Hegseth Issues Veiled Order to Military to Vote Republican in Midterms

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed America’s service members and their families to vote in the midterm election, not-so-subtly suggesting Friday that they could make the difference in some districts predicted to vote blue.

He cited a 2024 presidential election analysis as evidence, claiming that 300,000 “warriors” were not registered to vote that year.

“That’s more than the ballots cast in cities like Detroit, Boston, Milwaukee, or Seattle,” Hegseth said in a video statement, specifically naming liberal cities.

“As you know, the war department exists to protect our nation and her freedoms. That includes the freedom to decide who leads us, and the right to vote,” Hegseth continued. “Regardless of your home state or current duty status, you can use a standardized federal postcard to register and request a ballot, and if you’re forward deployed and your standard ballot is delayed, you can use the federal write-in absentee ballot. All of these processes are straightforward and protected by law.”

Hegseth also had an explicit message for U.S. commanders, telling them to “get out the vote.”

“You’re not telling them who to vote for, you’re just telling them to vote,” Hegseth said.

“Every warrior deserves an opportunity to cast his or her ballot, and be confident that it will be counted. Keep our nation the land of the free and the home of the brave,” he said. “Get registered and vote.”

The order to America’s 2.1 million service members comes as Republicans stare down some sorry odds ahead of the midterm elections. But the party’s affiliation with the Trump administration has yet to help the cause.

Donald Trump has done almost nothing to assist his Republican subordinates. In just his second term alone, Trump has repeatedly incensed the American electorate by thrusting the country into a forever war with Iran, indiscriminately annihilating small watercraft in the Caribbean and the Pacific, abducting Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a midnight raid, aggravating America’s longest alliances—most notably with Canada—with a seemingly endless fountain of shitposts, tearing down the White House in order to build a $600 million, gold-laden ballroom, and repeatedly kowtowing to Moscow.

He also decided to make an already contentious midterm cycle a referendum on his popularity, despite the fact that his popularity is currently tanking in the polls.

Saudi Arabia has not ruled out developing a nuclear weapons program, according to U.S. intelligence.

The Washington Post reports that in classified documents provided to Congress, American intelligence agencies assess that the Saudi government wants to keep the option of building nuclear weapons open, a disturbing prospect considering that President Trump signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia in July to build four nuclear plants in the country.

At the time, Trump stressed that there would be “no enrichment of material” as part of the deal, but that’s not what it says in writing. In fact, the deal is much less restrictive than other agreements under Article 123 of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act of 1954. Some Democrats are concerned over the deal giving Saudi Arabia a path to enriching uranium to nearly 20 percent, which could be diverted into weapons.

In contrast, President Obama’s 2015 Iran nuclear deal only allowed Iran to enrich uranium up to 3.67 percent, and only for 15 years. Trump heavily criticized that deal during his 2016 campaign for president, and later scrapped it after he was elected.

The Post’s report seems to confirm Democrats’ fears. Right now, the Saudi nuclear deal is under a 90-day review in Congress, and legislators have the ability to block the deal with enough votes. Some Democratic senators are signaling that they might take action.

“With this deal, the Trump administration is departing from precedent, adopting looser restrictions, and caving to Saudi demands by agreeing to a process that is all but certain to allow Riyadh to acquire the means to enrich uranium and possibly develop nuclear weapons,” Senators Ed Markey and Jeff Merkley wrote in a letter Friday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

In 2018, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that his country would develop nuclear weapons if Iran did. It’s one of the reasons Merkley signed the letter, as he doesn’t trust Riyadh on this issue.

“It’s bogus as hell,” Merkley told the Post. “If they’ve given up the intent to develop a nuclear weapon, then they’d give up domestic enrichment and reprocessing power, right? They’d accept massive inspections from the [International Atomic Energy Agency.]”

Pope Leo XIV made a point to express his support for the free press, firing a stray at President Trump—whose ongoing White House ban on MS NOW, CNN, and Politico is still being legally contested.

