Tag: pentagon

Appeals Court Sides with Crazed Biden Judge, Rules Pentagon Illegally Banned Transgender Troops – Hegseth Responds

A federal appeals court on Monday ruled that the Pentagon illegally banned transgender troops.

In a 2-1 ruling, the DC Circuit Court Appeals sided with crazed Biden judge Ana Reyes and said the Trump Administration’s transgender troop policy violated the Constitution.

The Associated Press reported:

A Trump administration policy illegally banned transgender troops from military service, a divided panel of federal appeal court judges ruled on Monday.

The majority opinion by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit largely upholds a March 2025 ruling by U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, D.C. Reyes concluded that President Donald Trump’s executive order to exclude transgender troops from military service likely violates their constitutional rights.

The administration appealed after Reyes issued a preliminary injunction requested by attorneys for six transgender people who are active-duty service members and two others seeking to join the military. The appeal court’s majority decided that the injunction should be narrowed to the plaintiffs currently serving in the military but not those seeking to join.

In January 2025, President Trump signed the “Restoring America’s Fighting Force” executive order and the “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness” executive orders, which direct every element of the U.S. military to “operate free from any preference based on race or sex” and root out gender insanity and made up pronoun usage, respectively.

Last March, Judge Ana Reyes, a Biden appointee from Uruguay, issued a temporary nationwide injunction blocking Trump’s transgender military ban.

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Pentagon puts building blocks in place for Cuba invasion

The Pentagon has spent months positioning the troops and weapons needed for the U.S. to launch a military attack on Cuba — all it needs is a final go-ahead from Donald Trump.

The president has floated an invasion of the island after economic and political pressure failed to topple the Communist government. But the Navy’s built-up presence in the region — the largest in the world outside the Middle East — would allow the U.S. to act immediately.

These strategically placed assets set the table for military action, from a capture of Havana’s leadership much like the seizure of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, to a series of precision strikes. And they open the possibility that the U.S. throws itself into the third international conflict of the Trump administration.

Cuba is “in a lot of trouble,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday at a full Cabinet meeting. “Having a failed state 90 miles from our shores is a threat to the national security of the United States.”

The armada in the region is slightly smaller than it was in January when the U.S. captured Maduro. But the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier strike group entered the Caribbean in May, along with several guided missile destroyers and cruisers that can launch precision missiles at targets onshore. An array of advanced American drones and surveillance aircraft have also circled Cuba for months, according to flight tracking sites. The USS Kearsarge amphibious ships and escorts, which carry 2,500 Marines, are off the coast of Virginia preparing for a new deployment, and could replace some ships heading home.

The surge provides a variety of military options, although the Pentagon would need additional troops for a massive ground invasion.

The Nimitz arrived in the region on the same day as the U.S. indicted former president Raul Castro, in what appeared a public show of force. “The Nimitz is likely there primarily for intimidation, though it could be used in a military operation if needed,” said Mark Cancian, a former Pentagon official and now a senior analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The ship, along with fighter planes based in Florida and Puerto Rico, would probably play a role in any military action in Cuba, he said. “Air strikes are possible to take out their air defenses to allow broader air operations or, perhaps, destroy their leadership with the idea of establishing a relationship as we have with Venezuela. Raul Castro would be their first target.”

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Hegseth outlines record-breaking defense budget featuring largest military pay raise in decades

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has unveiled a historic, generational investment aimed at modernizing America’s warfighters, transforming the Pentagon’s business model and revitalizing the domestic defense manufacturing sector.

On Thursday, Hegseth highlighted that of the proposed $1.5 trillion military investment for Fiscal Year 2027, $90 billion would be allocated toward revitalizing barracks and facilities. In the video, Hegseth said the funding “will get rid of all substandard and failing barracks.”

Under the proposed framework, military personnel would also receive a targeted, tiered pay increase: a 7% raise for those in grades E-5 and below, a 6% increase for grades E-6 to O-3, and a 5% bump for O-4 and above.

Beyond direct compensation, the budget channels $35 million into robust family support systems. This includes fully funding military healthcare — with the strategic goal of making Tricare a more desirable option than Medicare — while simultaneously investing in base childcare, youth programs, upgraded commissaries, and enhanced military schools. Additionally, permanent change of station (PCS) task forces and spousal employment initiatives will receive dedicated capital to ensure smoother transitions during relocations.

“Taking care of our troops isn’t just about doing the right thing; it’s about military readiness,” Hegseth asserted. “When our warfighters know their families are safe, secure, and provided for, they can maintain total focus on the mission.”

