ICE plans to temporarily limit traffic stops following fatal shootings: reports
Source: The Hill News · Bias: Center
Summary
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has privately directed its officers to temporarily pause traffic stops in the wake of two deadly shootings, though the agency would not confirm the directive publicly. Sources confirmed to NewsNation, The Hill’s sister outlet, that such stops would be temporarily halted nationwide. Other outlets said ICE has directed agents…
ICE plans to temporarily limit traffic stops following fatal shootings: reports
Center
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has privately directed its officers to temporarily pause traffic stops in the wake of two deadly shootings, though the agency would not confirm the directive publicly. Sources confirmed to NewsNation, The Hill’s sister outlet, that such stops would be temporarily halted nationwide. Other outlets said ICE has directed agents…
A crucial meeting in the Oval Office on Tuesday has allies of President Donald Trump on edge that it could lead to an expansion of the unpopular war in Iran.Benjamin Netanyahu is coming to the White House with a singular objective: convince Trump to escalate military operations against Iran, reports Politico. The Israeli Prime Minister, who reportedly helped incite the initial February attack along with the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), is once again maneuvering to push the president toward a more aggressive and durable conflict.Trump's anti-interventionist America First base is bracing for impact after the "pivotal" meeting. Steve Bannon expressed their collective alarm: "Netanyahu has had twice as many visits to the White House in 18 months as Churchill had in all of World War II — with every one of them a disaster for America First."The Iran war has already dragged on for five months with no resolution in sight, the report notes. The U.S. and Iran briefly suspended tit-for-tat strikes over the weekend amid cautious hopes for a ceasefire. But Trump continues threatening "massive attacks," keeping the door wide open for renewed escalation.Netanyahu's seventh visit to the White House since Trump took office signals his desperation to lock in permanent war. America First allies fear this meeting could transform a temporary conflict into a years-long Middle East quagmire.According to the report, "The meeting comes as new polling shows that a growing share of the president’s base no longer believes the war is worth its economic costs. And Republicans are increasingly resigned to the fact that the war will likely still be hanging over voters in some form when they head to the polls in November."That led Curt Mills, executive director of American Conservative magazine, to describe the meeting as "DEFCON 1.""Netanyahu is going to argue for the essential logic of escalation," Mills explained. "If Trump is not willing to give the memorandum of understanding a chance and if Trump is not willing to walk away from the conflict entirely without a resolution—then I think we probably will escalate, and that's what we've been seeing these last couple of weeks."Trump's own allies acknowledge Netanyahu wouldn't be doing his job if he didn't push for military expansion. But that's precisely what terrifies them: Netanyahu will succeed, dragging Trump deeper into a conflict that's already hemorrhaging support within his base.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was caught by surprise by a demand from President Donald Trump in May to lead his department in making a massive sea change in policy.According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, the Health and Human Services secretary was "taken aback" when the president proposed that he ramp up efforts to link autism to childhood vaccinations.Kennedy had previously been explicitly told to "tone down his anti-vaccine crusade" ahead of the midterms. White House political advisers worried his controversial positions would alienate voters. So Kennedy complied, muzzling himself in service of the midterm strategy.Then Trump blindsided him.At a May lunch at the presidential golf course in northern Virginia, Trump personally demanded Kennedy make vaccine-autism link research a "priority" — directly contradicting the guidance Kennedy had received just weeks earlier.According to the Journal, "The issue has been an ongoing point of tension between the two men. In a mid-June meeting in the Oval Office, the president vented to Kennedy that he wasn’t doing enough, people familiar with the matter said."The message was unmistakable: Kennedy's tenure at HHS hinges on making progress on vaccine-autism research — a discredited theory with no scientific basis."The president has made clear he thinks he has given Kennedy enough time and is disappointed the health secretary hasn’t accomplished more in the past year and a half," people familiar with the president's thinking told the Journal.
Two outgoing GOP senators previously burned by President Donald Trump are threatening to sink a White House priority as a critical committee vote nears Thursday, Punchbowl News reported Tuesday.Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, whom Trump nominated last month for the permanent role after firing Pam Bondi, is scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday for his confirmation vote, just 48 hours away as of Tuesday morning. But Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) – both leaving Congress after pressure from Trump – are “holding firm” against confirming Blanche without getting something in return.“Both senators, whose votes are needed for Blanche to advance to the Senate floor, are demanding that the Justice Department formally eliminate the ‘anti-weaponization’ fund and curtail an audit immunity deal for President Donald Trump,” Punchbowl News’ report reads.“Both senators seem comfortable holding out to force DOJ’s hand, threatening a delay of Blanche’s committee vote that could stifle GOP leaders’ plans to confirm Blanche on the floor before the August recess.”Tillis told Punchbowl News that an agreement had yet to be reached on eliminating the Justice Department’s anti-weaponization fund, a taxpayer-funded $1.7 billion fund dedicated to awarding payouts to those who’ve claimed to have been unfairly targeted by the Biden Administration. He also said no deal had been reached on curtailing Trump and his family’s newfound immunity from tax audits.Tillis warned that, unless his and Cornyn’s demands were met, they’d “just have to delay” Blanche's confirmation.Both senators are part of a growing list of GOP “apostates” – Republican lawmakers ousted by Trump for various reasons – who’ve gone on to become well-positioned to undercut the White House’s agenda without fear of repercussions. Others include Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who lost his primary race after voting to rein in the president’s war powers, and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), defeated by a Trump-backed opponent after spearheading the Epstein Files Transparency Act, much to the chagrin of the president.