Tag: donald trump

Rubio Announces Sanctions Against International Criminal Court President & Top Lawyer

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Tuesday new sanctions against International Criminal Court President Tomoko Akane and Senior Trial Lawyer Abdoulaye Seye as tensions flare between the court and the Trump administration.

“These individuals have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction,” his statement said.

The ICC, he added, has attempted to “assert authority over” over U.S. citizens and nationals of other nations that have not consented to the Rome Statute that set up the court.

The United States is not a party to the ICC.

“Our whole of government campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the ICC to national sovereignty will be sweeping and we expect more countries to join our campaign by ending their funding and participation in this politicized and unaccountable court,” Rubio said, suggesting that “additional measures” may be taken against the Hague, Netherlands-based body.

As Jack Phillips reports for The Epoch Times, the sanctions against Akane and Seye were issued ​under a Trump executive order last year authorizing sanctions against the court, according to Rubio.

In July, Rubio said that the Trump administration would seek to dismantle the ICC by using visa revocations, sanctions, the targeting of individuals, and diplomatic pressure on countries to withdraw from the body.

“The American people never agreed to any of this, and they never will,” Rubio said last month.

“Read the words of our Declaration of Independence. We fought a revolution against a foreign power, transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses. Independence is our birthright. We will never let foreign bureaucrats take that away from us.”

The court, which was established in 2002 to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute, has been adopted by more than 120 countries. Countries that do not recognize the court’s authority include the United States, China, Russia, Israel, India, Saudi Arabia, and more.

However, the ICC has argued that the Rome Statute ​gives the court power to prosecute war crimes committed on the territory of member states by nationals of non-member states.

The Trump administration imposed targeted sanctions last year on several ICC officials such as prosecutors and judges, citing the ICC’s 2024 decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime ​Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over what the court alleged were improper actions carried out by the Israeli government during its war in Gaza.

Earlier this year, three sitting ICC judges sued Trump and his administration over the sanctions, arguing that they were unlawful.

And earlier this month, multiple human rights groups sued the administration over the sanctions, describing the actions and Trump administration order as unconstitutional.

“The plaintiffs are seeking an end to this sanctions regime, which transgresses the president’s authority and violates international and U.S. law, including the rights to freedom of expression and religion,” said lead counsel Andrew Loewenstein in a statement carried by Human Rights Watch, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

The ICC did not immediately respond to an Epoch Times request for comment.

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Trump DOJ to Deploy RECORD 1,000 Federal Monitors to Polling Places Nationwide for Midterms

The Trump Justice Department is preparing to flood polling places across America with a record 1,000 federal monitors for the November midterm elections, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon announced this week.

Dhillon told Bloomberg the deployment will be “probably going to be a historic number for a Republican administration.”

The Civil Rights Division has long sent monitors to ensure compliance with federal voting laws, but the scale under President Trump’s second term marks a sharp escalation in the fight for clean elections.

“We just did it in the primary. We will do it to the tune of approximately 1,000 election monitors in the November election. This is something that DOJ does,” Dhillon said during a Monday interview on Bloomberg’s Balance of Power, according to Bloomberg Law.

The monitors will observe whether elections are conducted fairly, looking at language access issues, disability access barriers, and places “where there may be voter fraud issues.”

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BOMBSHELL: Trump Says Census Bureau Analysis Confirms Over 24,000 Noncitizens Voted in 2020 Election as 32 Million Records Remain to be Analyzed: “I WON THE ELECTION!”

President Donald Trump dropped a massive Truth Social bombshell Tuesday, revealing that the U.S. Census Bureau has begun cross-checking 2020 voter records against citizenship data, and the early results are devastating for the stolen election narrative.

In a post that should send shockwaves through the deep state and the corporate media that spent years gaslighting Americans, Trump wrote:

“The Census Bureau has begun checking the Voter Records from 2020 against their Citizenship Records. On the first 128,000,000 Voters, the Census Bureau proves that over 24,000 Noncitizens voted illegally! The Census Bureau is going to analyze the next 32,000,000 Voters, and this number will explode. I WON THE ELECTION! We must pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

According to official U.S. Census Bureau graphics, the preliminary analysis of the 2020 general election shows:

  • 160 million ballots cast
  • 128 million voter records linked to U.S. citizens
  • 24,000+ voter records linked to noncitizens
  • 32 million records that remain to be analyzed

That’s 24,000+ confirmed noncitizen voters on just the first 128 million records. The remaining 32 million have not even been fully processed yet. As Trump correctly noted, that number is only going to explode.

