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The Latest Trump Assassination Attempt, How Media Narratives Fuel Violence

The April 25, 2026 attack at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was the fifth documented attempt against President Donald Trump in less than a decade. The first, largely forgotten by the media, came in 2016, when Michael Steven Sandford attempted to seize an officer’s weapon at a Trump rally in Las Vegas.

The most widely remembered was Thomas Matthew Crooks opening fire at the Butler, Pennsylvania rally on July 13, 2024, killing one rallygoer and grazing Trump’s ear, producing the iconic photograph of Trump raising his fist and shouting “Fight, fight, fight.” Between the fourth and fifth attempts on the president’s life, conservative Christian commentator Charlie Kirk was assassinated while engaging students in open dialogue on a university campus.

The media enabled violence against both men through sustained false framing. Trump was portrayed for years as a Russian asset and a threat to democracy. Using out-of-context quotes and selective framing, the media painted Kirk as a racist and a homophobe. Some on the left called for the deaths of both men and celebrated when Kirk was killed.

The media campaign against Trump began before his first election. On September 23, 2016, reports surfaced that U.S. authorities were investigating Trump campaign figure Carter Page for possible ties to Russian influence operations. This was the first public story directly linking a Trump associate to Russia. Fusion GPS, the opposition-research firm hired by the Clinton campaign, had directed Christopher Steele to share his findings with the media as early as mid-September 2016, weeks before the election.

On October 7, 2016, DHS and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper issued a public statement attributing the hacking of Democratic officials and the WikiLeaks releases to Russian intelligence acting to benefit Trump. On January 10, 2017, BuzzFeed published the Steele dossier in full, the same day Jeff Sessions’s confirmation hearing began, triggering wall-to-wall media saturation of the Russia narrative. The FBI’s own investigation, Crossfire Hurricane, had been formally opened on July 31, 2016, though the Durham Report later concluded it lacked an adequate factual basis.

The Russia narrative, the claim that Trump was a foreign-installed puppet being blackmailed by Vladimir Putin, ran for Trump’s entire first term and shaped two impeachment proceedings. The Mueller Report found no evidence of criminal conspiracy. The Durham Report concluded the FBI launched its investigation without an adequate factual basis and applied a double standard not applied to the Clinton campaign. The narrative collapsed only after nearly three years of continuous coverage built on material that, as Durham confirmed, lacked a factual foundation from the start.

Despite Russiagate collapsing, the media still runs with it from time to time, ostensibly on slow news days. However, Trump’s second term has been more acutely shaped by media framing him as a tyrant and a threat to democracy. The Intercept ran a 2024 piece arguing Trump “represents an existential threat to democracy” and that the warning “must be repeated, over and over again.” NPR aired a segment in which a political scientist argued the press had an “obligation” to cover Trump as a threat to democracy in the same way it covers climate change, with no opposing view presented.

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Fury as NYC on course to join Detroit, Chicago and Puerto Rico with woke mayor Mamdani’s latest reckless plan

Fury is mounting as New York City drifts closer toward the same fiscal traps that have crippled Detroit, Chicago and even Puerto Rico.

It comes after Mayor Zohran Mamdani began exploring a controversial plan to delay billions in pension payments as City Hall scrambles to plug a growing budget hole.

The proposal – now under discussion with state officials – would allow the city to push back retirement contributions into its vast municipal pension system, freeing up at least $1 billion in the next fiscal year.

But critics warn the move amounts to little more than kicking the can down the road. It would swap short-term relief for a far bigger bill later, and risk problems that have pushed big cities to crisis in the past.

The city currently faces a $7.1 billion budget gap. As Mamdani resists significant spending cuts, he is considering delaying required payments to city pension funds as a temporary fix. 

For now, the city remains on track to meet its long-term pension funding obligations by its 2032 deadline. 

Mamdani’s team said in a statement to the New York Times that it has not started ironing out the details of the proposal and that any changes would likely push the deadline beyond 2032.

Any delay to the pension plan would require the approval of New York Governor Kathy Hochul. 

