ReportWire

Tag: America

  • Trump announces death of National Guard member after shooting, ramps up scrutiny of refugees

    President Donald Trump announced the death of one National Guard member on Thanksgiving and said another is still “fighting for his life.” Police say both soldiers were shot while on patrol down the street from the White House on Wednesday. Trump announced the death of Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old from West Virginia, during a call with troops on Thursday night. The White House says the president spoke with Beckstrom’s parents later that evening.”She was savagely attacked. She’s dead, not with us. An incredible person, outstanding in every single way, in every department. It’s horrible,” Trump said on the call with troops. The charges against the alleged shooter are now expected to be upgraded to first-degree murder. The Justice Department has also suggested that it will seek the death penalty. “The death penalty is back,” Attorney General Pam Bondi posted Thursday night. FBI Director Kash Patel said the shooting is also being investigated as an act of terrorism. Authorities say Beckstrom and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, were shot in a targeted attack, although a motive has not been revealed. The alleged shooter has been identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old from Afghanistan. “What we know about him is that he drove his vehicle across the country from the state of Washington with the intended target of coming to our nation’s capital,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said at a press conference on Thursday morning.The Associated Press reports that Lakanwal was approved for asylum under the Trump administration, but officials say he first entered the country through a Biden administration resettlement program after the U.S. withdrew from the war in Afghanistan. Before arriving in America, Lakanwal worked with the CIA, according to John Ratcliffe, the spy agency’s director. Ratcliffe said the relationship ended shortly after the evacuation of U.S. service members.”We are fully investigating that aspect of his background as well to include any known associates that are either overseas or here in the United States of America,” FBI Director Kash Patel said Thursday. Asked about the CIA connection and the screening procedures involved with that, President Trump continued to insist that the alleged shooter entered the U.S. unvetted.”He went nuts,” Trump said. “It happens too often with these people.”In a statement, the group #AfghanEvac, which assists with the resettlement process, said Afghan immigrants and wartime allies “undergo some of the most extensive security vetting of any population entering the country.” “This individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community,” #AfghanEvac president Shawn VanDiver said. After the shooting, Trump said his administration would be reviewing every Afghan who entered the country under the Biden administration. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has indefinitely paused processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals, “pending further review of security and vetting protocols.” On Thursday, USCIS also said there would be “a full-scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.” Additionally, the agency released new guidance outlining new vetting standards for prospective immigrants from “19 high-risk countries.”Meanwhile, Trump ramped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric in a social media post just before midnight Thursday, promising to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover.”Trump said he would terminate what he described as illegal admissions under the Biden administration, end all federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens, and “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility.” “HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL, except those that hate, steal, murder, and destroy everything that America stands for — You won’t be here for long,” Trump said.

    WASHINGTON —

    President Donald Trump announced the death of one National Guard member on Thanksgiving and said another is still “fighting for his life.” Police say both soldiers were shot while on patrol down the street from the White House on Wednesday.

    Trump announced the death of Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old from West Virginia, during a call with troops on Thursday night. The White House says the president spoke with Beckstrom’s parents later that evening.

    “She was savagely attacked. She’s dead, not with us. An incredible person, outstanding in every single way, in every department. It’s horrible,” Trump said on the call with troops.

    The charges against the alleged shooter are now expected to be upgraded to first-degree murder. The Justice Department has also suggested that it will seek the death penalty.

    “The death penalty is back,” Attorney General Pam Bondi posted Thursday night.

    FBI Director Kash Patel said the shooting is also being investigated as an act of terrorism.

    Authorities say Beckstrom and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, were shot in a targeted attack, although a motive has not been revealed.

    The alleged shooter has been identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old from Afghanistan.

    “What we know about him is that he drove his vehicle across the country from the state of Washington with the intended target of coming to our nation’s capital,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said at a press conference on Thursday morning.

    The Associated Press reports that Lakanwal was approved for asylum under the Trump administration, but officials say he first entered the country through a Biden administration resettlement program after the U.S. withdrew from the war in Afghanistan.

    Before arriving in America, Lakanwal worked with the CIA, according to John Ratcliffe, the spy agency’s director. Ratcliffe said the relationship ended shortly after the evacuation of U.S. service members.

    “We are fully investigating that aspect of his background as well to include any known associates that are either overseas or here in the United States of America,” FBI Director Kash Patel said Thursday.

    Asked about the CIA connection and the screening procedures involved with that, President Trump continued to insist that the alleged shooter entered the U.S. unvetted.

    “He went nuts,” Trump said. “It happens too often with these people.”

    In a statement, the group #AfghanEvac, which assists with the resettlement process, said Afghan immigrants and wartime allies “undergo some of the most extensive security vetting of any population entering the country.”

    “This individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community,” #AfghanEvac president Shawn VanDiver said.

    After the shooting, Trump said his administration would be reviewing every Afghan who entered the country under the Biden administration. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has indefinitely paused processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals, “pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”

    On Thursday, USCIS also said there would be “a full-scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.” Additionally, the agency released new guidance outlining new vetting standards for prospective immigrants from “19 high-risk countries.”

    Meanwhile, Trump ramped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric in a social media post just before midnight Thursday, promising to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover.”

    Trump said he would terminate what he described as illegal admissions under the Biden administration, end all federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens, and “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility.”

    “HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL, except those that hate, steal, murder, and destroy everything that America stands for — You won’t be here for long,” Trump said.

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  • Trump ran on ‘America first.’ Now he views presidency as a ‘worldwide situation’

    WASHINGTON — On the campaign trail, Donald Trump was unapologetic about putting America first. He promised to secure the nation’s borders, strengthen the domestic workforce and be tough on countries he thought were taking advantage of the United States.

    Now, 10 months into his second term, the president is facing backlash from some conservatives who say he is too focused on matters abroad, whether it’s seeking regime change in Venezuela, brokering peace deals in Ukraine and Gaza or extending a $20-billion currency swap for Argentina. The criticism has grown in recent days after Trump expressed support for granting more visas to foreign students and skilled immigrant workers.

    The cracks in the MAGA movement, which have been more pronounced in recent weeks, underscore how Trump’s once impenetrable political base is wavering as the president appears to embrace a more global approach to governing.

    “I have to view the presidency as a worldwide situation, not locally,” Trump said this week when asked to address the criticism at an Oval Office event. “We could have a world that’s on fire where wars come to our shores very easily if you had a bad president.”

    For backers of Trump’s MAGA movement, the conflict is forcing some to weigh loyalty to an “America first” ideology over a president they have long supported and who, in some cases, inspired them to get involved in the political process.

    “I am against foreign aid, foreign wars, and sending a single dollar to foreign countries,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who in recent weeks has become more critical of Trump’s policies, said in a social media post Wednesday. “I am America First and America Only. This is my way and there is no other way to be.”

    Beyond America-first concerns, some Trump supporters are frustrated with him for resisting the disclosures about the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his network of powerful friends — including Trump. A group of Republicans in the House, for instance, helped lead an effort to force a vote to demand further disclosures on the Epstein files from the Justice Department.

    “When they are protecting pedophiles, when they are blowing our budget, when they are starting wars overseas, I’m sorry, I can’t go along with that,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said in a CNN interview. “And back home, people agree with me. They understand, even the most ardent Trump supporters understand.”

    When asked to respond to the criticism Trump has faced in recent weeks, the White House said the president was focused on implementing “economic policies that are cutting costs, raising real wages, and securing trillions in investments to make and hire in America.”

    Mike Madrid, a “never Trump” Republican consultant, believes the Epstein scandal has sped up a Republican backlash that has been brewing as a result of Trump deviating from his campaign promises.

    “They are turning on him, and it’s a sign of the inviolable trust being gone,” Madrid said.

    The MAGA movement was not led by a policy ideology, but rather “fealty to the leader,” Madrid said. Once the trust in Trump fades, “everything is gone.”

    Criticism of Trump goes mainstream

    The intraparty tension also has played out on conservative and mainstream news outlets, where the president has been challenged on his policies.

    In a recent Fox News interview with Laura Ingraham, Trump was pressed on a plan to give student visas to hundreds of thousands of Chinese students, a move that would mark a departure from actions taken by his administration this year to crack down on foreign students.

    “I think it is good to have outside countries,” Trump said. “Look, I want to be able to get along with the world.”

    In that same interview, Trump said he supports giving H-1B visas to skilled foreign workers because the U.S. doesn’t have workers with “certain talents.”

    “You can’t take people off an unemployment line and say, ‘I’m going to put you into a factory where we’re going to make missiles,’” Trump argued.

    Trump in September imposed a $100,000 fee for H-1B visas for skilled workers, a move that led to confusion among businesses, immigration lawyers and H-1B visa holders. Before Trump’s order, the visa program had exposed a rift between the president’s supporters in the technology industry, which relies on the program, and immigration hard-liners who want to see the U.S. invest in an American workforce.

    A day after Trump expressed support for the visa program, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem added fuel to the immigration debate by saying the administration is fast-tracking immigrants’ pathway to citizenship.

    “More people are becoming naturalized under this administration than ever before,” Noem told Fox News this week.

    Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and close ally of Trump, said the administration’s position was “disappointing.”

    “How is that a good thing? We are supposed to be kicking foreigners out, not letting them stay,” Loomer said.

    Polling adds on the heat

    As polling shows Americans are growing frustrated with the economy, some conservatives increasingly blame Trump for not doing enough to create more jobs and lower the cost of living.

    Greene, the Georgia Republican, said on “The Sean Spicer Show” Thursday that Trump and his administration are “gaslighting” people when they say prices are going down.

    “It’s actually infuriating people because people know what they’re paying at the grocery store,” she said, while urging Republicans to “show we are in the trenches with them” rather than denying their experience.

    While Trump has maintained that the economy is strong, administration officials have begun talking about pushing new economic policies. White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett said this week that the administration would be working to provide consumers with more purchasing power, saying that “we’re going to fix it right away.”

    “We understand that people understand, as people look at their pocketbooks to go to the grocery store, that there’s still work to do,” Hassett said.

    The acknowledgment comes after this month’s elections in key states — in which Republicans were soundly defeated — made clear that rising prices were top of mind for many Americans. The results also showed Latino voters were turning away from the GOP amid growing concerns about the economy.

    As Republicans try to refocus on addressing affordability, Trump has continued to blame the economic problems on former President Biden.

    “Cost, and INFLATION, were higher under the Sleepy Joe Biden administration, than they are now,” Trump said in a social media post Friday. He insisted that under his administration costs are “tumbling down.”

    Ana Ceballos

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  • Capitol Hill, White House focus on affordability with new policy initiatives

    From Capitol Hill to here at the White House, lawmakers are zeroing in on affordability. You could see it from the administration here in the last week, from videos to messages and new policy rollouts all designed and aimed at lowering costs for Americans. From 50 year mortgages to $2000 tariff checks, the White House is proposing bold solutions to *** stubborn issue. We’re working overtime on reducing costs. Among the changes, the White House. new trade frameworks with Latin American countries to lower the cost of groceries among other items. September’s inflation data shows coffee, bananas, and beef are among the items up significantly over the past year. We understand that people understand as they look at their pocketbooks that go to the grocery store, that there’s still work to do. It comes as the economy absorbs the damage from the 43 day government shutdown, which the White House says wiped out about $90 billion in economic growth and about 60,000 non-fe. Workers their jobs. Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, many lawmakers tell us affordability is also their priority moving forward. Our constituents are absolutely suffering under the crushing costs of health care cost increases, housing increases, childcare, groceries, gas, you name it. I’m going to be focusing my attention on housing affordability, and for Democrats, the fight that drove the shutdown isn’t over. They’re now racing to restore health care subsidies set to expire at the end of the year. *** lapse that could leave families paying hundreds more each month. We’re working towards bringing another bill to the floor that would actually solve the crisis of affordability in healthcare and bring down healthcare premiums for those 24 million Americans. Senate Republicans have promised *** vote to extend those healthcare subsidies in December, not guaranteeing what that vote outcome would be. However, House Republicans have not promised such *** vote at the White House. I’m Christopher Salas.