The Census Bureau’s own materials make clear these are not “clerical errors” or “mistaken registrations.” Noncitizen status was determined by the complete absence of any proof of citizenship combined with affirmative federal records proving the individual was a noncitizen:

NO U.S. birth record. NO record of becoming a citizen. NO U.S. passport. NO government citizenship record. NO other proof of citizenship. AND

  • A green-card noncitizen record
  • A visa issued to a noncitizen
  • A foreign-student noncitizen record
  • An enforcement noncitizen record
  • A DACA noncitizen approval
  • A noncitizen code held by an agency
  • A taxpayer ID issued to a noncitizen

In other words: zero evidence of citizenship + multiple federal records confirming noncitizen status = illegal voters who cast ballots in the 2020 election.

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SCOTUS rejects Trump’s petition for rehearing $5M E. Jean Carroll judgment

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has formally rejected President Donald Trump’s petition for a rehearing regarding the $5 million civil judgment in the E. Jean Carroll lawsuit. The high court rejected the petition without providing an explanation in accordance with standard court customs.

Monday’s denial leaves intact a 2023 Manhattan jury verdict that found Trump liable for the alleged mid-1990s sexual abuse and defamation of Carroll, a former magazine columnist. SCOTUS had previously declined to review the civil case in late June before Trump’s legal team filed for the rehearing.

“The American People stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes,” said a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team in a statement to The Hill.

“President Trump will keep winning against Liberal lawfare, as he continues to focus on his mission to Make America Great Again.”

Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan praised the decision, seeing it as a closure of Trump’s last avenue to have the verdict reversed.

“We are pleased that the United States Supreme Court has declined again to hear this case,” Kaplan said in a statement.

“As a result, the jury’s unanimous verdict that Donald Trump sexually assaulted and then defamed E. Jean Carroll is now final and cannot be challenged in any court,” the attorney continued.

Trump has consistently denied that he sexually abused Carroll, calling all of her allegations a “Made Up Story” that never happened.

Meanwhile, a separate $83.3 million defamation verdict against Trump remains under appeal before the Supreme Court, centering on statements made while he was in the White House.

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Guns could be shipped directly to homes under major rule change

A major rule change proposed by the Trump administration would allow licensed dealers to ship guns directly to people’s homes. 

If approved, the new Bureau of Alcohol, ​Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives policy would be one of the biggest changes to gun regulations in recent history, and could lead to a huge jump in online gun sales, according to Reuters. Critics say the proposal is unsafe and will put small gun shops out of business. 

What is the new ATF gun rule? 

The backstory:

Under current rules, people who buy guns online have to pick them up at physical stores and submit to in-person background checks if they don’t already have a permit. The new rule would allow licensed firearms dealers to ship guns directly to in-state residents after online identity verification and a background check. There would also be a seven-day waiting period and local law enforcement would have to be notified of the purchase.

RELATED: Service members can now carry personal weapons on military bases, Hegseth says

By the numbers:

The ATF predicts that half of all gun buyers, nearly 3.3 million people a year,  ​would order guns for home delivery, though industry leaders say that number could actually be far higher. The change could save consumers $103.7 million annually in travel and other processing costs, according to ATF. 

What they’re saying:

ATF chief counsel Robert Leider told Reuters the rule is an effort to bring the gun industry in line with the modern economy. It’s one of 34 measures proposed by ATF following a February 2025 executive order from President Donald Trump to expand gun access.

RELATED: About 19 million people in the US have thought about shooting someone in their lifetime: Study

What’s next:

The proposed rule is still in a public comment period that closes in early August. If approved, it may not take effect until late this year or early next year. 

Safety concerns

The other side:

Some gun shop owners and gun control advocates find themselves on the same side, as both have brought up safety concerns about the new rule. 

Marianna Mitchem, a senior firearms industry advisor at Everytown for Gun Safety who worked at ATF for more than 20 years, said gun stores play a big role in vetting potential gun owners. 

“ATF always says the gun store is the first line of defense in gun safety,” Mitchem told Reuters. “But now they are flipping it.”

