Trump threatens to BOMB US ally sparking confusion in wild Cabinet meeting
Donald Trump threatened to bomb a key US ally in the Middle East if they don't 'behave' while responding to a question about who will control the Strait of Hormuz.

Only moments after Ken Paxton clinched the GOP nomination in the Texas Senate race on Tuesday, he quickly signaled his intention to run a lofty, issue-focused campaign. By way of characterizing Democratic opponent James Talarico as woke, as a leftist, and—perhaps worst of all in Texas—as a vegan, Paxton derided his foe as “James Talafreako,” “tofu Talarico,” and “six-gender Jimmy.”This drew roars from the MAGA faithful at Paxton’s victory party, who were excited to see Trump’s endorsement of Paxton over establishment GOP incumbent John Cornyn triumph. But all Paxton’s sandbox barrage actually accomplished was to remind everyone that in this critical Senate race—one that could determine Senate control—Republicans have nominated someone who typifies everything normie voters hate about Trump and Trumpism.The MAGA rage, the hate, the juvenile name-calling, the bottomless corruption, the seething contempt for public service—Paxton has exhibited all of it as the attorney general of Texas. If there were ever a time that Democrats might pull off a Texas miracle—and make no mistake, it will be very hard—this may be it.This isn’t just due to the standard reasons we often hear: Trump is highly unpopular, Paxton is deeply compromised, and Talarico is a formidable fundraiser. It’s something more subtle: Paxton’s ugly MAGA credentials provide an unexpected opening for Talarico—a state legislator and seminarian—to play the foil to Trumpism with a new kind of politics rooted in a fresh understanding of our moment: It combines open professions of Christian faith and promises to transcend Trumpian acrimony with kindness and goodwill toward the opposition.“To Senator Cornyn’s supporters: You have a place in our campaign,” Talarico tweeted after Paxton’s victory, reaching out to Republicans and right-leaning independents across the state.Talarico’s potential path to victory tells the story. Matt Angle, director of the pro-Talarico Lone Star Project, says that path requires three factors. Talarico must run up sizable majorities in the five big urban counties—the home of places like Houston, Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio—and get at least into the high 40s in adjoining suburban and exurban counties. He must win around 65 percent in the heavily Latino Texas counties along the border and in the Rio Grande valley. And he must limit GOP gains in all the other non-metro and rural counties, which constitute a truly huge expanse of territory.“It’s straightforward—and really, really hard,” Angle told me. “You’ve got to dominate in the big five urban counties. You’ve got to compete in surrounding suburbs and exurbs. You’ve got to reclaim the border. And you can’t get blown away in small-town and rural Texas.”To appreciate the challenge, consider that in the 2018 Texas Senate race, Beto O’Rourke fell short of ousting Senator Ted Cruz by fewer than three points. As Ron Brownstein details, O’Rourke won solid majorities in the urban counties and won around two-thirds of the vote in Latino-heavy ones. But O’Rourke still lost, Brownstein notes, primarily because Cruz won nearly three-quarters of the vote in all the other counties.Since then, if anything, Democrats have lost ground in the state. In 2024, Trump did surprisingly well in the urban areas and, famously, made big inroads with Texas Latinos in border counties. So Talarico must win back majorities in the urban counties and get close to parity in the exurbs, climb back to Beto-like support in Latino-heavy counties, and limit Trump’s margins everywhere else.Here’s where Talarico’s challenge to MAGA comes in. O’Rourke was an electrifying candidate, and so is Talarico, as his massive fundraising hauls demonstrate. But Talarico has the added ingredients of his faith and the sincere offer of goodwill to the opposition. These might resonate amid bone-deep exhaustion with Trump plus Republicans nominating the most Trumpy candidate imaginable.So to run up totals in exurban and suburban areas, Democrats tell me they are eyeing educated but not-particularly-liberal white voters who might be unhappy with Trump yet would support Cornyn, but who will see Paxton as just too much. These voters might see in Paxton—a fanatical Trump loyalist who viciously smears opponents, had a messy divorce, and has been both impeached and indicted for securities fraud in office—as a standard-bearer for the economic carnage, corruption, megalomania, and degradation of our politics that Trump has wrought.“These are country-club Republicans and independents who are really agitated by how Trump has handled the economy and the White House—whether it’s the ballroom or the billion-dollar slush fund for folks who tore down our Capitol,” Chuck Rocha, an adviser to Talarico’s campaign, told me. “He has to win some Republicans and a bunch of independents.”Meanwhile, Trump is furiously bleeding Latino support by tanking the economy while embracing violent white nationalist immigration policies.
Donald Trump threatened to bomb a key US ally in the Middle East if they don't 'behave' while responding to a question about who will control the Strait of Hormuz.
Senator John Cornyn lost to his MAGA-aligned challenger, Ken Paxton, by 28 percentage points. It was a historically poor showing.
