Alexander Willis

Geopolitical and national security expert Brandon Weichert issued a bold prediction in response to reports on the cratering morale of U.S. service members deployed to the Middle East, one suggesting the Republican Party could pay for it for a generation.

In recent weeks, a growing number of reports have shed light on the poor conditions U.S. service members have experienced while aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Family members of crew aboard say exhaustion and dwindling supplies have worn troops down during the extended deployment.

In a more recent potential example of low troop morale, foreign policy expert Trita Parsi shared an image Sunday he claimed had been sent to him from the Persian Gulf that, while not yet independently verified, appeared to show messages scribbled into dust on an aircraft wing criticizing President Donald Trump and his war against Iran.

Reacting to the image Parsi shared, Weichert anticipated a grim outlook for the GOP moving forward.

“Looking forward to the GOP being out of power for at least a generation. They’ve lost the Mandate of Heaven, as the ancient Chinese would say,” Weichert wrote, referencing the ancient Chinese political doctrine that states a ruler’s authority can be lost through corruption or incompetence.

Parsi also shared remarks he claimed were issued to him by an active duty U.S. service member, comments that appear to affirm reports of an unprecedented loss of morale among troops.

“What people in the media don't understand when they compare past conflicts to this one, is this operation has no morale behind it,” the service member told Parsi, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “That makes a world of difference to service members deployed to undesirable locations indefinitely."

Foreign policy analyst and think-tank executive Trita Parsi shared a photo Sunday of what he claimed were messages U.S. service members wrote in the dust on an aircraft wing in the Persian Gulf – messages that viciously mocked President Donald Trump and his deeply unpopular war against Iran.

Parsi claimed that the unverified photo was “sent to me from the field,” and appears to show the flap of an aircraft with countless messages scribbled into a thick layer of dust. Among them are several criticizing the U.S.-Iran conflict.

“Peace Deal #64 Incoming…. ALL THIS FOR THE HOLY LAND,” one message reads, an apparent reference to Trump's failed peace talks with Iran, as well as to growing claims that Israel "pulled" the president into the war, claims so persistent that Trump felt compelled to publicly refute them.

Another message dubbed Operation Epic Fury – the codename for the United States’ initial strikes on Iran in late February – as “Operation Epstein Fury,” an apparent reference to the growing sentiment that Trump launched the U.S. war against Iran to “distract from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal,” a belief that a majority of Americans hold according to a poll conducted in March.

Outside of Parsi’s claim, the authenticity of the photo has not been verified. Conservative podcaster and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Leigh Wolf called the image a “total fraud,” believing it to be of a KC-130 in Arizona “being stripped for parts,” and alleging the messages were likely written by “some random civilian in the U.S.”

James Griffin, however, a military and geopolitical writer who writes under the name Analytica Camillus, argued the image was likely authentic, writing that it “clearly” depicted “a real KC-135 deployed [at] a desert airbase (we just can’t say for certain what country it’s in),” and suspected it to be in either Qatar or Israel.

The photo's viral spread comes amid mounting reports of low morale among deployed U.S. service members. According to two U.S. officials who spoke with NBC News, military leaders have privately raised concerns inside the Pentagon and the White House about low morale and widespread fatigue among American service members deployed for months to support the war, and family members have echoed those concerns.

Attorney General Todd Blanche made a number of controversial statements Sunday during an appearance on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” but one “telling” remark appeared to fly completely under the radar, one that Zeteo’s Martin Pengelly flagged as a major “Freudian slip.”

During his interview with NBC News' Kristen Welker, Blanche refused to pledge he'd act independently of the White House and declined to rule out payments to Jan. 6 Capitol rioters. But it was when Welker pressed him on whether he'd defy President Donald Trump if asked to do something that "crosses an ethical or legal line" that Blanche let slip what Pengelly characterized as an unintentional admission.

“The president will never ask me to do something unethical or legal – or illegal,” Blanche said. “He never has. He never will.”