    The federal government has reopened after the longest shutdown in U.S. history, and the focus is now shifting to affordability, a pressing issue for millions of Americans. From Capitol Hill to the White House, lawmakers are concentrating on reducing costs.The White House is proposing bold solutions to address affordability, including 50-year mortgages and $2,000 tariff checks. Kevin Hassett, National Economic Council director, said, “We’re working overtime on reducing costs.”Among the changes, the White House announced new trade frameworks with Latin American countries to lower grocery costs. September’s inflation data shows significant price increases for coffee, bananas, and beef over the past year. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday to eliminate tariffs on a broad swath of commodities, including beef, coffee and tropical fruits.Hassett acknowledged the ongoing challenges, saying, “We understand that people understand as they look at their pocketbooks and go to the grocery store that there’s still work to do.”The economy is absorbing the impact of the 43-day shutdown, which the White House said wiped out $90 billion in growth and cost about 60,000 non-federal workers their jobs. On Capitol Hill, many lawmakers emphasize affordability as their priority moving forward. Rep. Johnny Olszewski, a Democrat from Maryland, said, “Our constituents are absolutely suffering under the crushing costs of healthcare and cost increases, housing increases, childcare, groceries, gas, you name it.” Rep. Mike Flood, a Republican from Nebraska, added, “I’m going to be focusing my attention on housing affordability.”For Democrats, the fight that led to the shutdown continues as they race to restore healthcare subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, which could result in families paying hundreds more each month. Rep. Josh Harder, a Democrat from California, said, “We’re working towards bringing another bill to the floor that would actually solve the crisis of affordability in health care and bring down health care premiums for those 24 million Americans.”Senate Republicans have promised a vote to extend healthcare subsidies by December, but the House has not made such a promise. Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that the Trump administration will require SNAP participants to reapply for benefits. A USDA spokesperson stated that the Secretary aims to address “fraud, waste and incessant abuse” in the SNAP program, noting that earlier fraud rates were only assumptions. The USDA plans to use existing recertification processes, review state data, and potentially introduce new regulations as part of this effort. However, the USDA has not specified when a broad reapplication would start, how it would work, or whether families could lose benefits during the process. Further details have been requested.See the latest news from the Washington News Bureau:

    WASHINGTON —

    The federal government has reopened after the longest shutdown in U.S. history, and the focus is now shifting to affordability, a pressing issue for millions of Americans. From Capitol Hill to the White House, lawmakers are concentrating on reducing costs.

    The White House is proposing bold solutions to address affordability, including 50-year mortgages and $2,000 tariff checks. Kevin Hassett, National Economic Council director, said, “We’re working overtime on reducing costs.”

    Among the changes, the White House announced new trade frameworks with Latin American countries to lower grocery costs. September’s inflation data shows significant price increases for coffee, bananas, and beef over the past year.

    President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday to eliminate tariffs on a broad swath of commodities, including beef, coffee and tropical fruits.

    Hassett acknowledged the ongoing challenges, saying, “We understand that people understand as they look at their pocketbooks and go to the grocery store that there’s still work to do.”

    The economy is absorbing the impact of the 43-day shutdown, which the White House said wiped out $90 billion in growth and cost about 60,000 non-federal workers their jobs.

    On Capitol Hill, many lawmakers emphasize affordability as their priority moving forward. Rep. Johnny Olszewski, a Democrat from Maryland, said, “Our constituents are absolutely suffering under the crushing costs of healthcare and cost increases, housing increases, childcare, groceries, gas, you name it.”

    Rep. Mike Flood, a Republican from Nebraska, added, “I’m going to be focusing my attention on housing affordability.”

    For Democrats, the fight that led to the shutdown continues as they race to restore healthcare subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, which could result in families paying hundreds more each month.

    Rep. Josh Harder, a Democrat from California, said, “We’re working towards bringing another bill to the floor that would actually solve the crisis of affordability in health care and bring down health care premiums for those 24 million Americans.”

    Senate Republicans have promised a vote to extend healthcare subsidies by December, but the House has not made such a promise.

    Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that the Trump administration will require SNAP participants to reapply for benefits. A USDA spokesperson stated that the Secretary aims to address “fraud, waste and incessant abuse” in the SNAP program, noting that earlier fraud rates were only assumptions. The USDA plans to use existing recertification processes, review state data, and potentially introduce new regulations as part of this effort. However, the USDA has not specified when a broad reapplication would start, how it would work, or whether families could lose benefits during the process. Further details have been requested.

    See the latest news from the Washington News Bureau:

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  • Commentary: MAGA’s ‘big tent’ is burning down amid explosion of antisemitism, racism

    South Asians have played a prominent role in President Trump’s universe, especially in his second term.

    Second Lady Usha Vance is the daughter of Indian immigrants who came to California to study and never went back. Harmeet Dhillon, born in India and a devout Sikh, is currently his U.S. assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division. And the head of the FBI, Kash Patel, is (like potential New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani,) of Indian descent by way of Uganda.

    Some Republicans have taken pride in this kind of diversity, citing it for the gains Trump made in 2024 with Black and Latino voters.

    But these days, the MAGA big tent seems to be collapsing fast.

    Last week, MAGA had a total anti-Indian meltdown on social media, revealing a deep, ugly racism toward South Asians.

    It comes amid the first real rebellion about rampant and increasingly open antisemitism within the MAGAverse, creating a massive rift between traditional conservatives and a younger, rabidly anti-Jewish contingent called groypers whose leader, Nick Fuentes, recently posted that he is “team Hitler.”

    Turns out, when you cultivate a political movement based on hate, at some point the hate is uncontrollable. In fact, that hate needs to be fed to maintain power — even if it means feasting on its own.

    This monster of white-might ugliness is going to dominate policy and politics for the next election, and these now-public fights within the Republican party represent a new dynamic that will either force it to do some sort of soul searching, or purge it of anything but white Christian nationalism. My bet is on the latter. But if conservatives ever truly believed in their inclusive talk, then it’s time for Republicans to stand up and demand the big Trump tent they were hailing just a few months ago.

    Ultra-conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, who opposes much of Fuentes’ worldview, summed up this Republican split succinctly.

    Fuentes’ followers “are white supremacists, hate women, Jews, Hindus, many types of Christians, brown people of a wide variety of backgrounds, Blacks, America’s foreign policy and America’s constitution,” Shapiro explained. “They admire Hitler and Stalin and that splinter faction is now being facilitated and normalized within the mainstream Republican Party.”

    MAGA’s anti-Indian sentiment had an explosive moment a few days ago when a South Asian woman asked Vice President JD Vance a series of questions during a Turning Point USA event in Mississippi. The young immigrant wanted to know how Vance could preach for the removal of nearly 18 million immigrants? And how could he claim that the United States was a Christian nation, rather than one that valued pluralism?

    “How can you stop us and tell us we don’t belong here anymore?” the woman asked. “Why do I have to be a Christian?”

    Vance’s answer went viral, in part because he claimed his wife, although from a Hindu family, was “agnostic or atheist,” and that he hoped she would convert to Christianity.

    “Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved in by church? Yeah, I honestly do wish that,” he said.

    Vance later tried to do some damage control on social media, calling Usha Vance a “blessing” and promising to continue to “support her and talk to her about faith and life and everything else, because she’s my wife.”

    But many South Asians felt Vance was dissing his wife’s heritage and attempting to downplay her non-whiteness. They vented on social media, and got a lot of MAGA feelings back.

    “How can you pretend to be a white nativist politician who will ‘bring america back to it’s golden age’ … when your wife is an indian immigrant?” wrote one poster.

    Dhillon received similar feedback recently for urging calm and fairness after a Sikh truck driver allegedly caused a fatal crash.

    “[N]o ma’am, it is CRYSTAL CLEAR that sihks and hindus need to get the hell out of my country,” one reply stated. “You and your kind are no longer welcome here. Go the [expletive] home.”

    Patel too, got it, after posting a message on Diwali, a religious holiday that celebrates the victory of light over darkness. He was dubbed a demon worshipper, a favorite anti-Indian trope.

    Perhaps you’re thinking, “Duh, of course MAGA is racist.” But here’s the thing. The military has been scrubbed of many Black officers. The federal workforce, long a bastion for middle-class people of color, has been decimated. Minority cabinet members or top officials are few. Aside from another South Asian, Tulsi Gabbard, there’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez‑DeRemer and HUD head Scott Turner.

    South Asians are largely the last visible sign of pluralism in Republican power, an erstwhile proof that the charges of racism from the left are unfair. But now, like Latinos, they are increasingly targets of the base.

    At the same time anti-Indian hate was surfacing last week, a whole load of MAGA antisemitism hit the fan. It started when Tucker Carlson, who in his post-network life has re-created himself as a hugely popular podcaster with more than 16 million followers on X, invited Fuentes on his show.

    In addition to calling for the death of American Jews, Fuentes has also said women want him to rape them and should be burned alive, Black people belong in prison and LGBTQ+ people are an abomination.

    Anyone who is not his kind of Christian “must be absolutely annihilated when we take power,” he said.

    Turns out far-right Charlie Kirk was a bulwark against this straight-up American Nazi. Kirk’s popularity kept Fuentes — who often trolled Kirk — from achieving dominance as the spirit guide of young MAGA. Now, with Kirk slain, nothing appears to be stopping Fuentes from taking up that mantle.

    After the Fuentes interview, sane conservatives (there are some left) were apoplectic that Carlson would support someone who so openly admits to being anti-Israel and seemingly pro-Nazi. They demanded the Heritage Foundation, historical backbone of the conservative movement, creators of Project 2025 and close allies of Tucker, do something. The head of Heritage, Kevin Roberts, offered what many considered a sorry-not-sorry. He condemned Fuentes, saying he was “fomenting Jew hatred, and his incitements are not only immoral and un-Christian, they risk violence.”

    But also counseled that Fuentes shouldn’t be banished from the party.

    “Join us — not to cancel — but to guide, challenge, and strengthen the conversation,” Roberts said.

    Are Nazis really all bad? Discuss!

    The response from ethical conservatives — Jewish and non-Jewish alike — has been that you don’t politely hear Nazis out, and if the Republican Party can’t clearly say that Nazis aren’t welcome, it’s got a problem.

    Yes, the Republican Party has a problem.

    The right rode to power by attacking what it denigrates at “wokeism” on the left. MAGA declared that to confront fascism or racism or misogyny — to tell its purveyors to sit down and shut up — was wrong. That “canceling,” or banishment from common discourse for spewing hate, was somehow an infringement on 1st Amendment rights or even terrorism.

    They screamed loud and clear that speaking out against intolerance was the worst, most unacceptable form of intolerance itself — and would not be tolerated.

    You know who heard them loud and clear? Fuentes. He has checkmated establishment Republicans with their own cowardice and hypocrisy.

    So now his young Christian white supremacists are empowered, and intent on taking over as the leaders of the party. Fuentes is saying what old guard Republicans don’t want to hear, but secretly fear: He already is dangerously close to being the mainstream; just read the comments.

    Roberts, the Heritage president, said it himself: “Diversity will never be our strength. Unity is our strength, and a lack of unity is a sign of weakness.”

    Trying to shut Fuentes up or kick him out will likely anger that vocal and powerful part of the base that enjoys the freedom to be openly hateful, and really wouldn’t mind a male-dominated white Christian autocracy.

    The far right has free-speeched their way into fascism, and Fuentes is loving every minute of it.

    So now this remaining vestige of traditional conservatives — including senators such as Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell — is faced with a painful reckoning. Many mainstream Republicans for years ignored the racism and antisemitism creeping into the party. They can’t anymore. It has grown into a beast ready to consume its maker.

    Will they let this takeover happen, call for conversation over condemnation to the glee of Fuentes and his followers?

