Tag: donald trump

Congress Members Fuming, Left Unsatisfied By Classified Pentagon Briefing On Drug Boat Strikes

US War Department officials don’t know the identities of the 61 people who have been extra-judicially executed in US military strikes on boats in the waters near Venezuela and in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, Politico reported on Thursday, citing House Democrats who attended a classified briefing on the campaign.

“[The department officials] said that they do not need to positively identify individuals on these vessels to do the strikes, they just need to prove a connection to smuggling,” said Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA). “When we tried to get more information, we did not get satisfactory answers.”

While the Trump administration has cited overdose deaths in the US related to fentanyl to justify the bombing campaign, lawmakers were told in the briefing that the boats that have been targeted were allegedly smuggling cocaine, though the Pentagon has not provided evidence to back up its claims about what the vessels were carrying.

“They argued that cocaine is a facilitating drug of fentanyl, but that was not a satisfactory answer for most of us,” Jacobs said.

The briefing on Thursday came after the Pentagon shut out Democrats from another briefing it held with Republicans a day earlier, which left Democratic senators fuming. Democrats who attended Thursday’s briefing said Pentagon lawyers were pulled from the meeting at the last minute.

“Am I leaving satisfied? Absolutely not. And the last word that I gave to the admiral was, ‘I hope you recognize the constitutional peril that you are in and the peril you are putting our troops in,’” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) told reporters after the briefing, according to CNN.

Jacobs said that, based on what she was told, even if Congress authorized the bombing campaign, it would still be illegal. “[T]here’s nothing that we heard in there that changes my assessment that this is completely illegal, that it is unlawful and even if Congress authorized it, it would still be illegal because there are extrajudicial killings where we have no evidence,” she said.

Criticism of the US bombing campaign has also come from Republicans, most prominently from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). “No one said their name, no one said what evidence, no one said whether they’re armed, and we’ve had no evidence presented,” Paul said this week of the people who have been targeted. “They summarily execute people without presenting evidence to the public… so it’s wrong.”

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The New Monroe Doctrine: Cuban Aid, Brazilian Bloodbath, and an Update on Venezuela

If you’ve been sniffing around the MSM today (or social media), you’ve probably seen headlines implying we’re poised for military action inside Venezuela to take out Nicolás Maduro and his regime. That’s because outlets like the Miami Herald are reporting that “the Trump Administration has made the decision to attack military installations inside Venezuela and the strikes could come at any moment” and “will seek to destroy military installations used by the drug-trafficking organization the U.S. says is headed by Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro and run by top members of his regime.”

The Herald also reports that an anonymous source said, “Maduro is about to find himself trapped and might soon discover that he cannot flee the country even if he decided to. What’s worse for him, there is now more than one general willing to capture and hand him over, fully aware that one thing is to talk about death, and another to see it coming.” 

Some call it “advanced planning,” while others report that this action could take place within days or even hours. Some still seem to think that this means a full-on invasion. Even old Bernie Sanders is on X fussing about Trump “declaring war.”  

Let’s calm down and take a deep breath here. First of all, as I’m literally typing this, Donald Trump is on Air Force Once talking to reporters, and he denied that he’s made a decision about any type of military action on Venezuelan soil. The White House has also told us that when/if it happens, they will let us know. It won’t be some reporter with a “source close to the situation.” 

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Trump: ‘I Do NOT Want Americans to Go Hungry’ — Seeks Way to Pay SNAP, Gives Out Schumer’s Number

President Donald Trump said Friday he has instructed government lawyers to seek immediate court guidance on how to legally continue payments for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) amid the ongoing government shutdown, as the program faces imminent funding delays while Democrats refuse to pass a clean spending bill.

“Our Government lawyers do not think we have the legal authority to pay SNAP with certain monies we have available, and now two Courts have issued conflicting opinions on what we can and cannot do,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I do NOT want Americans to go hungry just because the Radical Democrats refuse to do the right thing and REOPEN THE GOVERNMENT.”

The president explained he has instructed lawyers “to ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible,” warning that even with an immediate resolution, benefits may be delayed as states process payments. “If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court,” Trump declared, “it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding, just like I did with Military and Law Enforcement Pay.”

Several days ago, Vice President JD Vance confirmed that U.S. troops would continue receiving paychecks during the shutdown, following a $130 million private donation accepted by the Department of War to cover military salaries.

The message follows warnings that the Democrat-led shutdown could halt November SNAP payments. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) noted Thursday was the Democrats’ “15th chance” to reopen the government, warning that their continued opposition to a clean continuing resolution would cause benefits to “run dry.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture previously cautioned that it lacks sufficient funds to issue November benefits, with a contingency reserve of $5 billion falling short of the $8 billion needed to sustain the program. Several governors, including Virginia’s Glenn Youngkin (R), have declared emergencies over the looming lapse.