“I’m just wondering if you had a word for some of our colleagues at CNN who are having difficulties with the White House,” a reporter asked the pope on Friday while en route to France.

“I am very happy that here, you are all welcome,” Pope Leo replied. “Good coverage … I think it’s important that we have it all the way around, for everyone.”

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly temporarily reinstated the outlets’ access for a two-week period starting Thursday morning—an order that the Trump administration defied twice the same day.

The first American pope has been quite talkative this week. He also criticized AI and the damage it has inflicted on the human essence on Friday, stating that “it cannot answer questions that concern the meaning of life, which is rooted in lived experience.” He has also long criticized the Trump administration’s current war on Iran, which notably sparked a threat from the Pentagon in April.

President Trump scuttled a major AI guardrail after a series of tech executives donated to his political operation.

The Lever reports that in September 2024, the Biden administration began the process of implementing a rule that required AI companies to report their experiments to regulators at the federal government. At the time, officials said that the rule was aimed at preventing “dangerous accidents” that “could result in injury or even loss of life.”

AI investors and companies such as OpenAI balked at the requirement, even as many safety officials resigned or were pushed out over its warning about lax safety regulations. Leading AI investors started donating millions to Trump’s reelection campaign, and after he won in November, they opened their wallets even further.

Just before Trump’s inauguration, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s Tools for Humanity company donated $5 million to Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc. Only nine days later, Trump signed an executive order ending Biden’s AI policies, including the reporting rule, although it was still on the federal regulatory agenda.

Then more tech donations arrived in Trump’s coffers. In February, Open AI investor Marc Adreesson donated $500,000 to MAGA Inc., and his partner Ben Horowitz matched the donation. The next month, they donated another $5 million, and in June, Elon Musk, who has his own xAi venture, donated $5 million himself. In September, OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman and his wife donated a combined $25 million to MAGA Inc.

In December, more than a year after the Biden administration proposed the AI disclosure rule, it was formally withdrawn from the federal regulatory agenda. Today, these same AI leaders are claiming they always supported regulating the technology and are demanding lawmakers step in after some high-profile hacking incidents. It’s a far cry from the millions they spent to ensure the government would leave them alone.

A software company contracted by the U.S. government claimed it had no ties to Russia. That does not seem to be the case.

Oxygen Forensics CEO Lee Reiber and Russian national Oleg Sergeyevich Davydov were arrested and charged by the Department of Justice with conspiracy to commit wire fraud earlier this week.

Reiber allegedly advertised that his company, which provides forensic and archival services for electronic data, exclusively sold American-made software and had no foreign ownership.

Yet five Russian nationals, including Davydov, reportedly owned and controlled Oxygen Forensics through a holding company based in Cyprus, according to a criminal complaint released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. The company’s software, too, was Russian, the complaint alleged.

Several executive agencies were affected by the scheme: the Defense Department and components of the Department of Homeland Security, including the Secret Service, the National Computer Forensics Institute, Homeland Security Investigations, and the DHS Office of Inspector General.

The Secret Service specifically had signed a five-year contract with Oxygen Forensics in 2024.

The Virginia-based group allegedly concealed its true ownership after the U.S. imposed additional sanctions on Russia in early 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine. Months later, Reiber—of Boise, Idaho—was appointed the company’s CEO, president, and chairman of the board, while mentions of Russian ownership were stripped from the company’s public filings, according to the complaint.

Details released in the affidavit suggest that Reiber was well aware of the conspiracy. In November 2023, Reiber wrote to Davydov and the alleged Russian accomplices after a reporter asked about Oxygen Forensics’ connection to a Russian company. Reiber noted at the time that the reporting “could destroy” a pending contract with the National Computer Forensics Institute, and that the “current existence of this company hangs in the balance,” according to the criminal complaint.

Both Reiber and Davydov face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted.