Photo of Mystery Meat on U.S. Warships Goes Viral as Supplies Dwindle

U.S. soldiers stationed in the Middle East are getting fed mystery meat and single tortillas because of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and Lebanon.

The Military Postal Service Agency and USPS have indefinitely suspended all mail to U.S. warships and zip codes in the Middle East. Family members of two service members—one aboard the USS Tripoli and another aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln—shared photos with USA Today showing what that suspension was forcing them to eat while warring on Iran—even as their families sent them packages filled with homemade desserts, candy, and clothes.

One image shows a single dreary tortilla alongside a lump of what looks to be pulled pork or chicken. The other shows two horrid-looking slabs of meat alongside a pile of sliced carrots.

And the food is starting to run low. Dan F., a former Marine whose daughter is serving aboard the USS Tripoli, told USA Today that his daughter reported no fresh produce, low stock of hygiene products, and rationing of all non-perishable food.

“The food is tasteless and there’s not nearly enough and they’re hungry all the time,” said Karen Erskine-Valentine of West Virginia, a pastor whose congregation member has a son on the USS Abraham Lincoln. “That kind of breaks your heart.”

“We have the strongest military in the world. You shouldn’t be running out of food, and you shouldn’t not be able to get mail on the ship,” Dan F. said. “The one thing we had over our adversaries [was] we fed our people.”

USPS and the Military Postal Service Agency announced the suspension earlier this month due to “airspace closures and other logistical impacts from the ongoing conflict,” according to Army spokesperson Major Travis Shaw. “Resumption of mail service is contingent upon the reopening of airspace by civil authorities, and the area commander’s evaluation of regional transportation and distribution stability.”

Donald Trump doesn’t want anyone to think that he’s giving Iran money.

The president posted on his Truth Social account Friday about a plan to end the war between the U.S. and Iran, and stressed that “no money will exchange hands in any way, shape, or form.”

That’s despite a report from Axios that the U.S. is considering releasing $20 billion in frozen Iranian assets in exchange for the country’s stockpile of enriched uranium.

The report states that the two countries are discussing a three-page plan, and could send negotiators to Pakistan this weekend to try and finalize it. Iran reportedly has close to 2,000 kilograms of enriched uranium buried in underground nuclear facilities. The talks concern what specifically will happen to the uranium, and how many Iranian assets will be unfrozen.

In earlier discussions, the U.S. was willing to release $6 billion to Iran for humanitarian relief, while the Iranians wanted $27 billion, according to Axios. The White House also wanted Iran to send its uranium to the U.S., while Iran sought to instead lower its enrichment through a process called downblending. Now, the two sides are considering a compromise in which some uranium would be sent to a third country while the rest would be downblended with international supervision.

If the U.S. does agree to release Iranian assets, Trump would be in effect doing what he and other Republicans criticized former President Barack Obama for: unfreezing Iranian money as part of an international agreement. As part of the nuclear deal Obama reached with Iran during his presidency, the U.S. lifted sanctions that froze Iranian government funds held in foreign banks and sent $1.7 billion to settle decades-old failed contracts between the two countries.

Back then, Trump and other Republicans made unfounded and fantastical claims that the U.S. was bribing Iran because the country was releasing American prisoners at the same time. If Iranian assets end up being unfrozen now, Trump and the GOP will make all kinds of excuses about how it’s different this time.

Donald Trump had several gripes while speaking at his “no tax on tips” event in Las Vegas Thursday evening. Yet in an incredible mental lapse, one of Trump’s points of frustration was about who the president was in 2025.

“A year ago, our country was an embarrassment,” Trump said. “All over the world, they laughed at us. And they don’t laugh anymore, they are not laughing.”

It’s just the latest indication that something could be seriously wrong with the president’s brain. Over the first year and change of his second term, Trump’s speeches have become more disjointed and incoherent, and his behavior has grown increasingly erratic, sparking concerns across the country about his health and aptitude for the country’s biggest job.

Just last week, Trump attacked several of his longest allies, claimed via a social media post that he would completely annihilate Iranian civilization, and started beef with Pope Leo XIV, claiming that the Catholic pontiff was “weak on crime.”