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ABC Not Firing Jimmy Kimmel After Melania ‘Widow’ Comments Feels Like Network Flipping Off Millions

Liberal TV network ABC has ignited volcanic backlash by refusing to fire “comedian” Jimmy Kimmel, who is continuing to recklessly incite violence against conservatives.

In refusing to curb Kimmel’s dangerous rhetoric, ABC made clear not only its toxic left-wing bias, but also its disregard for public safety and national security.

The brouhaha erupted on April 23, when Kimmel flippantly joked about the multiple assassination attempts on President Donald Trump by referring to first lady Melania Trump as an “expectant widow.”

Kimmel made the inane comments while performing a mock White House Correspondents’ Dinner skit on his late-night talk show.

During the sketch, the left-wing foghorn pretended to be speaking to attendees.

“Our first lady Melania is here… so beautiful,” Kimmel said. “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”

This jab ignited renewed criticism when another presidential assassination attempt occurred two days later at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C.

On Monday, the first lady urged ABC to finally take a stand against political violence by ousting Kimmel.

“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country,” she wrote on X.

“People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”

“Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand,” Melania said.

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USC historian defends Southern Poverty Law Center funneling payments to KKK leaders 

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s payments to the handful of remaining white supremacist groups in the country are just like how Jewish groups took down extremists, according to a University of Southern California historian.

Professor Steven Ross made the comments during an interview last week with National Public Radio. He has a book coming out about “racist” and “antisemitic groups” in the 20th century. 

Last week, the Trump administration announced federal charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center, accusing it of defrauding donors. The 14-page complaint says the SPLC paid informants within the Ku Klux Klan and other white hate groups. At the same time, the group was fundraising off the alleged resurgence and influence of those same organizations.

But Professor Ross rushed to defend the payments to white supremacist groups, linking that activity back to the work of Jewish groups in the 1940s and onward to infiltrate hate groups.

He told NPR:

I’m not sure if the indictment is true or not, but the idea that there are paid informants is not illegal. These people are simply monitoring what was going on. And when they’re accused of being – stealing records, those records were sent, I’m sure, to government forces like the FBI, the Justice Department, because they weren’t doing their job.

To be clear, the informants were not simply accused of “stealing records,” like the surely dwindling check register of a random “Klan” group.

In one horrifying example, the Southern Poverty Law Center paid an organizer of the deadly 2017 Charlottesville rally. 

The unidentified perpetrator “attended the event at the direction of the SPLC,” according to the indictment. The person “made racist postings under the supervision of the SPLC and helped coordinate transportation to the event for several attendees.”

Furthermore, the group continued to pay the organizer after the deadly violence, making payments throughout 2023. In total, the left-wing group paid $270,000 to the perpetrator.

NPR host Terry Gross interjected to clarify the accusations about inciting violence, before pivoting and suggesting FBI agents do the same thing. (I mean, likely true).

“I’m [sure] the SPLC is doing the same thing because they know their informants would get in trouble, otherwise,” Ross said. “That they could be prosecuted by the government.”

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Shutdowns Persist Because Congress Pays No Price

Federal workers missed paychecks for over 60 days. Congress missed none.

TSA officers screened 3 million passengers a day this spring. They did it without paychecks. Some sold plasma to pay their bills. Others slept in their cars. Some just quit. Sixty days into the longest partial shutdown in American history, Congress returned from its two-week recess and still has not fixed it.

The Senate did try – passing a funding bill by unanimous consent before recess even began. The House went home anyway. Congress eventually returned, and DHS is now recalling furloughed workers on redirected funds that have no congressional appropriation behind them. The executive branch is essentially running a federal agency on financial improvisation because the legislative branch will not do its job. If that does not alarm you, it should.

This is not a partisan problem. A November NBC News poll found that 52% of voters blamed Trump and congressional Republicans for the 2025 shutdown, while 42% blamed congressional Democrats – the highest share of Democratic blame in NBC polling in over 30 years. Both sides have blocked proposals. Both sides have pointed fingers. Both sides have taken a recess while government employees were working without pay. This is a modern Congress problem, and the pattern predates any single party or president.

