Why Is Pete Hegseth Taking Orders from Libs of TikTok?

Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, seems to be taking orders from notorious far-right hate account “Libs of TikTok.”

On Thursday afternoon, Libs of TikTok tagged Hegseth in a post targeting a military doctor whose LinkedIn page listed her title as the “EMF-Bravo Navy Deputy Medical Director for Transgender Healthcare.”

“Yikes. This she/her Navy Commander is apparently a medical director for ‘transgender healthcare’ at a Naval center in California. Can you please look into this?” the post read.

Hours later, Hegseth tweeted back, writing, “Pronouns UPDATED: She/Her/Fired.”

It’s so wonderful that the man running our military can make a grammatically unsound joke after potentially ruining a Navy doctor’s life.

It’s unknown whether Janelle Marra, the doctor in question, was actually fired by Hegseth, but the speed with which she went from anonymously serving her country to being the target of social media hate, to possibly even being fired for her beliefs by a federal official, is staggering.

Libs of TikTok is run by Chaya Raichik, who has been designated an extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center for her rabid anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda. On Bluesky, lawyer Alejandra Caraballo called Libs of TikTok “the digital stasi,” comparing the account to the East German secret police. “It’s all a spectacle packaged as content. Destroying people’s lives for profitable ideological bloodsport.”

She continued, “Anything as innocuous as a pride flag can cause a federal investigation now or people to lose their jobs.… The spectacle is there to create fear in everyone else that they need to comply or they are next.”

Gun rights groups are, well, up in arms over reports that the Trump administration is considering banning transgender Americans from possessing firearms.

As conservatives use the deadly mass shooting in Minneapolis last week to vilify the transgender community—the shooter was transgender—CNN and The New York Post reported Thursday that Donald Trump’s Justice Department is in preliminary talks about implementing a gun ban for transgender people.

While Republican presidents are typically the darlings of Second Amendment advocates, this idea was denounced swiftly and roundly by every major gun rights organization.

The National Rifle Association condemned “any policy proposals that implement sweeping gun bans that arbitrarily strip law-abiding citizens of their Second Amendment rights without due process.”

Gun Owners of America said the organization “opposes any & all gun bans. Full stop.” In another post, GOA deplored the addition of “any new category of persons to the unconstitutionally broad ‘mental defective’ category,” which would “not only block them from purchasing firearms but could result in door-to-door gun confiscation from that new category of individuals.”

On X, the president of the National Association for Gun Rights wrote, “As history proves, any new rules the government invents today will be abused against ill-favored communities, including conservatives and law-abiding gun owners, tomorrow.” The proposal is “just insanity,” an NAGR spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal.

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms issued a statement saying, “We needn’t make scapegoats of others who had nothing to do with that outrage, just to create the impression something is being done.”

The Firearms Policy Coalition warned: “If the Trump Administration—or any administration—unwisely and immorally chooses to wield the force of government in conflict with the Constitution, federal law, or our values, FPC will take aggressive action to defend the rights of peaceable people, just as we have many times before.”

Kostas Moros, director of legal research and education at the Second Amendment Foundation, called the idea “blatantly unconstitutional” and lacking “any legal basis.” Considering the outpouring of criticism from gun groups, Moros wrote on X: “To the extent [the proposed ban] was a trial balloon, we all hit it like a clay pigeon.”

The Department of Homeland Security has already started bragging about its agency’s biggest single-site enforcement operation at a Hyundai plant in Georgia—but one close U.S. ally isn’t happy at all.

Most of the nearly 500 people arrested in a massive raid at a Hyundai plant Thursday were South Korean citizens, said Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Steve Schrank, who oversaw the operation. The New York Times reported that the detainees included employees and executives at two South Korean companies, Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solutions, a battery manufacturer.

Now South Korea seems seriously pissed.

In a statement Friday, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry warned that the “economic activities of Korean investment companies and the rights and interests of Korean citizens must not be unfairly infringed upon during U.S. law enforcement operations.”

The Foreign Ministry added that it would dispatch diplomats to respond to the raid and that it had urged the U.S. Embassy in Seoul “to exercise extreme caution” in regard to the rights of Korean citizens.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lee Jaewoong confirmed Friday that a “large” number of the individuals detained were South Korean, but did not provide an exact figure.

Schrank, the officer who oversaw the operation, declared that the raid “in fact was the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of homeland security investigations.”

While Schrank claimed the workers arrested were either undocumented or working illegally, he said that some lawful U.S. citizens and permanent residents had been detained and released.

Trump met with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung late last month, in a conversation that spanned several geopolitical topics—and also included the topic of forced prostitution.

President Trump is sending 10 F-35 stealth fighter jets to Puerto Rico to use against what he claims to be state-sponsored drug cartels in the Caribbean. This comes just days after the administration bombed what it claimed was a Venezuelan “drug boat” with 11 Tren de Aragua “narco-traffickers.” 

