Rogue State Department Official “Secretly Undermining” Marco Rubio

A Trump administration official tried to take foreign policy into his own hands and caused turmoil within the State Department.

Axios reports that in two instances, Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau gave wrong information about U.S. policy to foreign countries over exiled Venezuelan politician María Corina Machado and her plans to return to the country.

Immediately following Venezuela’s June 24 earthquakes that killed over 3,500 people, Machado sought to return to the country to help with relief efforts, despite the fact that she doesn’t have a valid Venezuelan passport. Administration officials thought this was a bad idea, calling it “gross political opportunism” that could in fact hurt relief and recovery efforts.

Machado tried again by reaching out to Landau, suggesting that she could go back to Venezuela via Curaçao, a Caribbean island controlled by the Netherlands. Landau advocated Machado’s plan with the Netherlands’ ambassador to the U.S., Birgitta Tazelaar, without approval from Rubio. The Dutch signed off on the plan, giving Machado the necessary permission since she had no passport.

“This is U.S. policy, and it’s supported by Secretary Rubio,” Landau reportedly told Tazelaar. Machado planned to stay in U.S. Consul General Ramón Negrón’s residence in Curaçao.

On June 25, the next day, Tazelaar was confused because it seemed that the U.S. didn’t want Machado to go to Curaçao. She called the U.S. assistant secretary for the Western Hemisphere, Mike Kozak, who told her that the administration wasn’t helping Machado return to Venezuela. The Dutch then removed their permission while Machado was in the air, and her plane had to return to the U.S.

A shocked Machado quickly called Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who explained actual U.S. policy to her. Landau told Rubio that he had been misunderstood and didn’t explicitly say he supported Machado’s plans. But that wasn’t Landau’s only slipup, according to Axios. He then reportedly told Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha in a text message exchange that the U.S. was making arrangements for Machado to return to Venezuela.

“I understand that your country will make arrangements so that this person can enter Venezuela,” Martínez-Acha texted at 9:21 p.m. June 26 to Landau, who replied, “Perfect description of our position.”

On June 28, Machado was in Panama and tried to fly to Venezuela on Copa Airlines from there, only to be rejected when U.S. and Venezuelan officials communicated their disapproval.

A source inside the State Department told Axios, “There’s a widespread belief that Landau went rogue, and the evidence supports that belief.” Another source said “Marco isn’t happy” with Landau.

Machado has gone out of her way to curry favor with President Trump, gifting him her Nobel Peace Prize after Trump arrested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January. But Trump hasn’t included her in his plans for the country, and even when she thought she was getting help, it was from a rogue official. Now Landau is in trouble and Machado has nothing.

A MAGA Republican was met with loud boos at a town hall meeting as he attempted to defend President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

Speaking at a town hall Tuesday, Nebraska Representative Mike Flood flailed when asked what he would do to provide insurance benefits for people with disabilities.

“Well, under the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’ we protected—” Flood started to answer, only to be drowned out by boos from the audience.

“We protected a system that if it had gone unchecked it would not have been long-term available for the people that are the most vulnerable,” Flood continued.

“We protected Medicaid in a bipartisan, commonsense way,” he added, as the audience’s jeers continued.

In reality, Trump’s behemoth budget bill will cut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid funding over the next 10 years, causing hospitals to shutter and benefits to disappear, hurting all Americans—especially people with disabilities and the elderly.

This isn’t the first time Flood has downplayed his decision to support Trump’s move to gut Medicaid. Last year, he admitted that many rural hospitals would need to prepare to adopt “an emergency room model”—meaning they would be stripped of essential services and benefits.

Cuts to Medicaid will force rural hospitals, which already operate on razor-thin margins, to absorb skyrocketing rates of uncompensated care. The continued strain will force them to cut services and personnel, and eventually possibly close. More than 45 percent of rural hospitals in the United States operate with negative margins, and as a result of Flood’s vote, more than 300 rural hospitals are at risk of closing.

The Iran deal is dead, according to the U.S. president.

Donald Trump bitterly referred to Iran’s leadership as “scum” during a NATO summit presser in Ankara, Turkey, on Wednesday, telling reporters that he believes peace negotiations—and the regional ceasefire—are “over.”

“I don’t want to deal with them anymore. They’re scum. Do you know what scum is?” Trump said. “They’re scum. They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people, and they’re vicious, violent people, and if they had a nuclear weapon, they’d use it.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s over. I’ll speak to our negotiators, they’ll want to negotiate, they’re good people. Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, but they’ll have to come back to me. As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with them.

“They’re liars. We make a deal—if I make a deal with him, we have a deal, and it goes out and he talks,” Trump said, briefly gesturing to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. “We make a deal, everyone’s agreed, no nuclear weapons. We make a deal. They go outside, talk to the press, they say we never even talked about it.