According to Hegseth, the massive funding injection is designed to simultaneously address service member quality of life, remediate substandard military barracks, and rapidly put the defense industrial base back onto a wartime footing. The secretary framed the historic top-line request as the definitive execution of President Donald Trump’s America First agenda.

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U.S. bears brunt of Israel’s missile defense, Pentagon assessments show

The U.S. military has depleted much of its inventory of advanced missile-defense interceptors after expending far more high-end munitions defending Israel amid hostilities with Iranthan Israeli forces used themselves, according to Defense Department assessments described toThe Washington Post.

The imbalance, according tothree U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters, underscores the extent to which Washington has shouldered the burden of countering Iranian ballistic missile strikes duringOperation Epic Fury, and raises questions about U.S. military readiness and security commitments around the world.

The United States launched more than 200 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, interceptors in defense of Israel — roughly half of the Pentagon’stotal inventory — along with more than 100 Standard Missile-3 and Standard Missile-6 interceptors firedfrom naval vessels in the eastern Mediterranean, said the U.S. officials, who, like others in this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters. By contrast, Israel fired fewer than 100 of its Arrow interceptors and around 90 David’s Sling interceptors, some of which were used against less sophisticated projectiles fired by Iran-backed groups in Yemen and Lebanon.

Military analysts said the data describedto The Post offers a rare window into how the United States and Israel work together.

“The numbers are striking,” said Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center. “The United States absorbed most of the missile defense mission while Israel conserved its own magazines. Even if the operational logic was sound, the United States is left with roughly 200 THAAD interceptors and a production line that can’t keep pace with demand.”

The shortage of U.S. interceptors has alarmed U.S. allies in Asia, particularly Japan and South Korea, which rely on the United States as a deterrent to potential threats from North Korea and China. “That bill risks coming due in theaters that have nothing to do with Iran,” said Grieco.

U.S. and Israeli officials routinely tout their close cooperation and the strength of Israel’s multilayered air-defense system. But the Defense Department assessments suggest a more lopsided dynamic.

“In total, the U.S. shot around 120 more interceptors and engaged twice as many Iranian missiles,” said a U.S. administration official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters.

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The White House Intervened to Get a $620 Million Deal for a Company Tied to Donald Trump Jr.

When the Pentagon announced a $620 million loan last year to a small North Carolina startup linked to Donald Trump Jr., defense officials and the company tried to tamp down suspicions of cronyism. 

The president’s eldest son said through a spokesperson that he wasn’t involved. The Pentagon said Trump Jr. played no role in the record-setting deal. And the startup’s founder told reporters that his company, Vulcan Elements, received no political favoritism.

But interviews and Defense Department records reviewed by ProPublica show that the request to loan hundreds of millions of dollars to the firm linked to Trump Jr. was made by Peter Navarro, a White House adviser to President Donald Trump and a friend of Trump Jr.’s.

Of the dozens of companies the Pentagon was considering funding at the time, Vulcan’s was the only deal initiated by a top aide to the president, said an official at the Pentagon who was not authorized to speak publicly.

After defense officials got the White House request, they asked Pentagon staff to move at an unusually rapid pace, said another person who was involved in the deal at the Pentagon but not authorized to speak about it. The staff worked late nights and with little sleep to get the loan through in a matter of weeks, the source said.

“The call came from the White House: We have to get this done,” the person said. 

The deal is one of many actions by the Trump administration that have helped companies in which the Trump family holds stakes. Government contracts and other benefits have gone to various Trump-linked companies, prompting allegations of self-dealing by Democratic lawmakers and good government experts. But ProPublica’s reporting on the Vulcan loan represents the first time the awarding of a contract from a federal agency has been directly linked to White House intervention.

The loan was a massive financial commitment from the Pentagon in its effort to fund companies that could help the U.S. reduce dependence on China’s critical mineral supply chains. The deal was a dramatic win for Vulcan, a North Carolina rare-earth magnet company launched just two years earlier. Estimates of its valuation grew tenfold after the deal was announced. It was also a win for Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm, which took a stake of undisclosed size in Vulcan about three months before the Pentagon announced the deal. 

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Pete Hegseth Details Trump’s Orders for Department of War to Protect Nigerian Christians

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth detailed President Donald Trump’s instructions for the Department of War to protect Christians in Nigeria who were being targeted and murdered by ISIS terrorists.

