Trump Secretly Created “Denaturalization” Team at Citizenship Agency

Donald Trump’s administration has quietly transformed the agency overseeing legal immigration into yet another arm of the president’s mass deportation scheme.

An internal agency document reviewed by The New Yorker’s Jonathan Blitzer revealed that the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency that manages visas, green cards, naturalizations, and other aspects of the legal immigration process, has created a new “Tactical Operations Division.”

The roughly 80-person division consists of teams focused on denaturalization, “refugee re-vetting,” fraud detection and national security, and LPR operations, where officials are tasked with finding cases where they can rescind legal permanent residency status, according to Blitzer.

The division is overseen by Danny Andrade, who was selected to run the newly opened USCIS field office in Nashville.

Sarah Pierce, a former policy analyst for USCIS, wrote on X Monday that the restructuring comes as the agency “lost thousands of employees last year.”

“Its application backlog is at a record high—nearly double its 2020 level. And its Fraud Detection division is larger than ever. Yet [USCIS Director Joseph Edlow] keeps finding new ways to shift agency resources from adjudication to deportation,” Pierce wrote.

UCIS’s workforce shrank 11 percent last year, as the agency has become a site for immigration arrests. In September, the Trump administration passed a new rule allowing USCIS to hire special agents for the purpose of making arrests. And the agency’s latest job listings are in search of so-called “Homeland Defenders.”

Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran have hit more turbulence in the wake of a tense weekend that has apparently sent Donald Trump spiraling.

The two countries were close to brokering a new peace agreement late last week as the deadline on the two-week ceasefire drew closer. But that fell apart after the U.S. seized an Iranian cargo ship over the weekend. Trump, however, had other things on his mind.

The president was firmly cemented in la-la land by Monday morning, littering his Truth Social feed with surveys from pro-Trump pollsters that claimed Americans overwhelmingly supported the offensive (they don’t), and Newsmax stories that declared he had “already won the war.”

In at least one post, Trump decried widespread reports that Israel had convinced the White House to partake in its siege against Iran.

“Israel never talked me into the war with Iran, the results of Oct. 7th, added to my lifelong opinion that IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON, did,” Trump wrote. “I watch and read the FAKE NEWS Pundits and Polls in total disbelief. 90 percent of what they say are lies and made up stories, and the polls are rigged, much as the 2020 Presidential Election was rigged. Just like the results in Venezuela, which the media doesn’t like talking about, the results in Iran will be amazing.”

“And if Iran’s new leaders (Regime Change!) are smart, Iran can have a great and prosperous future!” Trump added, openly boasting about influencing foreign governments.

U.S. involvement in the war was arranged following an auspicious February 11 meeting between Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and several U.S. and Israeli officials in the White House Situation Room, The New York Times reported earlier this month.

It was Netanyahu’s direct influence—and the ensuing pressure campaign—that thrust America into the war. U.S. military commanders advised Trump that components of Netanyahu’s plan to attack Iran were “farcical,” but by that point, Trump had already been inspired to overthrow Tehran’s theocratic regime.

It’s likely that Netanyahu continues to hold the reins. Last month, Trump told The Times of Israel that the decision to end the Iran war will be a “mutual” decision he makes with the Israeli leader.

It is not clear exactly what the war in Iran has accomplished. Together, the U.S. and Israel have killed thousands of Iranian civilians and obliterated Iranian civilian infrastructure. Meanwhile, 13 U.S. soldiers have died. The war also spiked the cost of living for people around the world, agitated international relations—particularly between the U.S. and longtime allies in the Western hemisphere—cost American taxpayers over $50 billion, and sparked a political rejection of MAGA ideology across the U.S.

Trump has previously stated that his primary objective in the war was to erase Iran’s nuclear capabilities, but his administration’s current battle assessments have stood in contrast to other attacks they boasted about as recently as last year.

Prior to the war—which never obtained congressional approval—Trump ordered strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear sites, hitting Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan on June 22. At the time, the Trump administration claimed that the one-off air raid had set Iran’s program back by “years.”

