Breaking News
Breaking News
from Washington and beyond

GOP Senator Confronted on Air With Trump’s Racist Video of Dem Leaders

Senator Roger Marshall struggled to explain what he thought about Donald Trump’s racist AI video.

Senator Roger Marshall
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Republican Senator Roger Marshall was forced to comment on Trump’s vulgar AI video of Democratic congressional leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries—and he brushed it off as a “little boy” playing with a dog.

Trump posted the tacky video on Monday, shortly after meeting with Senator Schumer and Minority Leader Jeffries about the potential government shutdown. In the video, the two men can be seen standing side by side—Jeffries with a sombrero and mustache, a racist reference to Mexican immigrants. Circus music plays in the back.

“Look guys, there’s no way to sugarcoat it. Nobody likes Democrats anymore. We have no voters left because of all of our woke trans bullshit,” AI-Schumer says in the video. “Not even Black people wanna vote for us anymore, even Latinos hate us. So we need new voters. And if we give all these illegal aliens free health care, we might be able to get them on our side so they can vote for us. They can’t even speak English, so they won’t realize we’re just a bunch of woke pieces of shit, you know? At least for a while until they learn English and they realize they hate us too.”

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins questioned Marshall about the clip later that evening. “Is that appropriate in your view?” she asked bluntly.

Marshall immediately started making excuses.

“Look, sometimes the president plays with the press like a little boy and a flashlight, and a dog. And he’s shining the flashlight here, and he’s shining it there. What he’s saying is, this offer from the Democrats is ridiculous,” he said. “One and a half trillion dollars on top of funding that they already agreed to. What they’re asking for is completely ridiculous, it’s disingenuous.”

“But couldn’t the president just say ‘these demands are ridiculous,’ and not post a video with Hakeem Jeffries wearing a sombrero, and putting that voice over Senator Schumer talking about people of color and immigrants?” Collins replied.

“I think he’s said that several times already.... In my estimation, Chuck Schumer wants the government to shut down to settle a political score.”

“Just to be clear, you don’t have any objections to that video the president posted?” Collins asked.

“I think it was said in jest.”

Did Marshall come up with that strange, stupid dog analogy on the spot? These are the same people who are currently trying to fire people and throw people in jail for criticizing Trump or choosing not to memorialize Charlie Kirk. And for what it’s worth, Republican cuts to health care—more of which are in the current bill in question—have directly hurt rural hospitals. And they’ll hurt homeless people and immigrants too, while cashing massive checks to the military. Who knows what kind of Draconian punishment Marshall would be calling for it a Democrat posted a video like that.

Trump Makes a Deal With Iran to Deport Even More Immigrants

The U.S. is prepared to deport hundreds of Iranians thanks to the deal.

splitscreen of U.S. President Donald Trump raising a fist and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei wearing a black turban and sitting on a chair.
Getty x2

Hundreds of Iranians will be deported as part of an agreement reached between Washington and Tehran, per multiple reports. This began Monday, when about 100 Iranians were deported from Louisiana, to arrive in Iran Tuesday by way of Qatar, reports The New York Times, citing unnamed U.S. and Iranian officials.

Hossein Noushabadi of the Iranian Foreign Ministry told Iran’s Tasnim News Agency that the U.S. has “been planning for months to deport around 400 Iranians,” largely those who have entered the country illegally via Mexico. The current wave, he said, includes 120 people.

According to Noushabadi, some of those being deported held valid residency permits. The Times reports that some of the deportees “had volunteered to leave after being in detention centers for months, and some had not.”

In almost every case, the Times sources said, “asylum requests had been denied or the people had not yet appeared before a judge for an asylum hearing.”

Little is known about the identities of those impacted by this uncommon instance of the two adversarial governments working in concert. According to the Times, the 100 or so deportees include men, women, and some couples, whose reasons for immigrating to the U.S. were also “not immediately clear.”

The Times called the move among “the starkest efforts yet by the Trump administration to deport migrants no matter the human rights conditions in countries on the receiving end,” citing the persecution of activists, dissidents, journalists, lawyers, and marginalized groups in Iran.

A June proclamation from President Trump banned the issuance of all visas to Iranian nationals.

In July, the National Iranian American Council reported an increase in “racially motivated immigration arrests, deportations, and other Trump efforts to attack the immigration rights of Iranian Americans.” Following U.S. military strikes on Iran in June, arrests of Iranian nationals spiked, with 130 arrested in the week after the attack, according to the NIAC.

Pete Hegseth Announces Unhinged Changes to Military Training

Hegseth revealed he was reducing some training requirements but permitting aggressive training tactics.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth holds his hand horizontally in front of his torso while speaking to military leaders at Quantico
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday that he plans to reduce mandatory training, and use hazing to get his soldiers ready for a fight.

Speaking at a meeting of hundreds of U.S. military officials he’d summoned to Washington, Hegseth explained that he wanted to shift training standards to improve retention. Doing that would involve “drastically reducing the ridiculous amount of mandatory training that individuals and units must execute,” he said.

“We’ve already ended the most egregious, now we’re giving you back real time. Less Powerpoint briefings, and fewer online courses. More time in the motor pool, and more time on the range,” Hegseth said.

It’s not entirely clear what online training Hegseth hoped to skip, but he seemed intent on getting officers off the computer and outside. But even in the military, learning is done in a classroom.

For example, Army mandatory training requires trainees to complete virtual courses on anti-trafficking and anti-terrorism, threat awareness, and information security and awareness. But it shouldn’t be all that surprising that Hegseth may be willing to skip out on a course teaching Operational Security, after he shamelessly sent war plans into a group chat with a civilian journalist.

