MAGA Senator Deletes Post After Realizing He Compared ICE to Cartel

Senator Mike Lee scrubbed his comments about ICE after he realized he had painted the agency as the baddies.

The Utah Republican was excoriated by liberals Sunday after he posted an eyebrow-raising comparison on X in which he suggested that Democrats were OK with masked cartel members but not masked federal agents.

“Cartel hitmen wear masks. Leftists aren’t complaining,” Lee wrote, referring to an image of masked Mexican cartel members at a gas station from earlier that day.

Mexican authorities killed famed cartel kingpin Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes on Sunday, sparking a wave of violence across the country that saw vehicles torched, businesses destroyed, and dozens of people killed.

But Democrats were quick to point out that the parallel only made ICE look worse.

“Yes. Cartel hitmen wear masks. That’s why ICE shouldn’t,” responded Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

“Oh dear Mike,” wrote Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy. “I literally couldn’t make our argument better than you do. The bad guys wear masks. The good guys don’t.”

Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz highlighted that other law enforcement agencies are not allowed to conceal their identities in the way that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has over the last several months.

“Mike, I would like ICE to have the same standards as a local police department, not cartel hitmen,” he posted.

The message must have gotten across, as Lee has since erased his post.

ICE agents’ masks are one of the primary drivers of the partial government shutdown, which entered its second week Monday with no clear end in sight. Lawmakers remain firmly divided on how to continue funding the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats have offered a funding arrangement so long as Republicans agree to reform ICE as per a list of 10 demands that include requiring federal agents to identify themselves, take off their masks, and obtain judicial warrants before forcing their way onto private property.

GOP congressional leadership, however, does not seem willing to change the status quo at all. Republican members have decried the seemingly bare-minimum stipulations as “impossible” and “totally unrealistic.”

Donald Trump was particularly happy to congratulate the U.S. men’s hockey team on their Olympic gold medal over the phone, gushing over their performance and inviting them to Tuesday’s State of the Union address as well as the White House.

The women’s team? Not so much.

Both teams had dramatic, overtime wins over Canada to win gold in Milan, with the women’s victory coming on Thursday and the men’s on Sunday. In the locker room phone call to the men’s team shortly after their victory, Trump joked about having to invite the women’s team as well.

“I must tell you, we’re gonna have to bring the women’s team, you do know that,” Trump said as the entire men’s team laughed with the president. “I do believe I probably would be impeached.”

It’s not a good look for the president to be favoring the men’s team over the women’s when both achieved hard-fought victories over Canada, a country where hockey is the national sport (and where Trump has caused unnecessary tension). It brings to mind Trump’s long history of sexism and refutes the administration’s claim that it cares about women’s sports. Both teams can be celebrated without an ugly joke.

She’s baaaaack: Judge Aileen Cannon just barred the Department of Justice from releasing the second volume of former special counsel Jack Smith’s report on Donald Trump.

In a 15-page order Monday, Cannon approved two motions to block the public release of Volume II of Smith’s report, writing that its release would “plainly offend” her original dismissal order and the “substantial discovery” held under a protective order.

Releasing the report “would cause irreparable damage to former defendants from disclosure of non-public discovery material implicating still-contested grand jury and privilege concerns; and it would contravene basic notions of fairness and justice in the process, where no adjudication of guilt has been reached following initiation of criminal charges,” she wrote.

One motion to block the release of Volume II came from Trump, and the other came from Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, two former Mar-a-Lago employees who were accused of helping Trump hide boxes of classified documents at his Florida estate from federal investigators and trying to delete security footage that showed them moving boxes. Trump also asked Nauta to lie on his behalf to the FBI and promised him a pardon if he faced any charges.

In July 2024, Cannon made the unprecedented decision to toss out the felony classified documents case against Trump by ruling Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional. Her move has been criticized by legal scholars but repeatedly celebrated by Trump.