Ex-National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent sparked a maelstrom in Washington when he resigned over the issue last month. Kent argued in his resignation letter that he could not “in good conscience” support the war in Iran. “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” he wrote at the time.

The Trump administration was rebuffed by the state of Michigan Sunday after it tried to demand Detroit-area ballots from the 2024 election.

Last week, the Department of Justice sent a letter, signed by Assistant Attorney General ⁠Harmeet Dhillon, to the clerk of Wayne County, where Detroit is located. The letter demanded election ballots, ballot receipts, and ballot envelopes from the last presidential election, according to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.

In a joint statement with Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Nessel called the request “as absurd as it is baseless.”

“Once again, President Trump is weaponizing the Justice Department in an attempt to sabotage our democratic process and turn it into his own personal agency to interfere in state elections,” Nessel said in the statement. “If this administration ​wants to bring this circus to our state, my office is prepared to protect the people’s right to vote.”

It’s the latest of many attempts by the Trump administration to demand voter and election information from states across the country, ostensibly to look for evidence of fraud. Administration officials have sought election data from every state and Washington, D.C., suffering legal setbacks in Rhode Island, California, Massachusetts, and Oregon.

President Trump continues to insist that the 2020 election was stolen from him, despite a lack of evidence and multiple court losses. FBI Director Kash Patel claimed in a Fox News interview Sunday that arrests over the 2020 elections are coming “this week,” a sign that Trump’s underlings are trying to drum up a justification for him to mess with the midterms in November and possibly beyond that.

FBI Director Kash Patel filed a $250 million defamation suit against The Atlantic Monday, after a sweeping report detailing his excessive drinking and unexplained absences.

In a 19-page filing, lawyers for Patel alleged that The Atlantic had published an “article replete with false and obviously fabricated allegations designed to destroy Director Patel’s reputation and drive him from office.”

The Atlantic’s Sarah Fitzpatrick reported over the weekend that Patel was known to drink in excess, routinely delayed meetings and time-sensitive operations, and was often unreachable, raising concerns about the potential for foreign coercion and other national security risks. His behavior had also grown increasingly erratic as he became worried he might lose his job.

The article referenced Patel’s “alcohol-fueled nights” in Washington and Las Vegas, which resulted in rescheduled meetings. The director’s “spotty attendance” in the office caused delays in time-sensitive decision-making. His “delays resulted in normally unflappable agents ‘losing their shit,’” Fitzpatrick wrote. Patel’s rather elusive behavior even prompted a request for actual “breaching equipment,” normally used by SWAT teams, because Patel had been unreachable behind locked doors.

The article also described a “freak out” earlier this month when, unable to log into his work computer in the morning, Patel made frantic phone calls claiming he’d been fired. In fact, it was a routine technical issue that was quickly resolved.

Patel had responded to the story by simply saying: “Print it, all false, I’ll see you in court—bring your checkbook.”

The lawsuit pointed to the reliance on anonymous sources who were merely “partisans with axes to grind,” as well as a lack of primary documentation, arguing that the article was “a deliberate and malicious smear.” Of course, the filing of his massive lawsuit now invites extensive discovery into Patel’s conduct.

In a statement Monday, The Atlantic said: “We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel, and we will vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit.”

This story has been updated.

Donald Trump’s erratic behavior has gotten him exiled from critical peace negotiations with Iran.

The president was removed from such talks by his own aides last month, who feared that his unpredictable style could hamper the discussions, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

The decision was informed by the president’s behavior during the search and rescue operation for the aircrew of the downed F-35 fighter jet late last month, when the president reportedly screamed at his aides for hours. As a result, his aides “kept the president out of the room as they got minute-by-minute updates because they believed his impatience wouldn’t be helpful, instead updating him at meaningful moments,” a senior administration official told the Journal.