The fighter jets will arrive in Puerto Rico next week, according to sources who spoke with Reuters, and will be part of Trump’s new military campaign in the region.

Trump has claimed that Venezuela is offering direct support to drug traffickers working in and around the United States. The country has also been central to his immigration crackdown.

“We have to protect our country and we’re going to. Venezuela has been a very bad actor. They’ve been sending millions of people into the country. Many of them are Tren de Aragua, some of the worst people anywhere in the world,” Trump said shortly after the boat attack on Tuesday.   

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed Trump’s comments, claiming that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro “is acting as the kingpin of a narco state.… He’s involved in the kind of drug running that has affected the American people directly.” 

Maduro has denied this frequently, instead focusing on the fact that the U.S. is bombing his citizens and accusing him of sponsoring drug traffickers, all while it increases military pressure against him. 

“They are seeking a regime change through military threat,” Maduro told journalists plainly on Monday. 

Eighty percent of illegal maritime drug flow comes from the Pacific Ocean, not the Atlantic, where Trump has sent bombs and fighter jets. The administration is seeking to use excuses like the “immediate threat” posed by Venezuela in order to further broaden Trump’s use of the military in situations where he has no legal authority to use it. Just look to his threats to Mexico, his military crackdowns in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and his threats against countless other American cities for further confirmation.  

President Donald Trump has reportedly set his sights on yet another museum: the 9/11 Memorial.

According to two White House officials, the president is exploring ways that the federal government could take control of the museum, though it’s unclear exactly how it would gain power over the site, The New York Times reported.

His campaign promises may provide a clue: Last year, Trump pledged that he would designate the site a national monument.

The 9/11 Memorial and Museum would be the administration’s latest acquisition in its quest to control America’s cultural institutions. Trump is currently pressuring the Smithsonian to eliminate exhibits that represent “improper ideology.” The president is also on a mission to restore and replace Confederate statues.

In this case, it seems that Trump’s interest in the site could stem from complaints made by 9/11 victims’ families about the memorial. For years, some have complained about high ticket prices and the large salaries earned by museum leadership. The tickets are $36 for adult admission, with veterans and the families of victims receiving free entry.

As the 9/11 memorial’s current leadership pointed out, taking over the museum would be a bad financial move for a government hypothetically focused on cost efficiency. “At a time when the federal government is working to cut costs, assuming the full operating expenses for the site makes no sense,” Beth Hillman, the president and chief executive of the memorial, said in a statement to the Times.

And as far as Marc La Vorgna, another spokesperson for the museum, knows, there’s no legal way for Trump to mount his takeover.

“We are certain that there is nothing in existing law that would give the federal government the unilateral ability to take the site over,” he said in a statement.

This week, the police department in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, unveiled an optional patch displaying the name of the department in both English and Arabic. A meltdown ensued among right-wingers on social media.

Amid the backlash, Dearborn Heights Mayor Bilal “Bill” Bazzi—a MAGA acolyte nominated by the president to serve as ambassador to Tunisia—on Friday said the patch, which would be the first in the United States to contain Arabic script, is merely an idea that “should NOT have been presented as an official prototype.”

In a since-deleted Facebook post published days earlier, the patch design had been celebrated by the Dearborn Heights Police Department, which serves a community with a significant Arab American population.

“By incorporating Arabic script alongside English, this patch represents unity, respect, and our shared commitment to service,” the post said. “Our officers proudly serve all members of our community, and this new design is another way we continue to celebrate the rich cultures that make our city unique.”

Many on the right hysterically took the design—which notably contains no religious content—as a harbinger of sharia law taking root in America.

“They said their goal was to bring sharia law to America. You should’ve believed them. Pray for Michigan,” wrote Republican Representative Randy Fine of Florida.

“Muslims have invaded America and now they are taking over,” wrote MAGA personality Laura Loomer on X. “The civilization takeover has begun,” posted conservative activist Brigitte Gabriel. “When you get conquered, you get a new language,” added Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

Going further, Auron MacIntyre of the right-wing media company Blaze Media tweeted, “Muslim immigration to the US must be halted immediately and mass deportations must be conducted. Stop it now while you still can.”

With the Trump-adoring mayor’s Friday statement, it appears the bigot brigade may get their way.

President Donald Trump never told Congress about a disastrous 2019 intelligence mission targeting North Korea that turned deadly, The New York Times reported Friday. 

The Times spoke with two dozen people with knowledge of the incident, which had never been publicly acknowledged by the U.S. government. 

In 2018, SEAL Team 6 was charged with planting an electronic device that could intercept communications from the reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, amid high-level talks between the United States and North Korea. In early 2019, the SEALs set out toward North Korea in a nuclear submarine, and Trump gave the final go-ahead to proceed with the mission. 