    Or will they find the courage to be not just true Republicans, but true Americans, and declare non-negotiable for their party that most basic of American ideals: We do not tolerate hate?

    Anita Chabria

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  • Column: Trump is in his Louis XIV era, and it’s not a good look

    To say that President Trump is unfazed by Saturday’s nationwide “No Kings” rally, which vies for bragging rights as perhaps the largest single-day protest in U.S. history, is the sort of understatement too typical when describing his monarchical outrages.

    Leave aside Trump’s grotesque mockery of the protests — his post that night of an AI-generated video depicting himself as a becrowned pilot in a fighter jet, dropping poop bombs on citizens protesting peacefully below. Consider instead two other post-rally actions: On Sunday and Wednesday, “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth announced first that on Trump’s orders the military had struck a seventh boat off Venezuela and then an eighth vessel in the Pacific, bringing the number of people killed over two months to 34. The administration has provided no evidence to Congress or the American public for Trump’s claims that the unidentified dead were “narco-terrorists,” nor any credible legal rationale for the strikes. Then, on Monday, Trump began demolishing the White House’s East Wing to create the gilded ballroom of his dreams, which, at 90,000 square feet, would be nearly twice the size of the White House residence itself.

    As sickening as the sight was — heavy equipment ripping away at the historic property as high-powered hoses doused the dusty debris — Trump’s $250-million vanity project is small stuff compared to a policy of killing noncombatant civilian citizens of nations with which we are not at war (Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador). Yet together the actions reflect the spectrum of consequences of Trump’s utter sense of impunity as president, from the relatively symbolic to the murderous.

    “In America the law is king,” Thomas Paine wrote in 1776. Not in Trump’s America.

    Among the commentariat, the president’s desecration of the East Wing is getting at least as much criticism as his extralegal killings at sea. Many critics see in the bulldozing of the People’s House a metaphor for Trump’s destructive governance generally — his other teardowns of federal agencies, life-saving foreign aid, healthcare benefits and more. The metaphor is indeed apt.

    But what’s more striking is the sheer sense of impunity that Trump telegraphs, constantly, with the “je suis l’état” flare of a Louis XIV — complete (soon) with Trump’s Versailles. (Separately, Trump’s mimicry of French emperors now includes plans for a sort of Arc de Triomphe near Arlington Cemetery. A reporter asked who it would be for. “Me,” Trump said. Arc de Trump.)

    No law, domestic or international, constrains him, as far as the convicted felon is concerned. Neither does Congress, where Republicans bend the knee. Nor the Supreme Court, with its 6-3 right-wing majority, including three justices Trump chose in his first term.

    The court’s ruling last year in Trump vs. United States gives Trump virtual immunity from criminal prosecution, but U.S. servicemembers don’t have that protection when it comes to the deadly Caribbean Sea attacks or any other orders from the commander in chief that might one day be judged to have been illegal.

    The operation’s commander, Navy Adm. Alvin Holsey, reportedly expressed concerns about the strikes within the administration. Last week he announced his retirement after less than a year as head of the U.S. Southern Command. It could be a coincidence. But I’m hardly alone in counting Holsey as the latest casualty in Trump and Hegseth’s purge of perceived nonloyalists at the Pentagon.

    “When the president decides someone has to die, the military becomes his personal hit squad,” military analyst and former Republican Tom Nichols said Monday on MSNBC. Just like with kings and other autocrats: Off with their heads.

    Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a rare maverick Republican, noted on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that in years past, the Coast Guard would board foreign boats suspected of ferrying drugs and, if contraband were found, take it and suspected traffickers into custody, often gleaning information about higher-ups to make a real dent in the drug trade. But, Paul added, about one in four boats typically had no drugs. No matter nowadays — everyone’s a target for deadly force. “So,” Paul said, “all of these people have been blown up without us knowing their name, without any evidence of a crime.” (Paul was the only Republican senator not invited to lunch with Trump on Monday in the paved-over Rose Garden.)

    On Monday, Ecuador said no evidence connects a citizen who survived a recent U.S. strike to any crime. Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused the United States of murdering a fisherman in a September strike, provoking Trump to call Petro a “drug leader” and unilaterally yank U.S. foreign aid. A Venezuelan told the Washington Post that the 11 people killed in the first known U.S. strike were fishermen; national security officials told Congress the individuals were headed back to shore when hit. Meanwhile, the three countries and U.S. news reports contradict Trump’s claims that he’s destroying and seizing fentanyl — a drug that typically comes from Mexico and then is smuggled by land, usually by U.S. citizens.

    Again, no matter to America’s king, who said last week that he’s eyeing land incursions in Venezuela now “because we’ve got the sea very well under control.” Trump’s courtiers say he doesn’t need Congress’ authorization for any use of force. The Constitution suggests otherwise.

    Alas, neither it nor the law limits Trump’s White House makeover. He doesn’t have to submit to Congress because he’s tapping rich individuals and corporations for the cost. Past presidents, mindful that the house is a public treasure, not their palace, voluntarily sought input from various federal and nonprofit groups. After reports about the demolition, which put the lie to Trump’s promise in July that the ballroom “won’t interfere with the current building,” the American Institute of Architects urged its members to ask Congress to “investigate destruction of the White House.”

    Disparate as they are, Trump’s ballroom project and his Caribbean killings were joined last week. At a White House dinner for ballroom donors, Trump joked about the sea strikes: “Nobody wants to go fishing anymore.” The pay-to-play titans laughed. Shame on them.

    Trump acts with impunity because he can; he’s a lame duck. But other Republicans must face the voters. Keep the “No Kings” protests coming — right through the elections this November and next.

    Bluesky: @jackiecalmes
    Threads: @jkcalmes
    X: @jackiekcalmes

    Jackie Calmes

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  • ‘No Kings’ protests against Trump bring a street party vibe as GOP calls them ‘hate America’ rallies

    Protesting the direction of the country under President Donald Trump, people gathered Saturday in the nation’s capital and communities across the U.S. for “ No Kings ” demonstrations — what the president’s Republican Party is calling “Hate America” rallies.(Video player above: Coverage of the “No Kings” protest in June) With signs such as “Nothing is more patriotic than protesting” or “Resist Fascism,” in many places the events looked more like a street party. There were marching bands, a huge banner with the U.S. Constitution’s “We The People,” preamble that people could sign, and protesters wearing inflatable costumes, particularly frogs, which have emerged as a sign of resistance in Portland, Oregon.This is the third mass mobilization since Trump’s return to the White House and comes against the backdrop of a government shutdown that not only has closed federal programs and services, but is testing the core balance of power as an aggressive executive confronts Congress and the courts in ways that organizers warn are a slide toward American authoritarianism.Trump himself is spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.“They say they’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king,” Trump said in a Fox News interview airing early Friday, before he departed for a $1 million-per-plate MAGA Inc. fundraiser at his club. Protests are expected nearby Saturday.Nationwide protests plannedDemonstrators packed New York City’s Times Square, Boston Common, Chicago’s Grant Park and hundreds of smaller public spaces. More than 2,600 rallies were planned for Saturday, organizers said.Many protesters were angered by attacks on their motives. In Washington, Brian Reymann said being called a terrorist all week by Republicans was “pathetic.”“This is America. I disagree with their politics, but I don’t believe that they don’t love this country,” Reymann said, carrying a large American flag. “I believe they are misguided. I think they are power hungry.”More than 1,500 people gathered in Birmingham, Alabama, evoking and openly citing the city’s history of protests and the critical role it played in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement two generations ago.“It just feels like we’re living in an America that I don’t recognize,” said Jessica Yother, a mother of four. She and other protesters said they felt camaraderie by gathering in a state where Trump won nearly 65% of the vote last November.“It was so encouraging,” Yother said. “I walked in and thought, ‘Here are my people.’”Organizers hope to build opposition movement“Big rallies like this give confidence to people who have been sitting on the sidelines but are ready to speak up,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said in an interview with The Associated Press.While protests earlier this year — against Elon Musk’s cuts and Trump’s military parade — drew crowds, organizers say this one is uniting the opposition. Top Democrats such as Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders are joining what organizers view as an antidote to Trump’s actions, from the administration’s clampdown on free speech to its military-style immigration raids.“We’re here because we love America,” Sanders said, addressing the crowd from a stage in Washington. He said the American experiment is “in danger” under Trump but insisted “We the people will rule.”The national march against Trump and Musk this spring had 1,300 registered locations, while the first “No Kings” day in June registered 2,100 locations.Republicans denounce ‘Hate America’ ralliesRepublicans sought to portray Saturday’s protesters as far outside the mainstream and a prime reason for the government shutdown, now in its 18th day.From the White House to Capitol Hill, GOP leaders disparaged the rallygoers as “communists” and “Marxists.” They say Democratic leaders, including Schumer, are beholden to the far-left flank and willing to keep the government shut to appease those liberal forces.“I encourage you to watch — we call it the Hate America rally — that will happen Saturday,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana.“Let’s see who shows up for that,” Johnson said, listing groups including “antifa types,” people who “hate capitalism” and “Marxists in full display.”Many demonstrators, in turn, said they were responding such hyperbole with humor, noting that Trump often leans heavily on theatrics such as claiming U.S. cities he sends troops to are war zones.“So much of what we’ve seen from this administration has been so unserious and silly that we have to respond with the same energy,” said Glen Kalbaugh, a Washington protester who wore a wizard hat and held a sign with a frog on it.Democrats try to regain their footing amid shutdownDemocrats have refused to vote on legislation that would reopen the government as they demand funding for health care. Republicans say they are willing to discuss the issue later, only after the government reopens.The situation is a potential turnaround from just six months ago, when Democrats and their allies were divided and despondent. Schumer in particular was berated by his party for allowing an earlier government funding bill to sail through the Senate without using it to challenge Trump.“What we are seeing from the Democrats is some spine,” said Ezra Levin, a co-founder of Indivisible, a key organizing group. “The worst thing the Democrats could do right now is surrender.”

    Protesting the direction of the country under President Donald Trump, people gathered Saturday in the nation’s capital and communities across the U.S. for “ No Kings ” demonstrations — what the president’s Republican Party is calling “Hate America” rallies.

    (Video player above: Coverage of the “No Kings” protest in June)

    With signs such as “Nothing is more patriotic than protesting” or “Resist Fascism,” in many places the events looked more like a street party. There were marching bands, a huge banner with the U.S. Constitution’s “We The People,” preamble that people could sign, and protesters wearing inflatable costumes, particularly frogs, which have emerged as a sign of resistance in Portland, Oregon.

    This is the third mass mobilization since Trump’s return to the White House and comes against the backdrop of a government shutdown that not only has closed federal programs and services, but is testing the core balance of power as an aggressive executive confronts Congress and the courts in ways that organizers warn are a slide toward American authoritarianism.

    Trump himself is spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.

    “They say they’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king,” Trump said in a Fox News interview airing early Friday, before he departed for a $1 million-per-plate MAGA Inc. fundraiser at his club. Protests are expected nearby Saturday.

    Nationwide protests planned

    Demonstrators packed New York City’s Times Square, Boston Common, Chicago’s Grant Park and hundreds of smaller public spaces. More than 2,600 rallies were planned for Saturday, organizers said.

    Many protesters were angered by attacks on their motives. In Washington, Brian Reymann said being called a terrorist all week by Republicans was “pathetic.”

    “This is America. I disagree with their politics, but I don’t believe that they don’t love this country,” Reymann said, carrying a large American flag. “I believe they are misguided. I think they are power hungry.”

    More than 1,500 people gathered in Birmingham, Alabama, evoking and openly citing the city’s history of protests and the critical role it played in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement two generations ago.

    “It just feels like we’re living in an America that I don’t recognize,” said Jessica Yother, a mother of four. She and other protesters said they felt camaraderie by gathering in a state where Trump won nearly 65% of the vote last November.

    “It was so encouraging,” Yother said. “I walked in and thought, ‘Here are my people.’”