Cannon accused Smith of violating her order to dismiss the case by compiling a final report ahead of Trump’s inauguration in order to “circumvent” her ruling. “The Court need not countenance this brazen stratagem or effectively perpetuate the Special Counsel’s breach of this Court’s own order,” she wrote.

Cannon also repeatedly insisted that the motions to bury Volume II were unopposed, but in fact the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and American Oversight to Intervene had both filed for the report to be available to FOIA requests. Cannon had denied the request.

This story has been updated.

president donald trump is having a totally teenagerish temper tantrum because the supreme court blocked his illegal tariffs.

In a tirade on Truth Social Monday morning, Trump declared that he’d no longer capitalize the Supreme Court’s name “based on a complete lack of respect.”

“Our incompetent supreme court did a great job for the wrong people, and for that they should be ashamed of themselves (but not the Great Three!),” he wrote, referring to Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and Samuel Alito, who dissented from the majority ruling.

Trump’s petty response continues his unprecedented—and unpresidential—streak of smears against the Supreme Court and its members. The president has called the justices who ruled against him “a disgrace to our nation” and an “embarrassment to their families.”

In the post, Trump continued his doublethink P.R. spin that the ruling was both good and bad for him at the same time (spoiler alert: It’s really bad for him).

“For one thing, I can use Licenses to do absolutely ‘terrible’ things to foreign countries, especially those countries that have been RIPPING US OFF for many decades, but incomprehensibly, according to the ruling, can’t charge them a License fee,” he wrote.

Trump then turned his attention to the Supreme Court’s upcoming docket: the president’s case attacking birthright citizenship.

“The next thing you know they will rule in favor of China and others, who are making an absolute fortune on Birthright Citizenship, by saying the 14th Amendment was NOT written to take care of the ‘babies of slaves,’” Trump said, adding that the court would “find a way to come to the wrong conclusion” and make China and other nations “happy and rich.”

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments for that case on April 1. But perhaps Trump’s recent tirades will finally shake the court loose of letting him do whatever he wants.

FBI Director Kash Patel is unapologetic after being caught celebrating with the U.S. men’s hockey team after their Olympic gold medal victory in Milan on February 22.

Patel posted on X Sunday that “yes, I love America and was very humbled when my friends, the newly minted Gold Medal winners on Team USA, invited me into the locker room to celebrate this historic moment with the boys,” following viral videos of him celebrating and drinking with the team in their locker room.

Ben Williamson, the FBI assistant director for public affairs, had in previous days castigated news outlets for even suggesting that Patel had traveled to Italy with FBI resources in order to watch the Olympics, claiming that Patel was there for security events.

MS NOW reports that the video of Patel chugging beer circulated around Department of Justice and FBI circles, outraging current and former employees. Eight former officials from both departments even sent the video to the news outlet.

Patel has previously drawn criticism for using FBI resources for personal reasons, whether using a $60 million jet to see his singer girlfriend perform at a pro wrestling event or detailing an FBI SWAT team to protect her. Patel has also used taxpayer dollars to order a fleet of custom-armored BMW X5s to travel in. Meanwhile, the FBI has yet to investigate anyone implicated in the latest Epstein file release. Does Patel realize what his job actually entails?

Violence broke out in parts of Mexico on Sunday after government security forces killed Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, or “El Mencho,” the country’s most wanted drug kingpin—with “intelligence support” from the United States.  

El Mencho was killed in a shootout with security forces in Jalisco. As founder of Cartel Nueva Generacion Jalisco, or CJNG, he was most active in fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine trafficking and put out hits on multiple members of government. 

“The United States provided intelligence support to the Mexican government in order to assist with an operation in Talpalpa, Jalisco, Mexico, in which Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera Cervantes, an infamous drug lord and leader within the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, was eliminated,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X. “President Trump has been very clear—the United States will ensure narcoterrorists sending deadly drugs to our homeland are forced to face the wrath of justice they have long deserved.” 