Gun control groups say the rule would make it easier to traffick illegal guns and allow for straw purchases, or when someone buys a gun for someone else who’s not allowed to own one. 

“Even with the most robust ​virtual sales and background check process, there is no way for a gun store that is selling a gun over the internet to know if the person making the purchase is funneling the firearms to others,” ​Giffords spokesperson Aneesa McMillan said in a statement.

ATF’s Leider argued that the online verification ​system is more secure than traditional retail.

“The people who are concerned about this being susceptible to straw purchases have an idealized view of what an in-store purchase is,” Leider said. 

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U.S. Infrastructure Strikes Have Left Iranians in the South Without Livelihoods

When U.S. missiles struck the harbor outside in the port city of Badar Abbas last month, Sajjad saw his livelihood literally go up in smoke.

The small wooden fishing boat that had supported the 56-year-old and his family for years was reduced to a charred husk, along with dozens of other boats lining the docks. Sajjad told Drop Site News that nearly every fisherman he knows lost a vessel that night. Replacing a single boat now costs around 2 billion tomans (around $1,050)—far beyond what most families can afford.

“Both my children are in university,” Sajjad said. “Everything depended on that boat. Soon, I may not even be able to pay their tuition.”

When U.S. strikes resumed in early July following a two-month pause, the attacks focused heavily on southern Iran. Interviews with residents in hard-hit southern provinces like Khuzestan, Hormozgan, Sistan, and Baluchestan describe strikes not only on military facilities, but also on critical civilian infrastructure, including fishing ports, bridges, telecommunications networks, power plants, hospitals, and transportation corridors.

Dozens of communications towers have been knocked offline in repeated attacks, disrupting internet and telephone services. One attack on a transmission tower near Tappeh Aluakbar in Bandar Abbas killed five people, including a woman who died shielding her son with her body, local residents told Drop Site.

Transportation infrastructure has sustained similar damage. Alireza, a resident of Hormozgan who studies screenwriting and is carefully tracking recent events in the hopes of making a documentary about the war, described strikes on Tappeh Aluakbar overlooking Bandar Abbas, bridges linking Bandar Abbas to Khamir and Rudan, railway infrastructure, and key transportation routes connecting the province. At one destroyed crossing, road crews carved a temporary dirt route through a dry riverbed within hours simply to keep vehicles moving.

The damage extends to the sea as well: Alireza estimates that roughly 300 civilian fishing boats have been destroyed across Bandar Abbas, Bandar Lengeh, Sirik, and Jask, affecting the livelihoods of thousands of people. Two maritime search-and-rescue vessels operating near Bandar Abbas, Qeshm, and Hormuz Island were also put out of service.

Kharg Island, Iran’s principal oil export terminal, has long featured in discussions among U.S. officials and defense analysts as a strategically significant site and was bombed in March during the U.S.-Israeli aerial campaign. According to an Iranian military analyst who spoke to Drop Site on condition of anonymity for security reasons, if the U.S. ever sent ground troops to take over the island, Iran’s ability to reinforce Kharg would depend heavily on the transportation networks running through Hormozgan.

“They’re not simply destroying roads,” the analyst said. “They’re reducing Iran’s ability to move personnel, equipment, and supplies before any future operation ever begins.”

Residents and medical workers in Khuzestan also describe the toll on civilians caused by the bombing campaign, particularly children.

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The Trump Administration Is Building A Pre Crime Panopticon Unlike Any Authoritarian Regime Before It

As of late American citizens have been more concerned with surveillance and privacy than ever before. Rightfully so, as we see an explosion of surveillance equipment being installed across the country.

For decades, liberty activists have diligently watched and warned of the slowly encroaching mission creep of domestic mass surveillance seeping its way into everyday American life. Opposition to such violations of fundamental liberty have been one of the few causes to transcend the false left / right paradigm, with instances such as leftists opposed to the surveillance of civil rights groups during the days of COINTELPRO and conservative opposition to the surveillance of Second Amendment activists.

Even today, amid rising concerns of the mass implementation of Flock cameras across the nation, these concerns are actively creating a bridge of solidarity among the polarized political chasm.

While surveillance of the American citizenry has existed in some way for more than a century, the persistent punitive pervasiveness of such violations of privacy have been perpetually on the rise since the passage of the Patriot Act following the false flag attack of September 11th, 2001.

