Tag: donald trump

Sen. Graham Urges Trump to Renew US Strikes on Iran

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Sunday called on President Donald Trump to renew U.S. military strikes on Iran, arguing that a stalled ceasefire and a closed Strait of Hormuz are strengthening Tehran while inflicting economic pain at home.

“I think the status quo is hurting us all,” Graham told NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” framing continued military pressure, not negotiation, as the faster route to ending the war.

Graham’s appeal landed at a stalemate.

U.S.-Iran talks, mediated by Pakistan, have been suspended since both sides rejected each other’s latest proposals, and no permanent peace deal has been reached since the two countries announced a ceasefire last month.

Graham said the impasse only benefits Tehran.

“The longer the [Strait of Hormuz] is closed, the more we try to pursue a deal that never happens, the stronger Iran gets,” he said.

The senator, a leading proponent of Trump’s military campaign, urged the president to “weaken them further.”

He credited the administration’s strikes as “amazing, militarily.” But, he said, “there’s more targets to be had.”

Graham added that nothing in the conflict so far suggests Iran’s leadership has abandoned what he called the regime’s goal “to terrorize the world, destroy Israel, come after us.”

The closed strait, which before the war carried more than a fifth of the world’s energy supply, has driven oil prices rising higher since the conflict began on Feb. 28.

As of Friday, the average U.S. price of unleaded gas was above $4.50 a gallon, up 51% since the war started.

Graham argued that pressure would ease with force, telling moderator Kristen Welker, “Gas prices will come down when you put Iran in a box.”

Tehran has signaled little appetite for compromise.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday that Iran has “no trust” in the U.S. and would negotiate only if Washington is serious, citing “contradictory messages” from American officials.

The diplomatic freeze coincided with Trump’s return from a multiday summit in China, where he met President Xi Jinping.

Trump told Fox News’ Bret Baier he had not asked Beijing for help on Iran. “If he wants to help, that’s great, but we don’t need help,” Trump said, adding that accepting help invites obligations in return.

The dispute carries domestic political stakes.

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Trump Calls Off Planned Military Strikes Against Iran – Says “Full, Large Scale Assault” Is Ready “on a Moment’s Notice”

President Trump announced on Monday that he called off planned strikes against Iran as negotiations to end the war continue.

As The Gateway Pundit reported earlier, US officials said Trump was planning to break the ongoing ceasefire and resume the war after rejecting a Sunday proposal from Iran, which he deemed insufficient.

Trump was expected to hold a meeting with his national security team in the Situation Room on Tuesday.

“For Iran, the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!” the President wrote on Truth Social.

Trump said on Monday afternoon that the next attack was “scheduled for tomorrow.” However, Middle Eastern leaders asked the President to hold off “in that serious negotiations are now taking place, and that, in their opinion, as Great Leaders and Allies, a Deal will be made, which will be very acceptable to the United States of America, as well as all Countries in the Middle East, and beyond,” he added.

“Based on my respect for the above mentioned Leaders, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, The Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Daniel Caine, and The United States Military, that we will NOT be doing the scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow, but have further instructed them to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached,” Trump wrote.

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Fresh wave of UFO files to be released after Trump sparked chaos with alien picture

The second phase of the Trump Administration’s UFO disclosure is underway, with officials saying the next batch of files is expected to be released ‘very soon.’

Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced Monday on X that the materials are currently ‘actively being processed’ for publication.

The first release, published on May 8, included never-before-seen photos, videos and government documents tied to unidentified anomalous phenomena, also known as UAPs.

Lawmakers previously noted that the initial disclosure was only the beginning, teasing that far more explosive material remained hidden from the public.

Tennessee Representative Tim Burchett, one of Congress’ most outspoken advocates for UFO transparency, fueled speculation after the May 8 release by claiming: ‘The 1st drop will be big, but in comparison to what is coming, they will be a drop in the bucket.’

‘I would say “Holy Crap” is coming,’ Burchett added.

The latest update arrived just one day after President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself standing beside a handcuffed alien at a US military base, further intensifying online discussion surrounding the administration’s disclosure campaign.

The surreal image, shared on Trump’s Truth Social account, showed the president and his security detail escorting the extraterrestrial figure across the tarmac while armed military personnel looked on.