After breaking off in mini-submarines and swimming to shore, the SEALs spotted a North Korean vessel close to the mini-subs. Unsure whether they’d been spotted, the SEALs opened fire, killing everyone on board. 

Upon inspection the SEALs found no weapons or uniforms on the boat, and determined that the two or three North Korean crew members had been civilians diving for shellfish, according to officials briefed on the mission. The bodies were pulled into the water, the mission was aborted, and the SEALs escaped unharmed.

A classified military review found that the killing of civilians was justified under the rules of engagement, but the Trump administration never told congressional committees overseeing military and intelligence about the operation, or the military review. 

Matthew Waxman, a law professor at Columbia University who served in senior positions at the State Department, the Department of Defense, and the National Security Council under President George W. Bush, told the Times that Trump’s failure to report to Congress may have violated federal law, which places a burden on the executive to notify Congress of consequential missions.  

A former government official told the Times that key members of Congress had eventually been briefed on the mission by former President Joe Biden in 2021. The review remains classified.

The incident raises concerns about the efficacy of SEAL Team 6, which has been criticized for its uneven track record and for staging overly complicated missions. It seems that despite rehearsing for months, the SEALs had no contingency plan for spotting groups of civilians fishing, besides cold-blooded murder. They were then shielded from all accountability for the incident, and many involved in the mission were later promoted, the Times reported.  

This latest Times report follows another murky military action rubber-stamped by Trump earlier this week, when the Pentagon carried out a deadly strike on a boat officials claimed was carrying drugs. Not only has the Trump administration struggled to keep its story straight, but it has failed to provide any legal authority for the strike, let alone any evidence to back up its claim that the crew members were so-called “narco terrorists.”

Democratic New York City mayoral nominee and front-runner Zohran Mamdani is tired of going back and forth with Andrew Cuomo, when he could just debate the man he views as pulling Cuomo’s strings: President Donald Trump.

As the New York City mayoral race heats up, Trump is reportedly working behind the scenes to keep Mamdani from winning, saying Thursday, “I don’t like to see a communist become mayor, I will tell you that.” (Mamdani is a Democratic Socialist.)

Trump has said he believes the race—which currently has four candidates; Mamdani is in the lead—should be one-on-one, and has reportedly been trying to use potential White House jobs to entice current Mayor Eric Adams and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa to drop out.

So when Cuomo challenged Mamdani to five debates, one in each borough, Mamdani fired back—not at Cuomo but at his perceived benefactor.

“Let’s cut out the middleman,” Mamdani told CBS. “Why should I debate Donald Trump’s puppet when I could debate Donald Trump himself?”

Mamdani continued, saying, “If Donald Trump is serious about this, he should come to New York City; we can have as many debates as he wants about why he’s cutting SNAP benefits for hungry New Yorkers just to fund tax cuts for his billionaire donors.”

Mamdani rocketed to national prominence when he won the June Democratic Primary on a grassroots campaign of affordability. This time last year, the race had been preemptively called for Cuomo before the former governor had even declared his candidacy—but Mamdani’s canvassing efforts, social media mastery, and resonant goals of free buses, city-funded grocery stores, and a rent freeze for rent-stabilized apartments won the day.

So it’s no surprise that he’d take issue with how Trump’s budget bill impacts New Yorkers, 300,000 of whom could lose food stamp benefits after the cuts.

Meanwhile, Cuomo has said that he doesn’t want Trump “involved in anything to do with [his] race,” though the two “Queens boys” have known each other for decades.

President Trump went on a Friday morning Truth Social rant about Jeffrey Epstein, as he clearly attempts to change the narrative as bipartisan calls to release the Epstein files grow louder.

In a post that parroted some of his favorite talking points, Trump wrote:

The confused and badly failing Democrat Party did nothing about Jeffrey Epstein while he was alive except befriend him, socialize with him, travel to his Island, and take his money! They knew everything there was to know about Epstein, but now, years after his death, they, out of nowhere, are seeming to show such love and heartfelt concern for his victims. Does anybody really believe that? Where were they during his very public trials, and for all of those years before his death? The answer is, “nowhere to be found.” The now dying (after the DOJ gave thousands of pages of documents in full compliance with a very comprehensive and exacting Subpoena from Congress!) Epstein case was only brought back to life by the Radical Left Democrats because they are doing so poorly, with the lowest poll numbers in the history of the Party (16%), while the Republicans are doing so well, among the highest approval numbers the Party has ever had!

There’s a lot going on here. For one, Trump knows as well as anyone what it’s like to “befriend,” and “socialize” with Epstein, as their countless letters and interactions are well documented. To accuse Democrats of doing that—especially when Epstein’s sweetheart plea deal in 2008 was delivered by a Republican who later joined Trump’s administration—is a massive projection.