Blanche’s claim, however, flies in the face of several legal experts who say that within a week of his confirmation, the newly confirmed attorney general already committed an illegal act by stumping for an ally of President Donald Trump’s in New York last Friday, which former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance argued was a blatant violation of the Hatch Act, a 1938 federal law that prohibits federal officials from engaging in political activities while on duty.

Pengelly argued that Blanche’s “telling Freudian slip” went largely unnoticed due to the “staggering corruption” of the Trump administration flooding the news cycle, most notably the Trump family’s success in receiving preliminary approval to open their own bank.

“And so, in turn, will come some new story of appalling, apparently unstoppable corruption,” Pengelly wrote in an analysis published Monday in Zeteo. “Inevitably, the attorney general’s latest appallingly cynical display of slavish devotion to his corrupt boss will be old news in its turn.”

Academic Tom Nichols believes he's cracked the code on why President Donald Trump made the "insane" decision Sunday to scale down joint military exercises with longtime ally South Korea – and it comes down to the president's "unbearable" and "ongoing humiliation."

Trump took to Truth Social Sunday to announce that he’d instructed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” the United States’ participation in its annual joint military exercise with South Korea, which has been conducted for more than 70 years. In the same social media post, Trump also complained about South Korea’s refusal to assist in the deeply unpopular U.S. war against Iran.

Writing for The Atlantic in an analysis published Sunday night, Nichols bluntly argued that the United States was “now losing that conflict,” and that the Trump administration had “suffered one embarrassment after another,” flagging Trump’s recent escape on a catering truck as a notable example.

Nichols also argued Trump’s attack on South Korea was directly related to the “president’s failure” in Iran.

“America and the rest of the world are now witnessing a public exhibition of narcissistic rage. Trump embarked on a war for personal glory, and what he got instead was ongoing humiliation. He clearly finds it all unbearable,” Nichols wrote.

“Trump both fears and respects the autocrats who rule Russia, China, and North Korea, and so he dares not cross them. Instead, he is seeking to assuage the psychic injury of his loss in Iran – including the American public learning of the shameful conditions to which he has subjected U.S. forces – by kicking America’s allies, the nations he can punish without fear that they will kick him back.”

Furthermore, Nichols warned that Trump’s slight to South Korea would likely embolden those he characterized as the United States’ adversaries on the world stage.

“The Chinese and the Russians and the North Koreas are certain to draw the appropriate lessons from this deranged policy. They have been shown, yet again, that when Trump fails, he hurts those he feels safe hurting,” he wrote.

“Already, North Korea is dispatching missiles and thousands of soldiers to aid Russia in its war on Ukraine. If a conflict should break out in the Pacific or on the Korean peninsula, or if the war in Europe spreads further West, the world’s dictators might well count on Trump to focus American wrath not on the enemies of the free world, but on the nations that have always pledged to stand side by side with the United States in a mutual defense of freedom.”

President Donald Trump issued a violent threat against the nation of Oman on Monday, according to Fox News’ Trey Yingst, vowing to “bomb the S out of them” should they “get in the way” of his administration’s efforts to diminish Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Speaking with Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” Yingst shared new details after having just gotten off the phone with Trump, who, according to Yingst, said he had “no time schedule” and was “not in a hurry” to end the deeply unpopular U.S. war against Iran.

Iran and Oman have engaged in negotiations on reaching a deal to manage shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, and Tehran has disputed Washington's claims of involvement in the talks. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the country is "not negotiating with the US," with messages relayed only through intermediaries, and said Iran won't resume direct negotiations until Washington ends its violations of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding.

Yingst said he asked Trump about those talks, to which the president said: “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the S out of them,” according to Yingst.

Former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia dropped a bombshell claim on Sunday regarding the Trump administration’s plans for Iran, one that left critics across the political spectrum in disbelief.

“Yes you read that correctly,” Greene said of the supposed plan actively being considered by the White House. “It’s real. I’m not speculating, I know. And it’s pure evil.”

Greene claimed that top Trump administration officials were actively discussing “using nuclear weapons on Iran in strategy meetings,” though she did not provide evidence for her assertion. She warned that President Donald Trump may very well spark a “nuclear holocaust that would likely drag the entire world into major conflict, economic depression and mass human suffering.”