News of the second release flooded social media, where one user said: ‘Finally! The government’s processing UFOs faster than my laptop processes a software update.

‘Either we’re getting disclosure or the world’s longest episode of coming soon. Either way, grab your tinfoil hat, things are getting interesting.’

Others, however, are not sold on the notion that the files will be released soon.

One X use posted: ‘The phrase “actively being processed” is classic government doublespeak, suggesting momentum while committing to absolutely nothing, keeping the UFO hype alive without releasing a single page. 

‘It’s the perfect way to acknowledge public curiosity without ever having to deliver, turning transparency into an endless process rather than an event.’

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We Voted for Trump. We Got a Kamala Harris DOJ. The Michael Castillero Case Exposes That Little Has Changed at the SDNY — and Todd Blanche Either Doesn’t Know or Doesn’t Care

The Trump DOJ is suppressing free speech.

Michael Castillero ran a pre-IPO investment fund. He was charged with allegedly charging extra fees that he did not disclose to his investors. The evidence showed and the judge acknowledged that the investors made money and “sustained no out-of-pocket losses.” But he’s going to prison because they would have made even more money had Castillero disclosed the fees.

This is the case that the Biden-era Southern District of New York (SDNY) chose to bring criminal charges over. Not a civil suit. A federal criminal prosecution — with guns drawn, assets seized, and a man’s family left in financial ruin. For a fee dispute, Michael Castillero will go to prison.

But it gets even worse. The DOJ is asking the judge for additional prison time because Castille suggested that he is a victim of politically motivated weaponization.

The Prosecution That Trump’s DOJ Inherited and Chose to Continue

Castillero was indicted in 2023 under the Biden administration. He is a Trump donor. He posted memes about the stolen election. He dined at Mar-a-Lago. He frequented Trump properties and was at the announcement when Trump said he was running again. He believed — as tens of millions of Americans believed — that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. The prosecution continued past President Trump’s inauguration. Castillero was convicted by a New York jury – like President Trump – and is now awaiting sentencing.

After his conviction but before his sentencing, Castillero went on podcasts and tried to tell his side of the story. He suggested that his prosecution was motivated by political weaponization. The SDNY says that is a lie. But they don’t simply deny it in a press release. SDNY went to the judge and demanded that he be punished for even suggesting that the SDNY engages in weaponization.

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Pentagon Draws Up Strike Plans as Trump Weighs Renewed Iran Assault

The Pentagon has prepared plans for a possible renewed military campaign against Iran as President Donald Trump weighs whether to resume strikes following stalled negotiations and mounting tensions in the Middle East.

According to The New York Times, U.S. and Israeli officials have intensified military preparations for the possible return of combat operations as early as next week if diplomatic efforts fail.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signaled the administration is prepared to escalate.

“We have a plan to escalate if necessary,” Hegseth told lawmakers this week.

Trump, returning from China on Friday, indicated Tehran’s latest peace proposal was a non-starter.

“I looked at it, and if I don’t like the first sentence, I just throw it away,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

The president has repeatedly warned Iran against dragging out negotiations.

“They’re either going to make a deal, or they’re going to be decimated,” Trump said earlier this week. “So, one way or another, we win.”

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Trump Describes Executions to Kids, While MAGA Bans Lessons Causing “Discomfort” 

Seated behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office in early May, Donald Trump delivered a disturbing lecture to a group of children huddled around him — most of them not yet even teenagers. They had been brought to the White House for what was supposed to be a celebratory event marking the reinstatement of the Presidential Fitness Test, dressed in brightly colored T-shirts bearing the government emblem of the rebooted program.

Flanked by a group including cabinet secretaries Linda McMahon, Pete Hegseth, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump turned the White House into his schoolhouse. Casting himself as a master teacher, he launched into an improvised lesson — part contemporary issues, part history, part geography, and all MAGA mythology.

During his lesson, Trump exposed a central contradiction at the heart of his politics. States and school districts across the country have enacted MAGA education policies — such as the Florida Stop WOKE Act — that prohibit teaching content that might cause students “guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress.” But Trump himself showed no such restraint. During what amounted to an advanced course in authoritarian education, he immersed children in a grotesque curriculum of graphic executions, nuclear annihilation, and the threat of entire societies being wiped out — paired with nationalist triumphalism and the scapegoating of transgender people.