    Organizers hope to build opposition movement

    “Big rallies like this give confidence to people who have been sitting on the sidelines but are ready to speak up,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said in an interview with The Associated Press.

    While protests earlier this year — against Elon Musk’s cuts and Trump’s military parade — drew crowds, organizers say this one is uniting the opposition. Top Democrats such as Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders are joining what organizers view as an antidote to Trump’s actions, from the administration’s clampdown on free speech to its military-style immigration raids.

    “We’re here because we love America,” Sanders said, addressing the crowd from a stage in Washington. He said the American experiment is “in danger” under Trump but insisted “We the people will rule.”

    The national march against Trump and Musk this spring had 1,300 registered locations, while the first “No Kings” day in June registered 2,100 locations.

    Republicans denounce ‘Hate America’ rallies

    Republicans sought to portray Saturday’s protesters as far outside the mainstream and a prime reason for the government shutdown, now in its 18th day.

    From the White House to Capitol Hill, GOP leaders disparaged the rallygoers as “communists” and “Marxists.” They say Democratic leaders, including Schumer, are beholden to the far-left flank and willing to keep the government shut to appease those liberal forces.

    “I encourage you to watch — we call it the Hate America rally — that will happen Saturday,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana.

    “Let’s see who shows up for that,” Johnson said, listing groups including “antifa types,” people who “hate capitalism” and “Marxists in full display.”

    Many demonstrators, in turn, said they were responding such hyperbole with humor, noting that Trump often leans heavily on theatrics such as claiming U.S. cities he sends troops to are war zones.

    “So much of what we’ve seen from this administration has been so unserious and silly that we have to respond with the same energy,” said Glen Kalbaugh, a Washington protester who wore a wizard hat and held a sign with a frog on it.

    Democrats have refused to vote on legislation that would reopen the government as they demand funding for health care. Republicans say they are willing to discuss the issue later, only after the government reopens.

    The situation is a potential turnaround from just six months ago, when Democrats and their allies were divided and despondent. Schumer in particular was berated by his party for allowing an earlier government funding bill to sail through the Senate without using it to challenge Trump.

    “What we are seeing from the Democrats is some spine,” said Ezra Levin, a co-founder of Indivisible, a key organizing group. “The worst thing the Democrats could do right now is surrender.”

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  • Now is the worst time to flip a home. It hasn’t been this bad in nearly two decades | Fortune

    It pays less and less to buy and flip a home these days. From April through June, the typical home flipped by an investor resulted in a 25.1% return on investment, before expenses. That’s the lowest profit margin for such transactions since 2008, according to an analysis by Attom, a real estate data company.

    Gross profits — the difference between what an investor paid for a property and what it sold for — fell 13.6% in the second quarter from a year earlier to $65,300, the firm said. Attom’s analysis defines a flipped home as a property that sells within 12 months of the last time it sold.

    Home flippers buy a home, typically with cash, then pay for any repairs or upgrades needed to spruce up the property before putting it back on the market.

    The shrinking profitability for home flipping is largely due to home prices, which continue to climb nationally, albeit at a slower pace, driving up acquisition costs for investors.

    “We’re seeing very low profit margins from home flipping because of the historically high cost of homes,” said Rob Barber, Attom’s CEO. “The initial buy-in for properties that are ideal for flipping, often lower priced homes that may need some work, keeps going up.”

    The median price of a home flipped in the second quarter was bought by an investor for $259,700, a record high according to data going back to 2000, according to Attom.

    The median sales price of flipped homes was $325,000, unchanged from the first quarter, the firm said.

    A chronic shortage of homes on the market and heightened competition for lower-priced properties are also helping drive up investors’ acquisition costs.

    Home flipping profits have declined for more than a decade as home prices rose along with the housing market’s recovery from the housing crash in the late 2000s.

    Consider, in the fall of 2012, the typical flipped home netted a 62.9% return on investment before expenses, Attom said.

    Even as home flipping has become less profitable, such transactions remain widespread.

    Some 78,621 single-family homes and condos were flipped in the April-June quarter, accounting for 7.4% of all home sales during the quarter — a slight decline from both the first quarter and the second quarter of 2024, according to Attom.

    The U.S. housing market has been in a sales slump since early 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes sank last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years. Sales have remained sluggish this year as mortgage rates, until recently, remained elevated.

    As home sales have slowed, properties are taking longer to sell. That’s led to a sharply higher inventory of homes on the market, benefiting investors and other home shoppers who can afford to bypass current mortgage rates by paying in cash or tapping home equity gains.

    With many aspiring homeowners priced out of the market, real estate investors — whether those looking to buy and rent or home flippers — are taking up a bigger share of U.S. home sales overall.

    Some 33% of all homes sold in the second quarter were bought by investors — the highest share in at least five years, according to a report by real estate data provider BatchData.

    Between 2020 and 2023, the share of homes bought by investors averaged 18.5%.

    All told, investors bought 345,752 homes in the April-June quarter, an increase of 15% from the first quarter, but a 12% decline from the same period last year, the firm said.

    Even so, investor-owned homes account for roughly 20% of the nation’s 86 million single-family homes, the firm said.

    Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26–27, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of business. Apply for an invitation.

    Alex Veiga, The Associated Press

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  • Community Voices: Murder in America and the Need to Disagree Better

    By Hon. Scott Benson, Detroit City Councilmember

    If the last couple of weeks has taught us anything it’s that we need to learn to disagree better. 

    In the aftermath of the high-profile murder of a notorious MAGA media figure, and with the President of the United States (POTUS) heightening tensions by trying to blame the killing on the “radical left,” Utah Governor Spencer Cox showed bravery and leadership by standing up and saying no to hate. While POTUS’ inflammatory rhetoric is not going to unite a country that is on the edge, Governor Cox is one of the few high-profile Republicans who is actively trying to dial the temperature down.  

    Cox was urging people not to play the blame game, and that the shooter was the only person responsible for this heinous crime. In other words, he was doing what a decent and good leader does at a time like this; dialing the temperature down, while POTUS is doing the exact opposite.  

    Cox was chair of the National Governors Association when he launched an initiative called Disagree Better. Now an independent nonprofit, Disagree Better uses campaigns, partnerships, and real conversations to show what respectful disagreement looks like in action. It offers tools and resources to build meaningful, constructive dialogue. It also has a toolkit so parents can teach their children these important skills. As the organization’s motto says – democracy is disagreement.  And as I like to say, successful democracy is disagreement without violence.  

    Disagree Better urges people to be curious, not caustic. It teaches people to respect the opinion of others, rather than shout them down. Disagreement is not an act of war, but a way to learn. It isn’t necessarily about being nicer to each other, but it is about finding a way to use disagreement to move toward compromise and solutions to the problems we face as a country.  See President Obama and former House Speaker John Boehner. 

    Today, too much of the discourse around politics is toxic. We talk over and yell at each other. We want to “win” every political argument, no matter the cost.  And social media is not helping, as we are forced to sort through disinformation and distortions in search of the truth. Polarization has become a political strategy, deepening with each day that passes while we have political leaders who paint each other as mortal enemies. 

    This past week I heard a lot of pundits and elected officials saying, “this is not what our country is about,” but that showed a great lack of historical understanding and perspective. The Black community is all too familiar with political violence, domestic terrorism and murder. Historically, our community has experienced a disproportionate amount of all three. Political violence and domestic terrorism have been used to deny us our rights, our dreams, and our economic security. From overt acts of terror, like lynchings, to assassinations like those of Martin Luther King and Medgar Evers, the Black community has been the target of deliberate politically motivated violence and murder for generations.  

    What concerns me is that POTUS and his Cabinet members are pushing us further away from the American ideal and now punishing Americans for expressing their views about this murder.  The American ideal encompasses the rights that we as Americans should enjoy and are enumerated in the Declaration of Independence as – “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” The rights that we have fought wars over, and that our government SHOULD protect. The right to free speech, freedom of expression, and peaceful assembly. The right to question our government. The right to hold a viewpoint different from your neighbor. The right to disagree.  

    The notorious media figure’s views were often provocative, laced with rhetoric that was racist, xenophobic, and misogynistic. His often crude and demeaning insults targeted the most vulnerable among us – immigrants, LGBTQ people, and other marginalized communities. He was not the model for learning to disagree better, but he was utilizing his American right to freedom of speech, and no one should be murdered for exercising their American rights. See Maceo Snipes, 1946. 

    To paraphrase FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, “A single disturbed individual’s inexcusable act of political violence should not justify broader censorship, POTUS’s administration is increasingly using government power to suppress lawful expression.  Giving up the right to speak freely means accepting that those in power, not the people, will define the boundaries of debate in a free society.” 

    Until we learn to disagree better in this country and return to listening to each other, asking questions about how one has arrived at their views, and using disagreement to find solutions, we are only going to remain deeply divided. A majority of the public is clear that they are over the bickering. This is going to take difficult conversations, and we cannot be afraid to have them.   We all need to take the words of Governor Cox to heart and “learn to disagree better.” 

    About Post Author

    Jeremy Allen, Executive Editor

    Jeremy Allen oversees the editorial team at the Michigan Chronicle. To contact him for story ideas or partnership opportunities, send an email to jallen@michronicle.com.

    Jeremy Allen, Executive Editor

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  • Contributor: Allies are betraying the U.S. by recognizing a Palestinian state

    Four of America’s nominally closest allies — Britain, Australia, France and Canada — disgraced themselves this week by recognizing a so-called Palestinian state. In so doing, these nations didn’t merely betray their Western civilizational inheritance. They also rewarded terrorism, strengthened the genocidal ambitions of the global jihad and sent a chilling message: The path to international legitimacy runs not through the difficult work of building up a nation-state and engaging in diplomacy, but through mass murder, the weaponization of transnational institutions and the erasure of historical truth.

    The Trump administration has already denounced this craven capitulation by our allies. There should be no recognition of an independent Palestinian state at this moment in history. Such a recognition is an abdication not only of basic human decency, but also of national interest and strategic sanity.

    The global march toward recognition of an independent Palestinian state ignores decades of brutal facts on the ground as well as the specific tide of blood behind this latest surge. It was less than two years ago — Oct. 7, 2023 — that Hamas launched the most barbaric anti-Jewish pogrom since the Holocaust: 6,000 terrorists poured into Israel, massacring roughly 1,200 innocent people in acts of unconscionable depravity — systematic rape, torture, kidnapping of babies. The terrorists livestreamed their own atrocities and dragged more than 250 hostages back to Gaza’s sprawling subterranean terror dungeons, where dozens remain to this day.

    Many gullible liberal elites wish to believe that the radical jihadists of Hamas do not represent the broader Palestinian-Arab population, but that is a lie. Polls consistently show — and anecdotal videos of large street crowds consistently demonstrate — that Hamas and like-minded jihadist groups maintain overwhelming popularity in both Gaza and Judea and Samaria (what the international community refers to as the West Bank). These groups deserve shame, scorn and diplomatic rebuke — not fawning sympathy and United Nations red carpets.

    The “government” in Gaza is a theocratic, Iranian-backed terror entity whose founding charter drips with unrepentant Jew-hatred and whose leaders routinely celebrate the wanton slaughter of innocent Israelis as triumphs of “resistance.” Along with the kleptocratic Palestinian Authority dictatorship in Ramallah, this is who, and what, Group of 7 powers like Britain and France have decided to reward with an imprimatur of legitimate statehood.

    There is no meaningful “peace partner,” and no “two-state” vision to be realized, amid this horrible reality. There is only a sick cult of violence, lavishly funded from Tehran and eager for widespread international recognition as a stepping stone toward the destruction of Israel — and the broader West for which Israel is a proxy.

    For decades, Western leaders maintained a straightforward position: There can be no recognition of a Palestinian state outside of direct negotiations with Israel, full demilitarization and the unqualified acceptance of Israel’s right to exist in secure borders as a distinctly Jewish state. The move at the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state torches that policy, declaring to the world that savagery and maximalist rejectionism are the currency of international legitimacy. By rewarding unilateralism and eschewing direct negotiation, these reckless Western governments have proved us international law skeptics right: The much-ballyhooed “peace process” agreements, such as the Oslo Accords of the 1990s, are not worth the paper they were written on.