Giving some examples of what the establishment media does not focus on when it comes to President Trump and the Department of War, Hegseth pointed to the plight of Christians in Nigeria.

“I just want to note one more thing to give you a sense of how committed this president is. Maybe a year ago he heard the call of Nigerian Christians who were being targeted and killed by ISIS in Nigeria, and he said, ‘Pete, I want the War Department to focus on ensuring that we do everything we can to protect those Christians,’” Hegseth revealed during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting.

“Partnerships like that can take time behind the scenes, but he never wavered on it,” he continued, explaining that they put out their assets and have successfully killed one of the ISIS heads inflicting harm on Nigerian Christians.

“Over the last month — and there hasn’t been much coverage of this — we killed ISIS’ number two in Nigeria, who is most responsible for killing Christians and trying to target the U.S. homeland, and have since — because of the intel we gathered — killed hundreds of ISIS members who were targeting and killing Christians in Nigeria, creating a whole new opportunity there,” the secretary revealed.

“So, there’s a lot of things we do that the media pays attention to, and a lot of things the President empowers the department to do on behalf of the American people that he deserves great credit for,” Hegseth continued, noting that the American people are happy with what the president is doing as evidenced by the increased recruitment rates.

“Thanks to the investments that you’ve made in this department, firing on all cylinders for the second year in a row, we’re at historic recruitment rates,” Hegseth said. “Last year we said that here, this year we beat it even faster. The American people are excited about what you’re bringing to our department.”

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Chilling bodycam reveals UFO-linked Air Force general met shadowy Pentagon unit before he vanished… and his perplexed wife’s reaction

Newly released bodycam footage has revealed a shocking meeting between a missing Air Force general and members of the Pentagon‘s shadowy space unit just hours before his disappearance. 

Police officers in New Mexico were recording as they spoke with a witness who allegedly had dinner with William Neil McCasland the night before he vanished without a trace on February 27.

McCasland is a retired Air Force Major General who has been linked to both US nuclear research and classified UFO-related programs during his career.

The bodycam footage, obtained by the Law&Crime Network, captured a phone call with an unidentified woman who said McCasland met with her and members of the US Space Force at a restaurant in Albuquerque around 6pm local time.

Officially, the Space Force equips the military for operations in space, protecting satellites and other assets from threats, but the newest branch of the armed forces also tracks unexplained space objects, such as UFOs, as part of national security.

The unnamed caller claimed she worked with McCasland, who was still a member of the Kirtland Partnership, a nonprofit working to protect and expand Kirtland Air Force Base, a major military research facility and nuclear weapons lab.

Previously, McCasland’s wife, Susan Wilkerson, had posted online that the retired general only had ‘very commonly held clearances’ since retiring from the Air Force 13 years ago, but the new witness revealed that the 68-year-old was still a key figure in secretive government circles.

‘He was the head of Air Force Research Lab to the point the man’s names are in the UFO documents that are fixed to be released,’ the witness claimed. ‘He’s in that depth, so he has a very high security clearance.’

However, the woman who met with McCasland said something seemed wrong during the meeting with Space Force and the retired general was not acting like himself that night.

‘I was shocked this morning when I saw the alert because what I noticed Thursday evening [February 26] is that he wasn’t his usual self. He was kind of spacey and quiet and you know that that happens with people.’

The newly obtained bodycam footage also revealed the conversation between officers from the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office and Wilkerson, revealing that McCasland’s disappearance caught her completely off guard.

However, she noted that the retired general was just prescribed a new medication hours before he vanished, which was supposed to help battle several symptoms he was having that may have been signaling cognitive decline.

‘Today he had taken a drug that the doctor prescribed last night that was supposed to help him sleep,’ she said in the bodycam recording obtained by Law&Crime Sidebar with Jesse Weber.

‘With weight gain, he’s lost about 20 pounds for no reason, and with anxiety, today he woke up and said, “Well, I have got better sleep, but it’s like the after effects of a bad hangover. I’m just foggy. I can’t get any motivation to do anything.”‘ 

McCasland was reportedly seeing doctors for his physical and mental difficulties. Before police arrived at the home, Wilkerson had told 911 dispatchers the military veteran feared his brain was ‘deteriorating.’

He was last seen leaving his home without his phone, wearable devices or any identification and his wife told authorities she believed McCasland ‘had planned not to be found.’

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UFO files reveal new evidence of secret invasion by mysterious silver spheres

The Trump Administration released a fresh wave of UFO files last week, including never-before-seen footage of mysterious metallic spheres flying throughout the world.