This week, Trump forgot when Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, and that one of his most fervent GOP critics—North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis—is still in the Senate. Trump also opted to go to a UFC tournament instead of overseeing his administration’s peace talks with Iran, and DoorDashed McDonalds to the Oval Office in a PR stunt that even he retroactively admitted was “tacky.”

HIs behavior has elicited a cultural shift on the ideological left and right. A group of MAGA thought leaders—including Alex Jones, Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, and Megyn Kelly—have denounced Trump’s recent behavior as it relates to the war in Iran, as well as his mass disavowal of his own political acolytes.

Liberal lawmakers, meanwhile, have invoked the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to formally challenge Trump’s mental acuity. Fifty House Democrats filed legislation on Wednesday to create a commission that could shove Trump out of power and install Vice President JD Vance as his replacement.

Other Democrats have called for the president to have his brain tested by the end of the month. House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin last week demanded that Trump undergo another cognitive test by April 25, citing Trump’s escalating aggression toward Iran.

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are investigating Jared Kushner over conflicts of interest between his business activities and his work as a peace negotiator for the Trump administration.

Representative Jamie Raskin, the ranking member of the committee, sent a letter to Kushner arguing his job managing the private equity firm Affinity Partners and his diplomatic work for the president—who happens to be his father-in-law—have “been haunting American foreign policy since President Trump returned to Washington in 2025.”

“You cannot both be a diplomat and a financial pawn of the Saudi monarchy at the same time; you cannot faithfully represent the United States with billions of dollars in Saudi and Emirati cash burning a hole in every pocket of every suit you own,” Raskin wrote, referring to Affinity Partners’s extensive investments from “Saudi Arabia and other Gulf oil autocracies.”

“Your clients Saudi Arabia and the Royal Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman have unique and significant strategic, economic and political interests that are certain to diverge sharply from the strategic, economic and political interests of the American people,” Raskin’s letter states.

“When you approach negotiations related to the catastrophic Iran War, the prospect of prolonged military conflict there, the rights of women and religious minorities in the Middle East or the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, are you representing 100% the interests of your business partners in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf oil autocracies or are you representing 100% the interests of the American people?”

Kushner secured $2 billion in funding for his firm from the Saudi Public Investment Fund six months after Trump’s first term ended. The firm is also bankrolled by Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. At the same time, he has served as a negotiator between Ukraine and Russia and in U.S.-Iran talks, while also being involved in Trump’s “Board of Peace” in Gaza. Still, Kushner has no official government position, which means he can claim that he isn’t subject to legal requirements about his financial interests.

In his letter, Raskin requested extensive records from Kushner, including his business dealings, his communications on behalf of the Trump administration, corporate information about his investment firm, and communications with foreign governments. Kushner is not likely to comply, especially considering that Democrats don’t have control of Congress. But come November, that could change, giving Raskin and other Democrats stronger investigative and subpoena powers.

GOP leadership tried and failed to force President Trump’s long-term Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) extension through the House in the dead of night on Friday, as 20 Republicans joined Democrats to derail both the five-year and 18-month renewal plans for the contentious spying program. Instead, after back-to-back failed votes, they agreed to a mere 10-day extension shortly after 2 a.m.

“We just defeated [Speaker Mike] Johnson’s efforts to sneak through a five-year FISA authorization tonight,” Democratic Representative Ro Khanna said. “Now, they will have to fight in daylight.”

Four Democrats, including Jim Hines, broke with the party to try and help Johnson force the original FISA plans through. Not only did they fail, they drew even more attention to the surveillance bill that has been criticized by both the left and right for years.

“Speaker Johnson (R-LA) and Rep. Jim Himes (‘D’-CT), in EXTREMELY poor form and bad faith, tried to sneak through a FISA reauthorization missing key privacy protections at 2am last night,” Drop Site News’s Julian Andreone wrote on X. “This was a deliberate and bipartisan attempt to subvert the democratic will of the American people, turning over mass surveillance powers to Trump, including the ability to monitor your emails, search history, online dating matches, and even buy your commercial data.”

The vote now heads to the Senate, even as the program expires on Monday.