The Army previously reduced the mandatory training standards in April, making it optional for officers to learn the law of war, including what Hegseth termed Tuesday as “the politically correct rules of engagement,” as well as the soldiers’ code of conduct.

If virtual classes won’t teach recruits, what will? Hegseth has an answer: hazing.

“Basic training is being restored to what it should be: scary, tough, and disciplined. We’re empowering drill sergeants to instill healthy fear in new recruits, ensuring future war fighters are forged,” Hegseth said.

“Yes, they can shark attack, they can toss bunks, they can swear, and yes they can put their hands on recruits. This does not mean they can be reckless, or violate the law, but they can use tried and true methods to motivate the troops, to make them the warriors they need to be,” Hegseth continued.

“The tougher and the higher the standards in our units, the higher the retention rates in those units. Warriors want to be challenged, troops want to be tested. When you don’t train and you don’t maintain, you demoralize,” he said.

In fact, combat-deployed soldiers who experience hazing are statistically more likely to experience mental health problems and thoughts of suicide.

While working to improve morale on one end by making training more hands-on, Hegseth plans to remove safeguards preventing trainees from targeted violence from their superiors, as part of his sweeping efforts to transform the U.S. military into a mindless, lawless militia.

Pete Hegseth Unveils Rules to Force Women Out of Military Combat

Pete Hegseth has been open about his prejudice against women in the military.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth raises his hand above his head while speaking to military leaders at Quantico
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Women can say goodbye to combat opportunities in the U.S. military.

Speaking to hundreds of America’s top military commanders at a mandatory in-person assembly in Quantico Tuesday morning, War Secretary Pete Hegseth unveiled his latest efforts to de-woke the country’s armed forces. Unfortunately for half of the population, that included resetting military combat requirements to the “highest male standard only.”

“When it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral,” Hegseth said. “If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it.”

Women made up 17.3 percent of America’s active-duty force in 2021, with more than 231,000 members. That same year, they composed 21.4 percent of the National Guard, according to a demographics report from the War Department.

“But in many ways it’s not their fault, as foolish and reckless as the ‘woke department’ was, those officers were following elected political leadership,” Hegseth said. “An entire generation of generals and admirals were told that they must parrot the insane fallacy that ‘our diversity is our strength.’

“They had to put out dizzying DEI and LGBTQI+ statements. They were told males and females are the same thing. Or that males who think they’re females are totally normal,” he continued.

Despite fearmongering over the supposed rampant encroachment of transgenderism, an August study by UCLA’s Williams Institute found that less than 1 percent of the country actually identifies as transgender. Their representation among those in uniform is even lower—about 0.2 percent of the country’s military has received a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, according to February figures from the military.

But fueling the culture wars was at the forefront of Hegseth’s mind. The former Fox News host’s new policies will also discriminate against enlisted people of color by nixing medical beard waivers, a decision that will disproportionately affect Black service members due to the potentially injurious effects of frequently shaving their faces, given the curl pattern of their hair.

“No more beardos,” Hegseth said. “Calling someone to shave, or work hard, is exactly the kind of work force we want.”

(The military has a long and strange history with beards, changing its hygiene requirements and regulations every few decades.)

Any service member who disagreed with the order was welcome to resign, according to Hegseth.

“If the words I’m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” Hegseth said. “We would thank you for your service.”

Hegseth has openly said before that he does not believe women should serve in combat roles. During a November interview on the Shawn Ryan Show, Hegseth said, “I’m straight-up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn’t made us more effective. Hasn’t made us more lethal. Has made fighting more complicated.”

Hegseth Summoned Military Leaders to Say “FAFO” in Disturbing Speech

The secretary of war essentially put the entire U.S. military on standby for potential conflicts.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth holds his arms out to the side while speaking to military leaders at Quantico military base
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The leader of America’s armed forces risked U.S. national security Tuesday in order to taunt the Trump administration’s perceived foreign enemies.

Speaking to the country’s top military commanders during an unprecedented mandatory in-person assembly, Pete Hegseth emphasized that the recently renamed War Department was reimagined for a reason.

“To our enemies: FAFO,” Hegseth said, using an acronym that translates to “Fuck around and find out.”

Hegseth ordered hundreds of U.S. military officials around the globe to meet him at a spontaneous assembly in Virginia, keeping the details of the gathering extremely hush-hush.

There are approximately 800 U.S. generals and admirals in total. Hegseth’s order applied to “all senior officers with the rank of brigadier general or above, or their Navy equivalent, serving in command positions and their top enlisted advisers,” insiders told The Washington Post. It does not apply to military officers who hold staff positions.

The message shocked members of the U.S. military, who could not recall another instance in which a defense secretary summoned so many commanders for a sudden in-person meeting—especially without a clear rationale. Some warned that having so many integral military leaders in one place could pose a national security risk.

As it turns out, the rationale was to rail against the culture wars. Hegseth, pacing back and forth onstage, also leveraged his time in front of America’s military to criticize “woke” ideology. He ordered the armed forces to reset its combat requirements to the “highest male standard only,” a decision that would effectively force women out of the military.

“If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is,” Hegseth said.

The Pentagon chief also nixed medical beard waivers, a decision that will disproportionately affect Black service members due to the curl pattern of the hair on their face.

“No more beardos,” Hegseth said. “Calling someone to shave, or work hard, is exactly the kind of workforce we want.”