Trump has failed to find a face-saving exit from the U.S. war against Iran he initiated in late February. He shifted his approach earlier this month, arguing Iran is nearing financial collapse and signaling he'll demand compensation if Iran does, even as U.S. weapons stockpiles have thinned and talks have repeatedly stalled.

With The Guardian reporting back in May that Trump himself had “discussed the possibility of using nuclear weapons against Iran” in a White House meeting, Greene’s claim sent chills down the spines of onlookers.

“This is frightening,” wrote journalist and author Ghazala Wahab Sunday night in a social media post on X. “If anyone in the US govt thinks that use of any kind of nuclear weapons against Iran will not invite retaliation, they need to be put wise. There are other war theaters and other powers with nuclear weapons too.”

Stock trader and political commentator Ryan Rozbiani condemned Trump for potentially considering using nuclear weapons, characterizing it as a misguided attempt to “appease his ego,” and U.S. Navy intelligence veteran and former MSNBC contributor Malcolm Nance warned that Greene’s claim was “f------ serious!”

Iranian international law expert Reza Nasri issued a plea directly to Americans.

“If Congress will not act on its own, Americans must demand that their representatives act for them. They must insist that Congress impose meaningful legal restraints on the president's ability to initiate nuclear war, including by requiring congressional authorization before any first use of nuclear weapons,” Nasri wrote in a lengthy statement published on social media Sunday night.

“The power to destroy millions of lives cannot remain the unchecked prerogative of one individual. It is incumbent on the American people to force their representatives in Congress to put that power back under law before the moment arrives when there is no time left for law to intervene.”

The Department of Homeland Security plans to spend $20 million to equip Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with gloves that can deliver an electric shock, and a law enforcement officer’s recently unearthed admission left multiple immigration advocates stunned on Saturday.

In 2024, Adam Glueck, then assistant chief of police for the Cape Girardeau Police Department in Missouri, spoke on a video podcast about his agency having recently purchased electric shock gloves for its officers, and flagged what he characterized as a benefit of using the technology.

“In today’s society, you know, everybody’s filming everything, everybody has a cell phone,” Glueck said, according to a report from Mother Jones, which unearthed the video. “[But] the glove is low optic, and it looks better on camera, and it looks better to those witnesses. With a glove, there are no burn marks or scars.”

Mother Jones also flagged remarks from Bob Couey, chief deputy for the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia, who in a 2024 video that’s been viewed less than 400 times praised electric shock gloves as well.

“I highly recommend these gloves to anybody that’s looking for a utility they can use that is conducive to not leading to lawsuits,” Couey can be heard saying on video, also unearthed by Mother Jones.

Responding to Glueck and Couey’s recently unearthed remarks, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, was left stunned.

“Proponents of the ICE taser gloves are openly saying that one reason they love the gloves is that they [don't] leave any marks or proof that they were used, making it harder for people to sue when they’re shocked excessively,” Reichlin-Melnick wrote Saturday in a social media post on X.

Thomas Kennedy, a Florida-based writer and immigration advocate, was also left stunned by Glueck and Couey’s remarks, calling it “sadistic stuff.”

“The gloves ICE wants to purchase for tens of millions of dollars that can deliver electric shocks allow the wearer to inflict pain without leaving the sort of marks that look bad to witnesses or leave an officer vulnerable to lawsuits,” Kennedy wrote Saturday. “Sadistic stuff.”

Within a week of his confirmation, Attorney General Todd Blanche took to New York to stump for an ally of President Donald Trump’s, an act that legal expert and former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance flagged Saturday as a blatant violation of U.S. law, and as something that left her “deeply disgusted."

Blanche spoke at a Trump rally Friday in support of Bruce Blakeman, a GOP gubernatorial candidate in New York hoping to defeat incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, but in doing so, came at odds with a 1939 U.S. federal law.

“A violation of the Hatch Act, if anyone believes the Attorney General should follow the law,” Vance wrote in an analysis published Saturday on her Substack, Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance.