Shortly after the second airman was recovered, the president was back to beating his chest. In a rapid-fire series of hair-raising Truth Social posts on Easter morning, Trump pledged he would completely annihilate Iranian civilization within a couple of days. He was reportedly under the impression that appearing unstable would spur Tehran to negotiate, according to the Journal.

But it wasn’t the first time during the sustained military offensive that Trump’s entourage decided the president would be best kept out of the action.

Around the same time, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles forced a meeting of Trump’s most trusted advisers. The problem: No one was being honest with the president about the domestic impact of the war.

Privately, Wiles had expressed fears that the inner circle’s rose-tinted retelling of the conflict would leave Trump oblivious to the political reality of the war, just months ahead of a contentious midterm season, reported Time magazine earlier this month.

Up until that point, Trump had been spoon-fed daily video compilations of various battlefield successes, a senior administration official told the publication. Trump was under the impression that stripping nuclear capabilities from Iran could be one of his greatest legacies as America’s 47th president.

The current conflict has gone on for more than seven weeks, surpassing the administration’s six-week deadline. In that timespan, the U.S. has lost access to a critical oil tradeway in the Middle East, tanked global oil markets, spiked the cost of living for people around the world, and agitated international relations—particularly between the U.S. and longtime allies in the Western hemisphere. It has also cost American taxpayers over $50 billion, and sparked a political rejection of MAGA ideology across the U.S.

The war has killed more than 3,375 people in Iran, state media reported Monday, and more than 2,290 people in Lebanon. It has also claimed the lives of 13 U.S. service members throughout the region.

Florida Representative Cory Mills threatened to call then-Attorney General Pam Bondi while he was being questioned by Washington police about an alleged assault.

Police body camera footage released to The Washington Post showed officers responding to a call from a woman accusing the MAGA lawmaker of physically assaulting her on February 19, 2025.

In the video, officers spoke to her in a hotel bar, where she appeared to be drinking. She tearfully showed the officer bruises on her arms and marks on her face. Then she appeared to receive a phone call from Mills before telling the officer, “He wants me to say” the marks on her body “were from our vacation and that I bruise easily.”

The video footage released to the Post also showed that when the police interviewed Mills about the incident, the lawmaker said he wanted to call Bondi and reached for his phone.

“I stepped toward you once; if I do it again it will be to put you in handcuffs,” said Richard Mazloom, the officer at the scene. “If I say don’t make a call, just don’t do it.”

At one point, Mills had said he feared the allegations would be “politicized because of my party,” according to footage and an affidavit seeking an arrest warrant. “It will be weaponized,” he said. “This is going to drag me through a quagmire.”

As the police continued to speak with Mills, the woman returned, claiming she had been mistaken about the assault. The top-ranking officer on the scene moved to classify the incident as a domestic disturbance.

This incident is the subject of a sweeping House Ethics Committee investigation into Mills that began in November, after his ex-girlfriend alleged that he had threatened to blackmail her using sexually explicit images of her and to commit violence against her future romantic partners. The Post did not identify the woman in the video, so it is unclear if she the same woman who accused Mills of blackmail.

The Post’s reporting also comes as Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell and Republican Representative Tony Gonzalez have both resigned after facing House investigations into sexual assault allegations against them.

Iran says it won’t be participating in negotiations with the U.S. after it seized an Iranian cargo ship near the Strait of Hormuz.

“While claiming diplomacy and readiness for negotiations, the U.S. is carrying out behaviors that do not in any way indicate seriousness in pursuing a diplomatic process,” said Esmaeil Baghaei, a spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, on Monday, saying that the U.S. “violated the ceasefire from the beginning of its implementation.”

President Trump bragged on Truth Social Sunday that the Navy destroyer USS Spruance intercepted the Iranian cargo ship Touska in the Gulf of Oman, claiming that the U.S. “stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engine room.” The ship has been captured by the Marines, and Trump said it is under Treasury sanctions for “illegal activity.”