    In the wake of Oct. 7, these nations condemned the massacre, proclaimed solidarity with Israel and even briefly suspended funding for UNRWA, the U.N. aid group for the Palestinian territories, after agency employees were accused of participating in the attack. Yet, under the relentless drumbeat of anti-Israel activism and diplomatic cowardice, they have now chosen to rehabilitate the Palestinian-Arab nationalist cause — not after the leaders of the cause renounced terrorism, but while its most gruesome crimes remained unpunished, its hostages still languish in concentration camp-like squalor and its leaders still clamor for the annihilation of Israel.

    Trump should clarify not only that America will not join in this dangerous, high-stakes charade, but also that there could very well be negative trade or diplomatic repercussions for countries that recognize an independent Palestinian terror state. The reason for such consequences would be simple: Undermining America’s strongest ally in the Middle East while simultaneously creating yet another new terror-friendly Islamist state directly harms the American national interest. There is no American national interest — none, zero — in the creation of a new Palestinian state in the heart of the Holy Land. On the contrary, as the Abraham Accords peace deals of 2020 proved, there is plenty of reason to embolden Israel. Contra liberal elites, it is this bolstering of Israel that fosters genuine regional peace.

    The world must know: In the face of evil, America does not flinch, does not equivocate and does not reward those who murder our friends and threaten the Judeo-Christian West. As long as the Jewish state stands on the front lines of civilization, the United States must remain at its side, unwavering, unbowed and unashamed. Basic human decency and the American national interest both require nothing less.

    Josh Hammer’s latest book is “Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West.” This article was produced in collaboration with Creators Syndicate. X: @josh_hammer

    Josh Hammer

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  • Community Voices: Murder in America and the Need to Disagree Better

    By Hon. Scott Benson, Detroit City Councilmember

    If the last couple of weeks has taught us anything it’s that we need to learn to disagree better. 

    In the aftermath of the high-profile murder of a notorious MAGA media figure, and with the President of the United States (POTUS) heightening tensions by trying to blame the killing on the “radical left,” Utah Governor Spencer Cox showed bravery and leadership by standing up and saying no to hate. While POTUS’ inflammatory rhetoric is not going to unite a country that is on the edge, Governor Cox is one of the few high-profile Republicans who is actively trying to dial the temperature down.  

    Cox was urging people not to play the blame game, and that the shooter was the only person responsible for this heinous crime. In other words, he was doing what a decent and good leader does at a time like this; dialing the temperature down, while POTUS is doing the exact opposite.  

    Cox was chair of the National Governors Association when he launched an initiative called Disagree Better. Now an independent nonprofit, Disagree Better uses campaigns, partnerships, and real conversations to show what respectful disagreement looks like in action. It offers tools and resources to build meaningful, constructive dialogue. It also has a toolkit so parents can teach their children these important skills. As the organization’s motto says – democracy is disagreement.  And as I like to say, successful democracy is disagreement without violence.  

    Disagree Better urges people to be curious, not caustic. It teaches people to respect the opinion of others, rather than shout them down. Disagreement is not an act of war, but a way to learn. It isn’t necessarily about being nicer to each other, but it is about finding a way to use disagreement to move toward compromise and solutions to the problems we face as a country.  See President Obama and former House Speaker John Boehner. 

    Today, too much of the discourse around politics is toxic. We talk over and yell at each other. We want to “win” every political argument, no matter the cost.  And social media is not helping, as we are forced to sort through disinformation and distortions in search of the truth. Polarization has become a political strategy, deepening with each day that passes while we have political leaders who paint each other as mortal enemies. 

    This past week I heard a lot of pundits and elected officials saying, “this is not what our country is about,” but that showed a great lack of historical understanding and perspective. The Black community is all too familiar with political violence, domestic terrorism and murder. Historically, our community has experienced a disproportionate amount of all three. Political violence and domestic terrorism have been used to deny us our rights, our dreams, and our economic security. From overt acts of terror, like lynchings, to assassinations like those of Martin Luther King and Medgar Evers, the Black community has been the target of deliberate politically motivated violence and murder for generations.  

    What concerns me is that POTUS and his Cabinet members are pushing us further away from the American ideal and now punishing Americans for expressing their views about this murder.  The American ideal encompasses the rights that we as Americans should enjoy and are enumerated in the Declaration of Independence as – “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” The rights that we have fought wars over, and that our government SHOULD protect. The right to free speech, freedom of expression, and peaceful assembly. The right to question our government. The right to hold a viewpoint different from your neighbor. The right to disagree.  

    The notorious media figure’s views were often provocative, laced with rhetoric that was racist, xenophobic, and misogynistic. His often crude and demeaning insults targeted the most vulnerable among us – immigrants, LGBTQ people, and other marginalized communities. He was not the model for learning to disagree better, but he was utilizing his American right to freedom of speech, and no one should be murdered for exercising their American rights. See Maceo Snipes, 1946. 

    To paraphrase FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, “A single disturbed individual’s inexcusable act of political violence should not justify broader censorship, POTUS’s administration is increasingly using government power to suppress lawful expression.  Giving up the right to speak freely means accepting that those in power, not the people, will define the boundaries of debate in a free society.” 

    Until we learn to disagree better in this country and return to listening to each other, asking questions about how one has arrived at their views, and using disagreement to find solutions, we are only going to remain deeply divided. A majority of the public is clear that they are over the bickering. This is going to take difficult conversations, and we cannot be afraid to have them.   We all need to take the words of Governor Cox to heart and “learn to disagree better.” 

    About Post Author

    Jeremy Allen, Executive Editor

    Jeremy Allen oversees the editorial team at the Michigan Chronicle. To contact him for story ideas or partnership opportunities, send an email to jallen@michronicle.com.

    Jeremy Allen, Executive Editor

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  • Comics artist inspires kids with his Marvel-ous work

    >> NOT ALL HEROES WEAR CAPES. SOME HAVE A PENCIL, TALENT AND A CREATIVE APPROACH TO GET KIDS EXCITED ABOUT MATH. GULF COAST NEWS BRIT SHOWS US HOW IT ALL ADDS UP IN TONIGHT’S STORY TO SHARE. >> AND THEY KNOW WHO THIS GUY IS GOING TO >> INSIDE THE DIMENSIONS OF A HERO IN THE MAKING JERRY TO CARE LIGHTS THE PAGE WITH PASSION. YOU PUT SO MUCH WORK INTO IT. YOU’RE SO GOOD AT IT. NOW THAT IT’S IN ITS COMES TO. SO NATURALLY, IT IS JUST FUND. THAT’S THE POINT YOU WANT TO GET PUT THROUGH MARVEL’S UNIVERSE AND CHANCES ARE YOU’LL MARVEL AT HIS WORK. EXCELLENT FOR WOLVERINE PUNISHER CONE IN NICK FURY, AGENT SHIELD HAWKEYE DEAD POOL. >> EVEN TIME, CAMEOS OF DR. STRANGE IRONMAN. >> WHO ELSE? >> BELIEVE IT OR NOT, HIS DRAWINGS WEREN’T ALWAYS COVER WORD THE THIS BUT BUT I DON’T MEAN TO BUT THIS IS GARBAGE. BUT AFTER 4 YEARS OF STUBBORN, PERSISTENCE AND SKETCHES, HE WAS OFFERED TO DRAW ON X MEN ANNUAL SERIES. AND I SAID THE >> SHE COULD YOU GIVE ME A FANTASTIC 4 INSTEAD AND I’M THE GUY GOES, LISTEN, I’LL GIVE IT TO SOMEBODY ELSE. YOU KNOW, AND I SAID TAKE IT. YOU WITH MORE THAN 10 SUCCESSFUL MARVEL COMICS UNDER HIS BELT, HIS FAVORITE AUDIENCE ISN’T AT COMICON ANYMORE. YOU CAN DROP YOU IN THE CYLINDER FROM PRETTY MUCH YOU KNOW, BELIEVE THAT A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE, YOU CAN IMAGINE YOU CAN DRAW ANYTHING. HIS WORKSHOPS IN SCHOOLS AND PUBLIC LIBRARIES ACROSS AMERICAN MIX. MARVEL WITH MATT. THEY THINK SUPERHEROES A COOL LITTLE THING. MATHIS TO COOL. SO WHEN YOU COMBINE THOSE 2 THAT KIND OF ALL OF A SUDDEN MATHIS KIND OF COOL, WHICH IS WHAT THE MATH TEACHER WANTS FOR THEM. >> WHILE JERRY LOVES DRAWING MUSCLES LIKE THE NEXT COMIC. HIS WORK IS ABOUT STRENGTHENING CONFIDENCE. YOU KNOW SOMETHING TO BE AWARE TO JUST SET YOURSELF APART RIGHT FROM SUPERHEROES TO STUDENTS. HE’S TEACHING NEXT GENERATION THEIR OWN KIND OF SUPERPOWER THAT CAN DO. YOU CAN LOOK REALLY GOOD. AND SO I KN

    Sketching the outlines of a hero in the making, Jerry DeCaire lights the page with passion.”You put so much work into it that you’re so good at it now,” said DeCaire. “And it comes so naturally that it’s just fun, that’s the point you want to get to.”Flip through Marvel’s comics universe, and chances are, you’ll marvel at his work.X-Men, Thor, Wolverine, Dr. Strange, Iron Man — these are just a few comics he’s worked on.Believe it or not, his drawings weren’t always cover-worthy.”He says, ‘Hey buddy, I don’t mean to break your heart, but this is garbage,’” said DeCaire, describing what his mentor, comics legend John Buscema, told him when he was starting out.But four years of stubborn persistence and sketches later, he got an offer to draw an X-Men annual series.Now, with more than 10 successful Marvel comics under his belt, his favorite audience isn’t at Comic-Con anymore.”If you can draw a cube and a cylinder from pretty much any angle you can imagine or perspective you can imagine, you can draw anything,” said DeCaire.His workshops in schools and public libraries across America mix Marvel with math.”They think superheroes are cool. They don’t think math is too cool. So, all of a sudden, math is cool — which is what the teacher wants,” said Jerry.While DeCaire loves drawing muscles like the next comics artist, his work is about strengthening confidence.”Sometimes just being weird and setting yourself apart, right?” said DeCaire.

    Sketching the outlines of a hero in the making, Jerry DeCaire lights the page with passion.

    “You put so much work into it that you’re so good at it now,” said DeCaire. “And it comes so naturally that it’s just fun, that’s the point you want to get to.”

    Flip through Marvel’s comics universe, and chances are, you’ll marvel at his work.

    X-Men, Thor, Wolverine, Dr. Strange, Iron Man — these are just a few comics he’s worked on.

    Believe it or not, his drawings weren’t always cover-worthy.

    “He says, ‘Hey buddy, I don’t mean to break your heart, but this is garbage,’” said DeCaire, describing what his mentor, comics legend John Buscema, told him when he was starting out.

    But four years of stubborn persistence and sketches later, he got an offer to draw an X-Men annual series.

    Now, with more than 10 successful Marvel comics under his belt, his favorite audience isn’t at Comic-Con anymore.

    “If you can draw a cube and a cylinder from pretty much any angle you can imagine or perspective you can imagine, you can draw anything,” said DeCaire.

    His workshops in schools and public libraries across America mix Marvel with math.

    “They think superheroes are cool. They don’t think math is too cool. So, all of a sudden, math is cool — which is what the teacher wants,” said Jerry.

    While DeCaire loves drawing muscles like the next comics artist, his work is about strengthening confidence.

    “Sometimes just being weird and setting yourself apart, right?” said DeCaire.