“One of the Act’s major prohibitions is against using a federal job to influence an election. Although federal employees can, technically, campaign on their own time, the Attorney General is on the clock 24/7. Presidentially appointed, Senate confirmed officials like Blanche can only participate in partisan political activity in a purely personal (not official) capacity.”

At the rally, Blanche touted his leadership at the Justice Department – an agency he referred to as “his” – boasting about his vow to prosecute those who touch federal law enforcement officers “in any way inappropriate” to “the fullest extent of the law.”

“If only he felt that way about Jeffrey Epstein’s victims,” Vance quipped, referencing the DOJ’s failure to prosecute a single person associated with Epstein.

What Vance characterized as a blatant violation of U.S. law demonstrated, she argued, was the rules he and other Trump administration Justice Department officials operated under: “Trump rules, not the rule of law.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), 92, published yet another online post Saturday complaining about vacuum cleaners, only this time sparking right-wing backlash in the process.

For years, Grassley has spoken at length about “Beth” – a vintage Hoover vacuum cleaner that had been used by his family for close to 50 years before it broke earlier this month, leading the Iowa Republican to issue a bizarre eulogy for the household appliance. More than a week later on Saturday, Grassley expressed his disappointment that his 1966 Electrolux Corporation canister vacuum cleaner was “also broken.”

Billy Ray Todd, a former Republican Alabama state House candidate with a large online following, criticized Grassley for airing his vacuum cleaner-related grievances, arguing that the 92-year-old senator should instead “be in DC passing the SAVE Act,” President Donald Trump’s controversial voter ID bill.

Joe Dan Gorman, a conservative commentator and comedian, argued Grassley’s online post demonstrated either an “enormous detachment from reality or a giant middle finger,” suggesting the 92-year-old should instead be calling for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to “step down.”

And Chris Nelson, who Yahoo! News described as an independent conservative journalist, used Grassley’s post to highlight the senator’s impressive age.

“This guy is pushing 100 years old and still in the Senate,” Nelson wrote Saturday in a social media post on X. “He’s not even a boomer. He’s silent generation. His kids are boomers.”

Born in 1933, Grassley is the oldest sitting U.S. senator and the sixth-longest-serving senator in American history, having first won elected office in 1958 during the Eisenhower administration. He has represented Iowa in the Senate since 1981 and is currently the chamber's president pro tempore, putting him third in the presidential line of succession behind Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).

Vice President JD Vance’s hometown of Middletown, Ohio has shown a notably muted response to the vice president’s new memoir, The Guardian reported Saturday.

Published in June and titled “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” the book details Vance’s journey in rediscovering his Catholic faith, and was released to brutal reviews from both professional and amateur critics alike. In Vance’s hometown, however, it appears to have left less than a lasting impression.

“I haven’t read or even seen a copy of Communion … So far, I haven’t found anyone who has read it,” said a Catholic priest who served in Middletown for decades, speaking with The Guardian on the condition of anonymity. “Some [residents] have read the reviews. People obviously have their opinions on JD.”

Middletown City Council member Joe Mulligan told The Guardian that he hadn’t read the memoir – though planned to “soon” – and that there were no current plans for the city to celebrate or acknowledge the publication of the book. The Guardian also reported that there was “no sign” of the memoir inside the Middletown library building.

A dive bar called Carol’s Speakeasy is mentioned in the memoir – apparently a hot spot for a college-aged Vance – and The Guardian attempted to contact its owners.

“But a manager who answered the phone recently said they hadn’t read the book, didn’t intend to read it, nor was aware that the bar was mentioned in Communion,” the Guardian’s report reads.

Furthermore, The Guardian noted the unease with which local residents spoke about their opinions on Vance.

“Among Middletown’s general public, the vice-president’s new book hasn’t exactly hit home, and on the city’s streets many residents are uneasy about sharing their opinion on Vance or his writings,” The Guardian’s report reads.