Trump is conveniently forgetting that his administration got us to this point. He’s ignoring the fact that his Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Directors Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, Vice President JD Vance, and his own son Donald Jr. have all advocated for the release of the Epstein “list” or “files,” completely independent of the Democratic Party. Trump is also ignoring the fact that he was president for nearly three years before Epstein killed himself, ample time for him to pursue this case. He was nowhere to be found then, either.

“The Dems don’t care about the victims, as proven by the fact that they never did before,” Trump continued in his Friday morning post. “This is merely another Democrat HOAX, just like Russia, Russia, Russia, and all of the others, in order to deflect and distract from the great success of a Republican President, and the record setting failure of the previous Administration, and the Democrat Party. The Department of Justice has done its job, they have given everything requested of them. It’s time to end the Democrat Epstein Hoax, and give the Republicans credit for the great, even legendary, job that they are doing. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

Multiple victims, some of whom even voted for Trump, have made it extremely clear that this is not a Democrat-versus-Republican thing, and it is certainly not a hoax.

“Mr. President Donald J. Trump, I am a registered Republican, not that that matters because this is not political. However, I cordially invite you to the Capitol to meet me in person so you can understand this is not a hoax,” Epstein survivor Haley Robson said on Wednesday. “We are real human beings. This is real trauma.… We’re here in person. To say that it’s a hoax is just not … please humanize us. I would like Donald J. Trump and every person in America and around the world to humanize us, and to hear us for what we have to say.”

“I’m a Republican. I voted for him. I voted for Trump,” Jena-Lisa Jones, who was abused by Epstein in 2003 when she was just 14 years old, also said on Wednesday evening. “For him to say what he’s saying is beyond me. Because I put my hope in him, and he’s supposed to protect us. And for him to say that this is a joke, and that it’s sides? This is not sides. We will say it time and time again: None of us are up there accusing him of anything. There is no one that is accusing him of any wrongdoing, so for the fact that he is saying those things and saying it’s a hoax, who are you hiding for then? Because if it’s not you, then who is it?”

Additionally, Trump’s verbose post came after perhaps his worst jobs report numbers to date, as the economy added a mere 22,000 jobs in August where 75,000 were expected. This is a hit dog hollering.

“Trump with a final knife in the back for conspiracy theorists who believed he would reveal the truth about Epstein and bring down the international pedo elite rings,” journalist Mike Rothschild wrote on X. “He got your votes, now he’s done with you.”

President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics had a since-deleted social media account where he made lewd comments about Kamala Harris, bashed women and gay people, and spread far-right conspiracy theories. Gee, no wonder the president picked him!

E.J. Antoni, the MAGA rioter Trump tapped to replace Erika McEntarfer, ran an X account under different usernames and display names to air his right-wing grievances, CNN’s KFile reported Friday.

When the account was first created in 2015, the username was simply his full name: “ErwinJohnAntoni.” He later changed his display name to “Dr. Erwin J. Antoni III” around the time he received his Ph.D., in 2020.

After that, the user frequently identified himself as an economist, and other accounts also identified him as one too. The account posted the specific phrase “You called down the thunder, now reap the whirlwind” 20 times, which also appeared on Antoni’s professional account “RealEJAntoni.” The account had previously been linked to Antoni by Wired.

Using the account, Antoni reportedly published a number of gross attacks against female politicians and political figures. While the posts are grotesque, they generally aligned with positions the president has expressed.

In October 2018, Antoni referred to Christine Blasey Ford, who’d accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, as “Miss Piggy,” just one day after Trump mocked her testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Antoni posted at least five times suggesting that former presidential candidate Kamala Harris had used sexual favors to advance her career. “You can’t run a race on your knees,” he wrote in December 2019, responding to a picture of a Harris campaign poster that had been defaced. Trump later shared similar comments about Harris during the 2024 presidential race.

Antoni accused former President Joe Biden, former FBI Director James Comey, and economist Paul Krugman of being pedophiles. He also took aim at members of the Squad, a group of female Democratic lawmakers, whom Trump has also repeatedly criticized, but the president’s barbs have tended to lean more racist than sexist.

Sexism was a common theme for Antoni, who wrote and shared a number of posts explaining just how much he hates women. “Feminism is that belief by which women are liberated from false slavery to men in order to become true slaves to corporations,” he wrote in February 2020. He’s dabbled in gay bashing, writing in March 2020, “There is only one sexual orientation—everything else is a disorientation,” and he wrote several posts targeting CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and former CNN anchor Don Lemon.

Wired previously reported that Antoni’s account had published far-right positions, like conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, Covid-19, and Jeffrey Epstein. KFile reported that he also shared conspiracy theories about the 2016 presidential election, criticized abortion, and engaged with QAnon and far-right accounts.