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  • Commentary: Wake up, Los Angeles. We are all Jimmy Kimmel

    Comics have long been on the front lines of democracy, the canary in the cat’s mouth, Looney Tunes style, when it comes to free speech being swallowed by regressive politics.

    So Jimmy Kimmel is in good company, though he may not like this particular historical party: Zero Mostel; Philip Loeb; even Lenny Bruce, who claimed, after being watched by the FBI and backroom blacklisted, that he was less a comic and more “the surgeon with the scalpel for false values.”

    During that era of McCarthyism in the 1950s (yes, I know Bruce’s troubles came later), America endured an attack on our 1st Amendment right to make fun of who we want, how we want — and survived — though careers and even lives were lost.

    Maybe we aren’t yet at the point of a new House Un-American Activities Committee, but the moment is feeling grim.

    Wake up, Los Angeles. This isn’t a Jimmy Kimmel problem. This is a Los Angeles problem.

    This is about punishing people who speak out. It’s about silencing dissent. It’s about misusing government power to go after enemies. You don’t need to agree with Kimmel’s politics to see where this is going.

    For a while, during Trump 2.0, the ire of the right was aimed at California in general and San Francisco in particular, that historical lefty bastion that, with its drug culture, openly LBGTQ+ ethos and Pelosi-Newsom political dynasty, seemed to make it the perfect example of what some consider society’s failures.

    But really, the difficulty with hating San Francisco is that it doesn’t care. It’s a city that has long acknowledged, even flaunted, America’s discomfort with it. That’s why the infamous newspaper columnist Herb Caen dubbed it “Baghdad by the Bay” more than 80 years ago, when the town had already fully embraced its outsider status.

    Los Angeles, on the other hand, has never considered itself a problem. Mostly, we’re too caught up in our own lives, through survival or striving, to think about what others think of our messy, vibrant, complicated city. Add to that, Angelenos don’t often think of themselves as a singular identity. There are a million different L.A.s for the more than 9 million people who live in our sprawling county.

    But to the rest of America, L.A. is increasingly a specific reality, a place that, like San Francisco once did, embodies all that is wrong for a certain slice of the American right.

    It was not happenstance that President Trump chose L.A. as the first stop for his National Guard tour, or that ICE’s roving patrols are on our streets. It’s not bad luck or even bad decisions that is driving the push to destroy UCLA as we know it.

    And it’s really not what Kimmel said about Charlie Kirk that got him pulled, because it truth, his statements were far from the most offensive that have been uttered on either side of the political spectrum.

    In fact, he wasn’t talking about Kirk, but about his alleged killer and how in the immediate aftermath, there was endless speculation about his political beliefs. Turns out that Kimmel wrongly insinuated the suspect was conservative, though all of us will likely have to wait until the trial to gain a full understanding of the evidence.

    “The MAGA gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said, before making fun of Trump’s response to the horrific killing.

    You can support what Kimmel said or be deeply offended by it. But it is rich for the people who just a few years ago were saying liberal “cancel culture” was ruining America to adopt the same tactics.

    If you need proof that this is more about control than content, look no further than Trump’s social media post on the issue, which directly encourages NBC to fire its own late-night hosts, who have made their share of digs at the president as well.

    “Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!” Trump wrote.

    This is about making an example of America’s most vibrant and inclusive city, and the celebrity icons who dare to diss — the place that exemplifies better than any other what freedom looks like, lives like, jokes like.

    If a Kimmel can fall so easily, what does that mean the career of Hannah Einbinder, who shouted out a “free Palestine” at the Emmys? Will there be a quiet fear of hiring her?

    What does it mean for a union leader like David Huerta, who is still facing charges after being detained at an immigration protest? Will people think twice before joining a demonstration?

    What does it mean for you? The yous who live lives of expansiveness and inclusion. The yous who have forged your own path, made your own way, broken the boundaries of traditional society whether through your choices on who to love, what country to call your own, how to think of your identity or nurture your soul.

    You, Los Angeles, with your California dreams and anything-goes attitude, are the living embodiment of everything that needs to be crushed.

    I am not trying to send you into an anxiety spiral, but it’s important to understand what we stand to lose if civil rights continue to erode.

    Kimmel having his speech censored is in league with our immigrant neighbors being rounded up and detained; the federal government financially pressuring doctors into dropping care for transgender patients, and the University of California being forced to turn over the names of staff and students it may have a beef with.

    Being swept up by ICE may seem vastly different than a millionaire celebrity losing his show, but they are all the weaponization of government against its people.

    It was Disney, not Donald Trump, who took action against Kimmel. But Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr threatening to “take action” if ABC did not sounds a lot like the way the White House talks about Washington, Oakland and so many other blue cities, L.A. at the top of the list.

    Our Black mayor. Our Latino senator and representatives. Our 1 million undocumented residents. Our nearly 10% of the adult population identifies as LGBTQ+. Our comics, musicians, actors and writers who have long pushed us to see the world in new, often difficult, ways.

    Many of us are here because other places didn’t want us, didn’t understand us, tried to hold us back. (I am in Sacramento now, but remain an Angeleno at heart.) We came here, to California and Los Angeles, for the protection this state and city offers.

    But now it needs our protection.

    However this assault on democracy comes, we are all Jimmy Kimmel — we are all at risk. The very nature of this place is under siege, and standing together across the many fronts of these attacks is our best defense.

    Seeing that they are all one attack — whether it is against a celebrity, a car wash worker or our entire city — is critical.

    “Our democracy is not self-executing,” former President Obama said recently. “It depends on us all as citizens, regardless of our political affiliations, to stand up and fight for the core values that have made this country the envy of the world.”

    So here we are, L.A., in a moment that requires fortitude, requires insight, requires us to stand up and say the most ridiculous thing that has every been said in a town full of absurdity:

    I am Jimmy Kimmel, and I will not be silent.

    Anita Chabria

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  • Road tripper hits roadblock on deserted Nevada highway—culprits go viral

    A woman was on a road trip when she was stopped by an unexpected roadside attraction: a herd of wild donkeys.

    Lin, who posts to TikTok under the username @infinitebbt, took the trip earlier this year as she drove from California to Nevada, and made some unusual friends on the way.

    In a video posted on August 17, Lin described what happened when “your road trip gets interrupted by the most unexpected roadblock.”

    It begins with her car’s alert system warning her about several blockages around her car—and then pans to the window, where two donkeys are watching her.

    Multiple donkeys crowd around the car, gazing in the window and interacting with each other. At one point, she shows two more donkeys standing right in the middle of the road.

    “Wild burros,” she captioned the video. “They just wanted to say hi!”

    Burros are a smaller, wild version of a donkey, and can be found in Nevada on a territory tens of thousands of acres wide, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. They are believed to have entered the United States in the 1500s, where, over centuries, domestic stock eventually became wild due to escape and abandonment.

    A reply to a comment from Lin under a subsequent video confirms she was driving in Nevada when she encountered the scene.

    TikTok users were fascinated by the video, which has more than 5.2 million likes and a whopping 20 million views.

    “I love donkeys so much man,” one happy commenter wrote, as another described them as “nosey” and one declared: “They’re so CUTE.”

    “I was expecting a buffalo or something, but the donkeys were an interesting surprise,” another laughed, while one joked about the alert at the start of the video: “I love how the screen makes it look like an active attack.”

    And as another admitted: “Why did I think there were zombies attacking the car?”

    The alert on Lin’s car.

    TikTok @infinitebbt

    The Bureau of Land Management of Nevada advises never to approach or feed wild burros or wild horses. Feeding them is illegal, and can also cause the animals to become habituated, expecting humans to have food for them, which is a risk for both the animals and humans.

    In a comment on her video, Lin said she wondered whether the burros approached the car in search of snacks, “but we knew not to feed them.”

    Newsweek has contacted @infinitebbt via TikTok for comment on this story.

    Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.

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  • All the celebrity red-carpet looks at the 2025 Emmy Awards

    All the celebrity red-carpet looks at the 2025 Emmy Awards

    TV’s biggest night is always one of the starriest red carpets of the year

    Have you watched all the shows? I’ve seen *** lot of commercials of the show. If you’re like Emmy host Nate Bargetzy and haven’t seen all the nominated shows, well, you might still watch the Emmy Awards for this. You’re making *** $100,000 donation to the Boys and Girls Club of America, which is amazing that you’re doing that, but there’s *** catch. Bargetzi says for every Emmy winner’s acceptance speech that exceeds the allotted 45 seconds. And Perfect choice of music. The donation shrinks by $1000 per second. Ouch, deposit too. If they go under, we will put money on top of it. So I would prefer them not all go that under because that can get pretty expensive and the amount of money I give the Boys and Girls Club is totally up to all of Hollywood. Either way, Bargetsi can afford it. He’s currently Billboard’s number one selling stand-up comic in America. His tour grossed more than $80 million last year alone. For his first Hollywood hosting gig. He’s getting advice from veterans like Nicki Glazer, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, and Conan O’Brien. They’re all just kind of like, you just got to be you and trust that you know what you’re doing. Fortunate to learn that in other settings and so I don’t have to hopefully not learn it, you know, in front of Harrison Ford, right? Bargetsi says, sure, he’ll joke. About Hollywood, but in his trademark polite style like the cancellation of nominee Stephen Colbert’s late night show. Is that off limits, or are you going to address it? I think we’ll say something, but it’ll be done in *** fun, playful way. That family friendly comedic style has helped the Tennessee native gain wide appeal in an era where comedy often divides audiences. Barhetsi met his wife while working at Applebee’s. Welcome. And his daughter introduces him in many of his shows. His father was *** magician and *** clown. I have to ask, did you have *** fear of clowns growing up, because *** lot of kids do. I had *** joke about like I would say, have you ever been yelled at by *** clown because I have. And it’s pretty confusing to get yelled at by *** guy that’s got *** smile painted on his face. Bargetsi doesn’t fear the Emmy stage. In fact, this star can’t wait to be starstruck. Who are you excited to see? Ben Stiller? I’m excited to see. Well, Severance has the most nominations, so you will definitely meet Ben Stiller. We should cross paths, yes.

    All the celebrity red-carpet looks at the 2025 Emmy Awards

    TV’s biggest night is always one of the starriest red carpets of the year

    Updated: 3:55 PM PDT Sep 14, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    TV’s biggest night is back. The 77th annual Primetime Emmy Awards are here, and we’re rounding up all the looks as Hollywood’s biggest stars hit the red carpet at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

    Tonight, Apple TV+’s “Severance” leads the pack with a whopping 27 nominations, followed by The Penguin with 24 nods, “The White Lotus” and “The Studio” with 23 and “The Last of Us” with 16 nominations.

    Comedian Nate Bargatze will serve as host, with a few starry figures set to present, including Jenna Ortega and Hunter Schafer. Meanwhile, Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen will be honored with the prestigious Bob Hope Humanitarian Award, while there are plenty of A-list nominees, from Jean Smart and Kathy Bates to Adam Brody and Jake Gyllenhaal.

    Ahead, we’ve rounded up all the red-carpet looks from the 2025 Primetime Emmy Awards. Keep checking back throughout the night as we update with more looks.

    5

    Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor

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  • Trump suggests authorities have apprehended Charlie Kirk shooting suspect

    OREM, Utah — President Donald Trump said Friday that he believes “with a high degree of certainty” that authorities have apprehended a suspect in the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

    “I think with a high degree of certainty we have him in custody,” Trump said during an appearance on Fox & Friends, noting that someone “very close to him turned him in.”

    Trump praised local and state officials for their work tracking down the suspect who was captured on video on the rooftop of a Utah Vallery University building after Kirk was killed after being struck in the neck with one single shot.

    “Everybody did a great job, you know,” the President said. “You start off with absolutely nothing, and we started off with a cliff that made him look like an ant, that was almost useless. We just saw there was somebody up there. And so much work has been done over the last two and a half days.”

    Trump said he hoped the suspect would be found guilty and get the death penalty.

    “What he did, Charlie Kirk, he was the finest person that, he didn’t deserve this.”