To understand why it keeps happening, consider how rare it once was. Between 1995 and 2013, the government did not shut down once. An 18-year stretch of Congress doing the bare minimum. Then came the 16-day shutdown in 2013, the 35-day shutdown in 2018 to 2019, the 43-day shutdown in the fall of 2025, and now this. Each one was treated as an extraordinary crisis. Each one became a template for the next. What was once a last resort is now a governing strategy, and a remarkably consequence-free one at that.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the 2018 to 2019 shutdown shaved 11 billion dollars off the GDP, 3 billion of which was never recovered. The 2013 shutdown cost taxpayers an estimated $2.5 billion dollars in pay for work that never got done. Shutdowns do not save money – they burn it. The bill lands on everyone except the people who caused it: Congress.

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How Foreign Interference and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex Stole the 2020 Election – Part VIII- Sam Antar Exposes WFP’s $2B NGO ‘Grassroots Laundering Operation’

“[George Soros’] support for Ready for Hillary is an extension of his long-held belief in the power of grassroots organizing.”

Michael Vachon, billionaire George Soros’ consigliere, issued that statement in 2013 when Soros accepted the position of co-chair of the national finance council for the Ready for Hillary Super PAC, established for Hillary Clinton’s bid for the presidency of the United States in 2016.

She failed in that attempt.

In 2016, Clinton, a Democrat, was endorsed by the national Working Families Party (WFP) and, in NYS, cross-endorsed by both the Democrats and the WFP, which actually has a ballot line in NY.

We’ll get to why this WFP piece is important in a bit.

Clinton and Soros are neighbors, and both live in New York, known as the Empire State. Funny that these two power-mad icons should both end up building their respective empires from inside the Empire State, and both are utilizing grassroots action and nonprofit charities as their vehicles, their stepping stones to cementing their power.

If there are two people who are the absolute antithesis of true grassroots action, it would be George Soros and Hillary Clinton.

The source of true grassroots action emanates from the community; it springs naturally from an organic desire for neighbor-to-help-neighbor. People bond together to solve a common problem, and they go shoulder-to-shoulder to aid each other in solving that problem, doing whatever it takes.

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Grand jury indicts ex-FBI boss James Comey on charges related to photo alleged to threaten Trump

A federal grand jury in North Carolina on Tuesday indicted former FBI Director James Comey on charges related to his posting of a photo of shells on a beach with the inscription “86-47” that prosecutors alleged was a threat to President Donald Trump.

The charges will be unveiled at a DOJ news conference at 4 p.m. ET, officials said.

It is expected that one of the charges will fall under a statute that prohibits a person from “knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier any letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice President.”

The charges, first reported by CNN, mark the second time Comey has been indicted during this administration.

The earlier indictment in Virginia was dismissed amid legal scrutiny over the qualifications of then-acting U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan.

Reports broke in March that Comey had received a subpoena as part of a “grand conspiracy” probe by the DOJ.

Comey became a figure of national notoriety in 2016 after he announced that the FBI had reopened an investigation into then-former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a move that many have said swung the election to President Donald Trump.

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Palantir inks $300 million deal with USDA to safeguard food supply

Palantir announced a $300 million deal with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which will use the software company’s technology to manage farmland as geopolitical risks threaten global supply chains.  

The agreement builds on ongoing projects with the USDA and underscores Palantir’s growing role inside the U.S. government as it goes beyond cornerstone defense contracts supporting U.S. military modernization.

U.S. farmers are grappling with rising supply costs and are getting squeezed by an ongoing trade war between the U.S. and its major trading partners. That includes China, a key soybean purchaser, which temporarily crippled the market late last year.

In December, President Donald Trump announced a $12 billion bailout aimed at helping farmers swept up in the trade war. But rising gas prices from the war in Iran amplified the pressure, causing fertilizer costs to spike due to shipping disruptions. That’s forced many farmers to rethink what they produce, putting supply chains at risk.

China’s purchase of U.S. farmland in recent years has also drawn scrutiny from Washington and foreign policy experts.

A recent research note published by the Foundation of Defense Democracies recommended that the USDA reform reporting requirements “embedded within the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) to prevent China and other adversarial countries from exploiting commercial land transactions to gain a strategic edge over the United States.”