The premise of the event itself rested on the fear that the U.S. has become weak and soft, which could only be remedied by making the country aggressively masculine again. Trump framed the return of the Presidential Fitness Test not merely as a health initiative, but as part of a broader struggle for national strength and power. Warning in a statement to the press that declining youth fitness weakens “our economy, military readiness, academic performance, and national morale,” he cast physical toughness as a prerequisite for a nation prepared for war.

This is not education. It is spectacle, coercion, indoctrination, and the normalization of violence.

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For-Profit Immigrant Detention Centers Exploiting Prison Labor With $1 Per Day Wages

As President Donald Trump continues his mass detention and deportation agenda and expands the use of privately owned immigrant prisons, with more than 60,000 people detained across the country, the profits of private contractors like the GEO Group and CoreCivic are skyrocketing—and a new report by a government watchdog reveals one method the multibillion-dollar firms have of extracting profits from detainees.

Public Citizen researcher Douglas Pasternak wrote in a report released Wednesday that approximately 50% of immigrants who are detained for more than a few days end up in the government’s so-called Voluntary Work Program (VWP), earning just $1 per day—12.5 cents per hour—while they keep the detention centers running.

At facilities like Adelanto Detention Center in Adelanto, California, run by the GEO Group, and CoreCivic’s Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, detainees work as many as 14 hours in a day for just $1—cooking, cleaning, performing maintenance work, and completing other labor essential to the facilities’ operations—and in many cases are forced to use their meager wages only at commissaries also run by the corporations.

“This entire $1-a-day pay scheme is economically unjustifiable, fundamentally unfair, and morally reprehensible,” said Pasternak in a statement.

The companies are notorious for price gouging, forcing the so-called “voluntary worker” to work full-time for 11 days to afford a tube of Sensodyne toothpaste—priced at $11.02 at Stewart Detention Center, compared to just $5.20 on Amazon.

“At these rates, it may take a detainee more than three days of work to purchase a can of tuna fish or more than two days of work to purchase a bar of soap,” said Public Citizen.

The business model has saved the contractors millions of dollars and allowed them to reap massive profits.

Former CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger made $7.2 million in compensation last year before retiring, and the company’s profits grew from $68.9 million in 2024 to $116.5 million last year. Both CoreCivic and the GEO Group reported well over $2 billion in revenue in 2025.

When it was sued over its use of the VWP in Washington State, the GEO Group testified that it would have had to pay 85 full-time employees at the state’s minimum wage—$17.13 per hour—if it hadn’t used the labor of detainees. Hiring workers would have cost the company over $3 million per year, but instead the GEO Group spent just over $22,000 paying imprisoned immigrants $1 per hour.

“The private contractors running immigrant detention centers are pocketing millions of dollars in profits as tens of thousands of detainees struggle to afford to purchase a bar of soap or a tube of toothpaste,” said Pasternak. “The dichotomy between the contractors’ profits and the detainees’ pay is outrageous.”

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President Trump Announces Massive $1.7 Billion “Weaponization” Fund for Americans Targeted by Biden DOJ, Including J6ers

President Trump is set to launch a massive $1.7 billion compensation fund aimed at helping Americans who were targeted by the Biden Regime’s weaponized Department of Justice.

According to a report from ABC News, the fund would compensate individuals who were politically targeted during the Biden years, including many January 6 defendants, conservative activists, and other Trump allies caught in what critics have called one of the largest political persecutions in modern American history.

The move is already sending shockwaves through Washington.

For years, conservatives have argued that the Biden DOJ operated with a two-tiered justice system, aggressively prosecuting Trump supporters while ignoring violent left-wing extremism and politically connected insiders. Many January 6 defendants spent months or even years tied up in court battles, facing prison sentences, financial ruin, public humiliation, and permanent damage to their reputations.

Trump allies say the new compensation fund is about restoring justice and acknowledging the suffering many Americans endured during the Biden administration.