The Washington Post editorial board this week faulted Democrats for prolonging the shutdown, writing that it is “wrong that Democrats have held the government hostage” over demands to extend Obamacare subsidies. The paper warned that if the standoff persists, “families could start to go hungry.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), and fellow Democrats, including Sens. Alex Padilla (D-CA), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) have argued that Trump could use emergency funds to continue SNAP, claiming he has “billions” at his disposal but is “choosing not to use them.” Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ), meanwhile, accused Republicans of refusing to negotiate, stating that “Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House” and should “bring the House back into session to work and negotiate for the people they claim to serve.”

Trump rejected that characterization in his Truth Social message Friday: “The Democrats should quit this charade where they hurt people for their own political reasons, and immediately REOPEN THE GOVERNMENT.”

He ended his post by urging Americans who rely on SNAP to pressure Democrats directly: “Call the Senate Democrats, and tell them to reopen the Government, NOW! Here is Cryin’ Chuck Schumer’s Office Number: (202) 224-6542.”

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President Trump Responds to Judge’s Ruling on SNAP Benefits

President Trump on Friday evening responded to a judge’s ruling on SNAP benefits.

More than 40 million Americans rely on SNAP benefits, and the $5 billion emergency fund was not enough to cover the program for November.

Unions and nonprofit groups filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Agriculture earlier this week ahead of the November 1 cutoff.

Funds for the SNAP benefits are drying up because Schumer and the Democrats refuse to vote for the clean CR bill to reopen the government.

US District Judge John McConnell, an Obama appointee, ordered Trump on Friday to use the emergency funds for the SNAP program.

A separate federal judge in Massachusetts ruled the USDA has the power to fund SNAP benefits.

Separately, Judge Indira Talwani, also an Obama appointee, stopped just short of issuing a Temporary Restraining Order and said she will hold a hearing on Monday.

President Trump said two courts issued conflicting opinions on how the SNAP benefits can be funded during the shutdown, so he instructed DOJ lawyers to ask the court to clarify how his administration can legally fund the program.

“Our Government lawyers do not think we have the legal authority to pay SNAP with certain monies we have available, and now two Courts have issued conflicting opinions on what we can and cannot do. I do NOT want Americans to go hungry just because the Radical Democrats refuse to do the right thing and REOPEN THE GOVERNMENT,” President Trump said on Truth Social.

“Therefore, I have instructed our lawyers to ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible. It is already delayed enough due to the Democrats keeping the Government closed through the monthly payment date and, even if we get immediate guidance, it will unfortunately be delayed while States get the money out,” Trump said.

President Trump dropped Schumer’s office number!

“If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court, it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding, just like I did with Military and Law Enforcement Pay. The Democrats should quit this charade where they hurt people for their own political reasons, and immediately REOPEN THE GOVERNMENT. If you use SNAP benefits, call the Senate Democrats, and tell them to reopen the Government, NOW! Here is Cryin’ Chuck Schumer’s Office Number: (202) 224-6542,” Trump added.

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Trump’s National Guard Plan Edges the U.S. Closer to a Permanent Federal Police Force

The Pentagon is directing every state and U.S. territory to create “quick reaction forces” within their National Guards, which will be trained to respond to civil disturbances and emergencies, according to a recently leaked memo obtained by The Guardian. 

The memo instructs the National Guard Bureau to train these forces in riot control tactics, rapid deployment procedures, and the use of nonlethal weapons. The federalized forces will complement the National Guard Reaction Forces, which have existed for decades to provide emergency relief, reports The Washington Post. 

Most states and territories (excluding Washington, D.C.) will supply 500 National Guard members. These units are expected to fully mobilize within 24 hours of activation, with an initial contingent of roughly 200 troops that will be pulled from the guard’s unit that specializes in chemical and nuclear disaster response, ready by New Year’s Day. By April, the new quick reaction force will reach 23,500 soldiers strong, according to the Post. 

These new forces could signal the Trump administration’s readiness to expand federal control over local policing, with one anonymous Pentagon official telling the Post that the administration is “revising plans for the employment of [National Guard Reaction Forces] to guarantee their ability to assist federal, state and local law enforcement in quelling civil disturbances.”

Critics see the move as establishing a permanent, federally coordinated crowd-control infrastructure. Janessa Goldbeck, a Marine veteran and CEO of Vet Voice Foundation, told The Guardian that the memo represents “an attempt by the president to normalize a national, militarized police force.”

It’s unclear whether the new order—or any future deployments under it—would pass legal muster. Federal law generally prohibits the use of federal troops in civilian law enforcement, while the Insurrection Act allows exceptions only under narrow circumstances.

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Trump Sounds Alarm on Christian Genocide in Nigeria — Pledges to Take Action Against Islamist Atrocities

President Donald Trump is sounding the alarm on Christian persecution in Nigeria.

Posting on Truth Social, Trump spoke out about the threats faced by Nigerian Christians at the hands of Islamist militias.

He wrote:

Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter.

I am hereby making Nigeria a “COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN” — But that is the least of it. When Christians, or any such group, is slaughtered like is happening in Nigeria (3,100 versus 4,476 Worldwide), something must be done!

I am asking Congressman Riley Moore, together with Chairman Tom Cole and the House Appropriations Committee, to immediately look into this matter, and report back to me.

