Top Stories Daily Listen Now
RawStory

US News

Border Czar Tom Homan fires off vulgar promise about next wave of deportations

The relative calm that Tom Homan brought to immigration policy discussions following the firing of controversial DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was loudly slapped aside this week when Trump's border czar made a vulgar boast about the administration's plans for aggressive deportation enforcement.

Speaking at the Border Security Expo in Phoenix, Arizona, Homan declared that the Trump administration's record deportation numbers from last year would pale in comparison to what's coming next — specifically pledging to deploy more than 10,000 additional federal agents to carry out mass removals, NPR is reporting.

"If you think last year's historic number is good, wait till [sic] next year and we have 10,000 more agents on the border. You ain't seen s--- yet," Homan proudly boasted in his opening remarks. "This year will be a good year. Mass deportations are coming."

NPR's Ximena Bustillo reported that Homan directly challenged critics who question the administration's commitment to aggressive immigration enforcement, telling attendees, "For the people out there saying President Trump's weak on mass deportation, what the hell are you talking about? President Trump made a promise to the American people that's going to happen."

The border czar also signaled that the administration has no intention of dialing back who will be scooped up.

"It doesn't mean because you prioritize criminals, everybody else is off the table. I've said no one's off the table. Why is that? I don't care how long you've been here. If you're here illegally into this country, you cheated," Homan made clear.

Homan's aggressive rhetoric comes despite polling showing declining public support for the administration's enforcement approach. At the start of the year, more than half of respondents said immigration enforcement tactics had gone "too far," though nearly three-quarters of Republicans approved of ICE's work, NPR is reporting.

The report added that, while newly confirmed DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin was not present at the Phoenix event, Homan insisted the secretary shares his uncompromising vision for mass deportations

Trump did 180 on major issue after visit from Susie Wiles' tobacco industry pals: report

President Donald Trump reversed himself on a major public health issue after lobbyists from White House chief of staff Susie Wiles' former client visited.

The Food and Drug Administration authorized an L.A.-based company to sell flavored vape products, which Trump had opposed as harmful to young people, after the tobacco firm Swisher International lobbied the president's office in each of the last four quarters, either directly or through a firm where Wiles’ daughter works, reported The Daily Beast.

Keep reading... Show less

Rubio's Vatican trip exposes Trump's cruel Cabinet manipulation scheme: report

President Donald Trump's decision to send Secretary of State Marco Rubio to meet with Pope Leo shows Trump may be interested in pitting his Cabinet members against each other, according to a report on Thursday.

The president's "mission impossible" for Rubio has raised questions about loyalties in the Trump administration — not necessarily healing strained ties with the Vatican, reported David Gardner for The Swamp, The Daily Beast's Substack.

Keep reading... Show less

MAGA lawmaker forced by security to remove Trump cape as crowd boos him in hearing

A MAGA lawmaker who was wearing a Trump flag as a cape was forced to take it off before walking into a legislative session as Republican state lawmakers were following demands from President Donald Trump to redraw the state’s congressional districts — and facing mounting protests that activists say would split the state's only majority-Black congressional seat, according to reports on Thursday.

Republican Tennessee state Rep. Todd Warner was met with booing and yells from protesters on Thursday, the third day of a special session in Nashville, where Republican leadership was advancing a new congressional election map. Warner was walking through the crowd with a Trump flag on his back when security stopped him and removed it before he walked into the legislative chamber.

Keep reading... Show less

Sean Duffy scolds child who isn't 'thrilled' with his speech: 'There's no yawning'

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called out a yawning child who did not appear to be thrilled with his speech.

During an event in Philadelphia on Thursday, some of the city's schoolchildren were on hand to hear Duffy talk about America's 250th birthday.

Keep reading... Show less

Leaked CIA memo reveals true extent of Iran's leverage in firefight: report

A bombshell CIA memo distributed to administration policymakers the week revealed that Iran is in a far stronger military and economic position than President Trump has publicly claimed — directly contradicting the president's rosy assessments about the state of the war.

According to a Washington Post report, the leaked classified intelligence assessment found that Iran can survive the U.S. naval blockade for at least three to four months before facing severe economic hardship — significantly longer than the White House has suggested.

Keep reading... Show less

Markwayne Mullin whines 'kamikaze' Democrats are sabotaging his paperclips

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mulling complained that "Kamikaze" Dems had sabotaged his supply of paperclips during the recent partial government shutdown.

During a Fox Business interview on Thursday, host Maria Bartiromo asked Mullin if he could insulate DHS from future shutdowns so "people are still getting paid."

Keep reading... Show less

​Foreign oil company profits double with assist from Trump's moves: NYT

Major energy companies are reaping enormous profits from the ongoing Strait of Hormuz stalemate triggered by Donald Trump's war on Iran, with European oil giants reporting dramatic earnings surges while American producers sit on the sidelines, the New York Times is reporting.