The USDA’s contract with Palantir signals its desire to address this issue by harnessing the company’s digital tools.

Palantir was founded in 2003 to scale U.S. defense capabilities in the wake of 9/11, and CEO Alex Karp has long touted the company’s commitment to supporting U.S. warfighters. The company has recently gained recognition for its AI-powered Maven Smart System platform, which was used by the U.S. military in Iran.

“The fact that you can now target more precisely … has shifted the way in which war is fought,” Karp told CNBC at AIPCon in March.

Palantir has also faced sharp criticism over the years for its work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security, including reports that its tools are being used by the government to surveil Americans, claims the company has denied.

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Far Right Israeli Settler Movement Enters Syria in a Push for “Greater Israel”

yrian journalist Oudai Efnikher is deeply familiar with life under Israeli occupation. He was born in Kafer Hareb, a village in Syria’s Golan Heights, from which he and his family were expelled after Israel seized the territory during the 1967 Six-Day War.

Now he is once again facing down Israeli forces, as they “take our land, kill our crops, and abduct our fathers.”

“This is a slow occupation, but soon, we will lose what they have not yet taken,” Efnikher told Truthout.

After Bashar al-Assad was ousted by Syrian rebels in December 2024, Israeli forces wasted no time before launching a massive aerial bombardment campaign on the country, destroying almost 80 percent of the military capacity left behind by the Assad regime.

Israeli forces also entered the demilitarized buffer zone established by a UN Security Council resolution in 1974 between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the rest of Syria. They seized the territory and then established a “security buffer” beyond the last demarcation line administered by UN observer forces.

The area now under Israeli military control is off-limits to Syrian civilians and government forces. Farmers have been unable to tend to their land, and landowners have little hope they will ever be able to access it again

In total, Israel now occupies an additional 177 square miles of Syrian territory than it did before the fall of Assad.

“Maybe Israel will take it all. They already have a safe zone in southern Syria, so that could ultimately be the best option for Israel,” Syrian political analyst Issam Khoury told Truthout.

But what is most concerning for Efnikher is not the Israeli military’s presence in Syria, but what has become regular incursions by Israeli settlers.

On April 22, a group of roughly 40 settlers affiliated with the far right Halutzei HaBashan movement, or the Pioneers of Bashan — a reference to the name in the Torah for the fertile territory located northeast of the Sea of Galilee, which the Torah says was once ruled by the tyrant King Og before Moses defeated him — entered Syrian territory and asked the Israeli government to legalize settlement activity there.

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Canadian smoking ban ‘being looked into’: health minister

The federal health minister says she is looking into legislation that would permanently ban the sale of tobacco products to anyone born after 2008.

Speaking on Parliament Hill Tuesday, Majorie Michel was asked if Canada would consider legislation similar to the United Kingdom’s recently proposed bill that aims to reduce the use of cigarettes and vapes for young people.

“I am looking into it right now,” she told reporters. “We saw what the U.K. did, but I am looking into it with all partners for now.”

Last week, both houses of the U.K. Parliament passed what’s being called the “Tobacco and Vapes Bill,” aimed to stop anyone born after Jan. 1, 2009, now aged 17, from taking up smoking. The bill still requires royal assent.

Asked whether Health Canada has been tasked with looking into a U.K.-style ban, a spokesperson for the department said they had nothing to add to a statement issued to CTV News last week.

On April 22, Health Canada told CTV News the Government of Canada has invested $66 million annually since 2018 to help Canadians quit smoking and reduce the harms of nicotine addiction. The department did not specifically say whether it was, or had ever, seriously considered a lifetime ban for people aged 17 and younger.

“The Government of Canada works collaboratively with partners and key stakeholders to protect Canadians, especially youth, from the harms of smoking using the best available data and evidence,” said Mark Johnson, a spokesperson for Health Canada.

Canada has set a goal of reducing tobacco use to less than five per cent by 2035. The 2024 Canadian Community Health Survey estimates 11 per cent of Canadians aged 18 years and over reported smoking.

When it comes to vaping, data from Statistics Canada suggests one in 10 Canadians aged 20 to 24, and one in 50 aged 25 and older, use a vape every day.

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