alternatives
1. Make your own nut milk
Registered dietitian nutritionist Ilana Muhlstein, based in Los Angeles, shared some creative ways to sweeten your coffee naturally, including making your own nut milk at home.
“It’s amazing how simply blending almonds or cashews with water can produce a rich, creamy and completely clean plant-based milk,” she said.
“It really makes you question why most store-bought versions come with six or more ingredients — many of which are gums, oils and added sugars.”
COFFEE CREAMER PRODUCTS RECALLED AFTER ‘COMPLAINTS OF SPOILAGE AND ILLNESS’
The nutritionist added, “Just as people started realizing that nut butters should only contain nuts (and maybe salt), it’s time we question what’s lurking in our alt milks, too.”
2. Sweeten with powerful cinnamon
Another way to sweeten coffee naturally is with cinnamon, which adds a “warm, subtly sweet flavor,” Muhlstein said.
Cinnamon is also a “powerhouse spice,” she said; it’s packed with polyphenols that can help combat oxidative stress.
“Plus, cinnamon may help enhance GLUT4 expression, which supports healthy blood sugar levels by moving more glucose into your cells,” she said.
DeCicco shared a recipe for frothed, grass-fed half-and-half with cinnamon and hazelnut extract, explaining how half-and-half is a more natural milk option, excluding gums, additives or preservatives.
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“It also has a thick and creamy texture and taste, which works well in a frother,” she said.
“Whenever a milk is frothed-heated, it creates a more creamy texture and brings out its natural sweetness.”
Stir in some cinnamon for antioxidants and natural sweetness, DeCicco suggested, followed by some hazelnut extract.
FROM BOMB SQUAD TO BAKER AND COFFEE MAKER: FORMER DEPUTY CRUSHES A NEW BUSINESS
“People don’t realize just how sweet cinnamon actually is without any sugar,” she said.
“Vietnamese Saigon cinnamon is the sweetest variety and is very medicinal. It targets inflammation and helps to manage blood sugar. Opt for the popular organic brands to make sure there are minimal levels of heavy metals.”
3. Add pure vanilla
Muhlstein said she also loves putting pure vanilla extract in her coffee.
“Just make sure it’s the real deal — pure vanilla with nothing but vanilla bean and alcohol,” she said. “Imitation versions often contain additives like caramel color and artificial flavorings, which I’d recommend skipping.”
In addition to vanilla, adding coconut milk can make for a great naturally sweetened vanilla coconut cream coffee, DeCicco said.
“Canned coconut milk is a great option for coffee, as opposed to the ‘coconut creamers’ that are full of sugar, emulsifiers and gums,” she said. “You want at least some real fat in the coconut milk to keep it thick and tasty.”
Coconut milk is a good source of fat that provides energy to the body and is said to support gut health, according to DeCicco.
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“Mixing coconut milk with vanilla extract and a tiny bit of a plant-based sweetener makes for a tasty coffee drink,” she said.
4. Indulge in raw cacao
While chocolate is a crave-worthy sweet treat, it can be high in sugar.
But mixing pure cacao with coffee can be one way to satisfy cravings in a healthier way, DeCicco recommended.
“Try blending up raw cacao powder with coconut oil and a pinch of sea salt for a true coffee dessert,” she said.
Raw cacao powder is “one of the most antioxidant-rich foods on the planet,” according to the nutritionist, so it’s “excellent for anti-aging and anti-inflammation.”
“High in fiber, iron and magnesium, it’s a true superfood and has a rich yet bitter chocolate taste,” she said.
“When mixed with coconut oil, it has a much sweeter taste,” she said.
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“Coconut oil is a good source of fat, which promotes satiety, so I always encourage clients to add a bit of fat to coffee to ward off hunger.”
Visiting America is not an entitlement. It is a privilege extended to those who respect our laws and values. And, as Secretary of State, I will never forget that.
U.S. law lays out clear rules about who can and cannot come to the United States. The State Department’s consular officers are required to apply these rules to each of the millions of visa applicants around the world each year. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), aliens who endorse or espouse terrorist activity or persuade others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization – such as Hamas – are ineligible for U.S. visas.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTER MAHMOUD KHALIL CAN BE DEPORTED, JUDGE RULES
What’s more, the INA gives us broad authority to revoke a visa. This authority is fundamental to safeguarding our national security, as well as protecting Americans and lawful visitors within our borders. The Trump administration’s commitment to security and the enforcement of our immigration laws is unprecedented and unwavering. We expect – and the law requires – all visa holders to demonstrate their eligibility every day their visa is valid. This includes respecting our laws, behaving appropriately according to their visa type, and continuing to meet these standards throughout their stay in our country.
U.S. visa holders should know in no uncertain terms that the U.S. government’s rigorous security vetting does not end once a visa is granted.
U.S. visa holders should know in no uncertain terms that the U.S. government’s rigorous security vetting does not end once a visa is granted. Working together with DHS and other law-enforcement and security agencies, we continuously monitor and review these cases. This vigilance is essential because circumstances can and do change. For example, visas may be revoked if the visa holder has engaged in violent crime or drunk driving, supporting terrorism, overstaying the time permitted for their visit, performing illegal work — or anything else that violates the terms on which we granted them this privilege or compromises the safety of our fellow Americans. When information about such activities comes to the department’s attention, our expert staff review it and assess whether revocation is appropriate.
Recent events have underscored why our commitment to enforcing the INA and protecting public safety is particularly vital today. There are over 1.1 million foreign students in the United States, including at our nation’s most elite universities. In the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks against Israel, some of these foreign student visitors engaged in antisemitic activities and intimidation of Americans, many who happened to be of the Jewish faith. These foreigners shut down college campuses for American citizens, harassed Jewish students, blocked highways, and stormed buildings. The Trump administration is committed to taking the necessary steps to stop these activities at American universities.
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As Secretary of State, I will continue exercising my authority to support President Trump’s zero-tolerance approach to foreign nationals who abet terrorist organizations or participate in activities that threaten our national security or compromise a compelling foreign policy interest. The Supreme Court has made clear for decades that visa holders or other aliens cannot use the First Amendment to shield otherwise impermissible actions taken to support designated foreign terrorist organizations like Hamas, Hizballah, or the Houthis, or violate other U.S. laws. They will continue to face consequences – including visa denial, revocation, or deportation.
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Our first responsibility is to keep the American public safe. While I am Secretary, we will never hesitate to act decisively – and in close coordination with our U.S. government partners – when information indicates a visa holder could compromise our security, has violated U.S. law, or visa revocation is otherwise warranted. U.S. visas are a privilege, rather than a right, reserved for those who make the United States better, not seek to destroy it from the inside.