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is again taking aim at Cuba. This time, however, the Trump administration is framing Havana as a decades-long sponsor of terrorism and espionage that has helped cultivate the “radical left” in the United States.As part of this, the administration is making pains to link Cuba with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which is growing politically in the US, thanks to Zohran Mamdani’s win as New York City mayor and other victories.And it comes against the backdrop of fear-mongering by US President Donald Trump about the prospect of communism threatening the US again. He has specifically linked Democrats to communism, as well.So, why is the Trump administration making this spurious argument, and why now? What the administration is allegingLast week, the US State Department published a nearly 100-page report titled “Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism”. The report’s core claim is that Cuba has spent over half a century influencing and aiding the domestic left in the US. Among its more extraordinary allegations:the far-left Weather Underground had direct contact with Cuban officials and Cuban spies in the 1970s, who helped facilitate the group’s bombings in the USdelegations of other “American radicals” travelled to Cuba during that decade to learn urban terrorism and guerrilla tactics Cuban intelligence today treats infiltrating US universities as a top priority leftist activists in the US and elsewhere routinely make “revolutionary tourism” excursions to the island, and the DSA specifically maintains a “fierce, almost religious commitment to the cause of the Cuban regime”.That framing collapses under scrutiny. The report anchors its argument in a handful of genuine espionage and terrorism cases. But it then tries to connect these with more innocuous activities: attending a Cuban-organised trip, expressing solidarity with Havana, or opposing the US embargo on the island. This echoes a long US tradition of using national security as a premise to target leftist movements. This includes everything from the targeting of civil rights and labour organisers during the McCarthy era to the Cold War surveillance of anti-war activists.Equally telling is what the report leaves out: six decades of documented US covert action against Cuba, including assassination plots and support for armed exile groups.The report also came just days after Rubio convened delegations from dozens of countries in Washington for a conference on “resurgent far-left political terrorism”. At the event, he said the threat of far-left violence “can no longer be denied” and that it was “time to crush this evil forever”. And in May, the White House released a new counterterrorism strategy that called “violent left-wing extremists” one of three terror threats facing the US (alongside narcoterrorists and Islamist terror groups). There was no mention of neo-Nazi or other far-right groups. Why now?Viewed against this wider context, the State Department report dramatically amplifies the Trump administration’s pressure campaign on Cuba. In the past few months, Washington has imposed an oil blockade on Cuba, expanded economic sanctions against the island, directly sanctioned President Miguel Díaz-Canel and members of former leader Raúl Castro’s family, and secured a criminal indictment against Castro himself.This economic warfare has pushed the island towards humanitarian collapse. UN experts have condemned it as a serious violation of international law.Trump has repeatedly floated a “friendly takeover” of Cuba, and his officials have not ruled out direct military action if Havana does not yield. Rubio’s report and recent statements now provide the ideological framework to justify such an action.What is driving the timing of this coordinated campaign is harder to explain. However, two factors appear to be converging. First, the administration is seeking a foreign policy “victory” after the costly and inconclusive war with Iran. The other is the midterm elections in November. A hardline stance on Cuba could help the Republican Party shore up support with its base. It also allows the party to frame the US left as being aligned with foreign forces and supporters of “communism”.The more consequential question is what could come next. The administration has created a premise for action on several fronts: further measures against Havana, including a possible military operationexpanded moves against US left-wing organisations, such as targeting their tax-exempt status or fundingdesignating left-wing groups as terror organisations, and increased pressure on European governments to act against their own leftist organisations.The brunt of the Trump administration’s actions, however, will be felt by the Cuban people themselves, who have long been scapegoats and collateral damage of their powerful neighbour to the north.
The Trump administration has made rooting out fraud a top priority. The White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud is waging, in their words, “an unrelenting, full-scale assault on the fraudsters, scammers, and corrupt operators who have looted billions from American taxpayers.” They’re halting hundreds of millions in Medicaid payments to Minnesota, blocking $1.3 billion […]
A “mystery” super political action committee (PAC) formed “only recently” has been exposed for dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into a competitive Michigan Democratic primary, Punchbowl News reported Tuesday, employing tactics similar to other dark money groups later discovered to be tied to Republican operatives.The group, Michigan Sunrise PAC, has poured close to $600,000 into the race during its final stretch, and in support of progressive congressional candidate William Lawrence, while also hitting Lawrence’s Democratic opponent Matt Maasdam.“The group began airing a TV ad over the weekend slamming Maasdam as a ‘Florida Republican’ who was bankrolled by MAGA billionaires,” Punchbowl News reported. “Digital ads touted Lawrence as the best candidate to stop President Donald Trump while highlighting his endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) and Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.”The group’s late involvement in the race, which Punchbowl News described as “meddling,” bore hallmarks of other dark money PACs that “meddled” in other recent Democratic primary elections, PACs that ultimately admitted to being tied to Republican operatives.“Michigan Sunrise PAC only recently filed with the FEC and won’t have to reveal its donors until after the Aug. 4 primary,” Punchbowl News’ report reads. “The group has gone to great lengths to hide its funders and operators.”In Nebraska, Maine, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Texas, Lead Left PAC and Real Change PAC dumped around $4.4 million in May to influence Democratic primaries, and much like Michigan Sunrise PAC, “took great effort to hide their leadership and partisan affiliations,” Punchbowl News previously reported. Lead Left PAC and Real Change PAC were later discovered to have been funded by Conservative Americans PAC, a group funded by American Prosperity Alliance, a GOP-aligned nonprofit organization tied to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) that advocates for conservative policies. American Prosperity Alliance made more than $22.5 million in contributions during the 2024 election cycle to various GOP-aligned PACs, according to OpenSecrets.
A federal judge ordered U.S. immigration authorities to release a key witness in the fatal shooting of a Mexican homebuilder by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Houston.