Ten years ago, President Donald Trump put Europe on notice, telling them the status quo on defense spending was unsustainable — and that America would not continue to shoulder the cost of keeping the European Union safe. Trump was right, but leaders like German Chancellor Olaf Scholz did not want to listen. Only after Russia’s […]
The money has become a sticking point in talks, with Iran insisting that meaningful negotiations cannot begin without the funds’ release.
WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Wednesday, readers! Happy World Otter Day to all our animal lovers out there. 🦦 Today, crude oil markets saw their biggest price drop in a month, with international and domestic benchmarks falling by more than 5%. 🛢️📉 The downward pressure appeared to come from both Washington and Tehran, […]
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he will likely attend the New York Knicks’ NBA Finals game next week. Trump, a New York native, said he was invited by James Dolan, who owns the Knicks, the New York Rangers, and Madison Square Garden to attend the game. “They really, they have some great players,” […]
President Trump went off during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, highlighting the billions of dollars in waste, fraud, theft, and abuse of federal tax dollars his administration is uncovering through schemes across the nation. The post (VIDEO) “THEY’RE ALL CROOKS!” – Trump Goes Off on Somali Welfare Fraudsters and Ilhan Omar, Says Massive New Findings to Be Released: “You Haven’t Seen Anything Yet” appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
As Israel launched a new bombardment of Lebanon on Tuesday, its far-right security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, suggested that it was trying to derail ongoing peace negotiations between US President Donald Trump and Iran.During a press briefing on Tuesday, the influential politician railed against the possibility of a deal to end the war as it neared the three-month mark and said the whole Israeli Cabinet was in agreement.“I know that Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and all of us members of the Cabinet... as the government of Israel, cannot allow this to happen,” Ben-Gvir said in Hebrew. “This is an agreement that can harm the state of Israel, and we will not allow this to happen.”Ben-Gvir’s remarks came as Trump engaged in what he has suggested was another promising round of ceasefire talks with the Iranians—talks that did not include Israel.Despite its foreign ministry condemning recent US attacks as signs of “bad faith” and “definitive violations” of the ceasefire on Tuesday, Iran has not yet pulled away from the table.Citing Iranian state TV, Reuters reported on Wednesday that Tehran has received an unofficial framework from the US that would restore commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz to pre-war levels for a month in exchange for the US withdrawing troops from Iran’s vicinity and lifting its naval blockade. The US has disputed this account.Trump has previously attempted to force Iran to accept major concessions on its nuclear program upfront, but nuclear-related talks appear to have been shifted to future negotiations.While it has not been at the center of the latest round of negotiations, Iran still considers ending Israel’s assault on Lebanon to be an essential part of a durable peace.As it has during previous peace negotiations between Iran and the US, Israel launched another major bombardment against Lebanon on Tuesday, violating the 45-day ceasefire that went into effect last month.Israeli forces conducted more than 120 airstrikes across southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley against what they said were Hezbollah targets, according to The Guardian, as Netanyahu said Israel would “intensify” its military campaign.According to Lebanon’s health ministry, 31 people were killed, and 40 were wounded. In the southern town of Burj al-Shamali, 14 people were killed, including two children and three women, the ministry said.Since Israel’s offensive began in early March, more than 3,200 people have been killed and over 9,700 wounded, according to the ministry. More than 600 people have been killed since the April truce began.Sources also told Reuters that Israel had expanded its occupation of southern Lebanon, past its so-called “security zone.” Israeli forces ordered the residents of dozens of Lebanese villages not to return to their homes in the occupation zone, which Israel is trying to expand to between 5 and 10 kilometers inside Lebanon.In what Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has described as a renewal of its “Gaza model,” Israel had demolished or damaged more than 40,000 homes in southern Lebanon before last month’s truce went into effect, though destruction has continued since then. More than 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced as a result of forced evacuation orders and bombardments by Israel.Hezbollah has responded on Tuesday with drone attacks on Israel, which it had already been launching for weeks in response to what it said were persistent ceasefire violations.Another far-right Israeli Cabinet member, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, said Israel should respond to each drone by destroying 10 buildings in Beirut. If there are no buildings left in Beirut, he said, Israel should expand the demolitions to other areas such as Tyre, Sidon, and the Bekaa Valley.Ben-Gvir, meanwhile, said on Tuesday that Israel should “cut off the electricity in Lebanon,” “occupy” the area up to the Zahrani River, and “return to a massive war.”The timing of Israel’s renewed assault on Lebanon has been met with accusations that it is attempting to sabotage ceasefire talks between the US and Iran.Shaiel Ben-Ephraim, a former diplomat with the Israeli Foreign Ministry who has since become a prominent critic of the country, said that by moving deeper into Lebanon, Israel was “moving to bury not only the supposed ceasefire in Lebanon but also talks on Iran” because its policy “is an endless and wide regional war.”Responding to Ben-Gvir’s remarks, he said, “Israel forced the US into war and won’t let us end it.”