The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!

This warning was underlined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“The ongoing slaughter of thousands of Christians in Nigeria by radical Islamists and Fulani ethnic militias is both tragic and unacceptable,” he wrote.

”As President Trump said, the United States stands ready, willing, and able to act.”

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Trump admin punishing inmates for protesting Epstein accomplice’s ‘VIP treatment’: report

President Donald Trump’s administration is now reportedly coming down hard on federal inmates for speaking out against the DOJ’s apparent soft treatment of convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.

That’s according to CNN, which reported Friday that Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) — the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee — is now demanding answers from the warden at Maxwell’s minimum security prison about what he alleges is “VIP treatment” for deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s chief accomplice. CNN host Jim Sciutto said Raskin is also questioning Maxwell getting “mysterious visitors, meal delivery and other special perks” and that the DOJ has “retaliated against inmates who dared to speak out about her fawning preferential treatment.”

Elie Honig, a legal analyst for the network, told Scuitto that while he’s less concerned with meal deliveries and meetings with visitors, the major red flag in Raskin’s letter is the allegation that inmates have been punished for drawing attention to Maxwell’s treatment.

“Apparently there are other inmates in this facility, other female inmates who have spoken out about preferential treatment to Ghislaine Maxwell and are now being punished,” Honig said. “Representative Raskin points out one particular inmate who appears to have been kicked out of a training program and moved to a higher security prison. That is a major problem, if that’s happening as retaliation.”

Honig went on to remind viewers that Maxwell shouldn’t even be at the Bryan, Texas prison — where she was moved earlier this year after a two-day meeting with Deputy Attorney General (and Trump’s former personal attorney) Todd Blanche — due to Bureau of Prisons rules. Facilities like Bryan are typically only for white-collar offenses, whereas violent offenders like those convicted of sex crimes have to serve their sentences in more restrictive conditions.

“That takes a waiver. Somebody within the Justice Department … has to specifically approve that, say, ‘I waive the normal course of proceedings and I’m okay with Ghislaine Maxwell being moved to a lower security prison,'” Honig said. “To this day, we don’t know who actually authorized that. And we’ve not gotten answers from DOJ about that.”

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Judges Order Trump Admin to Fund SNAP — There’s Just One Problem

Two federal judges have just ruled that the Trump administration must use contingency funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Two federal judges ruled nearly simultaneously on Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration must to continue to fund SNAP, the nation’s biggest food aid program, using contingency funds during the government shutdown.

The rulings came a day before the U.S. Department of Agriculture planned to freeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program because it said it could no longer keep funding it due to the shutdown.

The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net. Word in October that it would be a Nov. 1 casualty of the shutdown sent states, food banks and SNAP recipients scrambling to figure out how to secure food. Some states said they would spend their own funds to keep versions of the program going.

The Trump administration has long said it doesn’t have the legal authority to use the contingency funds to pay for SNAP benefits during the prolonged Schumer Shutdown.

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Rand Paul: It’s Odd We’re Not Charging Survivors from Boat Strikes for Drug Crimes

On Wednesday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) stated that when there are survivors of the strikes on what the Trump administration alleges are drug boats, “we don’t try them for drug crimes or we don’t even keep them. We’ve been sending them back.” And “We have no evidence of who they are, other than an accusation that they are drug dealers.”

Paul said, “It’s interesting that, as the boats have been exploded, and as we’ve used this deadly force, when there are survivors, we don’t try them for drug crimes or we don’t even keep them. We’ve been sending them back. So, we repatriated, last week, somebody to Colombia and somebody to Ecuador. So, you would think that, when there are survivors, that they would be tried for a drug crime.”

He continued, “You would think we would be hearing evidence that they’re collecting drugs that are floating around in the water afterwards. You would think we’d hear evidence that the people were armed. So, we don’t know their names. We have no evidence of who they are, other than an accusation that they are drug dealers. But we also, in our country, haven’t typically just killed people because we accuse them of being a drug dealer.”

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Trump calls Israel’s latest Gaza massacre justified; 104 Palestinians, including 46 children killed

Israel massacred another 104 Palestinians, including 46 children, inside Gaza after claiming that its forces came under attack, winning the approval from President Donald Trump, who said Israel “should hit back.”

Israel has been violating the Kushner-Witkoff ceasefire since it was put in place earlier this month, with the full support of the Trump administration. The Israelis understand that all they have to do is float an allegation of a looming Hamas attack and they can resume attacks inside the destroyed enclave.

The Associated Press reported:

Hamas replied in kind on Wednesday, saying the Israeli strikes reveal “a clear Israeli intention to undermine the ceasefire agreement and impose new realities by force.” The group also said in a statement that the U.S. is offering Netanyahu a “political cover” to carry on with its aggression in Gaza.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who Trump once called a “perfect Adelson puppet,” summed up the administration’s position after another deadly Israeli strike on Saturday, saying, “Israel didn’t surrender its right to self-defense. Obviously, the ceasefire is based on obligations on both sides. Israel has a right to self-defense, terrorist activity is an imminent threat to Israel.”

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