The violence was immediate and retaliatory, according to Mexican authorities. There were multiple explosions and reports of gunfire, as billows of smoke appeared in at least 13 different states. Armed cartel members blew up gas stations and set up various blockades with burning cars, and the U.S. Embassy in Mexico issued a security alert as many American tourists remain trapped. 

“The fear that remains in society is overwhelming,” a Zitacuaro, Michoacan, resident told Al Jazeera. “That’s when you realise the immense power these organisations have, because they can collapse a city in a matter of minutes.… They have co-opted the leaders who manage transport, and at any moment they can block the entrances and exits of a city.… They can completely paralyze a city’s movement.… All basic services are disrupted: going to hospitals, grocery shopping, ordering food. It becomes total chaos.”

President Claudia Sheinbaum urged her citizens to remain calm in the face of these attacks. 

“The Secretariat of National Defense reported on the operation carried out this morning by federal forces, which resulted in various blockades and other reactions. There is absolute coordination with the governments of all states; we must remain informed and calm,” she wrote. “The social media accounts of the Security Cabinet provide permanent updates. In the vast majority of the national territory, activities are proceeding with complete normality.”

While Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau called El Mencho’s death a “great development for Mexico,” others acknowledged the death of El Mencho—the last of an era of Mexican kingpins that included El Chapo and El Mayo—as a major shift in a conflict that is far from over. 

The Federal Communications Commission is imploring America’s broadcasters to air propaganda ahead of the country’s 250th birthday.

In a Friday memo establishing the “Pledge America Campaign,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said that U.S. media companies should run public service announcements, short segments, or specials to advance “civic education, inspiring local stories, and American history.”

The document also suggested that news media could include pro-America segments during “regular news programming,” or start each broadcast with a rendition of the “Star Spangled Banner” or the Pledge of Allegiance.

“I believe in the greatness of our country,” Carr said in a statement. “And I look forward to broadcasters showcasing its inspiring history by taking the Pledge and fulfilling their public interest mandate to serve the needs and interests of their local communities as America’s 250th birthday celebration marches on.”

The initiative is a component of a broader Trump administration effort to celebrate the country’s sestercentennial known as “Task Force 250.”

Participation, according to Carr’s note, is voluntary.

The proposal could be a benign request under any other president, but over the course of the last year, Donald Trump and his allies have made clear their efforts to erase and revise history according to their preference. The White House has already ordered the Smithsonian and the National Parks to remove “woke” exhibits, which apparently include mentions of Trump’s impeachments and signage relating to climate change or slavery, respectively.

And a Trump-sponsored version of the Bible, mandated for use in Oklahoma’s public school system, was published with a wildly outdated version of the U.S. Constitution that omitted more than a dozen amendments, including the Thirteenth Amendment, which officially abolished slavery. But the 160-year-old version featured the three-fifths compromise, a vestige of slavery that handed more political power to slave-owning states.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is using the cleanup from the implosion of Donald Trump’s illegal tariffs to set the stage for all that tariff revenue to disappear.

Speaking at the Economic Club of Dallas on Friday, Bessent claimed that in spite of the Supreme Court’s decision to block Trump’s tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a new series of tariffs imposed under other statutes would ensure the revenue was “virtually unchanged.”

But Bessent warned that at least $175 billion of tariff revenue that the U.S. government had already collected would likely evaporate. “I got a feeling the American people won’t see it,” Bessent said, his fingertips pressed together like a cartoon supervillain.

But if Americans don’t see those funds, there would only be one person to blame: Trump. Promises to fund sweeping tax cuts, bridge payments to farmers, deficit reduction, and phony $2,000 rebate checks all went up in smoke—because they weren’t his promises to make.

Clearly, Bessent deserves some blame too, because he didn’t bother to see if the president’s fees were actually legal before he went to collect them.

The Supreme Court’s majority ruling did not say the federal government could keep the money from the improperly collected tariffs, but conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh warned in his dissenting opinion that doling out refunds could get messy.