    State and federal officials have scheduled a news conference for 6 a.m. Pacific time.

    Trump’s claims came the morning after Utah authorities pleaded for the public’s help in identifying the gunman and released new video of a suspect in dark clothing lying face-down on the corner of a roof at Utah Valley University. He then ran across the roof and jumped off of it, using his hands to lower himself over the edge.

    Beau Mason, the head of Utah’s Department Public Safety, said in a TV interview Thursday night on MSNBC that “we’re exploring leads for individuals out of state and individuals that live close by.” We literally have persons of interest, tips coming in on the tip line that are spanning far, far and wide.”

    Beau Mason, commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, said investigators were chasing several leads after the suspect left palm impressions and smudges on the roof that they hoped would allow them to collect DNA. He also left a shoe imprint officials believe is from a Converse tennis shoe.

    Law enforcement is circulating the video as well as photos of the suspect — who was last seen wearing blue jeans, a baseball cap, gray Converse shoes and a long-sleeved black T-shirt that appeared to show an American flag and an eagle. Anyone with information is encouraged to come forward.

    Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Thursday night they hoped the images and video would get as much attention as possible to help investigators capture “this evil human being.”

    “We are going to catch this person,” Cox said, noting that he had worked with attorneys to get affidavits ready “so that we can pursue the death penalty in this case.”

    With pressure building on authorities, the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, took the unusual step Thursday of flying to Utah. But he did not speak at the news conference.

    More than 7,000 tips have been submitted to the FBI, according to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. But on Thursday evening Beau Mason, commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, told MSNBC that authorities still “have no idea” where Kirk’s killer is.

    The suspected murder weapon, a high-powered bolt-action rifle, was recovered in a wooded area near a parking lot, said Robert Bohls, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Salt Lake City office. Mason said the suspect was seen running to that area after getting down from the roof.

    Kirk was afervant conservative and enormously influential figure in American politics, with a combined 25.6 million followers across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.

    A provocative figure, Kirk was known for challenging left-wing orthodoxies on college campuses and clung strongly to his Christian faith, arguing that there should be no division between church and state in America.

    Kirk’s assassination sparked fierce backlash from conservative leaders, including President Trump, who blamed the rhetoric of the “radical left” for his death. On Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance traveled from Utah to Phoenix aboard Air Force Two with Kirk’s family to bring the activist’s casket home.

    On Thursday evening, hundreds gathered in a park in Orem, Utah, to remember and honor Kirk.

    • Share via

    The multi-generational crowd held American flags, pushed children in strollers and donned “Make America Great Again” hats while they prayed and sang together.

    “Come together in light,” Mayor David Young said to the crowd. “Violence has no place here.”

    The mourners sang along to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” and participated in a group prayer.

    “This is the healing that we needed,” said Klea Harris, whose children helped organize the event.

    More than a hundred people lined up with flowers, candles and flags, waiting for their turn to place them before a memorial that centered on a larger-than-life photo of Kirk.

    “It’s important that we don’t turn on each other in this moment,” said Jason Preston, a conservative podcast host. He received rousing applause when he told the crowd: “This is not a battle of right versus left, this is a battle of good versus evil.”

    Earlier in the day, young conservatives gathered on campus, hanging red banners in honor of Kirk’s Republican ideology and carrying posters with phrases such as “We are not afraid” and “Charlie Kirk, American hero.”

    “I think this kind of woke a sleeping giant,” said UVU student Jillian Green, 20. “People are outraged and very upset that he [was killed] when he was advocating for so many of us.”

    Koby Herrera, a fellow student at the university, also felt that the death could mark a shift in political history, noting that it could further raise Kirk’s influence.

    “He had a voice, and I feel like his voice is bigger now that he’s in the grave,” said Herrera, 22.

    Kirk held huge sway over young Republicans, and key members of the Trump administration credited him with helping them secure the GOP’s 2024 electoral victory.

    Grace Toohey, Clara Harter, Jenny Jarvie

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  • ‘Disgusting, vile’: Leaders across the political spectrum react to fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk

    Politicians and leaders are reacting to the fatal shooting of political activist Charlie Kirk during a speaking event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.Kirk, the 31-year-old co-founder and CEO of the youth organization Turning Point USA, is the latest victim of political violence across the United States.”The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” President Donald Trump posted on social media platform Truth Social. “He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”On X, Vice President JD Vance posted a screenshot of Trump’s post and added, “Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.”Former President Barack Obama responded on X as well, saying, “We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.”Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said on X that he was being briefed. He later posted a tribute to Kirk, saying, “This murder was a cowardly act of violence, an attack on champions of freedom like Charlie, the students who gathered for civil debate, and all Americans who peacefully strive to save our nation.””The terrorists will not win. Charlie will,” he added.During a press conference at 6:30 p.m., he called it a “political assassination,” saying it is a “tragic day for our nation.”In Washington, Utah Sen. John Curtis told reporters, “This is my backyard. This is very, very personal because of that, and leaves a scar.”Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote on social media, “Once again, a bullet has silenced the most eloquent truth teller of an era.” He called Kirk a “relentless and courageous crusader for free speech.”Democratic politicians reactAfter the shooting but before Kirk’s death was confirmed, California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X, “The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form.”On the same platform, Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker wrote that political violence “should never become the norm.” Also among the leaders reacting was Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker whose husband was seriously injured at their California home in 2022 by a man wielding a hammer, who authorities said was a believer in conspiracy theories.Pelosi, a Democrat, posted that “the horrific shooting today at Utah Valley University is reprehensible. Political violence has absolutely no place in our nation.”Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat and potential national candidate, has firsthand experience with political violence. He and his family were evacuated from the governor’s mansion earlier this year after a man broke into the building and set a fire that caused significant damage.“We must speak with moral clarity,” Shapiro wrote on X. “The attack on Charlie Kirk is horrifying and this growing type of unconscionable violence cannot be allowed in our society.”Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey wrote on X, “Violence has no place in our politics — ever. What happened to Charlie Kirk is horrific and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms. The growth of political violence in our country must be stopped.”State politicians across the country have condemned the killing and the rise of political violence.The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Politicians and leaders are reacting to the fatal shooting of political activist Charlie Kirk during a speaking event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.

    Kirk, the 31-year-old co-founder and CEO of the youth organization Turning Point USA, is the latest victim of political violence across the United States.

    “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” President Donald Trump posted on social media platform Truth Social. “He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”

    On X, Vice President JD Vance posted a screenshot of Trump’s post and added, “Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.”

    Former President Barack Obama responded on X as well, saying, “We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.”

    Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said on X that he was being briefed. He later posted a tribute to Kirk, saying, “This murder was a cowardly act of violence, an attack on champions of freedom like Charlie, the students who gathered for civil debate, and all Americans who peacefully strive to save our nation.”

    “The terrorists will not win. Charlie will,” he added.

    During a press conference at 6:30 p.m., he called it a “political assassination,” saying it is a “tragic day for our nation.”

    In Washington, Utah Sen. John Curtis told reporters, “This is my backyard. This is very, very personal because of that, and leaves a scar.”

    Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote on social media, “Once again, a bullet has silenced the most eloquent truth teller of an era.” He called Kirk a “relentless and courageous crusader for free speech.”

    Democratic politicians react

    After the shooting but before Kirk’s death was confirmed, California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X, “The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form.”

    On the same platform, Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker wrote that political violence “should never become the norm.”

    Also among the leaders reacting was Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker whose husband was seriously injured at their California home in 2022 by a man wielding a hammer, who authorities said was a believer in conspiracy theories.

    Pelosi, a Democrat, posted that “the horrific shooting today at Utah Valley University is reprehensible. Political violence has absolutely no place in our nation.”

    Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat and potential national candidate, has firsthand experience with political violence. He and his family were evacuated from the governor’s mansion earlier this year after a man broke into the building and set a fire that caused significant damage.

    “We must speak with moral clarity,” Shapiro wrote on X. “The attack on Charlie Kirk is horrifying and this growing type of unconscionable violence cannot be allowed in our society.”

    Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey wrote on X, “Violence has no place in our politics — ever. What happened to Charlie Kirk is horrific and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms. The growth of political violence in our country must be stopped.”

    State politicians across the country have condemned the killing and the rise of political violence.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Leaders across the political spectrum denounce Charlie Kirk shooting, political violence

    WASHINGTON — The Trump administration and the conservative movement were stunned Wednesday by the shooting of Charlie Kirk, a disruptive leader in GOP politics who accomplished what was once thought a pipe dream, expanding Republican ranks among America’s youth.

    Inside the White House, senior officials that had worked closely alongside Kirk throughout much of their careers reacted with shock. It was a moment of political violence reminiscent of the repeated attempts on Donald Trump’s life during the 2024 presidential campaign, one official told The Times.

    “We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!”

    Kirk, a founder of Turning Point USA, was instrumental in recruiting young Americans on college campuses to GOP voter rolls, making himself an indispensable part of Republican campaigns down ballot across the country. That mission made his shooting on a college campus in Utah all the more poignant to his friends and allies, who reacted with dismay at videos of the shooting circulating online.

    His impact, helping to increase support among 18- to 24-year-old voters for Republican candidates by double-digit margins in just four years, has been credited by Republican operatives as driving the party’s victories last year, allowing the GOP to retake the House, Senate and the presidency.

    Democrats have recognized his prowess, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom hosting him on his podcast earlier this year in an appeal to young, predominantly male voters lost by the Democrats in recent years.

    “The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form,” Newsom said on X in response to the news.

    As videos of the shooting circulated online, a number of prominent Republicans, including senior members of the Trump administration, reacted to the news by asking the public to pray for the young activist.

    “Say a prayer for Charlie Kirk, a genuinely good guy and a young father,” Vice President JD Vance said in a post on X.

    Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said federal agents were at the scene of the shooting in Utah. FBI Director Kash Patel added the FBI will be helping with the investigation.

    Wilner reported from Washington, Ceballos from Tallahassee, Fla.

    Ana Ceballos, Michael Wilner

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  • Hyundai ICE raid in Georgia leaves Asian executives shaken by Trump’s mixed signals

    SEOUL — The immigration raid that snatched up hundreds of South Koreans last week sent a disconcerting message to companies in South Korea and elsewhere: America wants your investment, but don’t expect special treatment.

    Images of employees being shackled and detained like criminals have outraged many South Koreans. The fallout is already being felt in delays to some big investment projects, auto industry executives and analysts said. Some predicted that it could also make some companies think twice about investing in the U.S. at all.

    “Companies cannot afford to not be more cautious about investing in the U.S. in the future,” said Lee Ho-guen, an auto industry expert at Daeduk University, “In the long run, especially if things get worse, this could make car companies turn away from the U.S. market and more toward other places like Latin America, Europe or the Middle East.”

    The raid last week, in which more than 300 South Korean nationals were detained, targeted a factory site in Ellabell, Ga., owned by HL-GA Battery Co., a joint venture between Hyundai and South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solutions to supply batteries for electric vehicles. The Georgia factory also is expected to supply batteries for Kia, which is part of the Hyundai Motor Group. Kia has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on its factory in West Point, Ga.

    “This situation highlights the competing policy priorities of the Trump administration and has many in Asia scratching their heads, asking, ‘Which is more important to America? Immigration raids or attracting high-quality foreign investment?’” said Tami Overby, former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea. “Images of hundreds of Korean workers being treated like criminals are playing all over Asia and don’t match President Trump’s vision to bring high-quality, advanced manufacturing back to America.”

    A protester wears a mask of President Trump at a rally Tuesday in Seoul against the detention of South Korean workers in Georgia. The signs call for “immediate releases and Trump apology.”

    (Ahn Young-joon / Associated Press)

    South Korea is one of the U.S.’ biggest trading partners, with the two countries exchanging $242.5 billion in goods and services last year. The U.S. is the leading destination for South Korea’s overseas investments, receiving $26 billion last year, according to South Korea’s Finance Ministry.

    Trump is banking on ambitious projects like the one raided in Georgia to revive American manufacturing.