“There’s something wrong with them, they’re cuckoo,” he added.

The White House and Tehran preemptively signed a drafted memorandum of understanding, or MOU, in June, initiating a 60-day negotiation process. The mutual willingness to draw up a peace plan spurred hopes that the violence and economic barricades could soon come to an end, but the two nations began exchanging strikes again this week.

U.S. Central Command confirmed on Tuesday that the military had “completed” a new round of strikes on Iran, hitting “over 80 targets with precision munitions” over a four-hour period. The strikes were “in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM said in a statement. Washington has also reimposed sanctions on Iranian oil sales.

In retaliation, Tehran said it had launched strikes on 85 U.S. military targets in Bahrain and Kuwait, reported Al Jazeera. Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the “aggressive attacks and gross violation” of the MOU.

The office added that Iran’s armed forces “will not hesitate in defending Iran’s territorial integrity, national sovereignty, and national security against U.S. military aggression in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter, and will target the source and origin of the aggression.”

Oil prices surged as a result, with the price of Brent crude—the international oil benchmark—rising more than 3 percent on Wednesday.

Trump, meanwhile, is planning to extend the violence.

“We’ll probably hit them hard again tonight,” he told reporters.

A content creator who runs a satirical cat account trolling Vice President JD Vance on Instagram is suing after being banned from one of his events by the Secret Service.

Amanda McGonigle, who has nearly two million followers for her massive “CatsonaCouch” Instagram account, was stopped in line at a Maine event for the vice president in May.

“They got me. So, while I was in line to go into the event, Secret Service … came up to me and said, ‘Hey Amanda, you can’t come in.’ And I was basically like ‘but I have my registration,’ and they were like ‘well since it’s a private event , you can’t come in,’” McGonigle said on her Instagram account back in May. “I was like … ‘You realize that’s silly, right? I’m a cat account.’”

While she was waiting in line, McGonigle was also told by the Secret Service, “We know where you stand.” She insists that the event was advertised as public.

“Either it was a public event as advertised and I was denied entry because I think JD Vance is a sentient jar of mayonnaise, or it was a private event and taxpayer dollars were being used to fund JD Vance’s little ‘safe space,’” McGonigle said again after the event. “Either way, it’s giving lawsuit vibes.”

McGonigle is suing the U.S. Secret Service and the Executive Office of the President for infringement on her constitutional rights.

“The First Amendment protects every person’s right to express their opinions and political views, free from fear of government retaliation or retribution,” ACLU of Maine attorney Anahita Sotoohi said in a statement. “Ms. McGonigle uses her platform to criticize and satirize elected officials, using humor to garner support for causes important to her and inform her followers about political developments. The freedom to mock has been a central tenet of American political discourse since the founding. The First Amendment cannot be revoked just because one of the country’s most powerful people can’t take a joke.”

McGonigle created the account in 2024 in the wake of Vance’s comment deriding “childless cat ladies.” It exists with the aim to “have more followers than JD Vance by the time he leaves office and to troll him mercilessly every single day,” according to McGonigle.

The White House has yet to comment on McGonigle, although they seem to very aware of—and bothered by—her account’s existence.

Senator Mitch McConnell’s medical condition remains unknown, and his office won’t address questions about the former Senate majority leader being “brain dead.”

HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery reached out to McConnell’s staff Tuesday about the speculation. A day earlier, far-right influencer Laura Loomer and independent journalist Desirée Townsend, who first flagged the EMS call to McConnell’s home that revealed he was unconscious, declared that the Kentucky senator is “officially brain dead.” Bendery said the senator’s staff did not confirm or deny the report, instead directing her to a week-old statement that doesn’t clarify McConnell’s condition.

“Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital,” a spokesperson told Bendery. “The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session.”

Earlier in the day Tuesday, several Republicans publicly insisted that McConnell was still alive and that they had just spoken to him. CNN commentator Scott Jennings said, “He’s still recovering in the hospital. We talked for just shy of 20 minutes … about IRAN, UKRAINE, the unfolding situation in MAINE, my visit to the [Teddy Roosevelt] Presidential Library, and even a little bit of Senate history.”

Senator Scott Barrasso and Senate Majority Leader John Thune also said they had spoken to McConnell about Senate business. However, other Republicans, such as Senator Mike Lee, said they still don’t know what’s going on with McConnell.

“Many of us aren’t speaking about Mitch McConnell’s condition because we know nothing about his condition,” Lee said on X.

Trump’s MAGA base has demanded proof that McConnell is still alive, and his office’s response Tuesday will only fuel their conspiracy theories. There’s speculation over whether Republicans are trying to avoid a quick special election, as is required under Kentucky law, that could open the door for Representative Thomas Massie, a Trump critic, to run for the seat. For now, McConnell remains in the hospital without any explanation.