Republican Congressman Caught Asking Another Staffer for Nudes

Republican Representative Tony Gonzales is again in trouble for pursuing a sexual relationship with one of his staffers.

The San Antonio Express-News reports that Gonzales, when he was first running for Congress in 2020, pestered one of his campaign aides for nude photos and sex. The woman, who asked the Express-News to keep her identity secret, said that she declined Gonzales’s entreaties, even though he asked her for nude photos more than 12 times in three days and met her twice at her home at night to discuss work.

The woman, who worked as the political director for Gonzales’s 2020 congressional campaign but now volunteers for GOP nominee Brandon Herrera, said she approached the newspaper after she heard about his affair with staffer Regina Santos-Aviles in 2024 and its tragic aftermath, sharing the messages with the Express-News. Gonzales had begun the affair after pressing Santos-Aviles for “sexy pics” and describing his favorite sexual positions.

The two would spend time together at another staffer’s cabin in Uvalde, Texas, and one day after Gonzales won his election primary in May that year, Santos-Aviles revealed the affair to the rest of the office. That led to a downward spiral for her, as meetings she set were canceled, Gonzales stopped his regular travels to Uvalde, and her husband became aware of the affair.

Santos-Aviles began taking antidepression medication, and in August, attempted suicide but survived. The next month, though, she set herself on fire and died the next day. Gonzales didn’t attend her funeral. Last month, under pressure from House Republican leadership over the scandal, Gonzales announced that he wouldn’t run for reelection.

“He obviously pursued, pursued, pursued [Santos-Aviles] like he did with me,” the former campaign staffer said to the Express-News. “I never took him serious.… It wasn’t until this poor girl died that I thought, ‘No, this guy is pure evil.’”

“This behavior needs to stop,” she added.

Iran will not accept anything short of a complete end to the war.

The country’s leadership rejected a ceasefire Monday by way of Pakistani mediators, despite Donald Trump’s imminent threats to raze the nation to the ground.

Iran’s ideal proposal consists of 10 clauses, which include ending regional conflicts, lifting sanctions, reconstruction of the nation, and securing protocols for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, reported Reuters.

The rejection follows efforts by Vice President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff, who were reportedly on the phone “all night” with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir, a source told Reuters.

Trump set a Tuesday night deadline for Iran to agree to a deal with regard to reopening the Strait of Hormuz to international oil trade, promising practically every form of violent retaliation should the country’s leadership refuse to do so.

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!!” Trump posted to Truth Social on Sunday.

Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell—JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP,” he added.

In another post to his social media platform, Trump wrote: “Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time.”

Situated between Iran and the United Arab Emirates, the strait funnels approximately one-fifth of all crude oil shipments. Most of that oil is moved toward China or India. In 2024, the U.S. imported roughly 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day through the strait, accounting for about 7 percent of total U.S. crude imports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The price per barrel has exploded due to the strait’s closure, pushing gas over $4 per gallon in most states (in California, gas in some counties has leapt past $7 a gallon). Diesel shot up by 20 cents over the last week alone.

But beyond the dollars and cents, the war has cost the lives of more than 2,000 people in Iran, including dozens of political leaders, according to Al Jazeera. At least 13 U.S. soldiers have also been killed in the war, and more than 300 have been wounded.

President Trump used his Easter Monday speech to boast about his deadly war on Iran while flanked by the first lady and the Easter Bunny.

“So today is a very special day. It’s a day where we celebrate Jesus. It’s a day where we celebrate religion,” Trump said Monday morning at the White House Easter Egg Roll, his voice devoid of enthusiasm. He then went on his usual spiel about how the U.S. is doing better than ever, before pivoting to the war on Iran and the rescue of two downed American fighter jet pilots.

“I just wanna say we have a great military. We have the greatest military, the most powerful military in any place in the world. You saw what happened with Venezuela,” Trump continued, referring to the illegal kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The crowd cheered. “Our warriors are the greatest fighters on earth,” he added.

Then more rambling about eggs, fake news, the Easter decorations, and how we’re “the hottest country in the world.”

Only Trump could turn what’s meant to be a short, sweet speech about Jesus Christ and the meaning of rebirth and resurrection into a speech about himself and the destruction he’s imposing across the globe. Especially while someone in an Easter Bunny costume is standing there like JD Vance at the State of the Union.

Donald Trump is asking for more money to hunt so-called “domestic terrorists” on the left—and it seems like they’re talking about you.

Buried in the FBI’s 2027 budget request to Congress was a request for funding efforts to implement the National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM-7), a national security strategy targeting supposed anti-American activity on the left that Trump signed in September, independent journalist Ken Klippenstein reported Sunday. The FBI requested funding for the recently created NSPM-7 Joint Mission Center, which brings together personnel from across 10 agencies working “to proactively identify networks and prosecute domestic terrorist and related criminal actors.”

What exactly are they looking for? Well, anything they disagree with.

“Commonly, this violent conduct relates to views associated with anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the U.S. Government (USG); extremism on migration, race, and gender. And hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality,” the budget stated.

According to the FBI, publicly expressing beliefs as banal as a critique of capitalism are now considered precursors for domestic terrorist activity.

Under NSPM-7, the Trump administration aims to target community organizers and protesters on the left. “Domestic terrorists exploit a variety of popular social media platforms, smaller websites with targeted audiences, and encrypted chat applications,” the budget stated. “They use these platforms to recruit new adherents, plan and rally support for in-person actions, and disseminate materials encouraging radicalization and mobilization to violence.”

The FBI requested $166.1 million and 328 positions, including five attorneys and 130 special agents, for its counterterrorism activities in the coming fiscal year, including plans to “implement National Security Presidential Memorandum / NSPM-7 requirements.”

ICE agents entered a military base in Louisiana last week and detained the newlywed spouse of a U.S. Army staff sergeant.

Annie Ramos, 22, came to the U.S. from Honduras when she was a toddler, and did not have a criminal record. She became engaged to Matthew Blank on New Year’s Day, and the two were married only weeks ago, in late March. Last week, the pair checked in at the Fort Polk, Louisiana, base where Blank works, planning to begin the process that would allow her to move in with him on the base and receive military benefits.

Instead, after they presented Ramos’s Honduran passport, her birth certificate, their marriage license, and Blank’s military identification, base personnel called a supervisor. Then, someone from the base’s criminal investigation division was contacted, who said he would call Homeland Security and ICE. That officer told the couple that Ramos would be detained.

“Our plan was to drive over, bring her to the office to get her military ID and activate her military spouse benefits,” Blank told The New York Times. “She was going to move in after the Easter weekend. Instead, she got ripped away from me.”

When undocumented immigrants marry U.S. citizens, they are supposed to become eligible for permanent residency, and then they can apply for citizenship three years later, even if they were issued a prior deportation order, as Ramos was when she was 22 months old. Ramos and Blank had hired an immigration lawyer before they were married to take care of the situation.

“I knew she didn’t have status,” Blank said. “We were doing everything the right way.”

Ramos was handcuffed, separated from her husband and new parents-in-law, who drove the couple to the base, and taken to a building that Blank said “looked like an interrogation room.” Three Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived and told Blank’s mother, Jen Rickling, that they didn’t have a choice before taking Ramos away.

In Donald Trump’s second term as president, the government hasn’t hesitated to detain a father trying to visit his baby in the NICU, Afghan refugees who worked with the U.S. military for more than a decade, and even journalists covering ICE. Detaining a military spouse is an egregious step in the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.

ICE has already been deployed to military bases to target the family members of military recruits on graduation and visiting days, but coming specifically to arrest a military spouse who was preparing a green card application, as Ramos was, is something else.