The White House proudly shared an image on social media Saturday of President Donald Trump holding a printed-out Washington Post report about lower drug prices, but, as pointed out by The Guardian, experts quoted in that same report largely credit Biden-era policy for the drop.

On Thursday, the Post published a report about prescription drug prices recording its “biggest year-over-year drop in more than 60 years.” Trump waved around a printed-out copy of the report in front of journalists on Friday, asking “is anybody impressed?” And on Saturday, the White House shared a photo of Trump with the report in hand on social media with the caption: “POV: you bring the receipts.”

However, just three paragraphs into the Post’s report, it suggests that the drop in prescription drug prices was likely due to Biden-era policies.

“The White House took credit for the good news, saying President Donald Trump’s efforts to slash drug prices were working,” the Post’s report reads. “Some experts said a Biden-era policy that requires Medicare to negotiate prices for some popular prescription drugs is more likely to be driving down costs.”

Former President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in 2022, which gave Medicare the ability to directly negotiate the prices of certain high-expenditure, single-source drugs without generic or biosimilar competition for the first time in the program's history. The first 10 negotiated prices took effect in 2026, cutting costs by a minimum of 38% off 2023 list prices and saving Medicare beneficiaries an estimated $1.5 billion in annual out-of-pocket costs.

And yet, despite the Post’s report clearly pointing to Biden-era policies as the cause for the drop in prescription drug prices, Trump administration officials continued to share the Post’s report triumphantly as an accomplishment solely of Trump’s.

“All thanks to President Trump!” wrote White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung in a social media post on X, alongside a screengrab of the Post’s report. “Most-Favored-Nation prescription drug pricing and TrumpRX are making a huge difference for the American people!”

President Donald Trump’s White House is struggling in the wake of the departure of White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, with two White House insiders revealing new details Saturday of the ensuing chaos to the Daily Mail.

“There were really only two women who could both appease Trump and challenge him: Karoline Leavitt and Susie Wiles. There is concern on how this administration will move forward with so much work ahead,” said a person “close” to President Donald Trump, per the Daily Mail.

Leavitt announced her resignation earlier this week that reportedly “came as a surprise,” according to CNN's Alayna Treene.

While Leavitt will continue to serve as one of the president’s top outside advisers, her departure from the Trump administration marked the latest example of a woman with a high-level Cabinet or executive position leaving or being ousted from the administration – something another White House insider told the Daily Mail could pose a problem.

"What was meant to be a showcase of administrative discipline has devolved into an exhausting exercise in crisis management,” the insider told the Daily Mail on the condition of anonymity.

Adding to the chaos is the new race to replace Leavitt as Trump’s chief spokesperson, another inside source revealed to the Daily Mail.

“Everyone is getting so desperate,” said another inside source, described by the Daily Mail as an “insider familiar with the selection process.” “They are having other notable Republicans try to endorse them. It's like they're running for office.”

As noted by the Daily Mail, “more than half” of the eight women “originally tapped or confirmed for high-level Cabinet and executive positions” have left the Trump administration, with Leavitt joining the ranks of former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi and National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard in leaving the administration.

A Justice Department attorney was rattled during a hearing this week after federal Judge Emmet Sullivan asked for an update on an order related to a trove of foreign-language documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, former MSNBC host and attorney Katie Phang reported Saturday.

Phang sued Attorney General Todd Blanche in April, arguing the Justice Department (DOJ) failed to fully comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, among the few Epstein files-related lawsuits to gain traction. She won a preliminary injunction in June ordering the DOJ to unredact key documents.

In a hearing earlier this week in Washington, D.C., DOJ attorney Andrew Block was asked for an update by Sullivan on the progress of his order from June to “immediately initiate review and production” of select Epstein-related documents.

Reporting on the hearing, Phang described Block’s reaction to Sullivan’s question: “Turning red, stammering, hemming and hawing, and eventually failing to answer the Court thereby confirming what we all suspected, which was the DOJ has not even begun the process of translating and reviewing the foreign-language documents.”

Sullivan pressed Block for specifics, asking the DOJ attorney “how many pages” his agency had left to review and produce for public viewing.