The two-week ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. is set to expire on Wednesday, and a senior Iranian source told Reuters that the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports was undermining the prospect of negotiations, and that Iran’s “defensive capabilities,” including missiles, were not open for discussion.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is sending a delegation to Islamabad, Pakistan, including Vice President JD Vance, envoy Steve Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Pakistan is deploying 20,000 police, paramilitary, and army personnel to secure the talks, but it could all be for nought if the ceasefire collapses and Iran refuses to take part in talks.

President Donald Trump is snubbing the Republican congressman who used to be his personal physician by not attending his birthday party at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump posted on Truth Social Friday afternoon that he will not be attending Representative Ronny Jackson’s birthday party in the evening, as he is speaking at a Turning Point USA event in Arizona instead. Trump insisted that the move was not personal, praising Jackson as a politician and a doctor.

“He is a good friend, 100% MAGA, and one of the most talented Medical Doctors and Politicians in our Country. HAPPY BIRTHDAY RONNY!” Trump posted, concluding the long post by saying, “Ronny Jackson is a fighter and WINNER, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election. HE IS ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITES, AND WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

It’s funny that Jackson, who has quite a close relationship with the president, went through all the trouble of celebrating his birthday at Trump’s personal estate, only for him not to even show up.

A series of scandals during Trump’s first term, including giving White House staffers easy access to pills, eventually cost Jackson his job as Trump’s doctor and a Cabinet nomination to be secretary of veterans affairs. But he then got a lifeline when Trump created a new position just for him in the White House: assistant to the president and chief medical adviser. Jackson used his proximity to Trump to run for Congress and win in 2020, but now he can’t even get Trump to show up to his birthday party at Trump’s own home.

Israel has technically already violated the 10-day ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, killing someone with a drone on Friday minutes after President Trump declared they were “PROHIBITED” from bombing Lebanon.

“The Hezboolah situation in an appropriate manner. Israel will not be bombing Lebanon any longer,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday morning. “They are PROHIBITED from doing so by the U.S.A. Enough is enough!!! Thank you!”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his team were shocked by the language in the post, Axios reported, believing it violated the ceasefire agreement. The text of that deal allows Israel to take military action “in self-defense, at any time, against planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks.”

Israel claims that their bombing was defensive, making it within the realm of the ceasefire that was struck on Thursday, and came after six weeks of war in which Israel killed over 2,000 Lebanese civilians and displaced over one million. Israel is no stranger to breaking ceasefire agreements, as they have killed at least 766 Palestinians and injured over 2,000 in the Gaza Strip since that ceasefire was declared in October.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a callous and wildly inaccurate response to a question about millions of Americans losing their health insurance at a congressional hearing Friday.

The secretary of health and human services was testifying before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, and was asked by Democratic Representative Greg Casar if he had “met with any of the 1.4 million people who have lost their health insurance just this last year from dropping off of Obamacare.”

Kennedy was unmoved by the question.

“They’re almost all illegal immigrants,” Kennedy responded. Casar pressed further, saying it sounded like Kennedy hadn’t met with anyone, referring to one person in his congressional district who lost insurance. Kennedy cut in.

“We found 1.5 million illegal immigrants illegally collecting Medicaid,” Kennedy said, before Casar interjected and noted that people in his district saw their monthly health insurance costs skyrocket by hundreds of dollars, including mothers and kids. He again asked Kennedy whether he had spoken to anyone who had lost their insurance, and Kennedy tried to claim that Affordable Care Act costs are lower for many Americans. Casar’s time for questioning then ran out.

“Chairman, it sounds like he’s met with nobody and been able to explain to them why it’s OK that this policy kicks them off their healthcare,” Casar concluded, addressing Tim Wahlberg, the committee chair.

Undocumented immigrants have never been eligible for health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act. In January, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which RFK Jr. oversees as health secretary, reported that 1.4 million fewer Americans had signed up for ACA plans because prices had gotten too high. That’s all thanks to Republicans and the Trump administration letting ACA subsidies expire. Kennedy doesn’t seem to care.