GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna deletes social media posts featuring Russian fighter jets

ALSO READ: Trump's latest move delights Neo-Nazis: 'It's a win for us'

The office of Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) deleted two of the congresswoman’s social media posts after Raw Story reported that the airplane silhouettes used in her happy birthday message to the U.S. Air Force were actually Russian fighter jets.

“Happy Birthday United States Air Force! As an Air Force Veteran myself, I’m especially thankful for everything I learned while serving in this incredible branch of our Armed Forces,” Luna, an influencer on Instagram before being elected to Congress last year, wrote on her posts.

RELATED ARTICLE: Republican congresswoman used Russian fighter jet images in salute to U.S. Air Force

Rob Young, historian for the National Air and Space Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, said the jets were a model developed in the old Soviet Union that evolved over the years and are still in use.

An image of a Sept. 18, 2023, Instagram post — now deleted — from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL). Instagram

“As I examine them, the silhouettes look most like MiG-29s,” Young said.

Multiple messages from Raw Story to Luna’s office before publication were not returned.

Late Tuesday night, Edie Heipel, Luna’s communications director, sent a response via email.

“This post was published without approval from me as the comms director, via a junior staffer,” Heipel wrote. “Rep. Luna is a US Air Force veteran who worked in airfield management and her husband is a Bronze Star/Purple Heart Combat Controller. To suggest she doesn’t know the difference between American and Russian fighter jets is asinine.”

The posts had been online since Sept. 18.

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Republican lawmaker spills details on underground Trump resistance network within GOP

There is a silent GOP resistance with congress, according to a Republican lawmaker who says six to a dozen colleagues privately admitted they'd defy Donald Trump under certain circumstances.

Rep. Thomas Massie is claiming the existence of a shadow network of Republicans in Congress who privately confess they would vote according to their constituents' wishes rather than party dictates—but only if Massie can survive his primary challenge and prove that defying Trump carries no fatal political consequences, according to a new report from The Atlantic.

In an interview, Massie revealed that multiple House Republicans have approached him directly with the same message: if he wins his May 19 primary against Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, whom Trump personally recruited to challenge him, it would embolden others to break ranks.

"There would be six to a dozen congressmen who are more liable to vote with their constituents instead of the party line," Massie said, adding that he had "spoken with some of them directly" but declining to identify them.

The revelation suggests a GOP caucus operating under a climate of intimidation, where Republicans suppress their actual policy preferences and constituent concerns out of fear that opposing Trump will trigger a primary challenge or public attacks from the president.

Massie's own experience illustrates the stakes. Trump has attacked him relentlessly on Truth Social, at rallies in his district, and even at the National Prayer Breakfast, calling him a "totally ineffective LOSER," "the worst," and a "Moron." Trump's allies have spent millions on attack ads, and the president personally recruited Gallrein as a primary challenger after reportedly asking for "somebody with a warm body to beat Massie."

Yet despite this onslaught, Massie maintains he has spoken directly with Republican colleagues about what his victory would mean for their political calculus.

Massie framed the central tension in his upcoming race in stark terms: "This is going to be a referendum on whether it's okay to vote with your party 90 percent of the time or whether you have to do it 100 percent."

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Trump's new 'secret weapon' to 'salvage midterms' already tanked: expert

President Donald Trump's new plan to salvage the midterm elections has already collapsed, according to a political analyst.

Legal expert Michael Popok outlined how Trump's attempt to draft in James Blair, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff, has already gone wrong. A recent meeting at the Waldorf Astoria leaked, revealing that just a day before Virginia voted to redistrict in favor of the Democratic Party, Trump's team believed there was nothing to worry about.

Virginia Democrats achieved a major victory in April 2026 when voters approved an aggressive redistricting measure designed to gain four additional House seats. The ballot measure passed with approximately 51% support, or more than 1.5 million voters, fundamentally reshaping the state's congressional landscape.

The new map favors Democrats in 10 of 11 districts, representing a strategic counteroffensive against Republican gerrymandering in Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina orchestrated at Trump's direction.

Speaking during an upload of Legal AF, Popok said, "Even Donald Trump's secret weapon, James Blair, the former White House deputy chief of staff and now moving over to head of political operations, even he can't salvage this mess, this special brand of stupid that Donald Trump is displaying between Iran and the attempt to try to redo all the congressional maps to give the Republicans an advantage.

"You put those two giant headwinds together, and it goes from a smoldering belief among the Republicans that they can't win to a five-alarm fire, and now we've got leaks. Yes, this is the leakiest administration we've ever had. It's as undisciplined as the occupant of the Oval Office.

"And we have a new leak about a meeting that happened in the last couple of days at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, the District of Columbia, headed by James Blair and Chris Lassevita to bring together all of Donald Trump's political operatives in one place and talk about how to salvage the midterms. Good luck.

"Nothing says I believe I'm going to lose in a slaughter at the midterm election like having to spend time trying to figure out how to do a mole hunt to figure out who did the leak.

"James Blair came up with this great idea that they were going to try to redistrict all over America, all the red states, and create new red congressional districts. How's that gone? Not well.

"Virginia, which on Tuesday voted by three or four points to redo its maps right now and gain a +4 to +5 advantage, will wipe out all of the gains from all of the redistricting that James Blair led in one fell swoop."

'We've been so played': MAGA fans rebel against Trump as he embraces 'communist'

Donald Trump's own voters expressed outrage after the president showed his support for a Democrat.

The Official White House Rapid Response account on Thursday broadcast the words of Trump himself, who was seen in a photo with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

Alongside the picture, Trump wrote:

"It was my Great Honor to meet with the Mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, Fifth District Supervisor Kathryn Barger (Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors), and the Supervisor’s Chief of Staff, Anna Mouradian, to discuss the progress made on the horrific fires that ravaged Los Angeles, and the surrounding area. Since my strong action and statements with respect to Insurance Companies, and the way they were treating the Home Owners, that aspect of this Disaster has proceeded well — Big progress has been made, and those Companies are 'stepping up to the plate,' as they should be. The Banks, however, have a long way to go, and we will be looking into their actions, effective immediately. Wells Fargo, in particular, has been very difficult to deal with. The Banks must treat those people, who so horribly lost their Homes in this tragic fire, very fairly and well. I will be working with the Mayor, Supervisor, and everyone else to help this tragic situation go smoothly. In particular, I want to thank our Great EPA Administrator, Lee Zeldin, for the incredible speed with which he has already accomplished his very complex Environmental work."

That outraged MAGA base voters.

Self-identified MAGA influencer Lisa Christine said, "Trump loves Karen Bass now????" before adding, "My God, we have been so played."

America First conservative David Pyne also chimed in, writing Saturday, "President Trump praises LA Mayor Karen Bass who is basically a Communist who supports Communist Cuba and Communist Venezuela. He recently said hes going to give Communist Chinese dictator Xi Jinping a big hug when he does a pilgrimage to Beijing in a few weeks. At the same time he is savages America First conservatives like Tucker Carlson. So he's a Communist lover now? I guess its Communists good; America First conservatives bad."

Far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos weighed in, "The uniquely vile treatment Trump reserves for his closest allies makes me sick. He fawns over Mamdani and Karen Bass and drops to his knees for genocidal lunatics from the Levant, but hold him to his promises after ten years of support and this is what you get. Foul. F--- him."

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