Interestingly enough, the provisions of the Patriot Act with all of its violations of constitutional protections had already been cooked up well before the September 11th attacks but was projected not to pass a congressional vote until such attacks took place. Indeed, the Patriot Act simply served as an expansion of surveillance authority circumventing the Constitution implemented in the 1996 Antiterrorism Act, itself only justified following the Oklahoma City false flag attack just a year prior. Simply a coincidence, surely. 

The conversation surrounding concerns about domestic mass surveillance reached mainstream dialog following the explosive revelations of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013, when leaked documents provided to journalist Glenn Greenwald revealed a sprawling network of illegal spying against American citizens through the National Security Agency’s PRISM program.

Despite Snowden’s revelations and warnings, and subsequent surveillance scandals in the years since, next to nothing has been done to curtail this campaign of illegal mass spying against the American people. In fact, it has only continued to worsen.

This brings us to today. Oftentimes in discussion of illegal mass surveillance, the cynical statist would posit a straw man argument to the likes of “What does it matter? If you’ve done nothing wrong you should have nothing to hide.” As if an all encompassing surveillance state simply exists in a vacuum. As if history has not demonstrated again and again the kind of atrocities enabled by repressive regimes who track, trace, and database their citizenry.

Mass surveillance does not simply exist to “keep an eye on people”, it serves as a tool of the state to suppress dissent, identify and silence dissidents, and centralize control over the populace.

Here at The Free Thought Project, we have warned for years about the dangers of integrating artificial intelligence with law enforcement. 

Now, it appears the Trump administration is diving head first into a Minority Report style pre crime surveillance system powered by AI to throw a digital dragnet over the entirety of the American people.

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Trump to declare Strait of Hormuz as U.S. territory

President Donald Trump on Friday stated that he would declare the Strait of Hormuz as U.S. territory after the end of the Iran war.

Trump made the remarks during a speech at the Nassau County Police Academy in New York.

“And after we finish defeating Iran… pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” he said, to raucous applause.

The U.S. currently maintains a naval blockade of the critical waterway, through which as much as 20% of the world’s oil supply flows. Iran, meanwhile, has harried commercial vessels moving through the Strait.

The war began in late February with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The conflict was in a state of nominal ceasefire for weeks until the breakdown of negotiations.

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Trump State Department Axes Biden-Era Initiative That Sought to Spread DEI Around the World

Trump administration reforms have ended efforts to turn the State Department into a DEI sales force.

Biden-era guidelines that ordered diplomats to push a diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility policies agenda on foreign governments have been scrapped, according to Fox News.

“Under the Trump Administration, America’s diplomats are tasked with advocating for our national interests on the world stage — not demonstrating adherence to woke political dogmas,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said.

“The State Department is implementing sweeping reforms to the Foreign Service to prioritize merit, refocus training on tangible diplomatic skills, and prepare our nation’s diplomats to deliver America’s answer to our most pressing challenges,” he said.

Biden administration rules spoke of having State Department leaders “raise social inclusion, racial/gender equity, disability, and LGBTQI+ issues with high-level host country interlocutors, especially in countries where these issues are problematic.”

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Trump Housing Director Bill Pulte Launches Probe into Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac’s SHARIA LAW Home Financing

President Trump’s federal housing director Bill Pulte says officials are examining claims that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac participate in home-financing arrangements marketed as compliant with Islamic law.

Pulte, who serves as both FHFA Director and chairman of the boards of the two government-sponsored mortgage giants, responded directly on X after White House correspondent Natalie Winters highlighted the issue.

Winters posted evidence that Fannie Mae maintains a specific loan code for “Musharaka Islamic Finance Mortgages” and that Freddie Mac explicitly recognizes financing “designed to comply with Islamic law.”

Pulte replied: “We are looking into this right now. Thanks for mentioning!”

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which together back nearly half of all U.S. residential mortgages and remain under federal conservatorship, have for years provided critical secondary-market liquidity to Sharia-compliant products. These are structured primarily as diminishing Musharaka (co-ownership) arrangements rather than traditional interest-bearing loans, because Islamic law forbids riba (interest).

Providers such as Guidance Residential have financed more than $10 billion for tens of thousands of families using these structures, with the GSEs stepping in as co-owners or investors to keep the pipeline flowing. The practice dates back to the early 2000s, when Fannie and Freddie first began purchasing Islamic mortgage products.

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