The Supreme Court decision striking down Donald Trump’s many tariffs may prove to be a windfall for the family of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a key architect of Trump’s signature economic policy.

In July, Wired reported that Cantor Fitzgerald, which Lutnick chaired until he was appointed to Trump’s Cabinet, was allowing its traders to purchase the rights to hundreds of millions of dollars of refunds in the event the tariffs were struck down in court. The firm now happens to be headed by Lutnick’s sons Kyle and Brandon.

The magazine cited a letter from the firm explaining how Cantor Fitzgerald was willing to exchange refund rights for 20 to 30 percent of what the companies paid.

“So for a company that paid $10 million, they could expect to receive $2-$3 million in a trade,” a Cantor Fitzgerald representative wrote. “We have the capacity to trade up to several hundred million of these presently and can likely upsize that in the future to meet potential demand.”

The letter indicated that the firm already had one company agree to a deal worth about $10 million. It’s been seven months since then, and Cantor Fitzgerald has had plenty of time to make other such lucrative deals.

“The fact that it’s Cantor Fitzgerald, that raises some questions,” Tim Meyer, a professor of international business law at Duke University School of Law, told Wired. “It’s quite interesting that the commerce secretary’s firm is the one that is betting the tariffs will be struck down. That strikes me as very interesting—and quite telling about what those with connections to the administration think about the merits of the tariffs.”

Lutnick has been a steadfast proponent of Trump’s tariffs, frustrating many Republicans and staffers within the White House. He fought the efforts of others within the administration, such as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and National Economic Council chair Kevin Hassett, to put limits on Trump’s tariffs.

Lutnick has yet to comment on Friday’s court ruling. Does his firm’s bet mean he never really believed in the tariffs to begin with and was lying to the public about them? Did his kids know something the rest of us didn’t?

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was in Washington, D.C., Thursday for Donald Trump’s inaugural Board of Peace meeting. When protesters showed up outside of his hotel, his bodyguards attacked them. 

The protesters at the Waldorf Astoria on Pennsylvania Avenue were calling for the release of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, which has been under Aliyev’s dictatorial rule for more than 20 years. In a statement, the Embassy of Azerbaijan alleged the protesters “violently attempted to enter the protected area and took offensive actions against the Presidential vehicle” when Aliyev’s motorcade was arriving at the hotel. It added, “The Presidential Security Service had no choice but to immediately intervene.”

According to the protesters, that’s not what happened. One of them, Rahim Yagublu, 27, said that the guards kicked him in his stomach and hit his jaw. His father is political activist Tofig Yagublu, in prison in Azerbaijan on forgery and fraud charges.  Another protester, Adil Amrakhly, 35, said that while running away from the guards, he hurt his leg. 

“We intended to hold a peaceful protest to demand freedom for political prisoners in Azerbaijan,” Amrakhly told The Washington Post, adding that at least four other protesters were injured. 

“They started beating us,” Yagblu said. He added that nearby police didn’t do anything and that protesters called an ambulance. After looking at everyone’s injuries, first responders didn’t take anyone to the hospital. 

“This just shows us he’s a dictator, and there is no free speech in my country,” Yagublu said, regarding Aliyev.

Video was posted to X Thursday night showing some of the fighting. 

The incident was reminiscent of a similar event in Trump’s first term in May 2017, when Turkish security personnel attacked protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence while Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was in Washington to meet with Trump. At the time, Congress unanimously called for criminal charges against the 24 people filmed attacking protesters. One month later, two people were arrested and arrest warrants were issued for the other security officers, but charges would be dropped the following March. 

Will Thursday’s incident be handled similarly? Aliyev and Azerbaijan are in Trump’s good graces for joining the Board of Peace, so the president and his Republican allies in Congress may not push for justice this time. That would be a shame, considering peaceful protest is a constitutional right and a major freedom for people in the U.S.