    Hyundai is one of the South Korean companies with the largest commitments to the U.S. It has invested about $20 billion since entering the market in the 1980s. It sold 836,802 vehicles in the U.S. last year.

    California is one of its largest markets, with more than 70 dealerships.

    Earlier this year, the company announced an additional $26 billion to build a new steel mill in Louisiana and upgrade its existing auto plants.

    Hyundai’s expansion plans were part of the $150-billion pledge that South Korea made last month to help persuade Trump to set tariffs on Korean products at 15% instead of the 25% he had earlier announced.

    Samsung Electronics announced that it would invest $37 billion to construct a semiconductor factory in Texas. Similarly large sums are expected from South Korean shipbuilders.

    Analysts and executives say the recent raid is making companies feel exposed, all the more so because U.S. officials have indicated that more crackdowns are coming.

    “We’re going to do more worksite enforcement operations,” White House border advisor Tom Homan said Sunday. “No one hires an illegal alien out of the goodness of their heart. They hire them because they can work them harder, pay them less, undercut the competition that hires U.S. citizen employees.”

    Many South Korean companies have banned all work-related travel to the U.S. or are recalling personnel already there, according to local media reports. Construction work on at least 22 U.S. factory sites has reportedly been halted.

    The newspaper Korea Economic Daily reported Monday that 10 out of the 14 companies it contacted said they were considering adjusting their projects in the U.S. due to the Georgia raid.

    It is a significant problem for the big planned projects, analysts say. South Korean companies involved in U.S. manufacturing projects say they need to bring their own engineering teams to get the factories up and running, but obtaining proper work visas for them is difficult and time-consuming. The option often used to get around this problem is an illegal shortcut like using the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or ESTA, a nonwork permit that allows tourists to stay in the country for up to 90 days.

    Unlike countries such as Singapore or Mexico, South Korea doesn’t have a deal with Washington that guarantees work visas for specialized workers.

    “The U.S. keeps calling for more investments into the country. But no matter how many people we end up hiring locally later, there is no way around bringing in South Korean experts to get things off the ground,” said a manager at a subcontractor for LG Energy Solution who asked not to be named. “But now we can no longer use ESTAs like we did in the past.”

    Trump pointed to the problem on his social media platform, posting that he will try to make it easier for South Korean companies to bring in the people they need, but reminding them to “please respect our Nation’s Immigration Laws.”

    “Your Investments are welcome, and we encourage you to LEGALLY bring your very smart people … and we will make it quickly and legally possible for you to do so,” the post said.

    Sydney Seiler, senior advisor and Korea chair at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that the timing of the raids was an “irritant” but that South Korean companies eventually would adjust.

    “Rectifying that is a challenge for all involved, the companies, the embassies who issue visas, etc.,” Seiler said, adding that the raids will make other companies be more careful in the future.

    Max Kim, Nilesh Christopher

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  • Our democratic form of government will not survive if we remain silent

    (Rustic/iStock Images)

    What will it take to wake us up to protect and fight for our democratic form of government with all its imperfections and the way of life it provides? It has not survived thus far without courageous voices defending it.

    It will neither survive today nor move forward without our courageous voices.

    Let us keep in mind that America is an infant compared to many countries.

    Next year we will be celebrating 250 years of this country’s unique existence. What will we be celebrating?

    America’s strength, when challenged, has been in her people’s ability to put aside their selfish needs and interests and come together, fight and even die for the values and way of life that have set this country apart.

    Historically, this has been the case whether the threat was from external or internal adversaries.

    Whether it was entering World War I to make the world safe for democracy, or World War II in the fight against fascism, or even back to our own Civil War, courageous people came together for a greater cause.

    There have been many other threats to our democracy since this nation’s founding. But the people stood and fought for the fundamental principles and what they believed was  good about democracy and the way of life it provides.

    Fast forward to today. We are confronted by a different kind of assault against our democratic form of government.

    It is both an internal and external threat playing out at the same time for all to see.

    Within our borders, in a barrage of rapid fire, we are at once confronted with major challenges of how we should continue to function as a democratic republic. Simultaneously, we see long-standing agreements undone and radical shifts in how we relate to other countries.

    On the world stage, there are signs that America’s allies and foes alike are wondering what America stands for as they encounter and endure a whiplash of positions caused by policies and actions changing almost on a daily or weekly basis.

    Here at home, efforts are afoot at the local, state and federal level to eliminate, nullify and render impotent the bedrock of our democratic form of government: the constitution where the will and power of the people as expressed in elections and adherence to the rule of law are inherent.

    Many of those efforts did not begin recently.

    Look at the fundamental right of voting. In recent years, many states have pursued and implemented measures to make it difficult for long-standing citizens to cast a vote.

    Today, at the federal level, the executive branch is seeking to change by edict how we cast our vote, eliminating some ways altogether rather than making exercising the vote more accessible.

    Such efforts can only result in disenfranchising and silencing many legitimate and deserving citizens voices.

    It does not stop there.

    Look at what is happening in states calling special legislative sessions to change Congressional districts simply to influence the distribution of partisan political power, with utter disregard for whose voting power they minimize or totally silence.

    It is happening in Missouri and other states.

    There is more.

    In Missouri, while the legislature has returned for a special session to redraw districts mid-census to control the balance of power in Washington, they are also going to try to pass legislation to make direct participation in the democratic process more difficulty by setting higher hurdles for a petition initiative to pass.

    So, what are we to do?

    Nothing?

    There is an adage worth remembering: If you don’t use it, you lose it.

    While often issued as a warning to maintain optimum body functions and usefulness through regular and rigorous exercises, it also applies to other areas.

    As in physical health and relationships, it seems particularly apropos to exercising our individual rights to maintain, protect and preserve our democracy.

    We can complain about what our elected representatives are doing or not doing to uphold our state and U.S constitutions, to uphold the rule of law, to represent, protect and advance our interests.

    We can complain about their cowardice, their repeated propensity to put their selfish interests ahead of their constituents, but why are they comfortable doing it time after  time, during election term after election term?

    Because we are not using the powers invested in us. More importantly, we are at risk of losing them.

    We cannot afford to continue to embrace a sedentary political life, characterized by silence, inaction where we allow others — our own elected officials or outsiders to dictate what goes on in our state, how the public process and decisions are determined without input or oversight.

    We must use and exercise our political power to ensure a political process that makes decisions that are in our best interests.

    Vigilance. Resistance. Resilience.

    This is what is required of us now to make sure that our democratic form of government prevails.

    Lest we lose it.

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  • After militarizing U.S. streets, Trump turns guns on the drug trade

    WASHINGTON — The F-35 is the most advanced fighter jet on the planet, capable of waging electronic warfare, of dropping nuclear weapons, of evading the surveillance and missile defenses of America’s most fearsome enemies at supersonic speeds.

    Ten of them are being deployed by a newly branded War Department to Puerto Rico to combat drug traffickers in dinghies.

    It is the latest example of the Trump administration using disproportionate military force to supplement, or substitute for, traditional law enforcement operations — first at home on the streets of U.S. cities and now overseas, where the president has labeled multiple drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and has vowed a “tough” response.

    On Tuesday, that response began with an inaugural “kinetic strike” targeting a small vessel in the Caribbean allegedly carrying narcotics and 11 members of Tren de Aragua, one of the Venezuelan gangs President Trump has designated a terrorist group. Legally designating a gang or cartel as a terrorist entity ostensibly gives the president greater legal cover to conduct lethal strikes on targets.

    The operation follows Trump’s deployment of U.S. forces to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., for operations with dubious justifications, as well as threats of similar actions in San Francisco, Chicago and New Orleans, moves that a federal judge said last week amount to Trump “creating a national police force with the President as its chief.”

    Trump has referred to both problems — urban crime and drug trafficking — as interlinked and out of control. But U.S. service members have no training in local law or drug enforcement. And experts question a strategy that has been tried before, both by the United States and regional governments, of launching a war against drugs only to drive leaders in the trade to militarize themselves.

    U.S. drug policy “has always been semi-militarized,” said Jeremy Adelman, director of the Global History Lab at Princeton University. Trump’s latest actions simply make more explicit the erasure of a line “that separates law enforcement from warfare.”

    “One side effect of all this is that other countries are watching,” Adelman said. “By turning law enforcement over to the military — as the White House is also doing domestically — what’s to stop other countries from doing the same in international waters?

    “Fishermen in the South China Sea should be worried,” he added.

    The Trump administration has not provided further details on the 11 people killed in the boat strike. But officials said the departure of a drug vessel from Venezuela makes Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s dictatorial president labeled by the White House as a top drug kingpin, indirectly responsible.

    “Let there be no doubt, Nicolás Maduro is an indicted drug trafficker in the United States, and he’s a fugitive of American justice,” Marco Rubio, Trump’s secretary of State and national security advisor, said on a tour of the region Thursday, citing a grand jury indictment in the Southern District of New York.

    U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a news conference Wednesday in Mexico City.

    (Hector Vivas / Getty Images)

    The president’s war on drug cartels will continue, Rubio said, adding that regional governments “will help us find these people and blow them up.”

    Maduro has warned the strike indicates that Washington seeks regime change in Caracas. The Venezuelan military flew two aircraft near a U.S. vessel in international waters Thursday night, prompting an angry response from Pentagon officials and Trump to direct his Defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, to “do what you want to do” in response.

    “Despite how dangerous this performance could be, because of its political consequences, it can’t be taken seriously as a drug policy,” said Lina Britto, an expert on Latin America and the Caribbean at Northwestern University with a focus on the history of the drug trade. “It lacks rigorousness in the analysis of how drug trafficking operates in the hemisphere.”

    Most drugs entering the U.S. homeland from South America arrive in shipping containers, submarines and more efficient modes of transportation than speedboats — and primarily come through the Pacific, not the Caribbean, Britto said.

    Trump has flirted with military strikes on drug cartels since the start of his second term, working with Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, to coordinate drone strikes over Mexican territory for surveillance of cartel activity.

    But Sheinbaum has ruled out the use of force against cartels, or the deployment of U.S. forces within Mexico to combat them, warning that U.S. military action would violate Mexican sovereignty and upend collaboration between the two close-knit trade and security partners.

    Girls walk in front of a politically charged mural near the Bolivar Square in the center of Caracas, Venezuela

    Girls walk in front of a politically charged mural near the Bolivar Square in the center of Caracas, Venezuela, on Aug. 25. The Iranian Forest vessel depicted in the right side of the mural arrived in Venezuela during fuel shortages in 2020.

    (Andrea Hernández Briceño / For The Times)

    In comparison, Venezuela offers Trump a cleaner opportunity to test the use of force against drug cartels, with diplomatic ties between the two governments at a nadir. But a war with Maduro over drugs could create unexpected problems for the Trump administration, setting off a rare military conflict in a placid region and fueling further instability in a country that, over the last decade, already set off the world’s largest refugee crisis.

    Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program and head of the Future of Venezuela Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that Trump’s use of foreign terrorist designations changes the rules of engagement in ways that allow for action “where law enforcement solutions failed in the past.”

    “What we are witnessing is a paradigm shift in real time,” Berg said. “Many of Latin America’s most significant criminal organizations are now designated foreign terrorist organizations. The administration is demonstrating that this is not only rhetorical.”

    But Paul Gootenberg, a professor at Stony Brook University and author of “Andean Cocaine: The Making of a Global Drug,” characterized Trump’s military operation as a “simplistic” approach to complex social problems.

    “This is more a performative attack on the Venezuelan regime than a serious attempt at drug policy,” Gootenberg said.

    “Militarized drug policy is nothing new — it was tried and intensified in various ways from the mid-1980s through 2000s, oftentimes under U.S. Southern Command,” he added. “The whole range and levels of ‘war on drugs’ was a long, unmitigated policy failure, according to the vast, vast majority of drug experts.”

    Times staff writer Ana Ceballos contributed to this report.

    Michael Wilner

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