“I don’t have a number,” Block responded, according to Phang.

“But you knew this was going to be discussed today. You’re at the podium as counsel for the Attorney General,” Sullivan responded.

According to Phang, Block told Sullivan that the DOJ’s position “hasn’t changed,” to which Sullivan fired back: “The Government’s position then is you’re just not going to comply [with my court order]?”

In a write-up of the hearing, Phang expressed her shock over the DOJ’s open defiance in the face of an order from a federal judge.

“On June 26, 2026, Judge Sullivan entered an order granting my Motion for Preliminary Injunction, directing Todd Blanche to ‘immediately initiate review and production of foreign-language materials that may be subject to production under the Epstein Files Transparency Act,’” Phang wrote.

“As of today, August 15, 2026, that hasn’t happened. And consider that language as compared to some of the other areas of that preliminary injunction order: the court didn’t give Blanche an ‘out’ to explain why he couldn’t do the translations; the court ordered him to ‘immediately initiate review and production.’”

Republican gubernatorial nominee in Ohio Vivek Ramaswamy is facing hard “questions” over his past conduct related to a biopharmaceutical company, conduct that one expert suggested bore all the hallmarks of a classic “pump and dump” scheme.

Ramaswamy bought the rights to a failed Alzheimer's drug in 2014 through his company Axovant, then hired his mother – who had no clinical trial experience – to reanalyze the failed data. That reanalysis helped Axovant raise $315 million in a 2015 initial public offering. Ramaswamy cashed out through a private deal in 2017, just weeks before the drug failed its final trial and the stock crashed 70%.

“That’s where people have a lot of questions, whenever you kind of pump and dump something,” said Daniel Skinner, a professor of health policy at Ohio University, speaking with Oligarch Watch for a report published Friday. “You look back at his words, and he was extremely effusive – really right up to the very end – about the prospects of this working.”

While speculation surrounding Ramaswamy’s conduct as it relates to the failed Alzheimer’s drug has persisted for years, David Niven, a political scientist at the University of Cincinnati, argued the incident could pose serious trouble for the gubernatorial hopeful come November.

“One of the defining questions of the campaign will be, are Ohioans talking about this in October – are they aware of how well he did, and how poorly most other folks did on that Alzheimer’s drug?” Niven told Oligarch Watch.

“[The reality of how Ramaswamy ran Axovant] was heads I win and tails I also win, in terms of the outcomes of the trials or whether the drugs actually proved useful or not.”

Journalist and ex-MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan says there's a hard lesson buried in Trump's secret escape from Air Force One during a recent Turkey stopover, and it has everything to do with who's been feeding him intelligence on Iran.

Hasan cited reporting from Reuters' Eric Banco, who wrote that the U.S. has received Israeli warnings over the past year that Iran intended to assassinate Trump, including one before Trump was secretly moved off Air Force One and into an alternate plane in Ankara. Those officials, Banco reported, could not independently verify the threats.

That reporting followed an earlier Washington Post story, which found U.S. intelligence officials were skeptical of the assassination warnings Israel passed along, with one official describing the intelligence as "Israeli-derived, not U.S.-generated, and viewed as low confidence."

“So what are the lessons of this latest PR debacle for Donald Trump?” Hasan wrote in an analysis published Saturday in Zeteo.

“Number one, Israeli intelligence simply cannot be trusted, especially when it comes to Iran, where the Israelis have their own warmongering agenda. In fact, the Benjamin Netanyahu government has been providing bogus intel to an easily manipulated Donald Trump from the get-go.”

Hasan also connected the threats to the Trump administration's own actions, noting Banco's reporting that intelligence officials have long assessed that Iran wants revenge for the U.S. killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani in 2020, as well as this year's killing of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – a strike CNN presidential historian Tim Naftali called the first open U.S.-backed assassination of a sitting foreign head of state in modern history.

“And yet here we are, the president of the United States now humiliatingly having to hide inside of a catering truck, at the mercy of Israeli intel and Iranian threats,” Hasan wrote. “What was that sowing/reaping meme again?”