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Musical Chairs

Yesterday, Trump spoke with Xi in Beijing. While markets kept a watchful eye on any headlines about the war in Iran, palates were left dry as only tepid announcements dripped out, such as that China “offered help” on Iran and “pledged not to send weapons.” What they did not manage to evade was a conversation about Taiwan. During the two and a half hour conversation with Trump, Xi underscored that US intervention in Taiwan could trigger a “highly dangerous situation.” While Rubio underscored that the topic of American arms sales to Taiwan wasn’t a major focus of discussion, it likely will be when Congress’ approved USD 14bn arms sale to Taiwan lands on Trump’s desk, and again when Xi visits the White House in September.

While the US and China are stalled in the geopolitical arena, the financial scene seems to be bearing fruit. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent announced that conversations around the creation of a “Board of Investment” were underway, and that tariffs would be reduced or removed for products that the US doesn’t plan on reshoring, like fireworks. China also agreed to buy 200 “big” Boeing planes, according to Trump, which would mark the first significant Chinese purchase of Boeing jets since the last time Trump went to Beijing in 2017. China also hinted that they may intend to buy more US energy to compensate for flows disrupted by the war.

Though Iran didn’t appear to produce much in the way of headlines, the Strait is still closed, and Brent crude oil is still trading above $100/bbl at $106/bbl at the time of writing. According to Reuters, the IRGC announced that some 30 vessels have crossed the Strait since Wednesday (with Tehran’s permission), and transit is being permitted for “some” Chinese vessels.

US Treasury yields closed higher after hotter-than-expected trade price data for April printed, with import prices up 1.9% m/m and export prices up 3.3% m/m. These were the fastest monthly price index increases since early 2022 for both. However, the import price index, excluding petroleum, registered more modest gains of only 0.7% which, while hotter than the expected print of 0.5%, is cooler than levels seen as recently as January and February of this year. USD was the best performing G10 currency yesterday on a one day view. Yesterday afternoon saw a surge in yields across the board, absent a clear driver in sparse news flow, as the 2 year closed 3bp higher, above 4.00%.

Warsh was recently voted in as Fed Chair by the US Senate, but this creates a game of grown up musical chairs for the Board of Governors. There can only be seven Governors on the FOMC, and with Powell not giving his seat up just yet, if no one steps down, we have eight. However, Stephen Miran has announced that he would be stepping down as Governor and has submitted his resignation, effective upon Warsh being sworn in. Miran also assured that while he believes it’s important that the Fed only have one chair, Powell could help Warsh through the transition.

Bloomberg’s Anna Wong hit Powell with an uncomfortable reality check: “if Powell’s Fed had been more active in getting its own house in order following a massive miss on inflation, outsiders would have had less motive and opportunity to attack.” Powell’s Fed was criticized for its slow response to the inflationary pressures which led to “the Great Inflation.” Wong summarizes that “[Powell’s] limited push for accountability, such as a thorough review of Fed’s forecasting framework, opened the door to the nomination of a more aggressive outside like Warsh, who has vowed to ‘break some heads’ at the Fed. The moral of story: Get your own house in order or someone will do it for you.”

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Trump Counterterrorism Adviser Brands Tucker Carlson an Enemy

Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes have been named by a top White House official as potential targets for the Trump administration’s counterterrorism strategy.

During an interview with Breitbart editor in chief Alex Marlow last week, Sebastian Gorka, the pugnacious far-right influencer angling to be the next head of the National Counterterrorism Center, was asked whether he considered right-wing extremism a threat.

When Marlow asked if there was a threat of “right-wing terror,” Gorka claimed that there were not “comparable trendlines to violence on the right” as on the left (a favorite right-wing talking point). But he then name-dropped two of the highest-profile right-wing figures—who also happen to be MAGA defectors.

“We have to have an effective, accurate snapshot on who are part of the conservative movement today, because I would say to you I’m not sure that Nick Fuentes or Tucker Carlson are conservatives,” Gorka said.

“If you are lauding Sharia law, if you are saying that there are Muslim states that seem to be better qualitatively than America in terms of freedom and prosperity, I’m not sure that means you’re part of the conservative movement. So if you remove those individuals and you understand that they’re not conservatives, what’s left?”

To be clear, Carlson did not laud sharia law. Rather, he claimed that Western cities were degrading from “self-hatred,” while Eastern cities were fostering “stability” and “hospitality,” and were “tolerant of diversity.”

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