British energy giant Shell reported robust first-quarter profits Thursday, with adjusted earnings soaring 24 percent to $6.92 billion — more than twice what the company earned in the previous quarter and significantly higher than analyst expectations.

In a statement, Shell's chief executive, Wael Sawan, attributed the windfall to an "unprecedented disruption in global energy markets," with oil prices briefly trading above $126 a barrel last week.

Shell is not alone in profiting from the conflict. Britain's BP more than doubled its first-quarter profit to $3.2 billion from the previous quarter, driven by superior oil trading and elevated prices. French oil company TotalEnergies reported quarterly net income of $5.4 billion and announced it would raise its dividend and double its share buybacks, the Times is reporting.

According to the Times' Gregory Schmidt, that stands in sharp contrast to American oil producers who are reporting declining profits despite elevated prices. Exxon Mobil reported $4.2 billion in first-quarter earnings — down 46 percent from a year earlier — while Chevron's quarterly profit slid to $2.2 billion, a 37 percent drop year-over-year. The Times report adds the caveat that the companies attributed the declines to accounting adjustments and paper losses they said would be unwound in coming months as gas prices stay high.

Keep reading... Show less

MAGA splits in half over surprising 'fight club' conundrum about Trump: report

President Donald Trump's question for a teenager at the White House this week has revealed a MAGA divide, according to a report from The Bulwark on Thursday.

Trump was meeting with a group of students and athletes in the Oval Office to celebrate Trump's signing of a proclamation to restore the Presidential Fitness Test award when he quipped "you think you could take me in a fight?" YouGov analysts then decided to turn the question into a poll with the following question: Who do you think would win in a physical fight between you and Donald Trump?

Keep reading... Show less

'Past his prime' GOP senator Grassley caught up in FBI lawsuit: report

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley (R), the powerful chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has been implicated in a lawsuit filed by two FBI agents who were terminated by Director Kash Patel for their work on special counsel Jack Smith's investigation of Donald Trump.

According to reporting from The Hill, the 92-year-old Republican played a significant role in precipitating the agents' firings by releasing unredacted materials about the criminal investigation into Trump — materials that exposed the agents to public backlash and eventual removal from the bureau.

While the suits don't name Grassley as a defendant, they single out his actions as a factor in the agents' alleged wrongful termination. The lawsuits assert the agents were fired solely based on their assignment to Smith's investigation team — work that the FBI now characterizes as "somehow hostile partisan acts."

Grassley's unredacted disclosures included the names of the agents, something their attorney argues directly sparked both online harassment and internal backlash from the FBI as it culled employees aligned with the Smith probe, The Hill is reporting.

"It is appalling to me that lawmakers would so carelessly mischaracterize these unredacted disclosures, knowing that the direct result of their actions is to cause an ill-informed online mob to go after honest, hardworking federal law enforcement officers," said Margaret Donovan, a former federal prosecutor representing two agents suing the FBI claimed in a statement obtained by The Hill.

Donovan noted the Iowa lawmaker's age as a possible contributing factor that led to the misguided firing.

"The best-case scenario is that Grassley is so far past his prime, he is clueless as to what he's doing. The worst-case scenario is that Grassley and others are intentionally trying to harm federal agents who dared to investigate criminal activity, which happened to implicate a political ally," Donovan said.

The report points out that the litigation raises broader questions about the Senate Judiciary Committee's sweeping investigation into Smith's probe — and Grassley's role within the conservative ecosystem focused on what Republicans have branded as "rot" at the FBI.

'Trump crime spree' flagged over report that federal law enforcement collapsed under admin

Federal law enforcement has collapsed as the Department of Justice focuses on President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

A Reuters review found that between January and April, federal prosecutors in Minnesota charged eight people with gun or drug offenses compared to 77 in the same period last year, which amounts to a 90 percent collapse in serious federal criminal prosecutions.

Keep reading... Show less

New DOJ probe of fishy war bets prompts skepticism: 'Coming from inside the House'

The Department of Justice is investigating a series of suspiciously timed trades timed around major announcements about the war in Iran, prompting skepticism.

The DOJ, along with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is looking into at least four transactions where traders made more than $2.6 billion betting that oil prices would drop right before they did, reported ABC News.

Keep reading... Show less

Trump's new 'gargantuan shakedown' may be the last straw for voters: expert

President Donald Trump has for years gotten away with flagrant corruption and self-dealing off of the apathy of the American people, Mona Charen wrote for The Bulwark on Thursday — but that may finally be coming to an end.

The extent of his excesses, she wrote, can be seen in the "gargantuan shakedown" Trump is trying to stage against the IRS, which started because a whistleblower working for an IRS contractor leaked information about Trump's tax returns.

Keep reading... Show less