The latest batch in the White House‘s push for UFO disclosure arrived Friday, including 46 videos Congress has been demanding the Pentagon release for months.

Some of the clearest images seen were of strange orbs or silver spheres appearing to float or travel at extreme speeds over mountains, oceans and even military targets.

Those mysterious sightings add to the growing number of reports and physical encounters humans have allegedly had with the ball-like objects that have seemingly invaded the entire planet.

In fact, a study from the crowdsourced platform Enigma, which allows people to report sightings of UFOs, revealed more than 8,000 sightings of orbs across the US between December 2022 and June 2025.

These reports did not even include the startling recovery of a metallic sphere seen floating above South America last year before crashing to Earth in Buga, Colombia.

The new footage released last week also matched hundreds of specific reports from witnesses who have seen ‘metallic orbs’ with no visible engine quickly moving through the sky.

Despite releasing the new information, the US government has not publicly commented on where these spheres are believed to have come from, what their intentions are or if the military has recovered any of these objects.

Among the most startling new videos released by the Pentagon was one captured by a US military satellite on April 12, 2021.

US Central Command, which is responsible for military operations in the Middle East, Central Asia and parts of Africa, captured nearly five minutes of color video as the satellite chased a large silver sphere over an unknown mountain range.

The UFO could be seen traveling at high speed and moving effortlessly above the terrain despite having no clear signs of an engine or way of flying that fast.

Another sphere-shaped craft was reported to the Pentagon in 2024, when another military satellite captured infrared video of the object over a large body of water repeatedly pulsating with a blinding light.

The satellite followed the UFO as it appeared to rotate and then began flashing brightly, giving off rays of light while flying low over the water at high speed.

Compared to the UFO seen flying over the mountains, the pulsating orb appeared to change shape and moved erratically as the satellite struggled to keep the image centered for more than three minutes.

So far, the Pentagon has released over 200 files related to UAPs, which have long been an object of public fascination, following the directive from Trump.

Officials noted, however, that many of the records lacked a fully verified chain of custody, raising questions about how the materials were obtained and authenticated.

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Highlights From 2nd Batch Of Declassified UFO Files Include A UAP Shootdown

The Pentagon’s second batch of declassified UFO files released on May 22 includes videos such as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) being shot down over the Great Lakes and audio of astronauts witnessing a series of unexplained phenomena.

​Dozens of documents were cleared for release on Friday, adding to the previous document dump on May 8, which revealed that Apollo 11 astronauts reported seeing a “sizable” object near the moon.

​The Epoch Times’ Jacki Thrapp offers the following highlights from a partial review of the newly released files.

UAP Shot Down

The U.S. Air Force shot down a balloon-shaped UAP over Lake Huron, one of the Great Lakes located between the United States and Canada, on Feb. 12, 2023.

The video, which the War Department said was likely taken by an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform, showed the UAP being struck and “fragmenting in a radial displacement pattern that suggests a high-energy event.”

The War Department did not reveal what fell from the object.

Officials did not share if any attempts were made to recover the fragments.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Department of War for additional information.

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UAP Experts React to Pentagon’s Release of Files

The Pentagon’s major public release of UFO/UAP files has shone a light on numerous aerial encounters, including astronaut accounts that continue to resist easy explanation. Space.com recently reached out to several specialists in the field to share their reactions and analysis. Alejandro Rojas, a longtime UFO researcher and consultant for Enigma Labs, described the release as a step toward transparency, yet it had an unfinished quality. “There are many cases with minimal context, missing sensor data, and little accompanying analysis, as if the priority was getting something out the door rather than something useful,” he remarked.

Mark Rodeghier, scientific director of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies, views the release as a useful beginning, while noting that “short videos and unresolved case summaries can be intriguing, but without the supporting metadata, investigative history and analysis, they are hard to evaluate.” He continued: “The real test will be whether future tranches provide complete case files, not just provocative fragments.” Michael Gold, who served on NASA’s UAP Independent Study Team, framed the release as part of a broader cultural shift toward serious discussion of anomalous phenomena. He argued that investigating unexplained events should not carry stigma, particularly when the goal is better scientific understanding. “I expect we are at the beginning, not an ending, of a very important moment in the history of science,” he commented.

And we may not have to wait long for a second set of UFO files to be released, as Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced on X on Monday that new materials are “actively being processed.” Congressional representative Tim Burchett reportedly said that while the first drop was big, “in comparison to what is coming, they will be a drop in the bucket.”

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